Rated X wrote:william-james88 wrote:Rated X wrote:The whole point of chug is to give us the toys from the cartoon we never had.
Nope. The whole point of CHUG is to have toys on the shelves in between films and tv show based lines to keep brand awareness.
What is included in a CHUG line or how the toys look will change depending on which designer is in charge of the line, there is no set rule.
Totally disagree. Youre talking about the point of CHUG from a corporate perspective. I'm talking about the point of CHUG from a designers perspective. And CHUG started in 2006 (arguably earlier with Universe line) The 1st Bay Movie was a year away. The Unicron Trilogy was over and the next show (Animated) was a few years away. So saying CHUG is strictly for "Brand Awareness" in-between shows/movies is a bit of a misstatement. I think its fair to say that CHUG was an experiment in 2006 but since 2016 it has pretty much been the main line. The last 2 movie lines failed and seem more like filler in-between CHUG lines.
Yep, and at that point they were even less slavish to G1.
william-james88 wrote:What is included in a CHUG line or how the toys look will change depending on which designer is in charge of the line, there is no set rule.
This I do agree with you. We have seen the line slowly shift from "Neo" alt modes to straight up G1 alt modes. I imagine the newer designers see the value of cartoon accuracy more than their predecessors who designed the Universe 2.0 lines.
That or they just lack imagination to come up with anything different. And even then, a lot of the alt modes are changed/altered; from minor things like the Aerialbots and Stunticons (who are quite different cars and jets to the originals) to more radical changes like Megatron in TR getting a tank and jet mode as opposed to an unsellable and kinda daft gun mode.
Especially when doing a homage to character with minimal appearances in the cartoon.
What the hell is the point in being slavishly accurate to the cartoon depiction of a character that barely appeared in the cartoon? Especially for guys like the Jumpstarters who never appeared in the cartoon, or the Headmasters who got precisely a few minutes at most of screentime in the poorly animated even by G1 standards travesty that is The Rebirth (not to mention the fact that in the show that actually featured them prominently- The Headmasters anime- they looked very different). Why bother paying homage to such insignificant appearances?
But I take issue with "G1 toy accuracy" when it homages decos that suck
Most of the toy decos were fine though. The toys haven't aged well from an engineering standpoint because they were designed in the early 80s (or in some cases the late 70s!) but the decos were for the most part pretty good. In some cases blatantly superior to the cartoon. Like Astrotrain with his snazzy black loco mode and crisp white shuttle mode, or basically every instance of toy silver or chrome over toon white or grey.
because of corporate decisions which have nothing to do with the fiction.
Alas, real life is a b!tch.
My definition of "Toy accuracy" at its worst would be Hot Rod having orange hands
OH NO NOT THE ICONIC HANDS
or Blitzwing having a purple faces just because the G1 brick makers were too cheap to add a little more paint.
Blitzwing's face is a mess for sure, but not because of the colour. I don't mind the purple, the problem is it's applied way too thick.
Cheesy tech decals are another corporate concoction that I cringe that they love to homage.
Honestly those tech details were sweet as hell. The problem is they're stickers instead of proper tampographs.
And now instead of giving actual "rub signs" like they did in Universe 2.0, they actually give you an imitation rub sign on Hun-Grrr's shoulder.
How stupid is that ?
It makes you angry so IMO it's pretty good.
If Hasbro is too cheap to do rub-signs this round, just go with the cartoon accurate identical faction signs on each shoulder.
Fashionable asymmetry isn't so bad. I mean, I would have preferred actual tampos to those awful stickers, but I don't mind him having something different on each shoulder.
Also the red tech decals on the dragon necks forming the proper shape of Abominus chest plate is total fail.
"This interesting solution to giving the character his classic chest shape is awful! How DARE they use creative thinking!" -Rated X
That's the reason he doesn't have proper dragon heads on his knees which was another important distinctive feature of Abominus.
Ah yes, because when I think of important design cues of a combining robot I think of its...knees.
A hell of a lot more important than weird punk rocker goggles which the G1 brick didn't even have.
The G1 brick didn't have elbows either, better get rid of those!
The stupid parts integration sacrificed the figure overall.
"I hate toys that don't have to come apart into a pile of kibble to perform their basic functions" -Rated X
Look at the dragons belly and the robots back. Its all purple, for what ? For some stupid kid who is too dumb not to loose his parts?
No, to annoy some stupid manchild who is too dumb to understand basic common sense with regards to toy design.
Toy accuracy is so lame.
No, you just have appalling taste.
We have 2 Slugslingers that are almost identical in blue color even though he was practically dark evergreen in the cartoon.
Except in the anime in which he ACTUALLY DID STUFF, in which he was the colour of the Takara version.
To me the essence of CHUG is fixing all the wrongs of the brick toys from the 80's.
I could run through the whole argument all over again but you're clearly so dense I'll have to spell it out for you simply. CHUG = modern redesigns. MP = exact reprodution.
I remember how disappointed I was when I saw the Blast Off toy months after the much cooler cartoon version premiered months earlier. And after seeing the 1986 movie and seeing Ultra Magnus and then we get the crappy toy.
You must have been an awful child.
I was like, whats up with that stupid white prime repaint with fake Magnus armor?
"How DARE this toy company give me play options and cool features! I DEMAND EXACT ACCURACY TO THIS COMMERCIAL!" =Rated X, Age 10.
Granted I was 10 years old and I didn't know anything about Diaclone or the history of how the brand came to be.
Exactly. You were 10. You should know better now.
But what I did know is the cartoon was so much cooler.
...And then you grew up and realized that the cartoon, whilst charmingly doofy, was not exactly a masterwork of entertainment and is not the definitive version of Transformers. Oh wait, that's from Shattered Glass Seibertron where Rated X is a well adjusted individual without an unhealthy fixation on badly drawn robots. Goddmanit, Bizarro Worlds are supposed to be WORSE than the real world, not better!
Ironhide got a freaking head ! How about that ???
Ah, the magic of cherry picking.
If we are going to homage everything stupid about a brick toy that made it a "toy" we might as well put fake screws too. Oops they did that too on Powerglide's forehead.
What, you mean like his cartoon model?
I could go on for hours, especially with regards to the fact that a lot of these toys have features that are very different from their predecessors and thus render the "muh accuracy" demands moot anyway (characters being combiner parts, being Headmasters, actually having a personality etc) but I'll just echo the Aussie Avenger, Burn's sentiments.
Burn wrote:They're just toys dude.
Slag it, I'm going to bed.
Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2018 11:04 am
