Transformers Siege Wave 3 Lots of In Hand Photos - Thundercracker, Red Alert, Smashdown, Refraktor And More

Weibo user DioXDio has gotten their hands on very nearly all of wave 3 of Transformers Siege (seemingly only missing one of the Micromaster teams) and has been working through the weekend so far to get some nice photos of the toys out.

This far, we get to have some pretty good looks at Battlemasters Smashdown and Caliburst, the Micromaster two pack of Blackjack and Hyperdrive, Deluxes Refraktor, Brunt, and Red Alert, and Voyager Thundercracker. DioXDio has shown that they have Springer as well, but as of the time of this posting hasn't gotten that far in photographing.

Red Alert and Thundercracker are shown alongside their mold-mates to demonstrate the small changes made between uses: Red Alert has a new rifle and light bar (which is distinctly different from Prowl's light bar), as well as a slightly resculpted head with less prominent "horns" than Sideswipe. Thundercracker sticks close to Starscream, but has a new face sculpt with an exaggerated smirk with no other mold changes being evident. None of Thundercracker's photos give any indication of a metal rod to help hold the chest panel in place, a running change which had been rumored with Starscream but that many now disregard as having been an elaborate, yet stunningly pointless hoax.

Among the other toys, points of interest include a clear demonstration of the third-of-a-camera that a single Refraktor is capable of becoming, as well as alternate alternate mode builds for Brunt, at least one of which scores high on the Goofy Charm scale.

We'll keep watching for photos of Springer to pop up, which may even end up being our first good look at the toy out of packaging. Based on preorder information across various retailers, we're expecting wave 3 to start arriving in early July or so - of course it's always possible that physical retail locations with good turnover rates will start seeing them even sooner. But their presence in Beijing (based on the Weibo user's location data) does give strong indication of reaching the US within a short few weeks!