Looks like it’s essentially using the actual toys for the character models which is neat. I mean they must make the 3D models prior to manufacturing the toys, so it just makes sense to use them for a show too
I guess MTMTE and Lost Light have kinda ruined my ability to enjoy War-era TF fiction. I can't go back to Megatron the Tyrant.
This just doesn't move the needle for me. I'm sure it'll be... fine? But the highschool-level philosophizing about war isn't doing it any favors on in my book.
Looks like it’s essentially using the actual toys for the character models which is neat. I mean they must make the 3D models prior to manufacturing the toys, so it just makes sense to use them for a show too
I guess MTMTE and Lost Light have kinda ruined my ability to enjoy War-era TF fiction. I can't go back to Megatron the Tyrant.
This just doesn't move the needle for me. I'm sure it'll be... fine? But the highschool-level philosophizing about war isn't doing it any favors on in my book.
I'm not at that point, I think this looks awesome. I don't stop pointing out to everyone who will listen how awesome the IDW stuff is, but I'm very much looking forward to this cartoon. I fully expect something terrible but we will see
I kinda figured the new CG show might be mediocre once I found out Rooster Teeth was involved. Like they do comedy well but serious
or emotional writing has never, ever been the company's strong suit. I'll give a shot still but not having high hopes.
the production line is a continually string of "Ehhhhh" to me.
Production by Rooster Teeth
Animation by Polygon Pictures (Also did the not great Godzilla netflix show)
Showrunner is FJ DeSanto, who also was the showrunner for the absolutely terrible Titans Return and Power of the Prime digital series.
That said, based on the trailer
Animation is is stiff, but not as bad as the Prime Wars series. They're nicely detailed though, but unfortunately they've slavish to the toy designs, which is bad. (Look at that ridiculous backpack on Chromia. Yikes!) Voice acting is passable, but good lord that dialog is absolutely terrible. I'd call it cliche, but I feel like actual cliche writing would be better than what's going on here.
Worst part is the tone. Transformers is supposed to have moments of levity, but it feels like a lot of these shows aimed at adult collectors are done by people who only remember Transformers through the lense of the first 20 minutes of the 86 animated movie. I'm tired of stoic brick Optimus; bring me back the Optimus who plays basketball with his men, gets audibly annoyed when they try to baby him during an injury, and who can be amused when some Decepticons walk into an obvious booby-trap.
Outside if the old red vs blue stuff I know nothing about any of those parties that are involved which maybe boosts my enthusiasm because i don't know enough to worry.
I'm fine with the super serious tone. I've always enjoyed Optimus as the stoic leader more than the 80's original version. The toy aesthetic I think is kinda cool. Yes it suffers to some extent because of obvious real life limitations, but it's fine.
Tone wise I don't anticipate it'll be 100% what we saw in the trailer and most of my favorite moments in transformers are in that vein, or against the backdrop of being that way. The intent here is surely to still sell toys, it's a commercial so my expectations are set at that level. I'd love for things like the IDW comics to effectively get ported to cartoons but I don't think that will ever happen.
I guess MTMTE and Lost Light have kinda ruined my ability to enjoy War-era TF fiction. I can't go back to Megatron the Tyrant.
I keep meaning to dig into the Transformers comics, but never get around to it. I know that MTMTE and RiD launched at the same time as parallel series years ago, but I don't know what came before them (that warrants reading), or if they're still ongoing. Is there a "Transformers reading list for newbs" outline somewhere?
I guess MTMTE and Lost Light have kinda ruined my ability to enjoy War-era TF fiction. I can't go back to Megatron the Tyrant.
I keep meaning to dig into the Transformers comics, but never get around to it. I know that MTMTE and RiD launched at the same time as parallel series years ago, but I don't know what came before them (that warrants reading), or if they're still ongoing. Is there a "Transformers reading list for newbs" outline somewhere?
IDW came to a close last year and there's a new series in its place.
OLD IDW basically breaks apart into eras which I could get into but it's a lot of cruft to get to the era that everone raves about (MTMTE/Lost Light and RiD/"The Transformers"/Optimus Prime). You could get away with starting there, honestly.
IDW has been putting out hardcover collects of the the comics in rough chronological order. The first three ers (listed under "Phase 1") are all avaialble and they're currently working thier way through Phase 2. Though this is probably a pretty expensive way to get on board.
I guess MTMTE and Lost Light have kinda ruined my ability to enjoy War-era TF fiction. I can't go back to Megatron the Tyrant.
I keep meaning to dig into the Transformers comics, but never get around to it. I know that MTMTE and RiD launched at the same time as parallel series years ago, but I don't know what came before them (that warrants reading), or if they're still ongoing. Is there a "Transformers reading list for newbs" outline somewhere?
IDW came to a close last year and there's a new series in its place.
OLD IDW basically breaks apart into eras which I could get into but it's a lot of cruft to get to the era that everone raves about (MTMTE/Lost Light and RiD/"The Transformers"/Optimus Prime). You could get away with starting there, honestly.
IDW has been putting out hardcover collects of the the comics in rough chronological order. The first three ers (listed under "Phase 1") are all avaialble and they're currently working thier way through Phase 2. Though this is probably a pretty expensive way to get on board.
I should probably take this to the appropriate thread (especially since the Transformers comics thread seems to be one of the very few threads on GV that has any signs of life at all), but since we're on this mild tangent I'll just ask in this post and that'll be it out of me on this subject:
1) Does that mean that IDW ended a continuous ongoing storyline? So is the new series also from IDW, and (if so) is it a different continuity, or a different storyline, or what?
2) Let's say I was willing to spend the time and money; what would you say is the best spot to start this "old IDW" stuff?
(I probably can and should just look this up on a wiki somewhere, so it's totally reasonable to tell me to do my own homework.)
The first IDW series ran, though several incarnations, from 2005 to a definite ending in 2018. In 2019 IDW started a new G1-based continuity, which is still ongoing.
If you're willing to spend the money and want physical copies, the "Transformers: The IDW Collection" is your best bet. Phase One (Which includes the Furman era, the All Hail Megatron era, and the first ongoing era) has about 8 volumes and Phase Two (Starting with the MTMTE/RID era) is currently on it's 11th volume.
My recommended reading list is basically where the first MTMTE collected volume starts off, which is a 1-shot called The Death of Optimus Prime. That plot forks into:
More Than Meets the Eye, an often humorous, sometimes serious travelogue about what it means to be a Transformer in the postwar era
Robots in Disguise, your more standard Cybertron-based schemes-and-fights fare.
MTMTE was relaunched as Lost Light, but it's really just a name change more than a new book. Lost Light ends by neatly wrapping up the plot points started in MTMTE and makes for a complete end-to-end experience.
MTMTE and RID crossover in a somewhat "corporate mandated" event at the end of the 5th collected volume, but other than that they run totally parallel. RID certainly isn't bad, but MTMTE definitely has the better characters and stories.
0
Options
Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
I don't think it's included in any of those Volumes, so make sure you don't miss Last Stand of the Wreckers
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
I actually bought and read Last Stand of the Wreckers all on its own at some point because of how much love and praise it got from folks!
Thank you for the pointers, folks! I actually should have a whole bunch of the RiD/MTMTE (digital) comics from when Humble Bundle had bundles of them. For some reason, I was under the impression that they were completely brand-new series, not fresh jumping-on points for a longer and ongoing saga, which is why I started asking about stuff I might need to read beforehand.
MakeToys put out Guardia - a not-Defensor - in... 2014, I think it was. I absolutely love their Devastator (my preferred one out of all the different styled and scaled 3rd party ones), and really liked the look and design of the Defensor, but waffled on getting it long enough (years, really) that it kinda went out of stock everywhere. Then, about a year ago, I saw preorders for a reissue of it! I made that preorder so fast that my computer wasn't even on yet. The release was scheduled for Q4 2019, and I've been waiting excitedly.
Then Q4 2019 came and went with no sign of the reissue. The online stores started listing the release window as Q1 2020.
Then I looked at MakeToys' recent activity, and saw that the only sign of life out of them recently is that they removed the shopping UI from their website.
Then the coronavirus happened, and production of 3rd party Transformers pretty much stopped (from what I understand).
So... yeah, I don't think that reissue's happening. I don't think MakeToys is happening.
There's actually an upscaled KO of Guardia that sounds like it might even be based on the original design files/molds, because the engineering is pretty much identical. The plastic quality is apparently good as well. KOs make me uncomfortable, but if the company making the original product doesn't even exist anymore, then whatever, it's fine - but unfortunately, it looks like this KO has enough QC issues (some loose joints on the individual bots, weak shoulder ratchets on the combined mode that make the arms flop down if you hold them out to the sides) that I don't think I want to bother with it. And, anyway, this is one of the rare scenarios where I kinda care about scale - it would be nice to have the MakeToys Defensor scale with the MakeToys Devastator.
Also, just generally a bummer about MakeToys - I think they made good products.
It might just be becuase I stopped paying as much attention, but I feel like the unlicensed TF scene has hit a major slump now that most of the Season 1-3 cast (especially the combiners) have been made, many many times in MP scale, and nobody has really pushed much beyond S4/Headmasters, outside of IDW inspired stuff.
It might just be becuase I stopped paying as much attention, but I feel like the unlicensed TF scene has hit a major slump now that most of the Season 1-3 cast (especially the combiners) have been made, many many times in MP scale, and nobody has really pushed much beyond S4/Headmasters, outside of IDW inspired stuff.
Those are the low hanging fruit I guess. While there's always love online for beast wars, or animated, or whatever I find it difficult to believe that these companies would avoid making them unless there isn't enough of a market. There is a lot of copycat efforts so I guess if one delves into it the others might
MakeToys put out Guardia - a not-Defensor - in... 2014, I think it was. I absolutely love their Devastator (my preferred one out of all the different styled and scaled 3rd party ones), and really liked the look and design of the Defensor, but waffled on getting it long enough (years, really) that it kinda went out of stock everywhere. Then, about a year ago, I saw preorders for a reissue of it! I made that preorder so fast that my computer wasn't even on yet. The release was scheduled for Q4 2019, and I've been waiting excitedly.
Then Q4 2019 came and went with no sign of the reissue. The online stores started listing the release window as Q1 2020.
Then I looked at MakeToys' recent activity, and saw that the only sign of life out of them recently is that they removed the shopping UI from their website.
Then the coronavirus happened, and production of 3rd party Transformers pretty much stopped (from what I understand).
So... yeah, I don't think that reissue's happening. I don't think MakeToys is happening.
There's actually an upscaled KO of Guardia that sounds like it might even be based on the original design files/molds, because the engineering is pretty much identical. The plastic quality is apparently good as well. KOs make me uncomfortable, but if the company making the original product doesn't even exist anymore, then whatever, it's fine - but unfortunately, it looks like this KO has enough QC issues (some loose joints on the individual bots, weak shoulder ratchets on the combined mode that make the arms flop down if you hold them out to the sides) that I don't think I want to bother with it. And, anyway, this is one of the rare scenarios where I kinda care about scale - it would be nice to have the MakeToys Defensor scale with the MakeToys Devastator.
Also, just generally a bummer about MakeToys - I think they made good products.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the 3P realm is on hold till May/June at the earliest. Might be later since the plants have to come online first then get enough time to punch out the 3P stuff. I see that TF source has their ETA as May 2020, but dunno how long they have had that date up.
I can't judge the scene in general, because I'm not drawn to collecting, let's say, "the entire Season 1 cast" or "the entire Movie cast" or whatever; I'm mostly interested in figures that Seem Pretty Cool, so if a render of an upcoming figure doesn't look interesting to me, I kinda don't dig deeper.
But, man, there are a bunch of 3rd parties doing MP-scale combiners now, and that is making my heart go pitter-patter. We are currently in the middle of three completely different Stunticon sets, all of them with completely different transformation schemes, moderately different sizes and design sensibilities, and in different stages of completeness:
- X-Transbots has all the figures out, but Motormaster's trailer/the combiner pieces are being sold as a separate item and aren't out yet.
- DX9 has two limb bots and Motormaster out.
- FansToys has Motormaster (who actually incorporates the entire trailer into the bot mode in a miracle of engineering) and one limb bot out.
Mastermind Creations is in the middle of a Combaticons set that has the gimmick that it has no loose kibble; all the pieces required for combination are incorporated into the individual robots (they call this sub-line "All Built-In"). This is absolutely my dream when it comes to combiners, so I'm all-in on this set - I already have the three components that are out, and will write about them in this thread soon. MMC has already said that they intend to do all the combiners in the All Built-In style, with the next one being Defensor. I am extremely excited about this.
Iron Factory is still pumping out toys, and they have a whole bunch of cool-looking ones for pre-order that will cover this year and probably the next.
FansToys is doing the Stunticons, as mentioned, but also they are doing the Aerialbots, with not-Silverbolt and not-Skydive out. I never cared about the Aerialbots (I'm not a plane nerd, so to me they all look the same, and a combiner team of one big plane and 4 smaller planes was never visually interesting), but I am telling you this: I want this set so bad. The robots look great, FansToys always makes their bots look good, but the airplanes look so incredibly beautiful that I legitimately want to buy the set and just display them in plane mode. Also, it seems like FansToys has a rep for having nighmarish transformations, but the two Aerialbots released so far have really elegant ones.
In addition, FansToys has a bunch of non-combiner figures lined up, some for the every near future (a really great looking Brawl and Warpath, and a Beachcomber soon after), and have recently teased a bunch more (including a brand new take on Perceptor).
So actually, now that I think about it, I think the 3rd party scene is pretty strong right now. Granted, a lot of it involves companies releasing their take on a character that's already been covered by other companies in the past, but I think that's pretty cool - it opens up a lot of options for fans. Also, I think that after Takara shifted their Masterpieces in the general show-accurate direction, 3rd parties have started to follow, so even characters that have been done multiple times before are now being re-done in a new style.
Now, what will definitely put the scene in a slump is the halted production in China. One of the limb bots for that MMC Bruticus was supposed to come out 4 days ago, and the last one was due in June. The three Menasors are all in various states of completion (X-Transbots is probably in the best state now, since at least you can have all the individual bots). All these companies that have lined up toys for the coming year - who knows what'll happen? Things have already slipped by a few months, and I don't think it's known when production will start up again. When factories do start back up, they will probably prioritize everything but unlicensed small-run action figures first, so I suspect things will slip even more. Some companies can afford these delays because this is, like, a side-business for them or whatever. Other companies might not be able to afford it, or employees might just lose interest and move on. I'm curious to see how this affects not just which toys come out when, but also which companies are still around next year.
+1
Options
CambiataCommander ShepardThe likes of which even GAWD has never seenRegistered Userregular
I've got a round two of Commander Shepard 3d printed stuff. First, I reprinted the Claymore in a slightly larger size so that I could get the barrel in the print. This, for some reason, took out the sight from the print, so what I'm going to do is attach the site from the first print, then use this as the master for a mold.
The second version of the helmet was not quite as successful. It's the right scale, but I can't get it over her head (not even if I remove her wig or even the top part of her head), so I'm closer than the first helmet, but need to scale it up slightly.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
+5
Options
Forever Zefirocloaked in the midnight glory of an event horizonRegistered Userregular
I don't think it's included in any of those Volumes, so make sure you don't miss Last Stand of the Wreckers
It's in volume 6 of Phase 1.
Ah, nice! I don't think I have any of the Phase 1 volumes
To make this post more informative, I definitely have that foot plug issue when transforming Grapple. I almost broke the peg trying to get him out of truck mode. It has definite stress marks now. I'll probably need to cut a chunk off the peg
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Yeah I got into the 3P world a bit ago with the movie La Hire (not Hot Rod). Then I found out that even in good times they often are delayed. Heck that thing was delayed for a bit over a year. In the meantime I bought XTB's Skids and DX9's Powerglide. I even bought the YUA version of Skids since I liked the car. Yeah there are a ton of companies out there making their versions of bots. I didn't know the status of all 3 Stunticons teams but knew they were not complete yet. Heck, XTB's Gravestone (not Motormaster) was delayed a long time and redone.
I was going in on the 3P MP scene but recently I decided to curb my overspending and only focus on stuff I really want. I'm still going to oogle over photos for those I would have liked to buy, which makes it much easier.
I've got a round two of Commander Shepard 3d printed stuff. First, I reprinted the Claymore in a slightly larger size so that I could get the barrel in the print. This, for some reason, took out the sight from the print, so what I'm going to do is attach the site from the first print, then use this as the master for a mold.
The second version of the helmet was not quite as successful. It's the right scale, but I can't get it over her head (not even if I remove her wig or even the top part of her head), so I'm closer than the first helmet, but need to scale it up slightly.
That sucks that the helmet doesn't fit. It sure looks like it should.
I don't know anything about 3d printing, but I have to assume if they're working from a digital file they might be able to increase the width
Yes, I measured the head and added what I thought was enough extra to put the helmet on. Unfortunately, It's hard to know without seeing the helmet. I've already got another print started with more millimeters that I hope will be large enough (without being too large), but once again I won't really know without having the helmet and trying it on. Luckily, this part is relatively cheap to print.
"If you divide the whole world into just enemies and friends, you'll end up destroying everything" --Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind
I don't know anything about 3d printing, but I have to assume if they're working from a digital file they might be able to increase the width
Yes, I measured the head and added what I thought was enough extra to put the helmet on. Unfortunately, It's hard to know without seeing the helmet. I've already got another print started with more millimeters that I hope will be large enough (without being too large), but once again I won't really know without having the helmet and trying it on. Luckily, this part is relatively cheap to print.
I know this is a less satisfying solution, but would it make sense to do a two-piece helmet, let's say a front and a back with a seam going around the side? Or maybe that facemask section can be cut out (hiding the seam in the natural recess of the helmet-mask boundary), and then you could spread the helmet opening out a bit, get the helmet over the head, and then attach the mask? Of course, this would add the complication of figuring out a way of attaching the helmet pieces together, which may be more trouble than it's worth...
Yeah I got into the 3P world a bit ago with the movie La Hire (not Hot Rod). Then I found out that even in good times they often are delayed. Heck that thing was delayed for a bit over a year. In the meantime I bought XTB's Skids and DX9's Powerglide. I even bought the YUA version of Skids since I liked the car. Yeah there are a ton of companies out there making their versions of bots. I didn't know the status of all 3 Stunticons teams but knew they were not complete yet. Heck, XTB's Gravestone (not Motormaster) was delayed a long time and redone.
I spent an embarassing amount of time in the last month watching multiple video reviews of all three (currently available) 3P Stunticon teams, looking at photos, reading threads, all to try and decide if I want to go in on one of the sets (and which to go in on). I was considering writing a post here with all of my thoughts, organizing the pros and cons, to see what people's opinions were (and if anyone was also getting any of them), but I also tend to write long and over-wordy posts, and I'm not sure that one guy's meandering ruminations on how to frivolously spend several hundred dollars is something that anyone wants to read.
I was going in on the 3P MP scene but recently I decided to curb my overspending and only focus on stuff I really want. I'm still going to oogle over photos for those I would have liked to buy, which makes it much easier.
I'm starting to think that the 3P legends scene is an extremely good alternative to MP collecting. I am really impressed with the models from Newage, and it looks like each new release is better engineered and manufactured than the last. They're still not cheap, mind you, but $30-$50 is better than $100-$150 (or $500...). The articulation seems to be on par, and the deco is not far behind (although there are more cases of visible alt mode bits, due to lack of space to store it). And, you know, you can probably have a scene of 5 bots displayed in the same space as one MP-sized bot.
Yeah I got into the 3P world a bit ago with the movie La Hire (not Hot Rod). Then I found out that even in good times they often are delayed. Heck that thing was delayed for a bit over a year. In the meantime I bought XTB's Skids and DX9's Powerglide. I even bought the YUA version of Skids since I liked the car. Yeah there are a ton of companies out there making their versions of bots. I didn't know the status of all 3 Stunticons teams but knew they were not complete yet. Heck, XTB's Gravestone (not Motormaster) was delayed a long time and redone.
I spent an embarassing amount of time in the last month watching multiple video reviews of all three (currently available) 3P Stunticon teams, looking at photos, reading threads, all to try and decide if I want to go in on one of the sets (and which to go in on). I was considering writing a post here with all of my thoughts, organizing the pros and cons, to see what people's opinions were (and if anyone was also getting any of them), but I also tend to write long and over-wordy posts, and I'm not sure that one guy's meandering ruminations on how to frivolously spend several hundred dollars is something that anyone wants to read.
I was going in on the 3P MP scene but recently I decided to curb my overspending and only focus on stuff I really want. I'm still going to oogle over photos for those I would have liked to buy, which makes it much easier.
I'm starting to think that the 3P legends scene is an extremely good alternative to MP collecting. I am really impressed with the models from Newage, and it looks like each new release is better engineered and manufactured than the last. They're still not cheap, mind you, but $30-$50 is better than $100-$150 (or $500...). The articulation seems to be on par, and the deco is not far behind (although there are more cases of visible alt mode bits, due to lack of space to store it). And, you know, you can probably have a scene of 5 bots displayed in the same space as one MP-sized bot.
Well for me I sort of like rambling about toys and long reviews/comments are much nicer to me since I tend to overthink things (Engineer mind). Is the set you are talking about that has the combiner parts included into the individual bots the same as the one they are making the new Combaticons? I saw those and thought that is really clever how they included the hands and feet into the bots. Much cooler and harder to do compared to cheating and having the hands and feet being pieces that you just stick on and leave all over the place in individual modes (sort of like the original G1 toys).
Yeah, the newer Legacy sized stuff is cool, but I have the official stuff that fills the spot I want which is a toy to fiddle with when I'm bored. Just wish it was easier to get said toys than it is... Stupid economy, greed, scalping, destroying of toy stores, etc.! I miss Toys R Us where I could walk in and have a chance of finding a toy (or even cooler was being able to go to a local toy store and getting it from them or having them order an item). Now I get to stride through aisles of clothes, food and whatever to hopefully find a toy on a peg/shelf that isn't the first wave. Either that or never seeing it because all of the scalpers or hoping that the online store doesn't sell out. Sorry, I just had to rant here for a bit.
I'm hoping that I will get the time to take some photos and share the latest two toys I have purchased. Well ok, not the latest two toys, but more recent.
Well for me I sort of like rambling about toys and long reviews/comments are much nicer to me since I tend to overthink things (Engineer mind).
This sounds like an invitation to ramble, and if it isn't, I'm still interpreting it as one. I'll write too much about the 3P Stunticons in a bit and also will not begrudge anyone skipping right over that post.
Is the set you are talking about that has the combiner parts included into the individual bots the same as the one they are making the new Combaticons? I saw those and thought that is really clever how they included the hands and feet into the bots. Much cooler and harder to do compared to cheating and having the hands and feet being pieces that you just stick on and leave all over the place in individual modes (sort of like the original G1 toys).
I think the bolded sentence might be missing some words, or maybe some typoed/autocompleted words are off, but I think you're asking more about the MMC Combaticon, so I'll dump some more text here about them.
Mastermind Creations (a 3rd party company) has a couple of different lines that they release figures under (people talk about them almost like they are different sub-companies, so for all I know the creative teams are completely different). "Ocular Max" is their line of MP-scaled and -styled toys. The not-Bruticus they are working on (or "Assaultus", to use their name) is their first combiner, in the "Ocular Max" line, and has the sub-sub-line name "All Built In"; everything in that sub-sub-line will have combiner pieces incorporated into the bot modes, with no connector pieces hanging out as separate pieces. So Swindle's feet peg together into one large foot for Bruticus, Onslaught's torso hides the Bruticus crotch-skirt/chest-plate/head, and so on.
This does lead to trade-offs. I'll talk about it more when I post actual photos of the toys, but for example: the Bruticus fist is hidden in Vortex's lower legs, and is partially visible in robot mode; Onslaught's torso is disproportionately long because (1) it serves as the Bruticus torso, and (2) it has to hide all the Bruticus torso plates.
For plenty of folks (like me), this is totally fine, because the cool engineering is way worth any sculpt or scale issues (and I honestly don't even think they're particularly noticeable issues). Other folks prefer an uncompromised look, so for them this is a bad choice. Also, since the bots are roughly MP-scale, there are no separate pieces to add height to the combined mode, and there's only so much "mass-shifting" that you can do, the overall combined more ends up being... something like 18", I think? Which doesn't work for a lot of people, because it seems like MP combiners have kinda settled into the height category established by the Toyworld not-Devastator years ago (22"), and folks who value a consistent scale are turned off by this "scrawny" combiner. Of course, the Zeta Toys Bruticus achieves this height by having a stand-alone, non-transforming piece that's just a crotch and thighs. There isn't even anywhere to stick it in alt/robot mode, I think. I will agree that it definitely looks sleeker when put together, but it just doesn't excite me as much as the All Built In approach.
Yeah, the newer Legacy sized stuff is cool, but I have the official stuff that fills the spot I want which is a toy to fiddle with when I'm bored. Just wish it was easier to get said toys than it is... Stupid economy, greed, scalping, destroying of toy stores, etc.! I miss Toys R Us where I could walk in and have a chance of finding a toy (or even cooler was being able to go to a local toy store and getting it from them or having them order an item). Now I get to stride through aisles of clothes, food and whatever to hopefully find a toy on a peg/shelf that isn't the first wave. Either that or never seeing it because all of the scalpers or hoping that the online store doesn't sell out. Sorry, I just had to rant here for a bit.
This sounds really frustrating. I kinda feel like shopping for that stuff online is the only sure way to guarantee getting the figure, and avoiding the endless disappointment of empty pegs at the store, but there's something irreplaceable about the experience of physically going to the store and pawing through the toys.
I stop by toy sections now when I got somewhere but I've essentially given up on finding things in person, all online for me. I agree something is lost in the transition but it's so random whether things will show up anyway. I mean just today there must've been 20+ reissue soundwaves, a solo reissue astrotrain, and piles of other siege stuff (mostly the same figure aka Optimus/Megatron) where there hasn't been anything for months. I'm betting I won't see earthrise (if at all) until 2022
Well for me I sort of like rambling about toys and long reviews/comments are much nicer to me since I tend to overthink things (Engineer mind).
This sounds like an invitation to ramble, and if it isn't, I'm still interpreting it as one. I'll write too much about the 3P Stunticons in a bit and also will not begrudge anyone skipping right over that post.
Is the set you are talking about that has the combiner parts included into the individual bots the same as the one they are making the new Combaticons? I saw those and thought that is really clever how they included the hands and feet into the bots. Much cooler and harder to do compared to cheating and having the hands and feet being pieces that you just stick on and leave all over the place in individual modes (sort of like the original G1 toys).
I think the bolded sentence might be missing some words, or maybe some typoed/autocompleted words are off, but I think you're asking more about the MMC Combaticon, so I'll dump some more text here about them.
Mastermind Creations (a 3rd party company) has a couple of different lines that they release figures under (people talk about them almost like they are different sub-companies, so for all I know the creative teams are completely different). "Ocular Max" is their line of MP-scaled and -styled toys. The not-Bruticus they are working on (or "Assaultus", to use their name) is their first combiner, in the "Ocular Max" line, and has the sub-sub-line name "All Built In"; everything in that sub-sub-line will have combiner pieces incorporated into the bot modes, with no connector pieces hanging out as separate pieces. So Swindle's feet peg together into one large foot for Bruticus, Onslaught's torso hides the Bruticus crotch-skirt/chest-plate/head, and so on.
This does lead to trade-offs. I'll talk about it more when I post actual photos of the toys, but for example: the Bruticus fist is hidden in Vortex's lower legs, and is partially visible in robot mode; Onslaught's torso is disproportionately long because (1) it serves as the Bruticus torso, and (2) it has to hide all the Bruticus torso plates.
For plenty of folks (like me), this is totally fine, because the cool engineering is way worth any sculpt or scale issues (and I honestly don't even think they're particularly noticeable issues). Other folks prefer an uncompromised look, so for them this is a bad choice. Also, since the bots are roughly MP-scale, there are no separate pieces to add height to the combined mode, and there's only so much "mass-shifting" that you can do, the overall combined more ends up being... something like 18", I think? Which doesn't work for a lot of people, because it seems like MP combiners have kinda settled into the height category established by the Toyworld not-Devastator years ago (22"), and folks who value a consistent scale are turned off by this "scrawny" combiner. Of course, the Zeta Toys Bruticus achieves this height by having a stand-alone, non-transforming piece that's just a crotch and thighs. There isn't even anywhere to stick it in alt/robot mode, I think. I will agree that it definitely looks sleeker when put together, but it just doesn't excite me as much as the All Built In approach.
Yeah, the newer Legacy sized stuff is cool, but I have the official stuff that fills the spot I want which is a toy to fiddle with when I'm bored. Just wish it was easier to get said toys than it is... Stupid economy, greed, scalping, destroying of toy stores, etc.! I miss Toys R Us where I could walk in and have a chance of finding a toy (or even cooler was being able to go to a local toy store and getting it from them or having them order an item). Now I get to stride through aisles of clothes, food and whatever to hopefully find a toy on a peg/shelf that isn't the first wave. Either that or never seeing it because all of the scalpers or hoping that the online store doesn't sell out. Sorry, I just had to rant here for a bit.
This sounds really frustrating. I kinda feel like shopping for that stuff online is the only sure way to guarantee getting the figure, and avoiding the endless disappointment of empty pegs at the store, but there's something irreplaceable about the experience of physically going to the store and pawing through the toys.
Yeah I did a wonderful job of leaving out words thanks to me writing my post, leaving, coming back and writing more. Plus add in the phone autocorrect just made it worse. But luckily you got the gist of my question and yes it is MMC's Bruticus that I'm thinking of. I appreciate the not partsforming transformations even at the cost of looks. But I just don't have the room to fit a 3P combiner so luckily others do and I can live vicariously through them. Plus now that I know you are purchasing them I can ask you all the questions about it!
Yeah I just got frustrated this weekend when pre-ordering a bunch of Transformers and Star Wars stuff online. Luckily most of it was from online stores but I just miss the days when you could see it in person and decide if you wanted it or not plus the ability to leave and come back another day to buy it later. But yeah those days are gone and I appreciate that I can at least pre-order most of what I want.
I don't buy a lot of toys online because my wish list on Amazon is disgustingly long. I'm the type where if it's in front of me in person, I buy it. This helps me save money (usually) and I'm not staring longingly at stuff I probably shouldn't even think about buying based on the price. That and, my family has access to that wishlist so they randomly will get me stuff from it for Christmas sometimes so it pays off.
Here's something cute, my dad collects Hot Wheels and sends me one's he thinks I'll like.
Those are really cool vehicles. I have not looked at Hot Wheels or Matchbox (are they still around) in eons. I do have this cool Los Angeles bus Hot Wheel at my desk that a previous boss gave to me a long time ago. Also a Mazda Miata from when I was in High School. Think the last Hot Wheel thing I bought were those Star Wars vehicles when Toys R Us was closing.
I spent a bunch of time ruminating on which of them appeal to me the most. It seems like my considerations ended up crystallizing into several categories, so I'll list it here the same way.
Limb Bots
Frankly, I think they all look good-to-great. X-Transbots has all of them out, FansToys has one, and DX9 has two, so we can't do a 100% one-to-one-to-one assessment, but let's work with what we've got.
- FansToys' Breakdown looks great. The only negative thing I can say about him is that he has a very flat butt, which looks a bit off. Otherwise: pretty toy, both modes look good, transformation looks good. Their Wildrider looks good in photos, but we can't say much yet.
- DX9 has Wildrider and Breakdown out. Both look great in robot mode head-on, but turn them sideways and they are both kinda flat and thin. Wildrider looks almost like a cardboard cutout. Otherwise, everything's fine.
- X-Transbots's figures are a little smaller than the other two companies', and their Breakdown is the only one that isn't white, but a sort of pearlescent beige. It's an interesting choice, and I kinda wonder if a pure white plastic is more expensive, or if this was deliberate. It looks a little odd, but doesn't really bother me personally. What does bother me are the multiple QC/plastic quality issues that seem to be widespread. Transparent plastic parts snapping, parts cracking. My understanding is that this is synonymous with "X-Transbots". Dragstrip in particular seems to be problematic, because the... roll-cage, I guess maybe? that's behind the driver's head breaks off easily, and one (both?) of the arms seem to crack at the shoulder as a matter of course. On the other hand, these limb bots are considerably cheaper than the other companies'. I heard somewhere that XTB's toys were either getting KO'd or were about to be KO'd, and they intentionally priced these guys so low in order to undercut the knockoffs - and apparently it worked. Overall, I think all of them look great, except for Dragstrip, who I think looks mediocre at best (and has some transformation issues to boot), but also I think the only good third party Dragstrip has been the Transformission one from forever ago. For whatever reason, I really like how their Deathwish looks in alt mode (maybe I'll like the one from the other two companies, we'll see).
Based on all this, I'm interested in DX9 the least.
Motormaster + trailer
All three Motormasters (but not all three trailers) are out, so we can compare pretty directly.
- X-Transbots' Motormaster is just the truck cab by itself. It's a bit more stylized than the others, with a thicker (and less realistic) truck rear and using purple paint instead of silver on parts like the grille, mirrors, smokestacks. To be perfectly honest, I think this guy is beautiful, more so than the other Motormaster alt modes. Probably because I like purple. The robot mode looks quite good and clean, although it has a big (but sleek) backpack. The biggest concern is plastic quality - the upper and lower torsos are connected using a hinge of relatively soft plastic that is already showing stress marks for lots of people. The two parts are held together using a clip of that same plastic, which - again, for many people - has already become so loose that it doesn't actually clip in. I think this one is probably my favorite-looking of the two, but that plastic... oof, that plastic is scary.
The trailer will be sold separately at a later date, and will contain all the parts necessary for combination. This is actually another nice cost-saving thing for collectors: if you don't care about the combined mode, and just want to display the Stunticons in robot mode (or alt mode, and don't mind the missing trailer), you can save some more money by just not getting the trailer.
- DX9's Motormaster is the cab plus the first ~1/4 of the trailer. There's no way to detach the trailer and still get something that looks reasonable - the quarter-trailer is just hanging out, with Motormaster's inverted torso inside. Motormaster himself looks fine, definitely the sleekest one (no backpack whatsoever), but there are a few transformation shortcuts that don't thrill me (like unfolding small fake cab pieces from the actual large cab pieces to make feet; if you look closely, you'll see that it's just a tiny cab in front of a larger cab, you can't unsee it). Probably the easiest of the three to transform back and forth, though.
The trailer, oof. The trailer is as long as the 2020 day is ridiculous. The trailer alone is actually longer than a FansToys Motormaster + trailer. Doesn't bother some, looks goofy to me.
- FansToys, fuckin' bow down to FansToys. They released Motormaster as their first Stunticon, which is the most confident statement of intent I've ever seen - everyone else always leaves the torso-bot for last, or at least somewhere in the middle. The other thing that's amazing about this figure is that the trailer is completely integrated into the model. The cab transforms into the feet, part of the trailer transforms into the legs and torso, and the rest of the trailer collapses into panels that fold up on the back into a flat and clean - but relatively bulky - backpack. The upside is the incredible feat of engineering. The downside is that the transformation has some really tricky parts (especially the cab-feet), and you do end up with parts of the robot mode that are the wrong color because they are made of grey trailer panels. This is also the only one that doesn't "cheat" the feet: the cab legitimately turns into the feet, folding down to a reasonable size, while the others have fake cab parts that slide out. Otherwise, a typically beautiful FansToys robot mode.
The price to pay is that the combiner parts will be packaged with the last limb bot, who will cost as much as Motormaster because of this. Furthermore, these parts will actually form a second trailer for Motormaster, which is... kinda crappy, in my opinion. I admire the engineering necessary to get the trailer to be part of the bot, but is it worth the cost of having a second trailer? To be clear, you can't remove Motormaster's built-in trailer without doing some modding to the toy (some folks on the TFW2005 forums have, and it seems to work fine), so you'll have Motormaster, the built-in trailer, and then the second trailer in the back.
Based on all this, I am dismissing the DX9 as my potential purchase completely. I don't like the long trailer, I certainly don't like the cab-and-quarter-trailer Motormaster, and generally I don't like the aesthetics of this guy. I think the XTB one looks the best, but I can't trust that plastic. I am in awe of the FansToys effort, and probably am willing to live with the trailer.
Combined Mode
So, initially, the DX9 combined mode was the only one that was completely obvious: the trailer unfolds into a Menasor shell that is like 80% of a complete Menasor, just has a hollow torso and some chunks missing from the arms. You fold up Motormaster into a cube and slide him into the back of the torso, and clip the limb bots onto the already-completely-functional limbs of this shell. For my sensibilities, this is garbage. I have no interest in a "combiner" that is just a big stand-alone robot that you can decorate with some optional "combiner components". This was why I dismissed the DX9 effort out of hand completely as soon as I saw it.
But then. Then I started thinking "well wait, I have no idea what the XTB and FT versions will look like". So I went looking for renders, or at least verbal descriptions, and... they're the same. A trailer that turns into a shell that you hang the other bots onto. This was kinds of heart-breaking. It sounds like XTB's version will even have shells for the arm bots that you can clip onto the arms to get a more show-accurate look. Why even have the limb bots, then! Is this even a combiner anymore!?
The sad truth is, the original G1 design of Menasor is just that: a big robot with two cars on his calves and two broken cars as shoulder/forearm guards. It's no surprise that all three companies went with this design.
So, given this last point, I'm not even sure that I want any of them. DX9 is completely out, not even in the running, but XTB and FT are still tempting for different reasons (none of which is the combined mode). The best option would be to just wait until everything is out and covered by video reviews, but by that point earlier pieces will be harder to find; some of the XTB bots are already out of stock at a lot of retailers. I probably need to make a decision soon. Ultimately, I suspect that I will get the FansToys Motormaster because I'm so impressed with the engineering. At that point, I'll see if my completionist streak will demand the rest of the toys. On the other hand, the XTB toys looks great too, and are cheaper - but will that plastic hold out?
Truly, no human being has ever had a more difficult or more impactful decision to make. Keep me in your thoughts, friends.
That sucks to read about the XTB set, and I read about how their Breakdown mold was stolen/copied and that's why they sold it for so cheap (to hopefully kill the KO version). I also was wondering why there were no Bruticus pics yet, but now I know. Thanks for all the writing you did on them. So now I know about the status of the 3P Bruticus figures out there.
What sucks is that I missed out on the Hasbro Combiner Wars one a long time ago (along with Superion) but after seeing them I'm sort of glad I didn't get them. I'm hoping that they bring back the G1 version.
That sucks to read about the XTB set, and I read about how their Breakdown mold was stolen/copied and that's why they sold it for so cheap (to hopefully kill the KO version). I also was wondering why there were no Bruticus pics yet, but now I know. Thanks for all the writing you did on them. So now I know about the status of the 3P Bruticus figures out there.
What sucks is that I missed out on the Hasbro Combiner Wars one a long time ago (along with Superion) but after seeing them I'm sort of glad I didn't get them. I'm hoping that they bring back the G1 version.
Do you mean the CW bruticus? I got the takara one because damn it I wanted a shuttle blast off! What's scale anyway? I even went so far as to get some 3P hands and feet but holy shit he cannot stand. Naturally everything is too heavy, but swindle won't stay pegged together in leg mode so he doesn't sit right on the foot and everything is a very fragile house of cards.
I'd like to get a 3P combiner just to compare because I like bruticus, he is probably my favorite combiner as well as combiner team. Problem is I just get sticker shock looking as the prices for something that may ultimately have similar issues. Physics is physics
I also was wondering why there were no Bruticus pics yet, but now I know. Thanks for all the writing you did on them. So now I know about the status of the 3P Bruticus figures out there.
Do you mean why there were no Menasor pics? We sorta do have 90% of the DX9 Menasor, just from the trailer + legs alone :rotate:
But, actually, XTB has some prototype shots floating around as well (the TFW2005 thread has them, I can link it if you want). Also, because DX9 has the leg bots and overall shell - but not the arms - out, people have been approximating by taking the DX9 shell + legs and sticking the XTB arms on (with rubberbands, etc). I've come to the conclusion that I find the G1 Menasor design extremely bland and monotonous. Just a giant dark grey torso, unbroken by any color and barely any detailing.
I'd like to get a 3P combiner just to compare because I like bruticus, he is probably my favorite combiner as well as combiner team. Problem is I just get sticker shock looking as the prices for something that may ultimately have similar issues. Physics is physics
I can tell you how the MMC Bruticus holds up when the second legs comes out; it was originally scheduled for June, but now it'll probably be super-delayed (I'm guessing closer to the end of the year, tbh).
As for 3P Bruticuses being able to support their own weight, I don't think I've heard about any issues like that, especially since they tend to use more ratchets and have more poseability than the Takara ones, so you should be able to better pose them to distribute the weight. There are many many video reviews on YouTube for all the Bruticuses, so you can see what the people who have them in hand think. Of course, all this stability comes at a cost of several hundred dollars more.
That sucks to read about the XTB set, and I read about how their Breakdown mold was stolen/copied and that's why they sold it for so cheap (to hopefully kill the KO version). I also was wondering why there were no Bruticus pics yet, but now I know. Thanks for all the writing you did on them. So now I know about the status of the 3P Bruticus figures out there.
What sucks is that I missed out on the Hasbro Combiner Wars one a long time ago (along with Superion) but after seeing them I'm sort of glad I didn't get them. I'm hoping that they bring back the G1 version.
Do you mean the CW bruticus? I got the takara one because damn it I wanted a shuttle blast off! What's scale anyway? I even went so far as to get some 3P hands and feet but holy shit he cannot stand. Naturally everything is too heavy, but swindle won't stay pegged together in leg mode so he doesn't sit right on the foot and everything is a very fragile house of cards.
I'd like to get a 3P combiner just to compare because I like bruticus, he is probably my favorite combiner as well as combiner team. Problem is I just get sticker shock looking as the prices for something that may ultimately have similar issues. Physics is physics
Sorry, I meant to say I partially wish I bought the CW Menasor. I got the US Bruticus parts (and eventually the Shuttle Blast Off since yeah I agree, Blast Off is a SHUTTLE). Yeah the combiners ability to stand really sucks for some of them... Ok all of them. I have Defensor (bought Groove as a bike since yeah same as Bruticus), Bruticus, Hodgepodge of Inferno and Sky Lynx's limbs, the Autobot Female Bots (no not the Victorion, but the Elita-1 team), and Liokaiser (because I wanted Sky Lynx but refused to pay scalper prices). I originally only wanted Defensor (because I have the Japanese G1 team) and Bruticus since I always wanted him as a kid. The others I got just because they looked cool and I wanted toys... Now I think I'd sell off the other teams and just keep the two I wanted. Sadly all of them are standing combined and leaning against the wall to stand up.
Fake Edit: Oh yeah and I have Devastator because yeah, it is Devastator! Even bought the Comic Con Exclusive version for the shiny purple.
Edit: Oh and the Dinobots, but I don't count them as a combiner set and actually left them separated since they are not a combiner in my head!
I also was wondering why there were no Bruticus pics yet, but now I know. Thanks for all the writing you did on them. So now I know about the status of the 3P Bruticus figures out there.
Do you mean why there were no Menasor pics? We sorta do have 90% of the DX9 Menasor, just from the trailer + legs alone :rotate:
But, actually, XTB has some prototype shots floating around as well (the TFW2005 thread has them, I can link it if you want). Also, because DX9 has the leg bots and overall shell - but not the arms - out, people have been approximating by taking the DX9 shell + legs and sticking the XTB arms on (with rubberbands, etc). I've come to the conclusion that I find the G1 Menasor design extremely bland and monotonous. Just a giant dark grey torso, unbroken by any color and barely any detailing.
I'd like to get a 3P combiner just to compare because I like bruticus, he is probably my favorite combiner as well as combiner team. Problem is I just get sticker shock looking as the prices for something that may ultimately have similar issues. Physics is physics
I can tell you how the MMC Bruticus holds up when the second legs comes out; it was originally scheduled for June, but now it'll probably be super-delayed (I'm guessing closer to the end of the year, tbh).
As for 3P Bruticuses being able to support their own weight, I don't think I've heard about any issues like that, especially since they tend to use more ratchets and have more poseability than the Takara ones, so you should be able to better pose them to distribute the weight. There are many many video reviews on YouTube for all the Bruticuses, so you can see what the people who have them in hand think. Of course, all this stability comes at a cost of several hundred dollars more.
Yeah, I saw the prototype shots, but I meant as fan photos in the 3P Masterpiece Appreciation thread. Sorry, my limited attention span on my phone haunting me again.
HeatwaveCome, now, and walk the path of explosions with me!Registered Userregular
FINALLY!!!
Figma Mordred (from Fate/Apocrypha) with Causal clothes is being released! So naturally I pre-ordered her.
She looks so friggin' cool with that jacket!
Also MHA's Uraraka is getting a figma as well I guess.
Too bad I don't a shit about her character, as it does look sorta neat.
Hoping Mina gets a figma as well, as she's my real fav from that show. Although Gamma suit Deku, Lemillion and Cel shaded All Might would also be cool.
Still haven't opened my parcels from the past few months.
So far I need to open Figma Rider of Black, Figma Mercy and Pharah, Figma Fate/GO Male protagonist, MP Bumblebee V2, Blackarachnia, and MP Hound.
Wouldn't surprise me if Hound has disintegrated in his parcel by now. I just no longer give a shit about it. But if Takara rereleases it with better plastic/and the G1 Toy colours I'll get it.
Worried about MP Tigatron. Looks cool, but it feels like a high chance of bad plastic, given how Hound ended up. Actually feels like a high chance for all future MPs until proven otherwise.
Arcee was close to being good, but the weird chestpiece, collar and giraffe neck look way too weird. Plus the face isn't even cartoon accurate.
I don't think we'll have to worry about the plastic being boogered from TT on newer releases. I seriously think they took this one in the shorts and won't forget it. Either way though I'm not pre-ordering the next MP just to be safe. HAHAHAHAHA. Although I really do miss having Hound in my collection. It was a really cool looking figure.
I like your newest figure. A female character that isn't sexualized for once (well overly).
Posts
Cartoon spoilers (though you can see this in the trailer)
I guess MTMTE and Lost Light have kinda ruined my ability to enjoy War-era TF fiction. I can't go back to Megatron the Tyrant.
This just doesn't move the needle for me. I'm sure it'll be... fine? But the highschool-level philosophizing about war isn't doing it any favors on in my book.
I'm not at that point, I think this looks awesome. I don't stop pointing out to everyone who will listen how awesome the IDW stuff is, but I'm very much looking forward to this cartoon. I fully expect something terrible but we will see
WoWtcg and general gaming podcast
WoWtcg and gaming website
or emotional writing has never, ever been the company's strong suit. I'll give a shot still but not having high hopes.
Production by Rooster Teeth
Animation by Polygon Pictures (Also did the not great Godzilla netflix show)
Showrunner is FJ DeSanto, who also was the showrunner for the absolutely terrible Titans Return and Power of the Prime digital series.
That said, based on the trailer
Animation is is stiff, but not as bad as the Prime Wars series. They're nicely detailed though, but unfortunately they've slavish to the toy designs, which is bad. (Look at that ridiculous backpack on Chromia. Yikes!) Voice acting is passable, but good lord that dialog is absolutely terrible. I'd call it cliche, but I feel like actual cliche writing would be better than what's going on here.
Worst part is the tone. Transformers is supposed to have moments of levity, but it feels like a lot of these shows aimed at adult collectors are done by people who only remember Transformers through the lense of the first 20 minutes of the 86 animated movie. I'm tired of stoic brick Optimus; bring me back the Optimus who plays basketball with his men, gets audibly annoyed when they try to baby him during an injury, and who can be amused when some Decepticons walk into an obvious booby-trap.
I'm fine with the super serious tone. I've always enjoyed Optimus as the stoic leader more than the 80's original version. The toy aesthetic I think is kinda cool. Yes it suffers to some extent because of obvious real life limitations, but it's fine.
Tone wise I don't anticipate it'll be 100% what we saw in the trailer and most of my favorite moments in transformers are in that vein, or against the backdrop of being that way. The intent here is surely to still sell toys, it's a commercial so my expectations are set at that level. I'd love for things like the IDW comics to effectively get ported to cartoons but I don't think that will ever happen.
WoWtcg and general gaming podcast
WoWtcg and gaming website
IDW came to a close last year and there's a new series in its place.
OLD IDW basically breaks apart into eras which I could get into but it's a lot of cruft to get to the era that everone raves about (MTMTE/Lost Light and RiD/"The Transformers"/Optimus Prime). You could get away with starting there, honestly.
IDW has been putting out hardcover collects of the the comics in rough chronological order. The first three ers (listed under "Phase 1") are all avaialble and they're currently working thier way through Phase 2. Though this is probably a pretty expensive way to get on board.
1) Does that mean that IDW ended a continuous ongoing storyline? So is the new series also from IDW, and (if so) is it a different continuity, or a different storyline, or what?
2) Let's say I was willing to spend the time and money; what would you say is the best spot to start this "old IDW" stuff?
(I probably can and should just look this up on a wiki somewhere, so it's totally reasonable to tell me to do my own homework.)
If you're willing to spend the money and want physical copies, the "Transformers: The IDW Collection" is your best bet. Phase One (Which includes the Furman era, the All Hail Megatron era, and the first ongoing era) has about 8 volumes and Phase Two (Starting with the MTMTE/RID era) is currently on it's 11th volume.
Phase One Volume 1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1600106676/?coliid=I1NQGFLSWE1CLM&colid=LFOT40HEOXMD&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Phase Two Volume 1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1631400401/?coliid=I1I71Y72SL0V1R&colid=LFOT40HEOXMD&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
More Than Meets the Eye, an often humorous, sometimes serious travelogue about what it means to be a Transformer in the postwar era
Robots in Disguise, your more standard Cybertron-based schemes-and-fights fare.
MTMTE was relaunched as Lost Light, but it's really just a name change more than a new book. Lost Light ends by neatly wrapping up the plot points started in MTMTE and makes for a complete end-to-end experience.
MTMTE and RID crossover in a somewhat "corporate mandated" event at the end of the 5th collected volume, but other than that they run totally parallel. RID certainly isn't bad, but MTMTE definitely has the better characters and stories.
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
It's in volume 6 of Phase 1.
Thank you for the pointers, folks! I actually should have a whole bunch of the RiD/MTMTE (digital) comics from when Humble Bundle had bundles of them. For some reason, I was under the impression that they were completely brand-new series, not fresh jumping-on points for a longer and ongoing saga, which is why I started asking about stuff I might need to read beforehand.
Then Q4 2019 came and went with no sign of the reissue. The online stores started listing the release window as Q1 2020.
Then I looked at MakeToys' recent activity, and saw that the only sign of life out of them recently is that they removed the shopping UI from their website.
Then the coronavirus happened, and production of 3rd party Transformers pretty much stopped (from what I understand).
So... yeah, I don't think that reissue's happening. I don't think MakeToys is happening.
There's actually an upscaled KO of Guardia that sounds like it might even be based on the original design files/molds, because the engineering is pretty much identical. The plastic quality is apparently good as well. KOs make me uncomfortable, but if the company making the original product doesn't even exist anymore, then whatever, it's fine - but unfortunately, it looks like this KO has enough QC issues (some loose joints on the individual bots, weak shoulder ratchets on the combined mode that make the arms flop down if you hold them out to the sides) that I don't think I want to bother with it. And, anyway, this is one of the rare scenarios where I kinda care about scale - it would be nice to have the MakeToys Defensor scale with the MakeToys Devastator.
Also, just generally a bummer about MakeToys - I think they made good products.
Those are the low hanging fruit I guess. While there's always love online for beast wars, or animated, or whatever I find it difficult to believe that these companies would avoid making them unless there isn't enough of a market. There is a lot of copycat efforts so I guess if one delves into it the others might
WoWtcg and general gaming podcast
WoWtcg and gaming website
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the 3P realm is on hold till May/June at the earliest. Might be later since the plants have to come online first then get enough time to punch out the 3P stuff. I see that TF source has their ETA as May 2020, but dunno how long they have had that date up.
Steam: betsuni7
But, man, there are a bunch of 3rd parties doing MP-scale combiners now, and that is making my heart go pitter-patter. We are currently in the middle of three completely different Stunticon sets, all of them with completely different transformation schemes, moderately different sizes and design sensibilities, and in different stages of completeness:
- X-Transbots has all the figures out, but Motormaster's trailer/the combiner pieces are being sold as a separate item and aren't out yet.
- DX9 has two limb bots and Motormaster out.
- FansToys has Motormaster (who actually incorporates the entire trailer into the bot mode in a miracle of engineering) and one limb bot out.
Mastermind Creations is in the middle of a Combaticons set that has the gimmick that it has no loose kibble; all the pieces required for combination are incorporated into the individual robots (they call this sub-line "All Built-In"). This is absolutely my dream when it comes to combiners, so I'm all-in on this set - I already have the three components that are out, and will write about them in this thread soon. MMC has already said that they intend to do all the combiners in the All Built-In style, with the next one being Defensor. I am extremely excited about this.
Iron Factory is still pumping out toys, and they have a whole bunch of cool-looking ones for pre-order that will cover this year and probably the next.
FansToys is doing the Stunticons, as mentioned, but also they are doing the Aerialbots, with not-Silverbolt and not-Skydive out. I never cared about the Aerialbots (I'm not a plane nerd, so to me they all look the same, and a combiner team of one big plane and 4 smaller planes was never visually interesting), but I am telling you this: I want this set so bad. The robots look great, FansToys always makes their bots look good, but the airplanes look so incredibly beautiful that I legitimately want to buy the set and just display them in plane mode. Also, it seems like FansToys has a rep for having nighmarish transformations, but the two Aerialbots released so far have really elegant ones.
In addition, FansToys has a bunch of non-combiner figures lined up, some for the every near future (a really great looking Brawl and Warpath, and a Beachcomber soon after), and have recently teased a bunch more (including a brand new take on Perceptor).
So actually, now that I think about it, I think the 3rd party scene is pretty strong right now. Granted, a lot of it involves companies releasing their take on a character that's already been covered by other companies in the past, but I think that's pretty cool - it opens up a lot of options for fans. Also, I think that after Takara shifted their Masterpieces in the general show-accurate direction, 3rd parties have started to follow, so even characters that have been done multiple times before are now being re-done in a new style.
Now, what will definitely put the scene in a slump is the halted production in China. One of the limb bots for that MMC Bruticus was supposed to come out 4 days ago, and the last one was due in June. The three Menasors are all in various states of completion (X-Transbots is probably in the best state now, since at least you can have all the individual bots). All these companies that have lined up toys for the coming year - who knows what'll happen? Things have already slipped by a few months, and I don't think it's known when production will start up again. When factories do start back up, they will probably prioritize everything but unlicensed small-run action figures first, so I suspect things will slip even more. Some companies can afford these delays because this is, like, a side-business for them or whatever. Other companies might not be able to afford it, or employees might just lose interest and move on. I'm curious to see how this affects not just which toys come out when, but also which companies are still around next year.
The second version of the helmet was not quite as successful. It's the right scale, but I can't get it over her head (not even if I remove her wig or even the top part of her head), so I'm closer than the first helmet, but need to scale it up slightly.
Ah, nice! I don't think I have any of the Phase 1 volumes
To make this post more informative, I definitely have that foot plug issue when transforming Grapple. I almost broke the peg trying to get him out of truck mode. It has definite stress marks now. I'll probably need to cut a chunk off the peg
XBL - Foreverender | 3DS FC - 1418 6696 1012 | Steam ID | LoL
Yeah I got into the 3P world a bit ago with the movie La Hire (not Hot Rod). Then I found out that even in good times they often are delayed. Heck that thing was delayed for a bit over a year. In the meantime I bought XTB's Skids and DX9's Powerglide. I even bought the YUA version of Skids since I liked the car. Yeah there are a ton of companies out there making their versions of bots. I didn't know the status of all 3 Stunticons teams but knew they were not complete yet. Heck, XTB's Gravestone (not Motormaster) was delayed a long time and redone.
I was going in on the 3P MP scene but recently I decided to curb my overspending and only focus on stuff I really want. I'm still going to oogle over photos for those I would have liked to buy, which makes it much easier.
That sucks that the helmet doesn't fit. It sure looks like it should.
Steam: betsuni7
I don't know anything about 3d printing, but I have to assume if they're working from a digital file they might be able to increase the width
Steam / Origin & Wii U: Heatwave111 / FC: 4227-1965-3206 / Battle.net: Heatwave#11356
Yes, I measured the head and added what I thought was enough extra to put the helmet on. Unfortunately, It's hard to know without seeing the helmet. I've already got another print started with more millimeters that I hope will be large enough (without being too large), but once again I won't really know without having the helmet and trying it on. Luckily, this part is relatively cheap to print.
I'm starting to think that the 3P legends scene is an extremely good alternative to MP collecting. I am really impressed with the models from Newage, and it looks like each new release is better engineered and manufactured than the last. They're still not cheap, mind you, but $30-$50 is better than $100-$150 (or $500...). The articulation seems to be on par, and the deco is not far behind (although there are more cases of visible alt mode bits, due to lack of space to store it). And, you know, you can probably have a scene of 5 bots displayed in the same space as one MP-sized bot.
Well for me I sort of like rambling about toys and long reviews/comments are much nicer to me since I tend to overthink things (Engineer mind). Is the set you are talking about that has the combiner parts included into the individual bots the same as the one they are making the new Combaticons? I saw those and thought that is really clever how they included the hands and feet into the bots. Much cooler and harder to do compared to cheating and having the hands and feet being pieces that you just stick on and leave all over the place in individual modes (sort of like the original G1 toys).
Yeah, the newer Legacy sized stuff is cool, but I have the official stuff that fills the spot I want which is a toy to fiddle with when I'm bored. Just wish it was easier to get said toys than it is... Stupid economy, greed, scalping, destroying of toy stores, etc.! I miss Toys R Us where I could walk in and have a chance of finding a toy (or even cooler was being able to go to a local toy store and getting it from them or having them order an item). Now I get to stride through aisles of clothes, food and whatever to hopefully find a toy on a peg/shelf that isn't the first wave. Either that or never seeing it because all of the scalpers or hoping that the online store doesn't sell out. Sorry, I just had to rant here for a bit.
I'm hoping that I will get the time to take some photos and share the latest two toys I have purchased. Well ok, not the latest two toys, but more recent.
Steam: betsuni7
I think the bolded sentence might be missing some words, or maybe some typoed/autocompleted words are off, but I think you're asking more about the MMC Combaticon, so I'll dump some more text here about them.
Mastermind Creations (a 3rd party company) has a couple of different lines that they release figures under (people talk about them almost like they are different sub-companies, so for all I know the creative teams are completely different). "Ocular Max" is their line of MP-scaled and -styled toys. The not-Bruticus they are working on (or "Assaultus", to use their name) is their first combiner, in the "Ocular Max" line, and has the sub-sub-line name "All Built In"; everything in that sub-sub-line will have combiner pieces incorporated into the bot modes, with no connector pieces hanging out as separate pieces. So Swindle's feet peg together into one large foot for Bruticus, Onslaught's torso hides the Bruticus crotch-skirt/chest-plate/head, and so on.
This does lead to trade-offs. I'll talk about it more when I post actual photos of the toys, but for example: the Bruticus fist is hidden in Vortex's lower legs, and is partially visible in robot mode; Onslaught's torso is disproportionately long because (1) it serves as the Bruticus torso, and (2) it has to hide all the Bruticus torso plates.
For plenty of folks (like me), this is totally fine, because the cool engineering is way worth any sculpt or scale issues (and I honestly don't even think they're particularly noticeable issues). Other folks prefer an uncompromised look, so for them this is a bad choice. Also, since the bots are roughly MP-scale, there are no separate pieces to add height to the combined mode, and there's only so much "mass-shifting" that you can do, the overall combined more ends up being... something like 18", I think? Which doesn't work for a lot of people, because it seems like MP combiners have kinda settled into the height category established by the Toyworld not-Devastator years ago (22"), and folks who value a consistent scale are turned off by this "scrawny" combiner. Of course, the Zeta Toys Bruticus achieves this height by having a stand-alone, non-transforming piece that's just a crotch and thighs. There isn't even anywhere to stick it in alt/robot mode, I think. I will agree that it definitely looks sleeker when put together, but it just doesn't excite me as much as the All Built In approach.
This sounds really frustrating. I kinda feel like shopping for that stuff online is the only sure way to guarantee getting the figure, and avoiding the endless disappointment of empty pegs at the store, but there's something irreplaceable about the experience of physically going to the store and pawing through the toys.
WoWtcg and general gaming podcast
WoWtcg and gaming website
Yeah I did a wonderful job of leaving out words thanks to me writing my post, leaving, coming back and writing more. Plus add in the phone autocorrect just made it worse. But luckily you got the gist of my question and yes it is MMC's Bruticus that I'm thinking of. I appreciate the not partsforming transformations even at the cost of looks. But I just don't have the room to fit a 3P combiner so luckily others do and I can live vicariously through them. Plus now that I know you are purchasing them I can ask you all the questions about it!
Yeah I just got frustrated this weekend when pre-ordering a bunch of Transformers and Star Wars stuff online. Luckily most of it was from online stores but I just miss the days when you could see it in person and decide if you wanted it or not plus the ability to leave and come back another day to buy it later. But yeah those days are gone and I appreciate that I can at least pre-order most of what I want.
Steam: betsuni7
Here's something cute, my dad collects Hot Wheels and sends me one's he thinks I'll like.
Swipe for the second
Steam: betsuni7
My dad also got me a Black Panther themed truck but I opened it already haha
I spent a bunch of time ruminating on which of them appeal to me the most. It seems like my considerations ended up crystallizing into several categories, so I'll list it here the same way.
Limb Bots
Frankly, I think they all look good-to-great. X-Transbots has all of them out, FansToys has one, and DX9 has two, so we can't do a 100% one-to-one-to-one assessment, but let's work with what we've got.
- FansToys' Breakdown looks great. The only negative thing I can say about him is that he has a very flat butt, which looks a bit off. Otherwise: pretty toy, both modes look good, transformation looks good. Their Wildrider looks good in photos, but we can't say much yet.
- DX9 has Wildrider and Breakdown out. Both look great in robot mode head-on, but turn them sideways and they are both kinda flat and thin. Wildrider looks almost like a cardboard cutout. Otherwise, everything's fine.
- X-Transbots's figures are a little smaller than the other two companies', and their Breakdown is the only one that isn't white, but a sort of pearlescent beige. It's an interesting choice, and I kinda wonder if a pure white plastic is more expensive, or if this was deliberate. It looks a little odd, but doesn't really bother me personally. What does bother me are the multiple QC/plastic quality issues that seem to be widespread. Transparent plastic parts snapping, parts cracking. My understanding is that this is synonymous with "X-Transbots". Dragstrip in particular seems to be problematic, because the... roll-cage, I guess maybe? that's behind the driver's head breaks off easily, and one (both?) of the arms seem to crack at the shoulder as a matter of course. On the other hand, these limb bots are considerably cheaper than the other companies'. I heard somewhere that XTB's toys were either getting KO'd or were about to be KO'd, and they intentionally priced these guys so low in order to undercut the knockoffs - and apparently it worked. Overall, I think all of them look great, except for Dragstrip, who I think looks mediocre at best (and has some transformation issues to boot), but also I think the only good third party Dragstrip has been the Transformission one from forever ago. For whatever reason, I really like how their Deathwish looks in alt mode (maybe I'll like the one from the other two companies, we'll see).
Based on all this, I'm interested in DX9 the least.
Motormaster + trailer
All three Motormasters (but not all three trailers) are out, so we can compare pretty directly.
- X-Transbots' Motormaster is just the truck cab by itself. It's a bit more stylized than the others, with a thicker (and less realistic) truck rear and using purple paint instead of silver on parts like the grille, mirrors, smokestacks. To be perfectly honest, I think this guy is beautiful, more so than the other Motormaster alt modes. Probably because I like purple. The robot mode looks quite good and clean, although it has a big (but sleek) backpack. The biggest concern is plastic quality - the upper and lower torsos are connected using a hinge of relatively soft plastic that is already showing stress marks for lots of people. The two parts are held together using a clip of that same plastic, which - again, for many people - has already become so loose that it doesn't actually clip in. I think this one is probably my favorite-looking of the two, but that plastic... oof, that plastic is scary.
The trailer will be sold separately at a later date, and will contain all the parts necessary for combination. This is actually another nice cost-saving thing for collectors: if you don't care about the combined mode, and just want to display the Stunticons in robot mode (or alt mode, and don't mind the missing trailer), you can save some more money by just not getting the trailer.
- DX9's Motormaster is the cab plus the first ~1/4 of the trailer. There's no way to detach the trailer and still get something that looks reasonable - the quarter-trailer is just hanging out, with Motormaster's inverted torso inside. Motormaster himself looks fine, definitely the sleekest one (no backpack whatsoever), but there are a few transformation shortcuts that don't thrill me (like unfolding small fake cab pieces from the actual large cab pieces to make feet; if you look closely, you'll see that it's just a tiny cab in front of a larger cab, you can't unsee it). Probably the easiest of the three to transform back and forth, though.
The trailer, oof. The trailer is as long as the 2020 day is ridiculous. The trailer alone is actually longer than a FansToys Motormaster + trailer. Doesn't bother some, looks goofy to me.
- FansToys, fuckin' bow down to FansToys. They released Motormaster as their first Stunticon, which is the most confident statement of intent I've ever seen - everyone else always leaves the torso-bot for last, or at least somewhere in the middle. The other thing that's amazing about this figure is that the trailer is completely integrated into the model. The cab transforms into the feet, part of the trailer transforms into the legs and torso, and the rest of the trailer collapses into panels that fold up on the back into a flat and clean - but relatively bulky - backpack. The upside is the incredible feat of engineering. The downside is that the transformation has some really tricky parts (especially the cab-feet), and you do end up with parts of the robot mode that are the wrong color because they are made of grey trailer panels. This is also the only one that doesn't "cheat" the feet: the cab legitimately turns into the feet, folding down to a reasonable size, while the others have fake cab parts that slide out. Otherwise, a typically beautiful FansToys robot mode.
The price to pay is that the combiner parts will be packaged with the last limb bot, who will cost as much as Motormaster because of this. Furthermore, these parts will actually form a second trailer for Motormaster, which is... kinda crappy, in my opinion. I admire the engineering necessary to get the trailer to be part of the bot, but is it worth the cost of having a second trailer? To be clear, you can't remove Motormaster's built-in trailer without doing some modding to the toy (some folks on the TFW2005 forums have, and it seems to work fine), so you'll have Motormaster, the built-in trailer, and then the second trailer in the back.
Based on all this, I am dismissing the DX9 as my potential purchase completely. I don't like the long trailer, I certainly don't like the cab-and-quarter-trailer Motormaster, and generally I don't like the aesthetics of this guy. I think the XTB one looks the best, but I can't trust that plastic. I am in awe of the FansToys effort, and probably am willing to live with the trailer.
Combined Mode
So, initially, the DX9 combined mode was the only one that was completely obvious: the trailer unfolds into a Menasor shell that is like 80% of a complete Menasor, just has a hollow torso and some chunks missing from the arms. You fold up Motormaster into a cube and slide him into the back of the torso, and clip the limb bots onto the already-completely-functional limbs of this shell. For my sensibilities, this is garbage. I have no interest in a "combiner" that is just a big stand-alone robot that you can decorate with some optional "combiner components". This was why I dismissed the DX9 effort out of hand completely as soon as I saw it.
But then. Then I started thinking "well wait, I have no idea what the XTB and FT versions will look like". So I went looking for renders, or at least verbal descriptions, and... they're the same. A trailer that turns into a shell that you hang the other bots onto. This was kinds of heart-breaking. It sounds like XTB's version will even have shells for the arm bots that you can clip onto the arms to get a more show-accurate look. Why even have the limb bots, then! Is this even a combiner anymore!?
The sad truth is, the original G1 design of Menasor is just that: a big robot with two cars on his calves and two broken cars as shoulder/forearm guards. It's no surprise that all three companies went with this design.
So, given this last point, I'm not even sure that I want any of them. DX9 is completely out, not even in the running, but XTB and FT are still tempting for different reasons (none of which is the combined mode). The best option would be to just wait until everything is out and covered by video reviews, but by that point earlier pieces will be harder to find; some of the XTB bots are already out of stock at a lot of retailers. I probably need to make a decision soon. Ultimately, I suspect that I will get the FansToys Motormaster because I'm so impressed with the engineering. At that point, I'll see if my completionist streak will demand the rest of the toys. On the other hand, the XTB toys looks great too, and are cheaper - but will that plastic hold out?
Truly, no human being has ever had a more difficult or more impactful decision to make. Keep me in your thoughts, friends.
What sucks is that I missed out on the Hasbro Combiner Wars one a long time ago (along with Superion) but after seeing them I'm sort of glad I didn't get them. I'm hoping that they bring back the G1 version.
Steam: betsuni7
Do you mean the CW bruticus? I got the takara one because damn it I wanted a shuttle blast off! What's scale anyway? I even went so far as to get some 3P hands and feet but holy shit he cannot stand. Naturally everything is too heavy, but swindle won't stay pegged together in leg mode so he doesn't sit right on the foot and everything is a very fragile house of cards.
I'd like to get a 3P combiner just to compare because I like bruticus, he is probably my favorite combiner as well as combiner team. Problem is I just get sticker shock looking as the prices for something that may ultimately have similar issues. Physics is physics
WoWtcg and general gaming podcast
WoWtcg and gaming website
But, actually, XTB has some prototype shots floating around as well (the TFW2005 thread has them, I can link it if you want). Also, because DX9 has the leg bots and overall shell - but not the arms - out, people have been approximating by taking the DX9 shell + legs and sticking the XTB arms on (with rubberbands, etc). I've come to the conclusion that I find the G1 Menasor design extremely bland and monotonous. Just a giant dark grey torso, unbroken by any color and barely any detailing.
I can tell you how the MMC Bruticus holds up when the second legs comes out; it was originally scheduled for June, but now it'll probably be super-delayed (I'm guessing closer to the end of the year, tbh).
As for 3P Bruticuses being able to support their own weight, I don't think I've heard about any issues like that, especially since they tend to use more ratchets and have more poseability than the Takara ones, so you should be able to better pose them to distribute the weight. There are many many video reviews on YouTube for all the Bruticuses, so you can see what the people who have them in hand think. Of course, all this stability comes at a cost of several hundred dollars more.
Sorry, I meant to say I partially wish I bought the CW Menasor. I got the US Bruticus parts (and eventually the Shuttle Blast Off since yeah I agree, Blast Off is a SHUTTLE). Yeah the combiners ability to stand really sucks for some of them... Ok all of them. I have Defensor (bought Groove as a bike since yeah same as Bruticus), Bruticus, Hodgepodge of Inferno and Sky Lynx's limbs, the Autobot Female Bots (no not the Victorion, but the Elita-1 team), and Liokaiser (because I wanted Sky Lynx but refused to pay scalper prices). I originally only wanted Defensor (because I have the Japanese G1 team) and Bruticus since I always wanted him as a kid. The others I got just because they looked cool and I wanted toys... Now I think I'd sell off the other teams and just keep the two I wanted. Sadly all of them are standing combined and leaning against the wall to stand up.
Fake Edit: Oh yeah and I have Devastator because yeah, it is Devastator! Even bought the Comic Con Exclusive version for the shiny purple.
Edit: Oh and the Dinobots, but I don't count them as a combiner set and actually left them separated since they are not a combiner in my head!
Edit 2:
Yeah, I saw the prototype shots, but I meant as fan photos in the 3P Masterpiece Appreciation thread. Sorry, my limited attention span on my phone haunting me again.
Steam: betsuni7
Figma Mordred (from Fate/Apocrypha) with Causal clothes is being released! So naturally I pre-ordered her.
She looks so friggin' cool with that jacket!
Also MHA's Uraraka is getting a figma as well I guess.
Too bad I don't a shit about her character, as it does look sorta neat.
Hoping Mina gets a figma as well, as she's my real fav from that show. Although Gamma suit Deku, Lemillion and Cel shaded All Might would also be cool.
Still haven't opened my parcels from the past few months.
So far I need to open Figma Rider of Black, Figma Mercy and Pharah, Figma Fate/GO Male protagonist, MP Bumblebee V2, Blackarachnia, and MP Hound.
Wouldn't surprise me if Hound has disintegrated in his parcel by now. I just no longer give a shit about it. But if Takara rereleases it with better plastic/and the G1 Toy colours I'll get it.
Worried about MP Tigatron. Looks cool, but it feels like a high chance of bad plastic, given how Hound ended up. Actually feels like a high chance for all future MPs until proven otherwise.
Arcee was close to being good, but the weird chestpiece, collar and giraffe neck look way too weird. Plus the face isn't even cartoon accurate.
Steam / Origin & Wii U: Heatwave111 / FC: 4227-1965-3206 / Battle.net: Heatwave#11356
I like your newest figure. A female character that isn't sexualized for once (well overly).
Steam: betsuni7