Date: Thursday, May 30th 2024 8:40pm CDT
Categories: Toy News,
Editorials
Posted by: william-james88 Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 18,261
Transformers fans have been taken for a loop lately since information and misinformation is coming from every direction for the Earthspark line.
Rumours Regarding the Show Itself
When it comes to the show, there were rumours that another show was under development. While that is yet to be proven true or false, it brought upon a ton of theories regarding the current show, Earthspark. As of now, all we know is that Paramount ordered two seasons and we are getting two seasons. We do not know if a third season will be coming or how many seasons were planned. A new show is probably in development but that does not mean that it is in response to Earthspark's performance. It may be that the new show is made ot be more in line with the next phase of the TF franchise, now that Transformers One moves it into a new era.
The Mistranslation that Created Misinformation
Now adding to this was a mistranslation of a Japanese site summarizing what they read in a magazine (so already there we have 2 levels of being stray from the actual source). While some fans interpreted the quote to say that the Earthspark line in Japan was cancelled, the actual quote from the magazine said that the deluxe Prowl figure was cancelled. The line itself is not over in Japan, and instead we are getting something that fans have asked for a very long time: Takara exclusive toys.
Which of the New Toys Revealed Today are Exclusives?
Remember the Transformers Go line, where Takara retooled Hasbro toys exclusive to their market? Well those days are back. DX Elita-1 is not really a deluxe Elita 1 figure. It is instead the warrior class toy we got in the first wave from Hasbro but retooled so that the weapon gimmick is removed and so that her head can swivel. She also gets a great deco treatment. So Takara basically turned a warrior class into a deluxe figure. They are doing the same with Hashtag, which as you can see below has been retooled to remove the combining gimmick of the warrior class figure we are about to get from Hasbro.
Those two toys will not be released in the US or other Hasbro markets, they are exclusive to Japan. And since collector sites are not importing this line, anyone who wants these exclusives have to buy them from a Japanese outlet like Amazon Japan (links below).
The two other toys shown today, Aftermath and Jawbreaker, are actual deluxe class toys we will be getting from Hasbro. We have their listings, they are coming out later this year. However, their deco will not be as detailed as the Takara versions. So if you want this exact deco, then once again you must order from Amazon japan or another Japanese online retailer.
Transformers Earthspark ESD-12 DX Terran Jawbreaker
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/b0d5cg ... sform0c-22?tag=seibertron00-22&
Transformers Earthspark ESD-13 DX Terran Hashtag
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/b0d5cf ... sform0c-22?tag=seibertron00-22&
Transformers Earthspark ESD-14 DX Elita-1
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/b0d5cd ... sform0c-22?tag=seibertron00-22&
Transformers Earthspark ESD-15 DX Aftermath
https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/b0d5cd ... sform0c-22?tag=seibertron00-22&
Hopefully this helped a bit, if ever there are questions not addressed, feel free to join us in the message boards.
TL DR
- There is still an entire season of Earthspark to watch for anyone interested, we do not know if there will be a third season, or if one was even planned.
- The only thing cancelled, either by Hasbro or Takara is the deluxe Prowl toy, which was a redeco of the previously released Cyberverse deluxe Prowl.
The Earthspark line is not cancelled anywhere.
- DX Elita 1 and DX Hashtag are Takara exclusive retools and redecos of warrior figures we either already got or will be getting from Hasbro
- DX Aftermath and DX Jawbreaker are molds that Hasbro will also be releasing but their decos will be slightly different
Date: Friday, January 5th 2024 3:06pm CST
Categories: Site Articles,
Editorials
Posted by: william-james88 Discuss This Topic · Permanent Link
Views: 64,504
Seibertron's Year End Review
It's time to look back at 2023 in all things Transformers. Below you will find the picks from staff members Scotty P, D-Maximus Primal, Bounti76 and myself, william-james88, for the toys we found best in various categories along with our favourite bits of Transformers media and what we look forward to most for next. Please let us know your pics too. And now, on with the list!
Best Overall Transformers Toy
Deathsaurus is beyond a shadow of a doubt the toy of the year. While it was indeed much pricier than any toy his size in a Generations line, this toy showed what the designers at Hasbro could do if they had all the budget they needed to make our beloved toys as great as possible. And they didn't disapoint in any way. I love this toy and wish every Transformers fan could experience him. -william-james88
BURNING CHAINCLAW LET'S F****** GO jk it's Haslab
Deathsaurus, soaring to the top of my 2023 pile at the very last minute. Part of my brain is screaming at me that this choice is pure recency bias. It may prove to be, but right now I'm more confident than not that it's the correct choice. Deathsaurus reminds me in many ways of the toys we saw from around 2005 - 2010. He's big, is (mostly) made from materials that feel solid, has tons of satisfying, clicky ratchet joints, and generally looks how I personally want Transformers to look. Best of all, and this is what nudged him past Suiken at the last minute, Deathsaurus looks great on a shelf while also including massive amounts of optional, well integrated play value. There's a plethora of stuff to do if you want to, and if you don't, you can slap that stuff on the back of his chair or in most cases, on his back.
Take your Victory lap, Deathsaurus, Eaglebreast and Tigerbreast. You've earned it.
-ScottyP
ROTB Optimus Prime. I managed to get one from Pulse, and he's fantastic. Tabs and fits together well in both modes, and it's fun to transform. -Bounti76
Legacy Armada Optimus Prime - This toy hit my hands, and I knew from there that this was the best things would get this year. He is so good, just so good! The alt mode screams power and bulk, and I love it. Main robot mode is very solid, very good looking, very well painted and molded, it is just lovely. And then the super mode is just so awesome. They could not have nailed this any better. and the fact that he is compatible with the old Overload is just the cherry on top. Well done team, this one was perfection incarnate. -D-Maximal_Primal
Best Legacy Toy
Sicko-Mode
Powerlinx Hot Shot with Jolt. Take a fun Hot Shot, make it three times faster, give it extra guns and finally include a Mini-Con with an Armada toy homage and you get a super fun afternoon. This is the one Armada themed release from this year that tops its forebear in every possible way. -ScottyP
Tarn. I've wanted a toy of Tarn ever since I saw the design. I always appreciated that Alex Milne designed the character in a way that you could see exactly how it would work as a toy and I admit, I thought of getting a third party version many timed (but the total cost was always prohibitive for me). I'm glad I waited, because Hasbro aced it with this version. Looks like the comic character come to life. -william-james88
Tie between
Nemesis and Antagony. Nemesis' altmode is straight out of the G1 cartoon, and they managed to make her robot mode look surprisingly good considering the starship was the priority for the toy. And I'm a sucker for obscure fembots, so Antagony definitely fits that bill, while wearing the mold better than Inferno, IMO. -Bounti76
Prime Dreadwing - After the first year of Legacy, the Prime figures were definitely the weakest link, with pretty poor efforts overall. This year, they shined. Skyquake was really good, and a lot of fun, but then they repainted him like Dreadwing, who is one of my all time favorite Decepticons, and I screamed. He is good, he is beautiful, and I am thankful my boy got another toy. -D-Maximal_Primal
Best Studio Series Toy
SS86: Snarl, Movie SS: Noah Diaz. Snarl is just great, and yes I wish the gold matched the other dinobots, but outside of that I couldn't ask for more from a Generations incarnation of Snarl. Well, maybe a gun, but aside from that, yes, entirely satisfied. It was a tough choice between this and Magnus, but my love of dinobots won out. I wasn't sure how granular answers in this category should be, but Movie SS and SS86 feel like two entirely different toylines, so I'm picking a separate Movie entry and that is Core Class Noah Diaz. Yes, really. This is a fun toy that takes some liberties with the film's exo-suit, but do you care? Not when it's this fun. It even avoids the weird no-face of recent things like the SS86 exo-suit by just painting over the visor. Maybe not an ideal solution, but better than a bad one! The rest of Movie Studio Series was disqualified for not being very fun. - ScottyP
SS Rhinox. This line felt off this year due to having toys based on non final designs for ROTB and making missteps with every single release of the Gamer Edition subline. But voyager Rhinox turned out awesome. Hasbro was able to make a last minute change to the colours right before it hit the stage of mass production, making this the most accurate ROTB toy this year, and thus the epitome of what the line is meant to be, accurate figures from the live action films. -william-james88
SS 86 Brawn. Another "stepped-out-of-the-cartoon" design, with a cool altmode and the perfect size to fit in with the other Deluxe "mini"bots. -Bounti76
This is probably my hardest category this year. SS was super polarizing this year for me, between Mirage AKA my favorite movie character, Gamer Megatron, and SS86 Snarl being my 2 biggest disappointments of the year, yet RotB Bee being the best SS Bee figure, Gamer Prime rocking out, core Noah being far superior to any other core, it was hard. But for me, Leader Scourge will be my pick. I loved Scourge in the movie, and his toy is pretty solid. It has a slenderman feel to it, with that awesome claw and grill chest. He is fun to pose, and he can look menacing in many different ways. He is just good, I liked him a lot. -D-Maximal_Primal
Best Earthspark Toy
Deluxe Nightshade, pick your deco (Hasbro or Takara). Not since Transformers: Prime, at least generally speaking, have the design teams for Transformers toys needed to make sleek, stylistic, potentially impossible character designs into toys. Sometimes these aren't successful but in the case of Nightshade, they knocked them out of the park. It's also been entirely too many years since an owl was used for an alt mode. The combination of novelty from that non-traditional alt mode plus a surprising level of quality and fun makes for the best output of the Earthspark lineup so far. - ScottyP
Warrior Thrash surprised me as it fit the bill of deluxes of old. I really like motorcycle Transformers since they usually give you a sleek robot with an imaginative transformation and that it exactly what we got. -william-james88
Nightshade. Transformation is a bit more intricate than I expected for an Earthspark toy, but they have a decent robot mode, and their owl mode is unusual and unique. -Bounti76
Warrior Jawbreaker - I adore Jawbreaker in the series, and his toy is no exception. It is fun but simple, elegant yet well painted. I adore him, he is cute and fun. They managed to make a great warrior here that wasn't compromised. -D-Maximal_Primal
Best ROTB Toy
Takara Optimus Primal. The "mainline" for Rise of the Beasts was surprisingly fun, and while not totally devoid of segments overly hampered by one-note gimmicks, it was a big improvement over the Bumblebee movie's tiny, mostly soulless effort. The main standout from the line has to be Takara's $60-ish Optimus Primal, a big rendition of the Maximal leader that fits right in with the "Leader Class" of years gone by and even the Legendary Optimus Prime they put out for the Bumblebee movie. A great sculpt, fun transformation, and even excellent compatibility with the Beast Battle Masters all adds up to what Transformers could be more often, if only they weren't so darn expensive. - ScottyP
Optimus Primal seems to have gotten the preferential treatment in the ROTB line, with most of his figures being the best of their specific class. The
voyager, for instance, was the best of the three, and I really like that deluxe sized
weaponizer figure. That was an excellent option for younger kids, providing an easy transformation but still providing good old ball joint articulation from the later Beast era. -william-james88
Voyager Optimus Prime - I am an oddball here, but i didn't like the SS (Buzzworthy Bumblebee) voyager that much. but the main movie voyager? That one was super strong. I like him a lot! It has some really nice little cues here and there that make him proportionally a little better looking than the movie model (which needs smaller thighs, more abs, and less square shoulders) and just makes him a superior toy. I love him, he definitely stood out this year. -D-Maximal_Primal
Best MP Toy
MPG-04 Suiken is the best of the very slim roster of MP toys released in 2023. All of the Trainbots have had a high degree of elegance in their designs, but the execution hasn't always been on par - just search the internet and social media for pictures of Yukikaze's knees. Suiken and the extremely similar Seizan offer both, in my opinion, with Suiken winning out for a unique color scheme and a headsculpt that completely nails the era the character comes from. The backpack kibble may be an issue for some, but for me it's super easy to just take it off and set it to the side if a slimmer profile is desired.
Honorable mention to MP-57 Skyfire, which would have won this if Takara Tomy hadn't designed him with exploding feet in service of a gerwalk mode that we don't need in Transformers because this isn't Macross and this figure doesn't even use the G1 toy design and ohmygodwhatweretheythinking
-ScottyP
MPM Bonecrusher and MP-56 Trailbreaker. I really tried to pick one of them, I did, but I just could not do it, they are so utterly different and accomplish things so completely different. They are just really good. Trailbreaker makes a great cartoon Trailbreaker, with some cool effects and a nice alt mode. Bonecrusher is huge, posable, but perfectly balanced with wonderful flame effects for movie scene recreations as well as a the highly posable claw and weathering. They are both top notch, and they both deserve a mention. -D-Maximal_Primal
Best TF Media
Earthspark, which probably edged out Rise of the Beasts for me just due to length as there's more here to savor. An entire team of totally new Transformers in a show with a decent budget? When do we get more? The villains of this entry scrape the barrel, but the rest is the most fun you can have with Transformers this year. - ScottyP
I really enjoyed the
first comic from the new series. You can read my review here:
/transformers ... und/47912/ -william-james88
Rise of the Beasts. While not as good as Bumblebee, still a solid follow-up with some actual good character development for the Autobots, and great voice acting work for the Autobots, Terrorcons, and Maximals. -Bounti76
Skybound comics - This one was also a surprise, I really enjoyed Rise of the Beasts, but the new skybound comics are just so strong. I was very wary of them, but then I heard about issue 1, decided to read it, and now I am hooked. This comic is so good you guys, they know what they are doing. It is a blast, and I cannot recommend it enough.
-D-Maximal_Primal
What you are looking forward to next year?
Titan Tidal Wave, and hopefully, Hasbro CEO Chris C. (whose entire name I can't type because of the profanity filter, which is honestly kind of hilarious) being fired.
-ScottyP
Magmatron, easy. I never had the original figure but always wanted it since I love Dinosaurs. And now I will own the ultimate version of that figure with modern articulation (a big weakness of the original). -william-james88
Honestly, not a lot of what has been revealed so far interests me, so I hope Hasbro has some amazing things coming up for the
40th Anniversary of the brand. -Bounti76
I am gonna say 2 different Masterpiece releases next year, specifically
MPG Kaen and MPM Brawl. Kaen will finally complete Raiden, a project I have long been waiting to complete, ever since it was announced really. And Brawl will, with the exception of the Frenzy we really need, complete the MP 07 movie cast, which I am so excited for! Especially since the cons have been really solid, with Bonecrusher proving to be such a solid entry this year. -D-Maximal_Primal