Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set

Posted by william-james88 Aug 10, 2024 at 7:24pm CDT 79,980 views

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Mark Maher, who designed the Star Raiders Legacy subline, took to Instagram to write about the lore behind the leader class multipack which includes Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike. You can read it below. We also have a video review of the set right after. It has yet to be found in the US though the North Americans stock has come to shore and it has already been distributed throughout Canada.

A yo ho ho my bot family, allow me to present to you a very cool Walmart exclusive 3 pk, Thundertron, Calcitron, and Nightstrike! A fearsome cru that will take you on a trip to Sharkticon Jones’s locker, arrrr!
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Lemme break it down d-generation x style. Thunder Thunder Thundertron here is rocking his new og head design, he lost some finger digits so he is sporting a white pearled hook hand (5mm compatible of course), and a pumped up energon united color scheme. See the concept here was that Ol Thunder Sword here was lurking on a distant planet with his lil terror packed parrot bat Nightstrike (RID baby!) They come across some energon that apparently was alive, a being known as Calcitron (energon that fused together with a living unknown essence and merged into one fugly bad ass calcite eating mutterer) It would seem that Thundertron overpowered the creation and infused some of his energon to give him the ability to be empowered by armorizer might!!
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I found a concept board that I sometimes throw together to get on my story soap box during meetings. I’d assume that most are sick of me rambling about lores and stories but having the opportunity to create tales of astonishment and to rocknite excitement into the coworker crowd is somthing I’ll never stop doing.
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I’m really gitty over having a rocklord army, the armorizer build towards the end just shares the capabilities of creating your own rocknited characters. Oh also, yes that was a Ratbat mention who was going to be a dark blue redeco but I had a magic moment of remembering the alt head that was in that mold, I believe it was only released as a gen selects item. Any chance I can fit in a obscure character that doesn’t have a toy representation, Ima take it!!
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Transformers News: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set

Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set

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Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by D-Maximal_Primal Aug 10, 2024

Always interesting to see what Mark comes up with.

The rock dudes go so nicely with the Junkions, they would for sure be friends

I got Cannonball and Lockdown, leaving only Road Pig and Thundertron for me. Both are super nice. Lockdown certainly looks the part, and i intend to send him to the Cyberverse shelf to be with Clobber. Cannonball is a cool retool, they keep on making this Skids mold super interesting. And i love the hammer and claw

Also got the chance to have some fun with Tarn. I am so glad they made this version. And so glad his elbow is on a mushroom

I also got Vector Prime for $17, and got the SDCC set. Sorry Scotty, but even owning the OG Vector Prime, I have a pretty good appreciation for this retool. It is not perfect, but what they did made a pretty good Vector Prime. I actually really like him. It feels good to have bicep swivels and the backpack compressed. I still love the OG, but this is a case where it lives up to the OG by being different enough while still being fun.

As for Prime and Megs, I love the new Megs weapons, and Pax is really nice, great headsculpt. So glad i got this, this is the Pax I really wanted

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by D-Maximal_Primal Aug 10, 2024

Oh, I also forgot: Wanna make something of it?

Now, where's a Fulcrum?

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by william-james88 Aug 10, 2024

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Oh, I also forgot: Wanna make something of it?

Now, where's a Fulcrum?

I'm holding out in case we get a crankcase retool with an IDW head, like they did with Blurr.

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by D-Maximal_Primal Aug 10, 2024

william-james88 wrote:
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Oh, I also forgot: Wanna make something of it?

Now, where's a Fulcrum?

I'm holding out in case we get a crankcase retool with an IDW head, like they did with Blurr.

That would certainly be awesome

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by william-james88 Aug 11, 2024

Mark Maher, a lead designer at Hasbro, had posted an image showcasing the kind of combiner you could do with the Legacy Evolution Junkions called Junkasaurus. It was missing a figure for one of its arms though but now that Road Pig has come out, we can finally complete Junkasaurus. Below you’ll find a take on how to accomplish this combiner using five different Junkion mold releases.

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by Sowndwave76 Aug 11, 2024

PvP has released his review of the upcoming Leader Class Soundwave.

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by -Kanrabat- Aug 11, 2024

Sowndwave76 wrote:PvP has released his review of the upcoming Leader Class Soundwave.

TlDr, not worth it if you already have the Netflix, and they could have made some efforts in remolding the defects like the Siege leftover parts.

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by Sowndwave76 Aug 11, 2024

-Kanrabat- wrote:
Sowndwave76 wrote:PvP has released his review of the upcoming Leader Class Soundwave.

TlDr, not worth it if you already have the Netflix, and they could have made some efforts in remolding the defects like the Siege leftover parts.

And being reminded that this figure is going on 4 years old...
I really will be surprised and almost shocked if Hastak doesn't make a SS86 version, even if it's not until 2026.
Plus he needs to be bigger and better overall.

I would like to have Buzzsaw, so this is still on preorder... But we'll see.

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by william-james88 Aug 11, 2024

-Kanrabat- wrote:
Sowndwave76 wrote:PvP has released his review of the upcoming Leader Class Soundwave.

TlDr, not worth it if you already have the Netflix, and they could have made some efforts in remolding the defects like the Siege leftover parts.

The siege leftover bits are a real bummer

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by Emerje Aug 11, 2024

With the Fossilizers and Junkions having semi-official and official combiner modes is there any indication of the rocks having a combined mode of some sort?

Emerje

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by Sabrblade Aug 11, 2024

Emerje wrote:With the Fossilizers and Junkions having semi-official and official combiner modes is there any indication of the rocks having a combined mode of some sort?

Emerje

Not at this time, no.

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by -Kanrabat- Aug 11, 2024

Emerje wrote:With the Fossilizers and Junkions having semi-official and official combiner modes is there any indication of the rocks having a combined mode of some sort?

Emerje

I'm sure someone will come up with something.

So far, we have 3 cars, one copter, and two bikes. The bikes could serves as parts of the arms, or just be the arms like sword-hands. For the torso, a combo of the copter and the black car could do the job, finishing with the blue and white cars as the legs. That is, for a humanoid bot.

I'm sure we could also witch things around to make a beast.

For example, we can turn the copter into some sort of beetle.

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by Emerje Aug 12, 2024

-Kanrabat- wrote:
Emerje wrote:With the Fossilizers and Junkions having semi-official and official combiner modes is there any indication of the rocks having a combined mode of some sort?

Emerje

I'm sure someone will come up with something.

No doubt, but I haven't seen anything yet that looks like a combiner head like the other two had (Fosilizers had a few options).

Emerje

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by -Kanrabat- Aug 12, 2024

Emerje wrote:
-Kanrabat- wrote:
Emerje wrote:With the Fossilizers and Junkions having semi-official and official combiner modes is there any indication of the rocks having a combined mode of some sort?

Emerje

I'm sure someone will come up with something.

No doubt, but I haven't seen anything yet that looks like a combiner head like the other two had (Fosilizers had a few options).

Emerje

Well, we could always go the Super Gobots route...

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by o.supreme Aug 12, 2024

william-james88 wrote:Mark Maher, a lead designer at Hasbro, had posted an image showcasing the kind of combiner you could do with the Legacy Evolution Junkions called Junkasaurus. It was missing a figure for one of its arms though but now that Road Pig has come out, we can finally complete Junkasaurus. Below you’ll find a take on how to accomplish this combiner using five different Junkion mold releases.

Unfortunatley, if you are particular like I am, and like to have your combiners faction aligned, there's still a problem.

What we have now is STILL a heroic Junkasuarus with a missing arm (Scraphook, Crashbar, Trashmaster and Tow-Line). But on a more positive note, we are 3/5 of the way to a Evil Junkasauraus if you have Axelgrease in addition to the Star Raider Lockdown & Road Pig. Just need an evil Trashmaster repaint/retool, and another evil Crashbar or Road Pig repaint/retool.

*Also get us a Predacon Wingfinger while your at it Hasbro...Common cant let that tooling only have one use

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by ScottyP Aug 12, 2024

Emerje wrote:With the Fossilizers and Junkions having semi-official and official combiner modes is there any indication of the rocks having a combined mode of some sort?

Emerje

A gravel pit

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by o.supreme Aug 12, 2024

Emerje wrote:
-Kanrabat- wrote:
Emerje wrote:With the Fossilizers and Junkions having semi-official and official combiner modes is there any indication of the rocks having a combined mode of some sort?

Emerje

I'm sure someone will come up with something.

No doubt, but I haven't seen anything yet that looks like a combiner head like the other two had (Fossilizers had a few options).

Emerje

I was hoping initially. It seemed like the first Armorizer was a heavy retool of the Scraphook mold. But upon actually having them in hand, other than the hood piece, they are completely different. Not sure if a combiner could be made, but it would be cool if they did. Ive only been getting the deluxes because thats all that was used in previous combinations (or bigger)

I still contest that Vertebreak and Dracodon weren't really fossilizers because they didn't have the pull-apart gimmick. At least the Core Rock creatures can be made into weapons. But I've refrained from getting them, unless at some point a practical use for them in a combined mode is revealed.

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by Rtron Aug 12, 2024

o.supreme wrote:
william-james88 wrote:Mark Maher, a lead designer at Hasbro, had posted an image showcasing the kind of combiner you could do with the Legacy Evolution Junkions called Junkasaurus. It was missing a figure for one of its arms though but now that Road Pig has come out, we can finally complete Junkasaurus. Below you’ll find a take on how to accomplish this combiner using five different Junkion mold releases.

Unfortunatley, if you are particular like I am, and like to have your combiners faction aligned, there's still a problem.

What we have now is STILL a heroic Junkasuarus with a missing arm (Scraphook, Crashbar, Trashmaster and Tow-Line). But on a more positive note, we are 3/5 of the way to a Evil Junkasauraus if you have Axelgrease in addition to the Star Raider Lockdown & Road Pig. Just need an evil Trashmaster repaint/retool, and another evil Crashbar or Road Pig repaint/retool.

*Also get us a Predacon Wingfinger while your at it Hasbro...Common cant let that tooling only have one use

Translucent red /reddish violet Wingfinger please

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by Razorbeast88 Aug 13, 2024

william-james88 wrote:
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Oh, I also forgot: Wanna make something of it?

Now, where's a Fulcrum?

I'm holding out in case we get a crankcase retool with an IDW head, like they did with Blurr.

Same here!

Re: Hasbro Designer Explains the Lore Behind the Star Raiders Thundertron, Calcitron and Nightstrike Set (view post)

Comment by ScottyP Aug 15, 2024

Grab a power drill, some paint, and boom, IDW Crankcase :lol: