here comes a sad piece of news, BT's are now discontinued. Although no official statement from Takara, they have confirmed the cancellation of BT-17 Ginrai (Alternators Prime) and BTA-04 Black Ginrai.

"Both BT-17 & BTA-04 have been cancelled, no plans on releasing new ones either at this point."

The entire Binaltech series is done for a long time.


Hasbro US saw the sales explode with Alternator toys. Instead of following the pattern of

1. let Binaltech do the hard work
2. make one out of plastic
3. repeat

Hasbro decided to get in the driver's seat with Optimus Prime. Why is Prime so shitty? It was an entirely US designed product. So, this is what happened ...

1. Hasbro announced Optimus Prime
2. Takara had no idea what was going on
3. Hasbro showed Takara the prototype
4. Takara refused to call that figure Optimus Prime and didn't want anything to do with the Binaltech series
5. Hasbro got pissy
6. Takara decided to make it, but not call it Optimus Prime ... Ginrai is more acceptable.

Then Takara bailed all together.


This all makes sense though. Since bailing, the Alternators line has pushed forward without hesitation ... 2 figures, Ricochet & Rollbar. These figures are straight up repaints, only because BT wasn't there to make new heads.