ZeroWolf wrote:Is it important to you that you believe that they're different? Will it change how you feel about the characters?
As for screamer, there was nothing ever said about his legs, in fact the initial rumours only claimed that his shoulders had been altered to fit the cape. That's why a lot of us whers surprised to see his hands had been altered.
I'd still say the throne is meant for someone else though
It's not that important... It doesn't change how I feel about any character.
And I definitely could be incorrectly remembering about the Coronation SS prototype; it may have been his chest/torso that was going to be remolded, but either way, there was a proposed change on a shown prototype, and I don’t remember it being the shoulders (they were covered by the new pieces). The photo I saw this in was a posted screenshot from a video where that figure was talked about and shown by a Hastak rep. But the altered parts were not painted, and were a darker colored plastic.
Either way, sure, Coronation SS uses the ER mold.
That doesn't prove anything about a difference in aesthetics/amount of molded detail.
“But you’re claiming SS86 has a different aesthetic from figures from the other lines”.
Yup. And obviously ER Starscream wasn’t initially designed for SS86…
Hastak clearly decided that the coronation gear made that figure movie-related enough.
Trying to say the Siege greebling is the same as the subtle details seen on the SS86 figures is what I don't agree with.
Because it's clearly different.
I’ve never said it’s like comparing an MP to a Cyberverse figure.
But look at any Siege figure, then the photo that was recently posted of Scourge and Cyclonus and you’ll see the difference. And if not, well, that doesn't mean differences don't exist. Of course those two (and any SS86 figures) are going to have
some molded detail... These aren’t recent MP figures… But I say "some" lightly, because it's subtle. There’s substantially less, and where you do see detail, it’s more intentional in appearance (weird, probably because it’s not overdone).
The greebling on figures like Astrotrain, Refraktor, the modulators, the seekers, and lots of others, looks like space-filler. Or maybe a better term is surface-filler.
With those, someone at Hastak decided to go with the "more is more" design approach. And I'm not here trying to label it 'good' or 'bad'. But it's there. And of course you can put SS86 and Siege figures in the same display to "go together"... That again doesn't prove anything. I have CW Magnus with my SS86 figures.
I also don’t always care what a company has “blatantly said”.
It’s at least somewhat unlikely for a huge company to publicly own its mistakes, mis-steps, or put out any sort of vibe that a curve-ball type situation wasn’t planned for or handled in the 100% best way possible. This doesn’t mean I think Hastak (or almost any company) exaggerates or lies about everything. Even large corporations deserve a little wiggle-room from time to time… Demanding or expecting “perfection” from a company is silly.
But Hastak also said SS86 figures would be representations of the characters from the movie, so that’s why Dinobots won’t come with swords… Then Gnaw arrives with a blaster.
Roughly 15 years ago, “The seeker characters in this Botcon set will never be regular retail release figures”… Then what,
maybe a year and a half to two years later……
Plus every remotely similar situation between these two examples.
I don’t expect Hastak to be “perfect”, I’ve given them plenty of credit, especially recently (in the last couple years) but I sure as hell don’t 100% believe everything they say.
Here are my thoughts with the Dinobots being the design aesthetic exception in SS86:
Those guys were supposed to be in the regular line to begin with.
I mean, isn’t that part of what most would argue? That any and all SS86 figures were originally supposed to be in Kingdom??
The Dinobots (at least the two we currently have), were clearly planned before SS86 was created… I don’t for a second believe the opposite. I’d even say Sludge was probably in embryonic stages, and that the sales from SS86 made him pretty much a no-brainer, greenlight-go decision. Hell, at this point, the other two are probably in the works no matter which line they show up in.
But if the Dinobots were originally going to be a part of Kingdom, then weird, that would help explain why they have so much greebling compared to the others in SS86.
So what about those worthless pack-in figures that are very much ’86 movie-related?
Minus the addition of literally two small pegs and ports, those little figures required zero changes to the Dinobots themselves.
Producing a non-transforming, barely articulated figure with a couple basic types of joints didn't exactly require some marvelous feat of engineering.
Those aren’t really much more than designing multi-part weapons.
Meaning being a relatively “late addition” to help the Dinobots more cohesively fit into SS86 was by no means some difficult task.
Think about it… Even for being non-converting, those pack-in figures suck. They scream “last minute effort” and “after-thought”.
Besides, when deciding to add the SS86 subline and in-turn the resulting shift of figures/characters, what was Hastak going to do, throw BW Megatron into a SS86 leader slot and repaint him as “Grimlock”?? Unless Hastak was going to repack OP, Magnus, and/or Astrotrain
again, there literally wasn’t another good option…
And if you’re going to ask, “But if this difference of less greebling is important to the SS86 line, why didn’t they remove it from the Dinobots?”.
My answer is that Hastak decided, “We’re adding in a pack-in figure, the pegs/ports necessary to attach it to the Dinobot, replacing the transparent yellow parts, altering a few paint apps, and calling it good”.
And if you still think this sounds completely outlandish…
Well weird, where are we seeing something extremely similar??
“We’re adding pack-in’s to justify leader class price, replacing the original hands with hands that have one joint, adding an extra set of null rays, altering a few paint apps, and calling it good”. Nope, no changes to molded greebling.
Again, Hastak figured the coronation gear was good enough.
They don't even have to justify anything. They just do it.
Even
IF this isn’t the case with the Dinobots, no one can deny this happened with Starscream.
I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking a similar situation will happen with SS86 Ironhide and Arcee.
Along with this, consider the bizarre ’86 Kup and Cliffjumper releases in Buzzworthy.
I’m not expecting to ever get an answer, but sure, I’d be interested to hear how Hastak would explain those if there’s a supposed reason beyond wanting more money.
No, I’m not complaining about those releases… I want both of those figures. “So why does it matter?”… It really doesn’t, but that’s obviously not why it was mentioned. It goes back to my point that I don’t always believe what a company “blatantly states”.
“SS86 is a line of figures composed of really screen-accurate versions of characters that were in the ’86 movie.”
So
after SS86 Kup has been released
and repacked in the SS86 line, why is there an even
more screen-accurate version being released in a different, exclusive-to-one-store line??
Again, Hastak can shift things however they want to. Which I get, “Who cares?”… Again, the point being, in a situation where there’s no proof other than “Hastak’s word”, that’s not always legit justification. It's just not. It's like a lazy parent saying, "...Because I said so."
But either way, Cyclonus, Galvatron, Scourge, Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, Jazz, Wreck-gar, and Gnaw were all designed with a less random-greeble design approach. No matter what anyone says, I can literally see the difference because it's there. If someone can’t, I guess oh well.
). So anyone expecting an all new toy "more cartoon accurate" version of anything from ER or Kingdom in the SS86 line shouldn't expect more than a slight repaint if anything. Is that correct?
