We have received a word that Hasbro will showcase their upcoming toys for Transformers: Bumblebee movie, at the 2018 Licensing Expo.
This of course is not the first time Hasbro placed them on display this year. The toys made their debut a week before UK Toy Fair 2018, where the company held a private event to several prominent journalists, which was then followed by a secret booth at the UK Toy Fair for the investors, potential license holders, distributors and retailers in order to generate some buzz (pun intended) for the line. The movie toys appeared for the third time at another secret booth during Australian Toys And Hobby Fair.
While we do not know whether the movie toys will receive another Secret Booth Treatment, but if you are stopping by the Las Vegas Licensing Expo, make sure to make a beeline (again, pun intended) towards Booth: South Seas Ballroom E – Level 3 to check out the toys from Bumblebee: The Movie. If 2014 and 2016 were any indication, the new toys will be on display openly to anyone who attends.
Other than that, Hasbro will be showcasing a huge line up of Nerf toys as well as My Little Pony, Littelest Pet Shop, Magic: The Gathering, Monopoly and several other Hasbro Gaming game titles.
For Hasbro, the cherry on top of the cake would be the induction of their CEO Brian Golder into the LIMA Hall Of Fame. You can read more about it through our previous news post for the event.
Licensing Expo 2018 will be held from May 22nd to May 24th at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas.
Max Tower
It all well and good Hasbro designing Neo-WFC toys (something I don't think anyone actually especially wants when it's nothing to do with the games and it's just non-earth mode stuff of no specific theme) but there is the distinct likelyhood that the retailers terrible habit of ignoring anything that has no (significant) media backing on one hand and on the other hand they have this really poor habit of never ordering more that 2 waves of a line based on a movie these days.
So Bumblebee is getting around that to some degree by partly being integrated into the studio series – but that also means it's going to either be seen as a Movie line and the orders will stop or not a movie line so the orders won't happen in the 1st place.
If we are lucky then Neo-WFC is going to be as sparce as POTP distribution is/was and if we are very unlucky they will get so little interest wave one will go straight to TJ Maxx, Kohls, and Ross stores and then get cancelled. Either way It seems pretty unlikely to have any serious impact.
Hasbro's (main lines) are no longer main lines they are niche collector lines that get mostly ignored by retailers.
I've even questioned retailers about this and the ones that bother to answer confirm this – they will buy media backed stuff for a short time and then drop it.
So the way you used to get a line last years like in the 1990's is simply not possible now – even Marvel 4" figures have had the same issues and they are super collectable. The larger ones seem to have basically got relegated to collector line status and are not easy to find.
Poor Hasbro – I suspect a lot of their troubles all date back to brand fragmentation and over pushing Star Wars toys that people didn't really want as much as Hasbro thought they did.
SilverOptimus
I think we now know how that poster came to be. It's a screenshot from the Title Reveal Teaser Video:
Transformers: Bumblebee Movie Marketing Campaign Begins With A Title Reveal Teaser – Transformers News – TFW2005
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HunterRose
If he's a VW beetle then I'll buy ALL OF THEM!
Primus Omega
with that said I'm willing to bet they didn't show off anything from the generations lines…just the gimmicky bumblebee movie stuff.
GiganGoji
Is it bad that I'm a thousand times more curious/excited about the presence of the GXMG Godzilla suit?
Venixion
Some of those costumes are creepy.
Anywho, curious to see the toys. Perhaps I may finally find the right Bumblebee for my collection.
SilverOptimus
Small info dump time.
Hasbro's panel has featured the classic no photography rule and non-disclosure agreements. This was basically a practice run for their Comic Con presentation.
Lots of Bumblebee movie toys, MLP stuff and Care Bears featured. Several show announcements.
Cykill 1
So, anyone hear how many different variants of BB they are gonna pump out?
Lazerwave
Still no news about any toys?
Primus Omega
Agreed, I'm a completionist so this entire line will be a must have for me lol.
Hopefully wave 2 starts hitting US stores soon.
vsutherland01
Yeah I feel the same way. Still I am trying to make some decisions on collecting, wether to dip back into the TLK line at all, what's coming may help advise my decision. So far I am of the opinion that other than TLK Voyager SDCC optimus, MB01 Evasion Optimus, and Takara age of extinction classic bee, I won't be needing any past figures for my movie collection. I can just rely on Studio series for the future, it's amazing so far.
Primus Omega
I'm sure he will.
I can't believe the first wave of studio series just released and I'm already impatient for what's coming next in the line.
Primus Omega
hopefully we find out soon!
SilverOptimus
It's true. Took us by surprise. Honestly, I never expected a Hasbro panel because it was never done before at Licensing Expo. People who attended stated that it felt like a mini-Comic Con. But no description came my way. Hopefully… it will. Fingers crossed.
Seth Sunthay
probably the MPM-07's prototype was showcased.
Night Flame
I regret that I have only one thumb up to give this message. It so deserves an avalanche of thumbs up.
SilverOptimus
Take this with a grain of salt:
Heard a rumor that Hasbro did a panel at Licensing Expo 2018 just like WB did yesterday. Lots of new upcoming toys were revealed. No photographs were allowed during the panel. Hope to hear more.