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How Would You Have Done It: Redesign A Line

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How Would You Have Done It: Redesign A Line

Postby MaximalNui » Tue Feb 22, 2022 6:02 pm

So, as fans we've had several cases where we think Hasbro should have managed a specific line differently. Which lines would you have changed if you could, and how? And why do you think they didn't go that route (I know the issue for a lot of my plans would be either "pricing" or "engineering")?

I'll start with the lines that I was most hyped every time...and disappointed by their actual execution every time: Prime Wars Trilogy.

General:
- a greater focus on characters who already had the focused gimmicks or new fan-vote/lore characters like Victorion, Optimus Maximus and Sentinel Prime/Infinitus; only then other characters who didn't have the gimmick before would be added.
- to fit the above, more non-G1 characters with said gimmicks would be included.

Combiner Wars:
- rather than a gun/hand/foot and a built-in connector, each Deluxe would come with a gun which can split into two components: a knee connection/hand and an elbow connection/foot.
- the Deluxes would also have a gun mode for the combiner, even if it's as simple as "slightly rearranged alt-mode with weapon attached in front"; in this form the gun/hand/foot/connectors would be used in its combined form as the grip.
- Voyagers would carry additional chest armor for their combined mode, with a hidden merged Spark detail, which would become drones or shields/weapons for their individual modes.
- each team would have six members: one Voyager torso and five Deluxe limbs/gun, including all original members and one new character (except the Seacons, obviously).
- at least one animal-themed combiner in the line, so it wouldn't all be vehicles.
- every Legends class toy could become weaponry or armor for the Combiners, like an Armada Powerlinx; however, they wouldn't officially be part of any team and could be used interchangeably for combiners with the same engineering.
- Leader class would have one gimmick or transformation related to combining, from splitting into multiple components (Magmatron, Sky Lynx) to Powerlinxing with the Legends class (Armada characters and other Mini-Con users) to merging with part of their vehicle mode for a super mode (Ultra Magnus, Car Robots/RID2001 Optimus Prime); might even have included 2/3-component or non-Scramble City combiners.
- more extensive retools (we saw they were possible with Titans Return; if they had taken that approach sooner this line wouldn't be so lambasted for its retools and redecos).
- most regular releases would be a new team; save most straight redecos for the exclusives (both variants like G2 paints and new redeco/rerelease characters like Ruination and the Japanese-exclusive Scramble City combiners).

Titans Return:
- rather than being all Headmasters, the Titan Masters would be divided into three "Grades": "Head-Grade", aka Headmasters; "Target-Grade"/"Battle-Grade" aka Target/Battlemasters; and "Power-Grade" aka Powermasters.
- all Target/Battle-Grade Titan Masters would be able to be used both as regular weapons (like the American continuity) or joined at the wrist like Universe/Kingdom Cyclonus (like the Japanese continuity).
- every Grade of Titan Master would be compatible for all sizes, but how many Grades the larger sizes would be compatible with would depend on the size class: Deluxe (or "Single-Threat Masters") would only be able to use one Grade of Master; Voyager (or "Double-Threat Masters") would be able to use two of the three Grades; and Leaders (or "Triple Threat Masters") would be able to use all Grades
- as such, Voyager class characters would include one new Titan Master partner to the pairing, while Leader class would include two.
- the added vehicle/beast of the individual Titan Master - called Transtector in reference to the Japanese concept - would replace the weapon mode with a "upgrade mode" to bulk-up the Titan Master for Voyager and Leader classes.
- Voyagers and Leaders would also include Transtectors to replace the helmets of Leaders and pop-up additions of Voyagers.
- individual Titan Masters would be more focused in redecos (Japanese versions of American characters and toys) and individual unpartnered Masters (Headmaster Warriors/Teens).
- characters who usually have more than one Master partner of the same Grade (Double Targetmasters, Overlord, Doubledealer, Armada Sideways) would come with only one Titan Master partner, with the other being sold individually.
- more base-mode Transformers (ie Grandus, Thunderclash) for a greater link to the Titans, since it would be impossible to make more than two of that size class for a single line.
- more Action Masters as Deluxes to use their partners for Target/Battle-Grade Titan Masters.

Power of The Primes: this one I actually had two different approaches, one completely divorced from what they went with and another based on what we got.
General:
- more characters added to the Evolution gimmick; biggest example would be Shockaract, with Matrix of Conquest, a Deluxe Hunter robot with Cybertronian jet mode and evolved form with crab and tank modes.
Original Approach:
- the gimmick of the line would instead be the "Artifacts of the Primes": each non-Prime figure would have one weapon or tool representing one of the legendary artifacts of Transformers lore, with gimmicks that could be activated by a Matrix Core like a Cyber Planet Key (ie: lights and sounds, pop-up super modes and features, splitting into individual tools...).
- non-Prime characters would range from regular Transformers to using the gimmicks of the previous lines, as some sort of closure to the trilogy.
- the Primes would still have an Evolution gimmick, this time also including some Voyager class toys with Legends base forms; instead of Artifacts, they would be the only toys with Matrixes and respective cores.
- not all Voyagers or Leaders would be Primes.
- all of the Thirteen would be included as some of the Voyager/Leader Primes, with the unevolved robot being their disguise as regular Cybertronians - except Megatronus, who instead would evolve into The Fallen - and unique Matrixes based on their artifacts (ie Prima with the Origin Matrix, Solus Prime with the Creation Lathe, Nexus Prime with the Infinite Combinatronic/Enigma of Combination...).
- Thirteen, however, would remain as a Prime Master/Matrix core for Optimus Primal's Matrix of Leadership.
Adapted Approach:
- the Prime Masters, instead of being combined with the Pretenders (which ended up giving us neither the Pretenders nor the Thirteen), would be modeled on their original designs from Covenant of Primus and use Decoy Armor based on alien species which have heavily interacted with Transformers (human, Nebulan, Battle Beast/Beastformer, Lithonian, Quintesson, Vok, Ejoornian...).
- EVERY Prime Master would have a Decoy Armor, even the ones packed with exclusives (the inconsistency is one of the things that killed the gimmick for me); the sole exception could've been be Thirteen, who'd use the Matrix casing instead of Decoy Armor.
- the combiners would be compatible with the Combiner Wars system, only adding the Prime Master gimmick to the gun/hand/foot/connectors and chestplate/drone-shield.
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Re: How Would You Have Done It: Redesign A Line

Postby Evil Eye » Thu Feb 24, 2022 7:14 pm

Motto: "Don't be a goddamn coward."
Weapon: Acid Spray Gun
Oooh, this is an interesting topic. Gonna break this into multiple posts because I have a lot to think about.

Combiner Wars:
Combiner Wars I feel was undone by the budgetary constraints at the time, so the changes I'd make to the line would be based in an ideal timeline where Hasbro had put more money into it. Anyway...

GENERAL CHANGES:
>Combiners would use LGEX style hands and feet, with the feet coming with the torso and a hand coming with each limb (so basically POTP but better). The hands and feet can also combine into weapons stations, thus giving them something to do when separated.
>In general, there would be a focus on the individuals being solid, decent figures that worked well as a combined team with as little partsforming as possible. Obviously there's the "increased budget" caveat I'm including already, but in addition the figures might be slightly smaller (and thus denser in terms of parts and mass) than they were- in practice this just means the individuals would scale much better with WFC trilogy figures, whilst the combined forms would be a tiny bit smaller than they ended up being in this timeline.
>The Leaders in the line would follow the WFC Leader model of being Voyagers with extra stuff. In addition, the Leaders would form the torsos of the "main" combiners rather than the Voyagers of the line (so Motormaster, Silverbolt etc would be Leader class) to allow for more stuff to come with them. This would ultimately be fine as each wave could only make one combiner anyway and every wave had a Leader, and also kids with no real connection to Sunbow would probably be just as happy with a combiner with a "new" torso as the "canon" one.
>Voyagers meanwhile would still be (smaller) combiner-torsos, but would either be legacy characters (Prime, Megatron etc) or original/obscure/nameslap characters (PCC Smolder for instance).
>Legends figures would all be designed to work with combiners as cool but non-essential weapons. They might be loosely tied to some combiners but would be more "themed" than anything (to encourage creativity and dissuade scalping/"I NEED HIM FOR MY DEFENSOR" syndrome).
>All members of the canon teams would be present from the beginning, with extra characters being possibly released later.

WAVE BREAKDOWN:

Wave 1: Legends Alpha Bravo, Bombshell and Viper, Deluxe Air Raid, Firefly, Slingshot and Skydive, Voyager Optimus Prime and Starscream, Leader Silverbolt.
Wave 2: Legends Blackjack, Grindor (Based on the Minicon) and Roadrocket, Deluxe Wildrider, Dead End, Dragstrip and Breakdown, Voyager Megatron, Leader Motormaster.
Wave 3: Legends Shrapnel, Iceberg (based on the Minicon) and Drillbit (also based on the Minicon), Deluxe Groove, Blades, First Aid and Streetwise, Voyager Rook (see CW but Voyager sized and a torso) and Smolder, Leader Hotspot.
Wave 4: Legends Shockwave, Sureshock (based on the Minicon) and Perceptor, Deluxe Swindle, Brawl, Vortex and Blastoff, Voyager Jetstorm (based on Energon Stormjet with Animated Jetstorm's colours), Leader Onslaught.
Wave 5: Legends Reflector, Kickback and Scrounge, Deluxe Nosecone, Afterburner, Strafe and Lightspeed, Voayger Spacewarp and Landmine (based on Energon Landmine), Leader Scattershot.
Wave 6: Legends Cherrybomb (Beet-Papil as a TF), Highwire (based on the Minicon) and Roller, Deluxe Blot, Cutthroat, Sinnertwin and Rippersnapper, Voyager Toxitron, Leader Hungrr.

TITAN:
Still do Devastator, however the budget is implemented to make him bulky but not necessarily huge. So each member is a large Deluxe/small Voayger with a hefty partscount, and the combined mode is slightly bigger than a "regular" gestalt rather than twice the height. The forearms form a drilltank and a rockwheel trencher when not combined.

BOXSETS:
G2 versions of Menasor (with Blackjack), Defensor (with Iceberg), Bruticus (with Shockwave, but in Energon Sixshot colours) and Superion (with Alpha Bravo).
Victorion (who is either an original mold or HEAVILY retooled).
"Stratosfear"- Seeker combiner made of Sunstorm (from Starscream), Skywarp, Thundercracker, Acid Storm and Redwing (retooled slightly from Air Raid).
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Re: How Would You Have Done It: Redesign A Line

Postby MaximalNui » Sun Feb 27, 2022 5:44 pm

:shock: ...Wow. I think I prefer your ideas over mine.

Then again, I didn't try to reinvent CW so extensively; the only one from the Prime Trilogy I wanted to remake from the ground up was PoTP since I really hated the whole Pretender/Thirteen/Headmaster mishmash they created.

Can't wait to hear the rest! ;)^
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Re: How Would You Have Done It: Redesign A Line

Postby Evil Eye » Thu Mar 03, 2022 5:25 pm

Motto: "Don't be a goddamn coward."
Weapon: Acid Spray Gun
Thanks!

TR I'm tempted to skip over in all honesty, because to be real I think TR was the best of the Prime Wars trilogy by some way. Aside from ditching the stickers and some very minor engineering tweaks to a few select figures (mainly Skullcruncher's legs having the croc-legs fold in to fill his calves) I don't think I'd honestly do that much to it. Might come back to it later.

POTP though...hooooo boy.

GENERAL CHANGES:
>Ditch the stickers, or at the very least make them a sheet you can apply if you want.
>Leaders keep their gimmick but approached in a completely different way- rather than the characters "evolving" into their future selves, they just get super modes (ala Fire Convoy, UT Prime etc).
>Rather than doing "Combiner Wars but slightly worse" the power-up gimmick of the Leaders would be worked into the rest of the line in some fashion. Leaders are as described, Voyagers are much the same except a bit smaller (so the core robot is about Deluxe sized, but goes up to Voyager mass with their armour- yes, that means Pretenders baby!) and Deluxes triple change between robot, vehicle and some form of weapon/powerup for Voyagers and Leaders to use (Leobreaker turns into SAVAGE CLAW MODE, Demolishor can form an artillery backpack etc). Legends do a similar thing, but uh, smaller.
>Prime Masters are still a thing, but replace the Pretender-themed sarcophagi with a transforming weapon of some form that the (otherwise identical) Prime Masters plug into.
>We'll assume the line is the usual 6 waves as quite frankly there's only so much you can do with 3 waves.

WAVE BREAKDOWN:

Wave 1: Prime Master Micronus Prime with Shrink Ray and Liege Maximo with Hand of Manipulation, Legends Cindersaur, Backstop and Beachcomber, Deluxe Demolishor (Armada), Leobreaker, Moonracer and Ransack (G2), Voyager Ironhide and Bludgeon, Leader Optimus Prime.
Wave 2: Prime Master Vector Prime with Chrono-Key and Alchemist Prime with Quark Blender, Legends Flamefeather, Wreckloose and Tailgate, Deluxe Firestar, Jazz, "Forestock" (retail-friendly Vos) and Animated Dragstrip, Voyager Ratchet and Lockdown, Leader Thunderwing.
Wave 3: Prime Master Alpha Trion with Quill of Causality and Megatronus Prime with the Requiem Blaster, Legends Sparkstalker, Outback and Brakedown (Cybertron), Deluxe "Zapmaster" (Retail friendly Kaon), Brainfreeze (Decepticon OC ice cream van), Leadfoot and Scattorshot (Cybertron), Voyager Pyro and Clench, Leader Nemesis Prime.
Wave 4: Prime Master Quintus Prime with Life-Seeder and Solus Prime with Forge Hammer, Legends Slaphappy (less unfortunately named Slapper), Buzzclaw and Windcharger, Deluxe Lancer, Signalflare, Injector and Dreadwing, Voyager Elita-1 and Airachnid, Leader Rodimus Prime.
Wave 5: Prime Master Onyx Prime with Primal Claw and Amalgamous Prime with Shifter Blade, Legends Dark Scream, Smallfoot and Sonar (BW), Deluxe Darkwind, Greenlight, Barricade (Movie) and Ironfist, Voyager Skyquake and Thunderclash, Leader Deszarus/Deathsaurus/Deaths'R'Us.
Wave 6: Prime Master Prima with Star Sabre, Nexus Prime with Quantum Collider and The Thirteenth with Matrix Buster, Legends Gas Skunk, Nickel and T-AI, Deluxe Blurr (Armada), Sentinel Minor, Cyclonus (Armada) and Thunderblast, Voyager Stalker and Roadbuster, Leader Beta Magna (based on the oft-forgotten Beta from S3's assortment of ancient TFs).

TITAN:
Primus! Obviously not the size of HasLab Unicron, but bigger than the OG toy.

I actually can't think of any exclusives, other than maybe a Rodimus Unicronus? Seems obscure enough it'd be better as a limited release than as a "general" one. Also Nemesis Breaker to go with him.
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Re: How Would You Have Done It: Redesign A Line

Postby M. Spector » Fri Mar 04, 2022 8:56 am

Motto: "Put it in my aspen fanny pack Lord Megatron"
Weapon: Indepentently Targetable Particle Beam Cannons
Combiner Wars I missed out completely, so can't really comment on what to change there. I will echo what others have said about Titans Returns, pretty much perfect, tough act to follow and also the line that returned me to collecting tformers consistently again. PoTP however ... oof that's a rough one. Even still, I'm a firm believer that potp walked so Siege could run :lol: so maybe that would stay lame too
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Re: How Would You Have Done It: Redesign A Line

Postby MaximalNui » Sat Mar 05, 2022 6:37 pm

Evil Eye wrote:Thanks!

TR I'm tempted to skip over in all honesty, because to be real I think TR was the best of the Prime Wars trilogy by some way. Aside from ditching the stickers and some very minor engineering tweaks to a few select figures (mainly Skullcruncher's legs having the croc-legs fold in to fill his calves) I don't think I'd honestly do that much to it. Might come back to it later.

POTP though...hooooo boy.

GENERAL CHANGES:
>Ditch the stickers, or at the very least make them a sheet you can apply if you want.
>Leaders keep their gimmick but approached in a completely different way- rather than the characters "evolving" into their future selves, they just get super modes (ala Fire Convoy, UT Prime etc).
>Rather than doing "Combiner Wars but slightly worse" the power-up gimmick of the Leaders would be worked into the rest of the line in some fashion. Leaders are as described, Voyagers are much the same except a bit smaller (so the core robot is about Deluxe sized, but goes up to Voyager mass with their armour- yes, that means Pretenders baby!) and Deluxes triple change between robot, vehicle and some form of weapon/powerup for Voyagers and Leaders to use (Leobreaker turns into SAVAGE CLAW MODE, Demolishor can form an artillery backpack etc). Legends do a similar thing, but uh, smaller.
>Prime Masters are still a thing, but replace the Pretender-themed sarcophagi with a transforming weapon of some form that the (otherwise identical) Prime Masters plug into.
>We'll assume the line is the usual 6 waves as quite frankly there's only so much you can do with 3 waves.

WAVE BREAKDOWN:

Wave 1: Prime Master Micronus Prime with Shrink Ray and Liege Maximo with Hand of Manipulation, Legends Cindersaur, Backstop and Beachcomber, Deluxe Demolishor (Armada), Leobreaker, Moonracer and Ransack (G2), Voyager Ironhide and Bludgeon, Leader Optimus Prime.
Wave 2: Prime Master Vector Prime with Chrono-Key and Alchemist Prime with Quark Blender, Legends Flamefeather, Wreckloose and Tailgate, Deluxe Firestar, Jazz, "Forestock" (retail-friendly Vos) and Animated Dragstrip, Voyager Ratchet and Lockdown, Leader Thunderwing.
Wave 3: Prime Master Alpha Trion with Quill of Causality and Megatronus Prime with the Requiem Blaster, Legends Sparkstalker, Outback and Brakedown (Cybertron), Deluxe "Zapmaster" (Retail friendly Kaon), Brainfreeze (Decepticon OC ice cream van), Leadfoot and Scattorshot (Cybertron), Voyager Pyro and Clench, Leader Nemesis Prime.
Wave 4: Prime Master Quintus Prime with Life-Seeder and Solus Prime with Forge Hammer, Legends Slaphappy (less unfortunately named Slapper), Buzzclaw and Windcharger, Deluxe Lancer, Signalflare, Injector and Dreadwing, Voyager Elita-1 and Airachnid, Leader Rodimus Prime.
Wave 5: Prime Master Onyx Prime with Primal Claw and Amalgamous Prime with Shifter Blade, Legends Dark Scream, Smallfoot and Sonar (BW), Deluxe Darkwind, Greenlight, Barricade (Movie) and Ironfist, Voyager Skyquake and Thunderclash, Leader Deszarus/Deathsaurus/Deaths'R'Us.
Wave 6: Prime Master Prima with Star Sabre, Nexus Prime with Quantum Collider and The Thirteenth with Matrix Buster, Legends Gas Skunk, Nickel and T-AI, Deluxe Blurr (Armada), Sentinel Minor, Cyclonus (Armada) and Thunderblast, Voyager Stalker and Roadbuster, Leader Beta Magna (based on the oft-forgotten Beta from S3's assortment of ancient TFs).

TITAN:
Primus! Obviously not the size of HasLab Unicron, but bigger than the OG toy.

I actually can't think of any exclusives, other than maybe a Rodimus Unicronus? Seems obscure enough it'd be better as a limited release than as a "general" one. Also Nemesis Breaker to go with him.

Again, great ideas! Glad I'm not the only one who thinks they should've expanded the Evolution gimmick beyond Leader class, or that the Prime Masters shouldn't have been mixed with the Pretenders.

And yeah, I actually forgot Beta was a thing. Would've been useful back when I made my first contribution to the "Design a Line" topic... :oops:

As for possible exclusives (which I assume would have to necessarily be remolds or repaints), how about one of the many super-mode Optimus Primes, like Star Convoy or Armada? Or a Thunderwing with his Stormbringer Ultra Mode instead of the usual shell? I'd also suggest one of those Energon characters with "brute modes", like Landmine and Bulkhead, but those would probably need too much new tooling to be proper exclusives.

M. Spector wrote:Combiner Wars I missed out completely, so can't really comment on what to change there. I will echo what others have said about Titans Returns, pretty much perfect, tough act to follow and also the line that returned me to collecting tformers consistently again. PoTP however ... oof that's a rough one. Even still, I'm a firm believer that potp walked so Siege could run :lol: so maybe that would stay lame too

No worries! Feel free to just comment on the feasibility of our ideas instead.

Or discuss another line you think could be improved instead! After all, this topic is for more than just Prime Wars Trilogy. For example, Machine Wars:

- pack-in comics, just so we'd have some kind of fiction explaining what's going on and why these wars are more "machine" than other Transformers wars.
- related to the above, some gimmick to justify the "Machine Wars" title. I think either transformable/hidden weapons like in the Basics class, or additional tools and bases they can upgrade and interact with.
- upgrade Megatron (and obviously Megaplex) into at least Mega, ideally Ultra class. It's already jarring for the Decepticon leader to be smaller than Optimus, having him among the smallest class is just embarassing.
- for the Ultra and Mega class, either retooling the toys for better articulation or different molds. This was 1997, right when Beast Wars had most of its figures very articulated; having such bricks just showed how much better toys were from the G1/early G2 era.

And apparently I'm in the minority of wishing TR would focus on the other Master types instead of turning everyone into a Headmaster. Oh well. ;)
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Re: How Would You Have Done It: Redesign A Line

Postby ZeldaTheSwordsman » Sun Mar 20, 2022 2:53 pm

Motto: "Earthrise restock or riot"
Being focused around the other Master types would have made things too messy design-wise most likely, and distracted from it doubling as the TFTM 30th Anniversary line. And I personally like the added play value from making everyone a Headmaster. Powermasters beyond Optimus wouldn't have really suited, I don't think, especially with the focus being on the '87 and '86 characters.

Re: Machine Wars... A lot of what you're suggesting is simply beyond that line's scope, which was recouping the development costs of some unused small G2 molds and bringing the larger Predator and Turbomaster molds to the US. As for the title, the justification is that the characters have machine altmodes. It's playing off the contrast with then-mainline Beast Wars.

Car Robots/Robots in Disguise:
* The idiotic use of clear plastic for ball joints and especially ball joint sockets would be avoided. Awesome though this line was in so many respects, Takara reeeally dropped the ball there.
* Effort would be made to see how the Fort Max mold might be retooled to pass the drop test.

Armada:
* Not a full redesign of the line, just one figure: with the benefit of hindsight Megatron could have safely been given knee joints as long as the springs were strong. That much, I'm sure of.

Transformers (2007):
* The Ultra size class would extend beyond the two redecoed Cybertron Ultras, being put to work allowing for bigger toys of certain characters.
* Leader Megatron's electronics would be powered by button-cells to allow his legs to form his vehicle mode aft

Dark of the Moon:
* Jetwing Optimus Prime would be delayed in production until the design was finalized.
* Leader-class Bumblebee would not be a thing. Megatron would rightfully get the third Leader slot.

Age of Extinction:
* Frequent communication between toy designers and the movie's design artists would be enforced, to keep the toy designers up to date and to rein in some of the problematic-for-toys moves by the artists. This might eliminate the need to rush out an FE Optimus and then have to re-do him properly later.
* More money would be thrown at the line overall, allowing for more toys to be made of the KSI drones and better toys to be done of the new Autobots.
* Evasion Optimus would be in a screen-based deco to start.
I would have listed locking Spielberg in a closet, but that's more about how I'd fix the movie.

Combiner Wars:
* A bit more money would be budgeted as-needed.
* The Optimus Prime mold would have been designed as Motormaster and a combiner torso first, instead of as an Optimus Prime mold that happened to be a combiner torso. CW Optimus is my preferred CHUG representation of standard Optimus Prime, but that's somewhat reflective of the problem with the mold: being able to be Optimus Prime... was evidently prioritized over being a decent combiner torso.
* Drag Strip would be cockpit-chested as per G1, helping with accuracy.
* Existing vehicle-based combiners would have been given priority over turning non-combiner characters into combiners, although some of that would certainly still happen. But for instance, Scattershot would be Silverbolt's first moldmate in place of Cyclonus getting that spot. Meanwhile Sky Lynx would be axed in favor of a new Cyclonus. Or it could be done the other way 'round.
* Sideswipe and Windcharger would replace Sunstreaker and Wheeljack, and Jazz would replace Prowl. Seriously HasTak, you had Autobots and Stunticons sharing molds... and yet didn't homage "Masquerade"?
* Torso characters would have detachable combiner kibble if it would improve them structurally.
* The "sixth wheel" limbs like Alpha Bravo would probably be deferred or skipped. If done, Hardtop (based on the Cybertron character) would be added to the mix so that there was a full set of four.
* There would be a vanette limb mold instead of a pickup limb mold, to better suit First Aid
* Blast Off would get a shuttle mold from the get-go, either the one made for UW or a retool of the helicopter mold.
* The slots that went to Hound, Trailbreaker, Ironhide, and Smokescreen would instead go to the Technobot limbs as part of the Technobots getting better treatment.
* G2 Defensor would happen
* Ruination-style gun combining would be employed
* With regards to the Leader price point... I might leave the T30 overspill completely alone. Ooor I might appropriate the Seeker and fail!Armada Megs slots for something else. While there's a temptation to use those spots to make some of the torso bots better and more accessorized while using their Voyager slots for something else, I think it would make things too lopsided. I'm leaning instead towards the idea of more flexibly using the price point to do two-packs of the Trainbots.

Titans Return:
* Not a design change per se, but I would see to it there was more active effort to troubleshoot or compensate for the distribution problems.
* Blurr would be released in cartoon colors to keep him from shelfwarming so badly, as would Kup
* Kup would at the very least be given his rounded arms from the cartoon instead of leaning fully into the one IDW body
* Weirdwolf's clearances would be checked more carefully so that the hinge wouldn't crack from the soft plastic unsquishing because it wouldn't be squished in the first place.
* Brainstorm would be made from the Triggerhappy mold instead of the Blurr mold
* More money would be risked on the experiment that was Fortress Maximus - at the very least, enough to replace the Metroplex lower legs with new ones tailored to Fort Max.
* Similar to Brainstorm, Arcee and ideally Grotusque would receive alternate releases at Walgreens or elsewhere to improve access to them. Or Arcee would be a regular retail toy in place of Getaway/Breakaway and not an exclusive at all.
* Retooling Hot Rod into Pointblank and reshelling Perceptor as Crosshairs would have at least been looked into.

The Last Knight:
* Again, enforcing frequent communication between the movie people and the toy designers
* DotM Bumblebee would be used for the opening round of Deluxes instead of AoE Bumblebee, if at all possible, to reflect Bumblebee's design reversion
* More money being invested in the line in general
* Onslaught, Dreadbot, and Mohawk would actually get toys.
* Turbo Changer Dragonstorm would be made to look better or perhaps not be made at all (this SOB took forever to shift in my area, and spilled over into and clogged the Titans Return Leader shelf spaces at all my local Targets the whole time).

Power of the Primes:
* Thunderwing would be done instead of Optimus Primal. Or maybe Arcee would be done instead of Primal, just to get the Evolution Arcee design marked as used so that it wouldn't be the first thing turned to when a new Arcee was to be made later on. Although, that "instead of" thing would be dropped if the following happened:
* Ideally, the line would not be truncated to a single year; it would have the same full runtime as the other Prime Wars lines. This would allow all the Prime Masters to come out at retail with the attendant Pretender Decoy Armor, would allow Elita to get a full team within this line, and would probably allow retail Seacons to happen.
WANT:
* Cybertron Galvatron key, missiles
* Omega Lock
* Primus Cyber Key, coattail panel
* Powerlinx Comettor
* Cyb Jetfire R gun and missile
* RiD Galvy dragon head, beast arms
* DotM Ironhide windshield, R hood assy.
* ROTF Jetfire R JTFR panel

Di Bonaventura is not a credible or trustworthy source. And most fans do like the diversity push, thanks.

Trading MOSC MMPR fliphead Pink Ranger for ER Fasttrack or SIEGE Refraktor
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Re: How Would You Have Done It: Redesign A Line

Postby MaximalNui » Thu Jun 09, 2022 4:30 pm

Not exactly an entire line, but there's one figure I think would be better received with one change in their design.

Siege Shockwave: for the additional "Evolution" armor-style weapons, instead of becoming a random hoverboard, each would become one of the Cybertron Guard drones from G1 (though they could still combine in vehicle mode to keep the Armada Shockwave/Tidal Wave homage):
- 2 Watchdogs for the LV Duo-Pulse Radiographs (leg cannons/boots)
Image
- 2 Sentinels for the LV Gamma-Disruptor Launchers (shoulder cannons/arms)
Image
Image
- a Head Guard for the backpack
Image

The latter two could possibly switch around instead.
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