When we looked at this helicopter in October it was a colour sample on a plinth at the 64th All Japan Model Hobby Show in Tokyo, and Takara had not put a price on it. Two American shops have now done that for it. Overgear OG-02EX Grindor is on pre-order at BigBadToyStore at $199.991, with a live cart control and an arrival estimate of September 2027, read on 9 November. A $20.00 non-refundable down payment is taken at checkout, and the balance is due when the item is available to ship.

Grindor is the OG-02 Blackout mould with what Hasbro’s listing calls updated details, a different colour scheme and a newly sculpted head, and Blackout itself is $139.99 and out of stock at BigBadToyStore, down to a waitlist button. So Grindor is $60 more than the figure it is retooled from, and the cheaper of the two is the one nobody can buy today. OG-01 Ironhide is $119.99 and sold out. OG-03 Optimus Prime is $139.99 and open for pre-order.

What comes in the box

Hasbro’s listing itemises a helicopter tail rotor, two blasters, two missiles, two rockets and a fire-control radar. Takara’s photography shows a row of parts under the aircraft and names none of them.2 The same listing promises a story sheet printed to look like a classified document, a spec sheet done up as a blueprint, a sticker sheet, and a folder to keep them in.

Takara's product photograph of the helicopter seen from above on a grey ground, with its accessories laid out in a row below it: two cylindrical pods with perforated faces, two missile racks, a rifle, a small part and a round disc.

It is an import, so the instructions in the box are in Japanese, and Hasbro is selling it through its TT Imports program.

The wings read TECH-DESIGN & TESTING BUREAU

One wing carries those words in English, and the round disc in the accessory shot carries the same four letters. The box calls the figure the CTC Technology Demonstrator version, and neither listing says what CTC stands for; our October report named the collaborator as a Japanese cyberpunk and tactical-apparel label.3 Black airframe, acid green on the blade tips and the canopy glass, white kanji on the wings and the nose, pink rings on the missile tips.

The helicopter mode photographed from the side on a grey ground, a black airframe with a translucent green canopy, white kanji along the nose, a rocket pod and pink-tipped missiles under the stub wing and a rifle slung beneath the belly.

Every one of these images carries a line from Takara saying the prototype’s final specification, shape and colouring may differ.

Two shops, two dates

Hasbro Pulse put its listing up on 5 November and carries the same $199.99, with a stated ship date of about 30 August 2027. BigBadToyStore says September 2027. Both dates are estimates and both pages say so. A spread like that is ordinary on an import: on the Adamas Machina Star Saber last week, Takara’s own late June 2027 for Japan sat against BigBadToyStore’s August 2027 for the American one.

Sources

Product photography: Takara Tomy.

Footnotes

  1. The name is written three ways. Takara’s own caption on these images reads OG-EX02 Grinder, our October report wrote OG-02 EX Grinder, and BigBadToyStore and Hasbro Pulse both write OG-02EX Grindor. Hasbro’s listing also calls the character a Decepticon. ↩

  2. The accessory list is Hasbro’s wording. Takara’s images show the parts and name none of them, so the list above is the listing’s, and not a tally made against a photograph. ↩

  3. We named the collaborator Chuocho Tactical Crafts in October. TFormers, interviewing Takara’s designer about this figure on 7 November, writes it Chuo-machi Tactical Crafts. Neither listing we read expands CTC. ↩