Just Ordered Grotusque from Toys "R" Us

[Zobovor]

I put a link to the Grotusque page in my favorites and I've been dutifully checking it every single day. Today that beautiful "add to cart" button was a bright, majestic orange color and you'd better believe I clicked it like a madman. Only one per customer! Because, you know, they only have seven thousand of them for sale!

Paid $24.99 plus $5.99 shipping and $1.77 sales tax. They do offer free shipping if you order more than $29 but I was too excited to care. So, my total was $32.75. Which seems like a lot for a Deluxe toy, but it's also a hell of a lot less than the $125 people were selling him for online a month ago.

I'll probably get him around the 15th or so (I could have paid more for expedited shipping, but whatever).

What's kind of funny is I started trolling their web site a few days ago. People have been asking questions for weeks like "when is this item going to be available to order?" and all the questions are posted on the product page. Consumers can add their own answers and I put something like, "When pigs fly. Or, maybe when saber-toothed tigers fly."

Of course, they removed it, but recently they actually put the answer back on the page. Probably because they knew they were getting ready to sell it soon, so they decided to troll me right back. Well played, Geoffrey. Well played.


Zob (never been this excited about a Monsterbot before in my life)

[Zobovor]

Oh, sorry. Here's a link:

https://www.toysrus.com/product?productId=D9762B4D

[banzait...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 12:26:25 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> Oh, sorry. Here's a link:
>
> https://www.toysrus.com/product?productId=D9762B4D

Thank You!!!! Got one. I've kinda given up the last couple of weeks, on checking maybe once every few days.

-Banzaitron

[MWG]

It figures that I would have just ordered the Prime Masters that were on Amazon for normal price and free shipping for Prime members last night (just the Cloudburst and Skullgrin ones, already have two Metalhawks from last time they were there for under $10 each). Metalhawk was "add-on" for orders over $25. Needed something to push my TRU.com order over $30 so I guess I'll live with another Skullgrin. It is nice that Grotusque is finally becoming available at normal price again. Apparently Hasbrotoyshop's e-bay store is putting Arcee back up also, maybe these are some TRU.com couldn't sell (I think they still have her on that site).

[brianj...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 1:26:25 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> Oh, sorry. Here's a link:
>
> https://www.toysrus.com/product?productId=D9762B4D

Ordered! Thank you!

Titans Return has me feeling like I'm in G2/Beast Wars all over again - want to get every single one!

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 12:02:34 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

There's something wrong with me, I want it but $30 seems like too much, when it's $100+ online

[banzait...@gmail.com]

There’s nothing wrong with you. This toy is no bargain. The $5.99 shipping is pretty outrageous. Charging ANYTHING for shipping is so 2009.
With that said, HURRY UP AND BUY IT BEFORE IT SELLS OUT!!!!

-Banzaitron

[No One In Particular]

Ordered it this morning while was at work on overtime. :) I saw it
mentioned on Facebook that it was live. I had about given up; I was
down to checking maybe once or twice a week. I figured they had changed
their minds and weren't going to sell it.

What they would have done with the stock would then be a mystery though..

Brian

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 5:46:22 PM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> There's something wrong with me, I want it but $30 seems like too much, when
> it's $100+ online

Considering we all paid around $15 for Twinferno, $30 is definitely too much for what amounts to the same toy in different colors and a new head.

You could always sell off the Scorponok head that comes with him, and probably make back at least half what you paid for him.


Zob (wonders if this is how it's going to be with HasCon every single year)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

Question: what the hell are we supposed to do with a Scorponock head? And why isn't his name lord zarack for christs sake? No way someone trademarked that....

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 8:42:21 PM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> Question: what the hell are we supposed to do with a Scorponok head? And
> why isn't his name lord zarak for christs sake? No way someone trademarked
> that....

Well, what are you supposed to do with a Thunderwing head? Or a Rodimus head, or an Ultra Magnus head? They all look kind of doofy when attached to any of the Titans Return bodies (except the Rodimus head on the Hot Rod body, natch).

As for his head, I'm sure it's "really" Lord Zarak in the same way that Arcee's head is "really" Daniel. They're probably just trying to be consistent, because not every existing character has a Nebulon partner. When a head is sold by itself, it seems to always be referred to as the character whose head it turns into (in other words, Nightbeat, Fangry, and Apeface were not sold under the names Muzzle, Brisko, or Spasma).

Curiously, there was a Dungeons & Dragons character from 1983 named Zarak. He was an Orc assassin, and he got an action figure and appeared in the opening titles of the cartoon series. I know at least one other Nebulan name was an allusion to pop culture (Gort got his name from The Day the Earth Stood Still) so maybe somebody at Hasbro was a D&D fan?


Zob (might explain Grimlock's name, too)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Or I could add on a Titan Master for $7 to get free shipping.

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 3:47:16 PM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:

> Titans Return has me feeling like I'm in G2/Beast Wars all over again - want
> to get every single one!

"Gotta catch 'em all!" as Beast Machines Jetstorm would say. (No, he wasn't quoting something else. I have no idea what you're talking about. Pika.)

I feel the same way. I got out of the completist mentality many years ago and no longer feel compelled to buy every Transformers toy that exists. Just the ones I want to own. Which works out to have been the entire Titans Return assortment. I ignored the movie toys completely this year, which was partly out of a sincere lack of desire for them, but it also worked out nicely because it freed up funding for all the other retail releases I got.

I think Power of the Primes is going to be a very interesting toy line, since based on what Hasbro designer John Warden has suggested, it's shaping up to be a family reunion that's going to have toys incorporating gimmicks from Combiner Wars and Titans Return in addition to the Prime Master gimmick. He's hinted very strongly that Apeface and Snapdragon are coming, and he's also said that since they already designed the Headmaster technology that they would continue to use it even though Titans Return is ending. We also know they're working on Scorponok. So, put all that together and there's no reason to think that these characters won't still be Headmasters. And, of course, we already know the Combiner Wars style toys are coming back.

If Power of the Primes is phase three in a planned trilogy, then I really wonder what they have in store for us afterwards.


Zob (my list of characters that desperately need to be updated, it just gets smaller and smaller)

[brianj...@gmail.com]

>
> If Power of the Primes is phase three in a planned trilogy, then I really wonder what they have in store for us afterwards.
>
>
> Zob (my list of characters that desperately need to be updated, it just gets smaller and smaller)

Just a quick thought provoking question. Once your "list of characters that desperately need to be updated" is done...what next?

I've noticed that you and I have pretty similar viewpoints on which characters actually matter to us. Simplified, I care about G1 (US), G2, and Beast Wars. I'm also got some love for some of the Japanese releases (Stepper, Artfire, the W Cassettebots, Beast Wars II, etc) and some Neo-G1 (Tigertrack, Slash, Tap-out, and Police Sunstreaker will be amazing).

So that being said, once your itch for an updated Pipes, Nightbeat, Pretenders, Micromasters, Action Masters, Laser Rods, etc is fulfilled, what are you going to do?

Be happy that your collection is complete? Seeks out even newer and more much more better versions? Try to be more accepting of RID or Animated or movie-verse?

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do. Collecting these newer versions of characters I collected as a kid or loved reading about in Marvel Comics has made me feel like that same kid all over again and it has been amazing. But we are coming closer to a point where I never imagined we would be, re-doing all of the toys I wanted to the standard I want them. Titans Return Triggerhappy, Misfire, and Slugslinger are near perfect. What would it take for me to want to buy these characters again? 27 years later Krok now has a transformation that makes sense - what more could we ask for?

Went a little deeper there than I thought I would, so to end on a high note..

When I started to fall out of Transformers is 1987/1988, there was no way I could have ever imagined finally getting to own Jazz in G2, loving Beast Wars, going to BotCon, watching the CHUG line develop, reading articles that solve mysteries from over 30 years ago, or letting my kids play with Masterpiece Inferno that they got me for Christmas last year. So, I guess anything is possible!

[Zobovor]

On Sunday, January 7, 2018 at 12:15:53 PM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:

> Just a quick thought provoking question. Once your "list of characters that
> desperately need to be updated" is done...what next?

I don't really know, to be honest. It kind of depends on what Hasbro decides to do. They'll continue to sell Transformers as long as it's profitable, but there will come a time when the G1 fans have aged out of collecting, and focusing on G1 updates won't make sense any longer from a financial perspective.

I think their current model makes sense because it does kind of encourage collectors to double-dip to some extent. You already have a Generations Wheeljack, but do you have one that can combine? You already own a Generations Hot Rod, but do you have one that's a Headmaster?

(I had honestly thought that when they ventured into Pretenders, they would do the characters that we all expected [Skullgrin, Landmine, and so on] but also do Pretender versions of Optimus Prime, Megatron, Soundwave, etc. which we've never gotten before. They seem to be sticking to doing only 1988-89 characters, which surprises me, because they didn't stick to just Scramble City characters for Combiner Wars and didn't stick to 1987 characters for Titans Return.)

Back to your question, though, either Hasbro will continue to produce toys I like and want to own, or they won't. Maybe they'll discover a burgeoning revived interest in Armada and we'll get all these new versions of Hot Shot and Demolishor. That's theoretically possible. If they give up on G1 and focus on other things, then I'll probably go back to mostly ignoring the retail releases, which is kind of where I was at during Energon, Cybertron, etc.

I used to be an avid Star Wars collector. It's not that I'm not a fan any longer; it's that they aren't really producing action figures of the characters from the original films any longer. And, really, they covered the original trilogy so extensively. I probably have over a dozen Darth Vader action figures, and he's a guy who never even underwent a costume change. I have one with a light-up lightsaber, one where the helmet comes off, one with a metal lightsaber grip and a magnet in his hand, one made of translucent blue plastic so you can see his skeleton... how many do I really need? Then there are the characters who, realistically, only need one action figure. They don't need to revisit the Ice Cream Maker Guy or Jek "No, I'm All Right... AAARGHHH!" Porkins ever again.

My tastes have gotten really extravagant as I've gotten older, too. Masterpiece toys are expensive. If I'm not gobbling up domestic retail releases, I'll probably have a lot more disposable income to get, for example, the Masterpiece versions of Ramjet and Thrust and Dirge, who were exclusives with a limited run and are much more expensive even than "regular" Masterpiece toys.

Also... and this is just a personal thing, but I try to divide my time between being a consumer and being a creator. I like producing creative works. I write novels and I build custom action figures (got a whole shelf full of monsters from Final Fantasy IV now!) and sometimes I even work on becoming a published comic strip artist. I don't look down on anybody else, but I don't want to be just a consumer the rest of my life. I don't want to be constantly giving my money to other people who created something for me to enjoy. That definitely has its place, but sometimes I want to be the guy that people give money to because *I* created something for *them* to enjoy.

I love writing episode reviews and toy reviews. If I didn't like doing it, I wouldn't do it. But it does take time away from my creative endeavors. Maybe if I wasn't constantly feeding the merchandising machine, I'd be drawing and painting and sculpting all day. Producing things instead of consuming them. What would THAT be like?


Zob (it's what I did as a teenager, back when I was broke all the time... well, that and play video games)

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Sunday, January 7, 2018 at 1:51:29 PM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:
> On Sunday, January 7, 2018 at 12:15:53 PM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > Just a quick thought provoking question. Once your "list of characters that
> > desperately need to be updated" is done...what next?
>

> (I had honestly thought that when they ventured into Pretenders, they would do the characters that we all expected [Skullgrin, Landmine, and so on] but also do Pretender versions of Optimus Prime, Megatron, Soundwave, etc. which we've never gotten before. They seem to be sticking to doing only 1988-89 characters, which surprises me, because they didn't stick to just Scramble City characters for Combiner Wars and didn't stick to 1987 characters for Titans Return.)

I'm not convinced that Prime Masters are the end of the Pretenders. I think there will be a few years before they return to them, but we will get something a bit more like the originals.

I am now the proud owner of Metalhawk, Skullgrin and Cloudburst, along with their little Prime Master infestations, and they are surprisingly fun. I do wish the symbols for the Prime Masters were more a bit more face like, as Vector Prime has a weird thing.

Leige Maximo makes a hysterical Headmaster though.

> Back to your question, though, either Hasbro will continue to produce toys I like and want to own, or they won't. Maybe they'll discover a burgeoning revived interest in Armada and we'll get all these new versions of Hot Shot and Demolishor. That's theoretically possible. If they give up on G1 and focus on other things, then I'll probably go back to mostly ignoring the retail releases, which is kind of where I was at during Energon, Cybertron, etc.

I'm not sure I woudl want to see modern versions of Armada toys, actually. Part of what made them special was a return to G1 inarticulation.

> I used to be an avid Star Wars collector. It's not that I'm not a fan any longer; it's that they aren't really producing action figures of the characters from the original films any longer. And, really, they covered the original trilogy so extensively. I probably have over a dozen Darth Vader action figures, and he's a guy who never even underwent a costume change.

This is a lie! Look at Vader in A New Hope, and then look at him in Empire -- its a very different costume. In Rogue One, they went out of their way to recreate the shitty version, and that is one of the nicest things about the movie.

> My tastes have gotten really extravagant as I've gotten older, too. Masterpiece toys are expensive. If I'm not gobbling up domestic retail releases, I'll probably have a lot more disposable income to get, for example, the Masterpiece versions of Ramjet and Thrust and Dirge, who were exclusives with a limited run and are much more expensive even than "regular" Masterpiece toys.

So, when you have Masterpiece Screwloose, does plain old Generations Screwloose seem redundant?

They are never going to make a better Inferno than Masterpiece Inferno. Universe 2.0 Inferno was a great toy, but he's nothing like the original. The upcoming PotP Inferno will just be a redeco of another toy... is he at all appealing?

I'm torn... PotP Inferno doesn't quite bring enough to the table, but I might need another CW Core, so maybe, even though he seems lacking. But I would rather he was a RID Optimus Prime homage, even if he was a weak one.

> Also... and this is just a personal thing, but I try to divide my time between being a consumer and being a creator. I like producing creative works. I write novels and I build custom action figures (got a whole shelf full of monsters from Final Fantasy IV now!) and sometimes I even work on becoming a published comic strip artist. I don't look down on anybody else, but I don't want to be just a consumer the rest of my life. I don't want to be constantly giving my money to other people who created something for me to enjoy. That definitely has its place, but sometimes I want to be the guy that people give money to because *I* created something for *them* to enjoy.

So, I think that is two different desires right there -- the desire to create, and the desire to have your creations recognized and paid for. The second seems to legitimize the first, and make it not just play.

That first desire is why I like the occasional random redeco with no backstory or a minimal backstory -- it's an opportunity to create a character in the existing universe, and have a physical thing to represent it.

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Sunday, January 7, 2018 at 10:19:10 AM UTC-8, Zobovor wrote:
> On Saturday, January 6, 2018 at 3:47:16 PM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> > Titans Return has me feeling like I'm in G2/Beast Wars all over again - want
> > to get every single one!
>
> "Gotta catch 'em all!" as Beast Machines Jetstorm would say. (No, he wasn't quoting something else. I have no idea what you're talking about. Pika.)
>
> I feel the same way. I got out of the completist mentality many years ago and no longer feel compelled to buy every Transformers toy that exists. Just the ones I want to own. Which works out to have been the entire Titans Return assortment. I ignored the movie toys completely this year, which was partly out of a sincere lack of desire for them, but it also worked out nicely because it freed up funding for all the other retail releases I got.

I haven't bothered to buy any of the movie toys that haven't crossed my path, and even a fair number that have. Do I need or want the dopey little scooter guy? No.

Not quite sure I need Grotesque either -- but him I would buy if I saw him in a store.

> I think Power of the Primes is going to be a very interesting toy line, since based on what Hasbro designer John Warden has suggested, it's shaping up to be a family reunion that's going to have toys incorporating gimmicks from Combiner Wars and Titans Return in addition to the Prime Master gimmick.

It's a weird grab bag so far, I think. A return a Combiner Wars with Leader class toys that actually fit into the play pattern at least slightly, unlike CW Megatron (a fine, non-combining toy). Plus the Prime Masters.

I don't love Starscream. I don't know if I even like Starscream. He's not great, he has crappy stickers, and his toy is weirdly schizophrenic in it's influences. Plus, a rather ugly Enigma Block that makes no sense.

> He's hinted very strongly that Apeface and Snapdragon are coming, and he's also said that since they already designed the Headmaster technology that they would continue to use it even though Titans Return is ending. We also know they're working on Scorponok. So, put all that together and there's no reason to think that these characters won't still be Headmasters.

> If Power of the Primes is phase three in a planned trilogy, then I really wonder what they have in store for us afterwards.

I really have a hard time believing that this line was planned. It seems more like a "Oh, that was successful, let's do that again" thing.

> Zob (my list of characters that desperately need to be updated, it just gets smaller and smaller)

Until we get the Skuxxoid my list will not be done.

[banzait...@gmail.com]

Just got notified that mine shipped!

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 5:35:21 PM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> Just got notified that mine shipped!

Me too! Now it's a race between two realistic flying sabertoothed tigers to see who gets there first...


Zob

[banzait...@gmail.com]

Ha! Unless it’s like their previous emails saying “YOUR ITEM IS NOW IN STOCK!!!!” Our grotesques probably haven’t even been manufactured yet. Sigh...

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 12:29:51 AM UTC-7, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> I'm not convinced that Prime Masters are the end of the Pretenders. I think
> there will be a few years before they return to them, but we will get
> something a bit more like the originals.

I hope you're right. I really do. Maybe Hasbro is testing the waters with small versions of the characters to see if there's a demand for them. Or, maybe it's part of their diabolical plan to deliberately produce "wrong" versions of the characters, so the fandom can protest in vocal outrage (while still buying the "wrong" versions, of course) until Hasbro finally capitulates and produces full-scale Pretenders, at which point there will be much rejoicing (and we'll all buy the "corrected" versions, of course).

> I am now the proud owner of Metalhawk, Skullgrin and Cloudburst, along with
> their little Prime Master infestations, and they are surprisingly fun.

Generally speaking, it bothers me when new versions of characters are a radically different size than their G1 counterparts. For instance, it bothered me a lot how gigantic the Ultra-class Powerglide was. However, it occurs to me that gigantic Pretenders makes zero sense. It's not much of a disguise if the so-called "humans" are 20 feet tall. So, maybe that was the thought process.

> I'm not sure I would want to see modern versions of Armada toys, actually.

> Part of what made them special was a return to G1 inarticulation.

With so many people modding the toys to give them more articulation, I wonder if you're not in the minority on that one.

> This is a lie! Look at Vader in A New Hope, and then look at him in
> Empire -- its a very different costume. In Rogue One, they went out of
> their way to recreate the shitty version, and that is one of the nicest
> things about the movie.

You're such a nerd for even knowing that.

Okay, yes, technically very minor costume differences. The colors of the lights on his control panel, whether or not his robes go inside or outside his chest armor, etc. And they gave him huge shoulder pads in Revenge of the Sith because Hayden Christensen insisted on wearing the suit, but he didn't have the physique to pull it off. However. The point I was trying to make was that all my action figures of Darth Vader look the same, more or less.

> So, when you have Masterpiece Screwloose, does plain old Generations
> Screwloose seem redundant?

I love you for adopting my terminology.

I kind of feel like the Generations toys and Masterpiece toys fill a different role in my collection. My goal is to see as many G1 characters as possible to get the Generations treatment. All four-hundred-and-sixty-something of them. I want them to duplicate G1 only with ball joints. Masterpiece is very different. We're never going to get Masterpiece toys of Backstreet, Dogfight, Octopunch, etc. and that's fine. Masterpiece is high-end collectible versions of the characters. They go on a shelf, not in a box.

> They are never going to make a better Inferno than Masterpiece Inferno.
> Universe 2.0 Inferno was a great toy, but he's nothing like the original. The
> upcoming PotP Inferno will just be a redeco of another toy... is he at all
> appealing?

I don't know that I would ever be able to see that toy as anything but a wrong-colored Hot Spot. (Hmm, wait. Maybe Hasbro is trying to sneak a G2 Hot Spot under the radar. If it were G2 Hot Spot, I would definitely be interested...)

> So, I think that is two different desires right there -- the desire to
> create, and the desire to have your creations recognized and paid for. The
> second seems to legitimize the first, and make it not just play.

You're right; I was conflating two separate and distinct motivations. The point is that while I certainly don't mind being a consumer, I can't do it exclusively. The more time I spend doing it, the more I find myself wishing I was creating my own works. I have to be really, really interested in a movie to watch it, or in a TV show to actually sit through it. Most of the time, it just feels like a waste of hours and hours. But that's me.


Zob (and even when I binge-watched The Walking Dead, it was still time spent productively because I cleaned all the dust off my G1 reissues with a wet Q-Tip)

[Optim_1]

On Monday, 8 January 2018 02:29:51 UTC-5, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

>
> They are never going to make a better Inferno than Masterpiece Inferno. Universe 2.0 Inferno was a great toy, but he's nothing like the original. The upcoming PotP Inferno will just be a redeco of another toy... is he at all appealing?
>

They could do a realistic fire truck mode (preferably the Mitsubishi Fuso F-Series FT that the G1 Inferno was supposed to be based on) and try to transform that to a cartoon accurate robot mode.

[Optim_1]

On Sunday, 7 January 2018 00:33:53 UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:

>
>
> Zob (might explain Grimlock's name, too)

Please don't be so cryptic! I know nothing about D&D. How did Grimlock get his name?

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at 9:53:25 PM UTC-7, Optim_1 wrote:

> Please don't be so cryptic! I know nothing about D&D. How did Grimlock get his
> name?

I'm just suggesting that Grimlock the Dinobot might have gotten his name from Grimlock the D&D monster. The name itself really doesn't mean anything, and Dungeons & Dragons is the only time I've ever seen the name used in any context besides Transformers.


Zob

[Zobovor]

On Monday, January 8, 2018 at 5:52:38 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:

> Me too! Now it's a race between two realistic flying sabertoothed tigers
> to see who gets there first...

Got mine today!


Zob (he's suspiciously Twinfernoesque, but I love him!)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

Same! It's funny how boring the box is from the outside, but so incredibly well done once you open it. I *almost* don't want to open him. It seems to go against everything they probably teach you in evil product marketing school.

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Friday, January 12, 2018 at 5:58:42 PM UTC-7, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> It seems to go against everything they probably teach you in evil product
> marketing school.

Yeah. "Make the box as bland and boring as possible! Don't let the customers see the full-color artwork until they've already made a purchase!"


Zob ("...and don't you dare put the character's name on the box!")

[brianj...@gmail.com]

Got him! Worth every bit of the extra money to get him.

Power of the Primes Repugnus next?

[Zobovor]

On Friday, January 12, 2018 at 7:55:17 PM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:

> Power of the Primes Repugnus next?

Sure, why not?


Zob (preferably not another Twinferno remold)

[brianj...@gmail.com]

Leaked this morning, that was quick!

Terrorcon remold?
Squeezeplay premold?
Grotusque remold?

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 2:43:11 PM UTC-7, brianj...@gmail.com wrote:

> Leaked this morning, that was quick!

Ask, and you shall receive, as Prowl once said. (No, he wasn't quoting anything else. I don't know what you're talking about.)

> Terrorcon remold?
> Squeezeplay premold?
> Grotusque remold?

I don't particularly want another Twinferno/Grotusque remold... however, I will begrudgingly admit that the mold would work. Like Grotusque, he's a bipedal monster, and they could even keep the wings since he's supposed to be a bug (that weird backpack on the G1 toy is supposed to be wings, I think). All they would really have to do is change the monster head again, and swap the Grotusque paws for preying mantis claws.

With that said, I like your Squeezeplay idea, too. Using one toy to represent both characters could use the same-shaped creature head (maybe just swap out the face, so Repugnus could have the insect mandibles) and maybe even the same creature claws.


Zob (really, anything would be good as long as he's a Deluxe like the others)

[Zobovor]

<snip>

I was going to report back here when Grotusque finally sold out, but it's been nearly a month and he's still in stock. I guess Arcee was in significantly higher demand.


Zob (for at least four reasons, probably, and two of those reasons are boobs)

[Zobovor]

On Friday, February 2, 2018 at 8:22:42 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:

> I was going to report back here when Grotusque finally sold out, but it's been
> nearly a month and he's still in stock.

He's still orderable. Now, it's going to become a race to see which happens first: the remaining Grotusque selling through, or Toys "R" Us going belly-up.


Zob (suspects we may start seeing Grotusque toys at Ross stores for pennies on the dollar)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Arcee available too, though they did briefly have a message up on Thursday saying the website was shut down permanently, but it came back. so they are obviously gearing for that.

[David Connell]

It's back. You can click though and even pull up product pages, but clicking "Add to Cart" just brings up the original "website closed" message.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Add to cart worked fine yesterday... darn.Wish they would keep the website open. Heck, the website could remain open another year or so if they wanted.