The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[technoblue]

Mm. Animated has an excellent story. It's unfortunate that it often gets overlooked, and its a tragedy that Cartoon Network didn't give the showrunners a final season to complete Sari's full character arc. I'd love to see it get a decent Blu-ray release, like Transformers: Prime. If Hasbro is going to revisit multiple series with these anniversary reissues, then an anniversary reissue of animated characters is a must. Some of those designs are still hard to beat today, like Animated Arcee, Prowl, and Lugnut.

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, technoblue said:

Mm. Animated has an excellent story. It's unfortunate that it often gets overlooked, and its a tragedy that Cartoon Network didn't give the showrunners a final season to complete Sari's full character arc. I'd love to see it get a decent Blu-ray release, like Transformers: Prime. If Hasbro is going to revisit multiple series with these anniversary reissues, then an anniversary reissue of animated characters is a must. Some of those designs are still hard to beat today, like Animated Arcee, Prowl, and Lugnut.

Preach! I agree 100% about the show not getting its deserved third season to wrap things up.  I'd hoped that at the very least they'd do a graphic novel akin to what the Avatar creators did after the original series ended.  Great books if you're an Avatar fan.

The toys were innovative and cool, especially since that style of artwork had never before been translated to physical toys. Some are on the money, some aren't, but the vast majority are innovative in one way or another. Too, this line came out before Hasbro started going cheap with hollow areas all over, smaller sized figures, more exposed or simple joints, like mushroom pegs, etc. Most of the animated figs are solid, with better overall builds than many of the current toys.  The figs you pointed out are among some of my favorites. I also think Blackarachnia was well done, as well as voyager Prime, Blurr (inspired by the unused Cheetor Transtech design, and issued as a Con exclusive in Cheetor deco. Full circle. ), Swindle, Rodimus Minor, Cybertronian Ratchet/ironhide, etc. I could keep going. I just love this toyline. I wish I'd been able to score a Blackout, but I missed out. It goes for insane prices now, so unless Hasbro does something similar for Animated and releases Blackout here as an exclusive, he'll be the one that got away. Well, he and Cybertronian Ironhide.

I keep hoping that Hasbro will do something for Animated, but it seems like they just want to sweep it under the rug, as if it's something to be ashamed of. And yet they keep putting out Bayformer stuff. Now that's something to be ashamed of.

[tekering]

24 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

I agree 100% about the show not getting its deserved third season to wrap things up.

Funny, I thought the third season of Transformers: Animated was the best...  

[Silverstreak]

The toys they had planned for the fourth season of Animated would have been great. A Super-Megatron and Powermaster Optimus would have been awesome. Throw in that we would have likely got Omega Supreme and I get really sad when I think about what we missed

[mikeszekely]

I liked the Animated cartoon a great deal, but the art style was flat and exaggerated.  It made for a perfectly cartoony show, but despite collecting a lot of them I didn't care for the toys.  I just didn't think the flat art style translated well to 3D toys, toys that look out of place displayed with even RiD (2015) or Cyberverse.  I'd be ok with them doing something to wrap up the story, but I'm honestly fine with them never going back to that well for toys.

[M'Kyuun]

10 hours ago, tekering said:

Funny, I thought the third season of Transformers: Animated was the best...  

Oops, I stand corrected. For some reason, and in spite of owning the series, I always think of it as only having two seasons.

The fourth season toys would have been great. Shame we never got either.

3 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I liked the Animated cartoon a great deal, but the art style was flat and exaggerated.  It made for a perfectly cartoony show, but despite collecting a lot of them I didn't care for the toys.  I just didn't think the flat art style translated well to 3D toys, toys that look out of place displayed with even RiD (2015) or Cyberverse.  I'd be ok with them doing something to wrap up the story, but I'm honestly fine with them never going back to that well for toys.

True, the toys stand apart aesthetically. But the same argument can be made for both the Bayformer toys, and Prime by extension.  All my Animated figs are displayed on my desk, and all the other lines are displayed on my CHUG shelves, but mostly grouped with each other according to series. These days, the shelves are so full that they're basically all crammed next to each other. So many toys, so little space.

But I'll make room for more Animated toys. Honestly, Omega Supreme is the one I really want, along with Blackout, who's priced so ludicrously these days that, barring a Hasbro release, I've given up any chance of owning him. OS is the Holy Grail from that line for me. With John Warden moving on to Power Rangers and a new senior lead taking the reigns for Transformers, maybe there's some Animated nostalgia there that'll materialize in the form of some isolated releases. Fingers crossed. I just don't want it as another overpriced Haslab project. 

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

True, the toys stand apart aesthetically. But the same argument can be made for both the Bayformer toys, and Prime by extension.

Except that the Bayformers and the Prime characters were modeled in 3D.  Yes, they're very distinct from G1, but 3-dimensional.  G1, Cyberverse, even the Unicron Trilogy was animated in such a way that they were clearly drawing realistic 3D shapes.  Only Animated had a very exaggerated, cartoony style.  And like I said, it's a fine style for a 2D cartoon, but I never felt it translated well to 3D toys.

Put another way, I'd love MP-style versions of almost any Optimus Prime for my collection (an MP RiD 2000 Prime/Fire Convoy is my holy grail), but I'd probably pass on an MP Animated Prime because I just don't think it'd fit in.

[M'Kyuun]

We're on opposite sides of that preference; I'd take a MP Animated Prime over anything RiD or Unicron trilogy. I just wasn't a fan at all of the Japanese imported shows or their toys, although , admittedly, I own toys from all of it, including Fire Convoy, which I don't care for. I found most of the toys from that time period to be lackluster at best, and just this side of terrible in general. I welcomed RiD initially, b/c it was a return to vehicles as alt modes, but I quickly became disenchanted with it. My interest in collecting Transformers didn't rekindle again until '07 with the Classics line, and some of the Bayformer stuff. Even then, I didn't like the look of Bayformers, but the advances Takara was making in engineering and complexity with those toys was enthralling. I own a lot of them, especially from the earlier films.

That said, My interest in Takara's making MP Animated anything is tepid at best. I don't have the room for it, I fear greatly for how the things would turn out, especially the vehicle modes, and I'm content, mostly, with the toys we already got. There are a few that I wouldn't mind seeing a third party taka a crack at to improve them over the originals at their original scales, but overall I'm good with what I've got. If nothing else, it was an interesting experiment on HasTak's part. I like what they did, for the most part, but I also realize it's not for everyone, and I'm cool with that.

 

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

I just wasn't a fan at all of the Japanese imported shows or their toys, although , admittedly, I own toys from all of it, including Fire Convoy, which I don't care for. I found most of the toys from that time period to be lackluster at best, and just this side of terrible in general.

I was in college during RiD and a newlywed scraping by in my first apartment during the Unicron Trilogy, so I neither watched them nor collected the toys at the time.  I pretty much went straight from watching G1 and playing with the toys as a kid to Classics.  As an adult getting back into the fandom I did go back and watch the Japanese series, and yeah, they're pretty terrible.

That said, while I wasn't really back into Transformers like I am today I knew Transformers had gone from G2 to Beast Wars, and like yourself I was glad to see Transformers turning into cars again when RiD came out.  It's a terrible show, and I'll take your word for it if you tell me the toy was bad, but I loved the design of Fire Convoy.  I was getting into anime in high school and college, and I thought that Fire Convoy blended some G1 Optimus with some anime style, with a super mode alá Powermaster Optimus.  To this day I still love the design, hence my desire for an MP version.

[M'Kyuun]

https://www.seibertron.com/toys/index.php?f_series_id=11&f_subgroup=&f_name=Enter+Character+Name(s)&f_type=exact

Seibertron is a great resource for TF pics down through the years, and I invite you to peruse the gallery and make up your own mind about the RiD toys. While his design never struck a chord with me, I think Fire Convoy's one of the best toys in the line. I have him, X-Brawn, Prowl, and Sideburn, the latter three being some of the first toys to come out, as I remember, and I was just excited about their vehicle modes. All three turned out to be largely shell-formers with a lot of kibble, and asymmetrical features, like X-Brawn's one arm being the entire front end of his vehicle while the other is just a standard robot arm. They were going for something, and admittedly it was inventive, but ultimately not very nice looking. The bots, however, had a lot of articulation, especially by the standards of the day. Looking through the gallery myself, I was surprised by how much Beast Wars/Beast Machine crossovers there were. I believe I bought Skybyte during that time.

Check out the UT gallery as well.  The big gimmick for most of that trilogy was the ability to combine two characters into a larger robot. More often than not, the combined mode was ungainly, awkward, compromised by lots of kibble, and just unsightly. But there were a few winners in there. We got our first official Arcee figure, with a motorcycle alt mode, and I still have a soft spot for Armorhide (little blue cabover) who's up on my CHUG shelves somewhere. I bought a number of toys from the three lines, especially the ones that reminded me of G1. My attachment to them faded pretty quickly, though, for most anyway. Ultimately, what I've always wanted in the mainline is what we're getting with the current WFC Trilogy, as well as all the G1 love we got with TR and PotP.  I'm feeling pretty fulfilled with WFC, but it does make me curious what's next, when all the G1 is done. Whatever it is, I hope it's more groundbreaking stuff like Animated or Prime, with new characters, new setting, new story, and a new look. Out with the old, in with the new, as the old saying goes.

Edited October 12, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

22 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Seibertron is a great resource for TF pics down through the years, and I invite you to peruse the gallery and make up your own mind about the RiD toys. While his design never struck a chord with me, I think Fire Convoy's one of the best toys in the line. I have him, X-Brawn, Prowl, and Sideburn, the latter three being some of the first toys to come out, as I remember, and I was just excited about their vehicle modes. All three turned out to be largely shell-formers with a lot of kibble, and asymmetrical features, like X-Brawn's one arm being the entire front end of his vehicle while the other is just a standard robot arm. They were going for something, and admittedly it was inventive, but ultimately not very nice looking. The bots, however, had a lot of articulation, especially by the standards of the day. Looking through the gallery myself, I was surprised by how much Beast Wars/Beast Machine crossovers there were. I believe I bought Skybyte during that time.

Oh, I nearly forgot about X-Brawn, Sideburn, and Prowl.  I did not care for those designs.  Mostly I just liked Prime, the trains, Scourge, and the Decepticon Commandos, with a side of Sky-Byte.

22 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Check out the UT gallery as well.  The big gimmick for most of that trilogy was the ability to combine two characters into a larger robot. More often than not, the combined mode was ungainly, awkward, compromised by lots of kibble, and just unsightly. But there were a few winners in there. We got our first official Arcee figure, with a motorcycle alt mode, and I still have a soft spot for Armorhide (little blue cabover) who's up on my CHUG shelves somewhere. I bought a number of toys from the three lines, especially the ones that reminded me of G1. My attachment to them faded pretty quickly, though, for most anyway.

Wasn't that more Energon's gig, specifically?  I owned none of the Energon toys at the time, but I have the Platinum Edition repaints of Optimus and Omega Supreme, plus a handful of the figures that were repainted for the movie line.  I wouldn't say any of them are good, but Omega Supreme came the closest.  Design-wise Energon had perhaps my least-favorite Optimus, beer belly Prime. 

But the other two series had their own gimmicks, minicons for Armada and Cyber Planet Keys for Cybertron.  Again, Armada was before I got back into collecting, but I liked the design of the non-super Prime.  I actually did wind up picking up a red-and-black repaint of the Deluxe-class Prime (Bendy Prime) that was released during the Cybertron line.  It must have been an amazing figure then, because aside from proper thigh swivels it holds up pretty well today- it even has ankle pivots!  I though Starscream and Megatron had fairly good designs, too, but I don't know how their toys were.  As for Cybertron, I think it was still on the air when Classics was coming out, and I checked out a few toys from that line.  I had the Leader-class Prime (pretty good), and some of the repaints that wound up in Classics, notably a Dirge repaint of Voyager-class Starscream (pretty good), a Ratbat repaint of Sideways (not so good), a Springer repaint of Evac (pretty good), and a Roadbuster repaint of of Cybertron Defense Hotshot (mostly ok).  My biggest gripe with most of the Cybertron designs was that they tended to have chunky alt modes with little resemblance to anything real... maybe to make them easier to animate in CGI?  I dunno.

22 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'm feeling pretty fulfilled with WFC, but it does make me curious what's next, when all the G1 is done. Whatever it is, I hope it's more groundbreaking stuff like Animated or Prime, with new characters, new setting, new story, and a new look. Out with the old, in with the new, as the old saying goes.

I wonder.  Hasbro's been putting multiple lines on the shelves almost since Classics first hit.  There's been the line for whatever cartoon is current, the movie line, and then Classics/Universe/Generations/WFC.  It's the first one that gave us stuff like Prime and Animated, but the impetus behind the third has always been some level of G1 nostalgia (even if it's closer to mini MP today than 2006's G1 reimagined).  I wonder how far they can stray from that well before they start losing demand? 

If I were a betting man, I suspect that after WFC they might go back to the Unicron Trilogy.  Think about it, Dreamwave kicked off the G1 revival less than 20 years after the cartoon debuted, and Classics hit around 20 years after G1 ended.  Kingdom will carry us through 2021, and in 2022 Armada will have it's 20th anniversary.  While I don't care for the shows and many of the toys I know there's a generation of collectors in their mid 20's and early 30's who say that Armada is like their G1 (actually, I seem to recall our own @Kuma Style saying something along those lines).  I don't expect Hasbro to rehash every character and toy the way they did for G1, but I think they'd probably get the most popular ones.  Indeed, the trilogy format will allow Hasbro to sell you a new Optimus, Megatron, and Starscream three years in a row, and even G1 fans like me will probably bite on those.  It may even explain why that prototype Armada Prime we saw almost two years ago (back when they were showing prototypes of Star Convoy) still hasn't happened- they could be saving it for post-Kingdom.

[mikeszekely]

Get your preorder routines ready. Hasbro is having a fan-first Friday stream this Friday at 11:00 am Eastern to finally officially announced the first wave of Studio Series '86 figures.

[M'Kyuun]

I'll have to try and remember that for Friday. Def down for most of those figs.

As for the next wave of figs coming from the Unicron trilogy, as much as it dismays me personally, you're probably right. If so, with the way MP has been going, and my general dislike of the UT, my TF collecting is going to slow to a crawl over the next few years. I'll keep my eye on third party to sustain me, as well as stuff like Nicee and hopefully a Tread for my Sentinel Legioss.

[M'Kyuun]

This is a nice bit of crossover action I saw on Twitter today. The upcoming Maverick in VF-0 livery. Pretty sharp. I'm tempted to do the same when I get mine.

Gotta chime in, too, and say what a nice looking fighter mode this is, especially with all the fanfare for MP-Starscream V2 and his rather questionable fighter mode. I wish more  jet-formers looked this good.

Edited October 13, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[Hikaru Ichijo SL]

1 hour ago, M'Kyuun said:

This is a nice bit of crossover action I saw on Twitter today. The upcoming Maverick in VF-0 livery. Pretty sharp. I'm tempted to do the same when I get mine.

Gotta chime in, too, and say what a nice looking fighter mode this is, especially with all the fanfare for MP-Starscream V2 and his rather questionable fighter mode. I wish more  jet-formers looked this good.

I can't imagine how many people are going to repaint this, into Macross colors.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

1 hour ago, Hikaru Ichijo SL said:

I can't imagine how many people are going to repaint this, into Macross colors.

Anything is better than the default "weathered" look they hosed on it.

[sh9000]

That’s pretty cool.  It could be converted into Shin’s F-14 as well.

[Kuma Style]

 

[M'Kyuun]

Couple of blasts from the past there, Kuma. Looking good, as always.

I only got MP Inferno, and the way they designed the ladder to fold and stow inside the body is really it's coolest selling point, so far as this particular character goes. None of the third party contenders came up with so elegant a solution, just letting the ladder dangle off the back. I do regret not picking up MMC's Grapple, as I liked their design, but wasn't interested enough in the character at the time to pick him up.  Too, it would have been nice to have that difference in aesthetics.

[Chronocidal]

10 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

This is a nice bit of crossover action I saw on Twitter today. The upcoming Maverick in VF-0 livery. Pretty sharp. I'm tempted to do the same when I get mine.

Gotta chime in, too, and say what a nice looking fighter mode this is, especially with all the fanfare for MP-Starscream V2 and his rather questionable fighter mode. I wish more  jet-formers looked this good.

Ok.. I'm impressed, that thing is a whole lot cleaner underneath than I ever expected.  I might need to order one.

I think what's the most hilarious is how utterly VF-1-esque the transformation appears to be.

Edited October 14, 2020 by Chronocidal

[tekering]

On 10/14/2020 at 12:35 PM, M'Kyuun said:

I do regret not picking up MMC's Grapple, as I liked their design, but wasn't interested enough in the character at the time to pick him up.  Too, it would have been nice to have that difference in aesthetics.

I like 'em both.  

MakeToys "Wrestle" is more of G1 toy homage, whereas Masterpiece Grapple is pure toon.  

Edit: It turns out you meant Ocular Max "Girder," whereas I was thinking of "Wrestle."

Edited October 15, 2020 by tekering

[M'Kyuun]

Thanks for the pic, Tekering. Comparing the two, there's just so much more texture, detail, and chunkiness to the Ocular Max. Plus, it looks like it has lo-pros compared to the fuller tires on the Takara. I think both are good toys; they just do different things aesthetically. Having MP Inferno, I think the better choice for me would have been to go with Girder for  those differences. Too, I'm a fan of MMC's toys, so there's a little bias in there as well.

Chronocidal said, "I think what's the most hilarious is how utterly VF-1-esque the transformation appears to be." 

Uncanny, isn't it?  Well, when you can't figure something out yourself, borrowing from something that works isn't out of the question. And who knows, maybe Kawamori had a hand in its design, or at least gave Takara his blessing.

Edited October 14, 2020 by M'Kyuun

[Kuma Style]

13 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Couple of blasts from the past there, Kuma. Looking good, as always.

Thank you. The engineering doesn't aw me quite as much now that it's been YEARS with these guys in hand but there's something about them that still hits a very nice spot for me.

[mikeszekely]

Super blurry, but here's a peak at what we're expecting to be announced Friday.  Deluxe-class Jazz, Kup, and Blurr, Voyager-class Hot Rod and Scourge, and Leader-class Grimlock.

Edited October 14, 2020 by mikeszekely

[danth]

I expect that custom Jetfire repaints of Maverick are imminent.

[mikeszekely]

Got an email from Walmart that my Soundwave won't come until mid-November now. So help me, if Walmart fails to fulfill another preorder...

[M'Kyuun]

3 hours ago, danth said:

I expect that custom Jetfire repaints of Maverick are imminent.

I think Hasbro should do it themselves. Give HG two middle fingers with one figure. 

That said, I wonder if maybe there was some intent behind Maverick's design, a test as it were, to see how far they can push.

[tekering]

15 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Comparing the two, there's just so much more texture, detail, and chunkiness to the Ocular Max.

 

While the same is undoubtedly true of "Girder," that was actually MakeToys "Wrestle" I photographed...  

[M'Kyuun]

6 hours ago, tekering said:

While the same is undoubtedly true of "Girder," that was actually MakeToys "Wrestle" I photographed...  

   I officially embodied the "ass' part of assume with my post.  I looked up the Ocular Max , and yeah, it channels the OG toy rather well. I remember liking the look of their Inferno, but ultimately went with the MP version, which turned out to be a nice figure, although a bit drab for lack of detail in bot mode. I'd rather have the sculpted details of Girder or Wrestle. But then, I've always been a fan of detail, preferring more over less, especially with a robot toy.

20 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Super blurry, but here's a peak at what we're expecting to be announced Friday.  Deluxe-class Jazz, Kup, and Blurr, Voyager-class Hot Rod and Scourge, and Leader-class Grimlock.

Ooh, I'm very curious to see close ups of Jazz and Grimlock.  Grimlock looks a bit emaciated in that pic; I hope it's a product of distortion, but somehow I doubt it, as the others look proportionate. I hope they do the rest of the Dinobots, as the PotP figs left somewhat to be desired between their small scales and concessions for the combining gimmick.

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Got an email from Walmart that my Soundwave won't come until mid-November now. So help me, if Walmart fails to fulfill another preorder...

Hey, at least you got a PO. I missed it, and am now at the mercy of their crappy stocking and distro practices. If it's any consolation, I've received delay notices from Amazon and Pulse recently, so I think it's more an issue of the pandemic taking its toll than the actual retailers, although, in your defense, Wally's track record ain't the greatest. Hopefully they'll come through- for all of us who want these figures.

[sh9000]

[M'Kyuun]

Jazz is looking pretty good, except for the feet hanging out the back of his car mode. C'mon Hasbro, you've already done better:

The "86 SS Jazz bot mode looks pretty good, though, hollow forearms notwithstanding. It has a good mix of toon and toy. Shame they cocked up the car mode, which could also do with some paint apps on the rear fenders to complete the look. Mixed bag, this one, but I'll still probably get it. I have Arcee, and car feet aside, this is still far better than that figure. Wonder why they changed his number on the doors? Seems a running trend with WFC.

Hot Rod looks amazing. All things being equal, I'd rather Jazz was the amazing figure.

 

[Sildani]

Very nice! I’ll be collecting these. 

[obakesan]

PSA MP star scream 2.0 pre order up on AJ from AJ now

[sh9000]

The Target toy offers will come in handy.

[danth]

8 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Hot Rod looks amazing. All things being equal, I'd rather Jazz was the amazing figure.

Same. I think as a kid I checked out of Transformers in 1986 because I only have fondness for the '84 and '85 toys. Hopefully that Grimlock turns out pretty sweet!