Our friends and sponsors at Big Bad Toy Store have posted preorders for Transformers Prime Deluxe Wave 3. This assortment contains the Autobot Hot Shot, a blue redeco of Bumblebee with a new head, plus the new Decepticon releases Knockout and Vehicon. The listings are accompanied by new images of each toy, including our first looks at the vehicle modes of these three.
BBTS has preorders of the three up either as a set of three – which includes the shortpacked Vehicon – singles for Knockout and Hot Shot, plus a listing for the case of 8 Deluxes. The case assortment reveals some bad news for anyone wanting to army build Vehicons! The breakdown for Deluxe Wave 3 will be as follows:
2x Knockout
1x Vehicon
2x Hot Shot
1x Bumblebee
1x Arcee
1x Autobot Ratchet
escutler
Thanks, Bill! I appreciate the info.
seekerblackout
More people need to see this. Oh well, someone will have it in hand before long.
Raiju
Knockout in G2 colors? XD (I keed, I keed!) But yeah, the mold itself may not be so bad after all, kinda like with FE Vehicon and DOTM Barricade, two molds that looked questionable at first in photos but I ended up loving when I got them in hand.
Cheebs
I wonder what is up with Knockout's paint mess in car mode? That's not what his sides looked like in the show, is it? Let me just search Google images for some Knockout pictures and…
…Christ! No! Bad internet! Prime and Brakedown do NOT feel that way about Knockout! Ow, my eyes…
Anyway, Google did turn this one up.
Hasbro Panel Photo Gallery
I've never seen that render before. If that is acutually the correct transformation, this toy might not be so bad.
Cheebs
Man, we need some in hand pics of Knockout. He can't possibly be as bad a he seems to be…can he?
ssjkazer
i might pick up 2 sets on my next order combined and uncombined and because bbts must of taken a hit on them with that many
Billzilla
They're on youtube. Watch the subtitled versions.. except Victory. There's a darn decent fandub of Victory done by tfcog.com which you can get right at their website.
Dubbed versions of the other series range in quality from very bad to hilariously outrageously bad, although in some cases that actually improves Headmasters. Headmasters is mostly very stupid in any language. At least the terrible dub of that series kept me entertained with their.. um.. creativity.
Masterforce is the best, Victory is also really good. Zone sounds cool, but it's really pretty pointless.
Thundershot
I was first introduced to the Japanese G1 in the 90's when a friend had raw Japanese video tapes of them. Even without being able to understand a thing, Masterforce had SO MUCH more characterization.
Nowadays, we have things like DVD Boxed sets and/or TV-Nihon… That reminds me, I need to get the Masterforce set… (wonder when the Victory set will be available alone)
But yeah, I love me those Seacons. I have the club Seacons with my Energon figures (what they were intended for), God Neptune on a shelf of his own with some other figures, and multiple BBTS Seacons for King Poseidon and Piranacon. (Piranacon will have reprolabels, King Poseidon won't).
I look forward to them getting down to $30 again…
AngryChad
Shout! Factory Store
escutler
Nice! How did you get those shows to watch? I know they released Headmasters recently, but how about Masterforce & Victory? Did you get official releases?
AngryChad
You're welcome! I just started watching them for the first time recently. I'm about half-way through Victory, and so far I think Masterforce is the strongest of the three (Headmasters, Masterforce, Victory). Need to figure out how to get my hands on a copy of Zone before I finish Victory…
escutler
Oh- I didn't know that. I stand corrected. Thanks for the info! I would like to watch some of those G1 Japanese shows sometime.
AngryChad
The Seacons appeared more in Masterforce than in any other fiction, and in that there were multiples of each limb, hence the troop building.
escutler
Oops- you beat me to it! Hmmm- it seems they sold three in the last day or two! lol
escutler
Well, I never really saw the Seacons as troop builders, as Piranacon was supposed to be a single combiner character (as far as I recall), but for fun, I just checked. They still have 3,150 of those sets in inventory! Wow, that is a lot. Shame, as I like that BBTS did an exclusive G1 reissue, but it's for sure they will never do another again! $39 is a good price for that big guy, though.
meirelle
You know, Knock Out looks like shit, but I'm still gonna buy him, 'cause he's fucking Knock Out. :/
anindrew
That Vehicon does look pretty nice. It's not too dissimilar from the First Edition. The vehicle mode is pretty accurate. Without the backpack, it's probably more show accurate. While it will be difficult to find, it will be far cheaper than an FE Vehicon. I already managed to find Soundwave on three occasions and Ratchet once at my local Super Target. Hopefully, my luck will continue with Vehicon. And I hope they make the flying Vehicons, too.
Snark
Yet all the G1 homages in Prime are through names and characters with next to no brand equity with children. Of those that do enjoy recognition with child audiences (mainly Prime and Bee), they are far more similar to their movie incarnations.
Classics on the other hand has always been the most collector friendly of the lines, and the fact it has always played second string to whatever the main line is at the time should be telling.
GrimlockAutobot
They know the demand for Vehicon.
It allows them to make more $$$ because now you have to buy multiples of some of his casemates if you want multiple Vehicons.
It also stops them from getting stuck with too many multiples of the others.
Sludge
I went a step further and asked BBTS if they would even be selling the Vehicon on their website by himself. They said no.