The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[sh9000]

I'll get Devastator and I'll probably get Galvatron.

[mikeszekely]

Eh, you know me, I'm probably in for all four figs they showed slides of (preorders, I hear, are Tuesday).  Some quick thoughts-

-I just hope, after going in on Scorponok and Doublepunch, they give me a Sandstorm, too.
-I just hope, after going in on Starscream and Skywarp, that they give me a Gamer Edition Thundercracker, too.
-Galvatron is a straight repaint of the Legacy Kingdom toy.  I never got the non-battle damage Legacy version, so I'm probably going to get the Studio Series release, but it's going to come down to how blurple he actually is.
-Hatchet's cool, in a weird sort of way, but it makes me realize that I have Studio Series Crowbar but never bothered with Crankcase.  And the Studio Series version of Crankcase is literally just a repainted Crowbar and not at all screen accurate.  If I'm not mistaken, Crowbar was a retool of The Last Knight Berserker... maybe I'll track down one of those, repaint his chest and forearms to get rid of the graffiti, and pass that off as Crankcase since Berserker reused Crankcase's CGI model in the first place.
-Of course I'm in for Devy.  I don't even need to see it.  But I'm looking forward to seeing it on 10/27, if it doesn't leak sooner.

[JB0]

Man, I expected more of a redesign for Dinoking, not just "dinobots in the wrong colors". I no longer hope for a Monstructor version.

[Scyla]

Still no images of Studio Series 86 Devastator?

I will buy the WfC Skywarp but that purple color looks terrible in the pictures. I prefer my Skywarps as more of a lilac color. In the images on TFW he also looks way too dark and not enough gray.

Another reissue of the mediocre Kingdom Galvatron? Every time I see this mold without the WfC schmutz I grown and wished I didn’t buy it on first sight.

A the only one on this Earth that adores the Universe Deluxe Galvatron I find it sad that there isn’t an official figure of him that surpasses that.

 

[mikeszekely]

34 minutes ago, Scyla said:

Still no images of Studio Series 86 Devastator?

Hasbro seems to have patched some of their leaks, I guess, but the official word since Pulsecon is that their 10/27 event is all about Devastator.

[David Hingtgen]

The new Deluxe Prime is the first I'll buy in years.  ROUND FUEL TANKS.  Makes truck mode 10x better.  I really, really hate the 'flat' tanks so prevalent nowadays---so unrealistic and clearly "not how a transforming Freightliner would look".   Look at how simply and elegantly the Netflix one dealt with "round tanks as a truck, but not as a robot".    

[Radioguy]

4 hours ago, Scyla said:

Another reissue of the mediocre Kingdom Galvatron? Every time I see this mold without the WfC schmutz I grown and wished I didn’t buy it on first sight.

Well, I liked the "Behold!" Galvatron Unicon version that was transparent.

[mikeszekely]

If you missed it before BBTS is selling an exclusive reissue of Siege Omega Supreme for their 25th anniversary.

[Hikuro]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

If you missed it before BBTS is selling an exclusive reissue of Siege Omega Supreme for their 25th anniversary.

Seeing how I've missed him twice, and everywhere else is putting him at an outrageous high price, I bit the bullet since it'll be a good 11 months before he's released. I'm a little surprised Countdown comes with him, I thought that microbot was a Zone character which would been those base sets....I could swear I had this rocket base he came with. Well, that's still pretty cool, so. yeah got it. 

[JB0]

52 minutes ago, Hikuro said:

I'm a little surprised Countdown comes with him, I thought that microbot was a Zone character which would been those base sets....I could swear I had this rocket base he came with. 

I think you're right. Micromaster shuttle base or something.

But hey, Omega turns into a rocket base, so it isn't a completely random packin.

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Hikuro said:

I'm a little surprised Countdown comes with him, I thought that microbot was a Zone character which would been those base sets....I could swear I had this rocket base he came with.

 

10 minutes ago, JB0 said:

I think you're right. Micromaster shuttle base or something.

Micromaster Rocket base.  I had it as a kid, and I remember loving the rocket and Countdown but having little interest in the rest of the base.

Presumably, as Siege was when Hasbro was pushing Micromasters again, they had the budget to include one with Omega and figured that Countdown was the most thematic since, as JB0 noted, he kind of turns into a rocket base.  That said, Earthrise Sky Lynx gained a based mode that's similar to the Rocket Base, but with his own shuttle instead of a rocket, plus I think it was Amazon that was doing a couple of packs around the same time, and one of them was "Botropolis Rescue Mission."  It came with the Modulators Overair and a redecoed Ironworks, plus the missile that came with Earthrise Doubledealer, and all of it was designed to look like the Rocket Base.

[Hikuro]

I see the resemblance there for botropolis. 
I might still have countdown in a storage tub. There’s several micromasters I probably still own that I have yet to come across due to free time. 
as a kid I definitely had a lot of them cause folks thought the value was better, even if they came with a base, had several.

gonna try my best to save up the cash to afford omega since I really want him. I’m happy with the old energon year of the dragon variant I’ve had for over a decade with the maketoys upgrade. But this is just a better looking figure to me.

[M'Kyuun]

On 10/19/2024 at 8:52 AM, David Hingtgen said:

The new Deluxe Prime is the first I'll buy in years.  ROUND FUEL TANKS.  Makes truck mode 10x better.  I really, really hate the 'flat' tanks so prevalent nowadays---so unrealistic and clearly "not how a transforming Freightliner would look".   Look at how simply and elegantly the Netflix one dealt with "round tanks as a truck, but not as a robot".    

I prefer round tanks, too, and it's one of a couple nitpicks I have with SS86 Prime. Earthrise Prime tucks his round tanks into the backs of his thighs and it's a perfect kibble-less solution for the bot mode while giving the truck proper looking tanks that don't jut way out and look weird, or like some odd form of intake like SS86's. I can't understand, either, why on a commander class budget they couldn't give him double-jointed elbows or single-jointed that still allow an elbow bend beyond 90 degrees. IMHO, that should, along with opening hands, be requisite standards of articulation on anything at least leader class and above. SS86 at least has the poseable hands, as he should. I'm also not the biggest fan of MP-44's wrapping-the-cab-around-the-robot approach to transformation, but I think it was actually done more effectively on SS86, which has a better proportioned bot mode (with a big inaccurate backpack as a result) and a much cleaner, more realistic looking truck mode, weird fuel tanks notwithstanding.

The new Legacy United deluxe Prime is pretty much Hasbro's bargain version of Missing Link, but I'm not complaining, as I prefer its slightly tweaked proportions, i.e. beefier, over the original toy's. Too, ML is pricey and this way I get a similar toy for a much lower pricetag without yet another trailer to have to stash away. It's a win-win solution, methinks, and I wonder if Hasbro is going to take a similar approach with other ML figs. Of course, with Prime being a deluxe, scale is already skewed.

18 hours ago, Hikuro said:

Seeing how I've missed him twice, and everywhere else is putting him at an outrageous high price, I bit the bullet since it'll be a good 11 months before he's released. I'm a little surprised Countdown comes with him, I thought that microbot was a Zone character which would been those base sets....I could swear I had this rocket base he came with. Well, that's still pretty cool, so. yeah got it. 

Never was much of a fan of G1 Omega Supreme's design, but when Hasbro first revealed this fig, I was impressed. That said, I've chosen to enjoy it vicariously through vids and such as I just don't really have the room for another titan fig (Unless they do a spot-on Animated Omega Supreme-- I'll find a way for that particular grail!). I still think Has/Tak did a bang-up job on OS- all the details, the features, colors, everything; in every way except motorization/electronics, it's a right proper update of the OG toy and I think it'll be one of those stand-out toys that we'll still be talking about in our graying years (some of us may already be getting there).😉

[mikeszekely]

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I prefer round tanks, too, and it's one of a couple nitpicks I have with SS86 Prime. Earthrise Prime tucks his round tanks into the backs of his thighs and it's a perfect kibble-less solution for the bot mode while giving the truck proper looking tanks that don't jut way out and look weird, or like some odd form of intake like SS86's.

 

On 10/19/2024 at 11:52 AM, David Hingtgen said:

The new Deluxe Prime is the first I'll buy in years.  ROUND FUEL TANKS.  Makes truck mode 10x better.  I really, really hate the 'flat' tanks so prevalent nowadays---so unrealistic and clearly "not how a transforming Freightliner would look".   Look at how simply and elegantly the Netflix one dealt with "round tanks as a truck, but not as a robot".    

I think it boils down to "blame the cartoon."  The truck's animation model doesn't have round tanks.  And, of course, neither does Prime's robot mode.  Unlike a lot of other recent offerings from 3Ps (and I think MP-44, but don't remember) SS86 Prime uses the same fuel tanks in both modes.

FWIW, I do prefer round tanks in truck mode (and in the case of SS86, I wish they weren't so protruding).  But I hate how they were implemented on Earthrise/Netflix/Laser Optimus.  If they secured in place in truck mode it'd be fine, but you just fold them out and hope for the best, inevitably pushing them back in as you handle them.

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

 

I think it boils down to "blame the cartoon."  The truck's animation model doesn't have round tanks.  And, of course, neither does Prime's robot mode.  Unlike a lot of other recent offerings from 3Ps (and I think MP-44, but don't remember) SS86 Prime uses the same fuel tanks in both modes.

FWIW, I do prefer round tanks in truck mode (and in the case of SS86, I wish they weren't so protruding).  But I hate how they were implemented on Earthrise/Netflix/Laser Optimus.  If they secured in place in truck mode it'd be fine, but you just fold them out and hope for the best, inevitably pushing them back in as you handle them.

Valid point about those tanks just pushing in easily. They need a "thoop" as EmGo would say, to keep them secured in place. I just try not to touch them when I put him in truck mode. I don't blame HasTak for SS86's tanks, as like you said, that's how they appear in the show and they're just capturing that look for the fig.  Too bad they couldn't engineer round tanks for truck and the square ones for bot. Pretty good figure, overall, certainly the most toon-accurate version we've ever gotten in the main line. I wish his elbows had more bend, his backpack was reduced to what we see in the toon/Movie, and that his ankles had some fore and aft rotation, but the engineering is solid, the truck mode impressive, especially the rear chassis, and with all the additional accessories, especially the requisite properly scaled trailer, SS86 is one fine Optimus Prime. I'll admit, though, I still have a huge soft spot for Earthrise Prime who deservedly held the Autobot leader's top spot in my CHUG+ collection for a few years now. Additionally, I put in a lot of time painting him and trying to bring him closer to the "ideal" version of OP in my head, so I'm sure that colors my bias a bit. Boiled down to the essentials, though, I just think he's a damned good OP figure regardless of his warts and I doubt I'll ever relinquish my attachment.

With SS86 finally in hand, my biggest (first world) worry now is whether or not HasTak will release a toy-colored and comic-rendered amalgamation where the cab has its stripe, the trailer has its blue borders on the stripe, his legs and pelvis are silver, his forearms have the yellow stripes and arrows, his shin vents are silver, and his heels are properly assembled. This is the ideal OP toy I want, although with time, paint, and some help from Toyhax, I could achieve most of these wants with my current SS86. I attempted to swap the heels on my copy; I only tried one foot, and I could only get the pin to pop out about a millimeter or two. It's in a somewhat inaccessible spot with that exterior leg panel blocking access, so the ankle needs to be bent a fair bit to get to it. Anyway, I pounded on that sucker for a while and a couple mms is all I could get it to budge; alas, I just resignedly beat it back into place. I don't have a vice or even a workbench, so it doesn't help that I have no way of securing the foot while I try to pound out the pin. It'll continue to bug me b/c I know its's wrong. As misassemblages go, though, it could've been far worse.

[mikeszekely]

37 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

his shin vents are silver

So I don't mind Prime having more pronounced, obvious vents instead of just a series of rectangles, but I'm firmly in the camp that the vents should be blue. They're blue in the cartoon, and blue on the G1 toy. Near as I can the whole silver shin vent thing started with MP-01.

Otherwise, yeah, I'm hoping for a toy version down the road.

Oh, btw, this is the tool I used to get the pins out and swap Prime's heels. It's like $6-7.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H5F43N3?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

Edited October 23 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

So I don't mind Prime having more pronounced, obvious vents instead of just a series of rectangles, but I'm firmly in the camp that the vents should be blue. They're blue in the cartoon, and blue on the G1 toy. Near as I can the whole silver shin vent thing started with MP-01.

Otherwise, yeah, I'm hoping for a toy version down the road.

Oh, btw, this is the tool I used to get the pins out and swap Prime's heels. It's like $6-7.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H5F43N3?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_dt_b_product_details

Phenomenal suggestion; ordered one for myself, given I've got years of TF and other toy collecting ahead and there are sure to be times when disassembling a toy will be necessary. Thanks, Mike.

As to Prime, I guess I'm in an odd place as a fan, as I don't adhere to a singular version of the character, but as I mentioned, I like an amalgamation of details from various sources: I like the toy's silver, or chrome, waist and thighs. I like his G1 trailer's blue-bordered stripe. I prefer his toony blue eyes over his OG toy's yellow. I like the yellow stripes and arrows on his forearms (which may have originated with MP-01). I prefer his vents are both molded to look like louvres and painted silver, which may have also started with MP-01. I'm not too plussed about a lot of the G1 toy's trailer's interior decals (many of which, IMHO, just look cheap and cheesy and do little to enhance a more sophisticated modern toy). That last bit sounds ridiculous after reading it for myself, but collectors will understand. I think having those details be molded and painted are far preferable. We already mentioned the round fuel tanks vs the square ones; personally, I'd rather the truck have the round ones and by virtue of good engineering, they become the squarish nubs that appear in his animated bot mode. I'd prefer his repair drone be blue and Roller to be silver. TBH, as little as I engage with any of my OP's trailers, I generally focus more of my efforts on getting Prime himself how I want him. Thus far, Earthrise is the only OP toy where I expended a bit of time and effort on the trailer and I didn't even go as far as you did, Mike. However, I'm satisfied with the changes I made. I'm not sure yet what all I'm going to do with SS86's trailer. Toyhax has their sticker set out already, but most of the time, I only want or use a fraction of the stickers, and they're not exactly cheap. Not sure I want to start painting my Prime, either, b/c as soon as I do, Hasbro will announce a version with most or all the apps I want, only applied much better than my hand painting can accomplish. I'd love a variant like that without the trailer at like $55 (leader pricepoint). That'd be downright cool.

Edited October 23 by M'Kyuun

[mikeszekely]

Layoffs are happening at Hasbro. John Warden, whom they just moved from G.I. Joe to Transformers, is one of the casualties. Bmac is safe, Evan and Emily appear to be safe, haven't heard anything on Mark but I think he's safe.

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

The last Transformers game I had fun with was Devastation.  It's way overdue for another good TF game.  Unfortunately, this one does not appear to be one:

[sh9000]

$62.83 after tax was the cheapest that I got Optimus Prime for.  Thanks Target offers.

[M'Kyuun]

5 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Layoffs are happening at Hasbro. John Warden, whom they just moved from G.I. Joe to Transformers, is one of the casualties. Bmac is safe, Evan and Emily appear to be safe, haven't heard anything on Mark but I think he's safe.

That's an extremely crappy situation. With prices what they are for stuff, one wonders how they're not staying well above water financially and keeping their folks employed. Warden has been with them for years and has worked in a number of departments, so there's a guy with breadth of experience that one would think would keep him safe as well. I guess nobody's safe except the executives, who will probably get bonuses. 😒

[pengbuzz]

On 10/23/2024 at 11:22 PM, sh9000 said:

$62.83 after tax was the cheapest that I got Optimus Prime for.  Thanks Target offers.

How'd you manage that? O.o

 

[sh9000]

Target 25% off one toy offer, $10 off $60 storewide purchase offer, and then 5% off.

[mikeszekely]

I'm not sure exactly what figures are supposed to be in what waves anymore for Studio Series.  It sounds like they're shuffling things around because the Constructicons are getting pushed up.  But I do know that, in addition to the stuff that went up for preorder this week (Galvatron, Hatchet, Skywarp, and Double Punch) that we were expecting Leader-class Apelinq, who's a retool of Primal.

As well as Deluxe-class Bumblebee Bumblebee.  There was some speculation at the time that this would probably be a retool of ROTB Bee and be the Camaro from the end of the movie, but it's actually a retool of of the original SS Bee.  I'm not clear on just how extensive, or if the alt mode will actually hold together this time, but he looks to have at least new limbs, and I've heard that the door wings are on swivels this time.

Word is that these guys will be available to preorder this week.

Beyond that, there were a few spacebridge reveals at the MCM London Comic Con.  No surprises, since basically the entire line for 2025 was leaked, but it's interesting to see some of them since they look like they're using renders of the toy (or possibly prototypes, because those are not Prime's final colors) instead of artwork.

Deluxe-class Dark of the Moon Que

Voyager-class Gamer Edition Ironhide

Leader-class Age of Extinction Optimus Prime

As well as package refreshes for SS86 Jazz and Dark of the Moon Shockwave.

Nothing new on SS86 Devastator or Age of the Primes, but tomorrow is Hasbro's 1027 event.  Dunno about Age of the Primes, since we still have another wave of United coming, but I'm 99% sure Devastator is tomorrow.

[mikeszekely]

Well, despite RSVP-ing Hasbro doesn't see fit to send me a link to the 1027 stream.😒  And while the people at TFW2005 don't seem inclined to post the link there, they're more generous with posting clips.

Nice to see that Scrapper has elbows, but he and Bonecrusher look an awful lot like Combiner Wars.

EDIT: Got a link.

EDIT AGAIN: It sounds like preorders for Devy will go up tomorrow, preorders Apelinq and Bumblebee go up Tuesday.

Edited October 27 by mikeszekely

[sh9000]

Awesome.  Thanks for the info @mikeszekely.

Scrapper and Bonecrusher.  Also yay to window boxes.

[M'Kyuun]

 Bonecrusher, Scrapper, and ultimately Devastator, do not disappoint, especially following the lackluster Combiner Wars version. Evan and Hasui-san did a great job on these figs. I'll admit that I wish the limb bots were voyager scaled so that their construction vehicle alts looked more proportionate next to a car or a regular truck, but also so that Devastator would have greater stature next to the Dinobots. I wish they'd thrown in a Dinobot for comparison, as obviously that's who he faced off against in the '86 film. Next to Menasor, the Dinobots come up to his waist, and Devy looks to be about a head taller than Menasor, so the size is a bit small compared to how he was depicted in the Movie and the toon. Disappointed that they didn't show all six Constructicons, but I guess it keeps excitement piqued by doing revelations over time. I'm glad they didn't go fully toon, as Scrapper still had his wheels on his shoulders like the G1 toy instead of the silly simplified green wheel bumps from the animation. I prefer this approach- good mix of toon, especially for overall look and proportions, but bringing over a bit of the toy's design and details as well. I like seeing bits of the alt mode in bot mode, just like the OG toys and most TFs since. I'm really pleased with what I'm seeing so far and will definitely be getting these guys. Looking at that big combiner joint on Bonecrusher's back, it does look like they're incorporating some of the CW design into these guys. I just hope those joints ultimately prove sturdier than the wobbly old CW joints. Relying greatly on partsforming, I'm curious to see how the rest of the bots come along and how those combiner-specific accessories are integrated or otherwise realized. Evan gave a little hint with his Hasui anecdote concerning turning some part into a trailer, so that should be interesting to see. Third parties have taken similar approaches in the past, and I'm all for more transforming stuff with my Transformers, but also practical uses of accessories, esp with combiners, to make them make better sense with or otherwise complement the alt modes.

Kudos to the marketing dude for addressing the availability issues with past figs. I was able to get all my Stunticons through Pulse, but for those who missed the PO windows and had to deal with store exclusivity, short-packing, and other factors making these things hard to acquire, it's reassuring that Marketing took note of that and are actively trying to prevent future occurrences. It sucks for regular figs, but for any team, it's especially disheartening to fall short a fig b/c of marketing decisions leading to extreme scarcity.

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I'll admit that I wish the limb bots were voyager scaled so that their construction vehicle alts looked more proportionate next to a car or a regular truck, but also so that Devastator would have greater stature next to the Dinobots. I wish they'd thrown in a Dinobot for comparison, as obviously that's who he faced off against in the '86 film. Next to Menasor, the Dinobots come up to his waist, and Devy looks to be about a head taller than Menasor, so the size is a bit small compared to how he was depicted in the Movie and the toon.

 Courtesy of Ravenwind at TFW, I don't think Devy will look too bad with the Dinobots, based on Menasor.

[Scyla]

6 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Well, despite RSVP-ing Hasbro doesn't see fit to send me a link to the 1027 stream.😒  And while the people at TFW2005 don't seem inclined to post the link there, they're more generous with posting clips.

Nice to see that Scrapper has elbows, but he and Bonecrusher look an awful lot like Combiner Wars.

EDIT: Got a link.

EDIT AGAIN: It sounds like preorders for Devy will go up tomorrow, preorders Apelinq and Bumblebee go up Tuesday.

The Fallen looks great. Will definitely buy this one. Thank god it is not a Tarn remold; take note Flame Toys.

For some reason the Constructicons give me major Combiner Wars flashbacks. Maybe it is the bright green, slightly translucent looking plastic?

Will definitely looking forward to the reviews.

[mikeszekely]

I need to stay off the other site for awhile, I'm just tired of the whining.  Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of people jazzed for the new Constructicons, and some offering valid criticisms like Bonecrusher having kind of weird proportions, but there's entirely too much, "Why is this Devastator the same size as basically every other combiner and not obnoxiously huge like the Combiner Wars toys?  Why do toys based on the G1 cartoon look so much like older toys also based on the exact same cartoon?  Scrapper must be a ripoff because he's the same size as Bonecrusher, and Bonecrusher is a Deluxe (never mind that they're both the height of Voyager SS86 Ironhide, that we have no idea the actual difference in parts count, that we know Scrapper has ratcheted joints in his torso for Devastator's ankle, and that Scrapper comes with Devastator's gun in addition to his own), so Hasbro must be ripping us off!  Speaking of ripping us off, why will this Devastator cost $210 when it's like half the size of Combiner Wars Devastator?  That thing only cost $150 ten years ago!  I can't understand things like inflation ($150 in 2015 is roughly $200 today), the the fact that these guys might have more complex engineering (Scrapper has elbows this time!), or more accessories (everybody has their own individual guns, Devastator looks like he might be a pantsformer this time, Evan hinted that the combiner kibble might turn into a trailer that Long Haul can pull, etc).  Why is Hasbro doing more G1 stuff anyway instead of Bayverse (I conveniently forgot that Dark of the Moon Que and Age of Extinction Optimus were announced literally yesterday)?  The designers should all be fired for not being able to make 3P MP-level products on the piddling budgets Hasbro allows them!  Worst toy ever, know way am I buying it (even though I probably already have Pulse open to the "new" section so I just have to refresh at 1:00)!"

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I need to stay off the other site for awhile, I'm just tired of the whining.  Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of people jazzed for the new Constructicons, and some offering valid criticisms like Bonecrusher having kind of weird proportions, but there's entirely too much, "Why is this Devastator the same size as basically every other combiner and not obnoxiously huge like the Combiner Wars toys?  Why do toys based on the G1 cartoon look so much like older toys also based on the exact same cartoon?  Scrapper must be a ripoff because he's the same size as Bonecrusher, and Bonecrusher is a Deluxe (never mind that they're both the height of Voyager SS86 Ironhide, that we have no idea the actual difference in parts count, that we know Scrapper has ratcheted joints in his torso for Devastator's ankle, and that Scrapper comes with Devastator's gun in addition to his own), so Hasbro must be ripping us off!  Speaking of ripping us off, why will this Devastator cost $210 when it's like half the size of Combiner Wars Devastator?  That thing only cost $150 ten years ago!  I can't understand things like inflation ($150 in 2015 is roughly $200 today), the the fact that these guys might have more complex engineering (Scrapper has elbows this time!), or more accessories (everybody has their own individual guns, Devastator looks like he might be a pantsformer this time, Evan hinted that the combiner kibble might turn into a trailer that Long Haul can pull, etc).  Why is Hasbro doing more G1 stuff anyway instead of Bayverse (I conveniently forgot that Dark of the Moon Que and Age of Extinction Optimus were announced literally yesterday)?  The designers should all be fired for not being able to make 3P MP-level products on the piddling budgets Hasbro allows them!  Worst toy ever, know way am I buying it (even though I probably already have Pulse open to the "new" section so I just have to refresh at 1:00)!"

😄 Haven't been to the site which shall not be named since before the stream, and it appears that I made a sound decision. I complained about the size, but honestly, as you mentioned, Scrapper is about Ironhide's size, so a large deluxe to be sure, and that's good. Articulation looks to be much improved with these figs, and they indeed come with guns. I don't get the fandom sometimes, a most fickle and difficult group to please. Thus far, I see little to complain about and much to rejoice over, especially regarding the previous CW entry which left much to be desired. I even passed on the slightly improved Japanese version; no matter how you polish a turd, in the end it's still crap. Well, let them whine and throw their tantrums; as you said, they're all bellyaching now but they'll be waiting anxiously to get their POs in tomorrow. 🙄

Thanks for that reference pic, Mike. I just so happen to have my Dinobots (in bot modes) standing right in front of Menasor, so I was able to get a rough idea how Devy would scale. Seeing Sludge there in comparison to a leg gives a good approximation, and yeah, compared to the animation, that's about right. Hopefully Devy will have opening hands that allow him to be posed holding Sludge over his head to toss him like he did in the Movie. 

Edited October 28 by M'Kyuun

[tekering]

I think we need to publicly acknowledge the effort @mikeszekely makes on our behalf, sifting through all the mud there to find the occasional nugget to share here.  

[mikeszekely]

Speaking of nuggets, here's one.  It's public knowledge that the new trilogy is Age of the Primes, and I've previously told you that Solus Prime, Alchemist Prime, Micronus, Prima, Alpha Trion, and Onyx Prime are coming in 2025 in addition to the Fallen.  I have no idea if another Vector Prime is in the works or not, but for now let's say the Legacy one is all we're getting.  So that's 8 out of 13.

Well, who are we missing?  I'm not going to go into a history lesson explaining why sometimes a character is or isn't on the list, because it's changed.  However, there was one list that was codified in 2010's The Covenant of Primus that seemed to be the definitive version (which not only listed who they are, but assigned each of them a unique relic)... until Transformers One came out with slightly different one.  Well, the already-released Vector Prime, Megatronus, and the six others leaked are on both lists, as are four others- Liege Maximo, Nexus Prime, Amalgamous Prime, and Quintus Prime.  In Transformers One, the last Prime is Zeta Prime.  However, in most continuities Zeta is simply part of the lineage of Matrix bearers since the original 13 passed into legend, usually either right before Sentinel Prime or right between Sentinel and Optimus.  In the The Covenant of Primus, the last Prime is simply called "Thirteen," and it's very heavily implied (but not outright stated) that Optimus is Thirteen, who chose to kind of die and be reborn as a regular guy.

Does that mean, with SS86 Optimus, that we already have Thirteen?  Well, take a look at this art from the side of the Fallen's box.

After watching Mark just show off the figure, the statue in the middle is pretty recognizable as The Fallen.  And that symbol above him is the symbol for the Fallen cooked up during Power of the Primes, when they were doing those little Prime Masters.  The guy on the left might not be immediately recognizable to the readers of the Covenant or the IDW comics, where he looked more like robo-Loki, but G2 fans will know that's Liege Maximo (and the symbol above confirms it).

The guy on the right?  The first thing I noticed was that his torso looks like Powermaster Optimus/Super Ginrai, and what I can make out of the head is certainly very Optimus-esque.  But the shoulder's are a bit square, with what appear to be turrets on top and no guns on the sides.  There's little wheels on the inside of his forearms.  His shins have entirely different (yet still familiar) molded shapes.  No, the Super Ginrai cab-chest is all wrong, but everything else is definitely looking familiar...

And I did tell you guys that Star Convoy is 2025's Titan...

Oh, one more thing.  We're still getting four Generations waves in 2025.  I think I've already said 2025 is starting with a 5th wave of Legacy United that's basically a bunch of repaints and package refreshes, then three waves of Age of the Primes.  But it sounds like part of the reason they're allowing a 5th wave of Legacy United (aside from giving people who couldn't get some store-exclusives like Cosmos and Galaxy Shuttle another crack at them) is because going forward there will only be three waves.  The thinking seems to be that this will allow people to have a better chance at getting them in the store, and to give stores more time to sell through before the next wave (though, judging by the number of Legacy Arcees and Crosscuts that have lingered on shelves while entire waves were skipped here, I'm not sure that'll help).  The confusing part is that I'm hearing this won't actually affect the number of releases per year, though.  It was explained to me as, "you're not losing a figure, if there were going to be ten Deluxes you'll still get ten, just in one fewer wave."  But if a wave usually has four Deluxes, four waves is sixteen, and three is twelve, so maybe the implication is that if they planned ten molds we'll get ten molds and two repaints instead of ten molds, two remolds, two straight-up repaints, and two package refreshes?

Edited October 28 by mikeszekely

[Axelay]

8 hours ago, tekering said:

I think we need to publicly acknowledge the effort @mikeszekely makes on our behalf, sifting through all the mud there to find the occasional nugget to share here.  

I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment. I've stopped reading other sites and strictly come here for Transformers news. This man is doing Primus' work.

[sh9000]

I avoid that Transformers forum and have no need to visit it.  The mods are terrible there too.