Transformers Beast Wars Reissues Retrax and Wolfang Found in an Endcap Display in the US

Emerje wrote:

o.supreme wrote:One Walmart near me got the endcap display of retro Retrax and Wolfgang. Still mostly full, dosen't seem to be a high demand. I just wonder how the decision was made to rerelease these? Maybe the molds wee easily accessible? I would have thought they'd stick with characters that appeared in the Mainframe animated series.

How long ago did your store get the endcap? I didn't realize these two were being found in stores, they aren't at my local stores.

Emerje

1. Emerge, they've only started appearing in stores a week ago.
2. O.supreme, that was in a california location right?
3.

o.supreme wrote:Wolfgang

same wolfgang who composed the magic flute?

Wow, I wasn't aware that was news ( thought others had seen them?). Sorry or I would have taken a picture myself. Yes it was the Walmart in my town of Citrus Heights. Cursed autocorrect on Wolfang

I've scanned both wolfang and the other. $28. No thanks, I'll wait till its marked down

I accidentally came across this end cap at a local Walmart in Missouri; totally caught me off guard. That's mostly because it was back towards the automotive stuff. That was this week.

SGM

Cheetron wrote:I've scanned both wolfang and the other. $28. No thanks, I'll wait till its marked down

In US dollars? Well, it's relatively in par with the new Canadian deluxe prices. IMO Wolfang is not worth full price.

Cheetron wrote:I've scanned both wolfang and the other. $28. No thanks, I'll wait till its marked down

Wow, I bought Wolfang on Walmart.com for $25 back in September, but now it's $28 on there now too. I was going to wait for Retrax to hit clearance since there's nothing wrong with my original one, but with the $3 price hike I might now have a better chance of getting it discounted.

Emerje

I meant to mention this in my original post, I actually bought Retrax from Hasbro Pulse during their sale and got him for $18.93 or some thing like that. I honestly didnt pay any attention to the price of Wolfang, I just bought him. Oh what the heck, !

SGM

Glad to see this? I will wait for Wolfgang to clear. I was just thinking I am surprised that Walmart didn't display cap the Velocitron figures given that was their big TF Exclusive. I was hoping that might get me the Cosmos I so want.

Had I known it was newsworthy I’d have taken photos of the pegs full of Wolfang and Retrax at my local The Warehouse branch when I first saw them in September or so!

They seem to be everywhere, because they were sighted near my realm as well. It's a neat idea to have a predacon that turns into a pill bug which can actually roll up. But it was poorly executed with the robot mode.

Flashwave wrote:Glad to see this? I will wait for Wolfgang to clear. I was just thinking I am surprised that Walmart didn't display cap the Velocitron figures given that was their big TF Exclusive. I was hoping that might get me the Cosmos I so want.

Hear, hear. No sign of Cosmos anywhere. For a 'walmart exclusive', Walmart has made a royal botch of stocking Cosmos. He's not even listed on their website anywhere, while every OTHER Velocitron figure is listed. If Walmart is 'supposed' to have this figure, they ought to list it on their webpage, even if only to say that it's out of stock.

DeathReviews wrote:They seem to be everywhere, because they were sighted near my realm as well. It's a neat idea to have a predacon that turns into a pill bug which can actually roll up. But it was poorly executed with the robot mode.

Up here in Québec, I was lucking enough to score a single Wolfang at Walmart.ca. The only BW reissues I've seen live in store are Primal, Megs, Cheetor, and Tigatron. That's it. The rest is either online, or bust. And speaking of bust, I never saw the online listings of K-9 and Cybershark.

As for Retrax, he's tons of fun, despite having his bot mode completely overwhelmed by his bug altmode and its gimmick. I'm sure you could separate the bot and the bug easily and have two separate toys.

For what it’s worth; despite the Beast Wars reissues being Walmart exclusives, I recently saw a reissue Tigatron at a GameStop in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:For what it’s worth; despite the Beast Wars reissues being Walmart exclusives, I recently saw a reissue Tigatron at a GameStop in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

I've seen many Rattraps and Cheetors at Marshall's for 16$CAN. If you missed out on any of those, you may want to check them out. Also Winners.

Wolfang has always been one of my favourite non-show beasts. I still have the original toy, but I’ll happily pick up the reissue to leave in box and hang on my wall.

I'd like to know which prophet at Hasbro figured out Retrax of all figures would be the best seller of all the Beast Wars reissues to date because that's some amazing foresight. The guy sold out quickly on Walmart.com and when I saw the display in person after it had apparently only been out for a couple days all that was left was five Wolfangs. I mean, I like him, he's one of my favorite figures from the original line, but I tend to lean into the more unusual Predacons (like Manterror, Injector and Scourge), but I consider myself the minority.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Triggerdick Megatron wrote:I would love to see Polar Claw reissued.

Considering they recolored Scorponok I'd like too see a proper Grizzly-1 figure. I completely disagree with Wikipedia calling Grizzly-1 and Barbearian the same "character" when one is a brown bear with yellow bot parts and the other is a black bear with white bot parts.

They are the same character, because both names refer to the same individual within fiction, just in different states; Grizzly-1 with the robot noggin, Barbearian with the mutant head and the berserk toxin going. Right there in the bio. He's not identical to the early prototype deco from the solicitation, but so it goes.

And speaking of said deco... 1. The "black" in the early solicitation art looks to be actually just a darkly shaded brown victimized by the screwy saturation. 2. There's still yellow bot bits in that solicitation art. In places the Botcon Japan toy has molded yellow, even. 3. The white/silver actually corresponds with where the Botcon Japan version of the deco used darker brown (robot lower legs, robot head, robot abdomen and pelvis).

o.supreme wrote:One Walmart near me got the endcap display of retro Retrax and Wolfgang. Still mostly full, dosen't seem to be a high demand. I just wonder how the decision was made to rerelease these? Maybe the molds wee easily accessible? I would have thought they'd stick with characters that appeared in the Mainframe animated series.

Pretty sure the non-show characters reissued have just been whoever else they happened to dig out in the course of rummaging for the show character molds.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:One Walmart near me got the endcap display of retro Retrax and Wolfgang. Still mostly full, dosen't seem to be a high demand. I just wonder how the decision was made to rerelease these? Maybe the molds wee easily accessible? I would have thought they'd stick with characters that appeared in the Mainframe animated series.

Can't say for Wolfgang, but don't underestimate the allure of a rolly-polly bug. I have no interest in the re-issues, but you bet I bought me a Retrax despite him being a terrible action figure.

I'd be more interested in Retrax's BWII redeco, Powerhug. Much nicer colors than Retrax's so-90s-it-hurts deco, and makes the pillbug mode umpteen kinds of adorable.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Triggerdick Megatron wrote:I would love to see Polar Claw reissued.

Considering they recolored Scorponok I'd like too see a proper Grizzly-1 figure. I completely disagree with Wikipedia calling Grizzly-1 and Barbearian the same "character" when one is a brown bear with yellow bot parts and the other is a black bear with white bot parts.

They are the same character, because both names refer to the same individual within fiction, just in different states; Grizzly-1 with the robot noggin, Barbearian with the mutant head and the berserk toxin going. Right there in the bio. He's not identical to the early prototype deco from the solicitation, but so it goes.

I don't see that as anything more than convenient name reuse for the bio. The preliminary art called Grizzly-1 and the figure released at BotCon Japan as Barbearian (or Barbearerian) on the box and Grizzly-1 on the bio card don't represent the same figure. I'll take it a step further and say either the bio was intended for the concept art and copy and pasted on to this figure or the figure was supposed to be based on the concept art and changed later because the first line in the bio refers to him as a black bear.

And speaking of said deco... 1. The "black" in the early solicitation art looks to be actually just a darkly shaded brown victimized by the screwy saturation. 2. There's still yellow bot bits in that solicitation art. In places the Botcon Japan toy has molded yellow, even. 3. The white/silver actually corresponds with where the Botcon Japan version of the deco used darker brown (robot lower legs, robot head, robot abdomen and pelvis).

1. If it were bad saturation then everything would have been darkened, not just the fur, and I don't see that being the case. Again, the bio refers to Grizzly-1 as a black bear.
2. Just the knees (which aren't accurate on the early Grizzly-1 art anyway) and the top of his head, the rest of the yellow is lighting from the bat being launched.
3. I don't see how that proves they're meant to be the same character, that just separates them even more.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Triggerdick Megatron wrote:I would love to see Polar Claw reissued.

Considering they recolored Scorponok I'd like too see a proper Grizzly-1 figure. I completely disagree with Wikipedia calling Grizzly-1 and Barbearian the same "character" when one is a brown bear with yellow bot parts and the other is a black bear with white bot parts.

They are the same character, because both names refer to the same individual within fiction, just in different states; Grizzly-1 with the robot noggin, Barbearian with the mutant head and the berserk toxin going. Right there in the bio. He's not identical to the early prototype deco from the solicitation, but so it goes.

I don't see that as anything more than convenient name reuse for the bio. The preliminary art called Grizzly-1 and the figure released at BotCon Japan as Barbearian (or Barbearerian) on the box and Grizzly-1 on the bio card don't represent the same figure.

Then you're seeing wrong, I'm afraid. According to Fumihiko Akiyama, the use of "Barbeareian" [sic] on the box was actually a goof. "Barbearian" was only ever supposed to be a pun in the bio. He is the only toy, the only character, to actually be released with and use the name Grizzly-1.
The preliminary art is ultimately just that, a preliminary art; it is no more a separate character than, say, Superion's prototype deco. Your liking it better doesn't make it a separate character.

Emerje wrote:I'll take it a step further and say either the bio was intended for the concept art and copy and pasted on to this figure or the figure was supposed to be based on the concept art and changed later because the first line in the bio refers to him as a black bear.

A. Fumihiko Akiyama's statement would seem to rule out the former, and the latter is just something that commonly happens with toys between concept art and release. B. Given the yellow on his snout, that could well mean "black bear" as in the species; being dark chocolate brown instead of fully jet black still fits with that.

Emerje wrote:

And speaking of said deco... 1. The "black" in the early solicitation art looks to be actually just a darkly shaded brown victimized by the screwy saturation. 2. There's still yellow bot bits in that solicitation art. In places the Botcon Japan toy has molded yellow, even. 3. The white/silver actually corresponds with where the Botcon Japan version of the deco used darker brown (robot lower legs, robot head, robot abdomen and pelvis).

1. If it were bad saturation then everything would have been darkened, not just the fur, and I don't see that being the case. Again, the bio refers to Grizzly-1 as a black bear.
2. Just the knees (which aren't accurate on the early Grizzly-1 art anyway) and the top of his head, the rest of the yellow is lighting from the bat being launched.
3. I don't see how that proves they're meant to be the same character, that just separates them even more.

Emerje

1. I might have been using the wrong word. The main point is that it looks more like brown with excessive shading than black. Admittedly, it would be nice to have a scan of a non-discolored copy of the solicitation. As for the bio, see what I said above.
2. No, there's also some yellow spots on his chest that can't be accounted for by just lighting (Which also seems to come from the yellow bacground). And the kneecaps and top of the head are areas that still got molded in yellow. The other areas, it's hard to tell because of the art taking excessive liberties (the bat is freaking triplicated - it's present as itself, the weapon, and the foreleg all at once! You don't see that bs with Scorponok's bee... the bat's head and body are colored like its wings, which is a cheat mold-wise... the hands and robot toes are drawn as furry...). Point is, the concept still indisputably shows yellow in places where the final toy has it molded. So, yellow was always in the plan and in at least some of the same spots.
3. That was more me pointing out an additional fault in your contrasting the white with yellow: it doesn't even correspond to the yellow in the first place. What proves they're meant to be the same character is the deliberate, intentional use of the Grizzly-1 name for the final toy.
Additionally, (and this was my overall point in breaking down the deco comparison)... the prototype deco seems closer to the final in the first place than you're giving it credit for.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Then you're seeing wrong, I'm afraid. According to Fumihiko Akiyama, the use of "Barbeareian" [sic] on the box was actually a goof. "Barbearian" was only ever supposed to be a pun in the bio. He is the only toy, the only character, to actually be released with and use the name Grizzly-1.
The preliminary art is ultimately just that, a preliminary art; it is no more a separate character than, say, Superion's prototype deco. Your liking it better doesn't make it a separate character.

OK, I'll admit I've learned something since I haven't seen those comments posted anywhere before. The way it was used in the bio as "the 'Barbearian'" certainly made it look like a pun. Part of the problem here is TFWiki is uncharacteristically lacking in actual details and brushes off the name uses with "who cares?" instead of detailing the error like you did.

Emerje wrote:I'll take it a step further and say either the bio was intended for the concept art and copy and pasted on to this figure or the figure was supposed to be based on the concept art and changed later because the first line in the bio refers to him as a black bear.

A. Fumihiko Akiyama's statement would seem to rule out the former, and the latter is just something that commonly happens with toys between concept art and release. B. Given the yellow on his snout, that could well mean "black bear" as in the species; being dark chocolate brown instead of fully jet black still fits with that.

I'm aware of the species variations, but when someone writes "black" you expect black. Grizzlies are brown bears, not black bears. And I realize that contradicts what I've been saying about the concept art being black since it's also called Grizzly-1, but I see what I see.

I'm actually starting to think they modeled the BotCon Japan figure off the Asian black bear which is dark brown with yellow patterns. That way both the bio and the figure match.



I'm still not seeing it as being very close to the concept art. It still appears to me as black fur, mostly black and white bot parts, and some yellow parts highlights. I'd like to see that replicated as a figure, but I now realize that wouldn't actually be possible with the way the parts are laid out.

Emerje

Me, skipping all these weird wall-o-texts, simply hoping for a Transmetal 2 Dragon Megatron reissue.

Emerje wrote:Part of the problem here is TFWiki is uncharacteristically lacking in actual details and brushes off the name uses with "who cares?" instead of detailing the error like you did.

The error is noted in the page's Notes section.

But I heard your criticisms and made the necessary edits. That old intro was written all the way back in 2006 during the Wikia days. There's a lot of messes from back then that the current contributors (myself included) are still trying to clean up.

Just gonna jump in and say i would love a bear mold reissue, i want that mold in some capacity

So while I was out and about yesterday I found one of my Walmarts with a decent selection of BW reissues: some Wolfgang, some Retrax, and some Terrorsaur. I noticed some things: like Rattrap from a year or two ago, Terrorsaur is on a smaller card back and has a separate UPC than the other reissues. This begs the question: why the hell are these Basic figures priced like deluxes? He is visibly smaller than the others near him. Is this Hasbro's greed or Walmart?

Also, I didn't notice at the time, but when I checked out, Wolfang came out to $28 before tax. That's $3 more than modern deluxes for a 25 year old toy with half the parts count. Looking back, the Cybershark I got a few months ago may have also been similarly overpriced, I remember thinking he was a lot but I don't remember how much.

Is this the standard price for them? Looking at my pictures, I don't have a photo of their shelf tag, only Terrorsaur's, which shows as $25 (which is still too much). I'm assuming "Tra Action Figure" is for something else, not the BW deluxes. I could go back and check.

Considering that small TF like Cliffjumper are priced as "deluxes", it's no wonder the "basics" are deluxes too. Plus consider that ironically, Rattrap was remade from scratch and is full of mechanical parts so that drive up the price.

As for why Wolfang is 35$ instead of 25$, it's the price increase hitting. Be thankful that US Walmarts (or at least yours) didn't retroactively applied that price increase on ALL the older toys too. Like they did in Canada, especially at Toys R Us.

Wolfang was $28, I moved some stuff around to get a picture of all 3 figures so only Terrorsaur is on the right spot. I thought Retrax and Wolfang were both on the 25 UPC but that may be for something else.

The Beast Wars reissues got bumped up from $25 to $28 sometime between Retrax and Wolfang shipping from Walmart.com and them showing up in stores. I definitely got Wolfang for $25 online. Both of those completely sold out in my area days after the displays showed up. I hope they restock a ton of them and they go to clearance because I'd like to get at least one Retrax to keep on card to go with my loose vintage one.

Emerje

If in US$, not too bad.
If in CAN$, That's an amazing deal!

I was able to get 2 vintage Optimus Primals at 9$ CAD each. Kept one MISB for my collection and gifted the other to a kids in need program. Hopefully I helped that 9 year old boy have a good christmas.

All the Wave 1 Vintage Beast Wars toys have been long gone from my Walmarts since the end of 2021.

They need to bring the price on Primal and Megatron down much more. They were $25 online at walmart.com a few months back. It is odd because not every store ordered these, but the ones that did, had a huge overstock. I dont know what it is about the vintage toys (original or BW), but their price by far exceeds inflation and cost of rise of materials. I know we've been through all the numbers before and projections but it dosen't add up.

Still, for the toys to sell at any decent rate, they basically have to come down to what their price was in 1996, which means someone is losing money, and its not a viable long term strategy, which is why I refrain form getting them . (Not that Hasbro ever intended to re release every OG BW toy, but their character selection since the first wave seems to be completely random) I still see deluxes (mostly Wolfang and Retrax)in the clearance aisle now, but still asking $28!!! That is crazy! $10 was the right price when they originally came out in the 90's, I wouldn't expect to may more than $20 for any BW deluxe TODAY. Plus making a "Basic" the same price as a deluxe is just insulting.

I think pricing them the same as Generations Deluxe figures was the right move for them. I know paying Deluxe prices for Basics isn't great, but with them having to remake the figures and add in the auto changing feature I think they did the best they could with the price. Why they bounced the price up to $28 I can't say, but I guess it's still cheaper than G1 reissue prices. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

When my local Walmart took down the winter display around a week before Christmas didn't put what was left back in the toy aisle until a few weeks into January. Just one Retrax and three Wolfangs. They were hanging off the corner of the back endcap near the Transformers, now they're on the top shelf over the MotU figures.

Emerje