With Hot Rod now Sighted, all of Transformers Kingdom has Been Found at US Retail

Too slow, America.

I ( or rather my family, I was at work) just finally spotted Slammer and Pipes in store at a local Walmart on Friday. So Blaster and Core Hotrod are the only ones I've not seen in store, but again as mentioned, those are reappearing in Legacy, so not to worry for those that wanted them.

I think the issue was more last year. I never saw ER wave 3 Deluxes, or Voyagers in store. They were easy enough to get online,but still, I wonder where they all went. I got Fasttrack from Amazon Last year, but I saw that he was actually a clearance item at Best Buy online. How about actually putting some product in store? People will buy it.

One would be think repacks for future lines would be based on what was the hardest to find and is the most in demand. ER Arcee and Wheeljack don't seem to fit that Description, and I think I only ever saw ER Prime in Kingdom packaging Once, so I'm not sure if that even made a difference or not.


Putting tail enders like Blaster and Core Hotrod are always a good choice. It worked out well for most of us that never saw Siege Astrotrain to get him in ER. Same with Rung. Singe though....not so fortunate. Thankfully his price seems to have come down in the secondary market.

I agree, ER was worse. Wave 3 was really weird. And the exclusives were on another level of hard to find where even pre-ordering online was not a given for getting a toy. Glad Kingdom is better for everyone than ER was.

william-james88 wrote:I agree, ER was worse. Wave 3 was really weird. And the exclusives were on another level of hard to find where even pre-ordering online was not a given for getting a toy. Glad Kingdom is better for everyone than ER was.

I've bought two Blasters (one for a buddy) in store. I had to get Sunstreaker from BBTS. Just to help make your point.

william-james88 wrote:I agree, ER was worse. Wave 3 was really weird. And the exclusives were on another level of hard to find where even pre-ordering online was not a given for getting a toy. Glad Kingdom is better for everyone than ER was.

Other than finding Earthrise Arcee at a Walgreens once, the ONLY time I ever saw any figures from wave three on store shelves was at my local Aldi of all places. Got the Alicon, Smokescreen and Airwave then. Kingdom has definitely been much easier to collect and find, with the only figures in store i haven't seen being Commander Rodimus, Titan Ark, Pipes, Slammer, and the new Blaster and core Hot Rod. (And in the latter 2, I haven't been to any store recently so they may very well be on shelves where I am and I don't know it.)

Slashercon wrote:Other than finding Earthrise Arcee at a Walgreens once, the ONLY time I ever saw any figures from wave three on store shelves was at my local Aldi of all places. Got the Alicon, Smokescreen and Airwave then. Kingdom has definitely been much easier to collect and find, with the only figures in store i haven't seen being Commander Rodimus, Titan Ark, Pipes, Slammer, and the new Blaster and core Hot Rod. (And in the latter 2, I haven't been to any store recently so they may very well be on shelves where I am and I don't know it.)

Not to be too technical, but those examples you sighted were from ER wave 2 not 3. But no big deal. I know a few people found wave 2 somewhat hard to find as well.

Also, you reminded me, I *technically* never saw Kingdom Rodimus in store either, but I got it from Amazon shortly after it came out, and it has been readily available, even at a discounted rate on many sites, so not seeing that particular item in store wasn't a big loss.

I don't think I've heard any complaints about anyone wanting Kingdom Rodimus, and not having it due to lack of availability.

Slashercon wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I agree, ER was worse. Wave 3 was really weird. And the exclusives were on another level of hard to find where even pre-ordering online was not a given for getting a toy. Glad Kingdom is better for everyone than ER was.

Other than finding Earthrise Arcee at a Walgreens once, the ONLY time I ever saw any figures from wave three on store shelves was at my local Aldi of all places. Got the Alicon, Smokescreen and Airwave then. Kingdom has definitely been much easier to collect and find, with the only figures in store i haven't seen being Commander Rodimus, Titan Ark, Pipes, Slammer, and the new Blaster and core Hot Rod. (And in the latter 2, I haven't been to any store recently so they may very well be on shelves where I am and I don't know it.)

You're mixing up waves 2 and 3. Wave 3 was Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, Fasttrack and Runamuck. Wave 2 was scarce enough, wave 3 was almost non-existent.

There were some ER figures that I never saw on shelves anywhere, like Trailbreaker and Sunstreaker. But generally, I saw at least SOME of every figure in the Kingdom line. The WFC lines have been an odd journey. But I admit I got kind of used to their consistency. It'll be interesting and possibly a little jarring to go back to Transformers lines that aren't bound to each other, and thus, will probably have some inconsistency...

DeathReviews wrote:There were some ER figures that I never saw on shelves anywhere, like Trailbreaker and Sunstreaker. But generally, I saw at least SOME of every figure in the Kingdom line. The WFC lines have been an odd journey. But I admit I got kind of used to their consistency. It'll be interesting and possibly a little jarring to go back to Transformers lines that aren't bound to each other, and thus, will probably have some inconsistency...

I feel the past 6 yearly generations lines have had some consistency, even though characters repeat. We have had through lines all across them. I think it will be the same with Legacy and whatever comes next where deluxe Kickback would be in scale with Combiner Wars Silverbolt.

william-james88 wrote:I feel the past 6 yearly generations lines have had some consistency, even though characters repeat. We have had through lines all across them. I think it will be the same with Legacy and whatever comes next where deluxe Kickback would be in scale with Combiner Wars Silverbolt.

I would agree with that mostly in that Prime Wars (Trilogy), and WFC (Trilogy) (2015-2021) (7 production years years and 6 lines...eerily *almost* mirroring the original series in terms of time) as they were basically under the same design team the whole time, and slowly brought things more and more into focus with the original series, and giving occasional nods to other series.

What about T30 though? (mid 2013-2014). I know it was a mixed bag, and was the last line designed by Archer before transitioning to Warden. I feel some of it works with current year Generations, and some do not.

o.supreme wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I feel the past 6 yearly generations lines have had some consistency, even though characters repeat. We have had through lines all across them. I think it will be the same with Legacy and whatever comes next where deluxe Kickback would be in scale with Combiner Wars Silverbolt.

I would agree with that mostly in that Prime Wars (Trilogy), and WFC (Trilogy) (2015-2021) (7 production years years and 6 lines...eerily *almost* mirroring the original series in terms of time) as they were basically under the same design team the whole time, and slowly brought things more and more into focus with the original series, and giving occasional nods to other series.

What about T30 though? (mid 2013-2014). I know it was a mixed bag, and was the last line designed by Archer before transitioning to Warden. I feel some of it works with current year Generations, and some do not.

Legacy is just a continuation. There is zero daylight between those figures and these in terms of design and scale.

Artist Ken Christiansen has a pretty cool job and has been featured several times in our articles. He draws the initial design for Transformers toys before any actual toy design (like CAD file) is drafted. He basically draws a character in both modes for the the Hasbro designers to then use as a basis for the toy's design. And below we see the initial design of Tigatron and Cheetor in their alt modes, which Ken posted on Facebook. It had been rumoured that Tigatron was initially supposed to just be a redeco of Cheetor in the Kingdom line but it was then chosen that he would get a new voyager class mold and a seperate character would be a Cheetor redeco (which turned out to be Shadow Panther). These were just rumours of course, but these drawings from Ken definitely bring some more truth to them since the beast mode for Tigatron is, as Ken puts it, a "new tiger head sketch and recolor over the Cheetor concept".

I can't wait to get Core Hot Rod. I am excited for him.

Soundwave is pretty neat. I find him more fun in boombox mode than robot mode honestly. I think I prefer Megatron to him.

Got Kingdom Rhinox. I almost didnt But I was getting sick of T30's loose legs. Whoever at Hasbro came up with the leg transformation. Should be hung by there toes and used as a Pinata. I wanted to try and swap the Thrilling 30's Show accurate head with the Kingdom head but that Kingdom Head won't budge

Kingdom Rhinox is one of those figures that I transformed to alt mode once and vowed to never do so again

Feels good to have the season-one Maximal cast, at least. I'm looking forward and hoping to complete the Predacon side, as well. Once I get Terrorsaur from Pulse all I'll need is Inferno and Tarantulas!

Autobot N wrote:Kingdom Rhinox is one of those figures that I transformed to alt mode once and vowed to never do so again

Lawl same.

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:

Autobot N wrote:Kingdom Rhinox is one of those figures that I transformed to alt mode once and vowed to never do so again

Lawl same.

I guess I'm a masochist, I've transformed mine 4 times now. The first, using Hasbro's instructions was the worst, by far. I'm not sure where they went wrong, but some of their steps just didn't make sense. The second and third weren't too bad once I generally knew where everything went and how to get it there. It was also pretty soon after the first time. This was a month or 2 ago. The 4th was last night and not as pleasant, mainly because I forgot what order I did the legs. I eventually stumbled into it. He's back in bot mode now. I store them in totes in alt mode, so there will eventually be a 5th, I'm just not looking forward to it that much.

Edit: That being said, he's still pushing floppy-assed T30 Rhinox to the ebay pile.

Autobot N wrote:Kingdom Rhinox is one of those figures that I transformed to alt mode once and vowed to never do so again

I thought the same, I just don't like the transformation on him. Plus, there are issues with the chest that I don't like either. He's strange, he feels like what the T30 should have been in terms of stylization and T30 is closer to what they were going for for this line.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:

Autobot N wrote:

Edit: That being said, he's still pushing floppy-assed T30 Rhinox to the ebay pile.

I agree it felt good putting that floppy piece of crap in the closet and replacing him with a toy with actual heft and stiff leg joints

I just picked up Blaster and I gotta say, he's a very solid figure. Only issue I have with him is the lack of blast effect pegs on the gun, and on the molded jetpack section. Eject on the other hand feels just a tad loose, but otherwise he's also pretty neat.

Is there a good comparison pic of Kingdom and G1 Eject? I had heard he's better-sized than the SIEGE Frenzy and Rumble jokes but I'm not so sure of that after seeing a pic of him next to one of them. The WFC tapedeck bots are... frustrating. I had had some hope for Blaster after what I heard about Eject, but now I don't know.

Autobot_Benz wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

TOO MUCH ENERGON! wrote:

Autobot N wrote:

Edit: That being said, he's still pushing floppy-assed T30 Rhinox to the ebay pile.

I agree it felt good putting that floppy piece of crap in the closet and replacing him with a toy with actual heft and stiff leg joints

*shrug* Heft is only worth so much IMO, and loose joints can always be tightened. But I suppose people dumping theirs will lower the price on the T30 for me when I go hunting for it, so I can't complain too loudly.

I can however complain that Kingdom Mirage was stupid as hell and should have only changed the outer calf pieces. Or even just been the SIEGE mold but with the clear plastic opaqued. But no, Hasbro dropped way more new parts money than they needed to to make the altmode more earthly... with the result being an overall worse-designed figure with a worse deco. I pity everyone who just wanted the BW Grimlock update.
I'll agree that SIEGE Mirage's use of transparent plastic for the outer calves is something of a problem, since I've had to make a few repairs... but hooooo boy are the design tradeoffs on the Kingdom version not worth replacing him with that one.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Is there a good comparison pic of Kingdom and G1 Eject?

Emgo compared them (cassette, robot). Kingdom Eject is about the same size as the Siege cassettes and a bit smaller than the G1 versions.

Omegatron. wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Is there a good comparison pic of Kingdom and G1 Eject?

Emgo compared them (cassette, robot). Kingdom Eject is about the same size as the Siege cassettes and a bit smaller than the G1 versions.

Damn it.

Wish Amazon would hurry up and get more Golden Disk Terrorsaur in stock for shipping.

Autobot_Benz wrote:Wish Amazon would hurry up and get more Golden Disk Terrorsaur in stock for shipping.

I am hoping Pulse would hurry up and ship him out period

Greetings Programs....I just opened up my Rodimus Prime as I was led that I bought it MISB which I have doubt.

So for those of you that got yours was the core figure Hot Rod simply wrapped up in bubble wrap and just resting in the box without plastic ties?

In my box it was the only item without tie strings. Lets see what the seller has to say...thanks people!

There is no core Hot Rod for the Commander Class Kingdom Rodimus

The Rodimus vehicle is just Rodimus not Hot Rod. And should be tied down in the box next to the trailer. Not in bubble wrap.


Make sure you got this:



Not this:

Overcracker wrote:There is no core Hot Rod for the Commander Class Kingdom Rodimus

The Rodimus vehicle is just Rodimus not Hot Rod. And should be tied down in the box next to the trailer. Not in bubble wrap.

I think what he meant by "core" bot is not the Core class, but the main bot for the set.

If there is no toy-swapping shenanigans happening, it's all right.
But no way in hell it is "Mint In SEALED Box".

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Overcracker wrote:There is no core Hot Rod for the Commander Class Kingdom Rodimus

The Rodimus vehicle is just Rodimus not Hot Rod. And should be tied down in the box next to the trailer. Not in bubble wrap.

I think what he meant by "core" bot is not the Core class, but the main bot for the set.

If there is no toy-swapping shenanigans happening, it's all right.
But no way in hell it is "Mint In SEALED Box".

That's exactly what I meant Kanrabat thanks...clearly a poor choice term on my end.

No surprise that the seller has not answered my message regarding this but I will allow some more time.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Overcracker wrote:There is no core Hot Rod for the Commander Class Kingdom Rodimus

The Rodimus vehicle is just Rodimus not Hot Rod. And should be tied down in the box next to the trailer. Not in bubble wrap.

I think what he meant by "core" bot is not the Core class, but the main bot for the set.

If there is no toy-swapping shenanigans happening, it's all right.
But no way in hell it is "Mint In SEALED Box".

Yeah. did not mean a core class vehicle. I mean the one and only car in the set is actually Rodimus, not Hot Rod.

As long as you have the correct vehicle you are fine.

But yes as mentioned by Kanrabat, its not MISB. MIB maybe. They likely just took out the Rodimus car and then put it back wrapped in bubblewrap.

As long as nothing is broken....

Yeah Overcracker I figured as much...thanks!

I really think this is the first time I've received an item on eBay that was listed as "new" and "misb" and it clearly was not. The figure itself looked like it was simply transformed to and back again but the spoiler part and the 2 panels on the spoiler all were not tabbed on and of course missing the ties.

The seller hasn't commented yet and if they don't the best I could do I guess is to give a negative feedback. I'm down with buying "used" or "just opened to inspect" or even "just transformed only once then back into box" but if it's New then damnation mean it.

What an awesome feel you get when you grip that MISP item that you know you bought!

There's weirdness going on with Terrorsaur on Pulse. His listing says he's no longer a preorder, and my order for him says it should has shipped yesterday but didn't, meanwhile I also got an email saying he got pushed back to the 15th despite that being reflected nowhere on Pulse actual.

Anyone else get anything?

Nemesis Primal wrote:There's weirdness going on with Terrorsaur on Pulse. His listing says he's no longer a preorder, and my order for him says it should has shipped yesterday but didn't, meanwhile I also got an email saying he got pushed back to the 15th despite that being reflected nowhere on Pulse actual.

Anyone else get anything?

I got the same email. I wouldn't panic yet--it's not showing as a pre-order anymore because the preorder date has passed, and it's still sold out so they're not taking any more orders now anyway. They don't have it to ship yet, so as long as they're still getting them, we'll see them later. If that wasn't happening, I expect they'd just cancel the pre-orders outright.

I can't confirm for all of the Golden Disk sets, but I recall that at least some of them were available to order and ship on Pulse once the stock arrived as part of their "Back in Stock" availability.

It's still such a shame that the Airazor mold suffered such degradation in its Golden Disk Terrorsaur release, with the universal problem of one of the wings popping off.

Sabrblade wrote:It's still such a shame that the Airazor mold suffered such degradation in its Golden Disk Terrorsaur release, with the universal problem of one of the wings popping off.

Before you can claim that:

- how many pieces are different between the two?
- how many of said pieces are actually affected?

It could simply be a case of different colors having different tolerances, or new pieces not having their tolerances properly tweaked.

The wings are new, so it can't be degradation. It's probably one of the things jelze said. Mine still hasn't shipped, it just says "order received". But I ordered it from Amazon, not Pulse.

Terrosaur's wings pop off easily because they are designed with safety in mind. A pin at that hinge would have made some kind of scissors that could lead to potential injuries.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Terrosaur's wings pop off easily because they are designed with safety in mind. A pin at that hinge would have made some kind of scissors that could lead to potential injuries.

I don't have him yet, but it could be that, breakage... or maybe they just skipped a tolerance pass, like they seem to have done with Jackpot

-Kanrabat- wrote:Terrosaur's wings pop off easily because they are designed with safety in mind. A pin at that hinge would have made some kind of scissors that could lead to potential injuries.

Yes, we also saw that with RID Starscream. It's a feature, not a bug.

Rtron wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Terrosaur's wings pop off easily because they are designed with safety in mind. A pin at that hinge would have made some kind of scissors that could lead to potential injuries.

I don't have him yet, but it could be that, breakage... or maybe they just skipped a tolerance pass, like they seem to have done with Jackpot

Nothing "break". It's made that way on purpose. It's annoying, but it better wings that pop off and back on easily than... this:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Rtron wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Terrosaur's wings pop off easily because they are designed with safety in mind. A pin at that hinge would have made some kind of scissors that could lead to potential injuries.

I don't have him yet, but it could be that, breakage... or maybe they just skipped a tolerance pass, like they seem to have done with Jackpot

Nothing "break". It's made that way on purpose. It's annoying, but it better wings that pop off and back on easily than... this:

I mean breakage as in "to avoid breakage". I know it's done on purpose. But there's usually a sweet spot of how much force it takes to pop out. If it pops out too easily, it's not working as intended either.

Rtron wrote:
I mean breakage as in "to avoid breakage". I know it's done on purpose. But there's usually a sweet spot of how much force it takes to pop out. If it pops out too easily, it's not working as intended either.

That we agree on. You just have to look at the thing for it to pop off. The overall design could have been better.

The thing is, there is no tolerance on the peg of the one wing that keeps popping off. Airazor, Skywarp, and Terrorsaur's other wing all use the same pegs that hold their wings in place just fine. But the one wing of Terrorsaur's that keeps popping off is held only by the peg's slippery friction. It has no "catch" to keep the wing securely attached. That part of the peg is smooth and curves inward instead of out-then-inward like on the pegs of Airazor's wings, Skywarp's wings, and Terrorsaur's good wing.

Rtron wrote:The wings are new, so it can't be degradation. It's probably one of the things jelze said. Mine still hasn't shipped, it just says "order received". But I ordered it from Amazon, not Pulse.

Amazon updated the delivery date New estimated delivery date:
Friday, March 18, 2022 - Friday, March 25, 2022. Lets see if they actually ship it this time

Sabrblade wrote:The thing is, there is no tolerance on the peg of the one wing that keeps popping off. Airazor, Skywarp, and Terrorsaur's other wing all use the same pegs that hold their wings in place just fine. But the one wing of Terrorsaur's that keeps popping off is held only by the peg's slippery friction. It has no "catch" to keep the wing securely attached. That part of the peg is smooth and curves inward instead of out-then-inward like on the pegs of Airazor's wings, Skywarp's wings, and Terrorsaur's good wing.

So we're talking about the end piece of the wing that swings in and out, not the hinges for front and back/up and down? Sounds like a slight fault with that particular wing mold, resulting in the peg functioning more like a regular 5mm peg.

... and I just read that Terrorsaur wings have a potential to be misassembled, the classic L/R switch for the connectors to the body. Lovely.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:... and I just read that Terrorsaur wings have a potential to be misassembled, the classic L/R switch for the connectors to the body. Lovely.

Now that is fixable. The midsections of the wings are upside-down, but can be easily popped off and popped back on right-side-up.

I also got the email about Terrorsaur being delayed, but then immediately an email saying I got the wrong email, so who knows at this point.

I did order a Core Hot Rod from pulse. just waiting on him to ship....

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I did order a Core Hot Rod from pulse. just waiting on him to ship....

I'm still waiting for my Core Hot Rod to ship from Pulse too. Seems to be taking a long time for something that was in stock.

Wolfman Jake wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I did order a Core Hot Rod from pulse. just waiting on him to ship....

I'm still waiting for my Core Hot Rod to ship from Pulse too. Seems to be taking a long time for something that was in stock.

They've already charged me and I can't cancel the order, so I guess there's just some kind of fulfillment delay. BB Kup hasn't been charged but also can't be cancelled, so there might bea similar hold up there.