• Transformers: War for Cybertron is back in the news with new toys releasing later this year.
• Hasbro will release “Game Edition” toys of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Barricade.
• Hasbro Pulse markets will be able to get these Transformers from 1st July, with pre-orders now open.

Fans of Transformers: War for Cybertron should break out the champagne and fireworks today as Hasbro has finally announced a trio of new toys based on characters seen in the game.

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Barricade will all be receiving new figures from 1st July with all three already on pre-order. Optimus Prime costs $34.99 (~R650) while Bumblebee and Barricade are cheaper at $24.99 (~R464).

As a quick aside from those unaware why we’re happy to see War for Cybertron again, it’s because it and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron are mostly forgotten by Hasbro, developer High Moon Studios and publisher Activision Blizzard.

Despite the duology being almost universally beloved, both were scrubbed from online marketplaces years ago due to licencing shenanigans and have remained without an easy way to play them for more than a decade.

The only legal way to play both games remains buying a used physical copy or finding some unused game redemption code. Both are rather dodgy and costly, and this isn’t even considering that Hasbro / High Moon Studios / Activision Blizzard have ignored all pleas from the community for remasters, remakes, re-releases or some other way to access these titles again.

This has lead to the great character designs from the games popping up only occasionally, which makes the reveal of these three toys all the more exciting.

But we again have to go back to bad news. These three will be released through Hasbro Pulse, an online substore of Hasbro that deals in more specialised toys from the company. Hasbro Pulse is only available in a few select countries and South Africa is definitely not one of them.

Even for Hasbro Pulse products which get a wider retail release, the South African selection of Transformers is absolutely barren. You’re more likely to find a bigger assortment of knockoff Transformers than the real McCoy locally. This is despite the fact that Transformers is officially licenced for sale in South Africa and other toy brands seemingly have no problem offering most of their catalogue here.

We’ve requested comment from the local distributor of the few official Transformers toys multiple times in the past and were met with silence, so we’re not sure why the situation is so bad for this brand.

All of this is to say, if you are a fan of War for Cybertron and you want these three, your best bet is to pre-order them from Hasbro Pulse now and privately import them. It’s a massive added cost but the reality of living in South Africa sometimes.

Click on the names of Optimus Prime, Bumblebee and Barricade to find their Hasbro Pulse store pages.

So with all that background information, what are the toys actually like? Well they look great and it’s no wonder that the internet at large is so hyped about them after the reveal a few hours ago. All three transform into their Cybertronian vehicle alt modes which look great too.

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are the standouts for us with Barricade simply being a bit too plain in design and colour for our taste. As the only deception for this release we would have liked a character with a bit more personality like Megatron or Starscream, or a more generic character from the game like the nameless Seekers.

As for what we are getting, see below for a gallery of images of the toys.

Optimus Prime

Bumblebee

Barricade