Bumblevivisector wrote: Isn't Animated just sort of a niche TF interest now?
I don't know about that. Maybe. I don't know if it was quite as unpopular as a lot of the haters would like to believe. The cartoon itself was quite UNDER rated. The figures were too, in my opinion. I also believe that anybody who actually gave the series and the figures a fair shake grew to like them.
I am a fan of both, as you can tell. However, I agree with you and the majority. If the figures aren't re-tooled to make Menasor (and from these photos it doesn't look like they will be) then whats the point? Of the many things I liked about the Animated line is that it WASN'T littered with re-paints that never actually appeared on-screen, ala Movieverse line. The novelty of making an animated combiner is the REAL selling point. Otherwise, they are just a bunch of re-paints strictly for the sake of re-painting and charging a hefty sum.
Quite frankly, when Botcon gets closer and screen shots of the final products surface, I could round up the figures and repaint them myself for a lot cheaper than the cost of going to Botcon AND buying them. Plus, I'd bet a dollar that reprolabels will make decals of the Stunticon Decepticon logo that I would be able to get to make my potential repaints good enough for me.
I won't do any of that, of course. However, my point is made. Without Menasor, this set is aimed squarely at the collect-everything, gotta-have-it suckers out there will would sell an organ for a bunch of scrap figures. Not I, says me.