TF Views

So um... that just happened:

http://tformers.com/botcon-2015-hasbro- ... /news.html

http://tformers.com/ig.php?mode=album&a ... e-coverage

LEGENDS:
Shockwave (gun mode!)
Buzzsaw
Pipes (remold of Huffer)
Chop Shop (repaint of Skrapnel)

COMBINER WARS BRUTICUS:
Blast Off (repaint of Fireflight, yikes what a terrible idea)
Swindle (uses Rook design, mostly new tho)
Vortex (repaint of Alpha Bravo)
Brawl (all new mold!)
Onslaught (heavy remold of Hot Spot, swaps front to back)
Bruticus running color change from cartoon to G1 toy

COMBINER WARS OPTIMUS MAXIMUS:
Ironhide (Offroad with a new head, meh)
Mirage (Drag Strip with a new head, yay)
Prowl (Streetwise with a new head, yay)
Sunstreaker (Breakdown with a new head)
Battle Core Optimus Prime (repaint)

COMBINER WARS SKY REIGN:
Sky Lynx (voyager, all new mold!)
Wheeljack (remold of Breakdown)
Autobot Hound (Swindle with a new head, looks better as Hound)
Smokescreen (repaint of Prowl, duh)
Trailbreaker (Offroad with new head, gun hand, seems to have original name back)
Sky Reign uses Sky Lynx' puma head for combiner


Hasbro is getting a lot of mileage out of Combiner Wars, some of these are real wow reveals.

Wow. Sky Lynx is a surprise, and will be a torso for the combiners no less. He looks really cool. Bit disappointed he can't split into his two separate components though. Interesting that, like Optimus, he gets a set of limbs using characters that haven't been combiners before.

Bruticus looks amazing. I like the idea of Blast Off being a jet instead of the space shuttle. The shuttle never really made sense in a group of armed military vehicles. Although I think the Skydive mold (with a new head) would have been more fitting for him than Firefight/Quickslinger.

Blastoff is what it is. He's pretty much the least interesting member of the team anyway, and he looks good enough in limb mode to justify it.

The rest of the Combaticons look great. Really surprised Swindle is a Rook remould and not Offroad, but he works well and is really cool; reminds me more of a Halo-style Warthog than a standard military Jeep. Brawl looks amazing, they could repaint that mould 40 times and I would buy every single one. Onslaught is also pretty good but I'm very disappointed by the chest thing, because the "silver" version will compromise how the vehicle mode's colours play out. I'll probably stick to the brown just because of that.

Most of the Autobots look terrible. Mirage is the best one with Prowl being a far second, and everything else is just worse. Big pass here.

Skylynx looks pretty neat, I'll probably get him once we have some in-hand reviews to confirm he doesn't completely suck.

I'm shocked and amazed that they made Sky Lynx with a new mold, as a combiner, and without a humanoid robot mode.

His puma head makes me wish for a Predaking in this line though.

Hasbro sent along the official images, so I posted them pretty big in the news:

http://www.tfviews.com/news/toysandcollectibles/2515

Shockwave (gun mode!):
Not bad. I would have preferred a larger. But, as part of "Combiner Wars", and as a way of accenting the scale of the Combiners, a Legends class Shockwave works well enough. I just hope that this figure does not signal Shockwave's return in the comics.


Buzzsaw:
For the last few years, Hasbro has been losing me with larger figures (Metroplex, FoC Bruticus, Jetfire...). Now, they are losing me with the smaller figures. Why exactly did Hasbro try to make a triple changer out of a sub-deluxe, when Hasbro is struggling with simplified designs and pinched budgets? Why? I like Buzzsaw, but I really want a better option than the "Encore" figure that is not the (expensive) "Masterpiece". Still waiting on this.....


Chop Shop (repaint of Skrapnel):
Nothing to go crazy over. But, it is a good mould. If I happen to see one at retail, I might buy in.


COMBINER WARS BRUTICUS:
Easy skip. Blast-off should have been replaced with a new character if Hasbro could not come up with money for a new mould (on a combiner that is mostly retooling to begin with). The colour variants just add a new problem in that assembling a correct set is that much more difficult. (I really like the Combaticons as characters, but have yet to see a good Bruticus set.)


Battle Core Optimus Prime (repaint):
That Optimus looks to have Prowl's helmet in merge-mode. This is another thing that I hope does not end up in the comics.


Sky Lynx (voyager, all new mold!):
Glad to see that Hasbro is not breaking its recent trend of disappointing me with larger toys that I initially want. Even putting aside the fact that Sky Lynx is associated with a crappy comic, the fact that the new figure reportedly cannot split in to the two components annoys me. (I could probably work around the associations with the new comics if the toy were better.)

Autobot Hound (Swindle with a new head, looks better as Hound):
I need to see this one in hand. But, if I make Galvatronus, I might use Hound instead of Mirage.

Trailbreaker (Offroad with new head, gun hand, seems to have original name back):
This had better not lead to Trailbreaker/cutter coming back in the comics. It will not be IDW's fault if it does. But, at this point, I do not care whose fault a problem is. The comic has so many of them.

Sunstreaker:
Another one that I need to see in hand.


Victorion:
How many helicopter limbs?


Wreck-Gar:
Looks too "clean" to be a Junkion. Not a bad mould in general. But, the wrong mould for the character in this case.


Hopefully, stuff like Trailbreaker and Shockwave will be similar to the Cyclonus/Galvatronus, and Hasbro will not mandate it be used in the comics.

Bruticus looks amazing. I like the idea of Blast Off being a jet instead of the space shuttle. The shuttle never really made sense in a group of armed military vehicles.

Much of the original impetus for the space program came out of the Cold War. While not formally an arms race, the Space Race had military elements to it (which is part of the reason it has lost so much funding and standing in the last 25 years).

Battle Core Optimus Prime (repaint):
That Optimus looks to have Prowl's helmet in merge-mode. This is another thing that I hope does not end up in the comics.

That's entirely wrong. The merge-mode head is the same as the previous version, Optimus with big ears. The individual mode head is new, and it's not based on Prowl, it's based on Star Convoy.

Dominic wrote:Much of the original impetus for the space program came out of the Cold War. While not formally an arms race, the Space Race had military elements to it (which is part of the reason it has lost so much funding and standing in the last 25 years).

Sure, there is a lot of the space race that is associated with the Cold War, but it still never made much sense for the space shuttle to be included with armed military vehicles in Bruiticus' case. I mean, you've got Onslaught as a truck with these giant cannons on it, Vortex a military helicopter, Brawl who's a tank, Swindle a combat support vehicle... and then there is Blastoff who is based on the unarmed shuttle. It's like playing "which one of these is not like the others".

I'd also have to doubt new toys of Shockwave and Trailbreaker would mean their return in the comics.

Keep in mind that the Combticons were designed 30+ years ago, and would have taken design cues from several years earlier. The association between shuttles and the military would have been stronger then. I am old enough to remember (albeit through much younger eyes) Reagan's SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative, "Star Wars"....and boy howdy did that name stir up the pot). It was all about space based weapons (or the *idea* of space based weapons).

I'd also have to doubt new toys of Shockwave and Trailbreaker would mean their return in the comics.

I hope not.

But, they brought back Nightbeat (a c-lister) to tie in with that stupid recolour during "Dark Cybertron". I can see them doing something similar with Trailbreaker (a b-lister from '84) for "Combiner Wars". And, people were calling Shockwave's return almost as soon as he and BB died at the end of "Dark Cybertron".

On the other hand, Cyclonus/Galvatronus is not likely to be in the comics, so I am willing to be cautiously optimistic.

Dominic wrote:Keep in mind that the Combticons were designed 30+ years ago, and would have taken design cues from several years earlier. The association between shuttles and the military would have been stronger then. I am old enough to remember (albeit through much younger eyes) Reagan's SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative, "Star Wars"....and boy howdy did that name stir up the pot). It was all about space based weapons (or the *idea* of space based weapons).

Yeah, I know... Still doesn't change the fact the space shuttle itself was never intended to be an armed vehicle like the other Combaticons are. The others are all meant to be used for combat, while the space shuttle seems out of place in that regard. Sure the shuttle could have been used to set up space-based weapons like the proposed "Star Wars" plan, but that still doesn't make it a combat vehicle.

I hope not.

But, they brought back Nightbeat (a c-lister) to tie in with that stupid recolour during "Dark Cybertron". I can see them doing something similar with Trailbreaker (a b-lister from '84) for "Combiner Wars". And, people were calling Shockwave's return almost as soon as he and BB died at the end of "Dark Cybertron".

On the other hand, Cyclonus/Galvatronus is not likely to be in the comics, so I am willing to be cautiously optimistic.

I wouldn't be surprised if Trailbreaker and Shockwave eventually return, but I don't see it happening for Combiner Wars. Especially considering the main Combiner Wars event is already over. IDW has said Galvatronus will not be in the comics, and there's no reason to believe just because there's a toy that it'll appear. There's been plenty of toys over the years that don't appear in the fiction.