Autobot032 wrote:The
Transformers: Battle Tactics mobile game has provided some updated information about the upcoming
Fan-Built Autobot combiner, more specifically, that it's origins come from the Sea Of Rust.
We were notified of this update, thanks to fellow Seibertronian and fan, D-Maximus_Prime.
We've mirrored the screenshot below:
Keep your optics tuned to Seibertron.com for the latest in news and updates, plus the best
galleries around!
Shouldn't this news have gone in
the thread for the poll?
Ironhidensh wrote:I actually think Alpha s a well made figure, just not an Airialbot. I do see why hasbro would want to break up the mahogany of jets. I get it, I just don't like it. Personal preference. So I will hold out hope for a hasbro release of slingshot, and when that is confirmed or killed, I'll make my CW decision.
The way Hasbro seems to be approaching new members to preexisting teams is like this.
Back when Hasbro introduced the Power Core Combiners at BotCon 2010 and were trying to justify the existence of "Bombshock w/ Combaticons" and "Skyburst w/ Aerialbots", their line of thinking at the time was that the five (or six, in cases like the Constructicons) original team members were not the only members of those teams, so as to say that while Bombshock and his drones are Combaticons, Hasbro did not want us to look at Bombshock combined with his drones and think "This is Bruticus." They wanted us to treat the originals as simply like one squadron within a greater, larger group of Combaticons, or Aerialbots, or whatever other combiner subgroups Hasbro was willing to add to.
We saw shades of this in the ROTF movie in which Devastator was formed by at least seven Constructicons while many more Constructicons (even of similar body-types to the ones who formed Devastator) fought on the ground at the same time as Devastator's climbing the pyramid to reveal the Great Machine.
It was later in the Exodus novel that this concept was taken further to a whole new level, in which the Aligned continuity's Constructicons were revealed to be HUGE in number. In that iteration, the Constructicons were an entire social class, with High Councilor Drivetrain as their patriarch. Anyone who worked in construction as part of the construction guilds was considered a Constructicon, regardless of whether or not they were among the specific seven (yes, seven) who formed Devastator. This suggests that Bulkhead might have once been considered a Constructicon before the war. But during the war, there were vast
swarms of Constructicons; an entire army of them alone destroyed Crystal City. And the Retribution novel would eventually give us the names of the main seven who form Devastator: Scrapper, Mixmaster, Hook, Scavenger, Bonecrusher, Frontloader, and Long (not "Long Haul", just "Long").
The WFC comic (which adapted chapters 12-15 of Exodus) showed us what several of the book-only characters looked like, including the Constructicon patriarch Drivetrain:
And the Covenant of Primus book revealed Devastator:
Also in both the novels and the WFC/FOC video games, an Aerialbot was basically any Autobot who both could fly and had a jet-like altmode. Even Jetfire was considered an Aerialbot (even if he himself did not think so, still regarding himself as a Seeker, but an Autobot one). Same went for the Seekers, who were likewise just flying Decepticons with jet-like altmodes. In fact, according to the novels, all Aerialbots were ex-Seekers who had chosen to side with the Autobots when the time came to picking sides in the war. Jetfire was the only one who actually defected rather than having first gone with the Autobots when the war faction first sprang up and the population chose sides, though the games seem to have shown Jetfire having chosen to remain a neutral for as long as he could before he ultimately chose the Autobots. Additionally, for the five specific Aerialbots who form Superion, they're all named after their G1 counterparts, even if Fireflight has a similar body-type to Shockwave.
So in a way, with the latest additions of Alpha Bravo and Powerglide to the Aerialbots, Offroad and Blackjack to the Stunticons, and Rook to the Protectobots, Hasbro seems to just be keeping up with this mentality of having a greater number of members for each subgroup, whether they're necessary for gestalt combination or not.
Editor wrote:Wasn't it announced at the Toy show that the Sea of Rust had won that poll?
Yes it was.
The Sea of Rust existed in TF fiction long before the games came about.
JustPlainME wrote:I'll throw my hat in...
I'm not knocking AB or Offroad, but I do have a question about them. Have they appeared anywhere in fiction or toys, besides the recent IDW depictions as being "backup" limbs? That would be my only gripe about them. If they're some obscure, late G1 characters, then that might explain a little. I kind of got away from Transformers right after the 3 episodes that they passed off as Season 4 of G1.
They are brand new characters created specifically for this toyline. As far as fiction goes, Alpha Bravo has only appeared in the IDW comics, the Transformers: Battle Tactics game, and the Transformers Legends game. Offroad has only appeared in the Transformers Legends game.
