Hasbro

Summer is here and that means it's time for convention exclusive items. Both the bastion and the bane of many collectors, convention exclusives present us with collectibles we may otherwise never see at retail with the caveat that they'll be next to impossible to track down if you aren't actually at the show itself. Heck, sometimes you can be at the show in person and still miss out on a sweet limited item. Fortunately, Hasbro's Star Wars Black Series is offering up two exclusives this convention season which should double your odds of acquisition. Last year, we saw the debut of the First Order Stormtrooper, as San Diego Comic-Con was the first place you could get your hands on any toys from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This year, Hasbro isn't just sticking with the latest film in the franchise, though the Force Awakens will be a part of the plan. A new Kylo Ren Pack, featuring Ben Solo's finely coiffed portrait, will be offered exclusively at Star Wars Celebration Europe. Additionally, the original trilogy will get some love in the form a an Obi-Wan Kenobi pack, which will be offered exclusively at SDCC and Fan Expo Canada.

There's no shortage of Transformers collectibles out there, however if you're looking outside of Takara and Hasbro for anything beyond the standard fare, pickings are pretty slim. In recent years, more companies have been dabbling in larger-form figures and statues, and that's particularly true of Prime 1 Studio. While most of you might recall that name due to the company's outstanding Batman pieces, Prime 1 has also released a few movie-based Transformers statues. Your mileage may vary on what you think of the films and those designs, but Prime 1 did quite a number on bringing them to life. Now the company is taking its talents to the Generations branch, and its kicking things off with the Autobot leader, Optimus Prime. There are about a thousand ways to call something beautiful, and none of them are strong enough to fit for how amazing this new statue looks.

Everyone loves trivia about their favorite animated features and series, but with over 100 years of animation history behind us right now, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite names in cartoons in this continuing video series. You think you know cartoons? Well, here’s a few things you might not know! This week we're taking a look cartoons' most truly outrageous stars of all time, Jem and the Holograms. After finding success with GI Joe and Transformers, Jem was an attempt by Hasbro to use an animated series to conquer the pink aisle at the toy store the same way they had the action figure aisle. In this video, learn about the history of Jem from its conception to its connection to superhero comics to its connection to GI Joe and Transformers, all the way to its successful and not-so-successful latter day adaptations.

A long, long time ago, a massive spaceship crashed on Earth. Thanks to an opportune volcano eruption, the inhabitants of the ship were woken up just in time to enjoy the '80s. Unfortunately, not everyone on the ship is a good person... or robot. While the Autobots befriend the humans they encounter in the hopes of finding a way back to their home planet, the Decepticons immediately set to work on a plan to eliminate the Autobots, take over Earth and return to Cybertron to rule. Over the years, the story of the Transformers has taken many forms, from different animated series to movies, comics and games. One thing always holds true though --- Autobots and Decepticons really can't stand each other. That rivalry serves as the backbone for Hasbro's newest mobile game, Transformers: Earth Wars. A base-building strategy game, Earth Wars follows suit with Clash of Clans and Rival Kingdoms, putting you in charge of creating the perfect base for your faction and working to stop the other side. The formula might be similar to what you've seen before, but Earth Wars has enough new wrinkles to make it stand out beyond the license.

Since 2013, Hasbro has hosted two different fan votes to create new robots in disguise for Transformers. The first figure created by the fans was 2014's Windblade, a female jet from Kaon who also got her own comic series from IDW Publishing. Last year, Hasbro opened up another public vote, this time for a Combiner Transformer. Fans were able to vote for each limb/vehicle separately, as well as once again determining the paint app, personality, gender and origin. Out of all those decisions came Victorion, the first ever female Combiner in Transfomers history. Victorion made her debut at San Diego Comic-Con 2015, and though we knew what to expect from the results, the prototype shown off at the convention caught a number of us by surprise. It certainly wasn't because Hasbro altered the core format of the figure, but because that paint app was so wild compared the rest of the existing Transfomers line. I happen to love it, and outside of Devastator, there aren't many Combiners with nearly as much color coordination going on. That color scheme helps Victorion stand out, as she repurposes a lot of existing bots for her build. It doesn't make her any less impressive once combined though.

The thing about doing comics based on toy properties is that eventually you're going to want to play with all the toys, and today, it looks like that's exactly what IDW has set out to do. After years of keeping them separated into their own universes --- with exceptions like the senses-shattering, soon-to-be-finished Transformers vs. GI Joe --- IDW is combining almost all of its Hasbro toy properties into a single universe. The shakeup comes in a biweekly event called Revolution, co-written by Cullen Bunn and John Barber, with art by Fico Ossio, which will combine GI Joe, Transformers, MASK, ROM the Space Knight, Action Man and Micronauts into one permanent shared universe.

If you somehow have been living on a derelict space station that only just crashed back down on Earth and you missed out on the months of hype for Captain America: Civil War, I guess it's a little late for a Spider-Man spoiler warning. To be fair, even Marvel couldn't help but spill the beans on the webhead's arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by showing him off in trailers and images well before the film hit theaters. Oddly though, while there is plenty of Captain America and Iron Man merchandise to be found from the new film, there's nary a Spider-Man figure to be seen. That changes this summer.

We've barely made it to the quarter-post of 2016, and already Hasbro's released three separate Marvel Legends waves into the wild. Captain America has been the focal point of two of those three, with Captain America: Civil War providing the inspiration for this latest collection. Not only do you get Civil War versions of Cap and Iron Man (yes, again), but you also get the first Marvel Cinematic Universe Black Panther. Some comic book faces like Nick Fury, Red Guardian and Nuke round out the line which is based around a spoilerish build-a-figure (don't worry, those images are all at very end if you want to keep it a secret).

Last year, Hasbro released an exclusive figure through Kmart featuring Kylo Ren in a snow-dusted cloak and standing in a icy base. We'd seen the scene a number of times in the trailers, and it made for a moderately interesting variant of the standard Black Series Kylo. Still, that was released last winter, and we were all left wondering if we'd ever see the second half of the planned set. At the time, many presumed the follow-up figure would be Finn from that same wintery scene. Oh how foolish we all were to believe a trailer would show us the entire movie and spoil one of the greatest moments in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. On May 4, aka Star Wars Day, the diorama will finally be complete when Starkiller Base Rey arrives.

IDW has become the place to go for ultra-modern, relevant and exciting comic book adaptations of your favorite childhood franchises. Whether it's Transformers, Jem and the Holograms or Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles, IDW has been on a roll with titles that go way beyond nostalgia-grabs, and in some cases are some of the very best comics on the stands. This is a trend the publisher hopes to continue with the announcement, via USA Today, that Brandon Easton and Tony Vargas will work on a new comic featuring MASK, the 1980s cartoon about a vehicle-based law enforcement agency that was kind of Transformers and GI Joe at the same time.