Speculation and prediction time!
I speculate that the current trend in leader class is to prepare us for a soft price increase that will take effect in WfC3 or in the follow up line.
Here's my reasoning- the main figures have dropped in size from oldschool ultras, down to voyagers with accessories.
Siege Ultra Magnus and Galaxy Optimus both basically do the exact same thing as PotP Leaders, but on a smaller scale (referring to the parts to create the super modes being much less involved, and much smaller).
Astrotrain basically comes with a small box and extra guns. ER Optimus comes with a larger, but flimsier and more simplistic box, and one extra (really neat) gun.
We don't know yet what Doubledealer involves.
What I think will happen, in WfC3 or the following line, will be a slight increase in size of the main figure (head taller than Voyagers), and dropping the accessories, while keeping the price the same. This is basicaly what they did with the Legend Class.
Okay so, figure prediction time. I predict as everyone else that the line will be 86 Movie based.
Titan Class:
· Unicron or Cybertron
Leader Class:
· Ultra Magnus- either all new mold, or retooling of Earthrise Optimus. More accurate, and of course completely nullifying Siege Magnus. There's ample evidence in Earthrise to support the plausibility of this.
Voyager Class:
· Galvatron- new mold
· Scourge- New mold. For some reason both hasbro and fans want the movie 'con trio all the same size. But this also makes him a candidate for being passed over. (See below)
· Conehead- Retool of ER Starscream. Unsure which one.
· Blaster- New mold or retool or parts reuse of Siege Soundwave. He's due.
Deluxe Class:
· Bumblebee- new mold. Same style as Cliffjumper.
Retooled into Goldbug.· Wreck-Gar- New mold. He's way past due. The last real one was a dirt bike, and the CW one looks nothing like him, head aside.
Junkheap/Junkion retool.· Hotrod- New mold. We got a great one in TR, a serviceable sunbow one that turns into Rodimus in PotP, and Rodimus will likely be in this line. So of course we'll get a new Hotrod.
Possible Omnibot Overdrive retool.· Blurr- New mold. TR was borderline perfect. So another pointless do-over seems likely.
· Ratchet- new mold. Seems logical, given what we've seen.
Ironhide retool.· Jazz*- Retool of ER Datsun.
· Skids*- New Mold. He's due.
· Erector, Flattop, Overdrive, Roughstuff- New molds. I believe these will replace weaponizers. Micromasters with trailers that partsform into powersuits for the micromasters.
Unknown class: Could be either voyager or leader
· Sandstorm- new mold. He's well past due. He's the only triplechanger who hasn't gotten a recent update.
· Rodimus Prime- fully integrated voyager, or leader who's "trailer" becomes weaponizer armor.
skips: ER has shown us that Warden's team leaves us frustrated. They either go for the most redundant choice, or skip over characters that align most with the line's themes. I predict that WfC3's general disappointment will be more in passing over complete sets of characters.
· Kup- his TR figure wasn't great. I think he'll be skipped in lue of a pointless Hotrod.
· Cyclonus vs Scourge- One of them will be done. One will be skipped.
Like I said, fans seem to want Scourge, Cyclonus, and Galvatron all the same size (like Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave). It's ten years since the last decent Cyclonus. However, Scourge has never been a voyager. This could really go either way.
*Inferno, Jazz, Tracks, and Skids are the last 84/85 autobot cars left.
-Inferno
will happen. There's no question in that.
-My friend theorized that the ER datsun mold is a pretool of Jazz. That seems really likely given what speculating here
-Tracks is an easy retool of ER Runamuck, now that we know Sunstreaker comes from Wheeljack.
-That leaves Skids. Skids has a potential Armada Red Alert repaint for Gen Select.