Target scrapped a pile of orders for the 40th anniversary Starscream weeks before it shipped. The figures ordered straight from Hasbro arrived fine, which points the finger somewhere specific.
Collectors who preordered the Studio Series MTMTE Starscream through Target started getting cancellation notices on the morning of August 4.
The figure is part of Hasbro’s line marking 40 years of The Transformers: The Movie, and it was sold only through Target in the US. Orders for Prowl and the Insecticons three-pack were cancelled too, though fewer of them.
Nobody has explained why.
What happened
Hasbro revealed the figures on June 4 and opened orders the next morning at 9am Eastern. Voyager Class Starscream at about $42.99, Deluxe Class Prowl at $27.99, and the Insecticons set with Bombshell, Kickback, and Shrapnel at $79.99.
Reports of cancellations started landing around 8am Eastern on August 4, first from members of the TFW2005 forums, including several of that site’s own staff.
Resale prices climbed immediately, which is what happens when a limited run gets smaller with no warning.
One collector said Target sent a $25 gift card as an apology for a cancelled Insecticons order, then found the set on a shelf in a store and put the card toward it. Most people did not get that lucky.
Orders placed with Hasbro directly went through
This is the detail that separates the two companies.
Collectors who ordered Starscream and Prowl through Hasbro Pulse, the company’s own shop, report receiving both without trouble. The cancellations hit Target orders.
So the figures exist and they shipped. Something went wrong between the two companies over who was sending what to whom, and neither has said publicly what it was. Community chatter points in both directions, with some claiming Target blamed Hasbro. Neither company has confirmed that.
What Hasbro said
Nate Purswell, Hasbro’s brand manager for Transformers toys, posted about it on Instagram on August 15, eleven days after the cancellations started.
“Rewrote this post about 10 times trying to get the words just right,” he wrote, before saying the company knows people are angry about the Starscream, Prowl, and Insecticons launch and is working on a fix.
He added that there were questions the team could not answer yet, and that sorting it out was the top thing on their plate.
That is about as much as a brand manager can say while lawyers and buyers are still talking, and it is more than Target has said, which is nothing.
Why this figure in particular
Starscream is not a deep cut. He is the Decepticon second-in-command, one of the most recognisable characters in the franchise, and this version is tied to a film turning 40 this month.
Collectors had been waiting since June. The Target exclusive tag meant there was no second place to buy it.
Whether Hasbro can get more made is the open question. Store-exclusive figures have had second runs before, and the Thanos and Psylocke two-pack got one within months. Others have taken close to a year.
Hasbro’s second apology of the anniversary year
The first one was a joke.
Earlier in 2026, Hasbro put out a video called The Transformers: The Movie Apology Tour, offering its deepest regrets to everyone traumatised by Optimus Prime dying twenty minutes into the 1986 film.
It was a bit, and a good one.
Seven months later the company had to write a real one, about the toys.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
TFW2005 (August 4 and 15, 2026), the original reports of the cancellations from forum members and staff, and Purswell’s full statement
CBR (August 17, 2026), John Dodge’s coverage connecting it to the earlier Apology Tour video
Tformers (August 2026), the reveal and preorder timeline