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[Kurona]

I will wait for a space shuttle blast-off for as long as it takes. Or until June when Unite Warriors Bruticus is available.

This is why I think this year may be only Groove and not Blast Off. Why would Takara go through all the trouble of making the mold only for Hasbro to release it first?

Well... why not? It's not really as if they're competing or they really want it released first. In addition, the draw of UW Bruticus is also a more cartoon-accurate scheme along with other things like Vortex's four-bladed copter; not just Blast Off. Heck, Hasbro would imo be likely to release a different colour scheme for Blast Off.

[TF-fan kev777]

Not to mention that HTS had Wildrider until a month or so ago and has the Hunters pack back up now.

Yeah, but on HTS the Wildrider and Hunters listings indicated they are out of stock. So its just the illusion of still being available.

[TF-fan kev777]

I will wait for a space shuttle blast-off for as long as it takes. Or until June when Unite Warriors Bruticus is available.

This is why I think this year may be only Groove and not Blast Off. Why would Takara go through all the trouble of making the mold only for Hasbro to release it first?

Well... why not? It's not really as if they're competing or they really want it released first. In addition, the draw of UW Bruticus is also a more cartoon-accurate scheme along with other things like Vortex's four-bladed copter; not just Blast Off. Heck, Hasbro would imo be likely to release a different colour scheme for Blast Off.

Logistically, a color change would make even less sense to me based on a Hasbro May release and Takara June release. If its Takara's mold, you would assume that their production run would come first then Hasbro's. If all the plastic and paint are the same like on Groove, then you could batch run the plastic and paint for both companies together. O color change would likely mean running Takara's first, changing over the materials and then running Hasbro's.

Don't get me wrong, I would love, love LOVE, for you to be right. My gut it telling me Groove only is the most likely for next month. We've had subtle hints on Groove, but nothing on Blast Off.

[william-james88]

I will wait for a space shuttle blast-off for as long as it takes. Or until June when Unite Warriors Bruticus is available.

This is why I think this year may be only Groove and not Blast Off. Why would Takara go through all the trouble of making the mold only for Hasbro to release it first?

Well... why not? It's not really as if they're competing or they really want it released first. In addition, the draw of UW Bruticus is also a more cartoon-accurate scheme along with other things like Vortex's four-bladed copter; not just Blast Off. Heck, Hasbro would imo be likely to release a different colour scheme for Blast Off.

Logistically, a color change would make even less sense to me based on a Hasbro May release and Takara June release. If its Takara's mold, you would assume that their production run would come first then Hasbro's. If all the plastic and paint are the same like on Groove, then you could batch run the plastic and paint for both companies together. O color change would likely mean running Takara's first, changing over the materials and then running Hasbro's.

Don't get me wrong, I would love, love LOVE, for you to be right. My gut it telling me Groove only is the most likely for next month. We've had subtle hints on Groove, but nothing on Blast Off.

Just to make mention of this:

Hasbro's Wildrider was released before Takara's Menasor AND had a different deco.

[Kurona]

I will wait for a space shuttle blast-off for as long as it takes. Or until June when Unite Warriors Bruticus is available.

This is why I think this year may be only Groove and not Blast Off. Why would Takara go through all the trouble of making the mold only for Hasbro to release it first?

Well... why not? It's not really as if they're competing or they really want it released first. In addition, the draw of UW Bruticus is also a more cartoon-accurate scheme along with other things like Vortex's four-bladed copter; not just Blast Off. Heck, Hasbro would imo be likely to release a different colour scheme for Blast Off.

Logistically, a color change would make even less sense to me based on a Hasbro May release and Takara June release. If its Takara's mold, you would assume that their production run would come first then Hasbro's. If all the plastic and paint are the same like on Groove, then you could batch run the plastic and paint for both companies together. O color change would likely mean running Takara's first, changing over the materials and then running Hasbro's.

Don't get me wrong, I would love, love LOVE, for you to be right. My gut it telling me Groove only is the most likely for next month. We've had subtle hints on Groove, but nothing on Blast Off.

The thing is, I don't exactly see how it's exclusively "Takara's Blast Off", other than just being revealed first - and that's the very shaky logic this seems to be being based on. It's not like Hasbro and Takara design them independently, then when Takara makes something new Hasbro suddenly sees it at the same time as us and is all like "Oh, well I'll take that too for my market thank you very much". Both companies will surely have known the others' plans well in advance - HasTak's a partnership that have only grown closer and closer to each other in the past few years.

[TF-fan kev777]

Just to make mention of this:

Hasbro's Wildrider was released before Takara's Menasor AND had a different deco.

Fair point, except I see this as a slightly different scenario since this is the first use of the mold for either company. In any case, its just flat out speculation on my part.

But there is also the case box to consider. "May Mayhem Deluxe Groove". No mention of Blast off.

Of course that could mean nothing since they would be an online retailer release, so a case of 4 Grooves and 4 Blast Offs isn't as important as it would be for brick and mortar stores where each store would want a mixed case versus an online distribution center where individual cases would likely be preferred.

Its just strange that we have had zero hints at Blast Off so far. Seems like last year we knew about both Slingshot and Wildrider by now (could easily be a foggy memory here).

In any case, Hurry up May! The suspense is Killing me!!!

[TF-fan kev777]

The thing is, I don't exactly see how it's exclusively "Takara's Blast Off", other than just being revealed first - and that's the very shaky logic this seems to be being based on. It's not like Hasbro and Takara design them independently, then when Takara makes something new Hasbro suddenly sees it at the same time as us and is all like "Oh, well I'll take that too for my market thank you very much". Both companies will surely have known the others' plans well in advance - HasTak's a partnership that have only grown closer and closer to each other in the past few years.

I wouldn't even call it shaky logic, just flat out speculation/guessing. Good point on the cooperation between HasTak though. Hasbro could have easily known about shuttle Blast Off all along, but needed to release plane Blast Off with the bio of being forced to change his alt mode in order to keep on their schedule for for the Bruticus wave instead of waiting on shuttle Blast Off.

[william-james88]

Its just strange that we have had zero hints at Blast Off so far. Seems like last year we knew about both Slingshot and Wildrider by now (could easily be a foggy memory here).

In any case, Hurry up May! The suspense is Killing me!!!

Your definitely right about that. This time last year, we did have the preorder for both wildrider and slingshot: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... ine/32590/

And it was from Robot kingdom so this year is pretty much a straight parallel, meaning that only Groove would be released in May, if everything were to be the same.

[fenrir72]

Speculating that there will be a at least a 6 month window before a Hb version of Blastoff shuttle to be released.

Sales are sales regardless across the Pacific.

[william-james88]

May Mayhem is confirmed in this listing:

http://www.dorksidetoys.com/Transformer ... 826as0.htm

[william-james88]

Here are a bunch more listings of deluxe Groove:

http://www.tf-robots.nl/a-43893257/nieu ... pre-order/

http://www.idtoys.co.uk/transformers-co ... exclusive/

http://m.ruten.com.tw/goods/show.php?g=21612241203655

http://www.dorksidetoys.com/Transformer ... 826as0.htm

[Hellscream9999]

Here are a bunch more listings of deluxe Groove:

http://www.tf-robots.nl/a-43893257/nieu ... pre-order/

http://www.idtoys.co.uk/transformers-co ... exclusive/

http://m.ruten.com.tw/goods/show.php?g=21612241203655

http://www.dorksidetoys.com/Transformer ... 826as0.htm

Seems like everyone but tfsource and bbts have pre-orders up

*sigh*

[william-james88]

This has been a very groovy day with the not one but three articles about Hasbro's Combiner Wars Deluxe Groove where we see the differences between the two versions, a full gallery and where we have some evidence that he will be part of May Mayhem and possibly come to the States.

Well, no need to wonder now since we actually have our first listing of this figure in the states. This listing from Dorksidetoys.com confirms that this figure is part of May Mayhem and is scheduled for a release in the states in, well, May for the price of $17.99 USD. This site gets its toys directly from the manufacturer, as the price indicates.



This listing is currently sold out, but by no means is this cause to worry. Instead it is simply solid evidence that this toy will be available at more stateside retailers in the near future.

For those outside the US, here is a list of other sites currently listing Hasbro's deluxe Groove:

http://www.tf-robots.nl/a-43893257/nieu ... pre-order/

http://www.idtoys.co.uk/transformers-co ... exclusive/

http://m.ruten.com.tw/goods/show.php?g=21612241203655

[SW's SilverHammer]

please stop saying groovy.

[william-james88]

Not to get anyone panicking but while all this proves that we are getting deluxe Groove, it does not bode well on us getting Shuttle Blastoff anytime soon. Maybe he will be left for May Mayhem 2017

[Randomhero]

Good to see he's going to be getting more releases. I preordered mine from Robotkingdom a few weeks ago and it looks like it's still up in the air with tfsource and bbts, I'm sure it will happen.

[Mindmaster]

Hopefully he won't go out too quickly... I just did manage to squeeze in my order for Slingshot and Wildrider last year, but just barely. Hope I won't be busy when preorders go live!

[Agamemnon]

The Dorkside toys listing has since been taken down, with a message saying they are not ready to reveal this listing yet...

[Emerje]

The Dorkside toys listing has since been taken down, with a message saying they are not ready to reveal this listing yet...

In other words Hasbro has put an embargo on this information just like they did last year. Something official will be said soon I'm sure, keep an eye on Facebook.

Emerje

[Sabrblade]

The thing is, I don't exactly see how it's exclusively "Takara's Blast Off", other than just being revealed first - and that's the very shaky logic this seems to be being based on. It's not like Hasbro and Takara design them independently, then when Takara makes something new Hasbro suddenly sees it at the same time as us and is all like "Oh, well I'll take that too for my market thank you very much". Both companies will surely have known the others' plans well in advance - HasTak's a partnership that have only grown closer and closer to each other in the past few years.

John Warden said at Toy Fair that Takara made their Groove and Blast Off figures without Hasbro input, and we know that Takara only made those two because Hasbro had other plans for Groove and Blast Off in Combiner Wars that didn't align with Takara's "beholden to G1" mindset.

Why, the Takara Groove mold itself has several design and engineering aspects that clash with all the Hasbro-designed CW Deluxes:

• Takara Groove has an additional sprue of clear plastic that none of the Hasbro CW Deluxes have
• Takara Groove has two weapon accessories in addition to its hand/foot/gun, whereas all the Hasbro CW Deluxes only have a single non-HFG weapon each.
• Takara Groove was still in the gray prototype stage long after the molds of his fellow Protectobots were already completed.
• And, Takara Groove was given special attention in promotional materials like magazines and ads, which Takara did not do for either Slingshot or Wildrider, showing how much more unique and special the Groove mold was in its own right.

Takara was obviously aware of Hasbro's plans for Legends class Groove and jet mode Blast Off (Takara engineered those toys for Hasbro, after all), but since those plans were in defiance of how Groove and Blast Off were in G1, Takara nixed the idea of doing what Hasbro did and took the initiative to create the UW molds of Groove and Blast Off by themselves without Hasbro's input or budgetary limitations, and regardless of whether Hasbro would be interested in the new Groove and Blast Off molds or not.

[King Kuuga]

I missed QS and BN last year, I'm not missing Groove this year. If we get shuttle Blast Off at some point in the future, you could combine AB, Offroad, Rook, and Jet Blast Off with a spare torso to make Substitutron! Or create your own combination. This is the true beauty of Combiner Wars: options.

(says the guy who has all his combiners in default configuration and only Sunstreaker as an extra limb)

[Nemesis Maximo]

please stop saying groovy.

[Mr Skram]

Personally I kind of like the idea of Rook as a wrecker. Mostly because of his strong body frame and his ridiculous hulk hands of doom. Still... there's something about AB and Rook that seems sort of... droney in vehicle mode; I don't know how to explain it. I'm not saying that they can't have personality or whatever and there's a lot you can attach to them, but personally I kind of like them has Sky Lynx's little drone force. It's a nice compromise to me between his G1 and Combiner self.

I display Rook on my Wreckers shelf armed to the teeth with dual axe hands and some of Whirl's armaments when he's not combined. He looks great with them!

My drone is Wheeljack, mostly because he looks terrible, but maybe WJ had to make a prototype vehicon type thing and spiced it up with some of his personality and looks. Or he just attempted to clone himself and failed so we're stuck with this abomination version of him.



But, uh, oh yeah... I missed out on Brakeneck and Quickslinger somehow and I'm still kicking myself for it. I won't make the same mistake with Groove(and hopefully Blast-Off in the future).

[william-james88]

Hopefully he won't go out too quickly... I just did manage to squeeze in my order for Slingshot and Wildrider last year, but just barely. Hope I won't be busy when preorders go live!

But walmart and toysrus had plenty once may came around. You ddint need to preorder last year inorder to get a copy. These were available for a solid 2 months once out.

[DeathReviews]

Keeping fingers crossed that they will have made enough of these things that everybody who wants one can get it... (for a decent price)