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baldylox
21 hours ago, Gabriel said:

And, after a long day, I found all the G1 Soundwave reissues.  I bought two sets, just so I could have one set to open and one set to marvel at being MISB.  I was so happy, I even put the stickers on the Soundwave I opened.  

(Except for the speaker stickers.  I always regretted putting those on my original.)

I even picked up a Siege Optimus.

Very good Transformers day.

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SO LUCKY!!!!  I want these so bad but NONE of my local Wally Worlds EVER have anything like this.  :(  If there are more of these near you I would gladly pay you a finders fee or gas money or something to grab them for me!  <3

 Congrats on those buys, you did good!

 

 

Billy


I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop.

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Galvatim

I stopped by one of the local Walmarts, they had nothing.  The Transformers section was almost completely bare.  No Soundwaves or cassettes.  

Hasbro Pulse is selling a 3 pack featuring the first reissue of 2 of the Japan exclusive dino-cassettes, along with Frenzy.  

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baldylox

If anyone finds the Soundwave and cassette packs, please grab them for me!  As stated earlier I'll make it worth your while!  😄

 

I'll go check out those dino cassettes.  I had 2 of them as a kid, one was a T-Rex and the other was a Stegosaurus.  I bought them new in the store here in the US so I'm guessing these ones you're talking about are different?

 

Billy

 

EDIT:  I went ahead and pre-ordered those cassettes!  :)  And those dinos were NOT the same as the ones I had.  These look pretty cool tho so I'm happy to get them.  I still want the other 2 packs tho!  


I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop.

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Galvatim

You had Slugfest and Overkill, the only dinocassettes released in the USA in the 80s.  

The combining dinocassettes only saw release in Japan.  Well, at least until now.  There are a couple of Bumblebee exclusives that include the other pair, along with Decepticon repaints and movie Bumblebee in gold as either a Camaro or a VW Bug.  

Takara has reissued all of the cassettes in their Encore series, with the exception of the 1988 combiner cassettes, Slamdance and Squawkbox.  Of courtse, the boxsets they released packed in Laserbeak and Ravage whom I have a few copies of now.  

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growcian

I have had zero luck in finding the G1 reissues at any local store. @onion2@

I bought something else. I bought the MAS-01 Optimus Prime and the delivery was today. Since this is generally a message board about dolls, I took photos of him with Azone50 Devil Homura.

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Height wise, I felt he would pair up better in photos with a ~50cm doll vs. a ~60cm one.

His eyes are supposed to light up but he didn't include batteries. I also don't have any of the correct type on hand. 😕

I still have a few more TF toys on order/pre-orders and I'm waiting for them to arrive. I get to experience the double whammy of waiting anxiety because I'm waiting for doll pre-orders *AND* TF pre-orders to come in. 😅

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Galvatim
5 hours ago, growcian said:

I get to experience the double whammy of waiting anxiety because I'm waiting for doll pre-orders *AND* TF pre-orders to come in. 😅

My life.  I've got Azone Enma Ai and MP-44 Optimus ver. 3 due at the end of the month.

 

I've heard of that Optimus, always thought it looked cool.  I just wish this guy could transform.  Same with the 3A/3Zero offerings.  There is a giant, I believe it's 30 inches tall, oversized KO of MP-10, which does transform.  It's not to crazy expensive, until you see the shipping.  

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growcian
12 minutes ago, Galvatim said:

There is a giant, I believe it's 30 inches tall, oversized KO of MP-10, which does transform.  It's not to crazy expensive, until you see the shipping.  

Oh, yeah. The LEWIN-01 Atlas. Depending on where you buy it from, the price tag will go north of MP-44 thanks to that shipping cost.

@onion15@


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baldylox

I found out that my local WalMart is doing a store reset now and they are showing to have FIVE of the Soundwave reissues in stock.  My mom dropped by to check on it and was told they would be going out early Friday morning ( 2 days ago ).  So my Dad went to the store at 4:45am in hopes of getting one for me but was told the toy section won't be done until NEXT week.  😛  So I was THIS close to getting one but got turned away.  Who knows if they will go out when that guy said they would.  For all I know he's holding them for a scalper friend or something.  :(

 

So I'm still looking for Soundwave and the cassettes in case anyone sees some out there!

 

 

Billy


I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop.

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Gabriel
On 8/11/2019 at 6:36 PM, baldylox said:

I found out that my local WalMart is doing a store reset now and they are showing to have FIVE of the Soundwave reissues in stock.  My mom dropped by to check on it and was told they would be going out early Friday morning ( 2 days ago ).  So my Dad went to the store at 4:45am in hopes of getting one for me but was told the toy section won't be done until NEXT week.  😛  So I was THIS close to getting one but got turned away.  Who knows if they will go out when that guy said they would.  For all I know he's holding them for a scalper friend or something.  :(

Don't feel like they're doing this only in regards to Transformers.

I dropped by the local Wally World this morning to buy Avengers Endgame to watch this evening.  The site showed they had it in stock.  I got there and no movie.  The employee I asked for help just pointed me to the rack with all the Infinity War discs, told me that if it wasn't there then they wouldn't get it until Sunday, and that was that.

I'll probably try Target later, but I hate going there even more than Wally World.

---

Edit: Snagged car mode Dropkick and the 10 pack of Micromasters while I was there.  Almost picked up Siege Starscream, but I just really don't like Starscream.  The smirk they gave Thundercracker makes me not want that figure despite Thundercracker being one of my classics.  I'd like Skywarp, but I'm not interested in anything else they put in his Amazon exclusive pack.

 

Edited by Gabriel
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growcian

I need to preface this by saying this is not meant to be a "woe is me" post, nor is it meant to get any sympathy. The purpose I have for it is venting over a TF purchase gone bad. If anyone else finds what I write here to be useful, then that's just a bonus. I'm currently angry as hell and extremely disappointed over what happened.

I decided to buy Magic Square MS-01X and I looked through various eBay listings. I found one seller who had a low price but wasn't quite low enough to raise the "too good to be true" red flag. The seller has been selling at eBay for 3 years, had a feedback score of 557, and a 99.3% positive rating. I took a look at the negative comments left by dissatisfied customers and they seemed to either be ignorant or unrealistic. I thought I did a fairly good job with my research to minimize the likelihood of getting scammed. I didn't see any red flags. This seller seemed like a good bet to buy from so I made my purchase.

I'm in the U.S. and the seller is in China. Where we are becomes important later.

After I received a tracking number for my order, the seller's feedback profile started to get flooded with negative comments. The comments first started with the buyers stating instead of receiving what they purchased, they received an unrelated Lego toy. After that, comments about how the seller intentionally used invalid addresses flooded onto the profile. They all called him a scammer. The seller had a great track record for 3 years and then went rogue overnight. The seller's store then shut down; there used to be 100+ items at the seller's eBay store. All the items got taken down.

Three weeks after I clicked on the purchase button, I received updated info from the tracking number. I had confirmation I was scammed. The seller used an invalid address so the package I was supposed to receive was deemed not deliverable.

I called eBay's customer service phone number and I was basically told there's nothing to be done until AFTER the expected date of arrival for the package passes. That's not until next week. Never mind I (and eBay) already have confirmation the package can't be delivered due to an invalid address. I have to wait until next week to complain I never received what I purchased and then file for a refund. While I realize why this system is in place, the system isn't good enough to handle my specific situation until next week.

I still want to add the MS-01X into my collection. However, I'm soured on buying from another overseas seller on eBay. Despite the precautions I took, I hit the scam seller lottery. I have a local TF collecting friend who suggested I try buying from a seller with a 1000+ score because the higher score suggests there's a smaller likelihood of the seller going rogue. There is no guarantee of that and I don't want to. I don't want to do even more research on yet another overseas eBay seller and then hope I don't get scammed again.

The scam seller situation won't be resolved until after I get my refund. 5 or 6 weeks after clicking "Buy" will pass before the resolution and I still won't have the MS-01X. I realize most transactions via eBay, even when the seller is located overseas, conclude without a hitch. However, this most recent experience has been negative enough to the point where my enthusiasm for buying TF toys from overseas eBay sellers has been killed. When something goes wrong with an overseas seller and it certainly did for me, it takes too long for the problems to get resolved.

I looked at what buying the MS-01X would cost after sales tax, shipping, etc., from a reputable U.S.-based seller with a dedicated web site. The price is definitely much higher than buying from an overseas eBay merchant. I'll consider this a "peace of mind" tax. Now I need to decide whether I still want the MS-01X badly enough to pull the trigger based on what it will cost me from a U.S.-based merchant.

A hobby should be relaxing and fun. This eBay debacle has added nothing but stress instead. I need more stress like a new hole in the head.

End venting. For now.

On a more positive note, I'm looking forward to SIEGE Mirage in September, Omega Supreme in October, and Astrotrain in December.


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finnleo
1 hour ago, growcian said:

he seller has been selling at eBay for 3 years, had a feedback score of 557, and a 99.3% positive rating. I took a look at the negative comments left by dissatisfied customers and they seemed to either be ignorant or unrealistic. I thought I did a fairly good job with my research to minimize the likelihood of getting scammed. I didn't see any red flags. This seller seemed like a good bet to buy from so I made my purchase.

The seller had a great track record for 3 years and then went rogue overnight. The seller's store then shut down; there used to be 100+ items at the seller's eBay store. All the items got taken down.

Well, the good thing is your funds will eventually get refunded.

As for the do's and donts concerning ebay that I know, the amount of feedback can be basicly useless in deeming a trustworthy seller or not, but rather what the feedback has been about. if there's a seller that has a good track record with toy collectibles that is selling toy collectibles you have a better chance at success.

I think its been mentioned before that its a bit of a red flag if there's a seller with a big amount of feedback in small dollar nick-nacks suddenly throwing a big dollar item for sale.... also there might now be a market for second hand accounts with moderate feedback to exploit.

on the other hand there are those sellers that you just might need to grit your teeth in advance, like one seller I bought a set of injectors for a engine build I had going on, they specialized in basicly anything and everything and I wasn't really expecting to get my stuff, but wasn't too worried, because paypal protection ... but in the end I still did get my parts.

Another bad experience was when I got my small CNC engraver from a "EU seller", and after going through the order it turned out they were a chinese operation that had some warehouse somewhere, and were listing items they actually did not have in the EU, I promptly asked my money back and got the same kit from a amazon warehouse seller with prime delivery for a moderate difference ... so think positively that you're not the only one that this happens.

Edited by finnleo

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Gabriel
3 hours ago, growcian said:

The seller had a great track record for 3 years and then went rogue overnight. 

Something similar happened to me on Amazon.  The big difference is that it was over a trivial item, though.  The seller looked good, and had been doing business for a couple of years.  Then, sometime around my order, they spontaneously decided they were going to scam people.  I never even had to contact Amazon.  The seller had scammed so many people, Amazon took the initiative and started refunding everyone who did business with the seller.

I had a recent experience on ebay where I think the seller intentionally listed a different and rarer version of a book, but then sold the more common previous edition version.  When I contacted them, they said it was a mistake and gave me a partial refund.  I accepted it, because the previous edition still served the purpose I bought the book for, but I do feel they knew all along and were just trying to move the merchandise.  (The edition they actually shipped isn't particularly in demand.)

---

Anyway, I'm just hoping my bootleg G1 Shockwave and Alphastrike Counterforce pack arrive before the weekend.  Bootwave ended up on the wrong truck and went on a tour of Texas, but the tracking information says he's back on the right bus now.

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growcian

Since I feel like posting *something*, here's my entire G1 collection. Most of what's in the photo have loose joints, broken parts, and/or missing parts.

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As much as I've been helping people at this message board in the care and repairs section, there are things wrong with the toys above even I can't fix.

@onion32@

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Gabriel
11 minutes ago, growcian said:

Since I feel like posting *something*, here's my entire G1 collection. Most of what's in the photo have loose joints, broken parts, and/or missing parts.

My original G1 Soundwave is really loose in robot mode.  His shoulder cannon isn't original, but I still have all three of his chrome bullets.  His battery cover has a broken peg, but still stays in place securely.  When he's in robot mode, I have to rotate his legs just right or else he'll fall over.

My G1 Thrust has really loose arms, and the peg slot which secures the nose to the fuselage is very worn.  The result is that he can't hold jet mode unless those arms are very carefully positioned such as to provide tension.  As you can see from my pic, I don't have his missiles any longer.  I do have one of the small missiles, but no matching set.

Blitzwing... His feet are incredibly loose.  He doesn't stand as much as he's precariously balanced.  I got him used, and the turret has never securely attached.  I'm not sure if this is normal or signs of further damage.  He's never had guns under my ownership.

Jetfire is yellowing.  He's gone through a couple of sets of forearm armor.  I've also had to take apart and rebuild the shoulders a couple of times.

Ravage's joints are loose, but not bad.  He will still hold a pose.  His missiles have lost their chrome, and they're not firm in the peg holes any longer.  But Ravage has held up pretty damn well all things considered.

Laserbeak's only problem is that his guns have lost their chrome.  Otherwise he's still truckin'.

Thundercracker is in great shape.  I got him used, but complete, late in my G1 years.  The original owner barely played with him, and the joints are still tight.

I didn't do a pic of my original Powermaster Prime.  He looks terrible.  He's been through some rough years.  The overall look is dirty, like he's been in a house that burnt down.  A few years ago, his leg broke, as in snapped completely off as I was turning i on the ratchet.  I bought a new trailer off ebay and did a thigh transplant.  Then I accidentally snapped the peg of one of his dual guns in his shoulder, so he got two new guns.  His Powermaster gimmick no longer works, but that's actually a good thing as he freely transforms without the Powermaster (even though I keep Hi-Q permanently installed).

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Galvatim

@growcian, sorry to hear about you being scammed on eBay.  I've encountered a few bad sellers on there, too.  You might want to check out bababobo00712, I've done quite a bit of business with them, and always had a good experience.  They got me an replacement torso from X-Transbots for my defective Klaatu.  Looks like Baba is out of stock of MS-01X, although he is who I bought mine from.  I see coldplay-2011 has MS-01X in stock, another seller I've had nothing but good experiences with.  Good luck in your search.

 

Checked Walmart today, no Soundwave or cassettes, although there were shelf spots for them.  I did snag the reissue of Optimus, though.  $30 isn't bad for half of Optimus (no trailer).  Nifty little piece for my small collection of packaged Transformers.  I have fond memories of G1 Optimus, he was one of my firsts.  I played with that toy so much, it fell apart, and my parents must have been really lucky at a garage sale, since we found a replacement.  I took the broken one apart, his head ended up on the white Prime cab from Ultra Magnus.  Stupidly, I sold all of my Transformers in the late 90s, so I only have a couple Grimlocks my brother kept.  I picked up Takara's 2002 New Year's Special Edition reissue, Pepsi Convoy, Hasbro 25th, and a clearly used, but still great, vintage in the years since.  

I picked up MP-40 Targetmaster Hot Rod during a BBTS one day sale recently, he's pretty cool!  I know the MP Hot Rod is one of those controversial figures, but I've always liked him, and this redeco doesn't do anything to change that.  The Targetmaster is a retooled and recolored version of the same Firebolt from Hasbro's MP-09 release, which is fine, that figure was great as it was, and has better colors now.  

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Next to MP-28, which does have the Reprolabels kit applied.  I'm not adding Reprolabels to MP-40.  

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Getting the Targetmaster attached to the hood is a bit of a challenge, and looks about as goofy as you'd expect.  

I wanted to get a few photos of MP-28 and MP-40 with my Hasbro version MP-09, but one of the legs snaped off at the thigh joint while trying to convert him from Rodimus to Hot Rod...  I might actually pony up for the full on Takara MP-09 with trailer, if I can snag the most recent release.  At least I have DX9 Carry to fill in for Rodimus for now.  Hoping for an X-Transbots take on Rodimus in the next couple of years, they've quickly become my favorite 3rd party company, with their great Skids, Cosmos, and Stunticons.  

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Galvatim

I took some random photos today.

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Bayformers Prime was up to his old tricks again.

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G1 Prime was not impressed.

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The replacement torso for my XTB Klaatu/MP Cosmos showed up today.  Swapping the legs over was a little annoying, with ratchets to deal with, but the end result was worth it.  I have XTB Neptune (G2 Seaspray) on the way, I just need Warpath to finish my series 2 mini-bots.  Although, Beachcomber is G2 as well... 

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Mastermind Creations Ocular Max Perfection Series Zinnia.  I know I shared my Stealth Azalea before, and I have the standard Arcee version of Azalea, too.  

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Zinnia is based on the Paradron medic background character from one episode.  She was a recolor of Arcee, and remains so here.

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She goes great with MP-28 or 40.  MMC designed this figure to scale with Takara's offering, unlike Fans Toys Rouge, which is noticeably taller than Hot Rod.  I guess that's fine, if you buy the FT Hot Rod and display your movie/series 3 characters on their own, but I like my Autobots grouped together.

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Anyway, Zinnia and Hot Rod seemed to have a great time together...

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Until Zinnia's crazy sister showed up.  

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Oh, here's that G1 reissue Optimus I mentioned.  No trailer, so not worth the $50 full price tag, but for $30, I'm happy with it.  Looks like Hasbro went back to the long stacks, too.  

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growcian
15 hours ago, Galvatim said:

Anyway, Zinnia and Hot Rod seemed to have a great time together...

 

Until Zinnia's crazy sister showed up. 

:lol:

 

15 hours ago, Galvatim said:

Oh, here's that G1 reissue Optimus I mentioned.  No trailer, so not worth the $50 full price tag, but for $30, I'm happy with it.  Looks like Hasbro went back to the long stacks, too.  

A Mal-wart local to me had 5 of G1 Prime in stock a few months(?) ago at $50 each. A few days later, with no evidence of a price drop anywhere, all 5 were gone. It's as though people are buying the G1 reissues in multiples or something. :classic_wink:


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baldylox

On Friday this week it rained here pretty hard so I didn't get to work.  So I did some stuff around the house and then went grocery shopping at Walmart.  This is the Walmart that said it had 5 Soundwaves in stock online but they haven't put them out yet.  Either that or they sold them all to some scalper.

Anyway, I figured I'd go look in the toy area and see if one was there and no surprise, there wasn't.

 

BUT....

 

I did find both sets of the cassettes!  😄  There were at least 5 sets of each so I scooped up 2 as quick as I could.  I was super happy about finding those.

 

Also, Gabriel found me a Soundwave so that'll be coming home soon too!  I can't thank him enough for that, I'm super excited about getting Soundwave here!

 

 

 

Billy


I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop.

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Galvatim

@baldylox, awesome!  Glad you got a hold of Soundwave and the cassettes.  

 

I opened up Walmart Optimus.

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Long smokestacks, and both guns!

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With my vintage Optimus.  I like the shade of blue and red used on the new figure.  I've never owned the G2 Optimus, but I think it's closer to that variation than the G1.

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With the 25th Anniversary reissue.  The only advantage that version has is the trailer.  This new reissue has better, brighter colors and the long smokestacks.  Definitely worth $30.  The only way this could be better is if it used the Music Label Convoy head.    

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Gabriel
2 hours ago, Galvatim said:

Definitely worth $30.     

Yeah, I think that was the problem with the Vintage Optimus.  I never saw it for anything less than $50.  Had I seen it at $30, I might have bit.

G1 Optimus strikes me as a bit of a brick, so the loss of the trailer really discards a lot of his nifty value. 

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Galvatim

Yeah, for $50 I wouldn't have bought Prime.  Takara has a similar release in a set with a repainted Studio Series Bumblebee movie Optimus, and it's just too expensive, despite the great G1 style paint job on that Studio Series Prime.  

I looked up the next 2 Walmart reissues, looks like Astrotrain and Blaster won the fan votes.  I'm curious to see what version of Astrotrain gets reissued. I have Takara's white and black, traditional space shuttle mode, so white and purple or gray and purple would be great.  I have a reissue Blaster already, but I would buy his cassettes.  

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Gabriel

I'd be pretty tempted to go for a non-orange Astrotrain reissue even at $35.  Blaster is a no go for me.  But I would almost certainly pick up Autobot cassettes.

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Tasuke

2001 REISSUE G1 STARSCREAM with custom-painted head;

 

STARSCREAM%202001%20REISSUE%208-20-19%20


 

2020164095_ANightatKonomi12-18-23550px.Horizont..png.35eaba54e8b03fbe6a7f7cd252209e94.png

 

 

 

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baldylox

Oh man, I'd love to have a Blaster and his cassettes!  😄  Same for an Astrotrain but I'd prolly pass on him if he wasn't his original color and setup.  Purple and black for me!

 

 

Billy


I gave up counting the girls I own, they keep multiplying and won't stop.

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Galvatim

48589990236_4516b7f4c9.jpg

I want this Astrotrain, or some variation of it.  This one was only released as an E-Hobby exclusive in Japan.  It's also how he appeared on the show, so it's Astrotrain's most memorable look.  

There is a Blaster reissue from a couple years ago, in a set with Steeljaw, Eject, Ramhorn and Perceptor.  BBTS is taking orders for it: https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/24703  It's certainly a quicker alternative than waiting for the Walmart reissue, although you won't get the G1 repro box.  

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