G1 Devastator Yellow Redeco as "Tonkanator" on Hasbro Pulse

[Zobovor]

Coming completely unannounced and unexpected is a new redeco of G1 Devastator, with the individual Constructicons getting the deco of Tonka trucks:

https://hasbropulse.com/collections/transformers/products/transformers-collaborative-tonka-mash-up-tonkanator

This is the "Project Yellow" collaborative mash-up that was hinted at, it seems, even though it's just a mish-mash of two Hasbro properties and not a true multi-company collaboration per se.

This could potentially have been a reissue of G2 Devastator, but there are several things that throw it off. One, of course, is the prominent Tonka logos on the individual characters. Also, the characters have been renamed and reimagined as Autobots. Evidently their new names are Mega Dozer (Bonecrusher), Power Digger (Scavenger), Skyhook (Hook), Mega Hauler (Long Haul), Motormix (Mixmaster), and Motor Load (Scrapper). They combine into Tonkanator. No, that's really his name.

Slated to be a Target exclusive, the set is on pre-sale at Hasbro Pulse for $104.99 and is coming December 2022.


Zob (shakes head)

[Travoltron]

Wish they would have used the Diaclone color scheme. I don't really have
any interest in this as-is. Maybe if it goes on deep clearance.

[Zobovor]

On Friday, June 24, 2022 at 1:48:55 PM UTC-6, Travoltron wrote:

> Wish they would have used the Diaclone color scheme. I don't really have
> any interest in this as-is. Maybe if it goes on deep clearance.

Diaclone Devastator would have been awesome.

There are so many people on the message boards now who are reading the copy and coming away with these completely wrong-headed assumptions. Like, the web site claims that Devastator is 18" and so people are jumping to the conclusion that all the Constructicons have been upscaled. Also, I guess the Target web site lists the set as weighing 1.34 pounds, but Walmart's reissue was 1.35 pounds, so therefore they removed the die-cast parts from the toys. Like, what? Good luck transforming Bonecrusher more than zero times without breaking him, if they removed the die-cast. Like, don't be stupid. It's far more likely the web site copy is just incorrect.

This feels like something Hasbro would have done in the 1990's, right after they acquired Tonka and wanted to flex their ownership over the brand, like they did with GoBots. (There was actually a Tonka brand truck with the G.I. Joe logo on it, as I recall.) At this late stage, it just feels like a cash grab. I don't like that they're Autobots (with red eyes, no less). I don't like that they put their team insignias in the wrong place just to accommodate the Tonka logos (like putting it on Mixma... I mean Motormix's mixing drum). I don't like that they're doing yellow Constructicons but that it's not the obvious G2 homage. I mean, the knockoff versions are still pretty abundant. You can get a fake Devastator from China in black, white, orange, yellow, or green for about $60-$70 shipped. Has everybody forgotten that Takara flat-out REFUSED to reissue Devastator for YEARS because the knockoffs were so abundant?

However. This strikes me as being a set that's going to heavily appreciate in value. I've noticed that some of the hottest collector items on the secondary market are toys that a large percentage of people panned because they were perceived as inferior. The dumber the toy, the more money people pay for it later. I'm not sure why that's a thing, but it's definitely a thing. For example, some of the most expensive vintage TMNT toys on eBay now are the Star Trek Turtles and Troll Turtles, two idiotic concepts that never should have happened. I never bought them growing up because I thought they were lame. And now you have to pay through the nose to own them.


Zob (prediction for 2044: "RARE HTF Hasbro Tonkanator SEALED! $500 OBO!")

[Travoltron]

On 6/24/2022 5:59 PM, Zobovor wrote:
> Star Trek Turtles

Aw, I bought those. Gave the accessories to my other Trek figures.

I could have sworn one of the Turtles dressed in a TOS Starfleet uniform
as a gag in a panel from the Mirage comics. But google fails me here.
Maybe I misremembered it.

I got the troll Turtles from a well-meaning relative for Christmas. She
always had a habit of getting me things that were kind of lame or
intended for much younger kids. I remember she got me Charge-R-Tron
instead of Transformers or GoBots.

[Evil King Macrocranios]

On Friday, June 24, 2022 at 6:30:44 AM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:

> This could potentially have been a reissue of G2 Devastator

This could potentially have been GoBots! How do they come off describing it as inspired by Tonka and it's not a GoBot? How are these not GoBots?

> Zob (shakes head)

I am patiently waiting for my GoBots / Steel Monsters crossover line, Hasbro.

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, June 25, 2022 at 1:26:14 AM UTC-6, evil.king.m...@gmail.com wrote:

> This could potentially have been GoBots! How do they come off describing it as inspired by Tonka and it's not a GoBot? How are these not GoBots?

Oh, wow. That would have been kind of great. Bonecrusher as Dozer, Mixmaster as Cement Head, Long Haul as Dumper, and Hook as Crain Brain. I can't think of GoBots who turned into a steam shovel or a payloader, though, so I'm not sure what they would have done for Scavenger and Scrapper. Make something up out of whole cloth and piss off a bunch of people, probably.

I still think there's an outside chance the recent Takara/Bandai collaboration might result in something sufficiently GoBotty, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see.


Zob (okay, GoBot Boomer)

[Evil King Macrocranios]

On Saturday, June 25, 2022 at 8:17:01 AM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> I still think there's an outside chance the recent Takara/Bandai collaboration might result in something
> sufficiently GoBotty, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

I do hope you're right but if Bandai hasn't come to the conclusion that a classic Machine Robo relaunch is worthwhile by now, I wonder if anything Tomy suggests is gonna change that. And it would be boneheaded of Tomy to suggest Bandai resurrect a line that is in direct competition with their own transforming robots.

I think the pattern of their collaboration has been set and everything moving forward will be Tomica versions of Bandai properties and Soul of Chogokin versions of Tomy properties (that are not Transformers related).

[Travoltron]

It's on Target's website for pre-order.

https://www.target.com/p/transformers-collaborative-tonka-mash-up-tonkanator-target-exclusive/-/A-86918794