The Next Mysterious Generations Special Edition Figure Is Nearby... Real Nearby

Hasbro's people said during Toy Fair they have exclusives planned for Generations for this year, though they didn't reveal any specifics. Blast Off and Repugnus had both been discovered via leaked materials and distributor information, but it looks like at least one more figure may be joining their Special Edition ranks this year. Amazon.ca has a listing page for Deluxe Counterpunch, and while the currently attached price and some of the product info are a bit wacky, the associated product code makes sense compared to Repugnus and Blast Off. So what could we be looking at? Keep reading for another round of speculation!

First we can theorize a bit from the product number. E1864 is a little ways past Blast Off and Repugnus, and this is mostly important because the numbers for those two are consecutive, E1796 and E1797, respectively. The sequential numbers suggest those two toys may be part of a shared assortment. Under that interpretation, we can infer that Counterpunch is slated to be released later on - potentially even paired with another as-yet-undiscovered toy, but there's nothing to substantiate that idea yet.

So toywise, what might this be? One obvious possibility is the preplanned tooling partner of Power of The Primes Jazz. To whatever extent alternate parts exist for that mold, be it simply a new head or maybe as far as a major vehicle reshell, it makes a Counterpunch. It's not without precedent, since the Collector's Club Subscription Service Counterpunch used the Hasbro-created alternate head for Combiner Wars Wheeljack - meant all along to be Counterpunch. There's an interesting implication in this theory, because if the whole vehicle shell is changed, it might be possible to have the robot mode "reversed" compared to Jazz. That is, using the car roof and windshield as the chest to better evoke Counterpunch instead of sticking it with a car hood chest.

An alternate possibility might be a reuse of a Titans Return mold. Probably Chromedome then, if anything. In that case we could expect a new Titan Master face sculpt, probably, but probably nothing beyond that. One plus of that would be the possibility of another Titan Master to represent Punch, even if the body wouldn't be able to reflect that form. I suppose Hot Rod could maybe be a candidate too, but that mold is probably a little too character specific. To the point that we'd heard previously that its unused alternate face option was supposed to be a more IDW-based Rodimus head. So that probably won't be it.

It may be a while before we get any further clues. Barring this getting Weibo'd, anyway. But since Repugnus hasn't been yet, I'd be surprised. The current popular theory for Blast Off and Repugnus is a May Mayhem event for this year. So those will have to be promoted somewhere during the next couple of months if that's the case. The later product code probably means a different target release window for Counterpunch, in which case my guess is SDCC is the first possible instance we'd find out about this officially.

And naturally now I can't help but wonder, if Counterpunch is one of a pair, who is the other toy that will be joining it. Actually, this and some other factors makes me wonder something else entirely too, but that's something to explore on a different occasion.