The Energon Pub

Masterpiece Grimlock's at a pretty good CHUG scale. Hell, with his lights and sounds he feels a bit like a CHUG figure too.

Kurona wrote:Masterpiece Grimlock's at a pretty good CHUG scale. Hell, with his lights and sounds he feels a bit like a CHUG figure too.

I guess. He feels a little big for my Season 3 display as they tended to make him a bit shorter than a Voyager-scale robot while in Dino mode. I think FoC is at a better scale for how Grimlock typically was depicted in S3 (and I hate using too much shelf space for the comic relief sidekick) but FoC Grimlock doesn't really stand up in the scientifically inaccurate upright way or have the massive gut I want on a Grimlock.

It's all compromises. Right now, I'm sticking with MP Grimlock mainly because he looks a bit goofy, the way I want Grimlock to look.

If they are to do Dinobots in the next line, I think you can very much expect Grimlock to be scientifically-accurate.

I'm just hoping for a good Swoop that's not tiny. Love that guy.

Kurona wrote:Just Infinitus and Sovereign that are known to be Titan Masters so far.
And of those, Sovereign wasn't even part of Alpha Trion.

But yeah, so far, only Titans Return and part of a flashback have had Headmasters in IDW.

Remember the -ation series? That introduced headmasters way back at the start.


Scorpinok was one, who first created the technology on Nebulos, and Zarak's mangled corpse looked like it had been cybernetically enhanced, suggesting he had been upgraded to a Headmaster.

Then Scorpinok underwent the process fully on Earth because of an injury Magnus inflicted on him on Nebulos. He partnered with the head of The Machination. I forget his name right now, might be Dwayne.


Then Sunstreaker was turned into a headmaster against his will, partnered with Hunter O'nion.

And there were a bunch of sunstreaker clones who were headmasters with Machination troops, like the Takara story where the body is a lifeless transtector. But most of those were killed by the monsterbots and the dinobots.


Hunter was killed at the end of All Hail Megatron. Sunstreaker blew up and was rebuilt into a non headmaster body.

I think Dwayne was killed. I forget what happened to the oriignal mangled head of Scorpinok.


So I seriously doubt we'll be seeing the original group as headmasters.

Sludge is the only one that makes sense to me as a leader class figure. Grimlock would be too big for me as a leader. If they brought back ultra class I'd be fine with that, though I think the spinosaurus is supposed to be bigger than the tyranosaurus.

In any case, I also think the spinosaurus and tyranosaurus could share engineering in the lower half.

And I think deluxe is the right size for Swoop as well as Slag and Snarl. The problem is the velocirapter. They are so much smaller that legends class seems to be the only option. But if they did do Dinobot we'd all want him in deluxe, so maybe scale gets thrown out the window for that exception?

I'm just speculating about what makes sense to me.

Bradimus wrote:But if they did do Dinobot we'd all want him in deluxe

Really? He's supposed to be the tallest of them all, taller than Primal even. If they make another Dinobot I would want a voyager.

william-james88 wrote:

Bradimus wrote:But if they did do Dinobot we'd all want him in deluxe

Really? He's supposed to be the tallest of them all, taller than Primal even. If they make another Dinobot I would want a voyager.

I agree with this sentiment.

Insurgent wrote:

Kurona wrote:Just Infinitus and Sovereign that are known to be Titan Masters so far.
And of those, Sovereign wasn't even part of Alpha Trion.

But yeah, so far, only Titans Return and part of a flashback have had Headmasters in IDW.

Remember the -ation series? That introduced headmasters way back at the start.


Scorpinok was one, who first created the technology on Nebulos, and Zarak's mangled corpse looked like it had been cybernetically enhanced, suggesting he had been upgraded to a Headmaster.

Then Scorpinok underwent the process fully on Earth because of an injury Magnus inflicted on him on Nebulos. He partnered with the head of The Machination. I forget his name right now, might be Dwayne.


Then Sunstreaker was turned into a headmaster against his will, partnered with Hunter O'nion.

And there were a bunch of sunstreaker clones who were headmasters with Machination troops, like the Takara story where the body is a lifeless transtector. But most of those were killed by the monsterbots and the dinobots.


Hunter was killed at the end of All Hail Megatron. Sunstreaker blew up and was rebuilt into a non headmaster body.

I think Dwayne was killed. I forget what happened to the oriignal mangled head of Scorpinok.


So I seriously doubt we'll be seeing the original group as headmasters.

...
Y'know, you'd think I'd remember that considering I just recently read Maximum Dinobots

Stuartmaximus wrote:Any idea what Prime Wars 3 is gonna bring?

coz there seems to be quite a few people hoping it's Pretenders! maybe Pretender Wars

I think that some more Combiners will show up if we are lucky and that seems to infer animals perhaps.

That way the animal theme can shoehorn in a Headmasters reference with Scorponok in 2018 and also a retro combiner wars revisit with Seacons, Terrorcons etc..

That is what I'd speculate will be around and about somewhere - as for the main theme - perhaps they might do Voyager class Pretenders with interchangable inner robots ?

----

Personally I'd like some Micromasters as I think they'd be both fun, appropriate to the existing toys and useful.

I've been trying them out with the bases and they work pretty well.
I've always liked the idea of main characters getting Micromasters too even if they only represent the characters in tiny form and are not actually supposed to be small Transformers.

Micromasters fit the theme well and people like the Targetmaster ones they have done already didn't they ?

Otherwise they could do some Targetmasters (simply as people were complaining that they had-not) - probably to later there though as most of them have been planned to be beheaded already.

So shelving most of the Nebulan related masters doesn't leave a lot.

Either you go full on Micromaster revisit - perhaps Targetmaster Micromasters - or something like Armada Weapon combiner Minicons were.

The problem is that it would be a marketing disaster to make only small Transformers and Pretenders as that is one of the reasons given for the brand loosing sale in the late 1980's & early 90's. The Likes of Action Masters and Pretenders.

Micromasters are terrific if they are backed with normal toys as they were in Victory - but not at all a great idea as the whole line.

Kurona wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Bradimus wrote:But if they did do Dinobot we'd all want him in deluxe

Really? He's supposed to be the tallest of them all, taller than Primal even. If they make another Dinobot I would want a voyager.

I agree with this sentiment.

In that case I'm all for Voyager, especially if he gets the sword and cool tail weapon done right. But not as a velociraptor, that just doesn't make sense.

I think an army of legends class velociraptors would be cool, like Cruellock.

Bradimus wrote:

Kurona wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Bradimus wrote:But if they did do Dinobot we'd all want him in deluxe

Really? He's supposed to be the tallest of them all, taller than Primal even. If they make another Dinobot I would want a voyager.

I agree with this sentiment.

In that case I'm all for Voyager, especially if he gets the sword and cool tail weapon done right. But not as a velociraptor, that just doesn't make sense.

I think an army of legends class velociraptors would be cool, like Cruellock.

Why are we bringing sense into a series where a rat is half the size of a gorilla?
Now that we know velociraptors had feathers, should he have them too? No
Beast Wars never made sense and I am 100% certain that if fans got a nice big dinobot that turned into a velociraptor they would all be happy. Afterall, they were quite happy with a giant tape recorder which was as big as a plane:

I could see Micromasters working as a Titan Master class replacement/sequel... the only problem is that they're even more obscure than Pretenders. Their only mildly popular characters are Countdown and Erector, and one of them just because you can make dick jokes!

For me an ideal Dinobot lineup would look like this:
Leader- Grimlock and Sludge
Voyager- Snarl and Slag
Delux- Swoop

I still think Grimlock will be a remold of Deathsaurus, but there's also potential for further retooling into BW Transmetal Megatron which would help fill the Megatron quota for the next line. Swoop could also be made into an acceptable enough Terrorsaur depending on the engineering. Also potential for a G2 box set.

Micromasters were huge in Japan back in the day while Marvel regularly included them in the later comics. I'd say there's good potential for them to be brought back someday since they were dropped from the Legends scale partners with Combiner Wars. I'd pay $5 for a 2-pack. Fixit is just begging for a new figure, he was featured prominently as a medic by both Marvel and IDW.

Emerje

Kurona wrote:I could see Micromasters working as a Titan Master class replacement/sequel... the only problem is that they're even more obscure than Pretenders. Their only mildly popular characters are Countdown and Erector, and one of them just because you can make dick jokes!

I think the big iconic stuff they have left boil down to:

Targetmasters - Unlikely after this line as they seem to be using them here. It would need a different spin.

Minicons - More likely. No action feature necessarily.

Powerlinx Combiner or vehicle modes that combine.

Pretenders - Could be interesting as triple changing shellformers or Marvel Legends style figure with Legends/Cyberverse. Not very viable below Voyager scale when you consider all the plastic involved and I lean towards the idea that IF they did them, they'd probably make the human disguises a bit more recognizable for some characters. Although maybe you could do it if the Deluxe figures are famous humans. Ie. Deluxe Doctor Arkeville, Spike, Sparkplug, Dr. Sumdac, Kicker, etc. Voyager Pretender Bumblebee. Maybe for interplayability, the humans have ports to stow figures in and the Legends scale figures also plug in. Leader on up could be more detailed figures. I imagine the robots wouldn't fully peg in but would more or less become backpacks.

Beast Wars/beast modes. I have a feeling that rather than do one or the other, this would be a G1/Beast Wars crossover line with an inbetween aesthetic.

G.I.Joe in a Transformers line. Unlikely to be a proper crossover line like some would hope but I imagine the big thing here would be Titan Master scale Joes with military themed Transformers. Some opportunity for G2 homages (G2 Megatron, military construction vehicle Prime) and desired characters. There are quite a few oddball options here like a mass retail SerpentOR with Old Snake, Starscream as a crimson Guard Rattler, Thundercracker as a default Rattler, Skywarp as Iron Grenadiers rattler. HISS tank Prime and Soundwave. You could get some mileage out of fusing the various crossovers. For example, despite a Cobra vehicle altmode, maybe Starscream has an eyepatch. And you could flat out take some things like maybe a Voyager Rodimus Prime who turns into a treaded Cybertronian convoy tank from IDW TF v. Joe. You could get some army building mechs in each wave like a Decepticon BAT (maybe it turns INTO a bat?), Steel Brigade mech suit, etc. Also ready made for repaints like Night Force, Python Patrol, and Tiger Force.

I lean towards it being the Beast Wars thing, maybe with some kind of powerlinx or minicon feature. Ie. iconic characters as legends scale, turn into weapons for the beasts.

Or maybe the Powerlinx thing, emphasizing things like Prime and Primal merging.

And if we're brainstorming crazy ideas?

Imagine the botmodes split down the middle, VERTICALLY and link up. With the heads going with the right side. So instead of the sometimes frustrating Energon gimmick, this approach leaves you with two figures but they've swapped the left half of their body in bot mode out. The big downside here is that it would mean all characters need the exact same proportions in bot mode, within a scale class.

At this point I think the only gimmick I'd be happy with is beasts for the next line. Keep Pretenders as far away from it as possible.

SureShot18 wrote:At this point I think the only gimmick I'd be happy with is beasts for the next line. Keep Pretenders as far away from it as possible.

Bradimus wrote:Sludge is the only one that makes sense to me as a leader class figure. Grimlock would be too big for me as a leader. If they brought back ultra class I'd be fine with that, though I think the spinosaurus is supposed to be bigger than the tyranosaurus.

In the cartoon i think Grimlock was taller than sludge

SureShot18 wrote:At this point I think the only gimmick I'd be happy with is beasts for the next line. Keep Pretenders as far away from it as possible.

Let me just play with this, going a bit fanfic-y with it:

The year is 2018. Techno-organic warfare has disabled the Autobots and Decepticons who haven't assumed beast modes. Now, the Maximals and Predacons fight over Cybertronian stasis pods. The Dinobot once known as Grimlock, later Clobber, has inherited the Autobot Matrix of Leadership and become the first Maximal leader: Torvus Primal. Meanwhile, a band of Maximals and Predacons from the future have arrived at the Dawn of the Beast Wars, some intent on preserving history and some intent on disrupting it...

As has been pointed out before, there just aren't enough well known Pretenders to warrant doing a whole line out of them. Plus the fact that we potentially have a few Pretenders coming in Titans Return makes that exceedingly unlikely.

I do think there's still potential for Sky Shadow/Thunderwing to be a Pretender being Leader class, with either the shell or inner robot taking a Titan Master head. I'd rather they don't do like the Deluxe and just include a drone to represent the inner robot (even if a Titan Master can ride inside it), would be a seriously missed opportunity.

Emerje

All this talk about how Pretenders won't work but we got a Mega Pretender in Combiner Wars and he worked out find.

I am talking, of course, about Minimus Ambus. Little transformer, giant robot shell for the little robot, shell itself can transform and the little transformer can combine with it in alt mode. Leader Ultra Magnus is a mega pretender, you can deal with that right now.
But honestly i think a few other pretenders done sorta like that might be able to fly. On the other hand, I like what Hasbro was doing in the early 2010s where they mixed elements of the pretender shell and inner robot for their releases. It gave us that awesome ROTF Bludgeon.

william-james88 wrote:

King Kuuga wrote:'course we didn't know Sentinel Prime was a Titan Master either, but that's the power of retcons.

Isnt it just Infinitus who is a Titan Master?

IDW is following the Takara approach of the headmaster (or Titan Master) being the actual character and the body is just a drone, although he is able to control the body without being attached to it. Infinitus seemed to adopt that name briefly to throw off Alpha Trion to his true identity while he got close, and because his toy is named that.

Kurona wrote:a deluxe inner robot would be laughably small.

Ermm.....and what size are the Titan Masters again?

Kurona wrote:Doesn't help that most of those are Decepticons when Hasbro prefers to have Autobot-dominated lines these days.

Well...there was the Classic Pretenders!(Grimlock, Bumblebee, Starscream & Jazz(of whom btw we've still yet to see as part of the Titans Return ))

SureShot18 wrote:At this point I think the only gimmick I'd be happy with is beasts for the next line. Keep Pretenders as far away from it as possible.

Aaahh....but there was Pretender Beasts! so you could still have your beasts, but as Pretenders

Thinking about modern Hasbro, I'm sure they'd overthink the whole Pretender thing by making the shells with interchangeable parts. Full shells would come with a Deluxe class figure but sell as Voyagers and Leaders (with transforming shells), but Deluxe would come with a specialized arm or something while any Deluxe is able to fold in just the right way to fit inside a shell.

Something like:

Leader Thunderwing (with transforming shell and Deluxe inner robot)
Voyager Jazz (with non-transforming shell and Deluxe inner robot)
Deluxe Ratchet (with bonus shell arm)

Basically be like making the shells into big Hero Mashers. I don't know if that's something anyone would actually want (I kinda would), but it seems like a very Hasbro thing to do.

Alternatively, maybe we're overthinking things and it would be better to do snap-on armor like so many RID figures have, but in such a way that the parts blend with the inner robot to look like a cohesive shell. Doesn't seem like it would be very easy to design and limit them on what they can do, but could be fun. There would also be an issue of having a bunch of humans of various sizes. The original Pretenders tended to be within the same size range (aside from the '89 "small Pretenders"). Maybe the IDW way of just being armor and not trying to look human is the way to go?

I'm sure there are all sorts of ways they could do real Pretenders, but I doubt we'll ever see it as the main theme.

Emerje

Aye....i know.....it's just wild speculation until next years Toy Fair

as well as Pretenders.....some are speculating...Action Masters, Micromasters, Beasts(in which the dinobots would be included) & some are even suggesting that Part 3 may go even bigger!(since they've gone from CW, TM....then prob planetformers...Unicron & Primus...as Unicron is on that planet map(TR Exclusives)). but as i said at the start....it's all just wild speculation at the moment

Knowing Hasbro and their obsessions with line-wide gimmicks I would speculate some sort of interchangeability with the shells.

I think we can get away with static legs - I like the idea of inter-changeable arms especially if they have a weapon function in them too. something like a spinning blade hand would compensate a bit for having immovable legs.

If they wanted to do a cheap and cheerful subline of Pretenders the simplest way is to simply reuse existing Legends class or even legion class toys and make a pretty basic shell for them.

For example the old Legion 2.5" Jazz with a shell that he just slips inside of in car mode.

If they wanted to do it another way you could resycle old Hero masher limbs and make a new torso that can hold any hotwheels size car to make some sort of Pretender that way too. especially if the vehicle slotted in the backpack and didn't disrupt the arms and legs.

Think MOTU Figure wearing a knapsack with a car in it.

Stuartmaximus wrote:Aye....i know.....it's just wild speculation until next years Toy Fair

Toy Fair 2017 will still be focusing on Titans Return. All of the stuff we've been seeing leaked still needs to be officially announced and will likely fill up Toy Fair and probably SDCC next year (along with whatever replaces BotCon) as well as New York Comic Con in less than a month from now. Don't expect anything official on part three until maybe Cybertron Con after SDCC depending on how annoyingly fast they release this stuff.

as Unicron is on that planet map(TR Exclusives)).

Unicron was also on the planet map that came with the 2015 SDCC Combiner Hunters set. It doesn't mean anything. Plus we've got Platinum Unicron coming up. Not that that means a new one can't still be made, we've seen that happen a lot lately, but what would they do about size? Another one at the same size or smaller would be pointless and anything bigger would take a Titan slot that isn't available unless it bumped Scorponok or Omega Supreme from 2018.

I'd say beasts have the biggest chance of happening since Trypticon will be out late next year to lead the way much like Fort Max lead the way for Titans Return.

Emerje