Well, I don't know that you can call Astrotrain or Team Bullet Train "obscure"
Although honestly, I think Team Bullet Train would be best served by a reissue - they're modern-design toys already and their molds are still viable. The RiD characters that most need remaking are in fact cars - the Autobot Brothers' molds have been confirmed as too degraded, and Prowl and X-Brawn's designs had some ill-advised use of clear plastic (especially Prowl).
I would like to see modernized versions of the Trainbots even if it seems unlikely with Warden's biases, since as Diaclone-originating bricks they need it the most. Even if they were going to be made, I doubt it would be during SIEGE simply because there's no room left in the line for them
There might possibly be room for Astrotrain, but then again maybe not. I wouldn't mind getting a new toy of him at some point in the WFC trilogy -
if and only if it was Earth-modes. For one thing, we already got a Cybertronian mode Astrotrain during Titans Return. For another, steam locomotives are super awesome.
steals_your_goats wrote:Are you forgetting all the obscure characters we've gotten in the past few years? Skylynx, Sky Shadow, two different Metalhawks, all the fem bots, punch/Counterpunch, both duocons and on and on. There's no real reason to think that train bots are any more obscure than anything we've gotten recently. Hell we even got (a version of) Liokaiser. Nothing is off the table.
....Are you entirely clear on the meaning of the word "obscure"?
Sky Lynx and Punch/Counterpunch aren't obscure. Sky Lynx featured heavily in Season 3 of the G1 cartoon and was featured in the Marvel, Dreamwave, and IDW comics as well. Punch/Counterpunch was prominent in The Rebirth. Black Shadow was brought into western fans' awareness more prominently by the IDW comics. Metalhawk was similarly lifted by both Wings of Honor and the IDW comics.
The Duocons are a bit more obscure, but were still known to western fans from the Marvel comics, the IDW comics, and their original toy commercial.
Raiden on the other hand has never shown up in a western continuity, although he's at least well known to Japanophile G1 fans.