Transformers Toys at the 2011 New York Toy Fair

Hasbro was kind enough to invite me to their Collector Event yesterday afternoon and, like last year, it was a fun afternoon of meeting new faces, saying hi to old friends, and getting sneak peeks at upcoming Transformers, Star Wars, Marvel, and G.I. Joe lines. I snapped several pics and have now uploaded the Transformers photos to this set at Flickr.

Transformers Generations

I didn’t see a single Transformers Generations* toy at the event but we were assured that Generations would continue through 2011. I don’t know if that means new toys or just that the old ones would be on shelves, but I suspect that we’ve seen the end of the line. Frustrating, since it’s toys like the Cybertronian Soundwave (review here) and Dirge (review here) that have renewed my love for the line.

Transformers Cyberverse

With toys like the above Powerglide and an Ark playset with Roller I’ve gotta say that this line was the coolest Transformers subline I saw at the entire event. It’s basically Legends-scaled toys under new branding (and with vehicles/playsets) but it looks like a great toy series for kids. And I’m sure I’ll pick up a couple of these because they’re just really neat up close.

Seibertron has the official release if you wanna know more about this series.

Transformers Mechtech

I really don’t like the look of this new Mechtech series. It’s movie-based, which is automatically a strike against it, and the transforming weapons gimmick doesn’t excite me; neither does seeing the weapons mounted on the vehicle modes. Basically, as Adam at CollectionDX told me over dinner last night, I am a grumpy guss. Maybe so, but I seriously dislike this series.

The fact that this series is most likely the reason I didn’t see new Transformers Generations toys doesn’t help my attitude toward it any.

Transformers Prime

Based on the new animated series, these are thin, frail-looking Transformers toys that are better than Mechtech but don’t really excite me. (Remember, grumpy guss here.) I know several people were excited to see them — the guy with the massive camera who kept trying to push me aside when I was taking pics appeared to be slobbering — but for me they were just okay. I may grab Starscream, but nothing here was a fitting replacement for Transformers Generations.

Thank you to Hasbro for the invitation to the event. Two years in a row now Hasbro is the only company to invite me to their closed media events and I really appreciate that they noticed battlegrip.com and asked me to attend.

I’ve got Marvel photos that I’ll try to post tonight, but I’m sure you’ve already seen everything there was to see at the event. I didn’t get any Star Wars or G.I. Joe pics because of the frenzy . . . you know, I should really write about the madness of the toy bloggers blocking each other and racing to be “FIRST” to get the pic. It’s kinda weird.

Related articles

• Toy Fair 2011 Report, Day 1: Hasbro Collector’s Day (poeghostal.com)
• “Toy Fair 2011 Hasbro Transformers Presentation LIVE!” and related posts (tfw2005.com)
• Hasbro pushes into Lego’s land with new blocks (sfgate.com)
• Pre-Toy Fair we have your first look at Hasbro’s Transformers Prime toys! (aintitcool.com)