ExVee

TakaraTomy has updated their product page for Encore Unicron with some additional shots including the 360-view turnaround sets they love to do. Encore Unicron is notably based on the duplicate Unicron created by the Mini-Cons near the end of Transformers Armada rather than the original colors. This "Unicron of Light" was depicted as a toy once before, but only as a lucky draw item. This version uses more clear plastics and a fully unique deco to try to better represent the glowing green Unicron from the TV show. Click through to find all the mirrored photos.

Unexpectedly, it seems a rather unique piece of Transformers history was recently listed for sale on Amazon from a marketplace seller: Original package art for the Beast Wars Microverse Orcanoch battlestation playset! The Microverse lineup only consisted of two toys before the price point was dropped, one for the Maximals, and one for the Predacons. This piece shows the full art produced for the packaging, without being cropped to fit or overlaid with callouts - although there are revision notes attached, which if anything just add to the interest. As of writing it was available for a little over $200. Read more...

When the teaser trailer for this winter's Transformers: Bumblebee went live, viewers would notice that for a brief moment, Bumblebee appears in a differently detailed robot mode to his other known forms, looking like a Jeep. Well, we now have more information about that, coming from - of all places - an auction listing for the sale of the screen-used prop vehicle from the movie. The catalog listing gives some very vague plot elements in the description, so we're going to push that down a little to protect against possible spoilers, but be warned. Click here to see photos, copied from the auction catalog.

On their Facebook page, MAAS Toys has posted a photo of a color prototype for Tyrant Throne, a large piece of home furnishing for your Decepticon Masterpieces. Or at least MP-36 Megatron. That seems to be somewhat specific, since through some discussion on the Facebook post itself, it was explained that the chair is designed for figures with leg builds similar to that particular Masterpiece, and may not play quite right with others. There's currently no pricing information on offer, and no release window, as it sounds like actual production of the item is due to start soon. But as nice as this rendition of G1 Megatron's throne looks, one could easily hope for an eventual followup with MP-43 Beast Wars Megatron in mind. Read more...

Coming to us from Uncle Tree Studio on Facebook, we have a nicely shot assortment of photos covering the VW Bumblebee coming soon to the Studio Series lineup. We just recently saw a first video for the toy, highlighting its transformation, and these photos are a perfect followup. Besides giving us a chance to look over the details of the figure, this includes helpful side by side comparisons with the first Studio Series Bumblebee ...unfortunately revealing this toy to be about a head shorter than the already kind of small Camaro Bumblebee. We've mirrored a selection of photos from the shoot, click through to check them out and for links to the original galleries!

After debuting at SDCC last month, we now have a first hands-on look at Studio Series 18 Volkswagen Bumblebee from Transformers: Bumblebee. The Korean Youtube channel [토이팩토리] ToyFactory(장난감TV) has the video up, which shows a basic look at the toy's two modes, and its option parts including a replacement forearm cannon, a battle mask that replaces the regular robot face, and a clip on saw blade. A good amount of time is also spent showing the transformation, which while sharing a few basic engineering concepts with the previous Studio Series Bumblebee, is doing more still all its own. Click through to watch now!

Coming as quite a surprise, we've had a small flurry of sightings for Novastar, the final new regular retail Deluxe in Power of The Primes. Novastar is joined by reships of Rippersnapper, Blackwing, and Dinobot Slug in making up Deluxe wave 4. We have reports and sighting photos from Pennsylvania and West Virginia showing the new assortment hitting Walmarts. At present we don't have the exact case breakdown to know if Novastar is shipping in equal numbers to the other toys in the wave, or if it might be one per case like Moonracer was. Read more...

Direct from Cartoon Network via their Youtube channel, we have a quick preview clip from what is most likely the first episode of Cyberverse. The video shows Windblade encountering Bumblebee who has lost his memory - and his voice, as his dialogue is rendered in simulated movie-style radio sound bytes, topped off with Bumblebee not even having mouth movements when "speaking". A similarly mute Thundercracker then appears, leading to a fight scene. Click here to check it out!

Continuing our coverage of the SDCC exclusives which Hasbro kindly sent our way, we have today the unboxing video for the Power of The Primes Throne of The Primes set, and the Transformers: Bumblebee Vol.1 Retro Rock Garage. This unboxing is designed as more of a walkthrough to help show how to minimize packaging damage when opening these toys, because both of them have some excellent package design work that's really good for displaying, and the last thing you'd want is for it to accidentally get wrecked while you try to get at the toys inside. Click through to watch our video now!

DNA Designs updated their Facebook page today with new color samples showing off what should be the final state of their soon-to-arrive upgrade parts package for Power of The Primes Predaking. We've seen the add on offerings in some detail previously, but as uncolored prototypes or testshots. With this latest update, we can see a lot more yellow present among the extended accessories, though things like the hands and the wing extensions are rendered in matching colors to the original elements. Click here to check out all of the mirrored photos.

The TakaraTomy website has updated their MP-43 Megatron listing page with a set of turnaround view images for both the robot and beast modes of this, the most expensive regular retail Masterpiece figure. At least so far. The photos, higher resolution than the usual for the 360-views shows a fantastic look at this upcoming Masterpiece with little in the way of flaws to be seen from any angle, if these shots are to be believed! Click through to see the whole batch!

Empire has released a new publicity still from this winter's Bumblebee movie, along with a short article promoting a feature about the film in the magazine's September issue. Missing no opening to poke jabs at the prior movies, the article stresses how it goes back to where the live action franchise began as a more character driven story, painting a picture of a different kind of film than we've been conditioned to expect over the first decade of Transformers movies. Keep reading to find out more!

It feels like it's been a while since we had much of a leak of official materials, but one of our usual Weibo suspects has broken the quiet streak by leaking several images associated with the upcoming Deluxe wave of Studio Series. We now have in package stock images for the redeco of Ratchet (#16), Shadow Raider (#17) and VW Bumblebee (#19), plus one extra stock image of Bumblebee alleging its robot height at about 6 inches. That's probably some dubious measurement, judging by the size of Classic Camaro Bumblebee's robot mode. We also have some cross sell images showing Dropkick and the KSI Sentry - keep reading to see them all!

Thanks to Hasbro, we have samples in hand for both the Transformers: Bumblebee Vol 1 Retro Rock Garage, and Power of The Primes Throne of The Primes exclusives which debuted at San Diego Comic Con this summer. More taken than I expected by just the packaged toys alone, I decided to put together a quick first impressions video to share just how cool the package design for these toys turned out! I'll be doing more coverage of them soon, but in the meantime you can click here to watch the video!

The next of Walmart's exclusive line of G1 Transformers reissues has been found on retail shelves, with sightings of Devastator coming in from the west coast of Canada. In particular, wideload has reported picking up Devastator at a Walmart in South Surrey, British Columbia, with receipt showing the price at CAD$99.97. Click through to check out the details!

UK retailer Smyths has added several product pages for the upcoming Energon igniters toyline supporting the Bumblebee movie. With this comes some fresh look stock photography at several of the toys spread across the various price points, plus advertising copy to go with, talking about the various different items. Keep reading to check out the new images and read about the upcoming toys!

Via three separate Weibo postings, we've got reveals for a series of weapon upgrades for a range of Legends class Generations figures. Starting with DW-P40, providing a pair of guns each to the Autobot Clones, and DW-P41 with a pair each of weapons for the Decepticon Clones, plus mounting hardware to attach the gear in alternate mode. From there, P42 is a rifle for Beachcomber, P43 is one for Seaspray, and P44 is a pair of pistols, one for Windcharger, one for Tailgate. No information is given about the release timeframe or any other relevant info in the Weibo posts, but there are plenty of photos! Click through to see!

Some lucky collectors in the US are already managing to receive their Masterpiece Beast Wars Dinobots, released just days ago in Japan. And so tonight we have among the very first English video review from Radio Free Cybertron's diecast on RFC Reviews. The video clocks in at a bit over 40 minutes - of which we can surmise probably a large portion of that is all in transformation - and an unfortunate spoiler shared to Twitter around the same time the video went live: Dinobot broke during the course of demonstrating the articulation. Hopefully that'll prove to just be a one off. Click through to watch the video!

The Transformers Instagram page has shared a quick few "inside looks" at a testshot copy of MPM Ironhide. Giving a barebones sense of what happens when a sample from the factory comes back to the Hasbro offices for inspection, we get to see the unpainted die-cast metal content of the figure, and close up at the detailed face sculpt in its all-blue-plastic glory. We've taken screencaps from the Instagram story this was presented in, click here to take a look!

Thanks to Bob Loblaw on twitter, we have our first report of a North American sighting for Power of The Primes Wreck-Gar. The sighting was made at an EB Games in an undisclosed location in Canada. This almost perfectly mirrors the situation we saw with the Clones two pack last year, appearing first in Canadian EB Games locations before finally making their way to Walgreens shelves a little while later. The Canadian price for Wreck-Gar is $24.99, which works out to a bit under $20 US right now. Read more...

Observant Allspark poster Sabrblade noted an interesting discrepancy recently. As you may recall, Summer Wonderfest this past weekend gave us a first look at the Transformers Siege Deluxe packaging, showing the move to boxes for Deluxes with the first chapter of the War For Cybertron Trilogy. Hound's box particularly got some decent images captured, including one with the character art on the side. Except that the head on Hound's body was not Hound's at all... Keep reading...

Some interesting news from the TakaraTomy display at Summer Wonderfest, as presented by Twitter user @chohenken - if you missed out on Grotusque when it was available from Hasbro, a second chance may be on the horizon, as part of a two pack with Deluxe Repugnus. Marked as LG-EX, it seems all but certain they'll be an exclusive somewhere like TakaraTomy Mall, so this may not be a more financially sound alternative to grabbing Grotusque by itself off the secondary market now. However, collectors looking to get Throne of The Primes may be interested to learn it seems to be getting a Japanese release, and possibly at general retail! Keep reading to find out more!

Twitter user @chohenken brings us a few photos of the Movie lineup display at TakaraTomy's Wonderfest exhibit space. Apart from BB-01 Optimus Prime which we saw in great detail already this weekend, there's not much new here to see with just a few pieces each from the Bumblebee line, MPM Ironhide, and some Studio Series toys. But what's really interesting is the product numbering shown for the Studio toys, as it seems TakaraTomy is going to majorly break from Hasbro's numbering with their releases, moving Shadow Raider for one up to SS-13, as opposed to it being #17 in Hasbro's line. Wacky! Click through to take a look.

TakaraTomy continues reaching back in its archives for more unexpected Encore releases. The latest in this line is Big Convoy from Beast Wars Neo, seen on display at Summer Wonderfest this weekend. What is perhaps more odd is that right behind Encore Big Convoy, they have Blue Big Convoy on display - a version that was originally a lucky draw item. It's unknown right now if Blue Big Convoy (which should be noted is separate and distinct from Ultra Mammoth) is also on the Encore list, or is just there for fun. Either way, hopefully Big Convoy will fare better than did God Fire Convoy in its new production run. Keep reading to see the photo

Thanks again to @chohenken on Twitter we're getting to see images of TakaraTomy's reveal of Transformers Siege, the first installment of the Generations War For Cybertron trilogy. While the toys shown are the same as what was revealed at SDCC recently, this event does give us a couple of first insights. First up, it looks like the trend of unchanged releases between Hasbro and TakaraTomy will carry on, which while not everyone's ideal outcome, does make the next point more interesting: We have a first look at the packaging for the line. Keep reading to find out more.