@WolfmanJake, I'll grant you that it's
possible having the jet cockpit visible there in tank mode is iconic to one of the designers. However:
1. That still doesn't mean the cartoon's funky "naked" depiction of it there (how/why did that even happen, anyway? Did Floron the Moron forget the lines for the surrounding tank hull? Was he trying to be crude? It's particularly odd given that it makes the area more
complex to draw) is necessarily a good look
2. Saying that comes across, at least to me, as you grasping at straws to make the choice acceptable.
3. If it
was iconic to them, I would think they'd have gone for a less-confused execution. It has a faux-canopy instead of the abstracted stripes to match the toy having the canopy up top, but it's naked like the cartoon version, and both the canopy and faux-canopy are cast in red so they don't match either.
Ugh, this sort of cartoon accuracy is the new "Electronic sounds are compulsory and must be powered by AA or AAA batteries" (*glares at 2007 Leader Megs, ROTF Leader Megs and Jetfire, and DOTM Ironhide*).
primalxconvoy wrote:So far, Hasblo has failed to make any good, updated G1 triple-changers of late.
Disagree hard. In my book, we've had four or five (depending on whether Astrotrain's flaws knock him down to just "alright" for you). Three of whom you overlooked lol. And two of those overlooked three are simply
brilliant in how they tidy up what were easily the messiest triple-changer designs of all G1.
primalxconvoy wrote:Springer was mildly speckled with cr@pple-damage paint,
Fixed that for you
The WFC battle damage isn't the most attractive (and almost as much of a joke as weathering as HFTD Optimus' face paint), but it's a mild speckling that's easily tuned out; you're making a mountain of a molehill. You want "
covered in cr@pple damage", I'll show you my 2005 Obi-Wan's Jedi Starfighter, which feels like it wound up with as much of the randomized carbon scoring as it did red.
Also, minor cosmetic issue =/= fundamentally bad figure. Get some freaking perspective.
primalxconvoy wrote:Astrotrain had a naked rear/back to his shuttlemode,
I'll give you that that's irksome, but I can deal with it (admittedly, due in no small part to my delight he
finally has the smegging steam engine mode back; screw you, Aaron Archer). And he would have
still had it (and probably to a
worse degree, since a Voyager has less overall meat to work with) at Voyager level, because his feet are to blame. But hey, at least that's a case of form taking it on the chin for function.
primalxconvoy wrote:cr@ppie-damage paint
Again, minor.
primalxconvoy wrote:and had useless accessories that jacked-up the price
I'll give you that some of the guns may not have been needed, but the tender is hardly useless (especially for those who were into the Micromasters); it completes the steam engine mode at long last, provides a launch pad for the shuttle mode, and provides the Decepticons with a semi-equivalent to ER Optimus' trailer in terms of being a flat platform with A.I.R.Lock connectors (all the more appreciable with the arrival of ER Airwave and Scorponok).
primalxconvoy wrote:and finally, Blitzwing glaring design flaws.
Here, now, I completely agree with you. Going for the cartoon cockpit in tank mode is an iffy look, especially with the confused execution (although it personally doesn't irritate me; it makes me shake my head, but it doesn't piss me off). And pulling a TR Mindwipe with the wings was completely unnecessary to achieve a good Geewun robot look, and had very aggravating knock-on effects in jet mode. Blitzwing never had a tidy undercarriage, but this stupidity pushed him into ROTF Jetfire/CW Silverbolt territory. It's a far greater degree of damage than the hollowness on Astrotrain's shuttle mode, and doesn't have the defense of being in the name of an added function;
this mess was purely done in a fruitless, needless attempt to aesthetically "improve" the robot mode aesthetics. His execution is so poor I think he should be scrapped and his energon weapons donated to a Titans Return reissue.
primalxconvoy wrote:I'm still gobsmacked at how the whole "WFC/G1 SSl Legacy" line has had some amazing sculpts, that were let down by extremely poor distribution (in both Japan and the US, UK, etc)
Yeah, well, HasTak couldn't stop the world from going crazy around them now could they?
primalxconvoy wrote:, bad paint choices,
IMO the battle damage is only an outright
bad choice on Megatron, where the paint budget should instead have gone to silvering his chest to at least partly save him from looking bland. Otherwise, it's just a "meh" choice and easy. To. Tune. Out.
primalxconvoy wrote:adding unwanted "bulk" (be it accessories or extra figures) to increase the price,
Nope.
Nope.
That is literally not a thing in Transformers.
Because Transformers, to the endless frustration of the Takara designers, uses a fixed. Price-point. System.
The added stuff you see with Leaders is not to "increase the price", but rather to use up whatever budget the figure and its main accessor(y/ies) did not. It's a thing that's been going on ever since the price-point system crystallized.
If anything can be said to increase their price, it's the death of the Ultra price-point that once existed between Voyager and Leader. And I don't know that the market or the retail situation can support resurrecting that.
primalxconvoy wrote:and sub-par engineering.
There has been that - Blitzbungle here and "Let's adapt the unused PotP Evolution design as a standalone Deluxe instead of adapting the actually-integrated T30 design" Arcee come to mind - but IMO it's been the minority.
...Can someone please lock this thread until we get some more news pics or people here actually get some Legacy figures in hand? Because it seems
all this thread is going to be until then is The Kvetch Back and Forth About Blitzwing Show. And it feels like everyone, myself included, keeps getting sucked into it to the detriment of activity everywhere else.
