The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[Agent ONE]

On 6/1/2020 at 1:03 PM, lechuck said:

I now belong to an elite group of people that is a proud owner a Lamborghini.

Sunstreaker is a great MP - aesthetics, proportions, articulation and engaging transformation, it is all there.

 

Awesome. TF toys now are amazing. Wish they were like that in the 80... 

[jenius]

21 minutes ago, Agent ONE said:

Awesome. TF toys now are amazing. Wish they were like that in the 80... 

Agent ONE lives!

[Agent ONE]

15 minutes ago, jenius said:

Agent ONE lives!

I do! I missed this place. This is like the first few days I've had a significant break from work in a while

[mikeszekely]

This isn't confirmed and could turn out to be fake, but I'd kill for a transforming Party Wagon. Or maybe a transforming Technodrome.

[mikeszekely]

This too.

[sh9000]

I’d buy the Party Wagon and Time Machine.

[Agent ONE]

Well, at this point nothing could be worse than the last 3 Star Wars movies. Transforming turtle tentacle sex, sounds great.

[M'Kyuun]

23 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Not that I disagree with your opinion of the Bayverse designs in general, but I'd bet that Blitzwing's alt mode has a lot more to do with HasTak not licensing the F-4. 

Very much possible, although I doubt licensing fees for that old jalopy would be very high; I figure the majority of the 20-somethings and below who saw Bumblebee had no idea what plane that was; it's naught but a museum piece here in the US, having been retired from combat duty in the mid-nineties. Wikipedia says it's active in a number of our allied countries still, so I confess my surprise. The old bird refuses to die.

20 hours ago, Agent ONE said:

Awesome. TF toys now are amazing. Wish they were like that in the 80... 

Agreed. Toy tech and methods have come a long way, and I'm just glad I'm still around to enjoy it. Been a very long time since I've seen you post, man. Welcome back.

19 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

This too.

 

The TMNTs were never my thing, but I'd be down for a transforming Delorean time machine.  While they're at it, I'll take a transforming Airwolf, too. What the heck, gimme a transforming Blue Thunder while you're at it.  If they didn't suck so hard at making jet-formers, I'd ask for a MiG-31 Firefox, as well, but it'd end up being a robot under a plane. Yuk.

 

I'd love to see a true GI Joe/TF crossover, where the bots became all the vehicles. Considering they're both Hasbro properties, one would think it's an eventuality, but thus far nada but a comic.  To have well designed transforming toys of the  X-19 Phantom,  Skystriker,  Nightraven, HISS Tank, Rattler, etc would be phenomenal.

If I was stupid rich, I'd invest in a third party company to make it happen.

Edited June 25, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[Agent ONE]

1 minute ago, M'Kyuun said:

Agreed. Toy tech and methods have come a long way, and I'm just glad I'm still around to enjoy it. Been a very long time since I've seen you post, man. Welcome back.

 

I think fans of these things just have more disposable income. In the 80s it was our parents money, so they had to be "toy prices" but now we are all adults, and its like "F' It... I love Optimus Prime, so I am gonna get the $300 version of him." I have certainly been gone a while. I don't think I posted in 10 years.. Just busy with work, but I never stopped being a Macross Fan. A few guys from MW called me a couple years back and told me about a new show, but I never caught it. Sounded kinda lame though... M7ish.

[M'Kyuun]

Yeah, that would be Macross Delta, and yeah, closer to Macross 7 than SDFM, Plus, or Frontier. I think Delta was even more dumbed down than 7, honestly. I recently watched 7 out of morbid curiosity and a sense of completion, and I actually found myself enjoying it a bit. Still hate the stupid 'Planet Dance' song, but I liked the story and characters, even Basara towards the end. Just finished a second watch of Frontier last night, in fact. I haven't seen it since it first aired back in '08. I was starting to forget stuff,  and I recall having enjoyed it the first go round. It didn't disappoint. The VF-25 is still one of my favorite valks, moreso than the VF-1, which itself is a beautiful design that still holds up 30+ years on.

@Mikeszekely and I have a friendly disagreement on jet Transformer design, so far as the difficulty of translating sleek jets into the blocky bots of the 80's, but I'm always reminded that Kawamori designed the F-15 Seeker that we've all come to know and love, which , in keeping with his Macross designs, utilizes the fuselage of the plane to form the bot rather than having the bot hang-gliding under it. I opine that it's possible to translate most jets in the same way. I think I'm in the minority. It's a fun debate, nevertheless, and part of the fun of these forums.

Edited June 25, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

The Turtles X Transformers turned out to be a fan-made custom.

However, the Back to the Future one is looking to be real, as there's an Amazon listing for "Tra GEN Project Future Deluxe."  Now, I've told you everything that I know, but I'm predicting here and now that what we're going to end up with will be a retool of Titans Return Chromedome.

[sh9000]

I’d be ok if it looked like this.

[M'Kyuun]

Not that I madly want an Earthrise version of Omnibot Downshift, but, just for the sake of argument, the similarities in shape between the Delorean and Downshift's 80's alt mode are such that a case could be made for retoolage in a new figure. They would only have to license the Delorean for the BttF version- change the grill and bumper, mold it in white, and call it Downshift. It's a two-fer. WIN!

 

Downshift has an inverted gullwing door (hinged at the bottom) for his weaponizer gimmick, but that could easily be mounted to an armature that lets the door open from the top as well for the Delorean mold. Just sayin'  Not that I've put any amount of thought into it. 

Edited June 25, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[jenius]

Am I gonna get a transformable (Star Trek) Enterprise at some point?

Edited June 25, 2020 by jenius

[mikeszekely]

5 minutes ago, jenius said:

Am I gonna get a transformable (Star Trek) Enterprise at some point?

No toys, but the crossover already happened.

[Agent ONE]

5 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Yeah, that would be Macross Delta, and yeah, closer to Macross 7 than SDFM, Plus, or Frontier. I think Delta was even more dumbed down than 7, honestly. ...

I spend years raging about M7. Im over it now (I am actually extremely calm in general now), but just sad that this is the state of Macross. The Macross legacy is like the Terminator films, just exponentially worse by the sequel.

[David Hingtgen]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

No toys, but the crossover already happened.

 

I'm still disappointed by how lame the Enterprise-former's bot mode is.  Like, zero time spent considering how it would/should transform. 

[jenius]

33 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

I'm still disappointed by how lame the Enterprise-former's bot mode is.  Like, zero time spent considering how it would/should transform. 

Yeah... That's awful! 

[M'Kyuun]

1 hour ago, jenius said:

Yeah... That's awful! 

Glad I'm not the only one who thought so.  Looks like a very 80's approach to drawing TFs- basic bot body, shape it somewhat like the alt, then tack on the nacelles. Lazy and uninvolved.   But, honestly, I have zero interest in a TF-Star Trek crossover, so my feelings aren't really hurt if it never come to fruition. 

2 hours ago, Agent ONE said:

I spend years raging about M7. Im over it now (I am actually extremely calm in general now), but just sad that this is the state of Macross. The Macross legacy is like the Terminator films, just exponentially worse by the sequel.

I approached M7 with an open mind. I've been reading the criticisms for years, so perhaps my expectations were so low that it actually surprised me by being better than I thought it'd be. Granted, Basara's a bit of a douche, and the VF-19 is wasted on him, and Sound Force is lame, but I liked the interplay between Milia and Max, and I liked the rest of the characters in Fire Bomber. It took me about twenty or so eps before I started to come around to thinking Basara's ok. The bad guys were rather bland. Sivil was an interesting character, but she spent most of the series in a coma.  I think the biggest detractor is that it lacked the gravitas of  SDFM and Plus. The threat from the Protodeviln just didn't seem that great. Frontier made up for it by having a more complex arch-story, more maturity in the writing and in the various relationships, serious threats both internal and external, with meaningful fatalities, and a plethora of nods to all the prior Macross series. Oh, and much better music. I could listen to Megumi Nakajima sing the phone book; I'd happily turn the pages for her. I think Frontier and Plus stand out for the music; little wonder, with Yoko Kanno at the helm. Listening to M+ soundtrack even as I type this. Twenty-five years on, and it's still amazing (except Mad Dog).

But yeah, it definitely took a downturn with Delta. The VF-31 and SV-262 are cool, though. As long as Kawamori's working on the series, cool transforming jets are the one reliable constant. Wish he'd drop by Takara's offices more often. They need his help.

[mikeszekely]

I'm apparently in the minority, but I liked Delta.  No, it wasn't the greatest show ever, but it was better than a lot of other animes I've tried watching.  To avoid spoilers I didn't follow the news or any discussions on the series, I just downloaded the entire series and took it with me when I went on vacation a few years back, watched it, then checked in when I got back and found that everyone else seemed to hate it.

[technoblue]

38 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm apparently in the minority, but I liked Delta.  No, it wasn't the greatest show ever, but it was better than a lot of other animes I've tried watching.  To avoid spoilers I didn't follow the news or any discussions on the series, I just downloaded the entire series and took it with me when I went on vacation a few years back, watched it, then checked in when I got back and found that everyone else seemed to hate it.

I think the thing that sold Delta short was that the story wasn't groundbreaking. Everyone was hoping for another home run like Frontier or a return to something a little more serious like Plus and instead we got an anime which had good moments in the first cour, was mediocre and suffered for a loss of direction in the second cour, and then tried to tie up too many loose ends with the flashy final battle sequence.

Personally, it reminded me a lot of AKB0048 with Macross aesthetics and, since I liked AKB0048, Delta was a-ok.  

[JB0]

I thought Delta was "okay" until the funeral. Until that point I thought they'd overpromised and underdelivered, but it was still kinda interesting. But after that  it went into a holding pattern for several episodes, with an episode consisting almost entirely of exposition summarizing the franchise to date(badly), and I just completely lost interest. 

...

But I still insist that Lady M is Doctor Chiba!

[mikeszekely]

4 hours ago, technoblue said:

Everyone was hoping for another home run like Frontier

Is that the consensus?  Because frankly I feel largely the same way about Frontier as I do Delta; I liked it, it was ok, but it was nothing special.  I'd probably have to re-watch both to be sure, but I think I might prefer Delta.  

4 hours ago, technoblue said:

I think the thing that sold Delta short was that the story wasn't groundbreaking.

I rather feel the same about Frontier.  Perhaps more so.  Actually, I rather liked that Delta explored (however shallowly) how human colonization and the proliferation of UN/NUNs technology can affect indigenous civilizations.

4 hours ago, technoblue said:

or a return to something a little more serious like Plus

Well, that's the dream, eh?

[technoblue]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Is that the consensus?  Because frankly I feel largely the same way about Frontier as I do Delta; I liked it, it was ok, but it was nothing special.  I'd probably have to re-watch both to be sure, but I think I might prefer Delta.  

Well, that was my interpretation anyway, and I do clearly recall a big criticism of the second half of Delta when it was airing. Not so much with Frontier. Most here were pumped right up to the end of Frontier's TV series. There was similar positivity for Delta in the first half and then the long gap (which might have hurt), the second half hit, and that positivity fell off a cliff.

There were some who weren't into Frontier either, of course, but I thought Frontier did get a better overall forum reception. It may be because there had been a dearth of Macross anime before it.

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I rather feel the same about Frontier.  Perhaps more so.  Actually, I rather liked that Delta explored (however shallowly) how human colonization and the proliferation of UN/NUNs technology can affect indigenous civilizations.

That was one of the risky plot drivers. I liked it too, and I also wish more time had been spent developing that aspect more completely instead of turning it into a villain of the week scenario. I think Macross, as a vehicle for telling stories, is really flexible. I enjoy seeing the creators move away from the familiar tropes when they do. That said, I also understand why some fans are more accepting if a story sticks to those tropes. I mean, SDF TV, Frontier, and even Delta all follow the hero's journey with Hikaru, Alto, and Hayate being similar character archetypes. That wasn't lost on anyone.

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Well, that's the dream, eh?

Mm. It would be cool to see the creators go for a serious take on Macross again but I really like everything I've seen to date, even the TV series and OVAs that regularly get panned here (M7 and now Delta). I don't know. I guess it's just a mix of ideas that speak to me at the end of the day. 

Edited June 26, 2020 by technoblue

[mikeszekely]

Hasbro did their Transformers live stream this morning.  Some highlights-

The Back to the Future X Transformers crossover is real, but the only announcement there was to expect another announcement next week.

There will be a Hasbro Pulse exclusive repaint of Siege Brunt as Centurion Drone (from IDW).   It's being billed as a "weapon pack," though and will come with a number of other accessories:

Is this a response to the surge in 3P add-ons lately?  I dunno.  But preorders go up at 1:00 pm EDT.

"Alternate Universe" Optimus Prime, aka the sleep mode Earthrise Optimus that leaked awhile back, will also being going up for preorders at 1:00.  It's an Amazon-exclusive, and they're saying it'll tie into the Netflix series somehow (that somehow being that Optimus will die and pass on the Matrix... Rodimus Prime confirmed for the third part of the War for Cybertron Trilogy?).

Two new Generations Selects reveals (and nothing super exciting).  Sideswipe's getting repainted (again) as Deluxe-class Tigertrack, and Spinister is getting repainted as Rotostorm.  Well, the base figures are pretty good, which is cool, but I don't really need more Autobots.

Blaster will be the next Walmart-exclusive G1 reissue.

That's all the really interested me, but they also revealed the already-leaked R.E.D. line of Walmart-exclusive, non-Transforming, (far too) cartoon-accurate accurate figures.  They showed Optimus, Megatron, and Soundwave on the livestream.

The rest isn't news (yet), but in the Q&A they suggested more Takara/Hasbro Asia figures that will be coming to the West, and that the Autobot clones may get a box set like the Target-exclusive Decepticon clones pack.

[technoblue]

That looks like fun pack.

But I'll be at the doctor's office when the pre-order goes up, so I'll have to cross my fingers and hope it sticks around a bit.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, technoblue said:

That looks like fun pack.

But I'll be at the doctor's office when the pre-order goes up, so I'll have to cross my fingers and hope it sticks around a bit.

Yeah, I'm getting ready to take my kid to go swimming at her grandpap's place.  It'll be after 1:00 for sure when we get there, but I'm going to try to get an order in after we get there but before we go out to the pool.

I think I'm passing on Rotorstorm.  I just don't have any real knowledge of or attachment to the character.  I'm on the fence regarding Alternate Universe Optimus and Tigertrack.  Not sure I really need a Prime corpse (especially when it's a "Leader" that comes with a (dead?) trailer.  As for Tigertrack, I don't have any attachment to the character but who couldn't use a yellow Sideswipe?  Although, I kind of wish they'd gone with Clampdown instead.

Edit: I got a pulse preorder for centurion and tigertrack, and I did preorder Prime at Amazon. Release date's not until January so I can cancel if I change my mind.

Edited June 26, 2020 by mikeszekely

[sh9000]

https://dorksidetoys.com/collections/new-pre-orders/products/transformers-war-for-cybertron-deluxe-class-wfc-gs19-rotorstor-action-figure-pre-orde

https://dorksidetoys.com/collections/new-pre-orders/products/copy-of-transformers-war-for-cybertron-deluxe-class-wfc-gs18-autobot-tigertrack-action-figure-pre-orde

 

Since I have all of the Walmart Vintage G1 so far, I’m going to keep collecting them and get Blaster.  The same for the G1 ornaments so I’ll be getting Jazz.

I’ll take the Transformers X Time Machine in G1 packaging like Ectotron.

Since there will probably never be an official Knight Rider Transformer, I still wish that XTB recolored their Boost black and modified it so that I can at least have a Knight Rider Transformer.

Edited June 26, 2020 by sh9000

[technoblue]

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Edit: I got a pulse preorder for centurion and tigertrack, and I did preorder Prime at Amazon. Release date's not until January so I can cancel if I change my mind.

Got back from the doctor and pre-ordered Centurion and Rotorstorm. Is Rotorstorm G1 or G2? In any case, the funky colors won me over. I did skip Tigertracks for now. May mull him over again later. Pre-ordered Alternate Prime on Amazon because of that the head sculpt. The trailer seems a little too much, but it's all right.  Amazon is showing a July 15 release date for me. 

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

Since I have all of the Walmart Vintage G1 so far, I’m going to keep collecting them and get Blaster.  The same for the G1 ornaments so I’ll be getting Jazz.

Ooo! I may pick up Blaster if I see him at my local Walmart. That's one toy I never had as a kid.

 

[mikeszekely]

19 minutes ago, technoblue said:

Amazon is showing a July 15 release date for me. 

Yeah, looks like they moved it up to July for me, too.

20 minutes ago, technoblue said:

Ooo! I may pick up Blaster if I see him at my local Walmart. That's one toy I never had as a kid.

You can preorder it. As big as the figure is and as much as Walmart's charged for previous reissues it's surprisingly only $29.99.

[sh9000]

Ordered Blaster.  Thanks for the link.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, sh9000 said:

Ordered Blaster.  Thanks for the link.

No problem, I put in an order myself.

Now I'm hoping they reissue his tapes like they did with Soundwave.  I never actually had any of Soundwave's tapes as a kid, but even though I didn't own Blaster I actually had Rewind, Eject, Ramhorn, and Steeljaw back in the day.  It'd be cool to not only own them again but to actually have a Blaster to stuff them in.

[mikeszekely]

19 hours ago, technoblue said:

Is Rotorstorm G1 or G2?

G1, part of a line that came out in Europe, Canada, and parts of Asia but not here in the States, probably because they had firing missile gimmicks that wouldn't pass US safety standards..  The main group of Autobots were Turbomasters, the main group of Decepticons were Predators.  Rotorstorm was a Turbomasters.  Another, more well-known (now) Turbomaster would be Thunderclash.  While the Turbomasters came out in other parts of the world in 1992 (G2 didn't officially start until 1993), we wouldn't get the molds here in the States until 1997, and they were modified both in colors and to pass US safety standards.  Here they became part of the Kay Bee-exclusive Machine Wars line, and Rotorstorm would become the much more boring olive and khaki Sandstorm.

Thunderclash, BTW, ditches the gold, hot pink, and teal for red, dark blue, and off-white and became MW Optimus Prime, a figure I just picked up (unfortunately with a little bit of green marker on some of the stickers and missing the missiles and rifle, but I was just happy to find one that still had its stickers and the trailer door).

Edited June 27, 2020 by mikeszekely

[technoblue]

Interesting bit of Transformers history there, @mikeszekely. Thank you for sharing! 

[mikeszekely]

6 hours ago, technoblue said:

Interesting bit of Transformers history there, @mikeszekely. Thank you for sharing! 

No problem!  While I grew up with G1 I kind of grew out of Transformers in the '90s, and when I got back into the franchise as an adult it was almost overwhelming to learn how much history I'd missed.  I'm happy to share what I've learned since then.

On that note, I'd love it if someone did a modern take on the Predators.  The Turbomasters were ok, but the smaller Predators were an F-15, an F-117, an X-29, and a Y-23, and I think I speak for most Transformers fans on a Macross board when I say we need more transforming jets in our lives.