Hasbro Pulsecon 2020 has already hit the gates running with their latest Haslab fundraiser, this time for their fan-favorite HeroQuest! With two tiers of support for the legendary tabletop board game, it has nearly reached its 1 million dollar funding goal in under 24 hours. The official event doesn't start until September 25th going through the 26th, with a laundry list of guests and panels, covering their brands and collaborators.
As with any Hasbro event, they tend to stock shelves ahead of time and coordinate with pre-orders and sites, if you can get either in time. Recently, the announced Transformers R.E.D. line has been surfacing in the wild, first in Canada and now the U.S.! Revealed back in June of this year, Transformers R.E.D. (which stands for Robot Enhanced Design) is a spiritual successor to 1990 Transformers Action Masters. Action Masters were a line of 4” non-transforming figures, with optional vehicles that had transforming gimmicks. Much like their counterparts in Star Wars, Marvel Legends, and recently G.I. Joe, these figures are now in the 6” scale and around $20. With detailed animation designs, high posability, and kibble-free bot modes, this first wave looks striking and impressive for the price point. Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Soundwave are in their G1 bot modes and accessories from their first mini-series appearance. Soundwave and Optimus both have opening chests, with Prime revealing the Autobot Matrix and Soundwave coming with a cassette!
It wouldn't surprise me if they round out the Iconic Six with Starscream, Grimlock, and Bumblebee before too long, but Hasbro said this line will span the franchise, including Beast Wars. Now this is speculation, but there is room to add Build-A-Figures to this line, as they have with the recent Maccadam in the Bumblebee Cyberverse Adventures line. These are currently Walmart Exclusives and that hasn't turned out well for the previous exclusives and collectors trying to obtain them, so fingers crossed if you're in the market for these bots!
-SC