Power Core Combiners: Mysterious new line?

[Dominic]

True, but there were combiners in the line and movie. And, as you pointed out, there were supposed to be more combiners. Even Knockout's file card mentions combiner upgrades. (There were also those cruddy UT combiner recolors.)

At Toy Fair, (get ready for irony), most of the people are probably not really familiar with the content of a line. A few examples become a theme for the purposes of wooing buyers and investors. And, given how much money the line is making, the them is clearly successful.

Dom
-just wants these to be good combiners, regardless of Hasbro's puffery.

[onslaught86]

I find it odd that you'd say there are no legitimately good combiners, Dom, since I'd say there are quite a few. Of course, they all have their compromises, none are truly perfect. That's the nature of the game, though. JRX, Magnaboss, Tripredacus, and Build King spring to mind, and with some 'fan mode' tweaks to give them elbows and the like, the EnerGestalts can come pretty close to excellent. On the power-up front, God Ginrai, God Fire Convoy, Armada's Magna Jet Convoy, and even ROTF's Jet Power Prime are impressively engineered. I don't yet have Legends Devastator, but he looks fun. They've done it well in the past.

Power Core Combiners looks rather interesting, especially Huffer's resemblence to GoBot Stacks. Smolder (The Decepticon fire truck) has an aaaawesome name. The toy looks a bit average. Hm, wonder what the fiction will be like. This is definitely a turn for the better, I feel.

[Onslaught Six]

Hm, wonder what the fiction will be like.

Fiction? Pfft. I seriously don't expect Hasbro to do 'anything' fiction-wise until the next movie hits, with the exception of War for Cybertron. Seriously. This time in '08, Animated had already premiered and we were getting toys in May or so.

[Dominic]

Sadly, O6 is probably right. Aside from packaging blurbs, we are unlikely to get any context for the Power Core toys. IDW might include a couple of the characters in the comics. But, even if that happens, odds are the appearances will be little more than cameos along the lines of Dropshot in "All Hail Megatron".

with some 'fan mode' tweaks

I am not going to give points to a toy for "fan modes". If a feature is not part of the design as presented in the directions, (making allowances for omissions due to error or lack of space), there is cause to praise a toy for it. Toys like RiD Galvatron/Devil Gigatron may be flexible and have great fiddle value. But, it makes little sense to credit a design retroactively.

The JRX team is probably the best thing on that list. And, that is largely because the competition is so weak. (JRX is rather cumbersome, despite looks sleek.) The "Energon" combiners were some of the worse I have seen, being a huge step backwards in engineering from (pretty minimal) advances made during the Beast era. I would argue those are worthy of the term "epic fail", especially if one considers that Puzzlor from the "Gobots" line surpassed them about a decade before.

Maybe the "Legends" Devastator will be good. But, given Hasbro's track record, (going back 25 years), I am not even going to consider it until I fiddle with one outside of the package.

Dom
-is cautiously optimistic about the Power Core line.

[onslaught86]

Sadly, O6 is probably right. Aside from packaging blurbs, we are unlikely to get any context for the Power Core toys. IDW might include a couple of the characters in the comics. But, even if that happens, odds are the appearances will be little more than cameos along the lines of Dropshot in "All Hail Megatron".

With rumours of a new show on a new TV network flying around, I'm not about to call this one a sure thing.

I am not going to give points to a toy for "fan modes". If a feature is not part of the design as presented in the directions, (making allowances for omissions due to error or lack of space), there is cause to praise a toy for it. Toys like RiD Galvatron/Devil Gigatron may be flexible and have great fiddle value. But, it makes little sense to credit a design retroactively.

I think there's a line there, in that some features are almost clearly designed into the toys without being made official. There are a great many cases of undocumented features, and the Energon Gestalts largely having functional elbows is something I'd claim veers closer to that territory than strict fan mode,

The JRX team is probably the best thing on that list. And, that is largely because the competition is so weak. (JRX is rather cumbersome, despite looks sleek.) The "Energon" combiners were some of the worse I have seen, being a huge step backwards in engineering from (pretty minimal) advances made during the Beast era. I would argue those are worthy of the term "epic fail", especially if one considers that Puzzlor from the "Gobots" line surpassed them about a decade before.

JRX is pretty good, with the exception of the one that forms the pants having giant legs in regular robot mode. I have not fiddled with mine in some time, but don't recall him being cumbersome in particular. Build King definitely veers more towards cumbersome.

The EnerGestalts' failing in that they stepped backwards due to the craptacular merge parts is something we can agree on, we should be past the need for merge parts and add-ons now. I was very anti when they first came out, I've since warmed to them quite a bit. Largely due to, well, the lack of competition, and the above-mentioned tweaks.

Puzzler..define 'surpassed'. Yes, it's a reasonably good-looking gestalt that doesn't need add-on merge parts. But it's still pretty flimsy and unarticulated, as are many G1 gestalts. I'd call Predaking and Landcross reasonably well done if we're going down that route, as their merge parts are certainly more serviceable as weapons than the majority of the EnerGestalts'.

Then there's the Sixcombiners and their mighty fleet of Kibblejets. I do like the kibblejets.

Maybe the "Legends" Devastator will be good. But, given Hasbro's track record, (going back 25 years), I am not even going to consider it until I fiddle with one outside of the package.

Fairly sure that one was mostly Takara's doing. Given it's made of Legends, I expect flimsiness. But it looks good.

Dom
-is cautiously optimistic about the Power Core line.

Likewise.

[Onslaught Six]

Sadly, O6 is probably right. Aside from packaging blurbs, we are unlikely to get any context for the Power Core toys. IDW might include a couple of the characters in the comics. But, even if that happens, odds are the appearances will be little more than cameos along the lines of Dropshot in "All Hail Megatron".

Actually, a recent interview with Schmidt claims that after Nefarious (Furman's movie miniseries) they're going in a "bold new direction" with the Movie comics. Seeing as Nefarious starts coming out this month (I believe), that gives us ~6 months for it to wrap up...which will put us around July or so, which is starting to gear up for the fall relaunch of ROTF alongside PCC. So the comics will probably incorporate it.

With rumours of a new show on a new TV network flying around, I'm not about to call this one a sure thing.

Think time-wise, man. Animated was in preproduction for a year before we heard the first bits about it. I don't see Hasbro bumming out an entirely new cartoon line when they're rebranding ROTF under Just Plain Transformers in the fall, and the next movie is confirmed to come out next year. I'm not saying it's impossible, but considering Hasbro kind of bit a big-ass bullet by cutting both Animated and GI Joe 25th off at the knees for their respective movie lines--I'd hope they'd learned their lessons and won't jump-start an entirely new line only to kill it six months later.

Fairly sure that one was mostly Takara's doing. Given it's made of Legends, I expect flimsiness. But it looks good.

Yeah, it probably was Takara, they do love their Legends.

[Dominic]

I am sure the PCC characters will have some kind of post-hoc appearances in the comics. But, that sort of thing tends to be hit or miss.

I think there's a line there, in that some features are almost clearly designed into the toys without being made official. There are a great many cases of undocumented features, and the Energon Gestalts largely having functional elbows is something I'd claim veers closer to that territory than strict fan mode,

Like I said, legitimate omissions are one thing. I will credit a design for those. But, given how badly designed the "Energon" combiners were over-all, my inclination is to not give the benefit of the doubt when it comes to undocumented features.

Predaking and JRX both benefit from having little competition. The individual Predacons have fewer of the problems common to G1 in terms of parts not fitting in. But, they still have them. And, JRX fits together more smoothly than Build King or Ruination. But, that is setting the bar pretty low. The combined JRX is not horrid. But, it is far less than what one would expect from a line that had been around for over 15 years at that point. (And, yes, I know JRX was originally a brave toy. But, Takara still should have had the institutional know-how to do a better job than they did.

It is possible to like a bad toy at a visceral level. But, that should not be confused with a toy actually being good. I am a *huge* fan of G1 Metroplex. But, I would never tell anybody it is a good toy.

I give Puzzlor huge points for not requiring any addition combination parts beyond a gun or two.


Dom
-wants Metrotitan.

[Onslaught Six]

-wants Metrotitan.

Who remembers that guy? Or at least that guy from the old BWTF who had Metrotitan in his avatar. I forget if that was actually his name.

I want Megaloplex repainted as Metrotitan.

[Dominic]

As it is, the colors were not that far off.

Dom

[BWprowl]

The combined JRX is not horrid. But, it is far less than what one would expect from a line that had been around for over 15 years at that point. (And, yes, I know JRX was originally a brave toy. But, Takara still should have had the institutional know-how to do a better job than they did.

'Not horrid'? What in the hell is wrong with JRX? He holds together fine, has *tons* of poseability, and even keeps all his guns incorporated by combining the two and using the other one as a shield. I can't think of what would detract from JRX that would bump him down to 'not horrid' in your eyes.