The following highly anticipated next wave of Transformers movie sequel - Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) toys have been spotted at our local retailers this weekend!  Note: Stratosphere may take a while more to reach some stores.

Voyager Class (SGD 51.90 each):

Wave 2: Megatron.

Like the ROTF Leader Megatron action figure, Voyager Megatron also has an oversized right arm and an undersized left arm.  He’s a dull shade of greenish grey and his tank mode doesn’t look as spectacular as the Leader version.  Somehow when you see him in his box, he sort of resembles a horseshoe crab!  But then Megatron fans may still want him in their collections.  He also makes a cheaper alternative for parents with kids wanting Megatron but find the Leader version way out of their budget.

Wave 2: Mixmaster.

Mixmaster is probably gonna be the collectors’ hot favourite in this ROTF Voyager wave.  I kind of get this idea when reading the various ROTF toy forums recently.  I’ve seen this toy in person and I must say that Mixmaster does look very attractive in his slivery metallic paint.  The only question I have about this toy is about that enormous Decepticon symbol displayed prominently on the cement mixer itself.  Aren’t Transformers supposed to be “robots in disguise”?  *Scratches head*

Wave 2 Rev 1-3: Stratosphere. 

Okay I admit that I know nothing about this character.  I’m not even sure if he’s gonna be in the upcoming ROTF movie.  I think he probably makes a cameo appearance.  One thing for sure is that this toy is seriously way undersized.  It’s gonna be hard to focus the camera on him and the humans in the same screen!  Stratosphere comes with an exclusive mini Optimus Prime which he can transport within him.  His robot mode looks quite scrawny.  The in-scale Stratosphere toy in Plane mode is probably gonna be the size of a real desk surface! 

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I gather that Mixmaster will number fewer than the other Voyager toys in wave 2 and its revision waves.  Hence he’s likely to sell out faster too.  He also looks the best in vehicle mode and Mint-In-Box (MIB) among the 3 of them.  Hence I predict that he will take the lead in this wave of ROTF Voyager toys popularity race.  For those who missed out on getting The Fallen in the earlier ROTF Voyager toys wave, he will return in this wave 2 and its revision waves.  Hence you’ll have your chance to get him. 

And therefore the cement mixer looks to be a likely close contender with the black alien for the popularity lead.  The Autobots aren’t looking to come close in challenging the Decepticons for the most popular ROTF Voyager toy title.  But these are just my guesses.  We shall let time reveal the true results in the coming weeks.  Meanwhile, happy ROTF toy hunting!

Wave 4: Cannon Bumblebee, Mudflap, Interrogator Barricade & Ravage (SGD 27.90 each). 

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They’re here, they’re finally here!  The next wave of highly anticipated ROTF Deluxe action figures have reached our local departmental stores this week!  If you go shopping this weekend, they should all be up on the pegs and shelves waiting for you to bring them home! 

The overall paint job on this wave looks much improved from the earlier waves of ROTF Deluxe toys we’ve seen so far.  Even the newer batches of Deluxe Sideswipes have less obvious or no more scratch  marks on them.  The first batch of Sideswipes with terrible and unforgivable scratch marks on them, shouldn’t even had been allowed to leave the factory but they did.  It was in a way quite unethical of them…

Anyway let’s put it behind us for now as wave 4 is here!  Bumblebee looks very cool with tinted windows and his 2 shoulder cannons popped up in the package.  Interrogator Barricade looks the same as before and makes a good alternative for those who missed out on the first movie version.  Ravage looks to be the new Deluxe hot favourite and he is bigger in person than I expected.  Mudflap, well I forgot to examine him but he looks rather normal in car mode with a missile beside him.

And hence, my initial guess is that the black panther will come closest in challenging or even overtake Deluxe Sideswipe for the popularity lead in the coming weeks.  Then followed by the yellow cannons and spikey headlights!  The oranges will probably accompany the remaining greens in the stores.  Till then, happy ROTF toy hunting!

Update: There are 2 variants for Cannon Bumblebee - either frosted or clear windows!  There are also 2 variants for Mudlfap - back license plate reads either “Trax” or “Mudflap”!

The Transformers movie sequel - Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) toys have finaly arrived at our local Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlets!  They started the promotion this week and there are 4 designs to collect (1 design per week) - Ironhide, Starscream, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime! 

Since reading about these ROTF toys being offered by Malaysia’s KFC from another toy blog, I’ve been checking both our local KFC and Burger King (BK) outlets to see which of them will have the ROTF toys.  It turns out that KFC is the ‘winner’!  In the UK, the BK outlets have their own separate series of BK ROTF toys, which are quite similar to the random style BK Transformers movie toys offered here 2 years ago.

I have not opened my Ironhide toy from its package yet.  All I can say is that this set of KFC ROTF toys can transform between robot and vehicle modes!  Of course the transformation process is ultra simple and the robot designs are not as detailed as the Hasbro toys.  But overall, the vehicle modes are very nice for fast food toys and will make great display pieces.

So hurry down to your nearest KFC outlet and treat yourself to a hearty KFC Chicky Meal (at SGD 4.60 per meal) today!  Haha, I sound like I’m promoting for them, but then I know most of you are not really there for the chicken, LOL!!

Talk about taking toys to the ultimate level!  This is “the image video of Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg, the largest model railway in the world and one of the most successful permanent exhibitions in Germany.  Find more videos and information on their homepage!

Hmmm, I wonder if those humans and animal figures come to life after the real people have closed the place each night?  It will be like “Night At The Museum”, but with miniatures running around instead!  But then they will need that mystical ancient Egyptian tablet with magical powers for it to happen…

While doing some grocery shopping at a local hypermarket, I came across this Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) movie tie-in promotion with a well-known cereal brand.  If you buy a regular box of their cereal, you get 1 of the 4 Spinning Gyro toys in it!  They are something like a kind of spinning top and there are 4 different ROTF characters in the set.

I was actually more attracted to the large cardboard cut-outs of both Bumblebee and Optimus Prime suspending from the ceiling.  If only I could take home the Bumblebee one!  I also saw similar cardboard stands featuring these 2 famous Autobots at our local cinemas.  I’ll take a photo of it when I have the chance and where the lighting there is good!

The Wolverine hype finally over after its movie and its animated series ended their screenings and telecast here in May and early June.  The movie toys and other related X-Men toys are still found in the departmental stores, where some of them are having a sale on this toyline now. 

Recently, I managed to find wave 4 of the “Wolverine and the X-Men” animated series toys in the departmental stores.  Logan in white shirt doesn’t look much of a major difference from his earlier version with grey shirt.  Iceman in uniform looks like some sort of surfer dude in ice!

Nevertheless, I’m glad to note that this latest batch of Colossus action figures have much better paint jobs on them, compared to the earlier waves that were released during the hype of the Wolverine movie and animated series.  Overall, I think interest in this toyline has waned, seeing that so many of this new wave have been left almost untouched in the stores. 

Over the past 2 months, I do occasionally check the stores to see if any of the later waves of Wolverine toys have reached us.  I realised that we seemed to have missed out on wave 2 and wave 3 of the Wolverine animated toys, and possibly on wave 3 of the Wolverine movie toys.

Anyway, these 3.75-inch X-Men and related Marvel action figure toylines are for the hardcore fans and collectors.  Most kids and casual collectors probably ignore them, partly due to the high price tags (SGD 18.90 each), and partly due to overall poor quality paint jobs on most of these toys. 

If you collect these 3.75-inch action figures, you know you usually have to go through at least 20 pieces of the same character before you can select a decent piece with reasonable quality paint job to purchase.  I think a lot of people gave up collecting them from sheer frustration on the quality and price.  Now that the Great Singapore Sale is here, you can perhaps pick up a couple of them for novelty’s sake!

Quite a number of local retailers, though I’m not sure if all, are having a special Star Wars toy sale now.  You can buy any 3 Clone Wars action figures for just SGD 30.00!  That’s quite a good deal, if you like and collect this toyline.  As of today, they still have many of the main characters on sale, like Anakin Skywalker, Yoda, R2-D2, Obi-Wan Kenobi etc.  Too bad there is no similar sale for the more popular Legacy Collection series.  At most, there is a 20% discount for the latter figures, which is better than none!

“Do you notice that The Fallen is the only 1 of the 6 ROTF Voyager Class series to be packaged in his robot mode?  The rest are in their vehicle modes.  The Fallen looks quite cool in both his spacecraft and robot modes.  Somehow he reminds me of the Aliens from the movie “Aliens”.  I actually dreamt of myself being chased by The Fallen some time ago.  It felt so real, as if I was inside the ROTF movie!  Come to think of it, it was quite a frightful nightmare!”

ROTF Voyager The Fallen. 

In just 2 weeks after the official launch of the Transformers Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) toys (on 30 May 2009) at major retailers here, Voyager The Fallen is the most rarely seen ROTF toy around in most stores.  This character is going to be the major villain in the upcoming ROTF movie, with the movie sequel named after him. 

Amongst all the Transformers movie characters we’ve seen photos of so far, The Fallen looks to be the most ‘primitive’ or rather most ‘cybertronian’ in appearance, both in spacecraft and robots modes.  Somehow when you look at his design on its own, you can’t really tell that he’s supposed to be from the Transformers movie if no one told you so.  He looks like an independant alien character that he could even have his own movie!

Anyway, The Fallen seem very popular among kids and collectors here in SIngapore, even before the ROTF movie is screened in the cinemas.  So what’s the deal about this toy that makes him so sought after, other than being a star in the ROTF movie?  Well, lets view the above toy review video to find out more!  To me, The Fallen does indeed look kinda cool and quite special.  It’s mainly the price (SGD 51.90) that deters me!  How about you?  Will you be collecting The Fallen toy?

Have you followed me on Twitter yet?  I know some fellow bloggers have!  I’ve re-started ‘tweeting’ for 3 days and contributed more than 10 ‘tweets’ on toys news and such.  At first I thought that I would have nothing much to ‘tweet’ about but it turns out that I do!  It’s mostly ROTF toy news so far cos that’s what mainly on my mind right now.

Twitter’s a way more instantaneous online method of sending out and receiving the latest news, updates and topics of your interest, depending on whose ‘tweets’ you follow.  Some toy news are more like one-liners that are not blogged about here, hence come follow me on Twitter today to get the latest toys news etc., that I have to share with my followers!  You can also look up the ‘Twitterers’ I follow to receive their news!

Fellow toy blogger Kenmoo2007 informed me about the above.  Mark your calendars for a special date with this toy event coming up next month!  You might just find some interesting collectibles and meet up with your friends there!  Read more about it at their blog and see you there!