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I hope Titan Masters can sit in Beachcomber and Windcharger.

Sadly these are the only figures that excite me.

I WAS excited about Rodimus, but i wish it was just like the G1 figure or the recently released Ultra Magnus where it just was a Rodimus and not also a Hot Rod. The Dinobots keep looking worse and worse. The combiner bits and the limpy feet on Grimlock's beastmode look horrible and the absence of proper weapons (one gun one sword per) is making these a pass for me. I'll wait to see what Takara does with these.

RodimusRex wrote:

Carnivius_Prime wrote:
Swoop looks the best out of the Dinobots for me. Or maybe it's just cos his original toy was never released in the UK.

Be thankful. He was all I wanted for Christmas one year. He was hard to find at that point. He was the only Dinobot I REALLY wanted. (I always thought Grimlock looked cool, though.)

I got him... and his neck snapped right out of the package. I was actually very emotional about the decision between exchanging for another that might have had the same defect or getting something else I wasn't as excited about.

I pretty much have to get this one.

Yeah he's even mentioned on TFWiki as being one of the most fragile toys of G1. I wanted it though cos he was probably the 2nd most interesting Dinobot after Grimlock due to some really cool stories in the Marvel UK comics such as the Professor Morris/Centurion stuff and the name thing with Divebomb. And yeah the PotP toy is one of the very few from the line I think looks even half good and a much needed update of the old toy despite the commom modern flaws that make the toys feel a lil crappier (like the hollow limbs and such). I may get one and paint his heads blue like the Marvel UK comic stories I liked him so much in.

It will be a bit hard to find all the Prime Master "pretenders" because of the weird name changes.

Also, that Jazz... MAN, that JAZZ!

Personally, I like all of these. I've noticed Swoop and Slash seem to be getting the least amount of hate...

Also, remember when people were complaining about Alpha Bravo being a helicopter in a team of jets? Well Swoop is a flying reptile in a team of dinosaurs, so there you go.

Va'al wrote:

Looks like Windcharger's forehead is being painted after all, that looks much better.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Ok, call me genuinely confused about the whole associated Prime Master thing:

Slash has two: Liege Maximo and Alchemist Prime. And several others don't match up with what we've previously seen. I did see that Leader Class boxes have three Primes as co-sells, maybe every figure has three?

Or maybe I'm just looking too much into things as per usual.

I thought every toy could come with a card for any primemaster?

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Still hate that the Pretender characters are just pushed aside and their shells being used with their names but for other characters.

Surely it's the other way round? The inner robots of the primemasters are based on the inner robots of the pretenders rather than the member of the Thirteen they are linked with.

Rodimus Prime - ...nope. Not excited. I mean, I AM, but I can't bring myself to buy it. Unless Hasbro makes a Roddy better than dx9 Carry, I'll just wait and save up for that. Plus I'm just enjoying my Takara Legends Targetmaster Hot Rod right now.

Optimus Prime - will wait and see what Takara does deco-wise. I do want that Orion Pax but the cab on Prime in vehicle mode is awful.

Dinobots - I feel I'm just going to have to go 3rd party here and have the Dinobots be ones I really save up for and have them done accurately because this is the best we'll get from Hasbro here, and it's really quite underwhelming. I don't think they needed to make Grimlock's transformation so G1 accurate... that tail... the holes in his chest... bleh.

Windcharger - Will wait for Takara deco with darker grey.

Beachcomber - instabuy

Dreadwind - instabuy as well as Darkwing

Pretenders & Primes - instabuy. Great price point and I love this idea.

Starscream - Wow.. I need to wait to see Takara's deco. His head looks TINY and so white.. like he's very small and wearing a Starscream "armor" lol...

Also.. I'm glad that they're continuing along making the 1984 bots into combiner limbs with Jazz. Cool scramble city idea, but I'm happy with my RTS Jazz for my chug collection. I don't need EVERYONE to combine. Although I am veeeeeeeeeery happy with the titan master line making so many headmasters. It always annoyed me having so many empty cockpits.

So, the extra piece (which is a hand-foot-gun-armor apparently) which come with the deluxe has apparently some extra chunk you can slide in to fill the hole if you lack a Titan Master/Prime Master/Enigma/Matrix. That's neat.

Seriously, it may be somewhat silly but the sheer amount of mix-and-max shenanigans between the three lines in the Prime War trilogy is beyond absurd. In a good way, mind you, which sort of make me sad that kids nowadays are more into being stuck to their smartphone than enjoying a fun toy with a lot of things it can do.

KVO Prime wrote:Dinobots - I feel I'm just going to have to go 3rd party here and have the Dinobots be ones I really save up for and have them done accurately because this is the best we'll get from Hasbro here, and it's really quite underwhelming. I don't think they needed to make Grimlock's transformation so G1 accurate... that tail... the holes in his chest... bleh.

It's not that G1 accurate, the dino tail out of his bot legs doesn't even transform the same way. The G1 had them fold over (as did many many other G1 figures), this PotP one just collapses the legs towards the torso. Had they been able to get the G1 transform in this section, the dino mode might have looked so aweful.

Omegatron. wrote:

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Still hate that the Pretender characters are just pushed aside and their shells being used with their names but for other characters.

Surely it's the other way round? The inner robots of the primemasters are based on the inner robots of the pretenders rather than the member of the Thirteen they are linked with.

Then that should be the only name in big letters on the packaging if it were true. Either way these are pathetic.

Seriously, it may be somewhat silly but the sheer amount of mix-and-max shenanigans between the three lines in the Prime War trilogy is beyond absurd. In a good way, mind you, which sort of make me sad that kids nowadays are more into being stuck to their smartphone than enjoying a fun toy with a lot of things it can do.

Or it's denying fans of particular characters a figure that does them justice because they have been butchered by forcing an unneccessary and mostly unwanted gimmick into it in order to try convince you to buy more of them for the 'playvalue'. It really was too much to ask Hasbro to just do quality well designed/articulated affordable G1 Dinobots without having them combine and mess up the designs of the characters. Grimlock right there is proof of that. Looks like absolute garbage in every pic. And it's not even worth it cos the combined form ain't exactly all that good looking either (it's no Beast for sure but it's still pretty poor and doesn't do the team any favours) Same goes for all the G1 cars whether Jazz here or Sunstreaker, Prowl and co in Combiner Wars.

It's no wonder more third-party companies keep popping up with their own attempts to please the fanbase when Hasbro keep putting money into this crud.

Honeslty? I'm going to be that guy and give my two cent on all the arguments on how and why these 'look like ****':

Yes I am aware of the fact that 'intrusive gimmicks are evil' (to quote a certain internet toy reviewer) and can understand that people are annoyed by the gimmicks. However, knowing how this fanbase is, I'm going to bring up the fact that pretty much nothing short of a masterpiece figure will ever satisfy people who want a modern, udpated and sometimes true-to-cartoon representation of a specific character. You know its true, deep down, you'll never be happy with anything less. This type of market is very markedly different from the 'retail market'.

Now I'm also aware this will easily come off as making me a 'hasbro shill' for daring to defend some shady toy-making company. However (and this is just my theory) I do think quite a bit more goes into deciding if a character gets a new figure. One thing which has emerged quite a bit in recent years is just how far remolding and shared engineering has come and I think getting more than one use of a mold, if possible, has become a large motivator in the design process of who gets a new figure and who doesn't. Now, again, this is just my theory but it goes like this: presumably, when it was decided that PotP would have combiners, it became clear they were aiming on having some of the late-G1 combiners done. And, as it happen, Monstructor/Dinoking could very much share engineering with the Dinobots so it they decided this was a good opportunity to make new dinobots.

Another thing worth noting and this is again purely my theory is that Transformers has begun suffering its 'brand fatigue' after being pushed so much into the spotlight in 2007 by the bay movies. Now we have 3-4 transformers toylines occupying the same shelf at the same time and, if my observations are correct, seem to be selling less and less. Toys are on the way out and Transformers is less and less making money in north america.

From what I get on posting here, there is a very strong chunk of the older fanbase who simply do not really care for retail releases and prefer more high-end, more costly 'collector' figures which are the Masterpiece and Third Party figures. After all there is hardly a fanbase as whiny and unpleasable as Transformers fans.

If I had to nitpick I'd say that I'm not keen on the fact that Rodimus suit kibble(trailer turns into big robot body) is just only that! no sign as of yet that the trailer could ALSO do this

All these posts basically say "I don't like it so it's stupid" or "How dare Hasbro make toys that will be fun for kids instead of things that pander directly to their smallest demographic". I swear you guys almost make me ashamed to be a Transformers fan.

Eeeeeehhhhhh boy those Dinobots aren't looking good. The combining gimmick really hit the poor things hard IMO, Grimlock especially. And the plastic and paint (or rather lack thereof) really look awful. It's not even about GEEWUN for me- if I were a kid I'd probably pass them up.

I really wish we'd get a line that's not "The G1 cast BUT THEY'RE ALL COMBINERS" or "The G1 Cast BUT THEY'RE ALL HEADMASTERS". How about "The G1 cast BUT THEY'RE ALL REALLY GOOD" instead? I don't mind Headmasters or Combiners but not for the whole line. Oh, and actual paint budget would be nice too.

I mean yeah, I get kids are always going to be the main demographic. But when Hasbro themselves have said 20% of their profits come from collectors, and these are our ONLY options for official updated G1 Dinobots (I don't count that set of AoE Redecoes for obvious reasons) it feels a bit insulting that THIS is what they think we should be content with.

TLDR: I'm gonna get the ToyWorld ones instead. Or the rumoured improved reissues from Zeta Toys if those happen.

steals_your_goats wrote:All these posts basically say "I don't like it so it's stupid" or "How dare Hasbro make toys that will be fun for kids instead of things that pander directly to their smallest demographic". I swear you guys almost make me ashamed to be a Transformers fan.

Well, the more time pass in the fanbase and the more there are crusty old grognards like us. It's a 30 years old franchise: we're at the point where people who started with the Unicron Trilogy are adults now.

Skritz wrote:

steals_your_goats wrote:All these posts basically say "I don't like it so it's stupid" or "How dare Hasbro make toys that will be fun for kids instead of things that pander directly to their smallest demographic". I swear you guys almost make me ashamed to be a Transformers fan.

Well, the more time pass in the fanbase and the more there are crusty old grognards like us. It's a 30 years old franchise: we're at the point where people who started with the Unicron Trilogy are adults now.

See that's not an excuse though. That fact that this fan base is mostly older makes all the bitching and complaining that much more embarrassing. You read comments on here and you'd think everyone was a teenager from all the angsty crap. I'm not saying that everyone should like everything but I do think that people can express dissenting opinions without being a total twat.

steals_your_goats wrote:You read comments on here and you'd think everyone was a teenager from all the angsty crap.

Well, ya gotta be a manchild to keep liking Transformers, so that's not all unusual. And yes, I'm admitting to being one but at least I'm honest about it and have come to term with the fact its primarily a kid's serie and will remain a kid's series.

I'm seeing that too!(people never happy with what Hasbro/Takara delivers) + most on forums are grumpy because they are not getting the figure the way that THEY imagine it! on some transformers related forums(not naming any specific ones) people go as far to actually verbally attack others over the fact whether a toy is this or that or not this or that, but that's not the worst! the worst is actually the utter hatred of the live action movies! granted they are no masterpieces, but I'm sure that you've all seen examples of negative comments ect over the years for the films(but that's a debate for another thread).

Maybe it's just my unusual circumstances of the fact the last time I was actively buying toys was during Beast Machine and that I only started collecting back during late CW/early Titans Return. I'm aware that toy quality has gone downhill in many areas, such as the hollowed plastic and a lack of paint apps but having skipped toy collecting since the (very) late '90 to 2016 I'm seriously left with an impression that some people have gotten mildly spoiled.

You know how 'old men rant about how things were back in their days'? Well, I'm the opposite of the usual in that I can only praise modern stuff compared to the crap I had 'back in my day'. Oh sure, Beast Wars had some really great figures, all of them I still own today but the thing which I've noticed the most with modern toys is how much things have nonetheless improved overall in spite of the cost-cutting of the current era. While I'm aware that yes, its true these figures certainly could be better (and my current theory as to why there are issues with recent Generations figure is due to too much Transformers on shelves)....I can't help but think a lot of you have gotten spoiled over the years.

Looking back at older toys from the era I've missed up on (especially Unicron trilogy) I see that even in lines with gimmicks up the wazoo there has been an overall improvement. It's easy to complain about characters being made into combiner limbs but then I look at crap like the Energon Autobots and their shirt/pant powerlinx mode and their huge block, misshapen and out-of-proportion bodies and I'm genuinely left wondering how people complain when, frankly, the toylines have seen far far worse.

This is purely my subjective and biased opinion but, at least in my very humble opinion, the good has outweight the bad in recent years. We've seen more update of characters who had never seen mass retail toys or even any chance whatsoever of ever returning to shelves and getting some love and exposure than we ever had in years. We got full combiner teams, scramble-city style limb swapping being made into a functional gimmick again, headmasters as well as other -master characters remade into headmasters and for those people who hated that, a 'fix' in the Takara version. We even got new triple-changers, including all three Decepticon triple-changers in a single toyline. But all I hear is 'boohoo, they made Blitzwing a headmaster, ruined my childhood forever'!

I don't know about you guys but from the perspective of a guy who had been out of collecting for more than a decade, this seems like a pretty damn good time for Transformers in spite of the cost-cutting and odd gimmick.

btw the price hiking of figures by Hasbro ect don't help either, I guess

Stuartmaximus wrote:btw the price hiking of figures by Hasbro ect don't help either

Yes, btw, I will concede price hiking+cost cutting is scummy and a rather annoying development. Just so people are clear that I'm not some kind of Hasbro 'apologist'. However, as said in all previous posts: I do suspect there are several factors which have come to explain the developments in recent years, from the dying of the toy industry to economic problems to brand fatigue.

However I still hold firm on my position that in many ways the good has outweight the bad. Especially after that slump during the TFPrime and mid-Generations when things got cheaper and smaller.

Slug's dino mode looks like a very angry potato.

Well, all in all at the very least I'm picking up Dreadwind should I ever find him in store. He looks like a decent little deluxe with the added bonus of combiner limb and his chest armor as a nod to his Powermaster gimmick. If I do pick him then Darwking is next and these two are getting displayed with my Overlord.

Yes, I know, the hypothetical Takara version may very well end up colored like Buster and Hydra but shipping is a real bitch, so I'll let my imagination fill in the gaps.

Skritz wrote:Well, all in all at the very least I'm picking up Dreadwind should I ever find him in store. He looks like a decent little deluxe with the added bonus of combiner limb and his chest armor as a nod to his Powermaster gimmick. If I do pick him then Darwking is next and these two are getting displayed with my Overlord.

Yes, I know, the hypothetical Takara version may very well end up colored like Buster and Hydra but shipping is a real bitch, so I'll let my imagination fill in the gaps.

Or you could just use a Sharpie. You can get tiny ones for like, $0.99

Skritz wrote:Maybe it's just my unusual circumstances of the fact the last time I was actively buying toys was during Beast Machine and that I only started collecting back during late CW/early Titans Return. I'm aware that toy quality has gone downhill in many areas, such as the hollowed plastic and a lack of paint apps but having skipped toy collecting since the (very) late '90 to 2016 I'm seriously left with an impression that some people have gotten mildly spoiled.

Sincerely, if you started back with CW/TR you haven't seen the worst. T30& co have been filled of more hollowness than that, floppy toys with pannels which never wants to tab in place in any modes, fragile or painful transformations etc..
With CW/TR we're back to solid toys wihth solid transformations. I heard there's been a big team change, and we can see it.

You can count me on the team of people who like the new direction since CW, with all the gimicks.
I never stopped collecting since 2003, but between the end of Cybertron and the begining of CW, I can't remember a single TF who entertained me. Several look fine on my shelves, but that's all, they're weren't good toys, sometimes not fun to transform etc..

Skritz wrote:However, knowing how this fanbase is, I'm going to bring up the fact that pretty much nothing short of a masterpiece figure will ever satisfy people who want a modern, udpated and sometimes true-to-cartoon representation of a specific character.

Exactly. Especially in cases where there's already been a cartoon-accurate MP of HotRod or Grimlock. Please contemplate these on your shelves and let me enjoy combining the new Grimlock with his team and the new Rodimus with his trailer.

Stuartmaximus wrote:If I had to nitpick I'd say that I'm not keen on the fact that Rodimus suit kibble(trailer turns into big robot body) is just only that! no sign as of yet that the trailer could ALSO do this
http://i57.tinypic.com/33cn6aa.jpg

Why should it do it ? You already have the toy which can do it.