News Roundup: Toy Fair News Part 1: Takara and Wonder Festival 2019, covering two trucks and two bugs.

Well, time for me to burn through my free time trying to keep up with an event happening in a different timezone when most of the new info comes out when I'm asleep. Hurray for trade shows... While most of the new posts coming here are going to be focused on the New York Toy Fair. I figured I might as well quickly cover what happened recently when Takara showed off some new product over at Wonder Festival. For those wanting views on items like Commander Class Jetfire, I'll cover him when I cover the other Siege news from NYTF.

Transformers Titans Return Deluxe Class Hot Rod and War For Cybertron Siege Battlemaster Firedrive: Transforming guns? Well it worked for Megatron

And it's also far easier to justify making toys of because it's hard to confuse these with real guns.
 
So, we've gotten heads that plug into vehicles to become guns, little humanoid robots that lay on their stomachs to become guns, third time's the charm, and Hasbro's finally giving us actual Targetmasters, now branded as Battlemasters because, as you'll see in a few weeks, guns aren't the only weapons being released. I want to try something different this time though, as a way of covering more of these little guys when compared to the Prime Masters. Each Battlemaster will be paired with a review of a larger figure that makes some kind of sense, at least when possible. While some like Pteraxadon are going to be a stretch, the Targetmasters are pretty easy, reviewing them with the characters they originally came with back in Generation 1, and because Firedrive (originally known as Firebolt) came with a re-release of Generation 1 Hot Rod, Titans Return Hot Rod will be the bot he's paired with, mainly for two reasons.

Transformers War for Cybertron; Siege Deluxe Class Skytread: He's like a baby Overlord... only a bit less evil

I say a bit less evil because he's still a Decepticon.

At last, let the Siege begin. A new line, no combiner sacrifices, longer transformation instructions, and a simple gimmick to not interfere with the toys, unless you're not a fan of them not having a lot more holes in them than normal. Welcome to the War for Cybertron Trilogy, and what better way to start of Siege, then with the missing Duocon from Power of the Primes, now no longer needing split personality requirements to be sold as two toys. Skytread, the new, and honestly far more fitting name for Flywheels. There's no Sky high and Tank tread (you try thinking of something better...), new character obligations here though, unlike his partner in split fashion sense, Battletrap though, so how well does this Duocon go as just a Duocon?

Transformers Titans Return Brawn and Power of the Primes Outback: Political views of the day not included

It's rare that I can write these to coincide with something, either due to distribution, or the rapid turnover I'd have to do in order for it to work. It's the reason why the two sites adopt a "When we get to it" policy. But every now and then, the stars align to allow Hailee's Commit to reveal the winning lottery numbers, allowing for good Australian internet, and I can do a perfectly timed review in some form. In this case, Australia Day, a public holiday here that I will gently side skirt the political is it's gotten for the sake of reviewing an Australian G1 Transformer, and the original release of the mold. Brawn and Outback... just be glad I'm not doing what I did for Talk Like a Pirate Day and that Lego Dimensions review...

Takara Legends Clonebot Set and Clonecon Set: Ahh, gotta love localized names

Allow me to take you to a place that some would describe as magical, for better or for worse. Where, in the case of Transformers, general retail gets extra paint applications, references are everywhere, and pack in Manga strips can sometimes step a little too close into the realm of Hentai... Welcome, to Japan, and the Takara Legends toy line. Takara Legends is the mainline release from Transformers R&D Partner, and original designers behind a good chunk of the G1 toys, TakaraTomy, their stand-in for the Generations line Hasbro uses as the blanket name for several sublines for around 4 years. Why do we go here instead of the usual Hasbro releases? Allow me to explain why with a brief history of today's review, the Autobot Clones, Fastlane and Cloudraker, and the Decepticon Clones, Pounce and Wingspan.

Transformers; Power of the Primes Leader Class Nemesis Prime: Everyone gets a black repaint!

So following on with our two week theme of the black repaints (kinda), let's look at the original black repaint of the Autobot leader, Nemesis Prime, another surprise of Power of the Primes, but not to the same extent as last week's Rodimus Unicronus was, because there have been many black repaints of Optimus Prime. For a full history of them, you can find them under one of the following names. Black Convoy, Scourge (not the one G1 fans remember), and Nemesis Prime. For now, though, we look at the one that western markets got during the Prime Wars Trilogy. While Japan got Grand Scourge during their version of Combiner Wars, the evil repaint of Optimus Prime was a no show during Combiner Wars and Titans Return. He was going to be a club exclusive during Combiner Wars, but due to Takara's Grand Scourge, was changed to be Toxitron instead, and the toy that inspired his incarnation in Robots in Disguise 2001, Generation 2 Laser Rod Optimus Prime, was the excuse base template for the release of Optimus Prime in Titans Return, using what would eventually be the Octone mould, and even getting a Laser Rod Prime release in one of the box sets. As a result of this oversight, he comes to us now, with an air of overcompensation.

I know this isn't the PotP artwork, it was the best I could find

Transformers; Power of the Primes Leader Class Rodimus Prime and Rodimus Unicronus: The hot head and his emo twin

It's rare that a new release gets a lot of surprises tied to it when it comes to Hasbro Transformers. A new Rodimus Prime in the mainline? Cool! It's been a while cause most of the time we just get Hot Rod. A Rodimus Prime that can also become Hot Rod while the Rodimus stuff becomes the trailer? Great! It's about time they managed to do something like that! A Rodimus toy that does all of that and gets a repaint into an obscure version of Rodimus from a spin-off comic that only die-hard Transformers fans know of, let alone have read... I'm sorry, what was that last one again?

Yes, in their commitment to getting the most out of a mould, not only did we get a Rodimus Prime, but we got a Rodimus Unicronus, facial hair and all. Who are they, you ask. The red one was intended to replace Optimus Prime in G1, but due to backlash from the 86 movie, that... didn't quite happen, so now he's the Autobot equivalent of Luigi, though at least people know who he is, it's more then I can say for characters like Star Saber and Thunderclash. Unicronus on the other hand... is a bit more complicated to explain. While I haven't read Shattered Glass, I have enough of a handle on it to be able to say this. Shattered Glass is the inverse reality. Autobots are evil, Decepticons are good, and this version of Hot Rod backstabbed Optimus, took the power of Unicron for himself, and basically became what Galvatron was in the original G1 show. Are there mistakes in that? Probably, you're better off reading the comics to find out the full details, we're here to review the plastic, so let's get to it after... 7 weeks?! Look, things were a bit chaotic this Christmas period, and not always for the best reasons.