Repaints and Legends are bringing me down

[andersonh1]

The number of homages is unavoidable when it comes to Universe since it's backwards-looking by its very nature. But you have a point with Animated and with the movie line. The movie in particular has a chance to branch out and do some new things and offer some new characters. Incinerator and Stockade are two of my favorite movie figures. Neither are revolutionary, but both are new characters. Bonecrusher uses an old name, but gives us a very novel vehicle mode that I haven't seen in the line before. As for animated, at least there are Bulkhead, Lugnut and Sentinel Prime, though Lugnut's blind loyalty reminds me too much of BW Inferno.

[Onslaught Six]

Inferno's loyalty had 'personality' to it, though, in the form of all the ant-related puns. Plus, Inferno was insane and liked to burn stuff. Lugnut's not insane, just loyal.

Thing is, Dom, I see where you're going, but seeing as this is, indeed, the 25th Anniversary line, I don't see a new mould-new character toy on the horizon until at least during the movie, where we're sure to get a bunch of them. Sure, it's not 'the same,' but it's there. The fact is, really, that Animated and the Movie are the current 'going-forward' lines whereas Universe is clearly looking back. It's the difference between the 25th Joe line and the Resolute figures, almost.

[Dominic]

"Universe" has some new characters, albeit as repaints. (I really like those Minicons.)

As far as this being the 25th Anniversary, why not have that celebrate the thing that made TF great in the past, that change man. It is all about the change.

Dom
-I can see the change, and and the music.

[onslaught86]

The challenge is in the change! [/Beast Machines]

[Onslaught Six]

Oh, God, I remember the commercials now. The kids in the lunchroom, fighting with Jetstorm and Primal.

[onslaught86]

And the kid with Primal won. Gee, that couldn't have anything to do with Primal being vastly easier to transform.

[Onslaught Six]

Hrm. I dunno, Primal's arms always pissed me off because I could never get them to lock half the time. I 'still' can't. The only real sticking point for Jetstorm is the waist piece, which once confused the hell out of me for 'an hour' as a kid.

[BWprowl]

For the record, I thought that TFU Ratbat worked very well as an homage to the character. We've had, what, two different interpretations so far of Ratbat as a humanoid-robot-type character? And this mold is aesthetically similar to both of them (note the teeth around the Cyberjet faceplate), so it works well in that regard. The vehicle mode is also good: It's got something of a bat-like profile, with little 'fangs' sticking out of the front of the cockpit. They clearly put some thought into it.

What's your problem with TFU Roadbuster Dom? I wish he had a faceplate, but he's good otherwise. Dirge is the problematic one of the set for me, and his problems could have been avoided by choosing a mold that didn't suck.

A lot of the homage-repaints in Universe show a fair amount of thought. Blaster's still a favorite example of mine because of how well they got the original's color scheme patterned onto the Soundwave body, complete with the paint app on his eyes to mimic the look he had in the comics. Of course, we also get stuff like Blades, who's clearly a case of "We need a name for this repaint! Quick, get a list of all the names of Helicoptor Autobots! Was this one red? Okay!". The Legends repaint from that Aerial Rivals set is much better, and pretty tempting to get just for that one toy. Speaking of which, almost all the guys in the "Special Teams Leaders" set do a GREAT job of homaging their specific character, especially Scattorshot and Hun-Gurrr (who I will reiterate is frickin' beautiful).

I'm on the fence about Darkwing. I like the mold more than most, but that's mainly because I like Silverbolt. And if I did get him, I wouldn't have Dreadwind to go with him (I can *almost* see where the ThunderWhiners are coming from now. Almost.). Eh, if anything, I'll get him, and paint select parts red to turn him into Hydra. Definitely getting Countdown though.

[JediTricks]

Legends are a mixed bag, and certainly overpriced for what they are. It used to be you could get a basic or scout for a little more than what Legends cost now. Some of them are decent for the price, and I find that I really like the re-made mini-bots, since they're so close to the original size. But some of the figures they've made into Legends just don't translate well into that size.

At the outset of this decade, basics/scouts were that price. Those Spychanger 2packs that sold better than anything in the brand and revitalized Hasbro enough to push TF again were $5. Minicons were a buck more, and you got 3 of them.

I can see the utilitarian value of homages. (They help retain copy-rights.) But, the endless homages to obscure characters really needst to stop. I am getting to the point where I buy new characters on principle. (Dropshot and Heavyload come to mind here. They use old names, but are new characters.)

I can see JT's point on this. Who cares if the toy kind-of-sort-of looks like some obscure bozo from....whatever series. Is it a good toy unto itself? Is the character referenced really worth referencing? (Frankly, I good give a rat''s patootie about Big Daddy. The character contributed next to nothing in ~20 years.) Is the profile well written, and actualy referencing the character?

Kinda surprised to hear you say that, I thought you were siding with the other direction on that one.

I am just sick of hearing how great it is to see a toy based on some obscure character. It is even worse when Hasbro builds it into their marketing. Those Target exclusive comic packs are the worst. We get 2 sets of half-@$$ed homages packaged with incomplete comic stories.

Yes, thank you, totally!

I like Blades, but there's just too much red on the helicopter. I'd have preferred more white, like the original figure. It is a better and more realistic color scheme than Springer's, but it's not close enough to the original to suit me. I may still buy it at some point though.

Way too red, it's hard to look at in stores all the time. And it's not a mold I particularly love, it's an ok mold but not one that screams "repaint me in the bright colors and sell me to the kiddies!"

On the other hand, I'm the guy who wants homage repaints of ClaRod, ClaSwipe and ClaIronhide as Speedbreaker, Mach Alert and X-Brawn. Come on! You know it'd rule.

That'd be shenanigans! The Car Brothers are their own thing, and their designs (we're talking about the regulars, not the supers, right?) are based on those realistic vehicles, which wouldn't really play with the molds you mentioned. Plus, Rodimus as Speedbreaker doesn't even make sense, they're way different-looking in both modes.


I dunno, it just seems like you look at the aisle and it's all repaints. New product is buried in a sea of repaints. And Legends are tiny and usually boring.

[Dominic]

I completely disagree about Legends. They are some of the most fun I have had with the line these past few years. Yes, there are some duds, like Onslaught or Vector Prime. But, there are gems like Starscream (Cybertron), or Optimus, or "Universe" Brawn.

Kinda surprised to hear you say that, I thought you were siding with the other direction on that one.

I think the *character* of the toy is important. But, I do not give points for a toy homagine an old character if the character is boring, or if the toy is bad. And, even a great character cannot save a terrible toy. (For example, I *really* like "Beast Machines" Jetstorm as a character. But, I do not like the Ultra-scale mold for the toy. Never have.)

In the case of Big Daddy, I like the mold. But, I do not care about the character enough to balance things off if the toy is bad.

And, we agree that too many fans give too many points for obscure homages. (Leo Prime anyone?)

Dom
--tempted to get Leo Prime to combine it with Optimus.