Transformers Lay Siege on Your Wallet!

If you visit my humble site then I'm sure you're following all of the news as it's released from San Diego as part of SDCC '19. I've been geeking out all weekend about the comic, movie and toy news...especially when it comes to some new Transformers that are on the horizon.

I began to think at how Hasbro and Transformers specifically would laying siege on fans' wallets with all of the news that has been officially revealed. There were already several great Siege pre-orders in place (such as Omega Supreme) and now we have even more great toys coming. Hmm...I wonder where I can donate some plasma?

Many of these new pre-orders that are just now hitting the web are exclusive to stores, such as Amazon, Target, Walmart and Hasbro Pulse. I've tried to provide links to these retailers to make it easy if you wish to drop a pre-order or two.

We'll start off with Amazon's 3 exclusive offerings.

War for Cybertron: Siege - Fan Vote Battle 3-Pack

(available 10/15/19) - $69.99

This set includes deluxes of Holo Mirage, a partially translucent blue Mirage to mimic his invisibility ability; Powerdasher Aragon, a repaint and slight retool of Six-Gun; and Impactor. While I think these figures look nice, I think this will be an easy pass for me.

War for Cybertron: Siege - Phantonstrike Squadron

(available 08/15/19) - $49.99

This exclusive 4 pack contains the Decepticons Skywarp and 3 Battle Masters: Fracas, Shrute, Terror-Dactyl. Who wouldn't want to at least complete the original seeker trio? This one is an easy purchase for me.

War for Cybertron: Siege - Autobot Alphastrike Counterforce

(available 08/15/19) - $49.99

This 3 pack includes Covert Clone Sideswipe, a G2 redeco; Slamdance, a redeco of the Decepticon Skytread (Flywheels); as well as one Battle Master, Trenchfoot (redeco Aimless).

There was a time where I would buy any exclusive Transformers release, but today I have to be a little more picky about what I buy. Part of me really likes this set. Sideswipe looks awesome in black and Trenchfoot is sporting some great colors. Slamdance is, well...interesting. Comprised of Raindance and Grandslam, originally combining cassettes during the G1 days, I don't know if Hasbro has pulled this off or not. With so many releases coming out around the same time this one will be a tough sell for me.

Target is providing additional Decepticon seeker jets in the form of Redwing and a 3 pack of "rainmakers". Currently Redwing is only available to Red Card holders, but hopefully that will change soon. I can't find an online listing yet for the 3 pack, but there have been confirmed sightings in the US already at select Target stores. Happy hunting!

Not to be outdone in the exclusives department, Walmart also had a few surprises for us collectors. 

War for Cybertron: Siege - Bluestreak

(available holiday 2019?) - $19.99

When Siege Prowl was released I guess I should have seen the inevitable releases of the other "Datsun Brothers". Bluestreak looks beautiful and is a must buy. Sadly by the time I found the link on Walmart's website the pre-order had already sold out. You can sign up for updates, which I have, so I'll just have to wait and see if they re-open the pre-orders or not.

War for Cybertron: Siege - Megatron

(available October 2019) - $29.99

It's hard for me to comment on Megatron (or Optimus) as I still haven't opened the original versions of this mold, but I have to say this classic animation deco is beautiful. I don't know if I'll pick him up or not, but this is cool none the less.

War for Cybertron: Siege - Optimus Prime

(available October 2019) - $29.99

I'll buy just about any version of Optimus Prime and this one is no different. This classic animation deco is absolutely beautiful and I'm sure it'll look better in hand. October can't come quick enough for this one!

War for Cybertron: Siege - Soundblaster

(available October 2019) - $29.99

Hasbro has been on the Soundblaster train for sometime now, repainting/retooling various Soundwave toys into his rebuilt Japanese counterpart. It looks fantastic, I'm just not sure there will be a place in my collection for him.

Walmart will be continuing their line of G1 reissues with Soundwave and multi-packs of Frenzy/Laserbeak and Ravage/Rumble. I haven't bought many of these re-issues as I already have nice specimens of the original toys, but I'm sure these 3 releases will sell good assuming the prices aren't too high. I don't believe these are available for pre-order at the time of this post.

Hasbro Pulse also has a few exclusives of their own that I'm sure will tickle the fancy of old school collectors.

War for Cybertron: Siege - Refraktor Reconnaissance Team 3-Pack

(available 09/01/19) - $69.99

Having just found my 3rd and final Refraktor figure, I'm excited about getting the 3 figures together and forming the 35mm camera. While I'm just fine with the regular deco of the figures, I do think this new G1 toy deco looks great. The additional parts added to the set also really help sell the alt mode. This one is tempting, but I'm not made of money so I'll just had to admire the pictures on the 'net.

War for Cybertron: Siege - Autobot Lancer

(available August 2019) - $19.99

Entertainment Earth pre-order - $19.99

My eyes!! Wow, this sucker is a bright toy. This looks like something from the last few years of GI Joe. I'm sure there are fans that are happy to get another fembot and be able to complete their all female combiner...but I'm not one of those.

Vintage G1 Mini-Cassette 3 Pack

(available 09/08/19) - $34.99

Oh. My. Gosh. While I'm not totally floored to see Gurafi and Noizu coming, I'm super excited. Last year Hasbro teased fans with the translucent G1 dino cassettes in their Bumblebee SDCC releases and now fans everywhere can finally complete their cassette collections without having to pay an arm and a leg. Pre-ordered.

War for Cybertron: Siege - Ratchet

(available ?) $19.99

Last but not least we have Ratchet. He will be an upcoming exclusive at Walgreens drug stores in the US. He's already been released in Hong Kong as a Toys 'R Us exclusive there. I am hoping Walgreens offers Ratchet online so it's not the whole Marvel Legends the Thing fiasco all over again.

As you can see there are a lot of great new Transformer toys coming out later this year. If you plan to pick up every figure on this list along with the others that are coming, good luck. I haven't been this excited about a main line Transformers series in a long time. Hasbro and Takara Tomy are hitting it out of the park with Siege and I can't wait to see what else they may have in store for us. I just hope they give all of our wallets a change to breath and recuperate!

Transformers the Movie: Decepticon Reverb

QUICK INFO:
Name: Decepticon Reverb

Line: Transformers - The Movie (Hasbro, canceled Target exclusive)

Year: 2008
Price: $6.99 approx. (paid $20.00)

Bio:
Most Decepticons are so grim it's impossible to imagine they have fun doing anything, but not Decepticon Reverb. He charges into battle with a grin on his face, singing a happy song from the old days. Using the wash from his rotors, he can create a thudding sonic cyclone that traps those beneath him, shattering glass, twisting metal and destroying audio sensors. The ultra loud thump of his rotor has meant doom for many unfortunate Autobots.

Strength: 7 Intelligence: 5 Speed: 7 Endurance: 5

Rank: 6 Courage: 7 Fireblast: 5 Skill: 8

I'm back with an all new review. Today we'll go back to the first line of Transformers movie toys and look at canceled Target exclusive! Don't ask me why it was canceled or where the seller I bought it from got it, but I'm excited to hold Reverb in my hands. So let's take a closer looks at one of my favorite helicopter Transformers.

Decepticon Reverb comes packaged in the familiar layout used for all of the first movie Transformers. The toy was meant to be a Target exclusive, but was canceled before it saw a mass release. Note the familiar Target exclusive sticker is missing from the blister bubble. The only difference I noticed on the packaging is a small sticker was placed just under Ages 5+ that read 80402. There is also a large red sticker with a bar code covering the bottom of the cardboard insert with what appears to be Spanish.

The back of the packaging has a very nice layout. You get a shot of the actual toy in both robot and vehicle modes, highlights of the toy, the character's bio and a cross sell of the other 2 canceled Target exclusive scout class figures, Backtrack and Gunbarrel.

As I mentioned earlier I love this mold. I love helicopter Transformers in general, but this is one my favorites hand down. I already own this mold 5 times over (both Energon & ROTF versions + the Transformers Collector's Club exclusive Topspin), but I didn't hesitate adding one more version to my collection! My first impression upon taking Reverb out of the bubble is that his color scheme just screams Waspinator. The olive green, yellow stripe down the sides and even the black on the legs. There are bits of "Allspark blue" on the toy that stand out, but thankfully the color was used sparingly. The intakes on each side of the cockpit and the tips of the robot's toes are the only blue bits. The helicopter's cockpit is cast in a translucent light blue.

I should mention that I forgot to fold up the tail fin to it's upright position before snapping the picture. How unprofessional of me!

Just like the previous versions of this mold Reverb comes packaged with an Energon weapon and Energon chip. There are no changes made so if you've seen these then there isn't much else to look at.

Reverb weaponized with his Energon armaments. The gun can be attached in different ways. This is the default mode...basically how it comes out of the package. As you can tell with the gun attached the helicopter doesn't sit firmly on the ground...the nose wants to fall forward a bit.

Due to time constraints I didn't photograph the Reverb in any action poses or from different angles, but let me go on the record to say the robot mode is fantastic. For a scout class toy there is plenty of articulation to go around. The head turns a full 360 degrees, the shoulders, elbows, hips and knees are all ball joints so some great poses can be pulled out. The helicopter's tail piece does hang down in the back, but it's never obstructed any of the poses I've displayed this toy in. The main helicopter blades do fold down and effectively make one blade so you can display it either way. I just forgot to fold it down before photographing the toy. What's wrong with me today?!

I think the Waspinator color scheme really stands out even more in robot mode! The olive, yellow and black work really well though. I could care less for the Energon weapon as it's too big in my opinion to make an effective hand held weapon. I do like the translucent blue light piping used for the robot's eyes. Here lately it seems like fans are on the fence when it comes to the light piping used in the robot's heads. It doesn't bother me and I think it's a great touch.

I was a little surprised to see that Reverb came with 2 sets of instructions. One was printed on regular white paper and featured the same Spanish that the sticker on the bottom had. The other set of instructions were printed on a glossy white paper like the majority of the instructions we've seen.

In closing I am so glad I decided to get in a group buy of this figure over @ TFW2005.com. With shipping it only set me back $27.00 which isn't too bad considering the chances of this figure having a mass release are slim. In hindsight I wish I had sprung for his "Combaticon" brother Gunbarrel. The mold is the exact same as the Energon, ROTF and Transformers Collector's Club versions so if you have those then there is really no need to buy this figure. Chances are it'll be overpriced if you come across it on eBay so just save your coins. It's a great scout class Transformer, but other than a new coat of paint nothing else is new.