Takara Tomy spent the back half of September teasing a slate of Masterpiece and New Legends releases, first in grey, then in colour, then with product numbers attached, and the promotional frame for MPG-27 carried a date: October 2. The dollar listings went up at BigBadToyStore today, a day after a Japanese listing for the same set appeared. BBTS has Masterpiece G MPG-27 Twin Cast and Rewind open at $199.99, Dramatic Capture Series Dinobot Island Part 2 at $139.99, New Legends NL-09 Dark Amber Leo Prime and Blue Bolt at $99.99, and the Kiss Players 20th Anniversary Cassettebot Exclusive Set at $47.99. All four were preorders with a live add-to-cart control when we read the listings this afternoon.

The four do not carry the same terms at BBTS. MPG-27 and Dinobot Island Part 2 take a down payment when you order, and the balance falls due when the item is ready to ship. NL-09 and the Cassettebot set take no payment until the item is in stock, and either can be cancelled before that payment lands. None of that changes what is in the box, but it does change which of the four we would order first.

MPG-27’s chest takes the cassettes from two earlier sets

In The Transformers: The Headmasters, Broadcast is revived and powered up with Master Planet technology, and the form he comes back in is Twin Cast, with a visibly enlarged chest. Takara has built that enlargement out of new parts rather than letting a redeco of the old torso stand in for it. Press the switch on his abdomen and the chest opens for the cassette-tape version of Rewind. Takara’s listing says it also takes the cassettebot bodies from MPG-24 Eject and Ramhorn, which came West alongside MPG-25 Blaster and Steeljaw in July, and the Steeljaw body packed with MPG-25 itself. Two cassettes fit at once.

So the Masterpiece G cassette shelf now plugs into itself. MPG-24 and MPG-25 arrived in July, MPG-26 Decepticon Rhinox opened for Japanese preorder in August, and the chest announced today accepts the bodies out of the first two.

Twin Cast in robot mode holding the red Electro Scrambler Gun, with Rewind standing beside him in robot mode holding the yellow Sticky Gun

Twin Cast with the Electro Scrambler Gun, Rewind with the Sticky Gun. Source: Takara Tomy promotional art.

At $199.99 the set carries the Electro Scrambler Gun for Twin Cast, a monitor panel that fits inside the open chest, and megaphones that clip to both his arms. Rewind gets the Sticky Gun. There are effect parts shaped like sound waves, which attach to Twin Cast in device mode and to the tip of a megaphone. Takara’s copy also lists the alternate transformation mode Broadcast demonstrated, with movable legs, so the set can be posed mid-stride. BBTS puts the arrival at July 2027. [1]

Dinobot Island Part 2, and the first half is still orderable

Part 1 of Dinobot Island paired Grimlock with Ratchet, whom Takara’s copy calls his creator. Part 2, the ninth set in the Dramatic Capture Series, moves down the roster to Slug and Sludge, with the colouring taken from the source material and metallic paint used for a heavier finish. Slug becomes a mechanical Triceratops and Sludge a mechanical Brontosaurus, and each carries a sword alongside the usual firearms, a rifle for Slug and a blaster for Sludge. The box also holds two large effect parts and seven small ones, there to rebuild the flamethrower scene Takara’s copy names. It arrives in April 2027.

Slug and Sludge in robot mode, both in red, gold and gunmetal, each holding a weapon with an orange flame effect part attached

Slug and Sludge in robot mode with their effect parts fitted. Source: Takara Tomy promotional art.

Part 1 has not sold out, so the pair can still be started at the beginning. It is open at BBTS at $124.99, listed under Hasbro and Takara Tomy together where Part 2 is Takara Tomy alone; its window is April 2027 too.

NL-09, and a Kiss Players trio at $47.99

New Legends NL-09 puts Dark Amber Leo Prime, a black lion with a silver mane and blue claws, together with the blue hawk Blue Bolt, and adds a bonus computer robot called Navi. Takara’s copy calls the lion the embodiment of Unicron. The set lists at $99.99 for April 2027. Inside the tray the lion has a pair of arm blades, the hawk has a pair of weapons, and there is a decal sheet.

Dark Amber Leo Prime in robot mode in black and silver, the blue hawk Blue Bolt beside him, and the small yellow and navy Navi robot in front

Dark Amber Leo Prime in robot mode, Blue Bolt, and the bonus Navi figure. Source: Takara Tomy promotional art.

The cheapest box on the list has the strangest origin. Kiss Players ran as a radio tie-in project across 2006 and 2007, and three Cassettebots came out of it: Rosanna, Grid and Sundor, built, per Takara, on character ideas and colour settings that the show’s performers supplied. Takara is tooling all three of them now, twenty years on!

Three small Cassettebots on white: a white and blue wolf, a pink and white robot with heart markings, and an orange and yellow bird

The three Kiss Players Cassettebots. Source: Takara Tomy promotional art.

They arrive as a boxed trio at $47.99 for April 2027, two weapons apiece, with a character card carrying new artwork and an acrylic stand illustrated by Yuuki Oshima, who designed the characters in the first place. Takara’s own copy says the stand is a random one of the three and that duplicates are possible on a multiple order.

So MPG-27 is the only one of the four with a July window. The other three are down for April 2027.

[1] A Japanese listing carried by taghobby on October 1 put MPG-27 at 25,000 yen with a May 2027 window, a day ahead of the full announcement. The yen figure is the domestic one and the BBTS figures are the import ones, and the two windows do not have to agree. Note also that Takara’s own product name is “Twin Cast” as two words, and that the Dinobot in the second set is “Slug”.

Sources