by noctorro » Thu Mar 18, 2021 1:27 am
So I was watching a retro review of Warhammer Space Marine and Dawn of War on Worth a Buy @ Youtube and realized that games were in general a lot better 10 something years ago than the AAA titles we have today. Half finished, micro transactions, season passes, sh*t AI, bugs etc. Games were better and more polished years ago. Something's also to be said for movies, the new Terminator, Star Wars, Predator and the list goes on. Great years ago and totally garbage now.
Then I look at my favorite franchise and the reason why I need my own room in my house because I have too many boxes of Transformers.
Does this seemingly rigid format also apply to Transformers toys?
In one word I can say no. Transformers have been progressivly better overall over the years. Sure there have been some dents along the way, Fall of Cybertron Jazz and Grimlock were made of the plastic butter is put in in the grocery stores. And Dark of the Moon voyagers were kind of small and lacking. However, looking at the Unicron Trilogy, started with solid but somewhat dopey designs and little articulation led up to Cybertron with good articulation and solid big, heavy bots.
Classics was a great step up and went on to do even beter in Generations. The movie bots were fresh and I think the peak of those lines was Revenge of the Fallen Optimus Prime. Huge, complex, screen accurate in both modes and a great solid bot. A Leader Class indeed.
Then came Combiner Wars, we finally got our combiners. Sure there was some remolding and some torso's could be better. But we got them as good as all, nobody ever thought we would get deluxe-voyager combiners on this scale. Then Titans Return, with a huge array of great deluxe sized Transformers with the cool and extra playability adding Headmasters. Topping that of with Power of the Primes with Matrix upgraded bigger bots and more combiners.
And now we have the War for Cybertron trilogy, not to mix up with the game which is great. I recommend every gamer Transformers fan who hasn't played it to try it out. Solid gameplay, great voice acting and a fun story. Siege continued the almost flawless deluxe figures, looking at you Sideswipe. Finally a great Optimus and Megatron voyager sized again. Followed up by Earthrise, we got our G1 Ironhide people. And now a fresh go at Beast Wars going for screen accuracy.
I'm mostly typing this for myself because it's fun. But my point is, Transformers have gotten better and better. And the quality of functional and visual design is steady. Sure there is always a nitpick and sometimes a true flaw in some bot and something could be said for pricing and exclusivity. But these toys are great, almost tiny masterpieces for acceptable prices.
In my opinion, what Hasbro/Takara made the past couple of years is good to great to awesome and the majority being great. I remember being excited for Encore Ironhide with the third party flip out head on top guys. I imagined Car Brothers Prowl to be G1 Prowl. Now we have G1 Prowl.
I'm glad I'm not a Thundercats n1 fan for the failed reboot and those Super 7 prices.
Ontopic, Galvatron looks good. Maybe better than Titans Return which was a good enough Galvatron if they would never make any new one. The guns are a nice touch but I'm not getting Haslab Unicron, I don't need a third child in the house.
)
