Rodimus Prime wrote:I just realized I mixed up UW Bruticus with CW G2 Bruticus...
So if Warden has such a hard-on for G1 accuracy, why give Astrotrain an unnecessary tender? He didn't have it in the G1 series. Could have spent the extra plastic on making Astrotrain bigger and fixing his rear end in shuttle mode. And yes, I know we have previously debated the last part, so let's just focus on the question.
Well, even
without plastic going to the tender I think that hangup on the cartoon chest design would have resulted in the faulty shuttle mode aft, especially in conjunction with Astrotrain's arms being so beefy that they have to form the majority of his rear section instead of being able to tuck into the torso like on the G1 toy. Unless they contrived some way to keep that stupid chestplate right-side-up when it moved back to cover the arms (instead of having it swing 180 degrees and expose its hollow back, breaking up some of the body contours in the process), I think the shuttle mode would have looked bad even if all the plastic had been used on the main robot body and he'd had no accessories whatsoever.
Why give him the tender? Because it was something more than just "extra guns" that would bring him up to the Leader-class price point, having that extra component that can also form armor brings him more in line with other SIEGE Leaders, and it adds extra play value and gives the Decepticons another playset piece. And it does complete his steam engine mode at long last, always bugged me that it didn't have one since steam engines kiiiiinda need those (plus giving him a tender conceals the shuttle engine nozzles in that mode).
Also, if people are right about him having been intended for Earthrise from the get-go, the tender also works as a counterpart accessory to ER Optimus' trailer, so there's that.
Saying again that I really do think the original Astrotrain toy was
intended to have a tender/liftoff dock just like SIEGE/ER Astrotrain does (back when it was being developed for Diaclone), because the two small upper shuttle engines aren't sculpted as engine nozzles - they're sculpted as pegs. Pegs with no apparent purpose.