Transformers general thread - Toy Robot men based on giant robots based on previously mentioned toys about said robots

The Lawgiver · May 26, 2025

Raiken said:
the matrix gimmick is the most likely reason for it,

Nah, the matrix gimmick on the laser prime is literally just a flap and an extremely thinned out squashed matrix, it's entirely some bizzare decision making shit because the same thing happened with armada megs' remake. It seems they go "ah yes shoulder pylon? not ultra magnus? static and make the actual shoulder below it. I kinda wonder if it's a cost cutting thing like some other oddities in recent figure engineering.

The case with the trailer is 100% a cheapifying of things cost saving sort of deal. You can get the original g2 figure or the RiD repaint for pretty cheap still despite both being 20 years old and they're loaded with shit and a little larger, only really missing ankle tilts and wrists. I think the last time they reissued it was the clear version but I got a hunch a big reason they haven't done another reissue is because they don't want any figures with any gimmicks intact even if it's non intrusive stuff like a disc missile launcher because bean counters.

Starscream's Loyalty · May 27, 2025

Screw it I'm getting SS Springer I want that fucker in my collection. Love triple changers.

The Lawgiver · May 27, 2025

Saw a few scalper preorder auctions for SS86 megatron on ebay a few nights back that just used the fucking devastation concept art pic and I had to do a double take on why and how the fuck these things even had bids or buy it now purchases. Apparently the figure leaked like ss86 prime did but it's small glimpses of it, and that doesn't excuse whatever the fuck is happening on ebay.

Hope Eradicated · May 27, 2025

Starscream's Loyalty said:
Screw it I'm getting SS Springer I want that fucker in my collection. Love triple changers.

If you do get it you might want to sand the tabs on the inside of the shins down, on some copies the tabs are too big and break off when you go to seperate the legs.

Hope Eradicated · May 28, 2025

A new company is making a Predaking at core class complexity and price, limb-bot 2-packs will cost ~$20. Arms/legs will be interchangeable with the other combiners they're planning to do. Combiner torsos will also be able to combine with a Sky Lynx they're planning to make in the future.

To avoid double-posting, a different company is making legends class Armada figures. I got Starscream in yesterday and it is excellent, it looks good, poses great, and the transformation is simple and fun. They are working on a Demolishor that looks just as good.

Edit: images of Bonecrusher & Scavenger, who'll be released later this year as a 2-pack.

The Lawgiver · May 29, 2025

The more I see of ss86 megatron, the more I see the corner cutting showing up. Fusion cannon's sculpted like it's able to collapse on the back, but it's a single part if you look at the molding of it.

The waffling on the front of the shoulder fucking pains me too. It's likely going to be a great figure though.

Really find it funny how the guys that got ahold of these have been showing off the figure.

Apparently he's taller than the fallen, which means that scaling thing they were going for is now just out the fucking window again. I mean it already was with 86 optimus being as massive as he is, but mother of fuck the fallens even slightly taller than 86 optimus from what I've seen. It's not actual leader size though, just another leader priced voyager scale figure. I'm guessing it's likely gonna be pre-earthrise voyager height body wise going by the photos of the arm holes i'm seeing.

In other news, I recently got one of the takara 3 packs for a slight uncomfortable bit over msrp, but not the ludicrous prices i'm seeing it spike to online. it's the first one that's weirdly just out of stock everywhere despite it supposedly being the least popular due to the "upgrades" coming soon. Still far beyond my price range but I had extra money thanks to gift stuff and the guy wanted to sell it off. Likely going to lead to an argument later whenever relatives find out about it but fuck it 3 voyagers for the price of 3 premium finish single release figures is better than 200 for each figure from the pack or 70 for each voyager by itself from the normal siege/earthrise releases that run a gambit of "will they turn piss color out of nowhere" for the earthrise ones. Packs the only way to get properly colored soundwave and shockwave without repainting things which is insane to me. I have netflix soundwave, and mine hasn't piss colorified yet, but I also don't like how skimped out on the paint on it is. Likely not gonna sell mine but still

People are deluding themselves if they think every major character is gonna get an "upgrade" to go with 86 prime like megatron is. They were already making characters kind of shorter than megatron and optimus as early as siege with shockwave and astrotrain being weirdly shorter than usual and that becoming the default voyager size from there on out. As a side effect though, this means the armada remake figures are oddly in scale with the old deluxe figures of the characters they didn't make remakes of. and I'm generally thankful of that. Every character will likely eventually get another remake of some kind but the "definitive scale/look" thing really hit the ground running with the siege sculpts IMO, oddities aside.

Yes this got rambly, but I'm mildly out of it and stressed while thinking about other shit at 2 AM. Most important thing is above the rambly text wall.

Hope Eradicated · May 29, 2025

The Lawgiver said:
Apparently he's taller than the fallen, which means that scaling thing they were going for is now just out the fucking window again. I mean it already was with 86 optimus being as massive as he is, but mother of fuck the fallens even slightly taller than 86 optimus from what I've seen. It's not actual leader size though, just another leader priced voyager scale figure. I'm guessing it's likely gonna be pre-earthrise voyager height body wise going by the photos of the arm holes i'm seeing.

According to one of the guys who has it it's ~1-2mm taller than 86 prime at the head.

The Lawgiver · May 29, 2025

Hope Eradicated said:
According to one of the guys who has it it's ~1-2mm taller than 86 prime at the head.

At the very least this finally breaks the bizarre trend of megatron figures being shorter than prime by a little bit that's been a problem since siege. Doesn't change the fact that this new megatron and the 86 prime are goofy levels out of scale with everything else due to the other since siege problem of every voyager figure that's not megatron or optimus being a head shorter for some reason. The third party newage megatron is scaled right to the other voyagers, but he's shorter than the voyager optimuses so he doesn't break the pattern. Who knows maybe we'll have 2 expensive newage figures that scale with the rest of siege/legacy/age of primes/studio series.

Hope Eradicated · May 30, 2025

Takara posted a teaser for the next Studio Series wave. SS86 Megatron looks really good just based on his silhouette, for the tank mode I'm expecting the chest-plate to end up at the front, the arms to peg together to form the turret, and the legs will use some variant of the Titans Return Kup leg transformation to form the sides of the tank. I don't know why they obscured Elita-1 considering she was revealed last year. TF1 Starscream looks interesting, and I'm curious about how'll it'll transform. It's odd that AoE Widowmaker and WFC Thundercracker aren't included.

The next Dramatic Capture set is going to be Skywarp/Thundercracker and Reflector. Hopefully it'll include the extra parts from the Refraktor 3-pack.

Edit to avoid double-posting: Robot Toys next release is a legends-class Tarantulas, it looks good, but I don't really see the point in getting it considering that the Legacy deluxe is almost perfect, costs less than this will, and is almost twice as big.

The Lawgiver · May 30, 2025

Hope Eradicated said:
Takara posted a teaser for the next Studio Series wave. SS86 Megatron looks really good just based on his silhouette, for the tank mode I'm expecting the chest-plate to end up at the front, the arms to peg together to form the turret, and the legs will use some variant of the Titans Return Kup leg transformation to form the sides of the tank. I don't know why they obscured Elita-1 considering she was revealed last year. TF1 Starscream looks interesting, and I'm curious about how'll it'll transform. It's odd that AoE Widowmaker and WFC Thundercracker aren't included.
View attachment 7429483
The next Dramatic Capture set is going to be Skywarp/Thundercracker and Reflector. Hopefully it'll include the extra parts from the Refraktor 3-pack.

View attachment 7429491

Edit to avoid double-posting: Robot Toys next release is a legends-class Tarantulas, it looks good, but I don't really see the point in getting it considering that the Legacy deluxe is almost perfect, costs less than this will, and is almost twice as big.
View attachment 7429525

Takara once again proving they actually give a shit about promoting the figures. So Megatron's a slightly more siege greebled and stylized version of the masterpiece with a little more non-cartoon proportions, really neat. Would be neater if he wasnt out of scale with everything but he's being made as a companion piece to the 86 prime so they have to make him oversized. Since he's a "leader class" (voyager with extra steps now for anything that's not grimlock) He'll actually be obtainable. Thank fucking god he actually has the back barrel, the only official figure that had that was the core class one where it doubled as his gun alt mode. Kinda hope it's got the g1 functionality of also being a side cannon. You know, the reason the armada galvatron has a side cannon instead of a fusion cannon despite armada being a modernized g1 reboot for the most part character design wise? At least I think it's the reason, it's in the same spot as the old g1 toy and I always took it like an intentional similarity...

Also the reflector rerelease bundle having the toy recolor pack parts would be great. If it's skywarp in the pack I kinda wonder if he's gonna have the siege figure's super dark grey with a black head that was based off the g1 cartoon, given the whole theme of this dramatic capture line seems to be accurate colors without removing the transparent or sculpt details. Really similar vibes to ss86 kup in that way. Wellt hat and ss86 jazz, which is basically almost identical to the normal ss86 figure in the 3 pack he's in.

Hope Eradicated · May 30, 2025

The Lawgiver said:
If it's skywarp in the pack I kinda wonder if he's gonna have the siege figure's super dark grey with a black head that was based off the g1 cartoon, given the whole theme of this dramatic capture line seems to be accurate colors without removing the transparent or sculpt details. Really similar vibes to ss86 kup in that way. Wellt hat and ss86 jazz, which is basically almost identical to the normal ss86 figure in the 3 pack he's in.

It'll be Thundercracker because it's apparently based off of this scene.

The Lawgiver · May 30, 2025

Hope Eradicated said:
It'll be Thundercracker because it's apparently based off of this scene.
View attachment 7431563

This is like the third time we've had an earthrise thundercracker almost identical to the other releases, technically one of them was supposed to be one of the generic welcoming party guys but the color scheme was still just thunder cracker due to it not being a really different blue. My ER skywarp has a defect on the wing's paint that never stops pissing me off, but I'm glad I got it regardless because that fucking 2 pack was scalped to hell and too fucking expensive as msrp when it came out, but I got lucky like once and found it. I don't know if it's just the reissue but i've seen some horror stories involving skywarps purple yellowing to a gross dark red on some copies.

Hope Eradicated · May 30, 2025

The Lawgiver said:
This is like the third time we've had an earthrise thundercracker almost identical to the other releases, technically one of them was supposed to be one of the generic welcoming party guys but the color scheme was still just thunder cracker due to it not being a really different blue. My ER skywarp has a defect on the wing's paint that never stops pissing me off, but I'm glad I got it regardless because that fucking 2 pack was scalped to hell and too fucking expensive as msrp when it came out, but I got lucky like once and found it. I don't know if it's just the reissue but i've seen some horror stories involving skywarps purple yellowing to a gross dark red on some copies.

The weird part is 2 of next year's Voyagers are 86 Thundercracker and Skywarp,

The Lawgiver · May 30, 2025

Hope Eradicated said:
The weird part is 2 of next year's Voyagers are 86 Thundercracker and Skywarp,

Which means more earthrise mold re-issues, going by how 86 starscream was that but with his crown and megatron's chair from the tv show to bump him up to leader class price. Only improvement they'll probably do is give them articulating fingers, but they walked back on that on every ER seeker re-release after 86 starscream so probably won't have that even.

King Of Braves · May 30, 2025

Hope Eradicated said:
It'll be Thundercracker because it's apparently based off of this scene.
View attachment 7431563

I love that there was some autist that saw that teaser and immediately pushed up his glasses and shouted to no one but his Funko pops that he knew exactly what scene it was referencing.

The Lawgiver · May 30, 2025

King Of Braves said:
I love that there was some autist that saw that teaser and immediately pushed up his glasses and shouted to no one but his Funko pops that he knew exactly what scene it was referencing.

There's a lot of hyper-specific scene reference box sets the last like 20 years, and this tramatic capture thing is clearly meant as that kind of thing, with the starscream and triple changers 3 pack being because of one specific episode. funko pops got jack shit to do with this. I don't know how I remembered the specific scene, but I misremembered it as being skywarp in it lmao.

I've been unironically waiting the last several decades for weird repaints based off the one off background transformers that are miscolored versions of other characters, like the inexplicable green dual color chested shockwave twins that show up sometimes.

Hope Eradicated · May 30, 2025

The Lawgiver said:
I've been unironically waiting the last several decades for weird repaints based off the one off background transformers that are miscolored versions of other characters, like the inexplicable green dual color chested shockwave twins that show up sometimes.

That sounds like something BotCon would have done with the Combiner Wars molds.

The Lawgiver · May 30, 2025

Hope Eradicated said:
That sounds like something BotCon would have done with the Combiner Wars molds.View attachment 7432339

I mean hasbro and takara have done it over the years a select few times, the biggest one in recent memory being the siege rainmakers set.

I can't find the old images compiling the different ones and different color schemes, but I can find a crusty one of some of the background seekers that would have probably been funny to do sometime.