BWprowl wrote:JediTricks wrote:There was already a thread for Botcon brand reveals, why did Generations need to get singled out?
That was over in the Movie forum and people weren't talking about these? *shrug*
That's why I didn't bother merging this thread, but honestly I put it in movie because I was busy doing Botcon stuff and not thinking about it, the majority of the reveals weren't Movie - Movie only got 1 new regular figure (and that's a repaint), plus a bunch of RID kid stuff.
Anyway, not to be rude, but your opinions are so fringe these days that it doesn't really register whether or not you are "livid" about Powerglide and Windcharger anymore.
No offense taken on that one, I acknowledge that it's primarily self-opinionated bitching on my part and just wanted to get it out, but I do think it speaks sadly of the state of the fandom at this point when it's considered 'fringe' to want cool new shit instead of the same old shit over and over again.
What's fringe about it is that you don't recognize that the rest of us want both classic stuff updated and new stuff, that you're somehow fighting a one-man war for "NEW, FOREIGN, DIFFERENT!!!" as if this all exists in a vacuum. I would disagree that the brand exists in a vacuum, that Hasbro must eschew its past to move forward, that it has to sacrifice the brand's underpinnings for something that is only vaguely connected in order to be new. I'm not buying Windcharger, I have Tailgate and am disappointed in that mold, and even as a kid I didn't like all the repaints in this brand (Hasbro's business model has been repaints and retools going back to GI Joe's new sets of clothes, and Mr Potato Head's faces), but I don't begrudge others for wanting that. As for Powerglide, that figure looks boss and I can't wait - Swerve and Cosmos saved my interest in this Legends line, they are the Tranformers fun that the first 2 waves and a lot of Cyberverse were missing. But this is a GENERATIONS line, it is going to look backwards by definition.
The thing is, back when Cosmos happened, I pointed to it as a starting point for a 'slippery slope' where we'd go full GI Joe and have the same dudes remade repeatedly despite valid toys already existing, and you all went "You're overreacting, there's no way it would get that bad!" But here we are now, and barely two years after the last Commander-class Powerglide we're getting *another* Commander-class Powerglide! A few years after a fantastic Basic Windcharger comes out, and instead of just reissuing it and making it easier for new fans to find, they retool an existing mold into another new one! Where does it end?
I cannot give you an inch on that DOTM Commander-class Powerglide point, that's a movie line and an entirely different aesthetic with different goals from this. You can compare this to the Universe Powerglide, but you're arguing apples and oranges when you bring in that DOTM figure.
Basic Windcharger no longer would have a line to be reissued in as it's too big for Legends, same with that Rumble tank figure from RTS. And how would you take it if they did re-release that Windcharger? That'd be another waste of efforts, right, another G1 character getting a re-release before some new character?
It just comes off as such a gross waste of time and resources to me. It doesn't have to be a brand-new character, since this is the nostalgia line and all, but why couldn't the time spent making that redundant new Powerglide have instead gone into making a Commander-class Runamuck, or Seaspray? I find myself wondering if the designer for that new Powerglide wasn't looking up reference pics, came across the Commander-class Powerglide from a couple years ago, then just shook his head and said "Why the hell am I even bothering with this?".
Seaspray? We got a Seapsray in '10 and that one was a lot more G1-styled than DOTM Powerglide; your argument is a tad difficult to understand, it's loud and angry but it's not consistent.
Runamuck got a Botcon figure 2 years ago, that usually makes those characters off-limits for exclusivity for a few years. But it's also a very difficult place to go because Runamuck is part of a combiner, so do you make a new combiner figure or do you make a non-combiner figure and piss off expectations? So combiners are "tread lightly" characters for a solid reason.
Yeah, there are holes in this line that can be filled, we could have had a Beachcomber or Brawn or Huffer or others, but we did
just get a new Tailgate and Swerve and Shrapnel after 29 years and are about to get Bombshell too, and there's possibly more to see at SDCC next month.
They're not forcing me to buy them, no, but there'd potentially be more cool shit I *could* buy if we weren't getting these utterly pointless new versions of Powerglide and Windcharger.
That's a straw man argument right there, you have no idea what they'd do if they weren't doing Powerglide and Windcharger. Windcharger is a budget-reliever from Tailgate, were it not for Windcharger being planned we might not have gotten Tailgate at all. Powerglide is a popular cartoon character who hasn't had a quality cartoon figure in 29 years until now, if they hadn't done him they might have just released another new Bumblebee for all you know. Powerglide
will sell, and products that sell encourage the line to stick around longer so it can attempt more figures. This isn't like Star Wars with 50 different Darth Vader figures or GI Joe with 67 Snake Eyes figures, but even if it was, the reason there are 50 Vaders is so cases with new guys like Ree Yees can sell, because the line still sells to kids and to newcomers - no Vader, no Ree Yees.
She's not that extensive a retool of Prime RID Arcee, the body is identical toe to neck, it's just a different head and different wings. It's a quality use of an alternate-brand body and coloring, but it's not as revolutionary as you are seeing it.
The wheels are different too, and she's got new guns. It's mainly the way the new wings/bike bits completely change the shape and look of the bike mode that impresses me, and that they were able to get so close to the comic design with a mere retool.
Wheels, ok. Accessories is no big deal though. It's an impressive figure, but it's not as extensive a retool as it seems, that's all I was saying.
If you think they're inevitably going to redo a Leader class a 3rd time, I suspect you are going to be waiting until the sun explodes.
I'd say it's so obvious they'd have to do it, but then I remembered that Hasbro couldn't even manage to put out a Scourge/Black Convoy redeco of the new Laser Prime mold and wound up just letting FunPub do it, so you may have a point.
Also, Leaders generally don't get away with 3 passes in this country, and there would be some pushback if the next Generations Galvatron figure weren't G1, I think, especially after the rather cool reception of the previous Galvatron.
This new figure looks pretty bad, we can agree there, silly fat face and simplistic bot mode with a rather blah alt mode. As for not trying to improve on the Classics mold, I not only can't agree at all, but I cannot imagine why anybody would be against improving on an 8-year-old figure. Not only have a lot of fans of G1 come back to the brand lately only to have no real quality OP to buy, but that figure is somewhat dated.
8 years is hardly anything, Hasbro's still reusing molds from that period and they look fine. There's nothing really dated about it; I'd like to see, say, ankle rockers added, but that'd be getting greedy, I genuinely love that design for OP otherwise.
As for fans having no quality OP to buy: MP-10 exists, and really should guarantee that no new G1 OP needs to be made ever again.
Sadly, the transformation on this new Leader Optimus could *almost* make it work as a Ginrai, but it just looks so...bad.
8 years is 4 to 8 cycles in the toy industry and 2 whole new generations of consumers for the kid demo; it's also a long time for technology to stagnate, even in the toy industry -- the thicker walls of the '06 Classics are a very good example of this, not only are the figures chunkier but the detail isn't as sharp, another shift is the change in design philosophy in general.
Not every fan can put $120 up for MP-10 even if they could find it, and the Year of the Horse figure is also gold-trimmed which isn't appealing to everybody.
The fat head with small eyes kinda reminded me of Ginrai, the alt mode reminded me of Energon Fatimus Prime, but the end result is something that looks awful at this stage.
Shockwave wrote:Now, I totally agree with you on Windcharger. And I agree with you on Cosmos, but only because of botched distribution. They nerfed it the first time so no one could get him so now they made a new and... once again, no one can find him. Great, nice work, Hasbro.
Cosmos and Swerve are showing up at Target and TRUs in my area more and more.