We have a very nice surprise to share with you. The Official Transformers Weibo Account has uploaded an image about a Possible War For Cybertron Character Vote For 2020.
A rough Google translation of the text attached to the picture indicates that they are inviting Weibo users to identify who the four characters on the image are. Later, an image revealing all characters will be posted, and Weibo followers will have the opportunity to decide which character will appear in 2020 for the War For Cybertron line.
The images shows four silhouettes that are not so hard to identify. We can spot: Gnaw, Runabout/Runamuck, Needlenose and Shrapnel. Taking in consideration that Gnaw and Shrapnel already got recent updated molds, it could be possible to bet on new Runabout/Runamuck molds (they were exclusive to the Transformers collectors Club in 2012) or a new Neeedlenose figure (The Combiner Wars Needlenose was just a redeco of CW Firefly and exclusive to the Figure Subscription Service). Time to place your bets.
Update: The original picture was taken down from the Official Transformers Weibo Account
Remember to take it with a grain of salt until we get another proper translation or official confirmation via other Hasbro channels. Click on the bar to see the mirrored image and then share your impressions on the 2005 Boards!
G.B. Blackrock
That's essentially where I am, too. As I've said elsewhere, I actually voted for Runamuck. But i do care about the process being fair.
Autobot N
I’m fine with Runamuck’s victory, but I find it really odd that he won despite Needlenose seemingly having more votes.
G.B. Blackrock
I saw a few posts in non-Facebook forums (I don't use Weibo, so won't vouch for that). Every one of those (others) was consistent about saying you had to go to Facebook.
I don't mind Hasbro using whatever rules they set, but I do expect them to FOLLOW whatever rules they set.
f-primusunicron
i already did… i dont want needlenose to be a retool of the stupid triangles… but that doesnt change the fact they cheated
Awesomepow
Nice to see you in this thread.
Yeah, it's also possible Hasbro combined it with votes on their Weibo account. Remember? It was originally revealed on Weibo…
Ice King
Get over it.
f-primusunicron
hasbro cheated
Drucker
As the only creator of the thing he is referring to I can confirm that I left out replies. However, I don't recall seeing a single reply that was also a vote.
I'm not saying that Hasbro cheated, but I have no idea how Runamuck won.
All I know is that Spinister is coming out which makes me think Needlenose will probably happen regardless.
G.B. Blackrock
Even though I actually voted for Runamuck, I seriously would like to see Hasbro address this (I doubt they'll even acknowledge it). There were charts made up even accounting for several interpretations, and Needlenose still won handily.
I can't tell if you're joking or being serious. If serious, it's the first I've heard of it. As I said, the folks who put the chart together seemed to be pretty thorough.
Lazerwave
Like impactor and spinister, do you think needlenose will come the wave after runamok or part 3?
tigatron2002
eh again, thats a lot of what ifs that fly in the face of what we do know, which is that the last two years fan vote winners got single retail releases along with special releases repainted as themselves. we also know thanks to spinister that losing a fan vote does not disqualify a character from getting a figure in the line the vote pertains to. anything else is supposition, but those two facts set a precedent that cant be ignored
again the last two years set the precedent of the winner getting repainted as themself. who knows, do they have the runabout name still for use with toys? maybe the special release will be stealth runamuck in runabouts colors. either way precedent dictates that runamuck will get released as a single and a special release. hell impactor in the special release is barely different from the single release save for the head and caution stripes
Also had to comment on this specifically but for real? Optimal Optimus has a legacy repaint, primal prime, but they chose to create the king primal deco. How is he hard to reuse if there’s a ready to go legacy repaint? That’s like saying ironhide is hard to reuse.
Smitty.1981
That's kind of the point. Just look at any cartoon of comic book army of bad guys. Or watch a war film. The bad guys are almost always depicted as the same-ish. If you really think about it Seekers are way more diverse that Cobra vipers or the foot clan.
T-Hybrid
See the thing there is the brothers are repaints of each other. So you don't need to come up with a special use because you can just sell them as a two-pack and slap a FAN VOTE! label on it. Then reuse them as somebody else at retail or via Selects if so inclined.
T-Hybrid
Because in Primal's case that mold was difficult to reuse as anyone but Primal. So they had Primal Prime as a soft plan, then he won the poll so they pulled that for the SDCC reuse and slotted in either Nemesis or Unicronus to fill out the retail/Amazon commitment.
As far as Impactor and Mirage go, what if Hasbro had a similar plan? There were a few possible repaints on the plan they could have gone with. Then those two won the poll so they shuffled plans around and repainted them as themselves.
What could those plans have been? Well you know how random Aragon seems in that set? What if…
….Hasbro's original plan for that set was Mirage as Aragon, Impactor as Zetar, and Sixgun as Cromar? And we voted those out of existence.
tigatron2002
eh, personally i dont buy it. while its possible, i dont think its likely. i think no matter who the winner of the votes were they were destined for both a retail and special release. if my theory holds true then runamuck will see a single release in part 2 and get a special release as well (likely the only way to get runabout). then sunstreaker, wheeljack and tracks will see 1 in the mainline, 1 in generations selects and 1 released another way like the seekers and datsuns in siege
maybe but that would break the pattern set forth by primal and impactor/mirage of having both a retail release and an exclusive pack
T-Hybrid
Oh yeah, the Omnibots are absolutely coming. And the best fit for them would be as a boxed set.
Bob Schoonover
Omnibot Downshift!!
T-Hybrid
Conversely, I think we just voted the brothers out of the mainline and into a 2-Pack. (The theme being you've got one on the ark and the other is back on the Nemesis receiving messages.
They'll be replaced by characters who share a similar design (and scale) at retail. Perhaps Wheeljack and Tracks (who have also lost polls recently). Needlenose will likely also show up as well.
That's why there wasn't any news on the next chapter. They needed us to know the fan-vote winner first before they shuffled around the case assortments for Chapter 2.
T-Hybrid
I broke it down in another post elsewhere on the forum.
Basically the idea was Prime, Rodimus, and Optimal were the three molds they knew they were going to do. And based on who won the poll they had at least one repaint planned for each.
Had Magnus or Hound won, we'd likely have seen that use the Prime mold and Nemesis would've been stricken from the release with Unicronus either taking his place or a Primal Prime type repaint of Optimal.
Had Arcee won, she'd likely have been retooled from Rodimus and Unicronus would've been dropped from the main line. Nemesis would've taken his place, and Primal Prime again goes to Amazon.
When you also consider the first things out of the gate for Seige were Magnus and Shockwave with a similar power-up/evolution style, it's not hard to believe Hasbro had concept art at the very least ready to go for everybody in that poll.
Also, what's not to say that had someone who didn't already have a mold slated for PotP won they wouldn't have just pulled that figure forward and released a special "PRIME VERSION!" repaint of it at SDCC first?
Shockwave, Magnus, Star Saber, Deathsaurus, Megatron…. as someone pointed out earlier: It's a common trick of street magicians.
We only think we choose who went into the final slot because that's how it ended up playing out. But nothing would have stopped Hasbro from taking a planned mold or figure that would be part of Siege and ramping up production earlier to have a figure ready for SDCC before slotting a later retool/repaint elsewhere in the retail line.
It's actually a pretty clever trick when you think about it. Ours was never a vote for a brand new mold….it was just deciding which repaint/retool would be given life.
Just look at the last few polls. Impactor and Mirage were revealed to be winners but still got a special call out set along with their retail versions, while out of the four losers:
1. Is in Wave 5 anyway.
2. Was put back in another poll.
3 & 4. Shared a mold, and that mold is likely the base upon which the next winner will be built.