Blaster revealed for Kingdom Wave 5 and the Hasbro Transformers Brand Team Wrap Up
Greg 
Today we got a chance to sit in with the Transformers brand team as well as a slew of other sites, podcasts and influencers. The biggest reveal from this two hour round table discussion and Q&A was saved for last, but you get it here first! Hasbro has confirmed that Kingdom Wave 5 should be hitting store shelves soon starting with the long awaited Blaster reveal. Blaster comes with Eject, who is Energon Infused which gives him a clear blue color scheme. He goes in Blaster’s tape deck door which opens as you’d expect. Click below to see some live pics during the reveal as well as the official product description.
Transformers: Generations War for Cybertron: Kingdom Voyager WFC-K44 Autobot Blaster & Eject
Product Description:
War for Cybertron: Kingdom Voyager WFC-K44 Autobot Blaster & Eject stands at 7 inches and is G1-inspired. The Autobot Blaster figure converts into classic G1-inspired radio mode in 20 steps and comes with a blaster accessory. Eject figure converts from robot to cassette mode in 8 steps and fits inside the Autobot Blaster figure’s chest. The figure includes a Golden Disk card that reveals a possible destiny of a key character. Collect other Kingdom figures to reveal all 3 alternate destiny variants for each character! (Each sold separately. Subject to availability.)
With the ancient and highly advanced F.O.S.S.I.L. (Fossilized Osteo-Skeletal Shield Integration Loadout) technology, Fossilizer bots, infused with primordial energy, break apart to weaponize their allies. Use Deluxe Fossilizer figures to beastify the Autobot Blaster figure with bone armor! (Sold separately, subject to availability.) Beastify the battlefield! Worlds collide when the Maximals and Predacons join the fight, coming together with the Autobots and Decepticons in an epic battle that will alter their destiny forever. Primal power floods the battlefield as the fierce beast modes of the Maximals and Predacons are unleashed!
The round table was a flurry of questions and discussions going around one at a time. Without going over each detail here is a quick summary of what we learned –
- There was a lot of talk about Menasor and the combiners in general. The main take away here is that this new iteration of combiner teams will NOT follow the path of the Comber Wars “Scramble City” style features where any robot could attach to any combiner. Instead, they are focusing more on the core aspects of the personalities and fiction regarding the toys, so Menasor will be Menasor. Some backwards compatibility *may* exist, but it’s purely incidental and was not a concerted effort. They didn’t want the new combiners to suffer from the gimmick of Scramble City style.
- When asked about Blaster earlier on before the reveal by one DJP’s son (who asked the BEST questions) it was hinted that Soundwave would likely be making an appearance.
- There were a variety of questions about Legacy and Generations selects. While nothing specific was mentioned, it was stated with enthusiasm that there is so much more to come.
- One of the things they’re trying out this time around is to really focus on the Legacy aspects of the line to view different characters through a different lens. This is going to be more than just a rehash of G1 which is why you don’t see G1 Optimus and Megatron in the first wave. They did mention that Optimus has a multitude of forms across all universes so we’ll be likely to see different versions of him.
- With the 20th anniversary of Armada here they said it was a certainty they are aware of this and would be remiss to ignore Armada in Legacy.
- Studio Series and SS 86 are not coming to an end any time soon
- One thing they were really passionate about is the box art that we all enjoy. They would love to see it used in other forms (book art, etc) at some point in the future, but nothing specifically slated yet.
- The main design philosophy in Legacy is to make sure the characters fit with each other on the shelf. So while we’ll see versions of characters from various lines such as Animated and Prime, they will not appear as they did in those segments because they would be out of place.
- They do listen to feedback about things like Bulkhead looking different. This is how the line is starting and there is a lot of room for changes and updates, so it’s not all just set in stone right out of the gate.
- Turn around time from concept to production is usually about 2 years
- Kingdom Wave 5 will start showing up on shelves on January 1st 2022
Full disclosure, that’s the extent of the information I was able to gather on this due to internet difficulties. At one point the internet cut out completely for about 15-20 minutes so I was unable to witness parts of the broadcast. My sincere apologies for that. In the end, most of the questions that asked if “x” or “y” was in the works most of the answers were smiling and nodding to let us know that we are all on the same page with what our expectations are.
The passion and love that these folks put into making this brand a reality for both kids and adult collectors is evident.
As always be sure to join in the discussion on our Allspark Forums and Discord, as well as follow us on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date with all the latest news.
