With TRU effectively gone (two stores opening by the end of 2019 doesn't really count), Target is stepping up on the exclusives. (While not technically exclusive to them, BotBots only seem to be showing up at Target most places too.)

BUZZWORTHY ONE-STEPS: Repackages of Cyberverse One-Step Wheeljack (which is pretty good for a One-Step) and Shockwave (which is not). 5/1/22: Amarillo TX.

BUZZWORTHY CLIFFJUMPER and KUP: With Studio Series numbers (Cliffjumper is 86-13, Kup keeps 86-02), but as part of the Buzzworthy line. Kup has some paint changes (mainly an opaque windshield), Cliffjumper has new paints and retooled arms. 12/6/21: Spotted at what I guess is a specialty store in Asia. 2/20/22: Vauxhall NJ. 3/4: Amarillo TX (one of each). 3/5: Braintree MA.

BUZZWORTHY SILVERSTREAK: With blue accents, appears to be in a dedicated case. 3/30/22: Manhattan Beach CA, Springfield VA. 3/31: Amarillo TX, Pensacola FL, South Carson CA. 4/2: Quincy MA, Braintree MA. 5/18: Gaithersburg MD.

BUZZWORTHY ORIGIN BUMBLEBEE: Earthrise-Deluxe-sized, but turns into the saucer car thing from the very first G1 ep (with a lot of kibble, as one might expect). 7/27/21: Charlotte NC. 8/4: Torrance CA, Manhattan Beach CA. (Note, box has no window plastic, just an open space, so check carefully that no pieces are missing.) 8/9: Pace FL. 11/24: Amarillo TX.

Walmart Exclusives

LEGACY DELUXE: All based on Kingdom molds. Nightprowler (Cheetor redeco based on an unreleased Universe toy), Buzzsaw (head-swap redeco of Waspinator, based on BW Buzzsaw), Sandstorm (tan and red redeco of Scorponok based on a BotCon exclusive from the late 90s). 5/18/22: Amarillo TX.

VINTAGE BEAST WARS DELUXE WAVE 2: Tigatron, $23. Not an unreasonable price for the size (unlike Scorponok or Rattrap), but still a pretty old mold and there's a much better $30 Tigatron on shelves. 1/30/22: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 2/3: Pace FL. 2/5: Weymouth MA.

VINTAGE BEAST WARS DELUXE WAVE 3: Cybershark, $25. And I finally noticed that the techspecs use the four-icon system that Legacy does. 4/17/22: Amarillo TX. 4/30: Weymouth MA.

VINTAGE BEAST WARS LEADER: Ultra Class Megatron and Optimus Prime, $50+ price point. Megatron and Optimus Primal are up on Hasbro Pulse for $53 each. 10/1/21: Amarillo TX and Canyon TX (Megatron only in both cases). 10/16: Pace FL (both of them). 10/17: Optimus at Walmart in Amarillo TX.

VINTAGE BEAST WARS SCORPONOK: In 1990s-style packaging, the old "Mega" figure is now $42 at Walmart. I did not buy one to see what small mold differences there might be, but it is a more show-accurate color scheme. 1/29/22: Amarillo TX. 2/3: Pace FL.

Amazon Exclusives

    The Kingdom set is Battle Across Time, pairing a Cybertronian with a beast warrior of some sort.

MIRAGE and GRIMLOCK: A heavily retooled Siege Mirage updated for a more Earth-like mode, and a head-swap redeco of Voyager Dinobot.

SIDESWIPE and SKYWARP: An updated Sideswipe retool that resembles Earthrise Sunstreaker in vehicle mode, plus a head-swap of Airazor as BWII Skywarp (from the combiner team).

Other Store Exclusives

GOLDEN DISC COLLECTION: "Alternate Universe" version of Kingdom, more or less. A series of Hasbro Pulse exclusives designed to sell out in hours, although Amazon is still accepting pre-orders even though Pulse sells out on each within about an hour.

• PUFFER and ROAD RANGER: Pipes slightly redecoed as Puffer, the fan name for G1 Huffer colored as Pipes in non-US markers, and Huffer redecoed as Go Bots Road Ranger. Went up and sold out 9/27/21.
• JACKPOT with SIGHTS: Studio Series Jazz as the Action Master Jackpot, with Pteraxadon as his partner Sights. Went up 9/28/21.
• MUTANT TIGATRON: This is the Tigatron mold with a "mutant head" similar to the one on Shadow Panther (but scaled up), in the orange and teal colors seen in early prototypes of Tigatron (or "Tigertron"). Went up 9/29/21.
• TERRORSAUR: Extensive retool of Airazor, more of a "same engineering, mostly new toy" deal than a simple swap of a few pieces. Went up 9/30/21, the last of the set.

KINGDOM RED ALERT: A Walgreens exclusive, although some are available on Pulse. Appears to use the updated Sideswipe mold from the Across Time two-pack. 8/13/21: Limited quantities on Hasbro Pulse.

AUTHENTICS: Replacing the repackaged Legion figures that have been perpetually available at stores like Dollar General. The "Bravo" assortment has Legends-sized figures for $5, first wave being Bumblebee, Megatron, Optimus, and Starscream. These are simplified designs in the same vein as the Cyber Battalion figures. The "Alpha" assortment adds a few joints and is closer to Battalion size, but is still very simplified, and packaged on a large blister card. 4/23/21: Bravo class Barricade at Family Dollar in Amarillo TX. Needs window paint, but otherwise decent in both modes. It even has elbows. 5/17/21: Alpha class Shockwave at Dollar General in Amarillo TX. It turns into the inevitable "spaceship," although I'm pretty sure the instructions and package photos have the spaceship mode upside down. 5/22: Barricade at Family Dollar in Valley AL. 5/21/22: A year since my last sighting, and I found Alpha class Wheeljack at Family Dollar in Amarillo TX. $11.25 is now the Alpha price point.

    Gotta catch a mall!

SERIES 6: Currently pre-orderable on Amazon, for Fall 2022 shipping. Only entire cases available as of Spring 2022. Includes some vehicle sets linked to the Netflix cartoon.

    On a routine patrol, four 'bots in stasis...who have now set up an Academy.

REDUCED WASTE PACKAGING BASIC WAVE 1: New packaging eliminates the plastic tray, and as a result the figures stand at the bottom of the card and look smaller. This wave has reissues of cement mixer Salvage, VTOL Whirl, helicopter Blades and racecar Heat Wave, possibly others. 4/13/21: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 4/14: Spotted the Blades at a different Walmart. 4/15: Off-Road Bumblebee (green accents) is also in this wave. 5/1: Off-Road Optimus Prime (a new to me mold, uses the same transformation as Off-Road Bumblebee but puts the front end at the torso instead of the feet) spotted.

CLASSIC HEROES TEAM: Repackages of "Basic" class sports car Bumblebee, truck Optimus, and possible others. There might be more repacks under this logo, but I haven't seen any yet. 1/21/21: Target in Amarillo TX.

DELUXE NASCAR BUMBLEBEE: Running change adds in a Bumblebee that turns into a NASCAR-style racecar, with an action gimmick on robot mode that makes one of his wheels pop out on a strut as a saw. 1/28/21: Target in Amarillo TX.

2021 WALMART HOLIDAY BINS: The impulse buy cardboard bins of toys include Deluxe Rescue Bots, mostly older ones in the new low-waste packaging. One new mold I did find was Hot Shot using the formula race car transformation scheme. 12/3/21: Walmart in Amarillo TX.

FIRETRUCK HOT SHOT: The mode seen in the cartoon as his fourth pick, it's basically the Scout-sized Heat Wave mold in engineering, scaled up to "Leader" sized but feeling pretty hollow, plus a light and sound gimmick in the foam/chemical generator. Seems to be mostly a "sandbox toy" meant for hard use. $30, I left it on the shelf. 8/12/20: Walmart in Amarillo TX.

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    MICRO MACHINES: I guess the tiny vehicle license is non-exclusive, because there's also officially licensed Micro Machines. Two 8-packs (one for each of the first two Bay movies) at the $20 or so price point, and a big Bumblebee that turns into a base, inhabited incongruously by a Barricade Micro Machine ($35-40). 4/27/22: Available on Amazon.

    NANO METALFIGS: Jada's too-shiny-for-my-tastes die-cast metal figures have finally expanded into Transformers, over a year after their "Rides" line did vehicle modes. An 18-pack of shiny robots a few centimeters tall, suitable for a gaming table or a Titan display, for $11.72 at Walmart. All from G1, twelve Autobots and six Decepticons. The back of the box includes some small scenery bits you can cut out and pose the figures in front of. The paint is laid on pretty thick (I tried stripping the paint from a Harry Potter one many years ago, never did get it all off), but the mold detail underneath is decent if you want to try the strip-and-repaint route. 4/12/22: Walmart in Amarillo TX.

    GEEKI TIKI TFs: Plastic tiki-styled drink cups in the shape of Optimus Prime (blue plastic) and Bumblebee (yellow plastic). Really more for tacky display than actually drinking from. 12/9/21: Walmart (collectibles section by movies) in Amarillo TX. $12.96 each.

    LARGE CEL-SHADED OPTIMUS PRIME STATUE: $50 for a statue done up with partial cel-shading (mainly on the windows), 10-12" tall. Meh. 7/30/21: Target in Amarillo TX. 8/11: Target in South Carson CA.

LARGE G1 MEGATRON STATUE: $50, kinda shiny, taking up space that could go to actual transforming toys, sigh. 9/29/21: Target in Amarillo TX.

    GIANT FUNKO POP OPTIMUS PRIME: A Walmart exclusive, oversized (8-10" tall) Optimus Prime Pop. It's not quite as hideous as most Pops, but it's still a Pop. 4/14/21: Amarilllo TX.

    ZOTEKI STATUES: Somewhat stylized G1 characters on bases that can be linked into a single battle scene. May be shelved with collectibles like Pops, or with things like Roblox, rather than near regular Transformers. 1/23/21: Target in Torrance CA. 6/4: Walgreens in Amarillo TX (just Optimus and Starscream). 9/17: Hitting Ross now, $4.

    HERSHEY'S KISSES TREASURE SURPRISE: Blindpack minifigures of Transformers and MLP along with a couple of Hershey's Kisses, appear to have TF and MLP versions separately. $2 each, might be in the toy aisle, might be in the checkouts, haven't seen them personally as of 11/13/20. 11/14: Found them in five-to-a-display trays in the checkout aisle, they don't really stand out. And it does not appear that buying a fresh display will get you all five. Dynamic poses, although Bumblebee is comically badly sculpted.     ReAction Figures: Mostly limited to specialty retailers, Target has picked up some on occasion, mostly the Dead Optimus Prime color variant. $18, which is about $13 more than I think they're worth. 10/9/20: Dead Optimus and shiny Megatron at Target in Amarillo TX, South Carson CA. 7/30: "Cyberchrome" versions of Optimus and Megatron at Target in Amarillo TX. 12/22/21: Gold Megatron at Target in Amarillo TX. 12/26: Also gold Optimus Prime at Target in Amarillo TX. 5/6/22: The gold (well, electrum) variants are clearanced. New at Target in Amarillo TX are Fallen Evolution Megatron (translucenst dark purple plastic with almost no paint) and Fallen Leader Optimus Prime (full color, but retooled to have an open chest with exposed Matrix).

    R.E.D. WAVE 1: These are like super deluxe Actionmasters or G1 Robot Replicas, depending on when you got into the hobby. Non-transforming, with a focus on being screen-accurate. Short for Robot Enhanced Designs, think of them as another stab at the "Black Series" concept (Studio Series was the first). First wave is Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Soundwave, all G1. (Second wave has Arcee from Prime and Cheetor from Beast Wars.) According to TFWiki, these are a Walmart exclusive, although there's nothing on the packaging to indicate that. 10/2/20: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 10/27: Walmart in Mt. Zion IL. 10/31: Walmart in Pace FL.

R.E.D. WAVE 2: Arcee (TF Prime) and Cheetor (Beast Wars), plus some reships. Easy enough to spot, since the subline logos are on the tops of the boxes. 3/26/21: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 3/28: Walmart in Columbus GA. 4/4: Walmart in Pensacola FL.

R.E.D. WAVE 3: Coronation Starscream (G1 with crown and cape accessories), G1 Bumblebee (pretty big, not to scale with the other G1 figures, more Masterpiece scale). 7/12/21: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 8/5: Walmart in Pace FL.

R.E.D. WAVE 4: Reformatting Megatron (redeco in dark purple with gridlines as if he were about to be turned into Galvatron) and Optimus Primal. 11/29/21: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 12/2: Walmart in Burke VA.

R.E.D. WAVE 5: Ultra Magnus (Optimus Prime redeco without the Matrix), Knock Out (Prime, suffers a bit from chest flattening). 1/2/22: Walmart in Amarillo TX.

    DOLLAR TREE STICKERS: A small booklet with four sheets of stickers using the "Evergreen" (mostly early Cyberverse) designs. One sheet of puffy, one glitter, one foil, and one regular. 9/2/20: In with the trading cards at the Dollar Tree I checked. 7/12/21: Spotted a while ago but forgot to mention, there's also a "to go" coloring book using these designs, with a sheet of stickers in it, also at Dollar Tree.

    NANO RIDES: Jada Toys has another wave of Nano Hollywood Rides three-packs, which includes TF G1 (Optimus Prime cab, VW Bumblebee, jet Starscream) and GIJoe (HISS Tank, Snow Cat, VAMP Mk-II jeep), none of which are remotely to the same scale. $6 per three-pack. 8/22/20: Target in Amarillo TX (and other various Targets mentioned online...Walmart carries the line, but is slow to get the new assortment). 9/4: G1 TF and GIJoe at Walmart in Amarillo TX. 9/28: Target in Redondo Beach CA.

    WORLD'S SMALLEST: Non-transforming little figures about 3cm tall, on tiny blister cards inside of larger clamshell (aka "need shears to open") packaging. Case assortments appear to include GIJoe characters as well. These are not the ones that were available at Dollar Tree, they're significantly smaller. 8/2/20: Target in Amarillo TX, in the collectibles section by the registers. No pricetag on the pegs, and they didn't seem to be in the system yet. (Update: $6 each. There's also Masters of the Universe in the assortment.)

    G1 KEYCHAINS: 3" tall "bag clips" of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron, and Soundwave. They seem to be exclusive to Dollar Tree, as they're distributed by Greenbrier (a known DT/Family Dollar distributor). Non-blind carded figures. 11/2/19: Dollar Tree in Amarillo TX. Paint apps are kinda sloppy, but the actual molds are good.

    PREXIO MINIFIGURES: Non-blind bagged G1 characters mostly cast in silvery gray plastic with decent paint apps. Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Megatron, Soundwave, and Starscream. 12/27/19: At most Dollar Trees. (Forgot to put these up last week when I found them.)

    TF vs. GI JOE BLINDBOX: Dollar Tree got in a bunch of Kid Robot keychains based on the Scioli comic earlier in 2019, and just in time for Christmas got slightly larger non-keychain figures. 12/27/19: Amarillo TX.

   I've stopped tracking most of the "artifacts" stuff, since Transformers has reached the cultural saturation point where you can be pretty sure there'll be party supplies, water bottles, t-shirts, and so forth readily available.

    SWITCH & GO: VTech has brought back the brand, with vehicles that turn into dinosaurs and have light and sound gimmicks. The smallest size is a $10 off-road truck that turns into a T.rex. The $12 size has a T.rex muscle car, a Triceratops racecar, and a Spinosaurus racecar. Larger size classes exist, but I haven't seen them on pegs yet. Cosells show Triceratops roadster, T.rex drift car, Spinosaurus stunt car, and Velociraptor helicopter (which looks to be the biggest toy, ironically). 9/1/21: T.rex truck and Triceratops race car at Target in Amarillo TX.

    LETRABOTS: These are transforming letters, sold blind-packed in the trading cards and collectible stuff aisle next to checkout at Targets. Nine letters in the first assortment, they turn into stumpy little bots. If you can find all nine, they combine into a larger stumpy bot. $4 each, but higher quality plastic than the usual letter-bots you find on places like Wish. 3/5/20: Target in Amarillo TX.

    DOLLAR TREE KNOCKOFFS: Sold as Robot Transforing Vehicle, these are Legion sized, and $1 each...you get what you pay for. There's a jet (with elements of Thunderwing from the Classics Clear Skies Team of Mini-Cons), a tank (clearly based on the G1 Micromaster Sidetrack), a missile truck (which sucks), and a military ship. They're molded in two colors each, and color-flip version are also available (so a green tank with gray guns, or a gray tank with green guns). 3/23/18: Amarillo TX. (Later notes: the jet IS Thunderwing, just misassembled. The missile truck is Red Hot with some tweaks. Best guess on the boat is that it's a bullet train turned upside down and with boat details added.) 3/16/19: Legends-size simplified Windcharger, upscaled Legion movie Brawl, Legends-size jet of unknown origin. Dollar Tree in Amarillo TX. Windcharger and the jet come in two varieties, swapping colors as with the previous Robots (Windcharger is red and gray, the jet is yellow and purple). Brawl comes in three schemes: blue/white, white/blue, and green/gray. (If there's a gray/green, it wasn't on the pegs where I found these.) 12/27/19: Fresh allotments of all of these went out for the 2019 holiday season. 8/23/20: A new wave of the upscaled Micromasters is out. Three are slight retools of wave one (a blue missile truck with different shaped missiles, still based on Red Hot), the unidentified-source boat with a new top deck, and the tank redone with new weapons in tan and brown. An entirely new mold is a weird jet (no real equivalent) with a generic Micromaster-style transformation.

    MARS Converters: $10 large toys, generally found at Walmart and various discount stores (TJMaxx, Family Dollar, etc). Current wave is dinos and dragons, with a red T.rex, a blue sorta-stegosaur, and a yellow dragon. 9/30/16: Family Dollar carrying these as part of their holiday toy expansion. 4/20/17: The vehicle waves are starting to show up again at Walmart in new packaging, with a "Cybotronix" line name in addition to MARS Converters. Spotted the blue sportscar and the gray sportscar in the new packaging today. 10/13: Tank and fighter jet join the assortment, found at Family Dollar. 11/4/18: A two-pack of the red and blue dinosaurs has shown up at Ross, $18. 11/9: There's also two-packs of the tank and jet, plus the blue and silver sports cars, part of their holiday displays at Ross. 10/26/19: New sci-fi sports cars with slide-out wrist wrapons, Solar Spark and, um...Bustrunner. Ookay. Spotted at Ross in Lubbock TX. 10/27: Part of the Walgreens holiday toy aisle.

    SUPER WINGS: This is a show for very little kids, like "too young for Rescue Bots" level, from what I've heard. At the $10 level there's Rescue-Bots-level aircraft that turn into cockpit-torso'ed robots: Jett (cargo jet), Donnie (cargo heavy lift prop plane), Jerome (fighter jet), and Dizzy (pink female helicopter). 3/31/17: These are finding their way back into non-TRU stores after months of absence or "stick it in a corner somewhere" stocking, and the larger sized Paul is now in the assortment. Cosells indicate Grand Albert, Bello (safari striped bush pilot plane) and Mira will also be available at this size soon, if not already. 5/22: Grand Albert and Bello Deluxes at Target in Green Bay WI. Decided to not try to fit them in my luggage, though. 8/13: New rescue vehicle sets have hit TRU as part of the Fall reset. The main four characters each get $15 sets that use a "Legion" sized figure as the driver, and a vehicle that turns into a mech suit for which the little figure forms a head. Transtectors, basically. Dizzy's Rescue Tow, Jett's Robo Rig (fire truck), Donnie's Dozer (more of an all-purpose construction vehicle), and Paul's Cruiser (Paul displaces Jerome in the main four, apparently). There's also a super-sized $40 Jett's Robo Rig that uses a $10-size "Deluxe" Jett as the pilot and head. They all have functionally the same transformation. 1/21/18: Finally found Deluxe Mira at TRU in Amarillo TX. 2/8: New Legion-type set found at Walmart in Amarillo TX for $9.80. Astra (space shuttle), Flip (cargo plane), Todd (drill plane o_O) and Agent Chace (sic, jet). 3/29: Found Deluxe size versions of Astra and Todd (Chace and Flip are cosells, but didn't see any on the shelf). 10/22/19: A clear pink plastic Dizzy ($3) and the moon rover Legion-scale set ($5, two minifigures and a moon rover vehicle with some action features) showed up at my local Ross.

    OTHER KNOCKOFFS: 11/5/20: Ross has a walking RC dinosaur that breathes steam vapor breath, and is basically AoE Grimlock's beast mode.