Scarlett: I customized Thundercracker, the blue one. The others were official releases by Hasbro.

Stormer: From what I've heard, the Classics line is indeed finished except for some Botcon exclusives this year. Hasbro will be concentrating solely on movie toys for the foreseeable future. Alternators have also been put on indefinite hiatus.

I agree that Thundercracker would've sold well at retail, but Hasbro seems to think he won't, as he would be nothing more than a second straight repaint of the Starscream mold. My hope is that, since Takara has the rights to all Hasbro's molds and vice versa, eventually the Classics will be released in Japan (they haven't yet), and the Japanese will produce all the Decepticon jets. Even the cost of importing a Japanese Thundercracker would be less than the ridiculous price of the Botcon set.

And I'm of a like mind with you on the subject of con-only toys. It's a neat idea, but it should be used for really oddball characters, not mainstream ones that everyone wants. That way the hardcore fans that go to the cons can get something special, but those of us (like myself) who love the property won't feel that they missed something integral to their collection. I mean, I love the Transformers more than almost anything else, but I can only go to one con a year, and it's always the San Diego Comic Con since that covers lots of different genres and properties rather than just one niche.

Fisher & Sonneilon: The Magnus/Skywarp pack was literally clogging the shelves of every Target near me for about a month, then they all suddenly vanished. I assume they were sent to some toy outlet store or something, since there's no way they all suddenly sold overnight. Unfortunately, where I live, nothing ever goes on clearance. Not at Target, or Wal-Mart, or Toys R Us. You can wait weeks, even months, for something very common to drop in price, but instead of that happening, everyone's stock will just vanish one day. It's really weird since I read about toys going on clearance all the time elsewhere in the country.

Oh, and Sonn-- I just figured it was common sense that since this has absolutely nothing to do with G.I. Joe (unlike my TF crossover story), it shouldn't be posted on the front page.

...Though I do think it would be a great idea to have a section below "Dios" and "Photos" for "Guest Stars," where people could post dio shots of other toy lines. I know someone on the board suggested that a while back, though I don't recall who it was. But I think that as long as there were some rules (with the main one being: Only pictures of toys, not family photos or something), that would be a big success. I know I'd love to post some dio-shots of just Transformers without having to justify them by including Joes, for example.

Anyway, thanks for the comments, gang, and sorry about the novel I just wrote!

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is on indefinite hiatus...