TOYFAIR 2010 - AUSTRALIA
TRANSFORMERS

Discuss this here at the Ozformers fan forum
(Did this report a webpage, to better work with the pics and info)

Since we didn't have any toys on display that weren't shown at the US Toyfair last month, check out the following sites for more photos of the toys shown here:
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/toy-fair-38/
http://www.tformers.com/toy-fair-2010-transformers/13051/news.html
http://www.seibertron.com/news/index.php?f_keyword=toy+fair
http://www.seibertron.com/events/event.php?event_id=124

Melbourne Convention Centre next to the Yarra River.

At one of the main entrances.

Inside the Convention Centre - the entrance to the Fair.

The Hasbro exhibit.

Hasbro Logo at the reception desk.

The main Transformers display.
It was the product line that took up the most floor-space at the Hasbro exhibit, which suggests that it is indeed Hasbro's biggest product line now in this country.

The other section of the Transformers display.  The Marvel Transformers and Star Wars Transformers were displayed with their respective toylines.

First half of 2010 - red packed Movie line continues.
Second half of 2010 - yellow packed Movie line, red packed gimmick figures, Powercore Combiners, Generations, and Speed Stars. (August in America, Jun/Jul in Australia)

Mid year sees a big change in packaging styles for TFs and SW (their biggest two lines at the moment).
Animated - no more new figures to be released here. No Arcee or Ratchet either.
Human Alliance - still a Kmart exclusive, and they are still committed to the line. But - only releasing 3 mid year and 3 at the end of the year, probably to make them look like a range/variety of figures, instead of one at a time.
Recon Ravage (the mailaway one) will be released here at ToysRUs next month.
MP Grimlock will also be a TRU exclusive here.
TF2 Robot Replicas definitly not being released here.
80% increase in sales for TFs during 2009 ($40mil - $23mil of that while the movie was in theatres), compared to 2008($17mil) and 2007 ($17mil).

TF-ROTF (red packaging) - until mid year.

Nothing on display that hasn't been released here, or should be (Bludgeon and Ironhide).  The Rep assured me that those two should eventually appear here, but was suprised to hear that the wave was (unintentionally) skipped (during the usual post-Christmas drought here).
The 2 masks at the bottom will be directly released by Hasbro, as opposed to their usual procedure of selling a license for someone else to produce.

Transformers (yellow packaging) - starts mid year with 'Hunt for Decepticons' promo.
Selected packages (only the regular toys, not the gimmick toys) having special access codes (need 3 codes) to an online game at the Hasbro website (should go live 1st July, with product on shelves late June).

Legends - Ravage, Fireblast Optimus (redeco), Cyberfire Bumblebee (redeco), Rampage.
Scouts - Hubcap (red car), Brimstone (blue motorcycle), Crankstart (military vehicle - redeco), Backfire (red motorcycle - redeco).

 

Deluxe - Sea Attack Ravage (redeco), Jetblade (redeco), Ironhide (new), Battle Blade Bumblebee (looks to be new).

Voyager - Night Ops Ratchet (redeco), Seaspray (new), Payload (redeco).

Leader - (Battle Hooks) Optimus (remould), Starscream (new).

'Super' - Battle Ops Bumblebee (apparently a Sept release)

 

Transformers Generations - starts mid year.
All Deluxe class (at least to begin with).
Small sub-line for non-movie characters.

War for Cybertron Optimus (new)
War for Cybertron Bumblebee (new)
Autobot Drift (new)
Thrust (remould)

 

Powercore Combiners - starts mid-year.
A new, small sub-line, that doesn't yet appear to have any supporting media planned, to help market it.
The line centres around 'Commander' figures, packed in either a 2-pack with a 'Minicon', or a 5-pack with 4 'Drones'.
Fore an idea of what they will be priced at here - 2-packs are US$10 (old price of Deluxe class), 5-packs are US$20 (current price of Voyagers).

Commander figures.
- About Scout sized.
- Have 3 modes. A robot mode, a vehicle mode, and a Powerup mode (becomes the core figure of a combiner).
- Each has universal fist holes (for Minicons) and limb posts on the arms and legs (for Drones) to form a combiner (the Powerup mode).
- Each has a second head for the Powerup Combined mode, and very minimal transformation to become the core figure.

Minicons.
- About Legends size.
- All appear to be made mostly of transparent plastic.
- Don't have vehicle modes.
- They have 4 modes. A robot mode and three different weapons modes (one for the Commander's vehicle mode, one for the Commander's robot mode, one for the Commander's Powerup mode). (that last mode is conjectural, as details are sketchy on what that mode is or does)
(similar concept to Targetmasters)
- Have their own names and are sentient.

Drones.
- About Legends size.
- Don't have robot modes.
- They have 2 modes. A vehicle mode and a Powerup Limb mode. They are just limb attachments to the Commander figures (plugging in Drone auto-converts it into the Limb mode)
(similar concept to the Drones for Energon Optimus)
- No individual names. Probably not even sentient, so not sure who controls them if different Commanders can use them.
 

2-packs
Searchlight (blue helicopter) w/ Backwind (green)
Huffer (yellow truck) w/ Caliburst (blue)
Smolder (red fire rescue) w/ Chopster (orange)

5-packs
Skyburst (grey stealth fighter) w/ Aerialbots (2 helicopters, 2 planes)
Bombshock (green cannon-truck) w/ Combaticons (4 military vehicles)

 

Transformers (red packaging) - starts mid year without HfD promo.

Activators - Optimus, Bumblebee, Megatron.

Power Bots - Stealth Bumblebee, Optimus.

 

Speed Stars (new name for RPMs, and is being used by both Transformers and Star Wars)
Covers 'Action Fleet', 'Lights and Sounds', 'Battle Chargers' and 'Stealth Force'.
Grey packaging - not part of 'Hunt for Decepticons',

Lights & Sounds (non-convertable electronic vehicles - apparently for NZ only, not AUS)
Basic - Optimus, Bumblebee.
Deluxe - Bumblebee.

Stealth Force (no robot mode - flip open battle mode)
Basic - small, manual conversion both ways.
Deluxe - larger, auto conversion to battle mode.
'Big' - even larger, electronic lights and phrases, with auto conversion both ways. RRP AU$50

'Big' - Optimus Prime (note mock-up packaging says RPMs, and is likely to be the different, grey packaging of Speed Stars - also note that this is an unpainted prototype)

 

.

Deluxe - (movie) Megatron, (movie) Gears(?). (note the ring-pull at the back - you pull that to 'manually' revert it back to vehicle mode)

Basic - (movie) Bumblebee, (universe/Gen1) Hound, (Animated) Soundwave, (movie) Sideswipe. (all unpainted prototypes)

 

Action Fleet - new name for Minivehicles.
If we are lucky, we could see these cheaper soon at some Retailers.
(variety of figures displayed, including quite a few redecos and the new Jetfire and Soundwave)

Bumblebee Battle Track Set. (note that the box is the RPMs version, and will be completely different when released, as seen at the US Toyfair)

Battlechargers - Optimus, Megatron, Stealth Bumblebee.

 
 

Star Wars Transformers - new packaging starts mid year, to match the new black Star Wars packaging (see very rough mock up in second photo).
Nothing unreleased was shown.
.
 

Marvel Transformers (still pushing it to retailers, despite only being able to move the first 2 waves of the line in this country)
Captain America, Hulk, Wolverine (black), Spiderman (car), Human Torch, Spiderman (dark motorcycle).

Merchandise display at the Hasbro exhibit.
None of the items not already released here is is to be expected here - this was just a display to encourage retailers to seek out product from licensed merchandise suppliers as well.

I don't think these watches have been released in this country, but thought they looked good enough for a closeup.

 

One of the major licensed merchandise distributors is Ikon Collectables.
Target have been a big stockist of their Transformers items.
Unfortunately, there didn't appear to be anything on display for this year that wasn't already available last year for the TF2 Movie.

 

I did find this 'new' item in their exhibit exhibit though - they are called Bad Taste Bears, and one was Transformers Themed..

Apparently they've been out for a while, but don't expect to find them in the major retailers.

 

Before we left, Dispensor thought he could drum up some Retailer support for his inclusion in future releases in this country. Maybe.

He then went off and raided the Lego exhibit, and I was promptly told off by one of the Lego reps for having a competing product at their reception desk for Retailers to see...

Two and a half days later, Toyfair was all wrapped up.
Transformers was the main focus, but there will be other Toyfair reports posted up as soon as I can get the time to finish them.

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