Yeah, the UW versions of the G1 "Scramble City" combiners are largely dodgy deco-wise (the exceptions being Superion and Computron). UW Menasor messes up Motormaster's robot and torso mode color layouts by turning him black, and undoes the effort to finish Drag Strip's deco. UW Bruticus replicates the animation model's stupidity of coloring the chestplate like Blast-Off. And of course, the original limbs getting Hasbro releases undercuts the purchase value.Gauntlet101010 wrote:I got the Unite Warriors versions of the G1 combiners .... and, outside of Devestator, I regret it. All the limbs were released domestically I I think I like Dragstrip better int he Hasbro version. Also the paint chipped a bit on Defensor and it was so noticeable I got the Hasbro version of Hot Spot just so I wouldn't have to stare at it.
Yeah.. The problem CW Devy is that he was designed to portray the kaiju size the combined forms have in the cartoon, relative to full-size TF toys. It works, but he pays for it by having oversize component bots and not matching the regular CW Combiners (who don't portray the kaiju size, but are still respectable giants because their components are regular-size instead being 4 Legion-size figures and a Deluxe).Gauntlet101010 wrote:I like that Combiner Wars finally did Combiners right. That they were tiny really bugged me back in the day. Now they're about the right size they really should be, aside from Groove. I have to admit I use Maketoys Giant as my Devestator because he scales with Combiner Wars Combiners far better than the official release.
I'd just deal with the Aerialbots being smaller. I think that's borne out by the cartoon anyway.Gauntlet101010 wrote:I'm also kinda bugs that the Aerialbots don't scale well with Earthrise Seekers. There are KO Combiner Wars sets if I really want to go that route. But then I have to rebuy all the combiners and then you have Decepticon cars far larger than Autobot cars. And I can't have that! Not with so many Autobot cars.
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Some more notes:
* I find the Drag Strip mold to be the most noteworthy mold of the entire line. Why? The telescoping legs. Has any other recent or semi-recent mold had those?
Most of them do have catches, though. CW Drag Strip has spring-loaded catches, even, not the mixed-reliability locking tabs a lot of G1 figures had (which were particularly unreliable on figures with die-cast slabs for legs *glares at Megatron and Shockwave*). As do the Classics Seekers and most if not all Unicron Trilogy figures that have them.JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Some more notes:
* I find the Drag Strip mold to be the most noteworthy mold of the entire line. Why? The telescoping legs. Has any other recent or semi-recent mold had those?
No, and for good reason. Telescoping legs tend to wear out quickly, especially if they have no catches and rely on friction alone, leaving the bot rather... short. For that reason they're one of my pet peeves, and I'm so happy CW standardized the replacement scheme.
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Most of them do have catches, though. CW Drag Strip has spring-loaded catches, even, not the mixed-reliability locking tabs a lot of G1 figures had (which were particularly unreliable on figures with die-cast slabs for legs *glares at Megatron and Shockwave*). As do the Classics Seekers and most if not all Unicron Trilogy figures that have them.JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Some more notes:
* I find the Drag Strip mold to be the most noteworthy mold of the entire line. Why? The telescoping legs. Has any other recent or semi-recent mold had those?
No, and for good reason. Telescoping legs tend to wear out quickly, especially if they have no catches and rely on friction alone, leaving the bot rather... short. For that reason they're one of my pet peeves, and I'm so happy CW standardized the replacement scheme.
Here you go:JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Most of them do have catches, though. CW Drag Strip has spring-loaded catches, even, not the mixed-reliability locking tabs a lot of G1 figures had (which were particularly unreliable on figures with die-cast slabs for legs *glares at Megatron and Shockwave*). As do the Classics Seekers and most if not all Unicron Trilogy figures that have them.JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Some more notes:
* I find the Drag Strip mold to be the most noteworthy mold of the entire line. Why? The telescoping legs. Has any other recent or semi-recent mold had those?
No, and for good reason. Telescoping legs tend to wear out quickly, especially if they have no catches and rely on friction alone, leaving the bot rather... short. For that reason they're one of my pet peeves, and I'm so happy CW standardized the replacement scheme.
Spring-loaded? That I gotta see.
That and didn't want to create a new smaller price point for the Constructicon boxset (which I think their proprietary 6-member combination mechanic meant they had to be). Although hey, maybe they could have used the Titan budget on joints and accessories.Rodimus Prime wrote:I thought that Devy would have been perfect if he was 6 deluxes instead of 6 voyagers. But Hasbro had to justify the Titan Class spot I guess.
Rodimus Prime wrote:Or they could have used the budget on an actual Titan. I mean, if nothing else, how about a Metrotitan? It wouldn't have been that hard to repaint Metroplex, and they could have gotten more mileage out of the mold.
Btw, Devy was the Titan for which year? 2014 or 2015?
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Here you go:JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Most of them do have catches, though. CW Drag Strip has spring-loaded catches, even, not the mixed-reliability locking tabs a lot of G1 figures had (which were particularly unreliable on figures with die-cast slabs for legs *glares at Megatron and Shockwave*). As do the Classics Seekers and most if not all Unicron Trilogy figures that have them.JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Some more notes:
* I find the Drag Strip mold to be the most noteworthy mold of the entire line. Why? The telescoping legs. Has any other recent or semi-recent mold had those?
No, and for good reason. Telescoping legs tend to wear out quickly, especially if they have no catches and rely on friction alone, leaving the bot rather... short. For that reason they're one of my pet peeves, and I'm so happy CW standardized the replacement scheme.
Spring-loaded? That I gotta see.
That's Cybertron Hot Shot. I know with absolute certainty that CW Drag Strip has the same sort of tabs, because my Drag Strip is a repainted CW Mirage. I have likewise dismantled and repainted a Classics Seeker.
It's easy to tell that a figure has this sort of tab if you know they exist, there's a telltale click and a telltale level of resistance.
2015. 2014 didn't have a Titan.Rodimus Prime wrote:Or they could have used the budget on an actual Titan. I mean, if nothing else, how about a Metrotitan? It wouldn't have been that hard to repaint Metroplex, and they could have gotten more mileage out of the mold.
Btw, Devy was the Titan for which year? 2014 or 2015?
Well, if he had been used, he could have been the Titan for 2014, which was before Combiner Wars started. Then Devy could have still been out in 2015. I mean, for Metrotitan there didn't need to d a design stage, just a repaint stage.ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:2015. 2014 didn't have a Titan.Rodimus Prime wrote:Or they could have used the budget on an actual Titan. I mean, if nothing else, how about a Metrotitan? It wouldn't have been that hard to repaint Metroplex, and they could have gotten more mileage out of the mold.
Btw, Devy was the Titan for which year? 2014 or 2015?
Metrotitan wouldn't have been on theme, though. He'd be nice to have, and he would have been easy, but he wouldn't have fit the "Combiner Wars" theme (plus he's practically a nobody even after being used in IDW).
It would have been the next year and since he was a redeco, it would have cost much less for Hasbro and they could have released him as an online exclusive in much smaller numbers. Maybe even as a BotCon exclusive.Then there's the fact that there had been four variants of Metroplex in 2013, so a straight redeco of him (Especially as a lesser-known character) may have been deemed a bad bet so soon after.
Highly doubtful, as Devy had been planned since the start of the Combiner Wars concept, I believe. Filling a titan spot was more of a convenience. Meaning that they thought of Devy as part of the Combiner Wars line before they decided that he should take up a titan spot. But that's just my suspicion, not based on anything actual. So there was no way Devy wasn't going to be made. Having the Titans line just justified his size.And here's an unpleasant thought: if they had made Metrotitan during CW, Devastator might have been skipped altogether.
That and repainting him into Metrotitan are mutually exclusive. They could have done both, especially since there would have been 2 years between them had Metrotitan come out in 2014.Ultimately they got more mileage out of the Metroplex mold by making alternate parts to turn it into Fort Max.
Okay, but you had originally been talking about Devy's Titan slot going to MetrotitanRodimus Prime wrote:Well, if he had been used, he could have been the Titan for 2014, which was before Combiner Wars started. Then Devy could have still been out in 2015. I mean, for Metrotitan there didn't need to d a design stage, just a repaint stage.ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:2015. 2014 didn't have a Titan.Rodimus Prime wrote:Or they could have used the budget on an actual Titan. I mean, if nothing else, how about a Metrotitan? It wouldn't have been that hard to repaint Metroplex, and they could have gotten more mileage out of the mold.
Btw, Devy was the Titan for which year? 2014 or 2015?
Metrotitan wouldn't have been on theme, though. He'd be nice to have, and he would have been easy, but he wouldn't have fit the "Combiner Wars" theme (plus he's practically a nobody even after being used in IDW).
1. My point is that Hasbro may have felt that people were too sick of Metroplex's mold after four variants in one year for a straight redeco (especially of an obscure character) to be viable, even a year or two later. I certainly remember a lot of grousing at the time about there being four Metroplex variants.Rodimus Prime wrote:It would have been the next year and since he was a redeco, it would have cost much less for Hasbro and they could have released him as an online exclusive in much smaller numbers. Maybe even as a BotCon exclusive.Then there's the fact that there had been four variants of Metroplex in 2013, so a straight redeco of him (Especially as a lesser-known character) may have been deemed a bad bet so soon after.
I didn't say Metrotitan getting made instead was likely, did I? I'm pretty sure Devastator was planned as a Titan-class from the start, since Hasbro is loath to create new size classes and the Constructicons' unique combination would have forced them to be a giftset.Rodimus Prime wrote:Highly doubtful, as Devy had been planned since the start of the Combiner Wars concept, I believe. Filling a titan spot was more of a convenience. Meaning that they thought of Devy as part of the Combiner Wars line before they decided that he should take up a titan spot. But that's just my suspicion, not based on anything actual. So there was no way Devy wasn't going to be made. Having the Titans line just justified his size.And here's an unpleasant thought: if they had made Metrotitan during CW, Devastator might have been skipped altogether.
Yes. But Fort Max is decidedly more well known, and different enough to avoid people going "ARGH THEY'RE MAKING US BUY METROPLEX AGAIN!"Rodimus Prime wrote:That and repainting him into Metrotitan are mutually exclusive. They could have done both, especially since there would have been 2 years between them had Metrotitan come out in 2014.Ultimately they got more mileage out of the Metroplex mold by making alternate parts to turn it into Fort Max.
I think even to a lot of fans a straight redeco would have been too similar, especially with how much Titans cost and so soon after a lot of fans having double-dipped or worse on Metroplex.Rodimus Prime wrote:To your last point and to Metroplex's 4 variants: Metroplex and Metrotitan are 2 different characters, so even just a redeco would separate them and wouldn't make Metrotitan count as "another Metroplex." Maybe to the general public, sure. But not to fans, especially if he's sold as an online exclusive.
Indeed. But the Commander class didn't exist at the time, and Hasbro is loath to create new size classes and one-off price points... And the Constructicons wouldn't have fit in on the shelves as individual figures, due to their nonstandard combination system and Hasbro being about as flexible as Armada Overload, so...Rodimus Prime wrote:I would have been fine with Devy being a gift set if he was 6 deluxe instead of voyagers. Come to think of it, had the commander class been around back then, a deluxe-parts Devy would have been the right size for that. I mean, Jetfire is a bit larger than a regular CW combiner, and 6 deluxes combined would only be about head and shoulders above a regular-sized combiner.
Return to Transformers Toys Discussion
Registered users: Bing [Bot], Bumblevivisector, Emerje, Google [Bot], Google Adsense [Bot], Majestic-12 [Bot], Rodimus Prime, shabanowitz