New Galleries: Robots In Disguise 3-Step Hyperchange Grimlock and Bumblebee

Sabrblade wrote:I'm gonna wait and see what Takara does with these in their Transformers Adventure line since these toys need a serious amount of more paint to be show-accurate.

PrymeStriker wrote:Wow. I didn't realize how inaccurate Steeljaw's headsculpt was until I looked at the figure in-package. Not that I was all that excited about him, but it's clear that we've got another Skylynx/Darksteel on our hands.

Gonna need an upgrade kit for that.

Towline wrote:Why are we demanding that the toys need more paint? They are painted enough as it is.

Sabrblade wrote:

Towline wrote:Why are we demanding that the toys need more paint? They are painted enough as it is.

We are a spoiled fandom.

Towline wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Towline wrote:Why are we demanding that the toys need more paint? They are painted enough as it is.

We are a spoiled fandom.

I guess Sabrblade. But as someone who had begged their parents for painted transformers in the 1980's I always get them chipped. Where as the colored plastic of the post 1980's transformers look prettier longer.

william-james88 wrote:Ever since I bought one step heicopter drift, I have looked less down upon these 1 steps. They may be for a younger audience but that doesnt make their engineering any less impressive than other classes. It's just a bit harder to appreciate.

If Seibertron has the time, I would love his thoughts on which he recommends in these. Underbite looks really fun and so far this is the only class in which he appears, so I am definitely tempted.

william-james88 wrote:If Seibertron has the time, I would love his thoughts on which he recommends in these. Underbite looks really fun and so far this is the only class in which he appears, so I am definitely tempted.

Seibertron wrote:

william-james88 wrote:If Seibertron has the time, I would love his thoughts on which he recommends in these. Underbite looks really fun and so far this is the only class in which he appears, so I am definitely tempted.

Strong arm was my least favorite. I really wanted to like under bite but his transformation of squeezing his rear legs together works very poorly and is difficult to stay transformed. Sideswipe uses same flip transformation as AOE drift but I'm kind of over that because it was so inventive the first time around. Which leaves me with bumblebee. He's a good toy for a 1 step but tell me that his robot mode doesn't scream a Rodimus repaint!

Prowlerglide wrote:The 2 cars aren't super impressive from an engineering standpoint, since you just fold the legs from the front to the back and let the roof flap fall down. FYI - that's what Sidewipe is in the RID line. I can tell from the pictures.

Seibertron wrote:I'd love to find a video of someone demonstrating this instead of using two hands to transform those molds.

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:I'd love to find a video of someone demonstrating this instead of using two hands to transform those molds.

Ask and thou shalt receive.

One-handed car to robot conversion:


One-handed robot to car conversion:

Sabrblade wrote:Prowl and Cliffjumper are just the G1 versions. Prowl's gray is likely due to his toy being gang-molded with Bumblebee, Underbite, and Grimlock, with the intention of probably having his body painted white like how Bee's got yellow paint, but it didn't happen for some reason.

As for the rest, Optimus, Bisk, Sideswipe, and Cliffjumper all seem gang-molded in red, while Strongarm, Steeljaw, Thunderhoof, and Hammerstrike all look gang-molded in blue.

GuyIncognito wrote:Minimal paint apps, no articulation, awkward poses... not much to like about these. These make the Robot Heroes line look like Masterpieces by comparison.

Sabrblade wrote:Prowl and Cliffjumper are just the G1 versions.

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Prowl and Cliffjumper are just the G1 versions.

What makes you so sure about that? Why would they draw them in the style of RID instead of just reuse existing artwork? Killing Cliffjumper was a stupid move in TFP. I'm sure it gets undone at some point or they just toss continuity out the window, which has already happened with this "Aligned" continuity.

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Prowl and Cliffjumper are just the G1 versions.

What makes you so sure about that? Why would they draw them in the style of RID instead of just reuse existing artwork? Killing Cliffjumper was a stupid move in TFP. I'm sure it gets undone at some point or they just toss continuity out the window, which has already happened with this "Aligned" continuity.

sol magnus wrote:Not that anything is impossible with this stuff, but I feel like it is a bit much to design RiD versions of Prowl and Cliffjumper and there not be a point to it. Here's hoping there's a point to it.

I guess for me it doesn't matter from a toy/collecting perspective as all I purchase is Masterpiece figures, anymore. Over the years I've made kind of a mess of things collecting Prowls and Magnuses, so when there's a new one shown I at least look at them.

Seibertron wrote:

GuyIncognito wrote:Minimal paint apps, no articulation, awkward poses... not much to like about these. These make the Robot Heroes line look like Masterpieces by comparison.

Not to mention their size!

Optimum Supreme wrote:I doubt this Cliffy means anything to Prime CJ and his death. I'm with whoever has said it's just a G1 Cliffy thrown into this line because why not, rather than that he's gonna actually be in the new RID (assuming RID actually is a real followup to Prime).

Aligned doesn't really mean anything, no matter what Hasbro may have claimed (or how TFwiki might try to categorize the characters). It's as pointless to try and reconcile stuff like Prime with WFC as it is to try and reconcile G1 with (the original) RID or any other two disparate universes. Hell, it's hard enough to try and get the three UT series to fit, but aligned, nope, no way. Just some marketing gobbledygook that somehow got outta hand.

Seibertron wrote:

Optimum Supreme wrote:I doubt this Cliffy means anything to Prime CJ and his death. I'm with whoever has said it's just a G1 Cliffy thrown into this line because why not, rather than that he's gonna actually be in the new RID (assuming RID actually is a real followup to Prime).

Aligned doesn't really mean anything, no matter what Hasbro may have claimed (or how TFwiki might try to categorize the characters). It's as pointless to try and reconcile stuff like Prime with WFC as it is to try and reconcile G1 with (the original) RID or any other two disparate universes. Hell, it's hard enough to try and get the three UT series to fit, but aligned, nope, no way. Just some marketing gobbledygook that somehow got outta hand.

I'm right there with you. I think it's silly that they even tried to tie what was obviously a G1 expansion story (or reinterpretation) with Transformers Prime. It has felt extremely forced since the moment they said something along the lines of "hey, chocolate chip cookies are great dipped in IPA Beer!" No thanks! I really wish they had worked with IDW to have the WFC/FOC games tie-in with the IDW comics instead. The aesthetics and personalities and history of the characters would have flowed much better if they had just ironed out the details instead of forcing Transformers Prime onto WFC/FOC.

Shuttershock wrote:At this point, I think we can really take or leave the Aligned model. Aside from Cliff's horns and Bee's disappearing voice, there's very little to connect the games to Prime.

Sabrblade wrote:

Shuttershock wrote:At this point, I think we can really take or leave the Aligned model. Aside from Cliff's horns and Bee's disappearing voice, there's very little to connect the games to Prime.

Uh...

Sabrblade wrote:

Shuttershock wrote:At this point, I think we can really take or leave the Aligned model. Aside from Cliff's horns and Bee's disappearing voice, there's very little to connect the games to Prime.

Uh...

Sabrblade wrote:It's Hasbro's fault for granting so much leeway and creative freedom to each individual branch instead of picking one design aesthetic and asking each branch to kindly stick to that.

But hey, just goes to show how little Hasbro cares about visual consistency compared to how much the fans do.

At least they all got Cybertron's Core and the Nemesis looking them same across the board:






It's obvious that they wanted them to all be the same story, but the variety of looks have put off many to the very idea.

And yet, Beast Machines and G1 have staggeringly different aesthetics yet so many will argue to the grave that those two are connected.

From a storytelling perspective, it was a bad idea for Hasbro to first give us WFC and then Prime immediately after. Doing that was the equivalent of watching Beast Machines immediately after the first three episodes of G1.

If they could just publish that Binder of Revelation of theirs (cuz that Covenant of Primus book was hardly an acceptable substitute), fans could consider that the true canon of Aligned and discard all other games, books, cartoons, comics, etc. (WFC/FOC and Prime included in that mass discarding).

Sabrblade wrote:And yet, Beast Machines and G1 have staggeringly different aesthetics yet so many will argue to the grave that those two are connected.

Shuttershock wrote:See also "Rise of the Dark Spark", which amounts to a cheap knock off Cybertron game being forcibly lashed to the movie universe in spite of drastically different art styles and directions.

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:And yet, Beast Machines and G1 have staggeringly different aesthetics yet so many will argue to the grave that those two are connected.

That's an interesting point ... one of which I'm sure there are many fans who equally despise the fact that Beast Machines is the swan song to G1. I could care less either way. At the time, it was really nice to see the Beast Wars era tie-in with G1. There had never been a precedent of multi-universes in the world of Transformers yet so it made sense at the time, hence the acceptance of many fans. But these days, with so many multi-universes of Transformers that if Hasbro says "this is all the same continuity", they had better dot their i's and cross their t's. Otherwise, it's just back to basics with fans connecting the dots.

Hasbro needs a story editor who oversees all of the different iterations of the Transformers and does their damnedest to make everything flow together that is supposed to.

Sabrblade wrote:

Shuttershock wrote:See also "Rise of the Dark Spark", which amounts to a cheap knock off Cybertron game being forcibly lashed to the movie universe in spite of drastically different art styles and directions.

At leat that game has the benefit of keeping WFC/FOC and AOE as separate alternate universes rather than foolishly putting them together.

That game even had G1 as another separate world from the G1-inspired WFC/FOC, so even regardless of whether or not WFC/FOC was a part of Aligned, Rise of the Dark Spark hammers in the fact that WFC/FOC is a different reality from G1.

Seibertron wrote:Hasbro needs a story editor who oversees all of the different iterations of the Transformers and does their damnedest to make everything flow together that is supposed to.

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Hasbro needs a story editor who oversees all of the different iterations of the Transformers and does their damnedest to make everything flow together that is supposed to.

I agree with this, but... sadly, Hasbro just doesn't care as much as we do. "Continuity" to Hasbro means what "Continuity Family" means to us.

However, let me ask you this. Would you have been more accepting to the idea of Prime and WFC being related if we started with WFC first, then got more media that continued onward from where WFC left off, with all of the fiction being released in chronological order, and then several years later, after a LARGE amount of the story had been told, we got finally Prime, at which point we would have seen the evolution of aesthetics from G1-based to Movie/Animated-based occur over time (as we did with G1 --> Beast Wars --> Beast Machines)... instead of how we got them with us jumping from WFC straight into Prime?