Transformers Combiner Wars: First Aid In Hand

There's very little about those two that are the same - peg, shoulders, legs and transformation scheme see to be it. That's a hell of a nice feat.

I believe the TFWiki site says it best: "BEHOLD! THE MIGHT OF REDECO POTENTIAL!"

Mkall wrote:There's very little about those two that are the same - peg, shoulders, legs and transformation scheme see to be it. That's a hell of a nice feat.

At what point is something NOT considered a redeco at this point?

Honest question. I see the term thrown around a lot...but I really don'the see much in common here. Granted I come from MOTU and Marvel where most new toys are straight repaints on the same body....

phantom1592 wrote:

Mkall wrote:There's very little about those two that are the same - peg, shoulders, legs and transformation scheme see to be it. That's a hell of a nice feat.

At what point is something NOT considered a redeco at this point?

Honest question. I see the term thrown around a lot...but I really don'the see much in common here. Granted I come from MOTU and Marvel where most new toys are straight repaints on the same body....

It goes beyond just a redeco when more than the deco is changed. This guy has a new head and modified sculpting of his parts, so he's a retool and a redeco.

phantom1592 wrote:

Mkall wrote:There's very little about those two that are the same - peg, shoulders, legs and transformation scheme see to be it. That's a hell of a nice feat.

At what point is something NOT considered a redeco at this point?

Honest question. I see the term thrown around a lot...but I really don'the see much in common here. Granted I come from MOTU and Marvel where most new toys are straight repaints on the same body....

I believe the proper word is "retool", but the Combiner Wars figures are really stretching the term.

One term that recently came into being is "pretool", short for "pre-planned retool", basically a retool that's planned and sculpted in advance, resulting in two or three figures with the same base mold but different parts, allowing them to be released within a single year. That's the main advantage.
At first the parts changed were limited to the head and other minor parts, as seen within the 2010 line and its Reveal the Shield subline imprint, but as of Combiner Wars, whole sections can be switched out for different characters, with the Skydide/Air Raid pair as a prime example.

It's the pretooling that has allowed such a variety in figure designs using a limited amount of bases. I did some counting and found that only 8 basic designs are used (pending the release of Prowl) for the entire Deluxe range of 16 (18 if you include Quickslinger/Slingshot and Brake-Neck/Wildrider); the rest are derived from those bases. They are:

1. Firefly
2. Skydive
3. Alpha Bravo (though I suspect he's a "mix")
4. Drag Strip
5. Breakdown
6. Dead End
7. Offroad
8. Rook

Going by the trend of "2 vehicle shells and 3 heads per tooling" (as evidenced by Offroad and Dead End), one could potentially make 24 figures out of the 8 bases alone, more if one mixes and matches parts.

shajaki wrote:Seriously, the only parts they share are biceps, combiner peg, thighs, and wheels/rims. That is some Fan-Fudging-Tastic work HasTak

Yeah but still look so similar that you actually have to look closer to notice all the new parts. Their general shape in robot mode is still near identical (the vehicle modes are certainly different enough to not confuse them in sihoulettes). Wouldn't bother me so much if on the same faction. But hey yes it's still better than simply redecoing (and/or sticking a new head on) a mold for the opposite faction (particularly bad when they're rival figures such as 2012 Blaster and Soundwave who, despite the head, chest and wheels differences, still look like twins).

[quote="munkimus pve always liked Firstaid most out of the Protectobots. Maybe it's because he's the only one of them I remember having any kind of personality. Here he looks amazing I'd almost think he was a new mold if it weren't for the pic of him next to Offroad.[/quote]

Makes you wonder who the mold was originally planned for? Like how the Prime figure was clearly meant to be Motormaster from the start.

mirageandjazz1197 wrote:Guys the word your looking for is Re-shell.




I think its the closest description to what this is.

Good call!

mirageandjazz1197 wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

mirageandjazz1197 wrote:Guys the word your looking for is Re-shell.




I think its the closest description to what this is.

Good call!

I said something smart?




That's a first.

But you're spot on nevertheless. Pre-planned re-shells... Well played Hasbro.

That Bot wrote:

mirageandjazz1197 wrote:Guys the word your looking for is Re-shell.




I think its the closest description to what this is.

When I think reshell, I think of something like FOC Sideswipe from Jazz, where the robot parts are unaltered (aside from the head) but the vehicle shell is different. In this case, the sculpt of the robot parts that don't make the vehicle has changed as well. So it's more than just a reshell.

That's why I said its the closest thing that describes First Aid.




We don't honestly need to to specifics do we?