Earthspark News: Nightshade Preorders Up and Cyber-Combiner Toys Revealed

I should know better.

The late Cyberverse Roll & Combine figures told me loud and clear that the RID Crash Combiner concept had no hidden potential waiting to be unlocked by future toylines. Even the awesome interchangeability of the Deluxe and Voyager Energon Autobots wore thin all too soon, but I attributed that to the wretched cartoon having caused the very act of combining to lose all meaning by the bitter end; maybe the Unicron Singularity affected my memory too.

But because my favorite toy of all time is Slamdance, the reveal of any sort of dual-combining TFs just fills me with hope of recapturing the joy I felt stumbling across those last 2 Autobot cassettes in Toys'R'Us!

Interesting that we've been getting so many TF toys of humans in exo-suits lately. I thought conventional wisdom was that parents outside of SE Asia couldn't be bothered to understand the difference between sentient robots, piloted mecha, and drones (boy, that term's gotten loaded with new connotations over the past decade or so, thanks to pesky reality), so toylines never got into many categories beyond 2 major factions, hence Nightbird becoming more of a sentient-Decepticon-all-along with each subsequent toy and fiction incarnation, and no toys of her rough Marvel counterpart Centurion.

So now human children have the ability to form PANTS to prop up alien robots! We'll see if this causes an even bigger slag-storm than Nightshade's clunky pronoun declaration...of course we'll have to wait a year after their debut to be sure there's any reaction at all...

Bumblevivisector wrote:So now human children have the ability to form PANTS to prop up alien robots! We'll see if this causes an even bigger slag-storm than Nightshade's clunky pronoun declaration...of course we'll have to wait a year after their debut to be sure there's any reaction at all...

Actually these are closer to Energon figures than Crash Combiners. Not only is the combined bot articulated, but they can also trade places so the bot forms the pants. I think they're neat and actually worth getting compared to the previous attempts.

Emerje

Bumblevivisector wrote:So now human children have the ability to form PANTS to prop up alien robots! We'll see if this causes an even bigger slag-storm than Nightshade's clunky pronoun declaration...of course we'll have to wait a year after their debut to be sure there's any reaction at all...

It won't.

I got Nightshade, and they are a pretty dang nice toy. Nice to see all 4 of the larger Terrans got good figures. Now Hashtag needs a good toy.

Also took some photos of Mandroid, Grimlock, and Jawbreaker.

With Earthspark Shockwave being a rerelease of his mold in Cyberverse, it made sense to assume that the upcoming Prowl would be a rerelease of of that same mold as well. BUT NO. Instead, Earthspark Prowl will be a straight redeco of Cyberverse deluxe Hot Rod. While it makes for an original deco for a Hot Rod toy, that original mold was panned by fans for having major clearance/articulation issues. Still, odd redecos like this have their fans, so let us know what you think.
Also, in what might possible be even bigger news, we have our first look at deluxe Thrash.

william-james88 wrote:With Earthspark Shockwave being a rerelease of his mold in Cyberverse, it made sense to assume that the upcoming Prowl would be a rerelease of of that same mold as well. BUT NO. Instead, Earthspark Prowl will be a straight redeco of Cyberverse deluxe Hot Rod. While it makes for an original deco for a Hot Rod toy, that original mold was panned by fans for having major clearance/articulation issues. Still, odd redecos like this have their fans, so let us know what you think.
Also, in what might possible be even bigger news, we have our first look at deluxe Thrash.

Why?

Sabrblade wrote:

Overcracker wrote:

william-james88 wrote:With Earthspark Shockwave being a rerelease of his mold in Cyberverse, it made sense to assume that the upcoming Prowl would be a rerelease of of that same mold as well. BUT NO. Instead, Earthspark Prowl will be a straight redeco of Cyberverse deluxe Hot Rod. While it makes for an original deco for a Hot Rod toy, that original mold was panned by fans for having major clearance/articulation issues. Still, odd redecos like this have their fans, so let us know what you think.
Also, in what might possible be even bigger news, we have our first look at deluxe Thrash.

Why?

Kinda makes him look a little like Checkpoint, even.

Checkpoint? As in Energon Checkpoint? Redeco of race truck Rodimus Prime?


Maybe a little yes.

Checkpoint it is. Though kind of want a truck Checkpoint now in Legacy.

Thanks to InDemand Toys, we have our first images of the upcoming deluxe class Prowl and Thrash from the Transformers Earthspark toyline.

Thrash is a brand new mold that is based on his appearance in the show. Compared to his warrior toy, which is a good toy in and of itself, This toy is more articulated, but appears to have a less pleasing color scheme. He also comes with his shield and a small gun.

Prowl is a little weird though, as he is a repaint of the Cyberverse deluxe class Hot Rod toy. The art on his box suggests he has a very IDW look to him in the show, but the toy uses the Hot Rod mold for some odd reason. There is no retooling done, and he still comes with the flame effects. He does make for a nice little roundabout Energon Checkpoint homage though.

Check out the images below, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Yeah prowl makes no sense but I think the toy looks better than in its original deco

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Thrash looks like a sidestep really, I think his warrior toy looks better color wise.

That's a nice way to put it, but I don't think trading the sidecar for more articulation was the right move. The sidecar is essential I think, that shield is a poor substitute.

Prowl is so strange. Really does look more like Prime Smokescreen. Maybe I should just make him that and stick him with the Legacy guys since he really doesn't look like ES Prowl.

Emerje