The Energon Pub

Ok lets have some fun here. Lets take a break from traditional MOTU style Pretender shells and PWTT style brain farts...

How would you guys like to see an "update" made for these Pretenders ?

Rated X wrote:Ok lets have some fun here. Lets take a break from traditional MOTU style Pretender shells and PWTT style brain farts...

How would you guys like to see an "update" made for these Pretenders ?

For the Carnivac,Snarler, Catilla and Chainclaw pretender beast shells. 1996 Beast wars organic styled Pretender shells That Transforms can into a robot mode. Include a Minicon sized animal that can Transform into a robot. The shell torso cavity would have tiny doors that open to fit a minicon inside a inner cavity.

For the inner robots that Carnivac, Snarler and Chainclaw have. Similar to what MMC did for Felisaber Catilla. Have them as Voyager replacements limbs that can combine with Feral Rex.

Those Coffin pretenders were a bad idea. That I think needs to stay dead.

Wouldanyone anywhere really buy a Pretender where the "inner robot" is a mini-con? We're talking 3rd party products with 3rd party prices.

I have to admit, I forgot about the shells with a vehicle mode. That's the Pretender concept looping right back in on itself. At that point, why not just ditch the idea that the shells are any kind of disguise and go for a straight-up super mecha? Same sorta thing, but you're not even trying to "fool" anyone with a humanoid face.

Animal Pretenders are pretty cool. To be honest, though, I feel like the inner robot is the important part there. If there were some way to add Beast Wars style shells to the robots and just forget about making them articulated you may wind up with a stiff sorta stature. Which may not b ebad if it's really, really nice.

But no minicon crap. Legends class AT LEAST. Maybe small deluxe. At least for the regular minions.

Gauntlet101010 wrote: Maybe small deluxe. At least for the regular minions.

Think the bigger toy class you go for the inner robot. Translates into a more hollowed out inside Pretender shell. Which would make a Transforming Mega Pretender shell impossible. It would also present more challenges on the designers to create a fully articulated shell

The bigger toy class the inner robot is. means the pretender shell needs to be bigger to fit the inner robot.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote: Maybe small deluxe. At least for the regular minions.

Think the bigger toy class you go for the inner robot. Translates into a more hollowed out inside Pretender shell. Which would make a Transforming Mega Pretender shell impossible. It would also present more challenges on the designers to create a fully articulated shell

The bigger toy class the inner robot is. means the pretender shell needs to be bigger to fit the inner robot.

Not if you have less a full shell and more armor. Unless we're fine with the shells being static statues.

Minicons just aren't worth it. A solution involving a minicon just isn't worth it. Maybe at Hasbro prices, but not at 3rd party. Even as a kid I bought Transformers for the transformable ROBOT. If I wanted a neat monster toy I'd get MotU or TMNT.

That's why most of my solutions involve using the inner robot to provide articulation instead of having fully articulated shells.

Actually, now that I'm remembering I posted the Trans scanning movie toys a few posts back. That might make an ideal beast Pretender. You can just swap out the beast bits for robot bits to fully satisfy both modes.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote: Maybe small deluxe. At least for the regular minions.

Think the bigger toy class you go for the inner robot. Translates into a more hollowed out inside Pretender shell. Which would make a Transforming Mega Pretender shell impossible. It would also present more challenges on the designers to create a fully articulated shell

The bigger toy class the inner robot is. means the pretender shell needs to be bigger to fit the inner robot.

Not if you have less a full shell and more armor. Unless we're fine with the shells being static statues.

Minicons just aren't worth it. A solution involving a minicon just isn't worth it. Maybe at Hasbro prices, but not at 3rd party. Even as a kid I bought Transformers for the transformable ROBOT. If I wanted a neat monster toy I'd get MotU or TMNT.

That's why most of my solutions involve using the inner robot to provide articulation instead of having fully articulated shells.

Actually, now that I'm remembering I posted the Trans scanning movie toys a few posts back. That might make an ideal beast Pretender. You can just swap out the beast bits for robot bits to fully satisfy both modes.

To save buyers money. How about doing 3rd party update Voyager fully articulated Classics pretender shells. Where buyers can put HasTak's CHUG Legends toys inside the shells.

Was thinking of saving buyers more money. By using the CHUG Animal minicons. That can be put inside a cavity inside the Voyager class Pretender beast transforming beast to bot BW styled pretender shells.

Not interested in buying a Third party pretender shell that is a statue with next to none articulation.

Also not interested in update pretender shells that are hollowed out all the way and split in half.

Prefer the update pretender toys to have shells like the Mega Pretenders toys had. less hollowed out. no splitting in half shell to let the inner robot out of the shell.

Minicons, all on their own, aren't really good transformers. You wouldn't buy a static shell, well, I wouldn't buy a mini-con. Not for 3rd party prices, anyway.

Or maybe I would, but I wouldn't really feel too jazzed about it.

Minicons are not a one-size-fits-all solution. And it isn't really clever, either. Maybe Hasbro clever, but not 3rd party prices clever.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Minicons, all on their own, aren't really good transformers. You wouldn't buy a static shell, well, I wouldn't buy a mini-con. Not for 3rd party prices, anyway.

Or maybe I would, but I wouldn't really feel too jazzed about it.

Minicons are not a one-size-fits-all solution. And it isn't really clever, either. Maybe Hasbro clever, but not 3rd party prices clever.

Guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Thanks for the polite discussion on this.

Remind me again - why does the shell have to be the 'Pretender' part? Because that's how it was done in G1? Silly.



I knocked this up in a rush - I apologize for my feeble art

The smaller bot is the pretender, with a human face to make it look like a man wearing an Exo-Suit style armor, which transforms into a spaceship (the legs form the cockpit, with the arms as the thrusters).

All the parts of the helicopter are currently clipped together into a gun drone, which clip around the spaceship, keeping the cockpit and adding rotor wings, a tail-fin, landing gears and a detailed back.

All the parts can reform onto the Pretender, making an armor that takes on a more Transformer appearance, with the face flipping around into what was the innerbots old face.

There's a good idea! That way the "shell" can be as round and organic as you like while the robot can transform and be as robotic as needed without needing to make one part really crappy.

What I think would work best is the opposite of what PWTT did. I would like to see a fully articulated robot that transforms with clip on armor that makes him look like a robotic beast. The armor could become part of the alt mode. Im not sure what to do with it when the robot is not wearing it.

Rated X wrote:What I think would work best is the opposite of what PWTT did. I would like to see a fully articulated robot that transforms with clip on armor that makes him look like a robotic beast. The armor could become part of the alt mode. Im not sure what to do with it when the robot is not wearing it.

Who\what is PWTT?

Also - see two posts up, you basically repeated my post, except I suggested that armour could combine into something appropriate that acted as a drone or play set. P:

@ Amelie

The Mega and Ultra Pretenders of old have implemented some of your suggestion of having a smaller 'bot within the shell.Thunderwing and the other helicopter guy.

Maybe the shell/humanoid figure could be fully proportional and articulated and also can carry the core robot in without affecting the entire package.

Or maybe make both the shell and 'bot transformable?

fenrir72 wrote:@ Amelie

The Mega and Ultra Pretenders of old have implemented some of your suggestion of having a smaller 'bot within the shell.Thunderwing and the other helicopter guy.

My pic above actually was, roughly, Crossblades as I was looking at it when I thought of it. Just make all the Pretenders like Thunderwing, Crossblades, ECT then you've got more transformation options when it comes to shell\bot

Autobots Pretenders are supposed to be in disguise, right? So why would the shell which would be huge be the human part (The Marvel comics did some excellent jokes about that)? I can understand it in the 80s, because they wouldn't have had the engineering to make an articulated "human" that somehow turned into a Transformer. I think the Japanese anime got the basic idea right - small human with "surprise, I'm a huge robot" schtick.

So if a 3rd party did make a Pretender - I'd want a smaller Pretender part and a larger "Transformer"

Amelie wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:@ Amelie

The Mega and Ultra Pretenders of old have implemented some of your suggestion of having a smaller 'bot within the shell.Thunderwing and the other helicopter guy.

My pic above actually was, roughly, Crossblades as I was looking at it when I thought of it. Just make all the Pretenders like Thunderwing, Crossblades, ECT then you've got more transformation options when it comes to shell\bot

Autobots Pretenders are supposed to be in disguise, right? So why would the shell which would be huge be the human part (The Marvel comics did some excellent jokes about that)? I can understand it in the 80s, because they wouldn't have had the engineering to make an articulated "human" that somehow turned into a Transformer. I think the Japanese anime got the basic idea right - small human with "surprise, I'm a huge robot" schtick.

So if a 3rd party did make a Pretender - I'd want a smaller Pretender part and a larger "Transformer"

Wouldn't that be closer to the concept of a power master or Headmaster?

Think i'm done posting replies in all of these pretenders threads.

As I've already stated my ideas.

rpetras wrote:Wouldn't that be closer to the concept of a power master or Headmaster?

Not really - PowerMasters and HeadMasters are adding to an existing Transformer.

I always thought Pretenders were supposed to 'somehow' blend in and hide as humans? So to me it always seemed crazy to have the inner figure as being the Transformer itself.

Honestly I'm an "all of the above" for Pretender homages. Try different things for different characters.

I love what MMC did with Catilla, which was basically re imagine the character as a Predacon style combiner limb. Felisaber is basically just the inner robot done as a combiner limb with the little bonus of a helmet that looks like his pretender shell's helmet.

For Starscream, I think PWTToo was on to something. That Jetstrike 6 inch action figure was a looking great idea. Now just remove the little BMOG style Fitor homage, and instead just make it so the back of Jetstrike can clip on to a Hasbro made Legends Starscream toy as his jet pack. No need to reinvent the small robot, just use what Hasbro made for us. Similar 6 inch figures would work for Bumblebee and Jazz I have no problem with a Bumblebee Pretender with a car mode Legends Bumblebee clipped to his back as the "backpack".

I could see other takes for other stuff like...

Gunrunner - G1 toy was an Autobot who becomes a yellow jet, and has an armored truck shell. Just drop the Pretender gimmick and re imagine him as a triple changer. Robot/Jet/Armored Truck? Once you have that mold, who can you repaint it as? How about Micromaster Groundshaker? He was a green jet Micromaster who drove a large armored vehicle. So you could also turn a Micromaster with a vehicle into a Triple Changer, because all the alt modes are the same as Gunrunner.

Vroom - G1 toy was a robot that turns into a rocket car, which became the sidecar to a robot/motorcycle shell. Remold/recolor some Cy-Kill or Wreck-Gar type figure into an homage to his shell, then add a Mini-con or Micromaster/Targetmaster that's an homage to his smaller robot that clips on as a sidecar.

Monstructor/Dinoking - Just remake the small robots into modern Scout robots, and make slightly articulated rubber shells that work just like G1.