Flashwave wrote:Here's a thought: Divebomb as the Torso for Predaking, retooled with new wings and heads for Wildfly and Windrazor. Develop a Quadropedal figure that can easily be reskinned, that allows the entire beast mode head piece to fold over on either a ball or a hinge to be ou of the way. Hasbro basically did this with the Airelbots, giving each figure new wings and a headbut ultimately identical transformation schemes. Rampage, headstrong, Razorclaw, and Tantrum basically the same figure "tweaked". Accesories included, cost offset is proably equivalent to two molds. The fans will cry out in joy that they are getting a Predaking, then revolt in the same day because all the Predacons are identical, despite being largely the same figure in G1. (actually, two base chassis according to pictures.)
This is pretty much right along the lines of what I was thinking. Novelty is nice, but using the same molds (or basic design elements) has a nice side effect - the gestalt is more symmetrical. Some asymmetry is what really makes it 'look' like a gestalt, but too much and the thing can look like Frankenstein's monster. It was a problem that always limited he Energon gestalts in my mind - if the same mold wasn't used for both limbs, they really looked borderline nonfunctional.
Having the fliers (Divebomb, Wildfly, Windrazor, and even Swoop) as the voyager classes had not occurred to me, but would help get those fantastically huge wings you want to see on Predaking. Also, with the legion class figures to provide add on armor, the size disparity between the torso bot and the limb-bots doesn't necessarily have to be as big as it used to be, so Divebomb might not have to completely dwarf the others.
I wonder if you could get the hand/foot accessories to become the heads on the different Predacons...
)
