As a wise ape robot once said, “the seeds of the future lie buried in the past.” This weekend at Botcon Hasbro revealed its upcoming Transformers releases for 2015 and early 2016, and its filled with familiar faces.
If you seen the barren shelves at toy outlets across the country, then you know the Transformers Generations Combiner Wars line of toys have been a huge success for Hasbro, with collectors old and new scrambling to complete sets of robots that combine into bigger robots. So far we’ve seen updated versions of the Stunticons, Aerialbots and Protectobots (forming Menasor, Superion and Defensor respectively), as well as versions of Optimus Prime and Decepticon Cyclonus capable of taking on limbs to form bigger bots (Optimus with extra bits and Galvatronus.) Combined with the upcoming nearly two-foot tall Devastator, and you’ve got one massive wallet hit.
The line hasn’t just been about combiners, however. We’ve seen old school-ish version of Megatron, Ultra Magnus and Thundercracker, as well as a tiny Legends line packed with smaller characters like Powerglide, Insecticon Bombshell and more.
Looking over Hasbro’s big Botcon reveal, the trend kicks into high gear over the next year or so.
Hot on the heels of the recently-released Leader-class Thundercracker, a retooling of Jetfire from the pre-Combiner Wars Generations line, we get the obligatory Starscream repaint, complete with bad comedy crown.
And why stop there? All of the Decepticon seeker jets shared the same mould originally, so repaint away!
I’m holding out for Thrust.
With all of these official combiner groups coming together, poor Optimus Prime is running out of limb candidates, so Hasbro is releasing some classic characters that can now become arms and legs.
That’s Rodimus, Prowl, Mirage, Wheeljack, Trailbreaker, Smokescreen, Prowl and Sunstreaker. But wait — that’s eight limbs. Optimus only needs four.
Oh yeah, then there’s Binary Armour Optimus. I guess the other four can go on him. Or even better, they can go on this guy:
Voyager class Skylynx. Yes, they are bringing back the smartest of the “primitives”, one part bird of prey, one part robotic cat, another part space shuttle. And in case that wasn’t enough parts…
His name is Sky Reign, and he has a cat head.
Last, but not least, we have a set of five war machines.
Vortex
Swindle
Brawl
Not a f***ing space shuttle
And Onslaught.
These five Combaticons combine to form the mighty Bruticus.
There’s so much more. Legends class Shockwave, Wreck-Gar, Hot Rod, that one Insecticon I can never remember, plus a whole slew of toys based on the animated Robots in Disguise series. For a more comprehensive look at everything Hasbro revealed between Botcon and its Japanese showing this weekend (Masterpiece Optimus Primal!), check in with the good folks over at Seibertron.com, my favourite place for Transformers news on the internet for more than a decade.
The takeaway here is that Hasbro has really hit its stride when it comes to catering to the older Transformers fan, while if the kids need simple they can Robots in Disguise it all day long. It’s a great time to be a transforming robot lover.
Comments
19 responses to “Hasbro Keeps Milking ’80s Transformers Nostalgia For All It’s Worth”
*drools uncontrollably*
Bruticus looks downright bad-ass-icus!
He looks good but I like his Fall of Cybretron so much better
Insecticons: Bombshell, Kickback and Shrapnel…
You’re thinking of Kickback.
But this new repaint is actually a retool of Shrapnel in the colours of Chop Shop, one of the Deluxe Insecticons.
i wanna see a Rodimus Prime with Trailer.
i still have a half die cast half plastic Springer transformer toy. Car and Heli
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_6XYh4DmlCsI/TBzNm2OCrwI/AAAAAAAAANo/Eu2dmfhtdAY/s1600/springer1.jpg
remake of this, sticking as close as possible to the original please!
https://transformersrollout.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/img_1390.jpg
Rodimus has actually been done 🙂
http://www.tfu.info/2011/Autobot/MPRodimusPrime/rodimusprime.htm
or
http://www.tfu.info/2013/Autobot/GenSpringer/springer.htm
My apologies to your wallet
I have a G1 Megatron that turns into a gun somewhere. It looks absolutely retarded in robot form.
I want that Rodimus.
Don’t judge me!
WHEN IS DEVASTATOR COMING OUT!?!?!?!?! Sorry, he just has me super excited!
I have Devastator, he’s just in bits and pieces…lots of bits and pieces. Ah, G1 Transformers were awesome.
He’s part of the Big W toy sale which starts tomorrow. Get in quick I think!
OH DEAR GOD HE IS!!! Thanks so much 😀 Don’t know if I can get him straight away, but good to know he’s out shortly 🙂
No problem. The toy sale actually starts Thursday, not today like a mate had told me.
I saw it on j2oztoys for $185 but they’re saying it will be available in August. Also they don’t specify how much shipping costs. Might be back up option if you can’t secure one from Big W.
Best of luck.
Cheers mate. I have a rather expensive holiday coming up over in NZ so my pennies are going towards that! August sounds like the go 🙂
I hope the G1 Transformers game is good
So much plastic crack. So little shelf space!
oh my god