'I' On Malaysia

Fresh from Japan and Hong Kong are some new exclusive releases from the Tokyo Toy Show 2010 and Toys’R'Us (America).  The Tokyo Toy Show 2010 gives us a rendition of G2 Dreadwing and Smokescreen using the Revenge of The Fallen NEST Global Alliance pairing of Mindwipe and Skystalker.  Mindwipe was always a great looking mold resembling a stealth bomber of some description (I can’t remember off the top of my head exactly which real world plane it looks like) with a very imposing, almost vampirical, robot mode.  Skystalker is just some random other plane, almost like a mini-Mindwipe at scout size, which can sit on top of his Voyager sized companion.

Keeping the momentum going this week is perhaps one of the more keenly anticipated waves of Animated deluxe figures of late, mainly because of Swoop’s presence in the wave which completes the Animated Dinobots…

We also have the first repaint of the Animated series (which is immediately followed by the second and third as reviewed in an upcoming post) and another new mold in the form of Sentinel Prime.

Just in today is Transformers Animated Blitzwing – the one and only ‘Triple Changer’ in the series.  Not counting Shockwave/Longarm in that comment due to it being a ‘Quad Changer’ so a slightly different category (though in that case, it doesn’t appear to change all that much so I’ll reserve judgement on if I’d even think of it as being a ‘Quad Changer’ for now).

Having spent three months on their own, Leaders Megatron and Bulkhead have at long last been joined by the only other Leader class figure from the Animated series that has been announced so far – Ultra Magnus.  This now paves the way for repaints though, as if you couldn’t have already guessed as much, unless new molds are created for characters in the (as yet unconfirmed) third season of the cartoons…

Three more of the new Activators class of Transformers were released here this week in the guises of Lockdown, Optimus Prime and (Autobot) Ratchet.  It still seems like Hasbro is dragging out the release schedules of the Animated series as this comes four months after Wave 1 was released.  In that time, we’ve already had two waves of all classes in the Universe range – which only started towards the end of July.  Come on Hasbro, pull your socks up!

I had to go back and check my own blog but, yes, the last lot of Animated Deluxes hit the shops back in the middle of June!  2 months ago!!!  And what is worse is that I already had half of this wave back in May after paying a visit to Singapore.

Following hot on the heels of Optimus Prime is Wave 3 consisting of Lugnut and everyone’s favourite – Grimlock.  Having watched the speed at which the Voyagers have sold in the shops, I pretty much feel confident that I can say Prime and Grimlock have been the quickest selling figures of this series so far.  Easily beating Starscream, the Deluxe range and the Leaders.  I guess you don’t have to be cheap or big – just be a fan favourite (or a kid favourite I guess).

It has been more than five months since the first wave of Transformers Animated arrived and we finally get waves 2 and 3 at pretty much the same time and not only does wave 3 arrive in the specialist toy shops, but even one of the more upmarket department store chains receives a delivery too…  Makes me wonder if Hasbro Malaysia screwed up a little bit and should have sent these out sooner?  Oh well, can’t complain now can I. 

Leaving wave 3 till the next post, I’ll quickly give a quick review of the single release in this wave of ‘Earth Mode Optimus Prime’.  Can just one item be considered a ‘wave’ or more of a slight ebb?  Are Hasbro just trying to keep interest in the Animated range alive long enough to get the third series of cartoons on the screen (in the US and Canada)?

Animated Deluxe Wave 2 is a small and, in some respects, a minor release as it includes two of the least recurring central characters in the series thus far.  Both Blackarachnia and Ratchet are supposedly central characters, even having images shown in the intro to the cartoon, but seem to have the least amount of screen time and probably the weakest toys in the Animated range yet.

More advanced deliveries came my way this week with Animated Leader Class Bulkhead and Megatron coming in from Singapore.  Having seen the loose Bulkhead leader during my last visit and being asked to pay much higher than retail price for it, I figured I’d wait a few weeks to get a boxed version at retail price.  In the end, it took less than 2 weeks to get them and they didn’t come from one of the specialist toy shops – they came from Takashimaya, one of the big department stores there, even beating Toys’R'Us to the punch.