I apologize for the late response, and for dragging this discussion back up again.
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Tuned Agent wrote:ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Tuned Agent wrote:From a collector's perspective, I view Siege and Earthrise as two parts of the same (very G1 cartoon-centric) whole. I prefer Siege, but that's simply because Siege had more figures that interested me than ER does. But since G1 cartoon-centric isn't really my thing, many of the figures just don't interest me like they do for much of the rest of the fandom.
From a more cynical perspective, however, I can't help but get the feeling that much of Siege was little more than what Hasbro did with Bumblebee in TLK's toyline, only to a much larger scale. Release a "lesser" version first, then release a "better" version later after everyone has bought the first one.
Okay, first off, there's a qualifier on the TLK Bumblebee thing: The proper version obviously wasn't ready in time for the movie's release, but they couldn't very well
not have a Bumblebee on the shelves when it came out. Would have been smarter to reuse the DotM mold rather than the AoE mold though.
I didn't realize Hasbro had put out a statement about that. Or are you just guessing? And if you are, why is your interpretation any more accurate than mine?
I'm making an educated guess based on things that have happened before, AoE and TLK seeming to have lower investment in their toylines than the first three movies, the fact that toys take time to develop and the movie kinda set an inflexible deadline for having product on the shelves, and the fact that Bumblebee is a staple character that they couldn't
not have a toy of in stores when the movie came out.
And at the end of the day, it's just a guess. You have your opinion, and I have mine. That doesn't mean either one of us right.
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Also, Hasbro isn't Electronic Arts.
Thankfully.
Even so, Hasbro is still a multi-billion dollar company that knows how much kids love Bee, and have recently woken up to the fact that a large portion of the fanbase is hungry for G1 cartoon-accurate updates. Why not milk it as much as they can?
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Tuned Agent wrote:But Siege and ER molds for Optimus, Megatron, and the datsuns... don't. They're pretty much the same, the ER molds are just that much more G1-accurate in both modes.
1. For the umpteenth bloody time,
Smokescreen is the only confirmed ER Datsun so far. And Smokescreen's SIEGE version was A. extra-off compared to Prowl and Bluestreak and B. not as accessible.
Yes, technically Smokescreen is the only one confirmed yet. But if we're honest with ourselves, there's a better chance of a new
Animated Prowl being made and it being redecoed into Bluestreak and Smokescreen than the other two datsun bros not being made from the ER mold. The same thing can be said for the seekers, Starscream is the only specific one that has been confirmed.
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:2a. Optimus tries to be different with the giant roof lights that no Earth truck I've ever seen has, and the see-through grille, and I think it works.
2b. There's only so much you can do with G1 Optimus while sticking to the cartoon robot mode.
That's my point though. If Hasbro had truly intended Siege Optimus to represent a "different" look/design for the character, even if just for the alt mode, they easily could have done more to make him different that a few aesthetic changes to his G1 truck mode. They did it with the Siege seekers, why couldn't they have done it with others?
He doesn't have battle damage splatter and his shins, pelvis and headsculpt are all more G1 accurate, so yes, by definition he is "that much more G1-accurate".
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Tuned Agent wrote:And yes, ER Prime got a trailer, but I'm talking about the base figure. And the trailer doesn't necessarily give a reason for Siege Prime's existence. Siege Prime easily could have gotten the trailer treatment had he been leader class,
No, he couldn't have. Because
they had just done a G1 cartoon Optimus Prime with trailer at the Leader-class price point in Power of the Primes. Did you completely overlook that? Thanks to PotP, the Warden-obligatory Leader Optimus in SIEGE had to be something different. But they still wanted a more G1 Optimus in there (As far as Generations goes, Optimus is the new Bumblebee).
Also IMO it's less "the trailer justifies SIEGE Prime's existence" and more "The trailer justifies
Earthrise Prime's existence".
No, I didn't overlook that, it's just not relevant anymore. ER Optimus is no less different from PotP Optimus than Siege Starscream is from PotP Starscream, than ER Smokescreen is from Siege Smokescreen, or than ER Megatron is from Siege Megatron. Your point would have made sense a couple years ago, but not now. I will agree that they couldn't really have done that in Siege, but that's because they needed a reuse for the Ultra Magnus mold.
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Tuned Agent wrote:and they easily could have just released a version of ER Prime without the trailer.
But then they wouldn't have had a G1 Optimus at the Voyager price point in SIEGE.
I meant in Siege. The Siege and ER molds share parts, and given how retools are done today it's entirely possible that they were designed at the same time.
At the end of the day, these are just our opinions. We don't have to agree. At least the toys are good, no matter how redundant.