c/o: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/members/ikkstakk.85852/

Did someone say... announcement dates??  

Okay, I think these are correct, based on researching when threads were started. But I would welcome corrections, additions, revisions, clarifications... this is very probably incomplete.

2012

• March 11-12: MP12 Lambor revealed at Cybertron Con

• May 26: Preorders for "MP12A" Alert and MP13 Soundwave

• June 12: MP14 Alert preorder at robotkingdom.com and MP13 Condor confirmed

• December 29: MP15 Rumble & Jaguar shown in Figure King

2013

• January 22: MP12T Tigertrack rumored by Planet Iacon

• January 23: MP17 Prowl and "MP18" Smokescreen revealed by BBTS

• January 28: "MP19" Streak revealed by BBTS

• February 18: MP17 Prowl silhouette

• March 6: MP17 Prowl color pictures

• May 22: MP12T Tigertrack revealed in Figure King

• September 6: MP12G and MP13B revealed by TFSource

• November 11: Star Saber officially wins fan vote to become Masterpiece

• December 20: Wheeljack silhouette in Figure King

2014

• January 9: Wheeljack gray prototype revealed

• January 17: Wheeljack alt mode gray prototype on Hasui's Twitter

• February 28: Bumblebee silhouette teased on Hasui's twitter

• March 20: MP20 Wheeljack color pictures and MP22 Ultra Magnus silhouette in Figure King

• March 29: MP21 Bumble gray prototype and Star Saber line art in Dengeki Hobby

• July 21: Star Saber gray prototype and MP22 Ultra Magnus color pictures in Figure King

• August 9: Star Saber on display at Transformers Expo Yokohama

• September 1: MP23 Exhaust revealed on taghobby.com

2015

• January 8: MP21G G2 Bumble revealed on Planet Iacon Facebook page

• January 17: Taobao auctions reveal Tracks

• February 20: MP25 Tracks revealed in Figure King

• March 26: MP18B Bluestreak revealed

• May 20: Beast Convoy teased at Tokyo Toy Show

• July 17: Ironhide pictures at Transformers Expo Taipei

• August 21: MP21R Red Bumble revealed in Figure King

• September 11: MP14C Clampdown revealed on Twitter

• September 24: Hot Rodimus and Laserwave gray prototypes at All Japan Model & Hobby Show

• October 22: MP11NR Ramjet revealed on Planet Iacon Facebook page

• November 6: MP30 Ratchet revealed on website

• December 21: Beast Convoy gray prototype in Figure King

2016

• March 3: MP31 Delta Magnus revealed

• April 6: MP14+ Alert revealed on Autobase Aichi's Facebook page

• April 20: Inferno silhouette with MP14+ on TTMall website

• May 6-7: Inferno gray prototype shown and Cheetus teased at TransFes

• May 21: Loudpedal revealed in Figure King

• June 8-10: Thrust revealed and shown, Cheetus gray prototype shown at Tokyo Toy Show

• July 23: Cheetus painted prototype at Wonderfest

• July 29: Dirge revealed at AGCHK toy show

• September 5: Grapple official pictures on Facebook

• September 6-7: Megatron prototype leaked

• September 8: Shattered Glass Optimus Prime color pictures

• October 21: Megatron painted prototype revealed in Figure King

• December 1: MP37 Artfire revealed on Planet Iacon Facebook page

2017

• January 10: MP38 Legendary General Convoy revealed by ActionRobo on Facebook

• February 18: Dinobot teased by Dengeki Hobby at Wonderfest

• May 22: MP39 Sunstreaker revealed in Figure King

• May 30: MP12+ Lambor revealed by ToyScope

• June 1: MP39 Sunstreaker and MP12+ Lambor on display at Tokyo Toy Show

• June 15: "MP15X" rumored by NOTRAB

• June 21: MP15-16E silhouette on TTMall website

• August 3: Preorder up for MP40 Targetmaster Hot Rodimus at robotkingdom.com

• October 24: Teaser picture of Dinobot gray prototype in Figure King

• November 12: Dinobot color pictures online

c/o: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/members/anonymousdwell.111662/

Okay this took forever, but I've incorporated reveal dates into the list. (Full credit to @Ikkstakk for the announcement dates, and credit to TFwiki.net for the MP release dates.)

My main interest in this is the potential implications/statistics derivable from all this. (See bottom.) Full list (not counting MPMs, will try to add them later) now reads:

• MP-10 September 2011 (New mold)

(six month release gap)

• Starscream March 2012 (New mold)

(seven month release gap)

• Sideswipe October 2012 (New mold) (Revealed 7 months prior)

(two month release gap)

• Red Alert December 2012 (Repaint and Remold) (Revealed 6 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Soundwave January 2013 (New mold) (Revealed 7 months prior)

• (cassettes followed in February and March) (Revealed 2-3 months prior)

(Six to 8 months release gap, depending on whether you count the cassettes.)

• Prowl September 2013 (New mold) (Revealed 8 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Bluestreak October 2013 (Repaint and remold) (Revealed 9 months prior)

(two month release gap)

• Smokescreen December 2013 (Repaint and remold) (Revealed 12 months prior)

(nine month release gap)

• Wheeljack September 2014 (New mold) (Rumored/leaked 10 months prior, officially revealed 9 months prior)

(two month release gap)

• Bumblebee November 2014 (New mold) (Rumored/leaked 11 months prior, officially revealed 9 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Ultra Magnus December 2014 (New mold) (Rumored/leaked 15 months (!!!) prior, officially revealed 5 months prior. Wow lol.)

(three month release gap)

• Exhaust March 2015 (Repaint) (Rumored/leaked 6 months prior)

• Star Saber March 2015 (New mold) (Revealed via fan poll 14 months prior, officially revealed 8 months prior)

(eight month release gap)

• Tracks November 2015 (New mold) (Rumored/leaked 10 months prior. Officially revealed 9 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Road Rage December 2015 (Repaint) (Revealed 3 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Ironhide January 2016 (New mold) (Revealed 6 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Hot Rod February 2016 (New mold) (Revealed 5 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Shockwave March 2016 (New mold) (Revealed 6 months prior)

• Ramjet March 2016 (Extensive remold and repaint) (Revealed 5 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Ratchet April 2016 (Repaint and remold) (Revealed 5 months prior)

(two month release gap)

• Loudpedal June 2016 (Repaint) (Revealed 1 month prior)

(two month release gap)

• Delta Magnus August 2016 (Repaint) (Revealed 5 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• MP-14+ September 2016 (Repaint) (Revealed 5 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Thrust October 2016 (Repaint) (Revealed 4 months prior)

• Optimus Primal October 2016 (New mold) (revealed 5 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Inferno Nov 2016 (New mold) (Revealed 7 months prior)

(three month release gap)

• Grapple February 2017 (Repaint) (Revealed 5 months prior)

• Cheetor February 2017 (New Mold) (Revealed 8 months prior)

(two month release gap)

• Megatron April 2017 (New mold) (Leaked/rumored 7 months prior. Officially revealed 6 months prior.)

(one month release gap)

• Artfire May 2017 (Repaint) (Revealed 5 months prior)

• Dirge May 2017 (Repaint) (Revealed 10 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Legendary Commander Beast Convoy June 2017 (Repaint) (Revealed 5 months prior)

(five month release gap)

• MP-12+ (November 2017) (Repaint) (Revealed 6 months prior)

(one month release gap)

• Sunstreaker December 2017 (New mold) (Revealed 7 months prior)

• Cassette repaints Dec 2017 (Repaint) (Revealed 6 months prior)

(two month release gap)

• Hot Rod w/targetmaster Feb 2018 (Repaint and new targetmaster mold) (Revealed 6 months prior)

(five month release gap)

• Dinobot July 2018 (New mold) (Leaked/rumored 17 (!!!) months prior. Officially revealed 9 months prior)

Statistics/implications/conclusions:

1) Release gaps

• Average total release gap in months: Approx. 2 & 1/2 months.

• Average total release gap between NEW molds: Approx. 4 & 1/2 months

• Shortest total release gap in months: 1 mo.

• Longest release gap in months: 9 mos.

• Shortest release gap between NEW molds: 1 mo.

• Longest release gap between NEW molds: 8 mos.

2) Reveal vs release

• Average time between official reveal and release (mos): Approx. 6

• Average time between earliest RUMOR/LEAK and release (mos): Approx. 11

• Shortest time between official reveal and release (mos): 1

• Longest time between official reveal and release (mos): 12

• Longest time between RUMOR/LEAK and release (mos): 15

• Most common time between official reveal and release (mos): 5

• Shortest time between official reveal of a NEW MOLD and release (mos): 5

• Longest time between official reveal of a NEW MOLD and release (mos): 12

3) New molds

• Fewest new molds in a year: 2 (2012, 2013, 2015)

• Most new molds in a year: 5, more if you don't count the coneheads as just retools (2016)

• Fewest new G1 molds in a year: 2 (2012, 2013, 2015)

• Most new G1 molds in a year: 4 (2016)

Did my best. Apologies for any mistakes, and thanks for the information used! Hope it's helpful for future speculation in some way. Apologies for any errors.

ETA: Just realized I left off Red Bumblebee, Gold Megatron, etc. but... eh, close enough. For my purposes they don't count anyway, as they aren't actually characters, just color variants. (Same with BAPE, SG, etc.)Which means I should have left out MP14+ too and Primal's repaint, but... eh... I'm NOT doing all that math again lol. The implications are close enough to the reality imo. One or two characters added or removed isn't going to throw off the averages that much. I'm sleepy now lol.