The Energon Pub

That's why I first said "a Bugbite redeco with reprolabels", with MP-21 BB in mind.

To be fair, turning The Love Bug into a "War Toy" would make an official release destined for this thread alone.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:That's why I first said "a Bugbite redeco with reprolabels", with MP-21 BB in mind.

To be fair, turning The Love Bug into a "War Toy" would make an official release destined for this thread alone.

Based on the Generations mold, it would come with the obligatory big-ass bazooka.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:That's why I first said "a Bugbite redeco with reprolabels", with MP-21 BB in mind.

To be fair, turning The Love Bug into a "War Toy" would make an official release destined for this thread alone.

Based on the Generations mold, it would come with the obligatory big-ass bazooka.

There's a joke in there about what that bazooka would be called.. That I won't make

In the spirit of those updated via WFC, I was looking at this Micromaster in particular - Roughstuff.



Ignoring the "Jet Mode". I looked to the vehicle mode as his primary transformation. Envisioning him as either a retool of Ultra Magnus or as a non-combining Onslaught. Alternatively, a combination of the two via shared engineering.

Well, more Micromaster bases should be Weaponisers to continue the trend. But this time, add a duo of micromasters repaints in the box (the one closely resembling the OG and its obligatory mold mate as a bonus).

Then sell these at voyager price.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Well, more Micromaster bases should be Weaponisers to continue the trend. But this time, add a duo of micromasters repaints in the box (the one closely resembling the OG and its obligatory mold mate as a bonus).

Then sell these at voyager price.

The reason I picked him as a departure from that trend. Being the earlier discussion (I think it was in this thread) that those Weaponisers didn't sell. Hence why they stopped making more. My thought to shift them away from Partformers, to new full sized Bots in their own right. It's weird that Actionmasters can live again via RED and ReActions. But the Micromasters - actual Transformers - failed as a revival.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Well, more Micromaster bases should be Weaponisers to continue the trend. But this time, add a duo of micromasters repaints in the box (the one closely resembling the OG and its obligatory mold mate as a bonus).

Then sell these at voyager price.

The reason I picked him as a departure from that trend. Being the earlier discussion (I think it was in this thread) that those Weaponisers didn't sell. Hence why they stopped making more. My thought to shift them away from Partformers, to new full sized Bots in their own right. It's weird that Actionmasters can live again via RED and ReActions. But the Micromasters - actual Transformers - failed as a revival.

If the weaponiser "didn't sell", why are they making more with the Kingdom fossils and the upcoming Legacy Junkion?

But yeah, PROPER updates of these "deluxe" G1 Micromasters will never happen.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The reason I picked him as a departure from that trend. Being the earlier discussion (I think it was in this thread) that those Weaponisers didn't sell. Hence why they stopped making more. My thought to shift them away from Partformers, to new full sized Bots in their own right. It's weird that Actionmasters can live again via RED and ReActions. But the Micromasters - actual Transformers - failed as a revival.

If the weaponiser "didn't sell", why are they making more with the Kingdom fossils and the upcoming Legacy Junkion?

But yeah, PROPER updates of these "deluxe" G1 Micromasters will never happen.

Correction: Modulators didn't sell, not Weaponisers...

Nemesis Primal wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:That's true. To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't done more with the Modulators? It looked like they were serious about modernising the entire Micromaster line. Now seemingly abandoned?

Allegedly the Micromasters sold horribly, hence why they got dropped before the WFC Trilogy even ended and replaced with Core Class (and may be why the design team seems hesitant to attempt Mini-Cons), and the Modulators were the worst-selling of the Weaponizer types because they were so reliant on Micromasters and also just turned into blocks.

Taking those Micromaster Transport fellas and making them basically slightly-smaller versions of Armada Overload and his mech-suit-Triple-Changer nonsense would be cool.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The reason I picked him as a departure from that trend. Being the earlier discussion (I think it was in this thread) that those Weaponisers didn't sell. Hence why they stopped making more. My thought to shift them away from Partformers, to new full sized Bots in their own right. It's weird that Actionmasters can live again via RED and ReActions. But the Micromasters - actual Transformers - failed as a revival.

If the weaponiser "didn't sell", why are they making more with the Kingdom fossils and the upcoming Legacy Junkion?

But yeah, PROPER updates of these "deluxe" G1 Micromasters will never happen.

Correction: Modulators didn't sell, not Weaponisers...

Nemesis Primal wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:That's true. To be honest, I'm surprised they haven't done more with the Modulators? It looked like they were serious about modernising the entire Micromaster line. Now seemingly abandoned?

Allegedly the Micromasters sold horribly, hence why they got dropped before the WFC Trilogy even ended and replaced with Core Class (and may be why the design team seems hesitant to attempt Mini-Cons), and the Modulators were the worst-selling of the Weaponizer types because they were so reliant on Micromasters and also just turned into blocks.

The timeline as I understand it, based on sales we've observed, BTS statements, and reputable leaker commentary, combined with a bit of reasonable assumptions (but admittedly still assumptions):
Siege hits shelves: Weaponizers are received/sell well, but Battlemasters and Micromasters don't, to the point that a number of Hasbro's primary retailers discount them and/or stop carrying them completely
-Since we know Hasbro plans lines roughly 2 years in advance, they take this info and axe Battlemasters and Micromasters from Kingdom while keeping the assumption that Weaponizers (and equivalent gimmicks) will sell, but it is too late to amend Earthrise's lineup
Earthrise hits shelves: Battlemasters and Micromasters continue to sell as they did before, but now Modulators also take a dive for the reasons I stated before
-Same reaction as before: too late to change Kingdom, but they take this to Legacy year 1 and plan not to include any new Weaponizer-equivalent molds, as well as continuing to plan not to continue Micromasters
Kingdom hits: both Core Class and the Fossilizers sell well
-Since they both sell well, this allows the greenlighting of the Legacy Junkions, as well as the continuation & expansion of the Core Class

I know from personal observations I saw the Micromasters being slow to shift. I think one factor is Micro Machines being dead at the time, robbing them of a potential synergy source.

And another is under-promotion. I don't think Hasbro did nearly as much as they could have with stock photography to hawk the revived "micro play" pattern. Barely any photos showing off the play potential with base bots, stuff like Astrotrain's tender and Optimus Prime's trailer, or even the Micromaster Playset-based Modulators. Takara put in a bit more effort on that score, but that doesn't help the US market much. This undoubtedly also hurt the Modulators' sales. The WFC cartoon and the 2019 IDW continuity didn't exactly do anything to hawk the Micromasters either, which can't have helped.

I think the Battlemasters might have done better if we'd had orange Lionizer as the regular release (the inaccurate black also ends up making him look very dull, undoubtedly less appealing to kids) and the gun guys had seen more investment (instead of "three molds and one of them is Rung"); Firedrive and Blowpipe were the only solid updates out of the whole lot.

It is a real shame, because I thought the Modulators were a clever way to modernise previously non-transforming bases. Also aesthetically, they reminded me of Vehicons IE non-humanised Transformers.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:I know from personal observations I saw the Micromasters being slow to shift. I think one factor is Micro Machines being dead at the time, robbing them of a potential synergy source.

And another is under-promotion. I don't think Hasbro did nearly as much as they could have with stock photography to hawk the revived "micro play" pattern. Barely any photos showing off the play potential with base bots, stuff like Astrotrain's tender and Optimus Prime's trailer, or even the Micromaster Playset-based Modulators. Takara put in a bit more effort on that score, but that doesn't help the US market much. This undoubtedly also hurt the Modulators' sales. The WFC cartoon and the 2019 IDW continuity didn't exactly do anything to hawk the Micromasters either, which can't have helped.

I think the Battlemasters might have done better if we'd had orange Lionizer as the regular release (the inaccurate black also ends up making him look very dull, undoubtedly less appealing to kids) and the gun guys had seen more investment (instead of "three molds and one of them is Rung"); Firedrive and Blowpipe were the only solid updates out of the whole lot.

As someone who witnessed the complete failure of marketing that was the 2015 BIONICLE reboot, I can concur that very poor promotion probably killed the Micromasters (and the Modulators, which didn't even appear in the tie-in show).

As for the Battlemasters, it probably didn't help that, being weapons, they required a completely different figure to fully use and enjoy their alt-modes, while the Weaponizers could be played on their own even without becoming weapons for other toys.

Emerje wrote:-snip: Mugenbine-

Emerje

You know, I keep looking at characters like the Shifters or the Stentarians, which are meant to transform and/or combine into anything, and thinking this is the perfect way to translate their gimmicks to toy form.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:While I was reading IDW I kinda wanted a Monstructor, but now ... eh. Making him as small as his original self would not make him desirable, at least not to me.

I actually really want Ariel and transformable deluxe-sized Lithones. The closest we have to Ariel is Energon Arcee and she's just much too small now.

I actually forgot about Ariel/pre-Elita. For a minute I thought you meant Seaspray's girlfriend Alana in her bot mode...which would also be a cool figure I'd like.

And yeah, I'd also like transformable Lithones. They've had the vehicle mode designs since the Universe books in 86, why haven't they been used yet? I'd much prefer to have a non-transformable Quintesson Executioner in the "Pit of Judgement" set than a non-transforming Kranix (especially since there probably won't be a better opportunity to launch that figure and get all "classic" Quintesson types from the movie).

On another note, who'd like to get Esmeral and Lyzack to match the upcoming Deathsaurus?

EDIT TO AVOID DOUBLEPOST: So, remember Doctor Arkeville from G1, and how he got progressively more cybernetic in his debut? Would anyone like to see a fully-Transformer version of him, like Prime's Silas/Breakdown?

We have in Legacy, Core Class Bomb Burst.
Then we also have Deluxe Skullgrin.
Now we only need a VOYAGER Submarauder to complete the trio while going full Dalton Brothers. But we all know HASTAK'll never do that.

You could always go the other direction with PotP Submaurader

o.supreme wrote:You could always go the other direction with PotP Submaurader

Well, if they never make a Legacy Submarauder at all, that would be the solution... But the other two PotP exist so it's far from ideal.

The Creatures Collide pack proves that the Netflix Bee can be repainted. Now only the movie license needs to be negotiated.

How about a whole 4-pack with crossovers?

Herbie from Netflix Bee

KITT from ER Runabout

Magnum (red Ferrari from Magnum P.I.) from Legacy Wildrider

Baracus (the A-Team van) from SS86 Ironhide (with minor retooling)

Call it "The 80s Collide" 4-pack. even though Herbie was from the 60s.

Genuinely shocked from all the 80's crossovers of the last few years, that the A-Team van hasn't been among them.

The only catch is that all of these Movie X-overs would cost the price of a freaking LEADER each in Canada.

Also, unless all these comes from the same movie studio, no X-overs can ever be in a multi-pack.

I love the crossover line, but yeah the price hurts my wallet and my feelings.

I have an entire list of crossovers I'd love to see, but the top of that list is the Enterprise (preferably D) followed closely by the Burton Batmobile (or the West one or The Animated Series). I wish that line went back to iconic vehicles.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I have an entire list of crossovers I'd love to see, but the top of that list is the Enterprise (preferably D) followed closely by the Burton Batmobile (or the West one or The Animated Series). I wish that line went back to iconic vehicles.

We have a thread for that


To this day, although it was supposed to be cashing in on the new movie (which didn't pan out as expected), the A-Team van made more sense for the crossover line than the Top Gun jet. I'm sure the adventures of the A-Team would have fallen in with the same (young) fanbase as BTTF and Ghostbusters. Not so sure that that applied to Top Gun?

I may be the odd one for wanting this, but I'd really love a Cybertronian Blaster. It would be a repaint/remold of Siege Soundwave. The remolded parts appart the head would be the legs that will have "speakers" on them. The whole thing would also transform into the space-barge. Then pack in repaints of Ravage and Lazerbeak into Steeljaw and some original character. That whole set could be an excellent Select release.

Till-all-R1 wrote:Shockwave always seems to look the same no matter what line he's in. lol

It probably doesn't help that this is a Cyberverse mould!

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Genuinely shocked from all the 80's crossovers of the last few years, that the A-Team van hasn't been among them.

I pity those fools.

The A-Team is owned by Universal who also owns Back to the Future and Jurassic Park so it isn't exactly unobtainable to Hasbro for a Collaborative release.

Emerje

Titan-class Tidal Wave.

This may not be totally 'never,' but definitely 'very long shot.'

I'd love titan class versions of the Axalon and the Darksyde.