The Transformers thread

[CoryHolmes]

I like how it mirrored the first trailer for WFC, where the Decepticons revealed Trypticon and the autobots answered with Omega Supreme (I would've gone with Metroplex myself, but...). Here? The Decepticons reveal a combiner as their powerful backup unit. Prime? He looks over at motherf(%$*ing Grimlock!

I did't get or play WFC, I think I'll remedy that with this one

[mikeszekely]

I did't get or play WFC, I think I'll remedy that with this one

WfC is like $20 on Amazon, and a 79.45% average score according to Gamerankings. What are you waiting for?

[areaseven]

WfC is like $20 on Amazon, and a 79.45% average score according to Gamerankings. What are you waiting for?

And it has this:

[David Hingtgen]

I would trade every other figure Hasbro releases in the next 12 months for a big, new, official, Fall of Cybertron Bruticus. Note I said BIG.

This is Hasbro's chance to "respond" to all the 3rd-party Devastators and upgrade kits. If they make a new Bruticus and it's anything less than epic, I'm thinking pretty much the entire classic/G1/oldschool fandom will "give up" on Hasbro ever making a really good combiner, and put ALL their support/money into 3rd-party designs.

[mikeszekely]

I would trade every other figure Hasbro releases in the next 12 months for a big, new, official, Fall of Cybertron Bruticus. Note I said BIG.

This is Hasbro's chance to "respond" to all the 3rd-party Devastators and upgrade kits. If they make a new Bruticus and it's anything less than epic, I'm thinking pretty much the entire classic/G1/oldschool fandom will "give up" on Hasbro ever making a really good combiner, and put ALL their support/money into 3rd-party designs.

They should do it the old-fashioned way. Instead of releasing one big expensive set, release five individual Combaticons that are solid figures in their own right (maybe five deluxes, or four deluxes and a voyager). Collect all five, and stick 'em all together.

Seriously, I don't know why Hasbro hasn't done it already. They do it with their Marvel figures all the time. Buy five X-Men, get the parts to make Apocalypse, etc.

[VF-19]

It's because the retailers HATE traditional combiners. Imagine if you didn't ever get that one last piece, and you have a pile of incomplete combiner pieces doing shelf warming duties.

You'll notice that, from the Energon line, they had 5 robot combiners, but in reality two of the limbs were repaints. Thus, it became possible to "complete" a combiner by buying a double, if you had to.

[David Hingtgen]

And that's why I own 2 Combaticons, 2 Aerialbots, and a Constructicon from that line, to make up one decent combiner with different limbs. There was no single good team, really.

Personally, even as a 6-year-old, the fun of finding/completing a combiner team was huge. Many a B-day or X-Mas gift would be "the expensive leader of the team with all the other parts" to complete the team, as I had slowly received the cheaper limbs over previous weeks.

And frankly, it's a great marketing ploy, for the kids too----you may not be able to get your parents to buy you a $50+ set, but it's usually not too hard to swing just a single limb. Then you can get another and another, and finally explain how you need the last big expensive one to complete the set, and that the others are "useless" without the most expensive one...

I wonder how much of PCC's suckiness was inherent to the gimmick, and how much of it was due to trying to make a combiner team that could be sold in a single box at a below-leader pricepoint.

[VF5SS]

It's because the retailers HATE traditional combiners. Imagine if you didn't ever get that one last piece, and you have a pile of incomplete combiner pieces doing shelf warming duties.

You'll notice that, from the Energon line, they had 5 robot combiners, but in reality two of the limbs were repaints. Thus, it became possible to "complete" a combiner by buying a double, if you had to.

This seems kind of an odd presumption. The gospel truth at the TFwiki says the Energon Combiners were done in that way because Hasbro had a choice between either two Combiner teams of five figures or three Combiner teams of three. Naturally they just wanted more variety with less tooling costs.

I seriously doubt many retailers care that much about the types of Transformers beyond what price point they are and how much shelf space they fill.

[VF-19]

Trust me, they care, especially when they're forced to sell the warmers at below cost just to get rid of them. I've seen how modern transformers are packaged, and it isn't pretty.

Mind you, working retail does have its advantage, especially when I get first dibs on what comes in (that and taking peeks at the week's load).

My own personal story with combiners is that I wanted to complete them, but in Canada, they were rather hard to come by. I only had Hotspot and Blades as a kid, as the rest never showed up.

Heck, even completing the re-issue Bruticus from Robots in Disguise took me a while, as I had to wait for all the pieces to get to the floor.

[mikeszekely]

I dunno. Of all the Classics/Generations/Universe figures to be released in the past several years, the only one I never had any opportunity to buy was Perceptor. Two TRUs, two Walmarts, two K-marts, three Targets, and a Kohls, and I never once saw a Perceptor.

Bummed as I am, that still means that I was able to find the rest. That's a pretty good track record, and it means that if Hasbro released a combiner team as separate pieces, I'd expect good odds to find and collect them all.

The trick is, instead of giving us kind of crappy combiners (Bruticus being the best of the three Energon combiners), give us limbs that are solid toys outright. Make me want them on their own merits, and make the combining thing a bonus.

[Archer]

And that's why I own 2 Combaticons, 2 Aerialbots, and a Constructicon from that line, to make up one decent combiner with different limbs. There was no single good team, really.

Personally, even as a 6-year-old, the fun of finding/completing a combiner team was huge. Many a B-day or X-Mas gift would be "the expensive leader of the team with all the other parts" to complete the team, as I had slowly received the cheaper limbs over previous weeks.

And frankly, it's a great marketing ploy, for the kids too----you may not be able to get your parents to buy you a $50+ set, but it's usually not too hard to swing just a single limb. Then you can get another and another, and finally explain how you need the last big expensive one to complete the set, and that the others are "useless" without the most expensive one...

I wonder how much of PCC's suckiness was inherent to the gimmick, and how much of it was due to trying to make a combiner team that could be sold in a single box at a below-leader pricepoint.

What's PCC? Pyridinium Chlorochromate? I wouldn't think so.....

[GU-11]

What's PCC? Pyridinium Chlorochromate? I wouldn't think so.....

Power core combiners. Basically a voyager as the torso and four drones that don't have a robot mode, only "transformable" from vehicle mode into a limb. The limbs have next to no articulation due to the spring-loaded pseudo-automorph gimmick.

[David Hingtgen]

Plus they don't look like arms and legs, despite that being their ONLY alt-mode...

[anime52k8]

Power core combiners. Basically a voyager as the torso and four drones that don't have a robot mode, only "transformable" from vehicle mode into a limb. The limbs have next to no articulation due to the spring-loaded pseudo-automorph gimmick.

Power core wasn't nearly that big.the torso bots where about half way between a scout and a deluxe in terms of size.

[anime52k8]

I wonder how much of PCC's suckiness was inherent to the gimmick, and how much of it was due to trying to make a combiner team that could be sold in a single box at a below-leader pricepoint.

I think it's almost entirely to do with their low price point and the fact that it was a new concept they hadn't worked with before. I don't see anything wrong with the auto-morphing drone limb idea and some of the later wave torso's where actually pretty good little figures. If they had a bigger budget and where allowed a few more waves I think we would have seen much better looking limb drones.

The trick is, instead of giving us kind of crappy combiners (Bruticus being the best of the three Energon combiners), give us limbs that are solid toys outright. Make me want them on their own merits, and make the combining thing a bonus.

This runs into the same problem that things like triple-changers run into. Adding in an additional mode (in this case a combiner body part) greatly increases the complexity of the figure which means it's more expensive for them to develop each figure. Adding that extra gimmick just doesn't equal enough extra sales to warrant the added expenditure over just making good 2 mode stand-alone toys.

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

PCC seemed to me, as Hasbro's answer to Bakugan but with a Transformers take on it. The scout figures and minicons were great for the most part, it was basically a modern Targetmaster/Breastmaster line and these are the best minicons we've seen in years.

The combined modes fell short because they lacked traditional elbow joints and I think hand held weapons would've been cool.

[VF5SS]

I would trade every other figure Hasbro releases in the next 12 months for a big, new, official, Fall of Cybertron Bruticus. Note I said BIG.

I think you may be blinded by nostalgia. The Bruticus in that video was pretty generic even with the little details from the original and didn't really look "big."

Each limb was just a bunch of shifting polygons that didn't hint to any other mode that being a body part. Like oh look, the Vortex bit has a little beanie propeller. Yay.

And when you say a "big" toy, do you mean big like my favorite Transformer ever or big like those illicit bootleggers who are dragging TF fans kicking and screaming into the collector's market?

Trust me, they care, especially when they're forced to sell the warmers at below cost just to get rid of them. I've seen how modern transformers are packaged, and it isn't pretty.

I used to work in retail selling booze. Let me tell ya, people love combiners there.

My own personal story with combiners is that I wanted to complete them, but in Canada, they were rather hard to come by. I only had Hotspot and Blades as a kid, as the rest never showed up.

Heck, even completing the re-issue Bruticus from Robots in Disguise took me a while, as I had to wait for all the pieces to get to the floor.

Oh noes, bad Hasbro distribution.

Still not seeing the correlation connection here. Maybe kids just don't like combiners like old nerds do. They were just big gimmicks anyway.

[VF-19]

And that's the root of the problem, bad distribution (that and stuffing 4 of one figure in a box, while having two unique figures). It's probably less of an issue nowadays, but in 1984, that could hamper one's ability to finish a combiner team.

Also, does anybody have the website address of the knock off makers that makes good knockoffs of the G1 combiner teams? I wouldn't mind getting the Stunticons or Technobots, if I could without cleaning my wallet out...

[David Hingtgen]

I think you may be blinded by nostalgia.

On a forum dedicated to an 80's anime? No way!

And when you say a "big" toy, do you mean big like my favorite Transformer ever or big like those illicit bootleggers who are dragging TF fans kicking and screaming into the collector's market?

The latter (though it doesn't have to be as big as Hercules---but larger than G1 Dev/Brut/Sup/Abom). G1 Devastator's pretty small, I think there's deluxes bigger than him. (I still own a G2 Devs)

[GU-11]

Power core wasn't nearly that big.the torso bots where about half way between a scout and a deluxe in terms of size.

My bad. Admittedly, I've never seen a PCC in person, but they look much bigger in the pictures than they really are.

[areaseven]

I still have my PCC Grimstone. Not a fan of the PCC line itself, but Grimstone isn't too bad.

[JB0]

Sheeeez... I never even HEARD of Grimstone until now.

Not that I monitor the TF news outlets closely, but... I'd've bought him. He looks awesome.

I've got Smolder. He was a fun mold.

The fact that the flip-out mini-con mount on his chest looks kinda like a built-in cannon doesn't hurt matters, either.

[jwasko]

I dunno. Of all the Classics/Generations/Universe figures to be released in the past several years, the only one I never had any opportunity to buy was Perceptor. Two TRUs, two Walmarts, two K-marts, three Targets, and a Kohls, and I never once saw a Perceptor.

Bummed as I am, that still means that I was able to find the rest. That's a pretty good track record, and it means that if Hasbro released a combiner team as separate pieces, I'd expect good odds to find and collect them all.

The trick is, instead of giving us kind of crappy combiners (Bruticus being the best of the three Energon combiners), give us limbs that are solid toys outright. Make me want them on their own merits, and make the combining thing a bonus.

Try the Marshalls (or is it TJ Maxx?) behind Westmoreland mall. They had 3 Perceptors less than a week ago.

I've never seen a single Junkion at retail, but managed to get a Wreck-gar and Junkheap at decent prices in the aftermarket (and wouldn't mind getting a few more of either)

I'd like a PCC Heavytread, too, while I'm at it.

Also, does anybody have the website address of the knock off makers that makes good knockoffs of the G1 combiner teams? I wouldn't mind getting the Stunticons or Technobots, if I could without cleaning my wallet out...

KOToys.com perhaps?

Edited December 18, 2011 by jwasko

[mikeszekely]

Try the Marshalls (or is it TJ Maxx?) behind Westmoreland mall. They had 3 Perceptors less than a week ago.

I've never seen a single Junkion at retail, but managed to get a Wreck-gar and Junkheap at decent prices in the aftermarket (and wouldn't mind getting a few more of either)

I'd like a PCC Heavytread, too, while I'm at it.

KOToys.com perhaps?

You live around me? Cool!

I'm probably avoiding the mall until after Christmas, but I'll give it a check (it's a TJ Maxx, BTW). There is a Marshall's in Greensburg, it's by the Sam's Club. I can check there tomorrow after work.

As for Junkheap, not that it does you a lot of good now that you've already got him, but I've seen him at Target. I think the one in Greensburg, but it might have been the one in North Huntingdon.

[jwasko]

You live around me? Cool!

*Facepalm*

We went through this with MP Hot Rod, too

Come on, Mike, don't be so anti-social. You know you want that gorgeous piece of red-ish plastic.

(I was not a fan of their color choice after seeing him in person)

PS The Marshalls in Monroeville has never had much in the way of Generations/RTS so I'm not sure you'll have much luck by Sams Club. I got an MP Skywarp at that TJ Maxx a year ago though

Edited December 19, 2011 by jwasko

[mikeszekely]

*Facepalm*

We went through this with MP Hot Rod, too

Come on, Mike, don't be so anti-social. You know you want that gorgeous piece of red-ish plastic.

(I was not a fan of their color choice after seeing him in person)

PS The Marshalls in Monroeville has never had much in the way of Generations/RTS so I'm not sure you'll have much luck by Sams Club. I got an MP Skywarp at that TJ Maxx a year ago though

Oh yeah, I do kinda remember having this discussion when MP Hot Rod came out. You need to post more so I remember you.

Hey, I'm allowed to be anti-social. I worked at that mall for five years! The worst was when I worked December 23rd, 2006. Left work at 5:00, couldn't manage to get onto 30 until 5:45.

Yeah, I don't really recall finding any Generations or RTS figures at Marshalls before, but I figure it's worth a look, since Marshalls and TJ Maxx are the same thing, I think. And it's not like I've never found any Transformers there. Besides, I work at the Staples in the same plaza.

[mikeszekely]

Semi-spoilery concept art for Fall of Cybertron.

I must have a FoC Shockwave. Get on it, Hasbro.

[JB0]

I'd second this motion, but I think given my track record, it probably goes without saying.

[David Hingtgen]

Am I nuts, or does concept-art Bruticus's limbs look a lot more "vehicular" than the CG trailer's? Concept-art Bruticus looks both better and much more "could be made into a toy" plausible IMHO. I think they even did the "Blast-Off's wings form the chestplate" thing.

I sure hope the in-game model follows the concept art, and not the CG trailer.

[treatment]

http://www.tfw2005.c...e-image-174001/

spider-prime! lol!

gotta luv the tfw2005-comments.

[JB0]

Ya know, I've throught those antennae looked a bit too bug-like for a while now.

Spider Prime just proves I'm not the only one that noticed.

[anime52k8]

http://www.tfw2005.c...e-image-174001/

spider-prime! lol!

gotta luv the tfw2005-comments.

that makes me want it even more now...

[Oihan]

Would anyone here know anything about the Bluray version of The Transformers: The Movie? How about the "20th Anniversary Special Edition" of The Transformers: The Movie that came out on DVD in 2007? I ask because I just recently discovered these versions (just now actually) and learned that SE has been remastered. I can't seem to find too much information on either Bluray or DVD. I can't even seem to find a place to buy either for that matter (without paying out the arse to some unknown sellers on Amazon). Thanks!

Edit: After watching the game trailer a few dozen or so times I've had this sudden urge to watch the movie, which brought all of this up.... I've always wanted to play a video game that played out the events (or similar events) in the movie....

Edited December 22, 2011 by Oihan

[mikeszekely]

Would anyone here know anything about the Bluray version of The Transformers: The Movie? How about the "20th Anniversary Special Edition" of The Transformers: The Movie that came out on DVD in 2007? I ask because I just recently discovered these versions (just now actually) and learned that SE has been remastered. I can't seem to find too much information on either Bluray or DVD. I can't even seem to find a place to buy either for that matter (without paying out the arse to some unknown sellers on Amazon). Thanks!

Edit: After watching the game trailer a few dozen or so times I've had this sudden urge to watch the movie, which brought all of this up.... I've always wanted to play a video game that played out the events (or similar events) in the movie....

I wasn't aware of the blu-ray, but I have the 20th anniversary DVD. It's pretty good. As you've likely heard by now, it's remastered, with a widescreen version and the theatrical version, which was apparently 4:3. The colors are a little over-saturated at times, but on the whole it looks pretty good.

[CoryHolmes]

When does TF Prime Season 2 come out?