I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmasters

Some cartoon with big chins and a little girl that got beloved by fans and taken off TV to make way for a different show on another network. Yeah, that's fair.
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andersonh1
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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmasters

Post by andersonh1 »

JediTricks wrote:I sorta agree about Rhinox, but I can't agree about Megatron. I appreciate his shell parts are big and simple rather than small and numerous, but they could have integrated gun elements better instead of just dumping them on the back. It's a big set of wings.
How could they have integrated them without sacrificing the "Megatron" look? I can't see where the gun parts would have gone without having big chunks of plastic all over the robot. I'm not a big fan of the wings, but they're a simple and reasonably good solution to the problem of designing the figure to both look like G1 Megatron and have a gun mode that wouldn't run afoul of safety laws.
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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmasters

Post by Dominic »

I see what you are saying butI not know how much it really looked like G1 Megatron.

It might have been better to have spent the resources on making a G2 style tank. (And, please, do not reference the awful thing from the two-pack. I mean a *good* G2 style Megatron.)

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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmasters

Post by Onslaught Six »

Perhaps...but we've got enough Tank Megses. ClaMegs is probably the only Gun Megs we're gonna get (besides MP Megs) ever again.
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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmasters

Post by andersonh1 »

Yeah, there are plenty of tank Transformers out there already. Transformers that turn into handguns are considerably more rare. The novelty of Classics Megatron having a similar alt mode and look to the original was surely the main selling point of the figure.
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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmasters

Post by JediTricks »

138 Scourge wrote:
JediTricks wrote:Examples of movie designs that aren't? (it'd help if they were good figures too)
I got a few...

Dirge
Beachcomber/Dune Runner:
Bludgeon
Thrust/Breakaway: He's got some kibble, yes, but I dont' think it qualifies as playing the shell game.
Ransack
Brakedown
Not actually in movie. :p
Dune Runner is a bit shelly, and Bludgeon is too. But Brakedown is 90% shell.
I keep going back and forth on adding Swerve here, he's got the big ass backpack, but I'm not sure if that counts as shellmastery.
Swerve, the repaint of Sideswipe? That figure is all shell, only parts of the car that aren't kibble are the rear fenders and the very small parts of the front corners.

Shockwave wrote:ROTF Bludgeon doesn't count as shellmaster on account of the fact that the tank parts that hang off of him do so specifically to give him a more "samurai" look. It's part of the aesthetic of the robot so I would actually count those pieces as part of his legs.
By that argument, BW Rhinox isn't a shellmaster. Only he is.

andersonh1 wrote:
JediTricks wrote:I sorta agree about Rhinox, but I can't agree about Megatron. I appreciate his shell parts are big and simple rather than small and numerous, but they could have integrated gun elements better instead of just dumping them on the back. It's a big set of wings.
How could they have integrated them without sacrificing the "Megatron" look? I can't see where the gun parts would have gone without having big chunks of plastic all over the robot. I'm not a big fan of the wings, but they're a simple and reasonably good solution to the problem of designing the figure to both look like G1 Megatron and have a gun mode that wouldn't run afoul of safety laws.
He already does have gun parts all over him: http://tfu.info/2006/Decepticon/Classic ... otmode.jpg He's not exactly G1-accurate, after all. All they had to do was integrate the look of the gun onto that Megatron figure instead of making it a shell, they just went the easy route with the design instead.
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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmasters

Post by andersonh1 »

JediTricks wrote:http://tfu.info/2006/Decepticon/Classic ... otmode.jpg He's not exactly G1-accurate, after all. All they had to do was integrate the look of the gun onto that Megatron figure instead of making it a shell, they just went the easy route with the design instead.
No, he's not entirely G1-accurate, but then none of the Classics/Universe figures are. They all deviate from the original toy design and the animated models in some way. Classics Megatron looks more like the G1 animated model than the original toy, with deviations from that design thanks to the way the pistol looks.

What we get with the shell is a nice, clean pistol mode not filled with seams, which I find preferable to the alternative. Look at the jumble of parts that make up Classics Megatron before the shell parts are folded down to cover them. Now picture that jumble of parts with pistol components molded into them. You get a pistol that has cracks and seams all over it, and a Megatron figure with lots of odd lumps all over the arms, legs and torso. I like what we got.

The original figure avoided that, but it uses a pistol with a narrow barrel and wide chamber so that the barrel can be folded back out of the way. We still end up with short arms and long legs with a trigger that gets in the way. I like the figure, but I think it would have been impossible to adapt the original design and still follow modern safety restrictions.
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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmas

Post by Tigermegatron »

JediTricks wrote:I hadn't really thought about this much, but one of the reasons I've been losing my passion for TF lately has been the overabundance of the ROTF line. There have been some cool figures in that line recently though, one of them is Lockdown, and of course that demands comparison to his Animated figure. When I reviewed ROTF Lockdown, I gave it high marks. But when I compared it to Animated Lockdown, I found that the amount of detail was nowhere near as important as the satisfaction of being a "real" transformer that the Animated figure enjoys. I didn't realize that panel and shellmaster figures had become such a frustration for me. I like ROTF Mindwipe, and he has no shellmastery going on - none. Then I look at Brawn, and while there is some charm to the figure, it's not fun, it's just an ugly, skinny robot hanging out inside a facade. That to me isn't Transformers, mainly because ANY action figure line can do it if they wanted.
I actually think the ROTF Lockdown toy is a better toy than animated lockdown. most of the animated deluxe sized toys weren't that great as far as toy engineering went.
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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmas

Post by Ursus mellifera »

I agree with what Donosaur said earlier in that the exaggerated style of Animated is one of the selling points for me. I like the simple, highly-stylized look of them (which is possibly why I bought almost all of them). I also love, LOVE, the fact that they look just like the show. All of them. That's a big deal in my opinion.
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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmas

Post by BWprowl »

Ursus mellifera wrote:I agree with what Donosaur said earlier in that the exaggerated style of Animated is one of the selling points for me. I like the simple, highly-stylized look of them (which is possibly why I bought almost all of them). I also love, LOVE, the fact that they look just like the show. All of them. That's a big deal in my opinion.
Indeed, especially since you wouldn't think those designs would lend themselves that well to functional, transforming action figures. That they pulled it off anyway is pretty friggin' impressive.

Hey, welcome to the boards, by the way!
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Re: I prefer Animated to Movie line 'cause it's not shellmas

Post by Ursus mellifera »

Thanks!

Yeah, I was fairly incredulous the first time I saw the art style for Animated. I thought, "Man, the toys are going to be terrible. They're going to be worse translations than Beast Machines."

I was crazy wrong.
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