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-Kanrabat- wrote:33 steps for a dragon that barely looks any different from the bot?

HOW?

Check the orientation of the limbs and extremities. His tail is connected to his head which is at the opposite end from his legs in robot mode but close together in alt mode. All the while, the robot dragon head arm must realign with the wings and and pivot to the same vertical axis as the legs. Sure, we see the same parts in both modes (aside from the robot arm which has to end up stored in the chest) but they are all oriented in very different ways and getting them to the proper orientation takes lots of steps.

Anyways, I love how they kept the asymetry to the design where the knees and shoulders are organic on one side and robotic on the other.

I think I really like Alpha Trion. As many have said, he's the best Trion we've seen so far.

But it's the "so far" that is holding me back. How long before they make a new mold Alpha Trion that looks near-perfect? There've been lots of instances where I pick up a figure, only to have a better version come out a few years later...

For me, it's come down to "is this figure good enough that any new version won't be better enough to upset me?" And in this case, I don't care for Orion Pax...I prefer the Generations version with his own alt-mode, rather than the retool of Kup (though I understand the history...dare I say Legacy?...of retooling Kup for Pax)

Skullgrin will be a deluxe?
I don't really like his boxy design in bot mode. I would have been impressed if that Skullgrin would have managed to have the pure look of his OG pretender shell but with that boxy tank altmode. Oh well.


Having Orion Pax being a retool of Kup was expected, but they really nailed it.

How bad do aftermarket prices on these Pulse exclusives tend to be? Are they resold at online stores like BBTS and such? I already missed out on Beast Wars Ravage, a favourite character of mine whom I intend to look for eventually, and I'm also interested on the Orion Pax & Alpha Trion set, but Pulse doesn't ship to my country.

Rtron wrote:How bad do aftermarket prices on these Pulse exclusives tend to be? Are they resold at online stores like BBTS and such? I already missed out on Beast Wars Ravage, a favourite character of mine whom I intend to look for eventually, and I'm also interested on the Orion Pax & Alpha Trion set, but Pulse doesn't ship to my country.

Aftermarket is pretty steep.

Also, Ravage is still on Pulse: https://hasbropulse.com/products/transf ... ver-ravage

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

Rtron wrote:How bad do aftermarket prices on these Pulse exclusives tend to be? Are they resold at online stores like BBTS and such? I already missed out on Beast Wars Ravage, a favourite character of mine whom I intend to look for eventually, and I'm also interested on the Orion Pax & Alpha Trion set, but Pulse doesn't ship to my country.

Aftermarket is pretty steep.

Also, Ravage is still on Pulse: https://hasbropulse.com/products/transf ... ver-ravage

He says they don't ship to him, but I definitely want one, so...thanks!

sol magnus wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

Rtron wrote:How bad do aftermarket prices on these Pulse exclusives tend to be? Are they resold at online stores like BBTS and such? I already missed out on Beast Wars Ravage, a favourite character of mine whom I intend to look for eventually, and I'm also interested on the Orion Pax & Alpha Trion set, but Pulse doesn't ship to my country.

Aftermarket is pretty steep.

Also, Ravage is still on Pulse: https://hasbropulse.com/products/transf ... ver-ravage

He says they don't ship to him, but I definitely want one, so...thanks!

Ah, I missed that last part. Glad I could help irregardless!

Looks like Skullgrin is the most awesome of the lot this time out. He'll be a must-have, along with Dead End, simply because we all want to complete Menasor .

Rtron wrote:How bad do aftermarket prices on these Pulse exclusives tend to be? Are they resold at online stores like BBTS and such? I already missed out on Beast Wars Ravage, a favourite character of mine whom I intend to look for eventually, and I'm also interested on the Orion Pax & Alpha Trion set, but Pulse doesn't ship to my country.

Everything can become ridiculously expensive once it is no longer available from primary retailers. No matter how deeply discounted it once may have been. And it's always worst with exclusives.

I'm not liking that alt mode for Skullgrin. It has too much of the robot-just-laying-down thing going on. I guess it resembles his old alt mode but Pretenders, in general, were usually criticized for having crappy alt modes. This could've been a good opportunity to really address that.
I might just still with the one from 2010.

Of course that brings up another complaint. Skullgrin has been revisited a few times already. I would've really liked to see some other Pretenders who haven't been touched yet get some kind of update like Carnivac or Stranglehold

RiddlerJ wrote:I'm not liking that alt mode for Skullgrin. It has too much of the robot-just-laying-down thing going on. I guess it resembles his old alt mode but Pretenders, in general, were usually criticized for having crappy alt modes. This could've been a good opportunity to really address that.
I might just still with the one from 2010.

Of course that brings up another complaint. Skullgrin has been revisited a few times already. I would've really liked to see some other Pretenders who haven't been touched yet get some kind of update like Carnivac or Stranglehold

If they keep along this "fusing shell with altmode" trend, the Pretender Beasts would probably just end up as retools of Beast Wars characters. Stranglehold would look freaky as hell, almost naked dude that turns into a scorpion... Proper body horror-former, I'd love it.

It's a shame that Alpha and Pax are exclusives.
We'll try to get them though.
The more I see the Kup mold, the more I'm convinved you could get a very nice and accurate Firestar out of it. Keep hoping some day it happens.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Also, Ravage is still on Pulse: https://hasbropulse.com/products/transf ... ver-ravage

That's kinda tragic since they couldn't even sell out of them at 40% off. I hope Hasbro doesn't take anything negative away from that. Really the only bad thing about it was including the G1 Ravage, but that was a pretty interesting unique version of that figure, too.

Rtron wrote:If they keep along this "fusing shell with altmode" trend, the Pretender Beasts would probably just end up as retools of Beast Wars characters. Stranglehold would look freaky as hell, almost naked dude that turns into a scorpion... Proper body horror-former, I'd love it.

That would be weird considering the original turned into a rhino. That could actually work in a theoretical figure's favor since the shell and rhino can share "skin" and we could almost get something that looks like a "What If..?" Transmetal II Rhinox (and work as a potential retool). Makes you wonder what the leaked Metalhawk will look like.

Sabrblade wrote:

Sculyblast wrote:Isn't that the carrobot Gigatron/ Robot in Disguise Megatron's face?

...No?

Actually I can see it too. Look closely at the sides of his face. TM2 Megatron usually has two orange squares on each side of his face, but instead has one on each, and above and below that are those claw like shapes that RID Megatron has above and below. It's a weird thing to add that makes me wonder if they're trying to get more than one use out of that head sculpt, perhaps with a different helmet and tail going around it. The claws going over his chest is also reminiscent of how the RID figure has a claw "belt". Then you've got the big orb in the middle of the chest like both characters had. I think there's something to this.

BTW, the jagged teeth look to be painted on that way, they don't look like they're sculpted like that so it might change.

Emerje

DeathReviews wrote:Looks like Skullgrin is the most awesome of the lot this time out. He'll be a must-have, along with Dead End, simply because we all want to complete Menasor .

I'm not completing Menasor in fact I'm not even bothering with him.

I confess he looks a lot better now than in the before images. The opposite of Inferno.

Tuned Agent wrote:Better pics of the accessory-less bot modes (from TFW):

Megs looks great. I think they want to retool him into R.I.D Megs at some point.

Starscream looks really good. Can't wait for Supermodel SS a.k.a Thundercracker.

Inferno is surpassingly growing on me.

Skullgrin's o.k.

Breakdown looks quite nice.

Dead End looks like he's on stilts.


And Pointblank.... sheesh. Is he just rocking a jockstrap and no pants?

So pre-ordering Megs, Breakdown and Dead End.

Maybe Starscream, and maaaaaaybe Inferno.

Overcracker wrote:
So pre-ordering Megs, Breakdown

I beleive that's crankcase

So Skullgrin will have two sword/gun weapons that'll hopefully be able to split into two parts. Noice.

Alt mode is okay. I also don't really like the laying down look but then seeing the pics from the comic, seems pretty accurate. So that's pretty cool. Mixed feelings

Emerje wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Also, Ravage is still on Pulse: https://hasbropulse.com/products/transf ... ver-ravage

That's kinda tragic since they couldn't even sell out of them at 40% off. I hope Hasbro doesn't take anything negative away from that. Really the only bad thing about it was including the G1 Ravage, but that was a pretty interesting unique version of that figure, too.

Rtron wrote:If they keep along this "fusing shell with altmode" trend, the Pretender Beasts would probably just end up as retools of Beast Wars characters. Stranglehold would look freaky as hell, almost naked dude that turns into a scorpion... Proper body horror-former, I'd love it.

That would be weird considering the original turned into a rhino. That could actually work in a theoretical figure's favor since the shell and rhino can share "skin" and we could almost get something that looks like a "What If..?" Transmetal II Rhinox (and work as a potential retool). Makes you wonder what the leaked Metalhawk will look like.

Sabrblade wrote:

Sculyblast wrote:Isn't that the carrobot Gigatron/ Robot in Disguise Megatron's face?

...No?

tm2megs.JPG

Actually I can see it too. Look closely at the sides of his face. TM2 Megatron usually has two orange squares on each side of his face, but instead has one on each, and above and below that are those claw like shapes that RID Megatron has above and below. It's a weird thing to add that makes me wonder if they're trying to get more than one use out of that head sculpt, perhaps with a different helmet and tail going around it. The claws going over his chest is also reminiscent of how the RID figure has a claw "belt". Then you've got the big orb in the middle of the chest like both characters had. I think there's something to this.

BTW, the jagged teeth look to be painted on that way, they don't look like they're sculpted like that so it might change.

Emerje

Oops, you're right, I got him mixed up with Pincher. A rhino would be slightly less disturbing for sure, specially if they're not fussy about his human mode skin color and just make his skin the color of a rhino's skin.

TMII Megs looks better there and I LOVE Skullgrin!

The resculpting on Kup and Scourge that's gone into Pax and Trion is wonderful!

~ Grim

Razorbeast88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:I think we missed our shot at a new Reverse Convoy during Titans Return. A Headmaster gimmick would have suited him well.

Emerje

That wouldve been very cool, yes
If reverse convoy were ever to appear in legacy or evolution or something along those lines, what universe would he be from? Robotmasters?

Hasbro would file under "shattered glass collection"

It just occurred to me that that's a portal behind each of these characters. So I reckon what we REALLY need is Crankcase to be missing a bit of his head, his Dire Wraith friend and G.I. Joe member MP3 for a special boxset called "Brand Recognition".

:p

~ Grim

Big Grim wrote:TMII Megs looks better there and I LOVE Skullgrin!

The resculpting on Kup and Scourge that's gone into Pax and Trion is wonderful!

~ Grim

I didn't think it would turn out that well, but the pictures prove me wrong. I hope they fix the limbs on Pax but he kind of had his own fix me scene. comes with vector sigma too! But they could have done more with this. Why does pax have a energon goodie? He should NOT have a gun he is a mere doc worker. Why does Alpha trion come with a lame purple gun instead of a cool sword? Other than that, great set!

Big Grim wrote:It just occurred to me that that's a portal behind each of these characters. So I reckon what we REALLY need is Crankcase to be missing a bit of his head, his Dire Wraith friend and G.I. Joe member MP3 for a special boxset called "Brand Recognition".

:p

~ Grim

LOL. In all seriousness, the portal designs are part of Legacy's whole "multiversal crossover" backstory, with characters from other universes dimension-hopping through portals over into the series's native G1 universe.

Big Grim wrote:It just occurred to me that that's a portal behind each of these characters. So I reckon what we REALLY need is Crankcase to be missing a bit of his head, his Dire Wraith friend and G.I. Joe member MP3 for a special boxset called "Brand Recognition".

:p

~ Grim

I'd buy the hell out of that