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The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron

Posted by i_amtrunks Apr 9, 2008 at 6:54pm CDT 70,535 views
This series of articles will focus on what was good about certain toy lines of figures, focusing on the positive, rather than the negative: Transformers Cybertron

I thought the Armada article would be hard to write. Convincing people that Armada was genuinely a good series of toys was set up to be a challenge. The cool thing about that one was that there were all these cool little aspects of Armada that were largely glossed over. So, in pointing them out, and establishing the ‘Ah-HA!’ type moments, it was relatively easy to explain why I thought the series was great. Now I get to Cybertron and quite frankly, don’t know what to say. It very nearly goes without saying, in fact, that the Cybertron line is outstanding. Cybertron is a refinement of Energon, a technological leap above Armada, and draws a line in the sand between the New School and Even Newer School of toys (Movie & Animated).

I know, whether or not you as a fandom out there admit it, that you guys love this toy line. I know this, because the spreadsheet I keep for my collection shows that the secondary market value of Cybertron shows an approximate 100% increase in the value of these toys when compared to the retail value. What has that happened in, like 2-3 years?

Somewhere along the way, Cybertron became the newest collector’s line. While we all marveled at how wonderfully full the shelves were during its tenure in stores, apparently we failed to notice that those shelves were sold out by the end of the wave. To top it off, there weren’t a whole lot of repeat performances of figures in later revision waves. One board-member said it best when they described the situation as resulting from a discrepancy between when the characters actually appeared ‘on-screen’ and when they were released in stores. See, the toys always made their store appearances long before their TV ones. By the time we as collectors had gotten our fill of Scourge and Leobreaker, kids were now seeing these guys on TV and making them permanently disappear from the shelves. Hence, Scourge will now run you between $60-80 new and Leobreaker $40-60. Shelf-warmers my ass.

I can’t say that high prices are what makes me like this line, but what I really do think is fun about Cybertron is the near universal acceptance we grant to it. (well, as universal as Transformers fans can get…) Due to the nature of the fiction, we’ve got 5 different planets by which character design can wrap around.

Like those Beasties? We’ve got mechanical ones, just like in G1.
Are you weird enough to have enjoyed the post 86’ movie? We’ve got futuristic designs, just like G1.
Like those City Bots? We went and got you some Metroplex. Remember him from G1?
Realistic Alt Modes? Oh, there’s a few. If you’re into that kind of thing, I’d check out some G1.
And of course, there’s Primus. Thank Primus. (He was shy in G1… but still there.)

It’s almost as if, well, it’s almost like someone, somewhere went and, I don’t know…listened to Transformers fans? If only these toys had loads of articulation and avoided being flimsy…

Right, right…yes, I suppose they do all that too.

Transformers Cybertron is literally the most expansive TF line since G1. It is essentially gimmick free in that Cyber Planet keys are about as non-offensive as you can get. Add into the mix that we got some of the very coolest TFs ever from Cybertron and it is little wonder why we have a modern day collector’s dream.

Why I like this line essentially boils down to one fact: Everything we as fans disliked about Armada and Energon was done away with while providing us with more detail, articulation, and variety than ever before. Everyone knows that Primus, Optimus Prime, and Starscream (Galaxy Force version here, sorry Hasbro…) are simply outstanding. These three epitomize excellence in the series. I’ll go over 5 toys you might have glanced over, just to show how expansive this line is.

5. Metroplex
The toy actually has two distinct robot modes, essentially a short and tall version. Both are quite excellent and help to scale him depending on the situation. Metroplex may be the best articulated toy for its size in all of Transformers displaying a Marvel Legends style range of movement. The biggest critique of Metroplex is his alt mode, as apparently, it looks like “nothing”.

http://www.asnee.com/blog/wp-content/up ... Mover1.jpg

Metroplex would like an apology from many of you.


4. Ransack GTS
A neat little repaint here and counterpart to the very popular Dark Crumplezone. Ransack GTS sports a surprisingly cohesive black, gold, and green color scheme. The figure itself is no different than the original release, but is instead indicative of how great the Cybertron repaints were in bringing out the beauty of some otherwise hidden details in the original releases.



3. Scourge
Has there ever been a dragon Transformer you wanted to get in a fight with…less? Scourge is a big dragon and an even bigger robot. Sure, his force chip gimmick is weak, but his big ass axe sure isn’t. Lots of Transformers bring their energon swords and spears to a fight. Scourge brought a giant axe. That’s a pretty good trick right there…



2. Mudflap
Personal bias be damned, this is a good toy and it was an undeserving shelfwarmer. Mudflap retains that old school boxy style while still displaying a full range of motion. His transformation is nearly kibble free and neither mode suffers for the other. Mudflap’s crane sits firmly under his arm as a melee style weapon. If only he had been painted neon green, someone would have loved him…



1. Cannonball
Yar…I don’t think Pirates are particularly cool, but Cannonball is for a variety of reasons. Cybertron did something very creative with this figure. They gave him a deco and back-story that made everyone notice an otherwise vanilla release. For those that don’t know, Cannonball is a space-pirate who uses his proceeds from villainy to purchase expensive deco schemes. Why he doesn’t just steal those too is a mystery of piracy. Cool thing about him, is that like the Dread Pirate Roberts, he ain’t the first. Oh yea, Hasbro did it, they gave genuinely cool back story to a random repaint character. He even has fiction over at the TF CC site.



Cybertron was an outstanding close to the trilogy. Love or hate the last 6 years of Transformers, you’d be hard pressed to ignore the leaps that Cybertron made in every regard for TF toys. There is enough in Cybertron alone to create your own modern day G1-ish population of Transformers. I like that a lot. The series was huge and full of redecos. All the same, it was a fun ride and it seems that no matter which camp of TF collector you fall into, something in the mass of releases in Cybertron was meant for you.

More Bots. More News. More Awesome.

Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by microclone Apr 9, 2008
i bought a few cybertron toys, i thought they were ok but then grew to dislike the ones i had for some reason, or at the least i sold them to make room for toys i liked more. mudflap was one i didnt get but hes probably my favourite in hindsight (can those arm weapons be removed?) i never likes his over long chaplin feet though!

the firts one i got was red alert as he had a lot of g1 blockiness but he ended up a mould i just couldnt stand, funny how that happens. as of now i have no cybertron toys.
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Skullcrunchberries Apr 9, 2008
Sadly, by the time I grew out of G1-only and started appreciating the newer stuff, Cybertron was off the shelves :\

Ah well, hopefully another homage-filled plentiful bounty of a series will come out int he next couple years.
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by mattyc1007 Apr 9, 2008
why do people dis armada it was the best out of any series for me, but thats just me. while on subject transformers cybertron relistic modes .nope!. no way at all. crosswise he aint real. what crazy car company would think of that the germans (bugatti (veyron) hot shot and his swat tank, they could use them in kent with the riot patrol. red alert now he is real im dying to get him aswell. but cybertron dosnt have a big robot that can turn into a ship, it dosnt have a giant 4x4 ambulance with a little black crane and it dosnt have a white and red jet with a small f1 minicon dont they? anyone get what i mean? and prime then did have a better powerlink(x)
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Counterpunch Apr 9, 2008
Sgt. Grumbles wrote:Sadly, by the time I grew out of G1-only and started appreciating the newer stuff, Cybertron was off the shelves :\

Ah well, hopefully another homage-filled plentiful bounty of a series will come out int he next couple years.


Welcome to the boards homie!
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Bed Bugs Apr 9, 2008
Sgt. Grumbles wrote:Sadly, by the time I grew out of G1-only and started appreciating the newer stuff, Cybertron was off the shelves :\

Ah well, hopefully another homage-filled plentiful bounty of a series will come out int he next couple years.


Well, I don't know about "homage-filled", but there are some nicely updated G1 figures coming out in Transformers: Universe this year such as Sunstreaker, Silverbolt, Octane (Tankor), Powerglide, and Onslaught. :wink:
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by i_amtrunks Apr 9, 2008
Love the focus on the 5 figures there CP, Mudflap is overlooked far too often.

But no mention of Shortround's toilet mode? I am disappointed!

Still, Backstop and Thundercracker deserve far more love than they are given, and Snarl is always overlooked as well.
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Duke of Luns Apr 9, 2008
UltraPrimal wrote:For example, I consider GF Prime to the closest thing to a Guiltor release we'll probably ever see. Even though he's not red, blue, and grey, the black and red color scheme is quite menasing. And seperates him from simply being another Nemesis Prime. And I like to think of the planet symbols on his shoulders as planets he's destroyed. Like how fighter pilots put a mark on their jet for every enemy they've killed. Then there's the alt mode. Similar, though he has 2 cannons instead of 1. He's even got a jet mode, so there's a little bit of Starsceams influence there.


Yes! Completely agree, even though I don't have the mold, it is pretty close judging from pics. Now if it had been released as a Decepticon, there would be even more closeness.

As for Cybertron itself, didn't pick too much of it up. No job at the time(I now finally have one), and other things seemed to take priority then. Still, most of what I did pick up I enjoyed, and was fortuneate to find good old Primus on clearance. The one figure I didn't like was Thundercracker. Oh, it wasn't the loose arms or anything, it was the fact that it broke unrepairably at the shoulders after about two weeks with minimal and pretty careful handling. I'm still bummed at that....

But if there are two figures I'm so glad I picked up(once again, clearance....I'm cheap), it's Jungle Planet Optimus Primal and Megatron. First of all, I love both molds, and I love the detail on them. I also love the neat new colors chemes on them, they aren't "show accurate"(I know they released ones that were), but they look great all the same. I also like the smaller deluxe size.
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Megatron's Lapdog Apr 9, 2008
I have to say that the Cybertron line is a fantastic line, and gave us some excellent toys. Mudflap is a cool figure, I was lucky to find him on clearance for $10 at my local Walmart, and I think his robot mode is great. I like the Cybertron Defense team, and we were able to get two(well...four) of the coolest transformers ever made, Leader Galvatron with Nemesis Breaker in Dark Claw mode, and Optimus Prime and Wingsaber in Sonic Wing mode. Sonic Wing OP/Wingsaber is, in my opinion, the coolest looking and best transformer ever made(except maybe MP Starscream). OP with swords, a big gold chestplate with the raised Autobot symbol, big guns over his shoulders, and Wingsaber as a backpack to fold up and do more damage? Solid. This line really shined in the deluxe class figures, with Downshift, Excellion, Hot Shot, and Landmine being some of the best. Ransack is a very good 'bot, but the Japanese TRU Police Gasket repaint is even better than the GTS repaint.
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Valandar Apr 10, 2008
i_amtrunks wrote:But no mention of Shortround's toilet mode? I am disappointed!


YES! No other line gave us both a toilet (Shortround) and a chair! (Jetfire)
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Raymond101 Apr 10, 2008
I love Cybertron. Best toyline ever, to me.
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Pot Bot Apr 10, 2008
Dealer wrote:
Pottermus_Prime wrote:I miss the supreme class, my SS is great, i love him to bits. As for blockyness, thats what i love too. Im a G1 addict so i love the more blocky bots, which is why i think rescue ratchet is by far the best movie toy, and the good thing about cybertron was they were all bulky toys that looked like big war fighting machines!!!


btw MB, just noticed the sig quote, Tek will be honoured



Funniest thing I'd read all day :P


Distribution was much improved for this line, even over here in GB.
While Armada was relatively easy to find (due to its low numbers of character figures; stores often became full of figures that everbody already had), and Energon was rather difficult, Cybertron seemed to have a very even spread. Nearly all of the figures were available at any good toy store, and had at least 2,3 or 4 of each figure on the shelves.



I miss the days of Cybertron. That was the time when transformers inhabited two isles at TRU. Now they just inhabit half of one.
We do still get the cheesy tf music playing in the isle though, I suppose :P



dude, go to tru now, they aint had it on in ages lol
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by rpetras Apr 10, 2008
Gotta agree, Cybertron was a great line!

I was just getting back into TFs around then with the Alts.

I had been collecting Marvel Legends for some time, so I was aware of the TF stuff that was available, but I had not been watching the shows so I was able to keep my wallet from that particular vacuum :D

Well, once the Classics hit, I ended up going back and getting quite a bit of the Cybertron line to "flesh out" the ranks of my Classics, and I'm glad I did!

Cyb Prime stands proudly behind my Classics prime as "Classics" Star Convoy.

But the Cybertron Defense force holds a pretty special place too, heading up my war bots.

There's just so much great stuff, that no matter what or how you collect TFs there is something to enjoy in the Cybertron line.
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Autobot Snake Eyes Apr 11, 2008
I totally agree. Cybertron was the best of the Unicron trilogy.
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by Blurrz Apr 11, 2008
Great Article... I didn't mind Cybertron.. good to see Blurr again.
Re: The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron (view post)
Comment by chuckdawg1999 Apr 13, 2008
Cybertron was by far the best line of the trilogy. I am proud to say I have every figure including a few store exclusives. The episode that featured the death of Vector Prime was everything that "Code of Hero" wasn't. Sure the figures had a few issues here and there, but tell me you didn't run to your computer and enter the cyber key code when you bought a new figure.
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