Leaked Info About Power of the Primes (Even More Exciting Stuff)

[Zobovor]

Hoo boy. Apparently there was a HUGE amount of information leaked recently about Hasbro's plans for Power of the Primes. It was so huge, in fact, that Hasbro contacted all the major fan sites and asked them to take the images down. So, that pretty much cinches that they're for real.

I've poked around and found some of the pictures online (do a Google search for "Power of the Primes" and "leaked"). It's likely they were put together for the upcoming HasCon presentation. Some of the images were placeholders (animation models for characters, or pictures of the G1 toys, in place of the upcoming toy designs) but even just knowing what's coming is pretty exciting.

PRIME MASTERS

Wave 1 (shipping 12/1/2017)

MICRONUS PRIME with Autobot Cloudburst
LIEGE MAXIMO with Skullgrin
VECTOR PRIME with Metalhawk

[Zob's Notes: We've seen Skullgrin, of course, but Cloudburst and Metalhawk are exciting news.]

Wave 2 (shipping 4/1/2018)

ALCHEMIST PRIME with Submarauder
ALPHA TRION with Landmine

[Zob's Notes: I'm really liking the 1988 Pretender vibe. They really captured the essence of the characters, at least based on these tiny, grainy photos of somebody's computer screen.]

Wave 3 (shipping 7/1/2018)

QUINTUS PRIME with Bludgeon
MEGATRONUS with Bomb-Burst
SOLUS PRIME with Octo-Punch

[Zob's Notes: All three of these appear to be placeholder images, because those are photos of the G1 Pretenders, not new toys. They probably aren't far enough in the planning stages to be photo ready.)

LEGENDS

Wave 1 (shipping 12/1/2017)

Dinobot Slash
Windcharger
Skrapnel
Beachcomber

[Zob's Notes: Skrapnel appears to be a reship of the 2014 toy. Not sure about Windcharger. Haven't we gotten, like, two tiny Windchargers in the past few years? Do we really need another?]

Wave 2 (shipping 4/1/2018)

Battleslash
Roadtrap
Tailgate

[Zob's Notes: Although Battleslash and Roadtrap are separate toys with robot modes, based on their names and colors, they seem to be designed to combined into Battletrap, based on the G1 Duocon. Tailgate is a probable Windcharger remold.]

Wave 3 (shipping 7/1/2018)

Cindersaur
Outback

[Zob's Notes: Outback is shown as a photoshopped Brawn, but we get the idea. He'll likely have his own head and hopefully a remolded chest design.]

DELUXES

Wave 1 (no dates given)

Dinobot Slug (G1 Slag)
Dinobot Swoop
Dreadwind
Autobot Jazz

[Zob's Notes: Dude. Duuuuuuuude. Deluxe-class Combiner Wars Dinobots. I am SO THERE.]

Wave 2

Dinobot Snarl
Dinobot Sludge
Blackwing (G1 Darkwing)
Rippersnapper
Moonracer

[Zob's Notes: Yeah, we're getting Terrorcons, too. Didn't I tell you this was going to happen? Oh, and Moonracer is a thing.]

Wave 3:

Cutthroat
Blot
Sinnertwin
Jazz

[Zob's Notes: Terrorcons make me giddy.]

Wave 4

Novastar (G1 Firestar)
Blackwing
Slug
Rippersnapper

[Zob's Notes: They used Moonracer's vehicle mode and photoshopped it red for Firestar. The model for her vehicle mode hasn't turned up on the interwebs yet.]

VOYAGERS

Wave 1 (shipping 12/1/2017)

Grimlock
Starscream

[Zob's Notes: Grimlock is a Combiner Wars body. That's so awesome.]

Wave 2 (shipping 4/1/2018)

Hun-Gurr
Elita-1

[Zob's Notes: Uh, Elita-1 looks to be a jet. Like, a remold of Starscream. I'm so confused. Well, whatever. Did I mention that I came up with a combiner form for five of the female Autobots back in 1994? I called her Funesta Virgo. I'll have to cough up those drawings now.]

Wave 3 (shipping 7/1/2018)

Inferno
Grimlock

[Zob's Notes: Inferno is a redeco of Combiner Wars Hot Spot. Not sure how I feel about that. I guess he forms the body for the combiner that includes Jazz and friends.]

LEADER CLASS

Wave 1 (shipping 12/1/2017)

Optimus Prime
Rodimus Prime

Wave 2 (shipping 4/1/2018)

Optimus Prime
Rodimus Unicronus

[Zob's Notes: Rodimus Unicronus is a purple version of Rodimus. Yeah, I don't get it, either.]

Wave 3 (shipping 7/1/2018)

Optimus Primal
Rodimus Prime

[Zob's Notes: Optimus Primal is the Fan Vote toy. Images show a Deluxe-sized Primal from Beast Wars season one as well as an Optimal Optimus configuration. These are exciting times in which we live.]

TITAN CLASS PREDAKING (scheduled for "fall", probable 2018 release)

[Zob's Notes: All five Predacons will be Voyager-class toys, likely making Predaking comparable in size to Combiner Wars Devastator. I am SO STOKED.]

That's all. Discuss!


Zob (did I mention I was stoked?)

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 9:26:59 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

<snip>

So I've been parsing the data, trying to figure out which combiner teams will be intended to go together. Some are obvious and some are less so.

DINOBOTS

Grimlock (Voyager)
Slug (Deluxe)
Sludge (Deluxe)
Swoop (Deluxe)
Snarl (Deluxe)

There's also a Dinobot Slash coming, so maybe he will turn into a weapon for the combined form of the Dinobots.

TERRORCONS

Hun-Gurr (Voyager)
Rippersnapper (Deluxe)
Sinnertwin (Deluxe)
Blot (Deluxe)
Cutthroat (Deluxe)

Easy enough so far.

FEMALE AUTOBOTS

Elita One (Voyager)
Moonracer (Deluxe)
Firestar (Deluxe)
???
???

The logical candidate to finish off the team would be Chromia, but there were only four named female Autobots in "The Search for Alpha Trion" so we'd still need one more. Arcee is a prominent female Autobot, even though she isn't a part of that group. Beta is another, but she wasn't part of Elita's team, either. There are two background characters that the fandom has taken to calling Lancer and Greenlight, so maybe they would be a good choice.

DECEPTICONS

Starscream (Voyager)
Darkwing (Deluxe)
Dreadwind (Deluxe)
???
???

There may be a couple more Deluxes who haven't been unveiled yet. I can't really think of any good candidates from the 1988-89 days. Surely they wouldn't redeco Darkwing and Dreadwind as Buster and Hydra and expect us to use them to finish off the combiner team...

AUTOBOTS

Inferno (Voyager)
Jazz (Deluxe)
???
???
???

I am operating on the assumption that they're not going to pull a Combiner Wars Scattershot and sell us only a piece of a combiner team. It would make sense for them to be 1984-85 characters so the team could be somewhat unified. We could get a reuse of Combiner Wars Prowl as Bluestreak, perhaps. We didn't get a combiner version of Sideswipe yet. It's really hard to say what they're planning.

So, while all this news is super exciting, I think there may be surprises that have yet to be revealed. There need to be more toys to flesh out the complete combiner team sets.


Zob (also, no word about Monstructor yet...)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Boo, all that's left on google is some tiny blurry thumbnails leading to nothing.

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 11:23:39 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> Boo, all that's left on google is some tiny blurry thumbnails leading to
> nothing.

Don't say I never did nothin' for ya:

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/ylvz4dm73f6n1/Pictures


Zob (still stoked)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

The dinobots look quite interesting.

Elita one looks like a retool of Starscream possibly?

I'm probably going to pass on Darkwing/Dreadwind, the originals were just so much bigger.

I like all of the mini pretender shells. It's obvious by some of the pairings that many of these prime's are going to be evil, and that they have faces like Rorschach. I didn't care too much for Pretenders the first time around, but tiny ones look like much more fun. We've got 3 Autobots and 5 Decepticons. I actually hope there will be more.

Don't need another Jazz, I passed on all the other CW G1 cars that weren't intended to be combiners, and this seems like a straggler from that lot.

3 combiners I'm going to end up getting as it is, Dinobots, Terrorcons, and Female Autobots. One of the pieces could be yet another Windblade, as if they haven't come out with enough recently.

I wonder which Optimus this new one is based on. I'm divided on Rodimus.

Hungrrr's pics seem to be of his G1 toy

Rodimus Unicronus is using a cartoon pic color swapped purple. If it was a repaint of the first wave, why wouldn't they palette swap that stock photo instead of getting a cartoon photo?

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 7:40:43 AM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> The dinobots look quite interesting.

I'm really excited about them. And I'm so glad that the characters are finally being addressed.

> Elita one looks like a retool of Starscream possibly?

She kind of does, yeah. I'm not sure I understand the logic.

> I'm probably going to pass on Darkwing/Dreadwind, the originals were just so
> much bigger.

Marvel Comics (especially the later issues) introduced the idea that all the Transformers are pretty much the same size in robot mode. Thunderwing, Powermaster Optimus Prime, Scorponok, Nightbeat... all the same height. So, I'm not wholly against the idea of Darkwing and Dreadwind as Deluxe-class toys. I really do feel like Deluxe is the best size for G1 homage toys.

> I didn't care too much for Pretenders the first time around, but tiny ones
> look like much more fun. We've got 3 Autobots and 5 Decepticons. I actually
> hope there will be more.

There are lots of characters to choose from. I imagine a few of them will be redeco versions of each other.

> Don't need another Jazz, I passed on all the other CW G1 cars that weren't
> intended to be combiners, and this seems like a straggler from that lot.

Yeah, but he's an all-new toy. Not like he's another godforsaken Dead End repaint.

> Hungrrr's pics seem to be of his G1 toy

Yeah, a few of them are like that. I'll be really interested in seeing what the Terrorcons actually look like.

> Rodimus Unicronus is using a cartoon pic color swapped purple. If it was a
> repaint of the first wave, why wouldn't they palette swap that stock photo
> instead of getting a cartoon photo?

Maybe it was a proof of concept that somebody put together before the new regular-colored Rodimus toy was ready to be photographed? Not sure.


Zob (not enjoying swimming lessons)

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 8:26:59 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> Hoo boy. Apparently there was a HUGE amount of information leaked recently about Hasbro's plans for Power of the Primes. It was so huge, in fact, that Hasbro contacted all the major fan sites and asked them to take the images down. So, that pretty much cinches that they're for real.

I remember back in the old days, when we would see the catalogs in our BW toys and say "Wow! There's going to be a shark!" and then a little while later there was a shark.

I think those were simpler, better days... I mean, I pored over all the pictures like everyone else did, but I think it eliminates a bit of the spontaneous joy to know about this stuff so far in advance.

> PRIME MASTERS

>
> MICRONUS PRIME with Autobot Cloudburst
> LIEGE MAXIMO with Skullgrin
> VECTOR PRIME with Metalhawk

> ALCHEMIST PRIME with Submarauder
> ALPHA TRION with Landmine

> QUINTUS PRIME with Bludgeon
> MEGATRONUS with Bomb-Burst
> SOLUS PRIME with Octo-Punch

I think there will be four more, to give us the 12 primes.

> LEGENDS
>
> Wave 1 (shipping 12/1/2017)
> Dinobot Slash
> Windcharger
> Skrapnel
> Beachcomber

> Battleslash
> Roadtrap
> Tailgate
> Cindersaur
> Outback

I really hope they just rename Outback to be Steak House. I would also accept Stake Out, even if it makes no sense other than being just a bad pun.

> DELUXES

> Dinobot Slug (G1 Slag)
> Dinobot Swoop
> Dreadwind
> Autobot Jazz

> Dinobot Snarl
> Dinobot Sludge
> Blackwing (G1 Darkwing)
> Rippersnapper
> Moonracer

> Cutthroat
> Blot
> Sinnertwin
> Jazz

> Novastar (G1 Firestar)
> Blackwing
> Slug
> Rippersnapper

I'm pretty sure they renamed Slag to Slug, to free up the name for a Femmebot. Slag and Harlotron will round out the set, and they will transform into the mighty Strumpet.

> VOYAGERS
> Grimlock
> Starscream

> Hun-Gurr
> Elita-1
>
> [Zob's Notes: Uh, Elita-1 looks to be a jet. Like, a remold of Starscream. I'm so confused. Well, whatever. Did I mention that I came up with a combiner form for five of the female Autobots back in 1994? I called her Funesta Virgo. I'll have to cough up those drawings now.]
>

> Inferno
> Grimlock
>
> [Zob's Notes: Inferno is a redeco of Combiner Wars Hot Spot. Not sure how I feel about that. I guess he forms the body for the combiner that includes Jazz and friends.]

Inferno is going to look a lot like Pyra Magna in vehicle mode. I kind of hope they just go with that, so we have two nearly identical firetrucks, one that transforms with lady bits.

Also, Jazz must officially be an arm, so we have ... Jazz Hands!

> LEADER CLASS

> Optimus Prime
> Rodimus Prime
> Optimus Prime
> Rodimus Unicronus

> Optimus Primal
> Rodimus Prime
>
> [Zob's Notes: Optimus Primal is the Fan Vote toy. Images show a Deluxe-sized Primal from Beast Wars season one as well as an Optimal Optimus configuration. These are exciting times in which we live.]

I think that's Masterpiece Optimus Primal in the pictures...

This new Optimus Prime is going to make the current Powermaster Optimus Prime entirely redundent, isn't it?

And I really don't know what is up with Rodimus Unicronus. They might have been able to milk a little more out of the mold by giving it a redeco based on Rodimus in "The Ultimate Weapon" where he was in disguise (for the old fans), and naming it Nova Prime or something for the IDW folks.

Also, I guess a sea foam colored Ultra Magnus.

> TITAN CLASS PREDAKING (scheduled for "fall", probable 2018 release)
>
> [Zob's Notes: All five Predacons will be Voyager-class toys, likely making Predaking comparable in size to Combiner Wars Devastator. I am SO STOKED.]
>
> That's all. Discuss!

Ok, sure.

Where are the Seacons!?!

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 3:06:46 AM UTC-5, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
> On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 8:26:59 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> > Hoo boy. Apparently there was a HUGE amount of information leaked recently about Hasbro's plans for Power of the Primes. It was so huge, in fact, that Hasbro contacted all the major fan sites and asked them to take the images down. So, that pretty much cinches that they're for real.
>
> I remember back in the old days, when we would see the catalogs in our BW toys and say "Wow! There's going to be a shark!" and then a little while later there was a shark.
>
> I think those were simpler, better days... I mean, I pored over all the pictures like everyone else did, but I think it eliminates a bit of the spontaneous joy to know about this stuff so far in advance.
>
> > PRIME MASTERS
> >
> > MICRONUS PRIME with Autobot Cloudburst
> > LIEGE MAXIMO with Skullgrin
> > VECTOR PRIME with Metalhawk
> > ALCHEMIST PRIME with Submarauder
> > ALPHA TRION with Landmine
> > QUINTUS PRIME with Bludgeon
> > MEGATRONUS with Bomb-Burst
> > SOLUS PRIME with Octo-Punch
>
> I think there will be four more, to give us the 12 primes.
>

The problem is that we got 3 Primes for TR, and it would be redundant to repeat them so quickly.

[Ultra Magnotron]

Damn. I kind of want to catch 'em all.

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 2:06:46 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> I think those were simpler, better days... I mean, I pored over all the
> pictures like everyone else did, but I think it eliminates a bit of the
> spontaneous joy to know about this stuff so far in advance.

In some ways I find myself in agreement. At the same time, though, we got the toy catalogs during G1, which was basically Hasbro going "here's what this year's product line is going to look like." So, in some ways they were spoiling us about new releases since day one.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed, as they say. I think that, as an adult, I prefer to know what's coming so I can plan for it. I would hate to be completely surprised by Titans Return Trypticon at my next visit to Toys "R" Us and have no way of being able to pay for him.

> I really hope they just rename Outback to be Steak House. I would also accept
> Stake Out, even if it makes no sense other than being just a bad pun.

Stakeout is a Micromaster. I love the name Steak House, though.

> Inferno is going to look a lot like Pyra Magna in vehicle mode.

Yeah, but nobody bought Victorion, so it's okay.

> Also, Jazz must officially be an arm, so we have ... Jazz Hands!

That's perfect. And horrible. Perfectly horrible. I love it.

> This new Optimus Prime is going to make the current Powermaster Optimus Prime

> entirely redundant, isn't it?

I'm not really sure. The Powermaster toy homages a very specific incarnation of Optimus from a very specific year. The new one looks like it's meant to be a lot more 1984ish.

> Where are the Seacons!?!

Depending on how the Hun-Gurr toy is designed, maybe they can get rid of one of his monster heads and redeco him as Snaptrap. Rippersnapper could become Skalor. Not sure if Swoop and Cutthroat share engineering assets or not, but one or both of them could be remolded into Seawing. Tenta-Kil might have to be a new mold. Ideally, Overbite and Nautilator would be new molds, too, but I have no idea how Hasbro would recoup the costs.

Also, there are six Seacons. Not saying they couldn't do all six of them, but one of them might end up being a Legends toy, so he could be the gun, instead of making all five of the little guys Deluxes and then trying to figure out how to get Piranacon to hold any of them as a weapon.

Hasbro's definitely going in the right direction with Abominus and Predaking, so I don't think they've completely forgotten about Piranacon or Monstructor. I'm confident we'll see them in some form.


Zob (I love it when I turn out to be right)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 6:06:12 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> > This new Optimus Prime is going to make the current Powermaster Optimus Prime
> > entirely redundant, isn't it?
>
> I'm not really sure. The Powermaster toy homages a very specific incarnation of Optimus from a very specific year. The new one looks like it's meant to be a lot more 1984ish.
>

It'd be cool if we were finally getting a version of Star Convoy in the US.

> > Where are the Seacons!?!
>
> Depending on how the Hun-Gurr toy is designed, maybe they can get rid of one of his monster heads and redeco him as Snaptrap. Rippersnapper could become Skalor. Not sure if Swoop and Cutthroat share engineering assets or not, but one or both of them could be remolded into Seawing. Tenta-Kil might have to be a new mold. Ideally, Overbite and Nautilator would be new molds, too, but I have no idea how Hasbro would recoup the costs.
>

Overbite will probably just be a remolded face on Skaalor, they were very similar transformations. Tentakill could be Blot with new face and arms. Nautilator will likely be a new mold, but it wouldn't take much to remold him in to Tarantulus or BW Inferno. Then we could get a BW combiner to go with the Op-Op. Sinnertwin could have his heads remolded into one for Cheetor. Skaalor could be redone as Rattrap, Cutthroat could be Airrazor, or Silverbolt.

> Also, there are six Seacons. Not saying they couldn't do all six of them, but one of them might end up being a Legends toy, so he could be the gun, instead of making all five of the little guys Deluxes and then trying to figure out how to get Piranacon to hold any of them as a weapon.
>
> Hasbro's definitely going in the right direction with Abominus and Predaking, so I don't think they've completely forgotten about Piranacon or Monstructor. I'm confident we'll see them in some form.
>
>
> Zob (I love it when I turn out to be right)

We need Raiden Trainbots still...

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, July 27, 2017 at 7:00:06 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> Overbite will probably just be a remolded face on Skaalor, they were very
> similar transformations.

I'd be okay with that. Maybe a new tail, too, so Overbite could be a bit more shark-like.

Tentakill could be Blot with new face and arms.

Yeah, good thinking. That could work.

> We need Raiden Trainbots still...

No love for those guys. Can anybody here even name all six of Raiden's components without looking it up?


Zob (I sure can't)

[New and Improved Zobovor]

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at 9:26:59 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> Skrapnel appears to be a reship of the 2014 toy.

Actually, it turns out that he's a slightly different color deco. His purple is darker, maybe with the intent of making it more closely match the colors for Bombshell and Kickback.

If this was indeed the intention, then this is an amazing thing for Hasbro to do. The poor color matching on the Insecticons is actually something I was rather vocal about, and it blows me away that they took the time to fix this problem.

I think I'm going to have to buy another Skrapnel now.


Zob (between this and Cosmos, makes you wonder how many other "reships" maybe aren't reships after all)