A retailer solicitation has popped up recently detailing the contents of wave five of United, which seems to have been put together at the last minute.

TRA GEN LEGACY UNI CORE BW DINOBOT
TRA GEN LEGACY UNI DLX G1 SURESHOT
TRA GEN LEGACY UNI DLX G2 BREAKDOWN
TRA GEN LEGACY UNI DLX ARMADA WHEELJACK
TRA GEN LEGACY UNI DLX COSMOS PR
TRA GEN LEGACY UNI VOY RAMJET PR
TRA GEN LEGACY UNI VOY TARN PR
TRA GEN LEGACY UNI LDR G1 OVERCHARGE
TRA GEN LEGACY UNI GALAXY SHUTTLE PR

The Core-class versions of Beast Wars Dinobot and Beast Machines Cheetor were reportedly removed from retail solicitations, but in-hand packaged samples of Cheetor have been popping up recently, and it looks like we're still getting Dinobot after all.

Sureshot was also pushed back, and fans feared he might have been cancelled. It's possible he had an engineering issue that needed to be addressed, or perhaps they simply shuffled things around so this entire wave wasn't entirely redeco toys.

G2 Breakdown is exciting, and speaks towards the idea that Hasbro seems to be planning to do all the G2 Stunticons eventually.

I'm guessing Armada Wheeljack might be a Kingdom Sideswipe redeco? It certainly wouldn't capture the rounded curvature of the Armada character's vehicle mode, but the Geewunnifications of newer characters don't usually take things like that into account.

It's great that Cosmos is finally being rotated back into circulation, and this time he'll be a full retail release, not just a Walmart exclusive. Hopefully more people will be able to find him this time.

Ramjet's package refresh is also good for the same reasons, since the Amazon-exclusive set with him and Dirge was also difficult for people to find. Here's hoping they make Thrust more widely-available as well, at some point.

Overcharge is almost certainly a Blitzwing redeco, and really it's just about the only way they can sell us the Blitzwing toy a second time that makes sense. I don't hate the idea of having the toy in Diaclone colors, but I hate the whole Quintesson origin they gave to the character. It's silly.

Was Galaxy Shuttle hard for people to find? Do people even *want* Galaxy Shuttle? I remember him going on clearance at Walmart with the rest of the Velocitron assortment. I figured people thought he was a dud.

Zob (still getting used to NovaBBS)

Zobovor wrote:

> I'm guessing Armada Wheeljack might be a Kingdom Sideswipe redeco? It certainly wouldn't capture the rounded curvature of the Armada character's vehicle mode, but the Geewunnifications of newer characters don't usually take things like that into account.

There was a pre-re-mold as Shattered Glass Sideswipe.

https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:SGCollectionSideswipe.jpg

> Overcharge is almost certainly a Blitzwing redeco, and really it's just about the only way they can sell us the Blitzwing toy a second time that makes sense. I don't hate the idea of having the toy in Diaclone colors, but I hate the whole Quintesson origin they gave to the character. It's silly.

I just hate the mold.

> Was Galaxy Shuttle hard for people to find? Do people even *want* Galaxy Shuttle? I remember him going on clearance at Walmart with the rest of the Velocitron assortment. I figured people thought he was a dud.

I think he got weirdly spotty distribution and was flooding some stores and not showing up in others at all. I saw somewhere that he costs crazy money on eBay.

I really like that they are making some of the harder to find toys easier to find. I hope the experiment goes well, and they are able to keep it up. I think Crasher is getting a regular release too. I will need to get my Ramjet out and check for yellowing.

> Zob (still getting used to NovaBBS)

Zobovor wrote:

> G2 Breakdown is exciting, and speaks towards the idea that Hasbro seems to be planning to do all the G2 Stunticons eventually.

Exciting if they use the box set deco, but no matter what they do that one is gonna be fire. That more than most releases really does belong in special 40 year anniversary presentation of some sort. It represents a historic moment for the brand. They should double down and do a plastic clamshell and G2 packaging. I will go back to dreaming.

GoBackaTron wrote:

> They should double down and do a plastic clamshell and G2 packaging. I will go back to dreaming.

If you're saying they should pay tribute to the original G2 packaging style, I agree it would be fitting. But that's, like, an all-plastic retail package with a tiny bit of cardboard, which is the exact opposite of how Hasbro packages toys these days.

But, I would love to see them design a commemorative trade dress that evokes the G2 logo and colors. After all, it's not just the 40th anniversary of Transformers——it's also the 30th anniversary of BotCon '94, which marked the debut of G2 Breakdown, the first convention exclusive.

At the very least, they should stick a tiny little BotCon '94 logo on the box somewhere.

Zob (needs to find my G2 Breakdown and put it in my Detolf case, now that I think about it)

Zobovor wrote:
> A retailer solicitation has popped up recently detailing the contents of wave five of United, which seems to have been put together at the last minute.

That's actually a really good observation. The latest leaks sure do seem like a course correction of sorts after the relatively light G1 offerings of 2024. I wonder if they really planned all the package refreshes to help out fans or if they need to save money in development and pad out the line. I wonder if the DEV listings are just cell shaded redecos of characters in the Devastation video game.

Actually when I first read these leaks all I thought was it some sort of fanwanky wish list fakery. This is the largest amount of package refreshes I have ever seen in one year and its stuff people have been very vocal about missing out on. It's like Hasbro was really listening to message boards and decided to address all the outstanding issues of the covid/post covid era collection shortages. Amazing how responsive they are when they're desperate for money.

Of course it could also be purposely leaked misinformation from their anti corporate espionage squad looking to see if they can spot where their leak is coming from (and gauge fan interest on these Original 13 and Combiner ideas). It just all seems too good to be true.