TF Views

We have some new images of the first wave of Beast Hunters. Gotta say, some of it looks cool:

http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-new ... es-176340/

My notes:
-Bulkhead has no business not being called Roadbuster, or at least being a different character. They pulled this shit in Animated, too--"Roadbuster Ultra Magnus." Somebody at Hasbro clearly loves Roadbuster, or at least his colour scheme, so why can't they just make him? I mean, he doesn't even really need a new head. I will probably pick this up if I see it.
-Cyberverse Smokescreen looks bad, even for a Legends figure. Those arms are terrible. I would have preferred a Knock Out repaint.
-It doesn't matter how many guns you pile onto that Bumblebee mould, I won't buy it.
-Lazerback (what kind of name is that?) looks alright. Not great, just alright. This is a guy whose TV appearance could save his toy and make me want it, but knowing Prime, I don't have my hopes up.
-Soundwave damn near makes me regret getting the regular Deluxe Soundwave. The yellow highlights make him that much closer to BM Jetstorm, who he already really resembled. His grappling hook thing actually kind of looks like it might be fun.
-Assuming that his elbows haven't been rendered immobile somehow, Wheeljack looks super cool and I'm glad I didn't get the original toy. This is, I think, Hasbro capitalizing on what fans and others have told them is a "hot character," but I think it's a misnomer...

People wanted a Classics Wheeljack for the longest time because he was one of the few 84 characters not made yet, and he was reasonably important in the cartoon amongst '84 guys. (Think about it. The important Autobots were mostly Prime, Bumblebee, Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet, Hound and Wheeljack.) Then, when he was released, he was highly sought after--not because he was an important character, but he was part of a wave that in all likelihood was never going to come out--or when it did, it was going to be severely reduced. This, combined with his HOF nomination, is probably part of why he was chosen for Prime. Then, when his toy came out, he was also highly sought after--because he was generally shortpacked, a more interesting character, and above all else, a better toy than most of Prime's first waves. (He also was one of the few toys in those waves not to have a "First Edition" toy, meaning there was more incentive to get him over some of the other toys that there were "better" versions of.) So all this has pretty much convinced Hasbro that Wheeljack Is A Big Deal, the same way the fandom managed to accidentally convince Hasbro that Cheetor was A Big Deal during BW.

(For reference, Cheetor's original toy was released three separate times. The first time, he was shortpacked and delayed, because they had to retool his butt gun. Being shortpacked made him hard to find and thus, desirable, so Hasbro rereleased him with a different eye colour, to differentiate the releases. Of course, people bought this up in anticipation that he would become rare, and Hasbro ended up rereleasing him again with a third eye colour. Because of this, Hasbro got it in their heads that Cheetor was Hot Shit and proceeded to push him hardcore. One might be able to make the argument that he was a "show character," but so were other popular characters like Primal, Megatron, Dinobot and Rhinox, and yet those guys only got, at best, 2-4 toys during the toyline. Cheetor was released 7 different times domestically in BW alone--three releases of the original mould, TM1, TM2, and two Fox Kids repaints. Pretty sure that's a record for BW.)

Onslaught Six wrote: -Bulkhead has no business not being called Roadbuster, or at least being a different character. They pulled this shit in Animated, too--"Roadbuster Ultra Magnus." Somebody at Hasbro clearly loves Roadbuster, or at least his colour scheme, so why can't they just make him? I mean, he doesn't even really need a new head. I will probably pick this up if I see it.

But they are making Roadbuster? In the Generations line next year, he'll be a remold of Swindle.

-Lazerback (what kind of name is that?) looks alright. Not great, just alright. This is a guy whose TV appearance could save his toy and make me want it, but knowing Prime, I don't have my hopes up.

Someone on /toy/ pointed out that Lazerback is astoundingly close to an updated Cindersaur. That's kind of cool, though he was a toy I wanted already anyway. Dunno about personality, for some strange reason I'm thinking this will be the cannon fodder for the Predacons.

-Soundwave damn near makes me regret getting the regular Deluxe Soundwave. The yellow highlights make him that much closer to BM Jetstorm, who he already really resembled. His grappling hook thing actually kind of looks like it might be fun.

I like the Soundwave mold, I like Jetstorm, I might get this. The little Ravage is cute.

-Assuming that his elbows haven't been rendered immobile somehow, Wheeljack looks super cool and I'm glad I didn't get the original toy. This is, I think, Hasbro capitalizing on what fans and others have told them is a "hot character," but I think it's a misnomer...

Argh, this thing actually looks pretty cool, but I already have PRID Wheeljack, and I still kinda want to get Dead End, and maybe Dark Energon Wheeljack (Slicer!) at some point! I don't need this many of the same toy!

People wanted a Classics Wheeljack for the longest time because he was one of the few 84 characters not made yet, and he was reasonably important in the cartoon amongst '84 guys. (Think about it. The important Autobots were mostly Prime, Bumblebee, Jazz, Ironhide, Ratchet, Hound and Wheeljack.) Then, when he was released, he was highly sought after--not because he was an important character, but he was part of a wave that in all likelihood was never going to come out--or when it did, it was going to be severely reduced. This, combined with his HOF nomination, is probably part of why he was chosen for Prime. Then, when his toy came out, he was also highly sought after--because he was generally shortpacked, a more interesting character, and above all else, a better toy than most of Prime's first waves. (He also was one of the few toys in those waves not to have a "First Edition" toy, meaning there was more incentive to get him over some of the other toys that there were "better" versions of.) So all this has pretty much convinced Hasbro that Wheeljack Is A Big Deal, the same way the fandom managed to accidentally convince Hasbro that Cheetor was A Big Deal during BW.

Not a bad theory. Hasbro also seems to have taken the reverse-hint about Bumblebee, as there're apparently only going to be two Bumblebees in each case of these new Deluxes.

The beast Hunters toys i'll be buying in 2013 are the voyager & leader sized toys for Predaking. that sinnertwin homage toy in a hopeful deluxe size scale. I plan on buying the 2013 Beast hunters Weaponizers toys for optimus & ultra Magnus,hopeful they RID Combine.

I won't be buying any returning 2012 TFP deluxes that have been redesigned with spikes & extra gear in the 2013 Beast hunters toy line. Because most of those 2012 TFP deluxes,I was not a fan of their designs.

Beast Hunters Wheeljack,while i'm not buying it. I think is a far better & superior looking toy compared to his 2012 TFP deluxe toy. I never liked the sleek,skinny teen titans design for TFP Deluxe Wheeljack. at the very least beast hunters deluxe wheeljacks toy design is more beefy & more powerful looking than his TFP toy. I do like the somewhat 2005 Cybertron defense homage toy design for beast hunters wheeljack.

Predderking robot pics:
http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-new ... ed-176410/

This is the Voyager--apparently not the larger one that's supposedly coming.

Not a bad looking figure. He reminds me a lot of Scourge from Cybertron with that beast mode picture...

Onslaught Six wrote:We have some new images of the first wave of Beast Hunters. Gotta say, some of it looks cool:
-Soundwave damn near makes me regret getting the regular Deluxe Soundwave. The yellow highlights make him that much closer to BM Jetstorm, who he already really resembled. His grappling hook thing actually kind of looks like it might be fun.
-Assuming that his elbows haven't been rendered immobile somehow, Wheeljack looks super cool and I'm glad I didn't get the original toy. This is, I think, Hasbro capitalizing on what fans and others have told them is a "hot character," but I think it's a misnomer...

For some reason, I'm actually kind of excited about these two. Beasty-bits on vehicles seems kind of silly, but these two look surprisingly good for all of that.

I do wonder what the background story will be -- some kind of unfortunate Beast Bomb infecting them, perhaps? Or they had to update their alt-modes to keep up with the most recent designs of cars and planes and are completely baffled by the new direction humans have taken vehicle designs?

I'm convinced the cartoon isn't going to have anything to do with these redesigns.

Maybe the toyline will add some flavour text--like it's camoflague or something. Supposed to hide them while they hunt for Beasts in the Beast Dimension.

Gustavo wrote:

Onslaught Six wrote:We have some new images of the first wave of Beast Hunters. Gotta say, some of it looks cool:
-Soundwave damn near makes me regret getting the regular Deluxe Soundwave. The yellow highlights make him that much closer to BM Jetstorm, who he already really resembled. His grappling hook thing actually kind of looks like it might be fun.
-Assuming that his elbows haven't been rendered immobile somehow, Wheeljack looks super cool and I'm glad I didn't get the original toy. This is, I think, Hasbro capitalizing on what fans and others have told them is a "hot character," but I think it's a misnomer...

For some reason, I'm actually kind of excited about these two. Beasty-bits on vehicles seems kind of silly, but these two look surprisingly good for all of that.

I do wonder what the background story will be -- some kind of unfortunate Beast Bomb infecting them, perhaps? Or they had to update their alt-modes to keep up with the most recent designs of cars and planes and are completely baffled by the new direction humans have taken vehicle designs?

The Beasthunters 2013 Autobots don't have beasty bits all over them. According the the Beasthunters toy packing on Beasthunters bumblebees bio. Bumblebee finds a ship in space full of armor accessories that Alpha trion left for them to use. The autobots slip on the armor accessories in order to fight the more powerful Predacons & Megatron's decepticons that they lost to at the end of season 2.

Onslaught Six wrote:I'm convinced the cartoon isn't going to have anything to do with these redesigns.

Maybe the toyline will add some flavour text--like it's camoflague or something. Supposed to hide them while they hunt for Beasts in the Beast Dimension.

Ofcause their going to be using the 2013 Beasthunters toy designs in the season 3 TF Prime Beasthunters cartoon series. Because Hasbro is a toy company that uses the cartoons as advertisements to help them sell their toys.

Tigermegatron wrote:Ofcause their going to be using the 2013 Beasthunters toy designs in the season 3 TF Prime Beasthunters cartoon series. Because Hasbro is a toy company that uses the cartoons as advertisements to help them sell their toys.

Not everything that has a toy makes it into the cartoons though. And the Prime cartoon is severally lacking when it comes to making new animation models considering how often the reuse them and keep the cast so small.