kurthy wrote:
I think the fandom as whole needs to come up with a new nomenclature for this:
1. Complete revamps that significantly change the figure like Metroplex/Fort Max, Highbrow/Scourge, Chromedome/Dead End, Sky Dive/Air Raid.
2. The pieces fit together differently but a lot is the same like First Aid/Offroad, PMOP/Ultra Magnus, and Springer/Sandstorm.
3. Most of the outer pieces have different details, but it uses the same guts like Dead End/Streetwise, Rook/Swindle and Cyclonus/Silverbolt.
4. New head like Prowl/Streetwise and Blitzwing/Double Dealer.
5. Different paint job like seekers.
I think 3 is remold, 4 is retool, and 5 is repaint, but I don't think 3 and 4 are very good descriptions and and 1 and 2 have no general descriptions. I'm not even sure about grouping a lot of them in 1 and 2. Then you can also get into the places where the transformation is exactly the same like Fireflight/Sky Dive/Offroad. I'd really like to see someone like Yuki's thoughts on it.
Its pretty black and white actually. A retool is only a retool is a mold's tooling was chagned, hence the word retool. A brand new part is not a retool. Botcon's 2016 Ravage is not a retool since none of the original mold was changed. Its just a redeco with a new head.
Fort Max is totally a retool of Metroplex, not a revamp, because there are parts (like the legs) where the mold was taken directly from metroplex and changed.
Also a key thing about retools is that they must be based on a pre-existing toy. If they are done at the same time, and preconcieved that way (like these and the CW figures) then its not a retool.
None of these toys' toolings existed for one to be based off the other so they are not retools in any way.
Also Remold is not an actual term.