by Syn_13 » Sat Feb 21, 2015 9:07 am
- Motto: "Time to weapon up, wallflowers!"
- Weapon: Sniper Rifle
Cheers for posting your thoughts. Had a quick read and I think there's a few good points in there, and some I don't agree with.
Firstly, you're assuming that the Fan Built Combiner poll is rigged from the get go, if they're alredy planning on using the Hot Spot mould a third time for that one. Now it may well be, I always have my suspicions on these things, but if it isn't then we could end up seeing a 4th use of the Motormaster mould, or a 3rd use of the Silverbolt mould. I wouldn't be surprised if it does turn out to be Hot Spot's mould though, with Hasbro steering people that way at least, by giving/showing us the other 2 moulds first. Most people would probably vote for a brand new mould, and at the time the Hot Spot mould hadn't been revealed. In fact, that was pretty much the reveal.
I totally buy Hot Spot being retooled as Onslaught, think it really works. You say that a new bike member might be on the cards for the Combaticons if it's Hot Spot's mould (what with them adding new members to teams now), but I felt that the Legends Shockwave rumour was going to indicate that he'd be used for Bruticus as a weapon in the same way that Viper and Powerglide are weapons for Galvatronus and Superion respectively. However, it depends on how the chest section looks on Defensor, as it may be necessary to have something there to fill the gap. Alternatively, Shockwave may end up being something other than a gun (or perhaps all 3 depending on engineering!). If you look at the shape of Bruticus' G1 toy's chest you can easily see it being made from an aerial vehicle not far off Shockwave's recent Cybertronian jet mode from FoC. Also, we have to consider that there may be a new replacement member for one of the limb bots, following on from the creation of Offroad, Rook and Alpha Bravo. Brawl and Blast Off could create issues for Hasbro and they might choose to replace one of them. Brawl could end up being a heavy re-tool of Rook, or possibly share a new mould with Nosecone in the future (although Nosecone may also be a Rook re-tool). Blast Off causes a bigger problem. Despite sharing alt mode similarities with Alpha Bravo/Blades, Vortex is most likely the re-deco here. Blast Off could end up being substituted for a new member, paving the way for Takara to simply re-tool the AB/Blades mould as Blast Off for their version in the same way that Slingshot is a Firefly re-deco (and I reckon Wildrider will just be a Dead End re-deco).
The team made from the 1987 Decepticon Targetmasters is a nice idea, and I'd love to see a new mould which Slugslinger and Strafe could share. Although I don't know if this whole Cyclonus/Galvatronus thing is based off IDW, as I haven't quite caught up to speed yet (just finished Dark Cybertron!), so I'm not sure if that team will be characters aligned with Galvatron in the comics. If not then that's a great idea for a team. I actually hoped we'd see the Predators as the Decepticon Jet team consisting of re-decos from the Aerialbots. Rook would make an awesome Stalker too and I'd love to see Takara pulling this one out of the bag in future. As for your Optimus Maximus team made from the Movie characters...I'm just not so sure. Mostly because we've only recently had an Arcee, and (to a lesser extent) Springer, but I do like your idea of there being a theme to it. I am stumped as to who they'll use though.
I'm not sure if I totally buy into the "Three per one" theory you're going with, but it is a feasible notion. Re-using moulds is more cost effective for Hasbro, but they are in this for the long haul it seems, and I'm sure we'll see a couple of new moulds next year. I'm loving the rumours coming out at the moment, Scattershot being the one that really intrigues me. I think it'd be a big shame if they just re-use Silverbolt's mould there. If Technobots are on the cards then I can see Afterburner becoming the Legends counterpart from a Groove re-tool and a new member.