TF Views

I know it's not as sexy as tanks and planes, but since Hasbro remains totally disinterested in mass-shifting real-scale items anymore, why not TFs that turn into battle emplacements? We had the DOTM Human Alliance basics do this a couple times with Sandstorm, Backfire, and Whirl, but those were triple-changers that had kinda fudged modes - except whirl, he looks really solid as a cannon emplacement.

Imagine if Shockwave could be a huge cannon again instead of a flying thing or a tank thing or whatever compromise they have to come up with. There, I think I've sold my premise.

They don't really end up looking like anything, in my opinion. And as a kid, I could never really understand what purpose they'd serve, fiction-wise. Almost always they have the exact same weapons as their robot modes, the only difference is now they can't move while using them.

I can see the value in a change from the endless stream of cars and planes. There's always Armada Smokescreen's giant gun mode. Sure, it's a marginal example, but the massive cannon is a fun addition to the figure, even if it just looks more or less like an extended crane.

I think battle emplacements could be interesting, although I wouldn't want that to be all they transform into. I prefer it to be more of a 'battle mode' sort of thing we've seen some figures with before.

Almighty Unicron wrote:They don't really end up looking like anything, in my opinion. And as a kid, I could never really understand what purpose they'd serve, fiction-wise. Almost always they have the exact same weapons as their robot modes, the only difference is now they can't move while using them.

Disguise, and power - perhaps being stationary in emplacement mode gives them more access to power that way, seems like a plausible piece of fiction.

andersonh1 wrote:I can see the value in a change from the endless stream of cars and planes. There's always Armada Smokescreen's giant gun mode. Sure, it's a marginal example, but the massive cannon is a fun addition to the figure, even if it just looks more or less like an extended crane.

Ha! I had to look up that figure to even remember it, and I own it still. Yeah, turning him into a giant rolling kill machine definitely has its perks.

Sparky Prime wrote:I think battle emplacements could be interesting, although I wouldn't want that to be all they transform into. I prefer it to be more of a 'battle mode' sort of thing we've seen some figures with before.

I wouldn't mind if they changed into something moving, but I'd like them not to be too slapdash, so I'd prefer if it was like G1 Perceptor where the microscope mode came first and the tank came second.

Been saying this for years.

"Energon" Omega Sentinel/Supreme was a good take on this idea, in it was a Headmaster.

It might even be cool as a complete line for a while. Everyone has a combat base modes and they can all connect together into a larger battle station or something. Kind of like a merge group for alt modes.

Shockwave wrote:It might even be cool as a complete line for a while. Everyone has a combat base modes and they can all connect together into a larger battle station or something. Kind of like a merge group for alt modes.

Oh, my mind has now been blown, that sounds amazing!!!

Everybody knows I've been on a huge-ass GI Joe kick, right? What about some guys that turned into something similar to, say, the Whirlwind?

Onslaught Six wrote:Everybody knows I've been on a huge-ass GI Joe kick, right? What about some guys that turned into something similar to, say, the Whirlwind?

The '82/'83 stuff was too realistic for my tastes, I think it'd need more "meat" to make for a good transformer, there's not much to it, it's just a pair of cannons on a trailer so it really wouldn't have much to turn into, but it's a start.