The Energon Pub

News Credits: 12 · Fri May 04, 2012 8:40 am

I was looking at my collection to try to identify holes I want to fill (heh heh), and I've got figures from every major line (though not every sub-line) except Machine Wars*. So I decided to see if I could get a few Machine Wars figures. But what I discovered was that THEY ALL SUCK. What happened with that line? Is it me, or are they just all crappy figures? OP looks kinda cool, mostly because of the trailer, but for the most part this looks like a horrible line. Your thoughts? Are there any Machine Wars figures that would be worth adding to my collection?

(*Technically there's one other line I don't have represented: Beast Wars 10th Anniversary. But it seems like those figures go for WAY more on eBay than the original Beast Wars figures. Why is that? Less supply? Higher demand?)

News Credits: 656 · Fri May 04, 2012 9:02 am

If you like Beast Wars basics, you'll probably enjoy the Machine Wars basics. They're just flip-changers, only they don't turn into animals. The other toys in the line were repaints of late G1 releases in Europe that got slightly redecoed/retooled. Optimus is pretty cool, and the others have cool vehicle modes but are absolute bricks in bot mode.

And BW 10th figures tend to have more show accurate decos than the original releases, so demand on them is a bit higher.

News Credits: 241 · Fri May 04, 2012 9:03 am

Machine Wars was an experimental line at best, to test the market for vehicular Transformers during the Beast Wars craze. However it failed miserably, possibly because of lack of supporting fiction and it being a KB Toys exclusive line.

You're not missing out on much by skipping the line, the smaller toys have superior repaints in RiD and Japanese Robot Masters, while the larger toys were repaints themselves of EU exclusives (and retooled to meet Safety Laws).

News Credits: 12 · Fri May 04, 2012 9:44 am

Cool, thanks. I think I'm going to skip the line completely. Instead I might try to get some more Beast Wars figures to beef up that part of my collection.

News Credits: 241 · Fri May 04, 2012 10:02 am

GuyIncognito wrote:Cool, thanks. I think I'm going to skip the line completely. Instead I might try to get some more Beast Wars figures to beef up that part of my collection.

If you don't have him already, definitely get Robot Masters Rijie:

The deco MW Mirage was meant to have all along.

Speaking of Beast Wars, the BWII line has the two Flipchanger jets, now called Thrust (yellow) and Dirge (blue):

Fri May 04, 2012 10:26 am

For what it's worth, I do like my Machine Wars Soundwave quite a bit... but it might be the nostalgia talking, haha. Most of the line is quite passable though.

News Credits: 7 · Fri May 04, 2012 10:31 am

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
If you don't have him already, definitely get Robot Masters Rijie:

This.

News Credits: 5 · Fri May 04, 2012 12:04 pm

I have the entire series and there are a few notable standouts but only if you don't already have their original European releases:

Optimus Prime is a repaint (and a superior one at that) of Thunderclash who got released as a Botcon repaint of E Rodimus in '09. Chart that one out.

Soundwave is a repaint of Stalker and was repainted again as Soundwave in blue and neon yellow for the Universe 1.0 line.

Starscream is a repaint of Skyquake. Skyquake was also released as a Botcon repaint of E Starscream in '09. There's a pattern emerging here. :lol:

Sandstorm is a repaint of Rotorstorm of Last Stand of the Wreckers fame. (you know, :lol:

)

The rest are just the flip-changer jet, formula-1 racer, and tow truck repaints and can be skipped entirely. Back in '02 I got the entire line except Optimus for I think around $80 and I can't imagine they'd cost much more now. Still, back in the 90's, it was either Beast Wars, these or Animorphs.

News Credits: 2 · Fri May 04, 2012 12:10 pm

RAcast wrote:For what it's worth, I do like my Machine Wars Soundwave quite a bit... but it might be the nostalgia talking, haha. Most of the line is quite passable though.

Your so right on the nostalgia but it is a neat looking TF or brinkformer as some may put it. Even cooler is the repaint of Soundwave for the Universe line that comes with a cool repaint of G2 Space Case. Another cool repaint was Machine Wars Starscream used for King Atlas in the Universe line. I too recommend for anyone to check out the Robot Masters's, another cool line! :VEHI: