Yearning for change

[dyrl]

IDW,Combiner Wars, generations, titan wars, Masterpiece now up to 28...

Anyone yearning for change needs to be transported back in time to the moment when Armada was just ending and Energon was around the corner.

[Rich]

I was going to say that robots as humans is really the only idea that hasn't been fully explored. I think it's an idea that has huge potential for all kinds of stories. The question would be whether you could make the toys work better than previous attempts. I'd love to write some stories based on this premise. The only issue might be concerns about violence to 'human' characters. Did the violence in BW have to be toned when the bots were in their beast forms??

Or... (Hasbro you can pay if you want to use it) they could do a line with humans and Transformers 'companions'. Maybe GIJOE size figure and vehicles, or, if that's too expensive then humans about the height of a minibots. Again, lots of possibilities.

Dinosaurs are always popular so they could do a whole line of extinct animals. Or Aliens!

[blueshift]

Feb 29, 2016 17:48:57 GMT dyrl said:

IDW,Combiner Wars, generations, titan wars, Masterpiece now up to 28...

Anyone yearning for change needs to be transported back in time to the moment when Armada was just ending and Energon was around the corner.

I loved Armada and as a line, the Armada/Energon/Cybertron stuff was (mostly) great. The fiction was awful. But the toys were good!

[Philip Ayres]

I dunno, the Armada/Energon comic is very underrated IMO.

[The Doctor]

Feb 29, 2016 17:06:56 GMT Shockprowl said:

Alt modes that aren't vehicles or animals...?

Well, there really isn't anything, is there? That would work in terms of play factor, cress growing aside....



And how long before Doc' suggests Animorphs?

You rang?

-Ralph

[Toph]

Armada/Energon comic is one of the best out there.
I'd rank it better than at least half of IDW's stuff, including Barber's stuff.

There's nothing wrong with Energon as a toyline, at all. Some individual figures are better than some, and some worse than others. But that's the same with virtually every toyline.

As for Joe/TF, while I strongly dislike Joe, I've thought this may be the only way to reboot the Joe line.
It's too expensive for TFs scaled to standard Joe figures. I mean, TFs are right on the edge of affordability, as it is. The impulse cheap stuff like LoC/Legion figures cost almost as much as a deluxe just a few years ago.
So bumping up TFs to scale in any meaningful way with a 3 3/4" joe is just not gonna happen. They can't even really afford non transforming vehicles in their own line.

No, I think the best way is for hasbro to follow similar to the DotM basic HAs, only redesigned from scratch. Follow more similarly to Megablok's CoD minifigures, and build TFs and equipment to that scale.
Build on this with a MASK revival, too.

[Shockprowl]

Feb 29, 2016 19:11:20 GMT The Doctor said:

Feb 29, 2016 17:06:56 GMT Shockprowl said:

Alt modes that aren't vehicles or animals...?

Well, there really isn't anything, is there? That would work in terms of play factor, cress growing aside....



And how long before Doc' suggests Animorphs?

You rang?

-Ralph

AAAAARRRGGHH!!!!!!

[Philip Ayres]

Feb 29, 2016 20:42:09 GMT Toph said:

Armada/Energon comic is one of the best out there.
I'd rank it better than at least half of IDW's stuff, including Barber's stuff.

TCfkaRiD is very much is a case of diminishing returns, and potentially is going in my "buy in the sales" pile soon.

Feb 29, 2016 20:42:09 GMT Toph said:

There's nothing wrong with Energon as a toyline, at all. Some individual figures are better than some, and some worse than others. But that's the same with virtually every toyline.

I was very fond of the dual combining Autobot gimmick.

[blueshift]

As was I! I mean, it never felt like they'd cracked it, but it was good enough!

[Toph]

Feb 29, 2016 20:57:01 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Feb 29, 2016 20:42:09 GMT Toph said:

Armada/Energon comic is one of the best out there.
I'd rank it better than at least half of IDW's stuff, including Barber's stuff.

TCfkaRiD is very much is a case of diminishing returns, and potentially is going in my "buy in the sales" pile soon.

I used to think I just didn't like the general set up of that stuff, until Scott started playing around in that sandbox.
And while the general set up is indeed dull as toast, I realized with her writing that it was all him that was making it feel like having teeth pulled.
Costa's run was really boring, but he had the monumental task of salvaging the universe after McCarthy drove it off the cliff, and trying to figure out how to make it work again.
Barber's stuff is just boring.

Feb 29, 2016 20:42:09 GMT Toph said:

There's nothing wrong with Energon as a toyline, at all. Some individual figures are better than some, and some worse than others. But that's the same with virtually every toyline.

I was very fond of the dual combining Autobot gimmick.

And even if the combining autobots weren't your thing, Energon gave us a ton of awesome decepticons with an amazing gimmick, it gave us the omnicons and terrorcons, with their universal energon weapons who's only fault is they weren't supported ENOUGH, and it also gave us Arcee.
And it also gave us the first scramble city combiners since G1, which were the last combiners until CW.

Even if someone hates the autobot deluxe gimmick, I don't understand how one can write off the entire line because of two or three terrible molds, and shitty anime.

[primenova]

With the CW line could they using the car base toy but add extra car parts on it to make it look like another car type but with the core being the same toy. Then with this we could have other types of toys - ie hovercraft. But this can also be looke dat for TR line too.

[The Doctor]

At the end of the day just vote with wallets. Within whatever budget you have buy what appeals and ignore what doesn't. So many Transformers come out every year there's something for everyone.

-Ralph

[Stomski]

How very capitalist of you. Neo-progressive-commusocial-conservatism is surely the only path to the true Transformers toy line/associated fiction!

[dyrl]

This brings up an interesting point: the death of "collect them all." Aside from budget constraints...who would want to nowadays ? Clearly Hasbro has adapted its offer to a heterogeneous consumer base.

The older I get, the less appealing the toy stores become because they cater to little kids, not collectors .

[Philip Ayres]

Mar 2, 2016 9:04:39 GMT dyrl said:

This brings up an interesting point: the death of "collect them all." Aside from budget constraints...who would want to nowadays ? Clearly Hasbro has adapted its offer to a heterogeneous consumer base.

I can mark the precise point where the "collect everything" mentality was killed for me and that's the introduction of the Movie aesthetic. That's also about the point where Classics starts (Classics slightly earlier) so in effect Hasbro is saying "yes, there's a collector's element to our market" and the line divides into what we have today: a more child focussed line (Movie, Animated, Prime) and the Generations stuff.

Mar 2, 2016 9:04:39 GMT dyrl said:

The older I get, the less appealing the toy stores become because they cater to little kids, not collectors .

Some might say that is their point .....

[dyrl]

I agree with Phil about the movie aesthetic. Even BW,different as it was, fit with the remaining TF universe as a sort of extended gimmick - like Pretenders , with an attempt at plausible explanation for why they look like that.

But with the movie - there is no reason why they cease being anthropomorphic in favor of holywood monster movieish...

[primenova]

Why don't Hasbro do more headmasters in all the lines - because surely it should be easy to make the car transform if the head is out of the way? But this would be the headmaster feature become more like a gun slot ie when you plug the guns into arms or onto the car mode.