The Seeker comparison thread

[Shockwave]

I know Scourge has at least three Starscreams, one of which he bought from me so he might be able to do a comparison on those. Not sure if anyone has both Skywarps or Ramjets.

No sir, I just have the one Starscream. And only one version of any of the Seekers, really. In every case but the Starscream I got the easiest and cheapest version I could, because that's just good enough. And going by the pictures here, I think I stand by that. All my regular retail Seekers are just fine.

I'm pretty sure you've got at least two Starscreams. If I remember correctly, I think you said you have Universe 2.0 and then you bought the Ghost one from me so that's two. And I remember at one point you were entertaining the idea of buying the Classics one I had but it was missing a missile.

Anyway, I was going to do similar pics of Starscream since I had Classics, Henkei and Ghost all at the same time but tracking down Universe just didn't happen.

And crap, now that I think about it, I had both Skywarps. Shit, I should have taken pics.

So the list goes as follows for official seekers:
Starscream: Classics, Henkei, Universe, Ghost
Skywarp: Classics, Henkei
Thundercracker (G1 colors): Botcon, Henkei, Generations
Thrust: Botcon, Henkei, Generations
Dirge: Botcon, Henkei, Generations
Ramjet: Classics, Henkei,
Other: Acid Storm, G2 TFCC Ramjet, Action Master Thundercracker

Damn, that's 20 uses of the mold so far.

[Dominic]

Screwed us out of them by...giving us options and selling many of them at retail? You're a hard man to please, Dom.

We have been over this. It took them 4 years to release all 6 in a consistent aesthetic. Getting a unified set requires at least one Japanese exclusive and another store or Japanese exclusive. And, if you bought the "first opportunity" on a few others, you were looking at convention exclusives or imports.

Hasbro eventually did right by us, but they screwed us pretty hard first.


Dom
-still no G2 Starscream eh?

[BWprowl]

We have been over this. It took them 4 years to release all 6 in a consistent aesthetic. Getting a unified set requires at least one Japanese exclusive and another store or Japanese exclusive. And, if you bought the "first opportunity" on a few others, you were looking at convention exclusives or imports.

Hasbro eventually did right by us, but they screwed us pretty hard first.

Hey now, that’s only if you’ve got your particular brand of OCD crazy, not the regular kind of same-jet-buying crazy that most of us have. I bought all six of my main Seekers at retail, and I think they look just fine together, with no frothing about how their leg and shoulder paint apps don’t match up *perfectly* with each other and their group cohesion is completely ruined why do you specifically hate me Hasbro.

And really, six toys in 4-5 years isn’t that bad. Hasbro still gave ‘em to us. Look at the shit Mattel pulls with DCUC, and how many groups *still* go incomplete in that line that’s almost nothing but the same few molds with different paint apps. Hasbro may be stupid and crazy sometimes, but they’re hardly malicious.

Dom
-still no G2 Starscream eh?

I gotta say, I'm genuinely surprised they haven't done one yet.

[Dominic]

It was 4 years of being jerked around, capped off with another year of being slapped in the face.

2006: Starscream and Ramjet in new colour schemes. My first thought was "where the hell are the other 4". These were good toys, but, the set felt incomplete. Skywarp was later released as a store exclusive. So far, nothing too awful, but still mildly annoying.

2007: Thundergate happened.

2008: Acidstorm. Hey, I like the mould. I like Acidstorm. But, at best, Acidstorm makes you wonder where the rest of the Rainmakers are. In Japan, Starscream and Ramjet come out at mass retail in G1 colouring. Thundercracker and Skywarp are exclusives in Japan. But, it is still easier to get Thundercracker from Japan than to get the damn BotCon toy. Uf you want Skywarp, you are screwed either way. (I opted for Henkei Skywarp, just to keep it consistent with the other 2.)

2009: Damn near 3 years later, we get....another Starscream, in retro colours. Japan releases Thrust and Dirge in colours similar to the *American* Starscream and Ramjet, effectively bitch-slapping collectors on two continents.

2010: Thrust and Dirge at mass US retail, in retro colours, using the Henkei moulds. Thrust's wings are a bit off, but they are close enough. "Generations" Thundercracker is released right before the holidays, and appears to be scarce for time.

2011: After several months of ambiguity, "Generations" Thundercracker becomes the only common seeker. Master Collector releases an ugly as shit "Shattered Glass" Thundercracker and a G2 Ramjet, effectively starting two more subsets that are unlikely to ever be completed.


Dom
-going to complain about this for years.

[138 Scourge]

I'm pretty sure you've got at least two Starscreams. If I remember correctly, I think you said you have Universe 2.0 and then you bought the Ghost one from me so that's two. And I remember at one point you were entertaining the idea of buying the Classics one I had but it was missing a missile.

Nope. Just the one. Thinking about it some more, I do have two Thundercrackers, though.

[Dominic]

Customs do not count. But that logic, I have a G2 Ramjet and Starscream. I also have a host of random troops, including the blue and yellow guy from season 3. And, I have UT Unicronian Cyclonus (as shown in an early issue of "Energon").

[138 Scourge]

Still.

Okay, I'll respond in more than one word. Customs don't count as far as comparing official toys, no. I couldn't compare the custom Cracker you sent my way to the BotCon one and expect that comparison to be important to anyone but me (though, far as that goes, I like the custom better). But that wasn't really the point of the last post I made. It was more to say that I've only got one version of Classics Starscream and every other Seeker except for Thundercracker. Though, if I wanted to get pendantic, I guess technically I do have a Universe Starscream, since there's one under all that sweet, sweet custom paint.

[BWprowl]

It was 4 years of being jerked around, capped off with another year of being slapped in the face.

2006: Starscream and Ramjet in new colour schemes. My first thought was "where the hell are the other 4". These were good toys, but, the set felt incomplete. Skywarp was later released as a store exclusive. So far, nothing too awful, but still mildly annoying.

2007: Thundergate happened.

2008: Acidstorm. Hey, I like the mould. I like Acidstorm. But, at best, Acidstorm makes you wonder where the rest of the Rainmakers are. In Japan, Starscream and Ramjet come out at mass retail in G1 colouring. Thundercracker and Skywarp are exclusives in Japan. But, it is still easier to get Thundercracker from Japan than to get the damn BotCon toy. Uf you want Skywarp, you are screwed either way. (I opted for Henkei Skywarp, just to keep it consistent with the other 2.)

2009: Damn near 3 years later, we get....another Starscream, in retro colours. Japan releases Thrust and Dirge in colours similar to the *American* Starscream and Ramjet, effectively bitch-slapping collectors on two continents.

2010: Thrust and Dirge at mass US retail, in retro colours, using the Henkei moulds. Thrust's wings are a bit off, but they are close enough. "Generations" Thundercracker is released right before the holidays, and appears to be scarce for time.

2011: After several months of ambiguity, "Generations" Thundercracker becomes the only common seeker. Master Collector releases an ugly as shit "Shattered Glass" Thundercracker and a G2 Ramjet, effectively starting two more subsets that are unlikely to ever be completed.


Dom
-going to complain about this for years.

Wow are you bitter.

I mean, when you look at it from a domestic point of view, it just comes off like we got all six Seekers really slowly, which is hardly a Cardinal sin. The part that makes you look crazy though, is the way you take points off for international releases and exclusives that would have allowed those fans who *really* wanted all six to get them early, all because their paint apps didn't match up perfectly. Newsflash: Almost no one else besides you cares about that. You want six jets in six particular color schemes, and it was perfectly plausible to get all of them if you wanted them. Whining about how some of their stripes aren't 1984 enough is just superfluous and comes across as nitpicking, which does nothing for anyone's image after they're already bought the same damn toy jet six times in a row.

I think what I *really* love about the whole Seeker situation though, is the knowledge that if Hasbro had gone and done all six Seekers back in Classics, then fans would have inevitably bitched and moaned about them releasing too many repaints instead of new molds. God we are never happy.

Although it could've gone the other way, I admit. The main thing that pisses me off about the Seekers is the way fans hate almost all other repaints but give them a free pass because they just happened to be around when they were kids.

In short: You got your damn Seekers. You could've gotten them as early as 2007 or 2008 if you weren't so frightfully picky about your mediocre jet-robot toys.

[Shockwave]

I can see what Dom is saying though. Yeah, you could have gotten all six as early as 2007: IF YOU WERE RICH!! Most of us aren't. So getting all six at mass retail here in the US required fans to wait from 2006 to 2011. That's 5 years! For characters that have been released as repaints of each other in much shorter time spans for years, if not decades. I mean, I do see kind of what you're saying to, it is ridiculous to bitch about toys anyway, buuuuuuut when Hasbro already has an established pattern of releasing certain characters it's equally ridiculous to break from that. Sure, we did eventually get what we wanted but the fact that it took 5 years of violent bitching and moaning is also ridiculous.

Shockwave
-Terminal ridiculocity.

[BWprowl]

...buuuuuuut when Hasbro already has an established pattern of releasing certain characters it's equally ridiculous to break from that.

What established pattern would that be? The one where it took them over five years to release a goddamn Jazz, or the one that's got it so they still haven't made all the Triple Changers? (Who would arguably be a lot more interesting to get than the ferkin' Seekers)