SUB-LINES
(Official Transformers, but not the main line.)
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Masterpiece and Platinum
TRU (and eBay) tend to be the exclusive location for these
in America, but not always. Sometimes K-Mart gets 'em. Also tossing the new
Studio Series (with theoretically superior paint jobs) into the mix.
STUDIO SERIES THUNDERCRACKER: This is the Nitro Zeus mold with a new
Seeker-style head, in blue. 3/7/18: TRU in Torrance CA. $29.99, four
to a case.
Other Store Exclusives
WALGREENS WRECK-GAR: Retool of the Deluxe Groove mold, with the axe
from the Thrilling 30 Wreck-Gar, and a Dinobot-mold Prime Armor.
10/27/18: Amarillo TX. 11/2: Fayetteville NC. 11/5: Greenville SC.
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. First Alpha wave is Optimus, Grimlock, and Bumblebee.
3/30/18: Bravo Optimus and Megatron at Dollar General in Amarillo TX.
3/31: Bravo Megatron, Bumblebee, and Starscream at Family Dollar in Amarillo
TX. $5.25 at FD. 5/10: Alpha Bumblebee and Optimus Prime at Family Dollar
in Amarillo TX, $10. 5/11: Had to check five more FDs, but found Grimlock.
5/14: Bravo at FD in Lanett AL. 5/31: Alpha at Dollar General in West Point
GA. 6/1: Alpha at Dollar General in Amarillo TX. 9/1: Bravos at Walgreens
for $7. SOOOOOO not worth that much. 10/19: Alphas at Big Lots for $10.
1/3/19: Alpha class Megatron at Family Dollar in Amarillo TX. 3/16:
Bravo class Grimlock at Big Lots in Amarillo TX.
CYBER BATTALION: Not exactly a single store exclusive, but seems to be
limited to "second tier" retailers like Walgreens or Meijer. These are
largely Legion designs scaled up to Voyager size, but with extra joints,
changed details, and so forth. Some are entirely new, but they draw
inspiration from Legion-style transformations. Sold in non-window boxes at
Deluxe price. 9/3/17: Bumblebee (movie-style Legion design, but with
G1-inspired head) at Walgreens in Amarillo TX. Cosell is Megatron.
Someone else in town spotted Jetfire and Prowl at a Walgreens I didn't check
today, hopefully they'll still be there tomorrow. 9/4: Well, Jetfire was.
It was stuck between plush animals on the top shelf of the cleaning supplies
aisle. 9/6: Optimus Prime (based on the Legion Generations truck that keeps
showing up in Dollar General) has been spotted in Brooklyn NY, alongside BB,
Jetfire, and Prowl. So far no one has found a Megatron, despite it being on
a lot of co-sells. 9/8: Optimus spotted by someone else at the Walgreens in
Amarillo that I never visit (a part of town that's far enough away and has
few enough draws for me that I almost never go there). 9/21: Walgreens in
Simpsonville SC. 3/19/18: Sideswipe and Shockwave have been spotted
in California. 3/29: Sideswipe and Shockwave at Walgreens in Quincy MA.
3/30: Sideswipe at Walgreens in Amarillo TX. (Sideswipe is clearly meant to
be G1 Sideswipe, but the vehicle mode brings in slements of PRiD Sideswipe.)
4/1: Found Shockwave in Amarillo. Sideswipe definitely seems to be the
shelfwarmer of the two. 4/6: Shockwave wave Big Bear CA. 4/8: Jetfire in
Quincy MA. (They seem to be pushing out leftovers of that pair while sending
the Shock wave.) 6/7: Shockwave at Walgreens in Fayetteville NC.
WALMART G1 REISSUES: First wave largely clearanced, other than the
Minibot redecos, which are easy to find at Walmarts for about $8.
1/13/19: Reissue Optimus Prime without trailer, Amarillo TX. This is
$50, so a hard pass from me.
MINIBOT REDECOS: Bumblebee, Outback, Swerve, and Tailgate. Based on
the recent Japanese release of the G1 Minibots, these have more paint apps
and Bumblebee has a new face. Another Walmart exclusive, with a December 17
street date (but you might get lucky early). 12/17/18: Okay, it's street
date, I grabbed BB in Amarillo TX. $7.86 each. 12/18: Quincy MA.
MINIBOT REDECOS WAVE 2: Warpath and Gears, plus more Bumblebee.
5/9/19: Walmart in Amarillo TX.
TITAN GUARDIANS: Walmart has brought back some of the old (4-5 years
ago) Titan Guardians for $5 each to flesh out the low end of the G1 reissues
displays. These are rotocast softer plastic non-transforming figures with
limited articulation (shoulders, neck, waist), same ones that showed up at
Big Lots in 2012-14 but with "Walmart Exclusive" stickers slapped on the
tags. Tray assortment I saw has three TF:Prime Bumblebees, one TF:Prime
Shockwave, five G1 Optimus Prime, two G1 Megatron, one each of G1 Starscream
and Soundwave. 10/3/18: Amarillo TX. 11/11: Fayetteville NC.
Transformers BotBots
Gotta catch a mall!
SINGLE-PACK WAVE 1: A blind assortment, $3 each. 12/5/18: Walmart
has these in their holiday impulse buy aisle bins. 1/10/19: Some
Walmarts are getting POP displays of all 24 in a nice display box. 1/11:
Target in Pensacola FL.
SINGLE-PACK WAVE 2: Green blisters instead of red, and the codes are
on the top of the cardback just under the hook. #1-12 are redecos, #13-24
are new molds. Unfortunately, I missed that and ended up just getting the
back half of a fresh display, which was all the redecos. 5/2/19: Walmart
in Amarillo TX. 5/5: Target in Menlo Park NJ. 5/19: Target in Amarillo
TX (just one on a peg, so for all I know it was a return-and-reshelf that was
bought at Walmart).
FIVE-PACKS WAVE 1: While themed for one of the tribes (i.e. Toilet
Troop), these really only have two from the named tribe, two more from other
tribes, and one "blind" (always the same one for a 5-pack, though) Lost Bot.
12/5/18: A few have been available on Amazon for a few weeks, but you don't
get to pick which of the two or three out of a theme (so you'd buy a Toilet
Troop set, and get a random one of the two different Toilet Troop sets).
12/30/18: All eight sets (two Techie Team, three Toilet Troop, three
Sugar Shocks) are at Big Lots in Amarillo TX. $10 each. Finally used
one of those "$10 off $50" email coupons.... 1/1/19: Target in Amarillo TX.
1/11: Target in Pensacola FL. 1/13: Walmart in Amarillo TX.
FIVE-PACKS WAVE 2: Also with the green Lost Bots blister. 5/5/19:
Target in Menlo Park NJ. 5/23: Walmart in Amarillo TX.
EIGHT-PACKS WAVE 1: Same basic idea as the 5-packs, just bigger.
Eight different sets, $15 price point. 1/8/19: Target in Amarillo TX.
I got all 8, ouch to my wallet. 1/11: Target in Pensacola FL. 1/13: Walmart
in Amarillo TX.
EIGHT-PACKS WAVE 2: Green blisters set these apart from wave 1. The
tribes featured are Swag Stylers and Spoiled Rottens.
Target in Fontana CA. (Oops, forgot to put a date on that one.) 5/5:
Target in Menlo Park NJ. 6/7: Target in Amarillo TX. (Someone beat me to
the one pack with Big Cantuna.)
Transformers Rescue Bots
On a routine patrol, four 'bots in stasis...who have now set up an Academy.
ACADEMY SCOUT WAVE 1: Hot Shot (jet mode, a "same engineering" version
of the jet Bumblebee) with the RBA logo, and Wedge (a head-swap redeco of
Arctic Rescue Boulder). 12/19/18: Walmart in Amarillo TX. (Just Hot
Shot) 12/20: Walmart in Amarillo TX (both).
ACADEMY SCOUT WAVE 2: New packaging design for the RBA characters, not
just a slightly lighter blue on the name banner. This wave has Hot Shot
(boat), Medix (head swap redeco of RB Medix), and some older stuff fleshing
out the wave. 5/16/19: Target in Amarillo TX.
EPIC WAVE 5?: $10 price point. Hollow "Titan Hero" style figures, but
the chests open up to let human-scale figures ride inside. This wave adds
Optimus Prime (truck), and seems to have reships of Boulder, Heatwave, and
Bumblebee. 10/14/18: Walmart in Amarillo TX.
MEGA MIGHTIES WAVE 1: These are like the Epic ones, but with oversized
heads and broader shoulders, priced at $20 while still just being rotocast
figures with minimal articulation. First wave seems to just be Bumblebee and
Hot Shot, based on what showed up in the aisle display I saw. 11/30/18:
Walmart in Amarillo TX. 1/4/19: $9.99 at Target in Amarillo TX. I
suspect the Walmart pricing was in error.
DELUXE RBA WAVE 1: Based on the engineering of Scouts, but somewhat
larger and with a motion gimmick, at the $15 price point. Medix (inspired by
Quickshadow, with a claw gimmick), Whirl (loosely based on Blades, with a
spinning blades gimmick). 1/4/19: Target in Amarillo TX.
BUMBLEBEE RESCUE GUARD: A large (but still simple) sports car
Bumblebee with two animal helpers based loosely on the firehouse dalmation
and Valor, but about twice as big. $40 price point, partially explained by
light and sound gimmicks. 8/3/18: Target and Walmart in Amarillo TX.
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The Movies
Due to the huge amount of Movie-specific product, this gets
a separate sightings page. Updated:
3/31/19.
Transformers: Cyberverse
Replacing the 2015-18 Robots in Disguise series, with similar levels of
complexity in design, is the Cyberverse series. This is the first tie-in to
the "evergreen" concept with designs that are supposedly going to keep being
used in some fashion forever (i.e. until there's another management change).
The Scout class is back, as a sort of Actionmaster Elite riff, robots that
only partially transform. Warriors have motion gimmicks, which always hurts
articulation and appearance. We'll see if it's any good. (Narrator: They
weren't.)
SCOUT WAVE 2: Slipstream (redeco of Starscream), Windblade (VTOL jet
with legs), reships of Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. 9/30/18: Walmart in
Amarillo TX. I'm sure they came out elsewhere, but no one cared enough
to report it (not even me, I saw Windblade in Target too).
SCOUT WAVE 3: Grapple Grab Autobot Ratchet (car-taur sort of deal),
Stealth Sniper Shot Shadow Striker (another car-taur), plus reships (probably
Windblade and Optimus). 5/19/19: Target in Amarillo TX.
ONE-STEP WAVE 2: New molds, of Megatron, Optimus Prime, and
Starscream. 12/8/18: Walmart in Amarillo TX. Part of the holiday
aisle displays. 12/16: Target in Amarillo TX, regular display.
ONE-STEP WAVE 2.5?: Prowl (police car) shipping with Optimus,
Starscream, and Bumblebee, with slightly changed packaging. 2/15/19:
Target and Walmart in Amarillo TX.
ONE-STEP WAVE 3: Wheeljack and Hot Rod, plus reships of Optimus and
Megatron. 3/22/19: Walmart in Amarillo TX. (On sale for $7.82, so I
grabbed Wheeljack.)
WARRIOR WAVE 1: Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Starscream, Shockwave.
Shockwave is the only one with an altmode other than The Usual, he turns into
a crab-walker reminiscent of the Scrapmetals from Cybertron. $15 price
point. 7/27/18: Target in Amarillo TX. 7/31: Target in Pensacola
FL. 9/19: Walmart in Amarillo TX.
WARRIOR WAVE 2: Windblade (VTOL jet), Megatron (Tank), Acid Storm
(green redeco of Starscream), reship of Optimus Prime. 9/30/18: Walmart
in Amarillo TX. 12/6: Target in Bloomington IL. 12/16: Target in
Amarillo TX.
WARRIOR WAVE 3: Fusion Flame Hot Rod (Cybertronian sportscar with
energy bursts from the elbows), Jetblast Prowl (police cruiser, pop out
shoulder launchers), Laserbeak Blast Soundwave (SUV with roof weaponry,
Laserbeak does a chestburster trick in robot mode). 3/2/19: Walmart in
Amarillo TX. 4/30: Target in Decatur IL, Bloomington IL. (Just Prowl in
both cases.)
BATTLE BASE TRAILER: Still listed as Warrior Class on the box, but
this is a $30 toy with the Energon Axe Attack Optimus Prime plus a trailer
that unfolds into a base that can hold some Warrior class vehicles (okay,
mainly just Bumblebee at the moment). 12/20/18: Walmart in Amarillo
TX. Part of the Bumblebee movie displays, if you can't find it in the
regular toy aisle. Note, this is a TRU exclusive in Canada, and may be a
Walmart exclusive in America.
ULTRA WAVE 1: Reviving the old class name, roughly Voyager sized, with
action gimmicks. Bumblebee, Grimlock, Starscream (with huge missile pods
that pop the missiles out on the ends of smoke trails rather than actually
firing them). $20 price point. 7/27/18: Target in Amarillo TX. 9/8:
Walmart in Amarillo TX. Stocked with the Rescue Bots rather than with the
regular Transformers. 9/19: Now moved to the regular Transformers section.
ULTRA WAVE 2: Shockwave, Shadow Striker, apparently a Bumblebee
reship. 9/21/18: Shockwave at Target in Amarillo TX. 10/5: Walmart
in Amarillo TX. (The Shadow Striker showed up at Target too.)
ULTRA WAVE 3: Adds Slipstream (new mold) and Optimus Prime (new mold)
into the mix, reships of Shadow Striker and Shockwave. 3/24/19:
Slipstream at Target in Amarillo TX. Didn't see Optimus, but there might
have been one...I just sort of glaze over anymore when seeing more
Optimuses.
ULTIMATE WAVE 1: Leader sized, but not as complex. Optimus Prime
(still just the cab), Megatron (tank). $30 price point. 7/27/18: Target
in Amarillo TX. 7/31: Target in Pensacolar FL. 9/2: Best Buy in Decatur
IL. 9/8: Walmart in Amarillo TX, also with the Rescue Bots. 9/19: Now moved
to the regular Transformers section.
ULTIMATE WAVE 2: Sting Shot Bumblebee, plus reships. This is a pretty
bad design, it looks like something that would be MARGINALLY acceptable as a
Warrior class, but between the lack of elbows and how 2/3 of the hood ends up
replacing the left forearm for a "stinger pops out" gimmick, it's certainly
not worth $30 or the space it takes up. Will not be buying. 2/3/19:
Walmart in Amarillo TX.
Transformers: Generations
The "Prime Wars" Trilogy wrapped up in 2018, and the end of the year saw the
beginning of a new trilogy, the War For Cybertron (yes, we've seen that one
before). Siege is the first year's worth, bringing back the Micromaster
Patrol idea (albeit at half size) and Targetmasters (renamed Battle Masters
and also including melee weapons). They also come with energy blast effects
that can peg onto various parts of every toy as a unifying gimmick.
BATTLE MASTERS WAVE 1: Firedrive (robot to gun), Lionizer (lion to
sword), Blowpipe (robot to gun). 11/13/18: Target in Racho Palos Verdes
CA. 11/18: Target in Amarillo TX. 11/20: Target in Fayetteville NC.
12/2: Target in Pace FL. 12/5: Target in Braintree MA. 12/6: Target in
Bloomington IL. 1/10/19: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 3/1: Walmart in Lumberton
NC.
BATTLE MASTERS WAVE 2: Pteraxadon (axe to pteradon), Aimless (gun to
robot), plus wave 1 reships. 3/24/19: Target in Torrance CA. 3/26:
Target in Manhattan Beach CA, South Carson CA, San Pedro CA. 3/31: Target in
Decatur IL. 5/3: Walmart in Pensacola FL. 5/5: Walmart in Amarillo TX.
MICROMASTERS WAVE 1: Replacing the Legends class, these are two-packs
that are based on the G1 Micromaster Patrol teams. To make up for having
only two guys, they combine into weapons. The first wave has Roadhandler and
Swindler (half of the old Race Car Patrol), Storm Cloud and Visper (aka
Whisper, half of the old Air Strike Patrol), and Topshot and Flak (half of
the old Battle Patrol, Bigshot name lost or something). 11/15/18: Target
in Amarillo TX. (Another guy in town found them, I won't be able to
check today.) (Update: I managed to get one of each on 11/16.) 12/2: Target
in Pace FL. 12/5: Target in Braintree MA. 12/6: Target in Bloomington IL.
1/8/19: Walmart in Mt. Zion IL. 1/10/19: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 3/1:
Walmart in Lumberton NC.
MICROMASTERS WAVE 2: Red Heat (Red Hot) and Stakeout (half of the old
Rescue Patrol), Laserbeak and Ravage (Soundwave Spy Patrol). 4/20/19:
Walmart in Amarillo TX. 5/3: Walmart in Pensacola FL.
SIEGE DELUXE WAVE 1: Sideswipe (sportscar), Cog ("Weaponizer" with a
sort of "pile of weapons with wheels" altmode), Hound (jeep), Skytread
(Duocon, but unlike Battletrap there's no individual robot modes, making it
more of a pure update). 12/6/18: Target in Pace FL. 1/8/19: Walmart
in Mt. Zion IL. Also, I forgot to put this update in, but Target in Amarillo
TX in mid to late December. 1/13: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 3/1: Walmart in
Lumberton NC.
SIEGE DELUXE WAVE 2: Ironhide (van), Chromia (heavy retool of
Moonracer without the combiner bits), Sixgun (weaponizer), Prowl (police
cruser). 3/8/19: Walmart in Fairfax VA. 3/22: Walmart in Pensacola
FL (just Ironhide). 3/26: Walmart in Germantown MD, Torrance CA. 3/27:
Walmart in Amarillo TX. (I ordered all four from Pulse, order expected to
ship in early April, but I grabbed a Sixgun so I'd have more guns.) 3/29:
Target in Amarillo TX. 3/31: Walmart in Amarillo TX; Target in Decatur IL.
SIEGE VOYAGER WAVE 1: Optimus Prime (truck with a visor), Megatron
(tank). 1/8/19: Target in Amarillo TX, East Peoria IL. (Looks like
Target did their reset today.) 1/10: Walmart in Amarillo TX. 1/11: Target
in Pensacola FL. 3/26: Walmart in Germantown MD.
SIEGE VOYAGER WAVE 2: Soundwave (boxy spaceship) and Starscream (what
if a G1 cybertronian mode tetrajet merged with a Colonial Viper). The early
shipments of Starscream reportedly omit a pin that helps secure a chest
hinge, but as yet there's only one picture supporting this claim.
3/18/19: Target in Torrance CA. 3/19: Walmart in Amarillo TX, Mt. Zion
IL. 3/22: Walmart in Pensacola FL.
SIEGE LEADER WAVE 1: Ultra Magnus (transport truck), Shockwave (flying
gun thing, with a sort of brute armor to compete with Magnus). 1/5/19:
Target in Braintree MA. 1/8: Walmart in Mt. Zion IL; Target in Amarillo
TX. 1/11: Target in Pensacola FL. 1/18: Walmart in Amarillo TX; Target in
Rancho Palo Verdes CA, Torrance CA, North Carson CA. 3/1: Walmart in
Lumberton NC.
SIEGE LEADER WAVE 2: Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime shipping with more
Shockwave. Optimus is an extensive retool of Ultra Magnus, with the
cab/inner robot being fairly close in molding to Magnus's inner bot, but the
trailer is entirely new and based on Cybertron (Galaxy Force) Optimus Prime's
trailer, leading to a Cybertron-homage powerup mode. 4/30/19: Target in
Torrance CA. 5/4: Walmart in Amarillo TX.
COMMANDER CLASS WAVE 1: $70-80 price point version of Jetfire (pretty
close to the animated Skyfire vehicle mode).
TITAN CLASS: Omega Supreme with Countdown. Might as well homage the
other rocket base from Micromasters, eh?
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