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Every two weeks, Seibertron.com brings you a Top 5 list related to all things Transformers written by me, your fellow editor. These are my opinions (just like movie or game reviews hosted by sites are still just the opinion of one person) so what matters most is what you guys think of the topic or list, and I hope to see your own lists or comments on omissions and ranking. Let's have fun! All previous lists can be found here.

Top 5 Best Transformers Troop Builders

Ah the infamous troop builder. I will be honest, it was a concept I was not familiar with when I got back into collecting in my adult life. As a kid I got toys on my birthday and Chritmas so you bet your ass that I was gonna ask for a different toy and not the same one again just because there was more than one of the same character model on the screen sometimes. But of course, I get it now. With more disposable income, we can now indulge in recreating scenes and armies from the shows we love. And to build those armies in your display, you are gonna need troops. The Transformers brand has had a lot of toys to build troops with over the years and we will look over the best ones right now. Enjoy!


5. Transformers Titans Return Scourge

I really like the Generations Scourge toy but what makes the Titans Return version better for troop building is that you can change his face. So now, your army of Sweeps can have some different characteristics. The Ptero head for instance looks like the type of head given to his sweeps in previous releases. Takara also released a different head (shown below) just to build a sweep army. But you don't have to stop there, you can given them any heads and make them as diverse or similar as you like. It's a decent toy all around as well. Very accurate to the cartoon and both the Takara and Hasbro versions have fun features in their different decos.













4. Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Cyberverse Hardshell

This is one of the very best Commander Class toy from the Cyberverse line, if not the best, and it also happens to be a troop builder. The size works well for a Cyberverse scale army and an affordable one at that since he was at a lower price point than deluxes. Intricate transformation, well detailed and show accurate, what more would you want? Well aside from a voyager scale one for a much pricier army.





3. Titans Return Sharkticon

Yes, Titans Return have given us several troop builders, and good ones too. Sharkticon is an iconic little guy, due to his appearance in the 86 movie and this is his best toy yet. He is a fun little guy on his own, with a smooth and smart transformation, a great look and even the ability to act as a sub for little Titan Masters. But then you add more of them and you get a menacing (while also cute) army. And them being smaller figures, which is true to the scale, makes them a more affordable troop to build.












2. Transformers Prime: Robots In Disguise Vehicon

I have raved on this toy before and it's pretty crazy that an undisputed top 5 (top 3?) toy from that whole Prime line was the troop builder Vehicon toy. If only the jet versions were as readily available and affordable, we could replicate Megatron's army as seen on the show.







1. Transformers G1 1985 Insecticons

I think this is the first time a G1 toy ends up being number 1 on a list not specifically about g1. But yeah, there is no better option to me. This is the original swarm and the original troop builder and still the most impressive. These guys take the cake because of their variety of design from one another while also being uniform. This is where the generations versions of these guys fail since the colours, plastics and builds don't match. they end up being seen more as individual toys than a united swarm. While the articulation may not be optimal, the quality of these toys remains unmatched to this date with a combination of clear plastic, chrome, die cast and even functional wheels to give that extra mecha component. And the swarms are in insect mode anyway, so robot mode articulation is useless. Plus, these guys have been rereleased plenty of times that they end up being the same price point as a set of the 3 generations figures anyways, so I whole heartedly recomend anyone curious about g1 toys to check these out. They are still to this date the most faithful looking versions of the most iconic troop in Transformers history.







Honourable metions: Beast Machines Sonic Attack Jet

While Beast Machines deluxe Jetstorm was a decent toy, it lacked screen accuracy in both the deco and the sculpt. In comes a redeco that has more vibrant colours, closer to the look and feel of the show. And it happens to be an army builder for the Jetstorm drone army. So while not ideal we do get a differentiation between the leader and his goons and it is luckily the masses that have the more screen accurate deco, which I personally feel looks much better.

Not bad. For some reason, I never gave a thought to troop building until Prime and Vehicon. I knew about Jetstorm (even though I try to erase the disaster that is Beast Machines out of my mind) and of course the Insecticons and the Sweeps, but troop building didn't become a "thing" for me until the Vehicons in Prime. Maybe because they were more prominent in their series than the others were in theirs? I don't know. Anyway, my list:

5. G1 Insecticons
4. TR Scourge
3. TR Sharkticon
2. 2011 BotCon Animated Autotrooper
1. Prime Vehicons

Honorable mention: Beast Machines Jetstorm

Just because I have a bunch of them, I really like these guys.

Although not part of official fiction or anything I use Titans Return Hardhead as my military Autotroopers with the Takara guy being the group leader or at least a former member who forged a name for himself.

I also use the mold for Repungus right now and he actually fits the body quite well he also kinda color matches with the yellow and red from the same colors on the Hasbro Hardhead (Those colors are mostly on the "belt") and in my collection Quake was a former member who joined the Decepticons.

I am legit shocked that none of the botcon toys made it to the list.

no Virulent Clones? Autotroopers? SG Junkions? Rainmakers? Dread Pirate Crew, or Reflector?

SG Roadbuster wrote:I am legit shocked that none of the botcon toys made it to the list.

no Virulent Clones? Autotroopers? SG Junkions? Rainmakers? Dread Pirate Crew, or Reflector?

Their good characters for troop builders but their expensive bot con exclusives and unless your rich as hell no one is troop building them.

I army built this guy. He was so cool and unique looking and back w8hen they come out he was like $6 I think

Deadput wrote:

SG Roadbuster wrote:I am legit shocked that none of the botcon toys made it to the list.

no Virulent Clones? Autotroopers? SG Junkions? Rainmakers? Dread Pirate Crew, or Reflector?

Their good characters for troop builders but their expensive bot con exclusives and unless your rich as hell no one is troop building them.

Speak for yourself. I'm a middle-class guy with only a part-time job (though, sometimes it feels like full-time, but I digress) and yet I've been troop-building several of the BotCon troop builders.

As of this typing, I own six sets of the BotCon 2015 Dread Pirate Crew (12 pirate clones total), and six sets of the BotCon 2015 Waruders (24 Waruders total, though one set is for the four repurposed characters whose bios came out online last December, making it be 20 Waruders and four unique characters).

And soon I plan to purchase eight of the BotCon 2013 preassembled Blastcharge Strika Drones to go with the one I currently have, making nine drones in all.

I would have gone for some others too but they either weren't as high a priority for me at the time or they sold out from the Club Store before I could get them. Right now, I have only one set of each of the following BotCon troop-builder 3-packs:

• BotCon 2011 Animated Autotroopers
• BotCon 2012 SG Junkions
• BotCon 2013 "Welcoming Committee" Rainmakers
• BotCon 2016 Reflector

Aside from all that, I've also troop-built about ten of the Hasbro TF: Prime RID Deluxe Vehicons, six of the Prime FE Deluxe Starscream figure, and have aborted troop-building Titanium 6" Scourge (stopped after getting two of him), Generations Deluxe Scourge (stopped after getting two of him, not the TR version), and Generations Deluxe Junkheap (stopped after getting two of him).

While we are on the subject of personal army building,
I fell like an army of TLK reveal the shield optimus primes led by a fireburst optimus would make for a cool, human built, vehicon army

With the troop builders I think the prime vehicon wins for me, its just such a nice figure which is weird as I consider troop builders that can be be displayed multiple ways like the beatmachines jetstorm (robot mode legged or hover), TR scourge (legs turned around, different heads, takara paint variation) pretty highly.

TR sharkticon is too small for my liking (Hasbro even deceptively -on purpose or not, maybe it's just to fit him in the packaging, has him looking like a taller figure with a mistransformation of his legs) and sadly he's usually stood behind other figures to hide the legs/make him taller.
Wreckgar riding himself makes the rts figure look amazing but sadly botcon exclusives or the platinum packs (hotrod, 2 junkions) are too expensive for troop building for the most part.

I'd have honorably mentioned the Baynus deluxe swindle, as he was the cannon fodder decepticon in the video game.

Somewhat related: if you get all the redecos of one mold, are you troop building, even though technically each "troop" is a separate character? For example, all the different color versions of the Classics Seeker mold.

Randomhero wrote:I army built this guy. He was so cool and unique looking and back w8hen they come out he was like $6 I think

Yeah, I love these guys. I have 3 of these, the one they renamed Generations Laserbeak and 2 of the yellow and white ones that share this mold (Sunspot).

As far as the list.

My Fav Troop Builders are..

1) Insecticons (both G1 and Generations)
2) Sweeps (TR and T30 version)
3) Junkions (T30 versions)
4) Sharkticon (TR version)

My personal Honorable mentions:

1) G1 Minicons (I have over 30)
2) Titan Masters (I have about 13 of those)
3) Shockwaves! (Started of as placeholders going back to Animated Shockwave. Then the Target exclusive one showed up, then DOTM, then FOC's Deluxe version and I also have 3 CW Legends class Shockwaves. FOC is my Main Shockwave until Hasbro makes a better Voyager class one. The rest are the equivalent of "Doombots"/minions).
4) Skystalker ROTF Molds: 3 Skystalker, 2 Sunspots and 1 Laserbeak.
5) Sonar x3

Deadput wrote:

SG Roadbuster wrote:I am legit shocked that none of the botcon toys made it to the list.

no Virulent Clones? Autotroopers? SG Junkions? Rainmakers? Dread Pirate Crew, or Reflector?

Their good characters for troop builders but their expensive bot con exclusives and unless your rich as hell no one is troop building them.

Not even rich. I'd still pass on troop building Funpub figures unless someone's selling them at a legit price.

YoungPrime wrote:

Randomhero wrote:I army built this guy. He was so cool and unique looking and back w8hen they come out he was like $6 I think

Yeah, I love these guys. I have 3 of these, the one they renamed Generations Laserbeak and 2 of the yellow and white ones that share this mold (Sunspot).

I'm sure I would have liked it too, but none of the versions of this mold ever made it into stores around me (if Laserbeak made it into TRU I never would have known anyway). For both RotF and Transformers 2010 the stores around here didn't carry the last two waves of Scouts. For that matter the one time I saw Mindwipe was at a Kmart and I continue to regret not buying it when I had the chance. Strafe, on the other hand, I never saw once (I got my Grapple from that wave in the movie refresher set sold with the brown Universe Vector Prime).

Emerje

FOC deluxe class Shockwave is a great troop builder in my opinion. while shockwave was charged with protecting cybertron in megatron's absense, it would be logical for shockwave to create a army of drone warriors in his own image. they are like the prime vehicons but exist in the G1 classics universe.

i also like the G1 jumpstarters as generic cybertronian autobot warriors. they have good proportions, nice weapons and are super cheap.

I thought I was the only one who liked TR Scourge!

finally, i like the idea of building a Unicron army using the big ultimate class unicron from the unicron trilogy (as sentinals)as well as the deluxe class unicron from the cybertron line. it would be like the borg from star trek, the aliens from aliens and the sentinals from X-men. expensive but cool.

oh and i want at least two more titans returns trypticons.

Geez, no Classics Seekers? To me those guys are the best. Even if you don't include KOs you've still got a really decent array of characters between Hasbro, Takara, and FunPub - especially if you pretend different decos can represent entirely different characters (G2 Ramjet I am looking at you). Somewhat pricy, but I dig it.

TBH, Universe Scourge beats out Titans Return Scourge. Sure, TR Scourge is more show accurate, but he's also a lot more boring colour wise and has a bobble head. It's nice that the Sharkticon gives him a different head for the Japanese market but it's just not enough to push out Universe Scourge. As a bonus it comes in a two pack (the one with Cyclonus) if you wanted to differentiate a few for whatever reason.

anyone mad enough to have 6 six shots yet? He's one of the few cannon none drone/clones characters worth having in multiples with his holograms

Back in the G1 days, when it came to troop building with Autobots it was easily just the 1984 - 1986 Autobot Cars. As for the Decepticons, for me, it was Soundwave's tapes, mainly Rumble and Frenzy. Just get a bunch of them and start swapping the legs and heads, maybe add some paint, and that was good enough. Since most of my peer group only wanted Laserbeak and Ravage, Rumble & Frenzy were easy to come by.

Nice to see TR get some love.

I have Sharkticon and the Sweep headmaster waiting in my BBTS pile. I need to get a Hasbro Gnaw and a Takara Scourge.

Would have loved to have seen the TR Getaway get a Vehicon repaint.

The list and this thread are giving me a hernia.



It's like I'm taking crazy pills.

I personally have 52 Sharks