Hellscream9999 wrote:earthrise arcee has ankle tilts, but, just like the rest of her, they aren't great
So she does. I stand corrected on that point.
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Honestly, the C.O.M.B.A.T. compatibility is the only reason I'd consider picking her up. Well, that and seeing if I could re-engineer her transformation. But I wouldn't want to pay full price.
She only has the two COMBAT ports on her feet and 5mm hand holes, there's nothign on her back, forearms, shoulders, or anywhere else. So you can't make the Cog+Elita combination from the Netflix show.
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Re: Ratchet and Ironhide's only difference being the head and lifebar... Well, the earth mode is the biggest thing to blame there. Since they have to look like the same vehicle now (and use a roof shield a la X-Brawn to pull that off) they can't have different leg panels or Ratchet's lightbar shoulders. Although you'd think they could have kept Ratchet's unique forearms.
See I don't feel like they need to be the same alt mode, not exactly. Similar, sure, that's kinda their whole deal, but they could change things (like the aforementioned leg panels) to differentiate them a bit. Siege Ratchet's forearms were also free to use and wouldn't have affected the transformation any.
sol magnus wrote:You guys are crazy. I get the kvetching about Lifeline, it's a straight Arcee redeco - and if you bought it knowing that (you did) but wanna complain now, shame on you. I simply remove the backpack from ER Arcee and pretty much get the look I want from the figure. I'm not crying about transformation (yet - I have one for my daughter for Christmas and likely will have to transform it) because I don't display them as vehicles. It's a moot point on my shelf.
I didn't buy it for Lifeline anyway, I always planned to sell her immediately. Really my mindset for the whole set was more "I'd rather have it and sell it off than decide I want it later when it's no longer affordable." However, I also want to experience figures for myself, so as long as I had her in my hands I was going to see what the deal was. And now I can better understand the complaints.
sol magnus wrote:Where Ratchet is concerned, why did he need to be different from Ironhide? In my view, I blame Hasbro for making SIege Ratchet have different surface details than Ironhide, not because it's a not good idea - it is. I blame them because now you all (royally) think everything is supposed to be that. If he was a straight redeco like Crosshairs no one would have said a peep because you wouldn't have thought it was possible.
I'm not advocating for them to not do those kinds of things, they do add richness to the figures. I'm also not expecting them to do it every time on every shared mold character.
Maybe I'm entitled for wanting the multi-billion dollar corporation to change more than two parts on their $20 toy. I'm aware that they operate within a budget and the Selects and Galactic Odyssey sets have basically no spare money for new parts. Still, as I pointed out above, the forearms and accessories from the Siege set are ready made and wouldn't interfere with this. I'd just like to see a little more effort. Someone on Facebook pointed out that the deco might be a part of it as well. Some more splashes of red could go a long way on Ratchet, and again, wouldn't hurt the molding costs. I assume a lot of their paint budget went into masking the clear window parts, though. I even noticed they skimped on the decals going up the side of the van. On Ironhide they go all the way to the cab, but Ratchet's only go as far as the folding leg panels with the cab being all white. The stock art on Amazon shows the stripe on his chest, so I wonder if that paint app got cut for money or something.
Also RE: Crosshairs. Maybe I'm a hypocrite. I never bought him, but I thought if I liked ER Ironhide I might go grab Siege Crosshairs for the mold and to give Pinpointer someone to tag along with. I don't know much about the Targetmasters but it's a good use of the mold.