The TakaraTomy Mall has put up a ‘preorder’ listing for the USA Edition Dinosaurer (the Japanese market name for G1 Trypticon). This figure will be awarded to a lottery draw winner by TakaraTomy Mall, limited to just 300 pieces in Japan. Your name must be entered into the draw between October 13-22 and only the very lucky 300 that are selected at the conclusion of the raffle can then purchase the figure.
Check out more details after the break and discuss this reissue of Dinosaurer!
Autovolt 127
Surprised they never thought to do a Gigastorm reissue first?
Lbsammills51
I could swear there was an interview with Takara people somewhere where they said Fort Max sold well, but unfortunately I didn't save a link so I don't know if I'm misremembering or not. As for retailers sitting on stock, how does it at least appear that Fort Max stock sold in Japan/Asia?
Might want to aim that one a bit more generally, homie.
Same.
Personal opinion I have no ability to say is more true than anyone else's – I think Takara felt the market couldn't support both a revamped MP line and a revamped Encore reissue line, so after Fort Max and MP-12/13/14, they had to make a choice between the two and went with the MP line, figuring people would be more excited for new, dynamic versions of G1 characters over reissues of 25-30 year old toys.
flux convoy
Me too. It's nice that everyone is getting a chance at this guy. I'd like to know when we (the US) will though.
CVprowl
My lies? I own all of those Encore releases and I have a Platinum Trypticon sitting on my shelf as we speak.
GizmoTron
TakaraTomy probably doesn't feel the demand for reissues is that strong right now, so they might as well only make it available to the collectors who actually want it.
iacon45
It's true that most times larger figures do not sell well. But as of late, but it seems Hasbro has been having better luck with their large scale figures. Gen Metroplex and Devestator (excluding HTS's SDCC version) I have yet to hear about shelf warming in large quantities. I don't think Trypticon would be as big a problem either and Trypticon is going to be more limited than either Metroplex or Devestator so there is a less of a quantity to shelf warm.
In regards to the larger Takara figures, it's possible that Takara was their own worst enemy overproducing a single figure. I know that happened with that Star Convoy reissue as well and alot of times it does not have to be a large figure. I remember Takara and Hasbro both overproduced the hell out of the Stepper/Ricochet reissue to the point I saw some Takara reissues on sale online for $14.99 and the Hasbro version for $7 at Discount places like Tuesday Morning.
jametron
HAHAHAHA! I literally LOL'd at that!
Takeshi357
…I bought all of these on release
RKillian
You don't see BBTS having put Fort Max on clearance at least three times and still not selling out over two years later? Each one takes up a massive amount of space compared to almost anything else and is worth only a fraction of the equivalent volume of MP cars.
Quite frankly, as much as I'd like to buy a Trypticon, I really can't blame them if they just outright cancel it instead of their usual game of fucking up distribution/pricing/QC so badly that I can't. This fandom has got to be legendary for shrieking at the top of its lungs how it desperately wants something and then making up excuses to not actually buy it upon release. Encore Metroplex, Encore SkyLynx, Encore Omega Supreme, Encore Devastator, Encore Fort Max…how many times should they believe your lies?
Takeshi357
Yeah, if only this band didn't exist.
MartyFeeb
Neat tutorial, Nevermore! I'm gonna check it out and expand my Japanese knowledge! THANKS!
MartyFeeb
Hey, yeah… why do they pay $50 LESS!??
Seriously, WTF is up with prices in the USA? They're getting so exorbitant that it's cheaper to buy overseas (w/ shipping)?!
Signs of bad TF times, if you ask me. They can't (won't) afford to give better product discounts = milking dwindling fanbase for all their worth! No thanks. I passed on $200 Trypticon cause I don't believe 1st Parties should be charging 3P prices!
griffin-of-oz
Yep I know about Katakana, and the reading of them… I was just dumbing down the description and process for those who aren't familiar with the Japanese language.
As you say, it is weird that both major translators have not just translated it, but then converted that translation into an equivalent 1980s toy character in America.
If it was an actual Japanese reissue in a new box, it would be named "Dinosaurer" on the front of the box, but the online translators would still tell people that it the toy is a completely different name with a completely different pronunciation (Trypticon) based on the mis-translation of the Japanese writing.
I just checked, and even Babelfish did it… so maybe I'm just missing something obvious that is explaining why this is universally happening.
Underwear
What a brutal name & it sounds like a Death metal band..I love it!
Nevermore
It's spelled in Katakana, so you don't need a translator if you've learned to read Kana (I've written a handy tutorial here ages ago).
But yes, I agree that it looks as if someone cross-referenced the Japanese-market name spelled in Katakana with the Western-market name, which is a bit… weird. It's a localization rather than a "translation".
griffin-of-oz
This is weird…
The name of the toy on the TTM page in Japanese is ダイナザウラー which is pronounced as Dinahzaura (Dinosaurer), but both Google and Bing translators are translating it to Trypticon… as if someone has made a submission to them of their different names in different countries.
When you split the word up in the translator as two words it gives "dinah" for ダイナ and "Zawraa" for ザウラー but when you put the whole word in the translator, you don't get anything sounding like Dinahzawraa, but a completely different sounding word.
That's not what a translator is there for, when you have someone wanting to know what to call the Japanese toy by its Japanese name.
CVprowl
i don't get it.
grimlock1972
I suspect retailers in Japan are a little leary of big Transformers after Fort Max and titan class Metroflex. if that is true this could be the only way they could offer him.
CVprowl
What on Earth are they doing with this poor thing? Just release him so people who want it can buy it at a decent price. Why all the nonsense?
Goaliebot
I just love the name "Dinosaurer". If I were a Paleontologist I'd put that on my business cards.