Better late than never? This afternoon, the calls for action from interested collectors in Europe and the UK have finally been answered, as an official channel has opened for them to be able to support the HasLab Unicron campaign. Kapow Toys has announced via Facebook that they have become an authorized outlet for the project, apparently to be the only one for that part of the world.
The order page on Kapow's website isn't activated just yet, but they have noted their end of the campaign will end on October 6th, when the extension on Hasbro Pulse and other partner retailers will conclude. While this does give a little over two weeks for fans to come up with what's sure to be a considerable chunk of money to throw behind this, it's certainly preferable to never having the option officially at all. As of posting time, preorder pricing was not known.
Since shortly after Hasbro announced the extension of the project's funding period, progress has slowed drastically from the strong pace it was taking in what were to have been its final days. Still needing over 3,000 backers to make the goal in just 18 days, even with Europe now able to offer support, success still feels distant at this point.
Yeeeeesss, those hands, to crush everything, to destroy everyone ?
1 hour ago, LEx Maximus said:they seems good shots, hope it will be movable and not blocky... or will be a waste of money...
That thing has a ton of joints look at the hands.
they seems good shots, hope it will be movable and not blocky... or will be a waste of money...
5 hours ago, LEx Maximus said:Great, did u see the test shots?
On the couch? Yes
On 5/7/2020 at 5:33 PM, TMan978 said:Same
Great, did u see the test shots?
5 hours ago, LEx Maximus said:Already preorder, hoping everything will be done accurately
Same
Already preorder, hoping everything will be done accurately
After a much longer campaign period than anyone expected to go through, and with only barely more than 24 hours remaining, it appears that Unicron has made it. As of 10:20pm Eastern Time, War For Cybertron Unicron has surpassed its minimum backer requirement of 8,000 to begin production.
War For Cybertron Unicron has just about five days left to reach its backer requirement in order to proceed to production. This morning the project got a substantial boost, jumping a full thousand backers to nearly 6,800. The sudden boost should be the result of including at least some of the international orders received during the extension period.
On 8/30/2019 at 4:09 PM, TMan978 said:I don't know I'm just happy that they changed the deadline for the people that want and can afford this
Oh I'm glad they did it, I just wonder if the redundancy was already built in. I hope it gets though but with how many parts of the fandom are acting, it will amaze me if Hasbro don't just put doing something like this for Transformers fans in the "too hard/too much grief/not worth it" basket with the way so many people have acted. It's like this entire venture has exposed the inner Veruca Salt of far too many people in the community, who don't want to understand the intricacies of the toy industry at play here - or that when you break down the materials costs, this is proportionately equal value to a Titan Class figure.
Better late than never? This afternoon, the calls for action from interested collectors in Europe and the UK have finally been answered, as an official channel has opened for them to be able to support the HasLab Unicron campaign. Kapow Toys has announced via Facebook that they have become an authorized outlet for the project, apparently to be the only one for that part of the world.
The deadline extension has now hit Japan! Japanese preorders continue until 10/4
4 hours ago, sabercyclone41 said:What's the bet that much like a false floor in a house, the August 31 deadline was a false deadline that they put out there in the hopes it would get done, but secretly had October 6 as a fallback this whole time, just in case?
I don't know I'm just happy that they changed the deadline for the people that want and can afford this
6 hours ago, BaCon said:Fans, you have been heard. Hasbro saw all the people saying they wanted to back this project, but didn't have to the funds yet and have officially extended the funding deadline more than a month to Sunday October 6, 2019! With over 5,000 backers already, this practically guarantees Unicron will be made! BACKER DEADLINE IS OFFICIALLY EXTENDED! TRANSFORMERS fans.
What's the bet that much like a false floor in a house, the August 31 deadline was a false deadline that they put out there in the hopes it would get done, but secretly had October 6 as a fallback this whole time, just in case?
14 hours ago, TMan978 said:
??????
17 minutes ago, sabercyclone41 said:That Galvatron figure is massively out of scale when you compare it to the animation in the 1986 movie. They would have been far better off making it the size of the RX-7 that comes with Soul of Chogokin Gunbuster, which from memory is roughly only 0.5cm tall (1/5").
3 hours ago, BaCon said:Hasbro is introducing more movie accuracy to the Bringer of Chaos. Just revealed, the legendary Unicron will come with interchangeable chins, allowing fans to switch back and forth between a smooth chin and a goatee-style chin, just like in the 1986 Transformers The Movie. Now, the infamous Planet Eater is ready for any scene!The colossal Unicron will also come with a Galvatron slug figure so fans can pose out epic movie scenes with the two villains.
That Galvatron figure is massively out of scale when you compare it to the animation in the 1986 movie. They would have been far better off making it the size of the RX-7 that comes with Soul of Chogokin Gunbuster, which from memory is roughly only 0.5cm tall (1/5").
IT DOESNT DO HE ABDOMINAL THING !!!!! WTF YALL IS MISSING THE POINT !!! IT HAS TO DO THE ABDOMINAL THING!!! AND IT HAS NO CROTCH FOLDING FEATURE !! HIS HIPS HAS TO SPREAD THEN COMES DOWN THE CROTCH , AS GALVATRON IS MOUNTED ON IT , HE BEHOLDS THE SIX RED GEMS THAT FOLD OUT IN WHAT SEEMS TO BE UNICRONS RED GLOWING ABS !! GLOWING !!! DIGESTION CHAMBER !!!!!!
A new backer every two minutes until the campaign ends. Based on math done by John DeLuna of Radio Free Cybertron, that's what it will take to get Unicron made. An infusion of backers from affiliated retail partners around the world was added to the HasLab counter Monday evening, boosting Unicron from just under 3,300 backers to nearly 5,000.
18 hours ago, diecast17 said:I think they are avoiding some questions.
What more needs to be asked? The main important question is, if they don't meet the goal will they still make it and they said no.
It's well articulated, can stand without the stand, has a lot of details, Siege effects works on it, the paint will be as close as possible to what we see, you should transform it on the stand, it's 19 pounds, no lights and sounds, the head comes off, it has transformation elements from the animation, the eyeballs move, the faceplate can be changed, it has moving mandibles in planet mode drama it's over 2 ft tall and the really wide. What's the other questions?
I think they are avoiding some questions.
Watching that video made me want to cry. Two reasons. Number 1 I don't have the money to put on this thing & 2 they are so far from the goal it's nuts.
The HasLab campaign page on Hasbro Pulse has been updated with a video featuring Ben Montano and Ran Sun from the Transformers team answering some questions submitted by fans over social media. Things like whether a payment plan or campaign extension would be considered, as well as a few functional inquiries about the toy were answered...
I want this. I wish they did this at the beginning of the year. Smh.
This is what all of the TF fans have asked for in the past. What are the surprises? Mini Galvatron? The Quint ship that shatters the eye? What will be the Yakface of this project?
I really hope they extend the deadline. I just need a little more time to liquidate some things on ebay
That moving eye gimmick, I swear I can't see it. Lol.
It's time to start showing those extra surprises their hiding.
When I heard rumors of this video 2 weeks ago, my hopes were up that we were going to see the whole entire transformation. ?
Shortly before Summer Wonderfest happens, TakaraTomy Mall has added their page for HasLab's Unicron. A lot of the details aren't completely clear, thanks to the uncertain nature of machine translation. What we can tell for sure is that the TTM orders will be cancelled if the required number of preorders aren't met "worldwide".
9 hours ago, ExVee said:The material costs are probably relatively low, but you have to keep in mind there's a ton of labor-hours also sunk in the various design stages this already went through to get to what seems effectively to be an engineering sample.
That's just it though, I reckon the process of using cad and 3d printing over the traditional approach of initial engineering sketches, sculpting et al, is significantly cheaper, even from a man hours perspective - especially when you consider that edits and revisions can be done to the existing model with relative speed and ease, while previous design revisions can be saved if there is a misstep at any point along the process. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this cut the costs on labour down by anywhere between 33%-50%.
The material costs are probably relatively low, but you have to keep in mind there's a ton of labor-hours also sunk in the various design stages this already went through to get to what seems effectively to be an engineering sample. Like, it may not be durable like a production toy, but for what they're showing us, I'd assume damn near everything on there does actually work. So there's already been a lot happening on this between Hasbro and Takara. I'd bet the printing is actually the cheapest part of the process so far.
You can see that they've walked this a long way through already just based on the time table they have. Funding to be secured by the end of August, and delivery in early 2021. They're allowing for just a bit over a year from a process known to take as much as 24 months. And doing something this massive for the first time, I don't doubt they'd end up using an entire two years when it's all tallied up.
They may not have laid out the hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more, maybe) to have the molds cut, but if the campaign fails, they are still looking at some decent loss on this. I hope it does succeed, for all the people who want to have one of these. But I can't help coming back with a skeptical feeling every time I step back and take an objective look. Hopefully opening the campaign up in Japan will give it a healthy boost toward the goal.
1 hour ago, ExVee said:The beauty of using 3D printing is that they can run off as many as they need as long as they've got the time and material to sink in it. Even whatever resin parts there are in this could be coming out of limited-lifespan silicone molds, allowing them to replicate those parts at least a few times. Especially with these needing to be passed back and forth between Hasbro and Takara, I'm sure they want a backup solution in case one gets damaged or even lost along the way.
Exactly. The fact that they still need to crowdfund $4.6M for this to go ahead means that the moulds for this haven't even been tooled yet. What is interesting is where this leads to in terms of the future of prototyping.
Even if you allow $20k for an industrial 3d printer, which is a drop in the ocean for Hasbro, they and 3d scanners do mean that it's incredibly easy these days for Hasbro to produce full colour protos or protos of any colour. Add in some creative accounting for the R&D budget on a line and suddenly it's not only the reason you have offerings like this even being considered, but also the reason they're so fully fleshed out as finished products, before funding has even been secured.
In fact I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't one piece of resin in either proto and that they're so far along that they could effectively be considered product samples, rather than prototypes, in terms of what we're traditionally used to. This R&D process has to be costing Hasbro significantly less than the traditional R&D process - enough that this gamble potentially failing is still cheap enough to work as a PR exercise at worse. I highly doubt this would even have been attempted prior to 3-D printers.
The great part about all this too, is that if the protos ever go astray, as long as the digital files haven't been lost, it's realistically only costing them whatever they pay for 9kg of extrudable plastic to produce another.
In the end, we're the real winners, because it minimises risk, allowing designers to be more adventurous with ideas and if something doesn't work for the time, the design can easily be reproduced down the track as a proto when it has a better shot.
There are definitely some interesting times ahead.
The TakaraTomy Mall campaign launch is supposed to coincide with the start of Summer Wonderfest, which is July 28th. So basically there's just enough time for the prototypes to be shown off during SDCC, then get express shipped to Tokyo to go on display at Wonderfest to promote that leg of the funding drive, before probably going back to Rhode Island to be stored away until it's time to go to New York in a couple of months.
5 hours ago, BaCon said:I am not entirely sure that is a prototype because there are two of them and the plastic on the rings looks to be cast in yellow plastic to my eyes. But we will know soon enough from Hasbro themselves. Yesssss.
The beauty of using 3D printing is that they can run off as many as they need as long as they've got the time and material to sink in it. Even whatever resin parts there are in this could be coming out of limited-lifespan silicone molds, allowing them to replicate those parts at least a few times. Especially with these needing to be passed back and forth between Hasbro and Takara, I'm sure they want a backup solution in case one gets damaged or even lost along the way.
How you lose an entire planet, I don't know, but I still wouldn't want to be caught without my secondary backup just in case.
6 hours ago, RAC said:TakaraTomy announced today via Twitter that the HasLab Unicron currently up for preorder/crowdfunding will be made available in Japan through TakaraTomy Mall! It's unknown how TakaraTomy's release of Unicron will affect the preorder threshold of 8,000 units, but it's great news that there will be another avenue of availability for the Destroyer of WalletsWorlds.
The one thing to note is that the TT Mall listing isn't linked to there and I'd be inclined to put money on it not showing up until after the August 31 deadline. I'd also be inclinded to put money on there being 2 price-points for this figure on TT Mall - one for if the crowdfunding goal is met and the other for if it winds up being a Worldwide TT Mall exclusive.
The other thing to bear in mind here is that as a general rule, TT Mall releases typically wind up being Hasbro Asia releases, so chances are, we're not missing out on this figure one way or the other.
3 hours ago, BaCon said:I agree about the prototype element. Hopefully, it is not required, but the that large mass of plastic on the back is not vertically positioned over the legs and has nothing to hold it up other than the stand that appears to insert into the bottom. I also don't see any extensions for the back of the feet like the Armada one needed to stand in robot mode. But they could be folded under to allow the stand.
The one thing which would really make this a perfect figure would be if this took a page out of MP BW Megatron's book, and the planet kibble could actually be removed to display it looking fully animation accurate.
4 minutes ago, BaCon said:I agree about the prototype element. Hopefully, it is not required, but the that large mass of plastic on the back is not vertically over the legs and has nothing to hold it up other than the stand that appears to insert into the bottom.
This is a prototype. They're notorious for having horrible joints. I would not be shocked that this thing could stand up on its own. Especially in a pose. Since Unicron can't possibly stand on anything in space, having a stand would be the most necessary accessory
It's very likely that because the prototype is an amalgam of 3D printing and resin parts, that it needs the stand to safely support its weight, where a production level Unicron in standard plastics will be able to handle its own weight just fine. Remember, as polished and final as this looks, this is legitimately a prototype. What we almost universally call "prototypes" in the fandom are testshots with normal plastics. This monster is the real deal, and materially is nowhere near as durable.
I love it!
Stryker Wang is at it again, sending out some photos over Twitter of the latest addition to Hasbro's display cases at SDCC. Unsurprisingly, Hasbro has brought the big, one of a kind two of a kind prototypes of the HasLab Unicron in planet and robot modes to show off - and of course to get people excited and signing on for the crowdfunding campaign!These new photos give us a first good look at the back, and the huge stacks of planetary surface panels bundled on the back and behind the legs.
TakaraTomy announced today via Twitter that the HasLab Unicron currently up for preorder/crowdfunding will be made available in Japan through TakaraTomy Mall! It's unknown how TakaraTomy's release of Unicron will affect the preorder threshold of 8,000 units, but it's great news that there will be another avenue of availability for the Destroyer of WalletsWorlds.
On 7/15/2019 at 10:02 AM, BaCon said:WHY Is a mega billion dollar company like Hasbro using crowdfunding?
WHY does it cost so much when they are using crowdfunding?
That said, I would be surprised if enough people support this to make it happen because all the previous Unicron editions ended up warming the shelves.
Basically, anything they can do to pass the risk off or eliminate it. A preorder threshold means that if it fails they're still out the development costs but nothing else. Probably wouldn't be good to have a $600 shelfwarmer out there. And likewise I'm sure the cost is partly because of the low production run. They probably won't reduce the cost if they end up producing more than expected, but I'm sure only doing 8,000 of these is factored in to the big bite there.
But I do think it'll make it with over 1K in the first 24 hours. When it gets a broader announcement with the SDCC events they'll probably be most of the way there.
Lol. The new one is the best by far.
I'd pay up to $200 for that. Not interested in what it costs Hasbro to make it. Just what it's worth to me when I already have a Unicron in my collection. I'd pay $575 if he were 69" ($100 a foot) which would be cool, because that would be one inch shorter than me.
Damn. I need to play the lottery....sigh
I hope theres 7999 people other than me getting this. I was going to get MP-44, but this is waaaay better. By the way, anyone want to buy a Cobra Terror Drome?
6 hours ago, BaCon said:WHY Is a mega billion dollar company like Hasbro using crowdfunding?
WHY does it cost so much when they are using crowdfunding?
That said, I would be surprised if enough people support this to make it happen because all the previous Unicron editions ended up warming the shelves.
Specifically so they don't spend a couple million on molds and other production costs on something that might end up not selling well enough at retail for them to recoup their costs. This way, they either for sure have enough buyers to cover the production costs, or they don't make the item.
32 minutes ago, BaCon said:WHY Is a mega billion dollar company like Hasbro using crowdfunding?
Kind of smart considering the losses they took last year with Toys R Us leaving. It would be a risky venture I think. This guarantees payment for the product.
And, if you are an MP collector who is buying the new MP Optimus which retails for almost this amount, heck, why not buy a Unicron too?
Unfortunately, I won't be able to get this, but I honestly still like my Armada Unicron. He has posable fingers and a moveable mouth too ?
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