Device Label Blaster Officially Canceled

You know, I was considering a DL Ravage until I watched some video reviews on the piece and came to the conclusion that Takara was out of their mind to be asking Binaltech/Alternity prices for a glorified scout. Sure it's a fully functioning memory stick with a screen saver built in. But the stick is technology circa 2004 and the screen saver, while cool, is something I would expect a lot of manufacturers to offer as a free download.

In a market as advanced as Japan's, to be marketing computer-based, scout/deluxe sized figures with 3-5 year old technology built into them at those price points pretty much doomed this line to fail.

Between this line, the failed Cronos watch line, and the new price point for it's specialized lines (MP, Alternity, etc.), I wonder if Takara's just out of touch with the market.

i cant say im too surprised about this.


still. *this is my sadface*

Terrible news. I'm not happy about this at all, I was VERY MUCH looking forward to this guy!

After not going after Ravage only to buy one immediately after the first screen shots of a virtual Ravage jumping on-screen.

I am sad to see this figure that looks absolutely great has been canned, however compared to the actual cost for a USB hub, and a figure of that size the cost is way to high. That said I'm glad that i don't have to worry about finding out it has some brilliant extra like the Ravage program that will cause me to do the same again.

Like I said before. At least we still have this guy:

Sabrblade wrote:Like I said before. At least we still have this guy:

The Blaster with the Decepticon-inspired head? No thanks.

Poor form, Takara. Poor form. And even leting it be shown in recent magaines too.

The overpriced Memory sticks must have sold VERY poorly indeed. despite their price I was set to buy Tigatron until I heard Blaster was cancelled. Who needs his minion without the main bot?

I feel like this is part of the problem with releasing characters that should be released together at separate times. The Energon Combiners come to mind. The Device Label figures come to mind. Seems like they should have released all 5 of these figures together to help people out with that "impulse" buy.

Seibertron wrote:I feel like this is part of the problem with releasing characters that should be released together at separate times. The Energon Combiners come to mind. The Device Label figures come to mind. Seems like they should have released all 5 of these figures together to help people out with that "impulse" buy.

Don't even get me started on the Energon Combiners. It took two years before I found a Terradive for less than $40.

So annoyed...

Sabrblade wrote:Like I said before. At least we still have this guy:

Hey I have that guy. He was a pack in with Blockrock. Blockrock is displayed with Cybertron Soundwave while that one is sitting in a storage box.

Editor wrote:Hey I have that guy. He was a pack in with Blockrock. Blockrock is displayed with Cybertron Soundwave while that one is sitting in a storage box.

Don't you mean Flashback?

But seriously, bad Takara! BAD! I was really looking forward to this Blaster. I got e-mail from BBTS too saying that it's canceled and their removing it from their site. I don't get it. Why got through all the trouble of making the mold and not use it? That's where most of their money has gone, into designing the toy. It costs them next to nothing to simply manufacture it now. So why not?

UltraPrimal wrote:

Editor wrote:Hey I have that guy. He was a pack in with Blockrock. Blockrock is displayed with Cybertron Soundwave while that one is sitting in a storage box.

Don't you mean Flashback?

No, by god, I did not. Good day to you Sir.

Maybe if they had stuck with a figure that transformed into a G1 Boombox like Blaster is supposed to they would have no need to cancel. The whole idea of Blaster transforming into a laptop, 2 way pager, or whatever that 2 in 1 gimmick figure turned into was stupid. Everyone on this blog knows they only wanted this figure for the robot mode. Nobody actually planned to use him as a PDA or whatever. I think the whole enigma behind G1 homages is to keep them retro. So just give us a Blaster that transforms into that classic 1980's style boombox. And if they insist on making him actually play music, just build in an MP3 player.

Rated X wrote:Maybe if they had stuck with a figure that transformed into a G1 Boombox like Blaster is supposed to they would have no need to cancel. .... And if they insist on making him actually play music, just build in an MP3 player.

I agree with that. While I'm sad they had to cancel, I would have rather had him in a more gee-wun-y form a-la music label Soundwave.

In fact, I just picked up the "Blaster Black" version because he is so great in his normal blue form.

I'd much rather have a continuation of the Music label series.

While I like the Ravage quite a bit, I was only so-so on Blaster anyway.

Rated X wrote:Maybe if they had stuck with a figure that transformed into a G1 Boombox like Blaster is supposed to they would have no need to cancel. .... And if they insist on making him actually play music, just build in an MP3 player.

I don't know, you have to accept that some things are going to change because they're not relevant to today anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer a tape cassette Soundwave and a boom box Blaster any day of the week. But they don't have any relevance to a younger audience and it also makes sense that Transformers would scan new alt modes. If Blaster was on Earth in 2009 he wouldn't have a boom box as an alt mode.

I think they did enough to make him G1ish. His robot mode is pretty damn good and he can store G1 tapes in his chest.

I must admit I was originally not going to get him. But getting DL Ravage also inspired me to go pick up ML Soundwave, both to go with my Classics/Universe figures, and that made me realise that DL Blaster would make a great Classics Blaster. Probably the best we're going to get.

That's just great... Thanks a lot TAKARA!
You are the best. The best pieace of bull dung I ever seen.
For ages, FOR AGES, fans have been pleeding for a decent Blaster figure ever since Classics line came out. And when they come up with this label figure we all said "hey thats cool. I could roll with that". And what did TAKARA do? They cancel Blaster.
You know what you could do with that figure? Turn that sucker sideways and stick it where the Sun don't shine

Yeah... they cancelled it just to annoy us.

Rated X wrote:Maybe if they had stuck with a figure that transformed into a G1 Boombox like Blaster is supposed to they would have no need to cancel. The whole idea of Blaster transforming into a laptop, 2 way pager, or whatever that 2 in 1 gimmick figure turned into was stupid. Everyone on this blog knows they only wanted this figure for the robot mode. Nobody actually planned to use him as a PDA or whatever. I think the whole enigma behind G1 homages is to keep them retro. So just give us a Blaster that transforms into that classic 1980's style boombox. And if they insist on making him actually play music, just build in an MP3 player.

Yeah, and then overcharge for out-of-date technology just like Soundwave! But I'd probably buy it anyway.

Well, simply put this blows. Blaster was probably the toys I was looking forward to the most in the second half of 09, and now I've got squat.

I'm sure we will see this someday, but I'm sending out a good 'ole Philly BOO to TakTom!


BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! YOU SUCK!!!!!

I wonder if we'll see a US release with all of the electronics gutted for U3.0?

::Files this under "Stupid shit Takara/Tomy does on account of Hentai"::

No. I won't elaborate on that.

Counterpunch wrote:::Files this under "Stupid shit Takara/Tomy does on account of Hentai"::

No. I won't elaborate on that.

At first, I read that as "Henkei"!

EPIC FAIL TAKARA! EPIC FAIL!

Bummer. But at least now I don't have to be sad that I couldnt afford to get him.

Counterpunch wrote:::Files this under "Stupid shit Takara/Tomy does on account of Hentai"::

No. I won't elaborate on that.

Oh, please do!

Well that sucks. This was the only one from the series that transformed into something that actually looked like a real world object and probably the only one that could have served any useful purpose and seen any real use (you know he would have looked sick sitting next to your computer!). Let's be honest here, Ravage in his USB mode looked like nothing more than... well, a folded up Ravage, with Grimlock not much better, but Blaster was awesome. (yeah, it seems alittle odd that you can put tapes into something that turns into a laptop, but way back in the day they made cassette tape drives for computers, so it's not so strange if you look at it that way ) I totally agree with the person that said Takara was asking ridiculous prices for out of date technology, they hit the point exactly and that is why this line failed. No company cancels a product if it's making profit, the problem was people wern't stupid enough to pay that much for things were junk. I wasted money on Music Label Soundwave once and was really disappointed. Sure he looked cool, but it sounded like utter crap (both through my car stereo and hi-end headphones) with distortion, static and a constant annoying popping sound. It just dosn't make any sense to build overpriced "functioning" items if the technology is outdated (or shoddy) and people arn't going to get any use from them. Just build them as regular toys and forget about the expensive gimmicks if ya can't do it right. Blaster might have been the exception and it's a shame we'll never know.

^ I never even bothered to try using my Music Label Soundwave as an mp3 player, so I agree it would've been nice if they'd just made it non-functioning and much cheaper.

Or better yet, use technology that's actually good.