The Energon Pub

Listing the good and bad performance of Hasbro on the toy line.


CW

A*

1) Giving is the Leader class of Starscream, Skywarp & Thundercracker. Few moments from Hasbro where they give us the trio in same scale.

2) Great for making Superion VS Menasor & Defensor VS Bruticus! Thanks for bringing back combiners, great job there (except for, having strange limbs like Alpha Bravo?! But well, at least in the end, they still get it quite right).


TR

A*

1) What a solid pair of Leader class Blaster VS Soundwave! Together with Rewind, Stripes, Rumble and Ravage, they look a Super cool bunch!

2) Chromedome, Hardhead & Highbrow VS Weirdwolf (Wolfwire), Skullcruncher (Skullsmasher) & Mindwipe! Even though still got Brainstorm as exclusive, but I prefer 3 on 3. Another smashing job well done.

F

1) Er, where in the world is Steeljaw, and what the **** is Ramhorn doing as Titans Master?!?! Even my granny couldn’t understand....

2) Oh my fairy godmother, this is where it hurts the most. Was so eager to get my hands on Tiggerhappy, Misfire & Slugslinger, but...NO Pointblank, Crosshairs & Sureshot??? C’mon Hasbro, u got to be kidding right! Simple target that u can’t hit, man, that’s lame...

3) Titan Class Fortress Maximus and Scorp... Trypticon?!?! I know Metroplex has just been released, why not give us Scorponok? Base with base, city with city. Why mix up the 2?


PotP

F

1) Bomb-burst, Submarauder, Skullgrin, Cloudburst, Landmine & .... where the heck is Waverider?!?! Who cares about Bludgeon and Octopunch? I mean, yeah they are alright, but can’t Hasbro give us Waverider as a single pack first. The old G1 Hasbro toy concept was great - Air, Land & Sea. While technology is advancing, the concept for toys is going the opposite direction. Also, what with the shrink size and joined legs?


Overall, some very good moves from Hasbro but loads of poorly designed concepts from them as well. Though these led me to great savings, I would prefer to be poorer. The old G1 toy concepts were excellent, series after series of well-planned characters being released. But the recent released of this toy line was a real messed up. Hopefully there will be a fully proper release of series like Headmasters, Targetmasters and Pretenders in future, but I doubt even my Great Grandson will live to see them. Make Transformers Great Again (MTGA)!

Combiner Wars was an A, of the high variety not quite an A+ but very very close to it. Despite things like Constructicon elbows/guns and perhaps too many repaints of some molds, it focused up the Generations subline while providing accessible "Classics" updates of G1 Combiners to the masses.

Titans Return was an A- concept with B- execution. It started out with all six size classes feeling important and cross functional within a play pattern. Then the later Legends figures broke the cycle, with the tablet-style Deployers going M.I.A. for reasons I don't understand. Add in aborted and/or hard-to-find boxed sets and sub-segments of characters left undone (to the point where "contract with the fans", Hasbro's own term, became a punchline) and it just sputtered to the finish line.

PotP gets an incomplete, maybe forever. It felt like a "filler" line, which is fine, except it wasn't really marketed as such. Prime Masters made no sense, and except for Abominus the returning Combiner gimmick was lackluster. The Leader Class was great but limited, hopefully some more of these "Evolution" figures appear down the line.

And I will never forgive 12 card variants per figure please sell me your cards see link in sig

Combiner Wars: B-
Strengths: Addresses critical collector needs, cast strength, concept
Flaws: Poor consistency of design, failure to adapt, Gestalt integrity

Notable engineering feat: superb combiner port system

Combiner wars scores high in its ability to serve the collecting community, its strong cast of characters, and its application of a line wide constant that holds true to a play pattern and the history of combining toys. One after another, the line served up beloved giants to the eager fans who have long wanted proper combining Transformers. In many ways, Combiner Wars rebooted the Generations line into something with a constant and identifiable visual look.

Its failings in a way are related to that last strong point. Much in how all the good parts held true, all too often, the weak points held true as well. Hand/Foot guns were a disappointment from the start. Mold deficiencies were not sorted out even in later figures (tank mold not holding together, cars making for poor arms, missassembly problems). Other times, aspects of design should have never been allowed to move forward in their final form, such as the Menasor/Prime combiner hips or not switching over to the Computron style hands and feet once molded.


Titans Return: A-
Strengths: Delightful engineering, strong diverse cast of characters, high quality (designs, engineering, and decos)
Weaknesses: Failure to make good on a concept, perhaps too daring with its gimmick

Notable aspect: absolutely brilliant Takara releases that are well worth the admission price

I genuinely feel like Titans Return is the best line of Transformers, perhaps ever. The figures themselves are excellent with very few missteps. The cast is wide and varied taking its cues from every aspect of the G1 continuity. The general design principals are solid with figures that move, pose, and transform in smart intuitive ways. Even the decos are mostly on point. While Takara did its routine of making improvements on almost every release, it was not outside the realm of perfectionism to stick with domestic releases (and add a few Reprolabels to them). I legit thought I could skip most of the line, but it drew me in entirely and I enjoyed every bit of it, even replacing some stalwart 3P figures along the way.

The problems in the line are specific and easy to see. If you can't deal with classic characters being Headmasters, then...there you are. I get it. I understand it. Ultimately, I got over it and learned to love the Titans. To that point...I loved the Titans and I hated how the line never truly grabbed the reigns and went to play pattern town with it. There simply wasn't enough to encourage kids to do stuff with the Titans much less collectors. Heads, bodies, vehicles, weapons...we could have had a parts party. We didn't and that's a shame.

Power of the Primes: C
Strengths: Closure, Evolution concept
Weaknesses: Internally inconsistent, missed opportunities, DINOBOTS

Notable aspect: several design concepts are explored and I'm left hoping that they aren't forgotten

PotP is the weakest of the trilogy. It's hard to pick it apart from the others as in most aspects, it's a total rehash. What does it do distinctly well? It finishes some important groups, like Dinobots and Terrorcons. It improves the combiner look with improved, but still not great feet. The Evolution Leaders are excellent in concept and fun in execution. I might have traded having them be a bit smaller if it meant tidying up all their small nitpicky issues. The "Power of the Primes" concept should really have gone a step further. It is in actuality, Power Masters, but it doesn't embrace the concept. Somehow Pretenders are tied to that and...as someone with an imagination, I can have a lot of fun with it. But...

This line doesn't know what it wants to be or it never got the chance to go there. Prime Masters should have done something distinct, at least to the leader toys. Trigger a specific sound or color, change a stat reader...show us instead of tell us. The long awaited Dinobots are in their own way, a failure at the size and scale they were represented at. Some will not agree with this, but I won't argue the point. They should have been bigger. Lastly, the Pretenders were addressed in an interesting way, but to leave out characters like Waverider in place of a Bludgeon or Octopunch seems wrong. The whole line feels rushes and hastily put together, even though it has some really nice gems mixed into the bunch.

Combiner Wars

Overall comments

Positives: Finally bringing combiners back, an updated scramble city combining mechanism

Negatives: Engineering flaws, lazy retools/redecoes

Information to regard: Takara's version of line looks nice.

Comments

Hasbro, you tried. And it shows. I wont deny the effort you put in to make things as best and g1-ish as possible. But things fell flat quickly. The Jet torso mold (Used for Silverbolt, Cyclonus, Scattorshot, and others) has combiner head breakage issues that are nigh-unavoidable. Bot of my copies of the mold (Silverbolt and Cyclonus) broke in the same ways. The jet limbs all feel the same, due to only 2 of them being unique molds. Alpha bravo however, is refreshing. I have to applaud Combiner Wars' follow up, Power of the Primes, for making "Dreadwind" and "Blackwing" if not feel different (I do not have Blackwing), not look like clones of each other, and from my personal experience, Dreadwind is very different from his original mold. the truck cab torso (Used for Optimus Prime, Motormaster, and others) is said by many to have problems with its hips. The "Stunticon" limbs are unique and good on their own, but their overuse makes me see them as generic, the "Porsche" mold in particular (Used for Dead End, Streetwise, Prowl, and others). While the fire truck torso (Used by Hot Spot, Onslaught, "POTP" Inferno, and others) is of higher quality compared to the other "Conventional" torsos, it feels, generic. something about the mold allows it to have the unique quality of working well as most transformers (Hot Spot as Optimus? Cerebros? Hosehead?), It is also a quality that is detrimental to the mold, because it feels like it's lacking something. The "Protectobot" Limbs are mostly retools, except for Rook, who I see as a great standalone figure that I keep coming back to, sadly hindered by lackluster arm and leg modes, and the "Deluxe Class" version of Groove, who does not fit in with the line at all, probably due to the its Takara origins. First aid does a good job of being different from his mold originator. The "Combaticon" limbs are more of the same, with the tank mold (Used for Brawl, and others) being very low quality. "Sky Lynx" to me, is a figure the could've waited to be done, and feels held back by the "Voyager" size and the combining gimmick. Neither his nor Optimus' limbs do anything new, and Hound, Mirage, and Sunstreaker are easily outdone by previous versions of themselves. "Betatron" feels like a wasted effort and that it was shoehorned in. I have not given mention to the "Legends" or "Leader" size assortments because they are very detached from the main focus of the line. they feel like figures Hasbro wanted to do, and were just shoved in Combiner Wars. The Titan Class Devastator is just a shell of its original intentions to be a "Masterpiece" scale figure.

Overall Grade

C+

Individual Grades

Ultra Magnus: B+

More grades to be added later.

Counterpunch wrote:
I genuinely feel like Titans Return is the best line of Transformers, perhaps ever. The figures themselves are excellent with very few missteps. The cast is wide and varied taking its cues from every aspect of the G1 continuity. The general design principals are solid with figures that move, pose, and transform in smart intuitive ways. Even the decos are mostly on point. While Takara did its routine of making improvements on almost every release, it was not outside the realm of perfectionism to stick with domestic releases (and add a few Reprolabels to them). I legit thought I could skip most of the line, but it drew me in entirely and I enjoyed every bit of it, even replacing some stalwart 3P figures along the way.

The problems in the line are specific and easy to see. If you can't deal with classic characters being Headmasters, then...there you are. I get it. I understand it. Ultimately, I got over it and learned to love the Titans. To that point...I loved the Titans and I hated how the line never truly grabbed the reigns and went to play pattern town with it. There simply wasn't enough to encourage kids to do stuff with the Titans much less collectors. Heads, bodies, vehicles, weapons...we could have had a parts party. We didn't and that's a shame.

I agree with so much of this. Titans Return as a whole was great. And my three year-old LOVES the gimmick.

I personally wanted so much more out of this line.

Sell me more Titan Master vehicles/weapons.

Sell me generic bodies.

Sell me generic bases.

Probably the one thing I'd still change is no Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus - do a Titan Master Ultra Magnus (with Minimus Ambus as a Titan Master) and make the chest piece a mini jet that a Titan Master could pilot.

See I would do something completely different with CW ultra mags and by extension CW megs. They were released in a line for combining but never did anything like it, well, that's what I would change. I'd have the limbs be able to become new limbs or attach similar to how the scramble city limbs could interact with g1 metroplex. Still I'm hoping that going forward hasbro have thought about play integration between all size classes (looking at the weaponizers, they are at a good start)