Transformers Premium Finish

Generations franchise « Premium Finish » Toyline

Transformers Premium Finish (トランスフォーマー プレミアムフィニッシュ Toransufōmā Puremiamu Finisshu) was a short-lived TakaraTomy toyline that ran from 2021 to 2022. The first Japan-exclusive line since Legends ended in 2019, Premium Finish sought to reproduce exact decos based on various media, such as the War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon or the Bumblebee film. The line is split into War for Cybertron Trilogy branding, identified with ID numbers beginning with "PF WFC-", and Studio Series, identified with "PF SS-".

Much like the majority of TakaraTomy's toys at the time, Premium Finish toys were imported and rereleased by Hasbro in the West via Hasbro Pulse. These imports gained the then-customary black and white exterior card boxes displaying the toys' ID numbers, though the War for Cybertron Trilogy toys gained new designations beginning with "GE-" (presumably for "Generations").

After about six months of silence, Premium Finish was replaced as TakaraTomy's boutique Generations redeco line du jour by the Beast Wars revival Beast Wars Again as part of the brand wide run-up to 2023's tentpole film Rise of the Beasts. The later Dramatic Capture Series also serves as a spiritual successor to Premium Finish.

Toys

War for Cybertron Trilogy

Wave 1 (October 30, 2021) PF WFC-01 Optimus Prime

Wave 2 (November 27, 2021) PF WFC-02 Megatron

Wave 3 (December 29, 2021) PF WFC-03 Ultra Magnus

Wave 4 (January 29, 2022) PF WFC-04 Starscream

PF WFC-01 Optimus Prime

Studio Series

Wave 1 (October 30, 2021) PF SS-01 Bumblebee		Wave 2 (November 27, 2021) PF SS-02 Optimus Prime		Wave 3 (December 29, 2021) PF SS-03 Megatron		Wave 4 (January 29, 2022) PF SS-04 Ratchet		PF SS-01 Bumblebee
Wave 5 (July 30, 2022) PF SS-05 Optimus Prime

Notes

Intended releases

Fans were given a glimpse behind the scenes when online retailer LOOPAZA shared internal TakaraTomy solicitations of Premium Finish on Facebook. These images revealed that the intent was for Premium Finish to consist of six pairs of toys, released on a monthly schedule, between October 2021 and March 2022. Placeholder images of each toy made use of pre-existing stock photos heavily obscured using a threshold adjustment filter, most of which are only obvious in hindsight. From what we can tell, the first four waves proceeded as planned, but the fifth and sixth waves got a bit more complicated:

• The final two waves of the Studio Seres subline appear intended to be redecoes of the 32 Optimus Prime and Leader Class Jetfire, capitalising on their ability to combine. Though Premium Finish toys were typically solicited five months in advance by TakaraTomy, it would be in February–the initially intended release month for the fifth wave–that the company would finally announce Optimus Prime as wave five product for a much later release in July... though the toy was now a redeco of 05 Optimus Prime rather than number 32. Jetfire's toy completely failed to materialise, possibly because it was not designed to combine with this other Optimus mold.
• On the War for Cybertron Trilogy side of things, the sixth wave was intended to feature a redeco of Earthrise Wheeljack, clearly identifiable from the placeholder image. The fifth wave toy was evidently supposed to be redecoed from a War for Cybertron: Siege mold, given the presence of the TakaraTomy variation of the Siege logo in the placeholder, but the image is too obfuscated to reveal any details. (Though this didn't stop baseless speculation that it was Shockwave being reported by news sites and consequently treated as gospel by fandom.)

Other notes

• The pre-release images shared by LOOPAZA featured packaging mock-ups for the first wave that are significantly different from the final design. Notably, the War for Cybertron Trilogy Optimus Prime mock-up suggests that the line could have encompassed more than simply War for Cybertron and Studio Series, as it features the ID number of "PF GR-01" (presumably for "Generations").