“He who dies with the most toys wins.” – Unknown

“He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, still dead.” – Unknown

While the first quote isn’t true, it’s nice to try anyway. 🙂  Whoever came up with the second is a real killjoy.

Yesterday was the official release date for Transformers: Dark of the Moon toys.  This blog will mostly be about that.  Just a couple of quick notes first.

The Red Sox eviscerated the Yankees over the weekend, there first three game sweep in the Bronx since 2004.  I predicted this, and it was a memorable weekend.  However, last night’s game in Boston against the Orioles feels far bigger.  Having finally reaching a .500 record 20-20), the Red Sox could have folded when they were down 6-0.  They battled back making the score 6-5, and then when trailing 7-6 in the ninth, Dustin Pedroia put on a great at bat drawing a walk on about ten pitches to set the table for Adrian Gonzalez’s 2 run walk off hit.  If ANYONE didn’t believe that the Red Sox could pull there way out of the early season funk, they are now proven wrong.  Sure, I’ll admit it, if either the Rays or Yankees were tearing it up as they have often done, the Sox could still be eight or ten games out.  But they aren’t.  Last night’s win puts the Red Sox three games behind the Rays, in a three way tie for second place.  Not bad, not bad at all.  I’m a little concerned with Lackey going on the DL, but he hasn’t pitched well, and you could do worse than Tim Wakefield as your fifth starter, especially when Beckett, Lester, and Buchholz have been so good, and Matsuzaka, in spite of not being great, is doing well enough to win games.

I saw Priest this weekend.  Not much to say.  It was a good movie, nothing outstanding, but worth seeing.

Now, on to the toys!

I went to two Toys R Us stores.  The first one, which was my first stop, had a ton of stuff and where I made the bulk of my purchases.  The second didn’t have as much, but did have wave 2 Deluxes.

I went to four Walmarts.  None of them had even bothered to put out there stock.  This really pissed me off.  If Hasbro is going to street date product, a practice which I find idiotic, then the stores should understand that people will come into the stores looking for it ON THAT DAY.  I will say that at one store, one of the employees took my list out back to see if they had anything, but they only had what I’d already found.  Have to give credit for that.

I went to three Targets.  The first one had a couple of Voyagers, Leader Prime, and wave one Human Alliance, as well as a few odds and ends.  The second Target claimed not to have anything.  I GUARANTEE that they had pallets of stuff out back and the guy was being a dick.  The third one had no toys, but two TF2010 (not Dark of the Moon) Scooters.

I went to two K-Marts.  One had a peg of Human Alliance Basics, which I had already found, and a big empty space.  The other had a display in the isle of stuff, a descent selection, and they actually had wave 2 Robo Power Go-Bots, so that was good.

The Sears Essentials I went to had nothing.

Here is a list of what I found:

Cyberverse Legion Action Sets Wave 1
Bumblebee
Starscream

Cyberverse Commanders Wave 1
Ironhide
Megatron
Optimus Prime
Sentinel Prime

Cyberverse Legions Wave 1
Barricade
Bumblebee
Crankcase
Sideswipe
Skids
Topspin

Deluxes Wave 1
Bumblebee
Crankcase
Ratchet
Roadbuster
Skids
Starscream

Deluxes Wave 2
Barricade
Jolt
Sideswipe
Topspin

Human Alliances Wave 1
Bumblebee
Skids

Human Alliance Basics Wave 1
Backfire
Icepick
Sandstorm
Thunderhead

Leaders Wave 1
Bumblebee
Sentinel Prime

Robo Power Robo Fighters Wave 1
Bumblebee
Ironhide
Optimus Prime
Starscream

Robo Power Activators Wave 1
Optimus Prime
Bumblebee
Starscream

Robo Power Bash Bots Wave 1
Bumblebee vs. Megatron
Optimus Prime vs. Starscream

Robo Power Go-Bots Wave 1
Bumblebee
Optimus Prime
Sideswipe

Robo Power Revving Robots Wave 1
Bumblebee
Optimus Prime

Voyager Wave 1
Optimus Prime
Megatron
Ironhide

Voyager Wave 2
Skyhammer
Shockwave

Stealth Force Basics Wave 1 (Repacks of previous product in DotM/Speed Stars packaging.)
High Wire (DotM)
Knock Out (DotM)

Disapointingly, I’ve not seen a single store exclusive.

I only found a few non-toy Dark of the Moon merchandise items, a repacked TF2010 Optimus Prime costume in DotM packaging, and three Bicycle Helmets.  I’m beginning to wonder if all the other summer movies (Thor, Captain America, X-Men First Class, Green Lantern, Deathly Hallows, Cars 2, Priates of the Caribbean, and others will get so much merchandise, that they won’t make much for TF.  I can see that happening.

Since there doesn’t seem to be a comprehensive list of Dark of the Moon toys online anywhere, here’s there list I have compiled, additions and corrections are welcome.  Of course, there will be more, but this is all I know of so far.

Cyberverse Action Sets
 Bumblebee W1
 Starscream W1
 Megatron W2
 Optimus Prime W2
 
Cyberverse Commander
 Ironhide W1
 Megatron W1
 Optimus Prime W1
 Sentinel Prime W1
 Blackout W2
 Hatchet W2
 Powerglide W2
 
Cyberverse Legion
 Barricade W1
 Bumblebee W1
 Crankcase W1
 Sideswipe W1
 Skids W1
 Topspin W1
 Bumblebee (Bolt) W2
 Crowbat W2
 Leadfoot W2
 Mudflap W2
 Ratchet W2
 Bumblebee (Stealth) W3
 Flak W3
 Roadbuster W3
 Starscream W3
 Bumblebee vs. Soundwave
 Bumblebee ve. Starscream [TRU]
 
Cyberverse Playsets
 The Ark
 
Deluxe
 Bumblebee W1
 Crankcase W1
 Roadbuster W1
 Skids W1
 Starscream W1
 Ratchet W1
 Barricade W2
 Jolt W2
 Sideswipe W2
 Topspin W2
 Bumblebee (Nitro) W3
 Buzzard W3
 Mudflap W3
 Thundercracker W3
 Bumblebee (Scanning) [TRU]
 Optimus Prime [Walmart]
 Sideswipe (Sidearm) [Walmart]
 Sideswipe (Scanning) [TRU]
 Bumblebee (Cyberfire)
 Vortex? (Maybe Japan Only)
 
Human Alliance Basic
 Backfire with Spike Witwicky W1
 Icepick with Seargeant Chaos W1
 Sandstorm with Private Dedcliff W1
 Thunderhead with Major Tungsten W1
 Tailpipe with Noble W2
 Whirl with Sparkplug W2
 
Human Alliance Deluxe
 Bumblebee (Stealth) with Sam Witwicky W1
 Skids with Sargent Epps W1
 Roadbuster with Seargeant Recon W2
 
Human Alliance Multipacks
 Autobot Daredevil Squad [K-Mart]
 Flash Freeze Assault
 
Leader
 Bumblebee W1
 Sentinel Prime W1
 Ironhide W2
 
Multipacks
 Optimus Prime Value Pack [Walmart]
 
Robo Power Robo Fighters
 Bumblebee W1
 Ironhide W1
 Optimus Prime W1
 Starscream W1
 
Robo Power Activators
 Bumblebee W1
 Optimus Prime W1
 Starscream W1
 Megatron W2
 Topspin W2
 
Robo Power Bash Bots
 Bumblebee vs. Megatron W1
 Optimus Prime vs. Starscream W1
 
Robo Power Go-Bots
 Bumblebee W1
 Sideswipe W1
 Optimus Prime W2
 
Robo Power Revving Robots
 Bumblebee W1
 Optimus Prime W1
 
Role Play
 Energon Shock Sword
 Optimus Prime Cyber Blaster
 Bumblebee Cine-Mask
 Optimus Prime Cine-Mask
 Optimus Prime Ride-On
 Optimus Prime Wagon
 
Talking Plush
 Bumblebee
 Optimus Prime
 
Voyager
 Ironhide W1
 Megatron W1
 Optimus Prime W1
 Shockwave W2
 Skyhammer W2
 Optimus Prime (Battle Axe) W3
 Sentinel prime W3
 Starscream [Target]
 Ratchet [Target]
 
Ultimate
 Optimus Prime
 
Japan Exclusives

Deluxe
 Arcee
 Air Raid
 Vortex? (Unconfirmed)
 
Leader
 Optimus Prime (Jetblade)
 
Voyager
 Optimus Prime (w/Trailer)

Lastly, here is the Transformers Artifact of the Week:

This is a 1986 coloring book by Marvel Books called “Invasion of the Decepticon Camp”.  I see lots of the pre-movie coloring books, but not so many of the movie ones.  It seems kind of rare, but it’s hard to say.   Nice item, rare or not.  You can find this and over 7000 other Transformers merchandise items at TFMuseum.com.

Thanks for reading!