AOE Generations figures have holes for stands/Tamashii Stage

[BWprowl]

So some of you may have noticed that all your AoE Generations toys (save the Leaders) have little hexagonal holes on or near their, ah, bottoms, sometimes multiples of them accessible in either mode:



I brought this to the attention of the folks on 4chan's /toy/ board a while ago, and after a lot of discussion into what they could possibly mean, the best suggestion so far came that they were the exact size to be used with stands, Bandai's somewhat-ubiquitous Tamashii Stages, to be precise! Here's some quick pics of Strafe in action (hell yeah, got Strafe!) to see what I mean:



Is the intended use? Hard to say. You'd think if Hasbro was going to make these things intentionally stand-compatible, they'd be trying to *sell* us stands, instead of making them just to coincidentally work with ones made by one of their rivals. But what could those little holes be for, otherwise?

[Shockwave]

I'm assuming on said figures nothing else goes there, like weapons in alt mode? They're completely unused holes in both forms?

[BWprowl]

I'm assuming on said figures nothing else goes there, like weapons in alt mode? They're completely unused holes in both forms?

Well, right on the crotch/bum isn't exactly the best place to store things, and nope, nothing goes there. Most even have different ones that get revealed in altmode (that pic of Optimus's is actually from the bottom of his vehicle mode, and Slash has two separate ones that are only accessible in Dino mode and Robot mode each). And they're all the exact same size and hexagonal shape.

[JediTricks]

It's on all the deluxe and some of the voyager figures' crotches that I have except for Voyagers Hound and Grimlock who have a peg hole high up on each of their butts. My assumption is that this is to support an upcoming or canceled gimmick we've seen elsewhere in this movie's theme through other lines: dino riding. There's the Dino Riders toys and there's the Construct-bots, my guess is Hasbro originally had a theme in mind for the mainline as well to ride dinobots (there's a flat spot on Voyager Grimlock's beast mode that could have been designed for a peg), and either the corresponding toys for that are coming later, or canned. It's a standard 3mm peghole that this brand already uses, and Tamashii Nations stages are pretty thin on the articulated arms that end in 3mm pegs, I don't see how one of those arms could hold a heavier deluxe or even voyager up at that unbalanced single point without failing or even breaking - it's not really deep enough.

[BWprowl]

It's a standard 3mm peghole that this brand already uses, and Tamashii Nations stages are pretty thin on the articulated arms that end in 3mm pegs, I don't see how one of those arms could hold a heavier deluxe or even voyager up at that unbalanced single point without failing or even breaking - it's not really deep enough.

Indeed, I just tried it with my Evasion OP, and it wasn't nearly as stable as Strafe there. Still, as a bonus feature at least for Deluxes, it's nice to have the option.

Also, I'm using one of the smaller ACT 4 stages, but the larger 'For Mechanical' ACT 5 stages might support larger toys better.

The Dino riding idea was one that came up in the prior discussion, it was my first thought actually. Though it wouldn't explain why most of them also have holes accessible in altmode.

[Shockwave]

The pic of the one on Not Slag looks like it fits on a peg seen not too far from it, like it's meant to hold that part on in alt mode.

[JediTricks]

Indeed, I just tried it with my Evasion OP, and it wasn't nearly as stable as Strafe there. Still, as a bonus feature at least for Deluxes, it's nice to have the option.

Also, I'm using one of the smaller ACT 4 stages, but the larger 'For Mechanical' ACT 5 stages might support larger toys better.

The Dino riding idea was one that came up in the prior discussion, it was my first thought actually. Though it wouldn't explain why most of them also have holes accessible in altmode.

I don't think the problem is the stage's base size, but the fact that the peg isn't very deep so anything heavier above the midsection than below would be a strain on that little peg. The larger stage's base would be more stable, but the actual arm would be the same and encounter the same issue. Plus, I really doubt TakaraTomy would want to make a product compatible with Bandai/Tamashii Nations' line. Plus, the ones on Hound and Grimlock (voy) wouldn't be able to hold that figure up at all.

The hole on Grimlock isn't accessible, it's inside the mouth. I think that's just incidental.

[BWprowl]

The pic of the one on Not Slag looks like it fits on a peg seen not too far from it, like it's meant to hold that part on in alt mode.

That's not a peg, it's another hole, identical to the one across from it. Both are of the 3mm hex-peg style that we've been discussing here, and neither one on Slug pegs into anything in either mode.

Plus, I really doubt TakaraTomy would want to make a product compatible with Bandai/Tamashii Nations' line.

I definitely agree, I said as much in my initial post. But the positioning of the holes on most toys in both modes seems to point to use with a stand/display of some sort. Ones that actually used the hexagonal shape these holes all have would theoretically get a better grip/hold on the toy than the shallow circular pegs of the Tamashii Stages. Maybe TakaraTomy's coming out with something, we'll see.

The hole on Grimlock isn't accessible, it's inside the mouth. I think that's just incidental.

Are you referring to the hole in altmode? I don't know about VoyGrimlock, but Slug as mentioned above, along with Slash and Evasion Mode Optimus all have separate holes that are revealed on the bottom of their altmode. Prime actually has two on different sides of his crotch piece: one for robot mode, the other for vehicle mode.

I wish I'd caught this when we were asking the TF team design questions, I'm quite curious as to if it's a dropped dino-riding gimmick, stands that didn't pan out, or what.

[JediTricks]

Plus, I really doubt TakaraTomy would want to make a product compatible with Bandai/Tamashii Nations' line.

I definitely agree, I said as much in my initial post. But the positioning of the holes on most toys in both modes seems to point to use with a stand/display of some sort. Ones that actually used the hexagonal shape these holes all have would theoretically get a better grip/hold on the toy than the shallow circular pegs of the Tamashii Stages. Maybe TakaraTomy's coming out with something, we'll see.

Perhaps, but I still feel like it's too shallow and small to work as a plug-in stand system, and would be more believable as a riding-stabilizing system because the legs would be doing more work holding it in place, so the crotch would only need to keep the legs from sliding away.

The hole on Grimlock isn't accessible, it's inside the mouth. I think that's just incidental.

Are you referring to the hole in altmode? I don't know about VoyGrimlock, but Slug as mentioned above, along with Slash and Evasion Mode Optimus all have separate holes that are revealed on the bottom of their altmode. Prime actually has two on different sides of his crotch piece: one for robot mode, the other for vehicle mode.

I wish I'd caught this when we were asking the TF team design questions, I'm quite curious as to if it's a dropped dino-riding gimmick, stands that didn't pan out, or what.

Grimlock's hole on his rump in bot mode ends up in his mouth in alt mode, and I don't think there's any on his alt mode underside that's revealed later.

Yeah, if I had more time to mess with these figures, I would have asked them, but I simply had 2 figures and no time to really study them before that Q&A. Maybe at Botcon or SDCC.

[Shockwave]

Grimlock's hole on his rump in bot mode ends up in his mouth in alt mode,

So... Grimlock goes ass to mouth?