Diem wrote:primalxconvoy wrote:Completely unacceptable that mainline G1 transformer characters are only coming out for the "American Collectors' Club". Hardly anyone outside the USA can afford to get these.
While I agree with your sentiment here ONE HUNDRED PERCENT I have to disagree with the specifics. The odds of the likes of Windsweeper coming out at retail are insanely low; if the club wasn't releasing them they just plain wouldn't exist.
Sure, we had a nice little string of insanity for a while, with the likes of Thunderwing, Straxus, Scoop and Crosscut getting released, but with the exception of Armada Megatron the Combiner Wars line so far is pure 1984-1986. Even the most left field character shown so far, Sky Lynx, is still a prominent character with a number of cartoon episodes under his belt. Yeah, if they announce Joyride or Squeezeplay or someone tomorrow I'll eat every hat I own, but right now I feel like we're back on the Cartoon-Only Pony for a little trot.
I don't think we'll see that era come to an end, honestly.
What I think we're seeing is that Hasbro is mastering the art of PREpaints after years of taking flack for repaints.
You release a bunch of figures of less iconic characters first with repaints/retools planned well in advance for the iconic versions. You also slide in some of the reverse at the same time to keep interest steady. Hence, coming out with Skywarp before Starscream.
What that likely means is that iconic characters are probably being designed with less iconic repaints/retools in mind. Literally half the time, you release the iconic one first. Half the time, you release the obscure one first.
This keeps the shelf assortment looking diverse and balances out iconic character releases.
Also, I figure you'll always try to have periodic wildcards just to ping the interest of niche collectors. Laser Prime, Straxus, Goldfire, Scoop, etc. all appeal, I think, to fringe parts of the fandom. You take turns getting different fringe bases excited.
I figure we'll see 1-2 G2 or Machine Wars characters a year, for instance, going forward. Rapido or Pyro might be further out but a Thunderclash/MW Prime or maybe Thunderclash with slight Energon Rodimus redeco (ala the Armada Megs in CW) seems likely to me.
But what I see them doing is juggling in and out Season 3, G2, Target Master, Animated, Armada, IDW, etc. fandoms so that one of the splinter groups is always getting something while driving the core line and iconic 1984 and Bay movie characters at the core.
I think that's how they see the various splinter fandoms, though: as fringe-but-passionate segments they can take turns activating to keep interest in the core brand up.
Here's Mustang Bumblebee, Geewun Prime, and Tank Megatron... Oh! And have a new Prowl as a motorycle.
Here's Starscream, Soundwave, and Drift... Oh! And have a Sentinel Maximus while you're at it.
Here's Shockwave, Hound, and Ultra Magnus... And why not a new Dinobot?
They've got the CORE BRAND which IDW, Bayverse, and Geewun are the core of. But they're trying to keep everyone else JUST interested enough to support that. They're not gonna drop the obscure stuff. They'll probably plan some of it as repaints, some as prepaints, and some as wildcards to build excitement.