Takara Tomy Mall Lottery for USA Edition Dinosaurer (Platinum Trypticon) starts today

Trypticon's retail release in the Stattes is still up in the air. While he has appeared as a Toysrus exclusive in some parts of the world, there is still no word of when he will land in the states. The latest information was that he would be an Amazon exclusive. But worry not, there are places where it is tougher to get him, like in Japan. Takara Tomy Mall announced a lottery campaign which starts today (and ends the 22nd of October)where fans must register for the chance to buy him. There are only 300 available and they will be sold for ￥16,200 (135$ US, the best price for this guy so far). This is the same edition (box and all) as the Platinum Edition, and he is listed as USA Edition Dinosaurer (ironic since he doesnt have a USA release yet). This does beg the question of whether or not this is Takara Tomy's answer to providing G1 reissues and if the Encore has indeed ended (the last release was Fort Max).

We were all waiting for a semblance of news as to Typticon's fate for North American distribution. Amazon.ca just put up a listing of this toy at 176.13$ cdn (135.22$US) which is brought down from the retail price of 198.99$ cdn (145$US). This confirms that like the Platinum Triplechanger set, Amazon is indeed the distributor of this Platinum Edition in North America. This is also by far the cheapest price this edition has ever been listed as. Sadly, thanks for a test by fellow Seibertronian Agammnon, he canot be shipped to the US at the moment. However, the fact that he appears on Amazon.ca does make it more than likely that he will show up on Amazon.com sooner rather than later.

So, who all's getting this Trypticon to use its City Mode as a stage for the SDCC Knights of Unicron?

william-james88 wrote:We were all waiting for a semblance of news as to Typticon's fate for North American distribution. Amazon.ca just put up a listing of this toy at 176.13$ cdn (135.22$US) which is brought down from the retail price of 198.99$ cdn (145$US). This confirms that like the Platinum Triplechanger set, Amazon is indeed the distributor of this Platinum Edition in North America. This is also by far the cheapest price this edition has ever been listed as. He should be able to ship to the US, please let us know if that isn't the case.
[snip pics]

Just tried to go through checkout process at Amazon to ship to MN, received this message:

Amazon.ca wrote:Sorry, but this item can't be shipped to your selected address. Learn more. You may either change the shipping address or delete the item from your order.

I mean, c'mon. Most people in the US consider MN part of Canada anyway! I guess I gotta wait for the US release.

Sabrblade wrote:So, who all's getting this Trypticon to use its City Mode as a stage for the SDCC Knights of Unicron?

I would prefer a Stage for them doe you know what third parties we want that! Lol Plus a lot of people will be getting it to finally add to their g1 collection would l9ve to see an new generations Trypticon but ya know some of the great cons don't really get new verison love... still waiting for a third party trypticon to be shown XD

Agamemnon wrote:

william-james88 wrote:We were all waiting for a semblance of news as to Typticon's fate for North American distribution. Amazon.ca just put up a listing of this toy at 176.13$ cdn (135.22$US) which is brought down from the retail price of 198.99$ cdn (145$US). This confirms that like the Platinum Triplechanger set, Amazon is indeed the distributor of this Platinum Edition in North America. This is also by far the cheapest price this edition has ever been listed as. He should be able to ship to the US, please let us know if that isn't the case.
[snip pics]

Just tried to go through checkout process at Amazon to ship to MN, received this message:

Amazon.ca wrote:Sorry, but this item can't be shipped to your selected address. Learn more. You may either change the shipping address or delete the item from your order.

I mean, c'mon. Most people in the US consider MN part of Canada anyway! I guess I gotta wait for the US release.

Thanks for doign this extra research for us, I will go updatethe article. Too bad though, Canadians can order from Amazon.com when its shipped from Amazon themselves.

With this big guys reisssue this makes me think about how titan's return coming around who wouldn't love to see a titan class trypitacon or scorponok/black zarak (give us a metrotitan takara!). Also anyone find it kinda obvious why Fortress maximus was back in the MTMTE Comic #45?

Starsaber468 wrote:Wuth titan's return coming around who wouldn't love to see a titan class trypitacon or scorponok/black zarak (give us a metrotitan takara!). Also anyone find it kinda obvious why Fortress maximus was back in the MTMTE Comic #45?

That Fortress Maximus will most likely be a retool or a new figure. A G1 reissue for the US is out of the question, since he failed the Drop Test in 2001 and therefore deemed unsafe for sale in the US. Japan is less strict in that department.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Starsaber468 wrote:Wuth titan's return coming around who wouldn't love to see a titan class trypitacon or scorponok/black zarak (give us a metrotitan takara!). Also anyone find it kinda obvious why Fortress maximus was back in the MTMTE Comic #45?

That Fortress Maximus will most likely be a retool or a new figure. A G1 reissue for the US is out of the question, since he failed the Drop Test in 2001 and therefore deemed unsafe for sale.

Yeah i know that i was hoping Titan class fortress maximus wouldn't be a remold of titan class metroplex but time will show... plus we already got the encore verison I remenber how someone was selling a Encore Fort max for $1000 and the g1 one for $400 found that very funny

Huh, $130 actually seems kinda reasonable for this guy. I wouldn't mind having some G1 figures- as I have yet to get any actual G1 toys - but, I'm not sure that I would get this in lieu of bruticus and the legends figures from wave 1 next year

The only thing Amazon.com customers can get in from other countries is media (DVDs, CDs, etc). This does have loop holes that allow things like the Japanese Age of Extinction Blu-ray with that killer Hound redeco to be shipped to the US on an Amazon.co.jp order, but that kind of thing isn't very common. Cool that Amazon.ca users can get stuff from elsewhere though! Must be the subspace highways.

I can't wait for this guy to pop up for sale.

Sabrblade wrote:So, who all's getting this Trypticon to use its City Mode as a stage for the SDCC Knights of Unicron?

Is he even big enough?

So, CAN175$+tx with free shipping from Amazon.CA? The site where voyagers that are still in store sell for over 9000$?! Interesting.

Unfortunately, I'll have to pass. I'm not that exited plus 2 B-Days and Xmass is coming soon.

Hellscream9999 wrote:Huh, $130 actually seems kinda reasonable for this guy. I wouldn't mind having some G1 figures- as I have yet to get any actual G1 toys - but, I'm not sure that I would get this in lieu of bruticus and the legends figures from wave 1 next year

I highly suggest that if you are considering G1 figures, you get Predaking. He is pretty darn cheap and you are getting a lot for your buck. 5 voyager figures, die cast, a combiner that is the same size as CW. And plus its a repackaged Takara toy with improved colours and stickers over the original:

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=HAS22988&mode=retail

http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Platinum-Predaking-Figure-Exclusive/dp/B00CM5DA62/ref=sr_1_1?tag=seibertron07-20&ie=UTF8&qid=1445306059&sr=8-1&keywords=predaking

Will makes a very good point there HS.

Cobotron wrote:Will makes a very good point there HS.

Might have to look into that

With this Trypticon toy not able to ship anywhere else than canada, I am sure it will be discounted more later, especially with boxing day coming up. I already have a G1 trypticon and I dont feel he is worth more than 100$. Its a very static toy that doesnt do all that much on his own (unlike say Fort Max, or Scorponok or Predaking). He is big though so there is that.

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Cobotron wrote:Will makes a very good point there HS.

Might have to look into that

Indeed, I've almost pulled the trigger on the Predacon set a large number of times...

I'm betting that Trypticon will become available in time for the big X-mas push... And at that price, I'm not willing to wait for a sale. He will be bought once he's available!

I got him on a whim earlier this year and he exceeded my expectations. Always loved base formers but didn't think I'd enjoy this dude so much, he's also much better quality than my metroplex reissue. Very solid indeed. Really regret not having him as a kid... Had to make do with skorponok instead.

frogbat wrote:I got him on a whim earlier this year and he exceeded my expectations. Always loved base formers but didn't think I'd enjoy this dude so much, he's also much better quality than my metroplex reissue. Very solid indeed. Really regret not having him as a kid... Had to make do with skorponok instead.

Skorponok is awesome though, he has one more mode than Trypticon (who lacks a robot mode).

I'm a fool! I recently bought a SDCC dinobot set on ebay because I didn't realize there was 5 pack with G1 heads. I don't really care for the pop-up Ark, and mine came in poor condition anyway.

I mean, I already had shelf-canon in mind for the Bay-head dinos so it's not that bad but those G1 heads look sooo good. Bums me out.

Mr Skram wrote:I'm a fool! I recently bought a SDCC dinobot set on ebay because I didn't realize there was 5 pack with G1 heads. I don't really care for the pop-up Ark, and mine came in poor condition anyway.

I mean, I already had shelf-canon in mind for the Bay-head dinos so it's not that bad but those G1 heads look sooo good. Bums me out.

At least the deco on the sdcc set is better than these generations dinos. So you still have some nice quality figures and at the prices they have been going for on e-bay, that set probably cost you less than this set would cost (with one toy less of course).

william-james88 wrote:

Mr Skram wrote:I'm a fool! I recently bought a SDCC dinobot set on ebay because I didn't realize there was 5 pack with G1 heads. I don't really care for the pop-up Ark, and mine came in poor condition anyway.

I mean, I already had shelf-canon in mind for the Bay-head dinos so it's not that bad but those G1 heads look sooo good. Bums me out.

At least the deco on the sdcc set is better than these generations dinos. So you still have some nice quality figures and at the prices they have been going for on e-bay, that set probably cost you less than this set would cost (with one toy less of course).

You know, that's true. The gold on SDCC Snarl is awesome, I don't like his silver deco.

I also grabbed Sludge(Slog) with some amazon points so I do have a full set of bestial looking AOE dinobots led by the shiny and more robotic FoC(or WFC?) Grimlock. I don't count the AOE mold of Grimlock as Grimlock, it just looks too different in both modes for my taste, so he's my 6th man "Smash" instead.

Has this set shown up at US retail or at US online retailers?

Seibertron wrote:Has this set shown up at US retail or at US online retailers?

Yes, it has shown up for preorder at tfsource http://tfsource.com/age-of-extinction/p ... -dinobots/

BBTS has no preorder for this available at the moment.

Finally, Platinum Trypticon is now available at its exclusive retailer, Amazon.com. Oddly enough this happens to coincide with the exact day that he is removed from Amazon.ca, making it seem like this is an inventory transfer. While the retail price is now confirmed to be 169.99$ US, Amazon is selling it currently at 163.32$. This is the cheapest price he has ever been offered at for American fans, are any of you getting him?

william-james88 wrote:Finally, Platinum Trypticon is now available at its exclusive retailer, Amazon.com. Oddly enough this happens to coincide with the exact day that he is removed from Amazon.ca, making it seem like this is an inventory transfer. While the retail price is now confirmed to be 169.99$ US, Amazon is selling it currently at 163.32$. This is the cheapest price he has ever been offered at for American fans, are any of you getting him?

Not sure this is worth $163 + tax to me. I'll monitor this and hope for a price drop.

Preordered! I was hoping for less, but I've really wanted a Trypticon for a long time. My Encore Metroplex will have a mate to play with all of those old legends figures.

[Edit] Funny, searching for Trypticon still shows a marketplace seller selling it for $199. We have to scroll down to the bottom to find the official Amazon listing. I wonder how long that will last....

nycPrime wrote:Not sure this is worth $163 + tax to me. I'll monitor this and hope for a price drop.

I totally get why he may be too pricey for some people. But compared to the market, he is technically worth a bit more than that actually. He was selling at TFsource for 199$ and completely sold out. http://tfsource.com/platinum/trypticon/

So anyone getting him here is getting it at a discount compared to market price. If he sold out at tfsource, I highly doubt he wont sell out when he is worth less. Platinum Blaster and Perceptor are already sold out at their exclusive outlet (target) so it seems this year there is a huge interest for rereleases. I, like you, was waiting for the price to drop on amazon.ca (it was at 173$, so comparative economy wise) and it just went away.

All I mean is people are buying him at more than this already so I expect him to sell like hot cakes at this price. And it can ship worldwide so everyone who wants one (like Japan who is only getting a few of these) can now get him for the cheapest price possible. So be sure that you dont regret it if he sells out before reaching the price you would preffer.

I would love to have him but that price is a bit steep for me. I would pay maybe a bit over $100

Shame he doesn't look very cool, hope hasbro makes a new one, I would love for a 'War Within' version, I wouldn't even mind if he was voyager, he doesn't have to be mammoth

Thanks for the link.
I put in my order with Prime and used some CC reward points to knock him down even farther.
Really looking forward to having a minty one of my own,

Hellscream9999 wrote:Shame he doesn't look very cool, hope hasbro makes a new one, I would love for a 'War Within' version, I wouldn't even mind if he was voyager, he doesn't have to be mammoth

I was so confused by that at first thinking Trypticon turned into a mamoth (as in the prehistoric animal) in that series (I never read war within)

william-james88 wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:Shame he doesn't look very cool, hope hasbro makes a new one, I would love for a 'War Within' version, I wouldn't even mind if he was voyager, he doesn't have to be mammoth

I was so confused by that at first thinking Trypticon turned into a mamoth (as in the prehistoric animal) in that series (I never read war within)

Yeah, no need for a titan class price tag for me to be happy; but you should check out the designs from that, the constructicons, trailbreaker, trypticon, and, indeed, The Fallen, were some of the coolest designs to come of that series, they even had pretty cool designs for the non-dino dinobots (the stegosaurs was really innovative)













and lets not forget:

I wouldn't have bought that Triptycon, even at 100$. I'd rather wait for the innevitable Generations update.

I like Scavenger in pre-Earth form - that would certainly make a nice change from all the Earth mode Contructicons - perhaps this would work nicely in the smaller 3rd party sizes too since they contain a fair amount of pre-earth modes.

I like Pre-Earth Modes a lot but I never know what the consensus is about what people like best Organic or Mechaniocal Animals, Modern Vehicles, 80's retro vehicles, Pre-earth Modes or whatever.

Personally I have no specific preference and just like what looks nice or seems 'fresh'.

Hellscream9999 wrote:and lets not forget:

Close, but not quite the final design that was published:



Though it never showed up in the series anyway.

RAR wrote:I like Scavenger in pre-Earth form - that would certainly make a nice change from all the Earth mode Contructicons - perhaps this would work nicely in the smaller 3rd party sizes too since they contain a fair amount of pre-earth modes.

I like Pre-Earth Modes a lot but I never know what the consensus is about what people like best Organic or Mechaniocal Animals, Modern Vehicles, 80's retro vehicles, Pre-earth Modes or whatever.

Personally I have no specific preference and just like what looks nice or seems 'fresh'.

I grew up with BW so I have a strong attachment to organic animals, but that also had mech animals and cyborg animals, so it covered a large spectrum; I personally love non-earth vehicles and mechanical animals. I thought War Within had a great style to the vehicle modes - 'dat Trailbreaker

william-james88 wrote:

nycPrime wrote:Not sure this is worth $163 + tax to me. I'll monitor this and hope for a price drop.

I totally get why he may be too pricey for some people. But compared to the market, he is technically worth a bit more than that actually. He was selling at TFsource for 199$ and completely sold out. http://tfsource.com/platinum/trypticon/

So anyone getting him here is getting it at a discount compared to market price. If he sold out at tfsource, I highly doubt he wont sell out when he is worth less. Platinum Blaster and Perceptor are already sold out at their exclusive outlet (target) so it seems this year there is a huge interest for rereleases. I, like you, was waiting for the price to drop on amazon.ca (it was at 173$, so comparative economy wise) and it just went away.

All I mean is people are buying him at more than this already so I expect him to sell like hot cakes at this price. And it can ship worldwide so everyone who wants one (like Japan who is only getting a few of these) can now get him for the cheapest price possible. So be sure that you dont regret it if he sells out before reaching the price you would preffer.

I totally did the regret analysis on this, and I'm fairly certain (though not 100%) I won't regret letting this go if it doesn't drop any more in price. I could be wrong but there doesn't seem to be that much interest in this figure at this price point because: 1) it's been available from a 3P seller on Amazon for $200 for a while now, which isn't that much more than retail price, and 2) it's still available from BBTS and Amazon for approximately the same price.

Kind of hoping for a good deal during Black Friday/Cyber Monday like how the tripe changer set went for $50 during Prime Day.

Fingers crossed.

I think BBTS just put up the Preorder for this today. At least the email alerting me to the preorder came in this morning...

And $163 is a significant savings from $200 (almost 20%, if I have my math correct, and I seem to remember most of the sellers having some shipping costs. Yeah, I've been watching this for a while really wanting a G1 Mint Trypticon. ). So, I'm not sure we can gauge interest yet...

nycPrime wrote: I could be wrong but there doesn't seem to be that much interest in this figure at this price point because: 1) it's been available from a 3P seller on Amazon for $200 for a while now, which isn't that much more than retail price, and 2) it's still available from BBTS and Amazon for approximately the same price.

Kind of hoping for a good deal during Black Friday/Cyber Monday like how the tripe changer set went for $50 during Prime Day.

Fingers crossed.

Well the facts you are using arent correct since BBTS has none in stock at the moment, they just started their preorders today. And of course Amazon has some in stock, they just recieved it and are the exclusive retailer carrying them, so they would have the most at the lowest price (which is currently the case, as Agamemnon wrote). TF Source sold out at 200$ and there are only 2 others left by the third party amazon seller selling for 204$. Those two previous points definitely confirm that there is interest for this figure. Unlike most of the other stuff being reissued this year, this is the very first time Trypticon has ever been reissued by Hasbro or Takara.

I do wish for you that you get your Black Friday deal, but I did want to get the facts straight to not confuse anyone reading our conversation.

Also since when is 204$ not that much more than 163$ ? Maybe we should all try to run this by our bosses when asking for a 20% raise and see if they think it's that much more

While the Transfomrers Platinum Autobot Intel Ops set, featuring a rerelease of Blaster, Perceptor, Ramhorn and Steeljaw, has been out for a while, there hasn't been an in depth analysis to what this set offers over previous rereleases. The new slide feature has not been covered correctly elsewhere with reviewers making the dreaded mistake of not following the instructions.

Since he is now sold out at this product's exclusive retailer in America, it seems a lot of folks now have this fun new collectible and I will list the main differences with this release and go in depth for the new slide feature.

Firstly, while the box art is awesome...



... no one has yet to comment on the dumb grin Blaster has. I guess he does really enjoy pummeling Decepticons, as his bio says.



While the quality is not terrible, the grey plastic used for Blaster has the similar flecks found in the the plastic used for contemporary Transformer toys. You can see the reflection from the camera's flash:



The grey plastic is also a shade more brown than the original release but it is the same plastic found on the other Blaster reissue.

Also, while the original mold indentations for the date and copyright are found on the figure, there is also a contemporary trademark stamp found all across Blaster's upper back.



Like the original Hasbro Perceptor, his gun can not fire, which is customary. However, unlike the previous reissue, there has been a slight change so that the missile will not fall from the gun when inserted for poses.



Also, Perceptor has an Autobot logo sticker in his abdominal area which is absent from the stock photo in the back. This reminds me, all stickers are preapplied.

Now onto the New Features!

The main difference between this and previous releases of the Perceptor figure is the inclusion of a whole new accessory for his microscope. He comes with six microscope slides which have diverse sci fi imagery, ranging from fractals, solar flares and technorganic cell as well as a blueprint for Optimus Prime.



These six slides can be held by a case which can close.



This case, in the open formation, can be attached to Perceptor's back. It has four pegs which match with the already existing holes found on Perceptor's back.





Now, for viewing the slides themselves, I haven't found any review that has done this correctly. This is not how you are supposed to place the slide:



While you might think that they are made to fit on the chest plate (which still works visually if you want to pose him in microscope mode), this won't work and the instructions instead indicate that they must fit over the smaller mirror.



The slides indeed fit snugly over the mirror due to a molded indentation on the slide. The slide can only fit on the mirror when it is upside down.



The gimmick actually works since Perceptor retains his ability to be a working microscope. Here is a messed up view of what you might see.



Woah, let's back up a bit. Ok, so here is the tecnorganic cell slide placed on the mirror:



And here is how it looks under the microscope. You will notice that it is reflected upside down.



Now let's look at the Optimus slide. Here is what it looks like under the microscope.





Now let's talk about the casettes. This time around, it is not stickers used for the tapes but tampographs instead. Let me know if you notice anything strange with these:



I will let our own Scotty P take it from here to describe the intricacies of the changes with the casetttes:

ScottyP wrote:This Platinum Edition Eject has a tampo, and you've seen it before, but never on Eject. It's Ratbat's.

Here's SDCC 2009 Ratbat from the site galleries (though this is a sticker, you'll get the point):

Transformers Universe - Classics 2.0 Ratbat (Reissue) Gallery

Lastly, a note on Platinum Steeljaw's weapons. They actually have the chrome stop to allow for a nice, smooth connection to the body of the tape. This is awesome! This same feature disappointingly doesn't carry over to Ramhorn's weapons. I can't find myself lamenting Eject's guns being all chrome, since like most versions of the mold they don't stay in all that well anyhow.

So hope that helps any cassette collectors still on the fence with this one. There is one real, actual variant in here in Eject. Can't believe it took it being "in hand" for me to catch that!

Hopefully this helped highlight the new features as well as explain how to get the most out of this set. I know I am having a blast (pun intended)!

Go ahead, try and get some sleep tonight. Blaster will be there, watching, waiting, plotting....

carytheone wrote:

Blaster Face.jpg

Go ahead, try and get some sleep tonight. Blaster will be there, watching, waiting, plotting....

Meh; I've seen scarier, like that tm rhinox digibash sabr posted somewhere - now that, that was the stuff of nightmares' nightmare's

carytheone wrote:

Blaster Face.jpg

Go ahead, try and get some sleep tonight. Blaster will be there, watching, waiting, plotting....

As I am getting ready for bed....

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

carytheone wrote:

Blaster Face.jpg

Go ahead, try and get some sleep tonight. Blaster will be there, watching, waiting, plotting....

As I am getting ready for bed....

Then you definitely won't want to see that rhinox digibash...

HA! Found it - regretted it immediately:




That mustache gave me nightmare's for days

Will posted that, not me.

Sabrblade wrote:Will posted that, not me.

sorry, couldn't find it, couldn't remember where it was posted either

Thanks for the great pictorial review William-James88. Finally, someone explained and demonstrated Perceptor's new specimen-slide feature. It's interesting as a novelty and I'm glad that it is unobtrusive. We need more G1 re-issues like this set. Well done Hasbro!