The Energon Pub

I sat at the forefront of Combiner Wars, cheering at the top of my lungs about the brilliance and forward thinking of the line. But then they kinda pushed it too far.

First up, Superion and Menasor. Both great (and made greater with upgrades) with nothing to really complain about since they were the first ones up. Then came Defensor. Who at the time really impressed me with the heavy remolding/reshelling of previous figures.

The ones who kinda stand alone (Cyclonus, Prime) I also had no issue with since they were mostly just a bonus. I could take them or leave them (but of course, took!). The Autobot Ark limbs made things really dicey, but even then I didn't care since they weren't really infringing on anything sacred since they've never been done before. Basic motto for them was simply "don't like them, don't buy them" since they weren't hurting anything by existing.

Then we get to Bruticus. I'd bet money that Bruti is second only in popularity next to Devastator. And for him we only got 1 original mold. I don't own him yet, but the one thing I can't look away from in every pic I see is his thighs. They still have those damn light bars from the Hotspot mold, and they're purple. Extreme nitpick? Yes. But it doesn't change the fact that it boils my blood.

Bruticus I think is the begining of the downturn. Scattorshot was a slap in the face, and the proper Computron will likely not have ANY brand new molds (no I'm not counting Groove, even if he was an exclusive import). Same with Liokaiser or whatever it's called. Does this mean this is the future of our combiners? To hope for one new mold with each new set of five? That's kinda sad.

When I got Superion and Menasor in hand, my first thoughts were that the 3P combiners were out of business. Only the hardcores were going to continue buying those. I never bought Uranos, but the UW Supes was perfect for me. I replaced my Intimidator with a PE upgraded UW Menasor. I opted for UW Defensor above the other 3P Deffy's. But then I sat there looking at my FP enhanced Energon Bruticus and wondered... does he need replacing? The only real gripe now with him is that he's slightly shorter than my other combiners on the shelf. But right now, there's a Bruticus on my shelf with 5 completely different molds to each other, AND all the other combiners next to him. With that and my hate for CW Onslaughts thighs, I wonder if I should even be replacing him. And at the this point, CW Computron would have to be one amazing (and unique) looking figure to replace my Quantron.

I guess the point of this rant is about my realization that 3P combiners still have their place. CW did an amazing job, but I fear they are trying to squeeze too much blood from that stone. This thread isn't particularly for or angainst either side, but where do you all land on this debate?

They defiantly pushed it to far with me. I've never been this soured on Hasbro.

Honestly the whole thing doesn't bother me one bit.

Back in the original gattai days of Superion etc, the combiners though sharing the same principles of a central torso + 4 limbs ( Raiden and Devastator exempted) were each unique from the other. Now, we have Superion who looks like Computron (Hb didn't even try to make an effort to change the Computron head) I can't tell with Bruticus but at least the retool makes him cosmetically different from Defensor. The central torso bot too at least greatly differentiated between Onslaught and Hotspot.

Then we have the Motormaster/Optimus torso......great as a single individual, suxx as a torso with the design and center of gravity issues.

Then the rest

1.Grand Galvatron great
2.The Vegetable fembot looks barf though
3 Frikin' Scattershot......barf....

Gone too far? Maybe more on quality over quantity.

shajaki wrote:Then we get to Bruticus. I'd bet money that Bruti is second only in popularity next to Devastator. And for him we only got 1 original mold. I don't own him yet, but the one thing I can't look away from in every pic I see is his thighs. They still have those damn light bars from the Hotspot mold, and they're purple. Extreme nitpick? Yes. But it doesn't change the fact that it boils my blood.

Bruticus I think is the begining of the downturn. Scattorshot was a slap in the face, and the proper Computron will likely not have ANY brand new molds (no I'm not counting Groove, even if he was an exclusive import). Same with Liokaiser or whatever it's called. Does this mean this is the future of our combiners? To hope for one new mold with each new set of five? That's kinda sad.

When I got Superion and Menasor in hand, my first thoughts were that the 3P combiners were out of business. Only the hardcores were going to continue buying those. I never bought Uranos, but the UW Supes was perfect for me. I replaced my Intimidator with a PE upgraded UW Menasor. I opted for UW Defensor above the other 3P Deffy's. But then I sat there looking at my FP enhanced Energon Bruticus and wondered... does he need replacing? The only real gripe now with him is that he's slightly shorter than my other combiners on the shelf. But right now, there's a Bruticus on my shelf with 5 completely different molds to each other, AND all the other combiners next to him. With that and my hate for CW Onslaughts thighs, I wonder if I should even be replacing him. And at the this point, CW Computron would have to be one amazing (and unique) looking figure to replace my Quantron.

I guess the point of this rant is about my realization that 3P combiners still have their place. CW did an amazing job, but I fear they are trying to squeeze too much blood from that stone. This thread isn't particularly for or angainst either side, but where do you all land on this debate?

Shajaki, sometimes I think we were cut from the same cloth because the same thing happened with me.

The repaints were abundant but deep down it was G2 (so yeah, it better be repaints), bonuses like characters we had already gotten (both the Sky Reign and Optimus Maximus limbs) or characters we would never get (the club figures) and that was all fair game. The retools were fine and kept in the spirit of G1 where the transformation was similar but the cars looked different (like Streetwise from Dead End). No problem. But then came Bruticus and its the same as you.

I didnt like that Hotspot torso but the robot mode worked for Hotspot but the vehicle mode blows. People say its supposed to be an airport firetruck but thats just giving in to Hasbro PR. It kinda looks like it just enough to reassure you that it's intentional while the real intention is to salvage a mold for dual purpose of being both Hotspot and Onslought and it ends up suffering on both accounts. Onslought no longer looks imposing and ends up with the same problem as Hotspot in having the feet outward instead of inward (check your hotspot guys, the design team inverted the foot orientation hard) and like you say, he still has the dumb lights.

I am ok with retools and repaints when it works and when no toy suffers, but in this case it does. It really feels lazy. And plus, hasbro throws in with this Bruticus the laziest repaint yet: Blastoff. It doesnt matter that he's not like the original, I actually think Rook and Offroad are cool additions to their own combiners and they show that Hasbro cared for some extra diversity. But here the mold isnt original, the head isnt original, its just a straight up repaint. So I have a real hard time swallowing that this is all about scale and what makes sense (its Transformers, nothing makes sense, give me a break), and instead just here "yeah, well, this was an easy way to do blastoff". And since Hasbro is a business and cutting costs is primordial, that is the primary explanation to this Blastoff, with any aesthetic reason being secondary.

The worst part to me is that since they are calling him Blastoff, he ends up being in the G2 Bruticus set making this the only G2 set to not have the correct molds that exist out there for the actual characters. Now that sucks.. hard

I am ok with vortex since the original mold use was for a new character which wasnt necessary (and which I dont own) and Swindle is a total remold and someone who collects only G1 scramble city updates from Takara wouldnt own this mold yet so I find it fair game (even though the look doesnt work and he's very unpainted and his hands are showing).

So yeah, not a fan of how Hasbro is handling Bruticus and I am much less a fan of Computron.
I said this a while back when people were clamoring for one (when scattershot was revealed) that I wished we didnt get it. I saw it coming. We had that Ramhorn revealed and it was a straight up repaint of brawl, still nothing wrong since its of a character we wouldnt get otherwise and a figure most fans wont get anyways. I was fine with it being like that. But when I saw that itty bitty drill accesory I was getting scared. Is this really what Hasbro would do for Nosecone? Because that is extremely lazy. The Drill isnt even part o the figure!! So yeah, seeing what scattershot looked like and what nosecone could look like, I didnt want a computron, not like this. But people clamoured for it. And they got it ... yay.

I feel fans are partially at fault in this repaint wars. There is this hypocrytical nature to the fandom which I dont get and no one wishes to answer. As soon as there is a figure with a semblance of another character we hear "Do a repaint into this, NOW!". Why?! Leave it be! Let is be its own damn toy. The figure you want will eventually come and when it will, it will be better than a repaint from an unrelated figure (like people who wanted the stunticons redone as pre earth dinobots ). And then when hasbro does give the repaints, like with Liokaiser and Computron, we get complaining that they are repaints. The repaints were asked for and hasro delivered in the cheapest way possible, the way it was clamoured for. And no one is happy.

Sorry for this becoming a rant, I am just so sick of this. What I dislike more than lazy repaints is the fandom asking for them all the time and then complaining about it. I dont ask for them, I dont want them so you bet I will complain when they happen.

Still, I devised a way to get the most out of Combiner Wars without getting too many repaints so that I dont fustrate myself. I got:

Takara Superion
Hasbro Menasor
Hasbro Defensor
and I will get Takara Bruticus

I have not repeated any molds in getting these and I am quite satisfied. Still, it shouldnt be such a chore to monitor that you are getting the most out of ones collection without repeating molds.

william-james88 wrote:Onslought no longer looks imposing and ends up with the same problem as Hotspot in having the feet outward instead of inward (check your hotspot guys, the design team inverted the foot orientation hard) and like you say, he still has the dumb lights.

Yes, thank you. I buy that mold as a firetruck, but not as a military whatever the hell it is. With the drastic reshelling of other figures, I felt there wasn't enough changed with Onslaught to differentiate him with Hotspot.

william-james88 wrote:The worst part to me is that since they are calling him Blastoff, he ends up being in the G2 Bruticus set making this the only G2 set to not have the correct molds that exist out there for the actual characters. Now that sucks.. hard.

I actually have no qualms with the Jet Blastoff, aside from the head. As many have argued, a jet makes more sense. But to keep Slingshots head.... just no guys...

william-james88 wrote:I am ok with vortex since the original mold use was for a new character which wasnt necessary (and which I dont own) and Swindle is a total remold and someone who collects only G1 scramble city updates from Takara wouldnt own this mold yet so I find it fair game (even though the look doesnt work and he's very unpainted and his hands are showing).

Swindle is ok, but I take issue with Vortex. Not because he's a carbon copy of AB, since he's a non-character (sorry Va'al) I can simply ignore. It's that aside from the head, he is exactly the same as Blades. Hopefuly TT's Vortex (having four rotor blades) will help distinguish him.

william-james88 wrote:So yeah, not a fan of how Hasbro is handling Bruticus and I am much less a fan of Computron.

Yup. I see Compy suffering the same fate as Bruticus.

I'll have to get back to this later.... Woooork....

But this my friend, is where we part ways

william-james88 wrote:I feel fans are partially at fault in this repaint wars. There is this hypocrytical nature to the fandom which I dont get and no one wishes to answer. As soon as there is a figure with a semblance of another character we hear "Do a repaint into this, NOW!". Why?! Leave it be! Let is be its own damn toy.

I have no issues when a repaint is done right. With a mold that makes sense, that at least gets a new head. I'm usually pretty happy with that. But CW is a line based solely around that concept, and it's just become too much for me I think.

william-james88 wrote:And then when hasbro does give the repaints, like with Liokaiser and Computron, we get complaining that they are repaints. The repaints were asked for and hasro delivered in the cheapest way possible, the way it was clamoured for. And no one is happy.

Now I've lost you. You kinda make it sound like the same fans are asking for the repaints, then complaining when they get them. And I think it's more like a divide between the fans, one side for and one side against, and that happens all the time.

william-james88 wrote:What I dislike more than lazy repaints is the fandom asking for them all the time and then complaining about it. I dont ask for them, I dont want them so you bet I will complain when they happen.

Or maybe you're just keying in to my whole thread here. I was praising at the start, saying how smart the re-uses were to which now I'm complaining. But as you know, the reason for my flip flop is simply that they've abused the system and now I want some original molds.

Anyways, rant over for tonight

As far as I'm concerned, they haven't gone far enough. If they were gonna cop out and do a repaint for most of the characters out of a base of 8 or 10 molds, they should have gone all the way. They missed out on a lot of characters who could have gotten a CW figure, even if it was a repaint.

We got Prowl and Smokescreen, but not Blue Streak? That mold even got Streetwise!
Even though I would have loved to see a Leader Class Rodimus, we could have gotten a deluxe Rodimus out of the Sunstreaker mold. And couldn't 'Streaker have been retooled into Sideswipe?
If a ghost version of Starscream could be made of 1 of the Aerialbots, why not a regular version, followed by Thundercracker and Skywarp? We got Leader and Legend Classes, we might as well get the deluxes. Who doesn't want a Seeker gestalt? Though I suppose Starscream would be the Voyager in that set.
We get Ironhide and Trailbreaker, but no Kup, as well as First Aid but no Ratchet? The doc is 1 of the most iconic characters ever, he should have gotten his own figure. Instead, we get a worthless filler nobody like Offroad. And since they did Victorion, tying the line into IDW, the First Aid/Ratchet mold could have been made into Pharma, right? As far as I know, Pharma is a new character, who could have gotten a figure! I would have bought it for sure.
We could have gotten Jazz and Nightbeat from the Dead End mold, couldn't we?
How about Inferno and a retooled Grapple from the Hotspot mold?

How about repaints of some Constructicons?

Hook into Grapple.
Long Haul into Wide Load.
Mixmaster into Quickmix.

Also, some obscure characters could have gotten updates easily. Override from Groove, Guzzle from Brawl, just to name a couple.

And last but not least, just because I'm a weirdo, I would have loved an alternate version of Bruticus where Sky Lynx is retooled into Blast Off and is made into the torso and Rook is retooled into a deluxe Onslaught to go with Brawl, Swindle and Vortex.

I realize most of the above is just pointless fan rage combined with some goofy imagination, but I love scrambling gestalts as well as the CW iterations of the G1 characters, and I figure that if Hasbro was gonna cheap out, they should have cheaped out totally and just done as many different characters from the same molds as possible.

shajaki wrote:Now I've lost you. You kinda make it sound like the same fans are asking for the repaints, then complaining when they get them. And I think it's more like a divide between the fans, one side for and one side against, and that happens all the time.

Yeah that makes sense. The fans who want repaints speak up and those hat dont stay quiet but when the repaints come out, those who wantd them dont have anything to say so those who stayed uiet before now speak up. That makes perfect sense. But when looking at the fandom as one entity, which I was doing in my example, it looks odd. But thats becuase fans have different points of view. Still, would be fun for those who dont like repaints to speak up when others are saying how great a repaint of such and such could be. For one, I wouldnt feel so alone But also because complaining once the deal is done is kinda pointless, its not the like the repaint will go away (sadly). But I guess the complaining is also to tell Hasbro to stop, which I also doubt works.

Rodimus Prime wrote:We got Prowl and Smokescreen, but not Blue Streak? That mold even got Streetwise!

Blue Streak will be a club exclusive, I believe it will be the custom class figure for Botcon 2016. So yes, we are getting all the 3 repaint brothers from that mold.

Even though I would have loved to see a Leader Class Rodimus, we could have gotten a deluxe Rodimus out of the Sunstreaker mold.

We did get a CW Rodimus that was a repaint last year, just not the class you wanted.

william-james88 wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:We got Prowl and Smokescreen, but not Blue Streak? That mold even got Streetwise!

Blue Streak will be a club exclusive, I believe it will be the custom class figure for Botcon 2016. So yes, we are getting all the 3 repaint brothers from that mold.

No he won't. They said that the custom class figure will have a not yet released in the U.S. head. Odds are it's going to be the Starscream head. Perfect choice for a custom class figure.

Rodimus Prime wrote:As far as I'm concerned, they haven't gone far enough. If they were gonna cop out and do a repaint for most of the characters out of a base of 8 or 10 molds, they should have gone all the way. They missed out on a lot of characters who could have gotten a CW figure, even if it was a repaint.

We got Prowl and Smokescreen, but not Blue Streak? That mold even got Streetwise!
Even though I would have loved to see a Leader Class Rodimus, we could have gotten a deluxe Rodimus out of the Sunstreaker mold. And couldn't 'Streaker have been retooled into Sideswipe?
If a ghost version of Starscream could be made of 1 of the Aerialbots, why not a regular version, followed by Thundercracker and Skywarp? We got Leader and Legend Classes, we might as well get the deluxes. Who doesn't want a Seeker gestalt? Though I suppose Starscream would be the Voyager in that set.
We get Ironhide and Trailbreaker, but no Kup, as well as First Aid but no Ratchet? The doc is 1 of the most iconic characters ever, he should have gotten his own figure. Instead, we get a worthless filler nobody like Offroad. And since they did Victorion, tying the line into IDW, the First Aid/Ratchet mold could have been made into Pharma, right? As far as I know, Pharma is a new character, who could have gotten a figure! I would have bought it for sure.
We could have gotten Jazz and Nightbeat from the Dead End mold, couldn't we?
How about Inferno and a retooled Grapple from the Hotspot mold?

How about repaints of some Constructicons?

I think the cardinal mistake you're making is assuming that CW is done. We have no idea where Hasbro or Takara are going in the future, but you can bet that they won't let something like a simple money making repaint (Bluestreak/Seekers) pass them by. I fully expect them to release those guys in due time.

But I'm really confused by your arguement. You're mad that they made First Aid and Streetwise instead of Ratchet and Bluestreak? FA and SW are ACTUALLY part of a combiner team. Those other guys are just a bonus. Also it would make sense to see the Season 1/2 bots made before the 3/Movie bots no? For me at least, I think it's unnessesary to make every singe TF a combiner. That's overkill x10.

Devastator needs no re-purposing. Make a G2 yellow version, multicolored Diaclone(?) version, but leave it at that.

shajaki wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:...

I think the cardinal mistake you're making is assuming that CW is done. We have no idea where Hasbro or Takara are going in the future, but you can bet that they won't let something like a simple money making repaint (Bluestreak/Seekers) pass them by. I fully expect them to release those guys in due time.

I agree I think we're definitely bound to see more repaints of these figures into Bluestreaks and sideswipes and seekers and I welcome that whole-heartedly.

My 2cents on the topic at hand: I have absolutely no problem with them repaint these figures into oblivion for the generic autobots and decpticons, I think its fun. What bothers me is the extreme reuse of the molds for the actual combiner teams. These guys deserved to have a little more time and effort put into them. They should be special. Afterall this is Combiner Wars.

There was about 90 repaints in Combiner Wars when John Garringer made a rant video about it - since then there must be at least another 20.

shajaki wrote:But I'm really confused by your argument. You're mad that they made First Aid and Streetwise instead of Ratchet and Bluestreak? FA and SW are ACTUALLY part of a combiner team. Those other guys are just a bonus.

Yes, you are confused, as I wasn't mad that First Aid and Streetwise were made instead of Blue Streak and Ratchet. I'm irritated at the fact that it seems so easy for Hasbro to churn out repaints, why couldn't they start with 2 of the original characters who are (I presume) held in high regard by the fandom? Especially Ratchet! I'm very happy to see First Aid and Streetwise, especially First Aid, due to his MTMTE personality, but I will always consider Ratchet a staple of Transformers lore who should be in every continuity or at least every toy line in 1 form or another. But as I said, it's all just my opinion.

Rodimus Prime wrote: I will always consider Ratchet a staple of Transformers lore who should be in every continuity or at least every toy line in 1 form or another.

You must be real extatic about this upcoming release then

Is this going too far ?

MelRains wrote:My 2cents on the topic at hand: I have absolutely no problem with them repaint these figures into oblivion for the generic autobots and decpticons, I think its fun. What bothers me is the extreme reuse of the molds for the actual combiner teams. These guys deserved to have a little more time and effort put into them. They should be special. Afterall this is Combiner Wars.

YES. This. You basically just summed up my entire essay rant in one sentence.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

shajaki wrote:But I'm really confused by your argument. You're mad that they made First Aid and Streetwise instead of Ratchet and Bluestreak? FA and SW are ACTUALLY part of a combiner team. Those other guys are just a bonus.

Yes, you are confused, as I wasn't mad that First Aid and Streetwise were made instead of Blue Streak and Ratchet. I'm irritated at the fact that it seems so easy for Hasbro to churn out repaints, why couldn't they start with 2 of the original characters who are (I presume) held in high regard by the fandom? Especially Ratchet! I'm very happy to see First Aid and Streetwise, especially First Aid, due to his MTMTE personality, but I will always consider Ratchet a staple of Transformers lore who should be in every continuity or at least every toy line in 1 form or another. But as I said, it's all just my opinion.

But all the Season 1 Autobots are second stringers to begin with. The actual combiner teams should be the higher priority as opposed to a pile of Autobots the never combined before this toy line. Besides, love them or hate them, the Vans and Datsuns have Classics figures. When was the last First Aid or Streetwise made?

How mad would fans be if their first combiners were the Season 1 Autobots, Seekers, and other generic bots who never combined before in any fiction... above the actual proper combiner teams?

I don't think we have too many mold reuses in CW. In fact some repaints like Prowl are better than the original toy they're painted from

shajaki wrote:But all the Season 1 Autobots are second stringers to begin with. The actual combiner teams should be the higher priority as opposed to a pile of Autobots the never combined before this toy line. Besides, love them or hate them, the Vans and Datsuns have Classics figures. When was the last First Aid or Streetwise made?

I think you're still misunderstanding my point. I have no problem with ANY of the combiner teams being produced 1st, and yes, I also think they all should have had their own molds. But as far as the REPAINTS go, what I'm saying is that Hasbro should have milked them for everything they were worth, and that there are plenty of characters they could have repainted the original molds into.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I think you're still misunderstanding my point. I have no problem with ANY of the combiner teams being produced 1st, and yes, I also think they all should have had their own molds. But as far as the REPAINTS go, what I'm saying is that Hasbro should have milked them for everything they were worth, and that there are plenty of characters they could have repainted the original molds into.

Ahhh kay. I getcha now. Yeah, each combiner member should have had original molds (or retooling of the Slingshot/Cyclonus levels). After that, everything else is fair game.

My rant thread might be short lived however. With the newest (clearer) images of UW Bruticus, my fiery rage has been quelled.





There's enough new paintwork on Onslaught to almost make me forget all my complaints. His vehicle mode looks like its own now, and those silly siren lights (while still present) are the same color as the rest of his legs, so much less noticeable. So:
-Blast-Off and Brawl, two brand new molds.
-Swindle, enough retooling for me to consider "new".
-Vortex, only rotor blades changed but it's enough and really helps the look of the combined mode.
-Onslaught, at his base he has a lot of retooling but there were still key Hotspot parts that were eyesores to me. However, Takara's paintwork really brings it home.

I'm feeling pretty good about UW Bruticus, but I don't really have high hopes for Computron. But this has taught me to not get all "Ironhide panel panicky", so I'll definitely keep my negativity in check until we see more of it

I have no idea what Takara was thinking with those colours it looks like they made some colours up randomly and then threw them in a blender with Cartoon Bruticus and Operation Combination Baldigus, not quite so noticeable in combined mode.

But I think the issue here is that they put some desire for cartoon accuracy way to high above what looks good on the moulds leading to a very strange final result in vehicle and individual robot modes.

Blast off is plain peculiar looking to me. - I used to think the Warbotron one was a bit odd but these are far far stranger looking to me.

And where ever they got the idea that Brawl is brown from they need to stop it - it's bad enough having Hasbro's being almost brown to have both versions be almost brown is inexcusable - even more so than using G1 logos on a G2 toy is.

I guess this all springs from the same vein of stupid that makes Takara put Starscream's wing logos on upside down. It's fine to appreciate or even revere the cartoon - but there is such a thing as going to far and wandering in the realms of bad taste as a result.

The colours on this Bruticus are part of the same mindset that has Optimus Prime have grey upper legs - when they were likely supposed to be silver - but due to the limitations of the medium came out grey so thus so many subsequent toys come out with grey legs - to such a degree people don't even think about it as a feature any more.

[To me anyway]

shajaki wrote:I'm feeling pretty good about UW Bruticus, but I don't really have high hopes for Computron. But this has taught me to not get all "Ironhide panel panicky", so I'll definitely keep my negativity in check until we see more of it

But your negativity and comments still hold water for Hasbro's Bruticus.

william-james88 wrote:

shajaki wrote:I'm feeling pretty good about UW Bruticus, but I don't really have high hopes for Computron. But this has taught me to not get all "Ironhide panel panicky", so I'll definitely keep my negativity in check until we see more of it

But your negativity and comments still hold water for Hasbro's Bruticus.

For Onslaught, and Blast-Off's lack of new head, yes.

This is how I've approached CW: we got a lot of repaints and remolds, sure, but when I look at them versus their G1 counterparts, the toys themselves have improved. The engineering has improved so that we now have actual poseable figures instead of virtual bricks. They no longer have the fused-together feet, nor the tiny, tiny heads that served as the combiner plugs. Moreover, the super robots themselves are more improved, with actual elbow, knee, and hip articulation. And, even though they make for pretty small feet, the gunfoothands are cool because they have a use in any figure's mode, whether vehicle, robot, or combiner part.

The G1 combiner limbs had very similar transformation schemes (flip one end out into feet, flip the other end to reveal the head, rotate arms at the elbows), so even if the vehicles were more diverse-looking, you had a toy that was ultimately a lot like the other toys on your combiner teams. I don't mind retools and repaints in this age; I still think we're doing better than thirty years ago (even if we didn't know what we were missing back then).

My only gripe with CW is that I was hoping for more original characters (as in entire original teams, not just replacing one guy with a "new recruit"). I wish we had more teams of new 'bots like the Torchbearers (who can't be released soon enough).

Glarryg

I am... kinda like GlarryG, but I also think Shajaki has a point, too. Overall the CW line's given us some great toys, and the retooling is most welcome. But the overall mold use has gone too far. Alpha Bravo is a particular offender, much as I legit like the toy. I've seen reviews that note loose limbs from the sheer number of times they've been redone.