When Hasbro announced the Combiner Wars line, I was excited like many fans. Seeing revamped versions of our favorite combiners from G1 like Superion, Menasor, Devastator and Defensor was nice. In addition, the designers maintained fidelity to the G1 designs and namesakes. Only creating new combiners in later waves like "Optimus Maximus" and "Sky Reign". But only with one peculiar thing...

The G1 combiners each had a new team member introduced. The aerialbots had a new member called "Alpha Bravo" a helicopter, differing from the jet/plane motif of the other aerialbots. The Stunticons had Offroad a sport utility vehicle, a break from the race cars of the others. And finally Rook was a new protectobot that replaced Groove.

The original aerialbots run replaced Slingshot with this new "alpha Bravo", the Stunticon Wildrider with "Offroad" and Protectobots' Groove with "Rook".

But some time later as the line was waning, Hasbro haphazardly decided to issue the originally missing member for each team. We got Quickslinger (Slingshot), Brake Neck (the missing Wildrider) and finally a deluxe Groove. Each one did not belong to any previous assortment and came out as either HTS or Amazon exclusives (Groove) in limited releases.

Did Hasbro originally decide to release these final 3 when they saw how successful the line was? Was it in their original plan to release the final 3 limbs later? Or was it made during the lines run. Were Offroad, Rook and Alpha Bravo permanent replacements for the original 3 limbs?

Now that the original 3 were brought back, what happens to the oddballs: Rook, Alpha and Offroad? Why did Hasbro replace them, only to bring them back?

A mystery to me...

 

All three joined their respective combiner teams in IDW. Alpha Bravo is part of Superion and Offroad is part of Menasor, replacing a member that was killed off. Rook showed up, but was also killed off. Groove is still around, but IDW uses the legends sized version.

 

To avoid releasing two of the same mold in one wave.

 

Considering the modern fiction now features the new guys as members of their Combiners, the G1 guys are technically the oddballs.

The new guys were probably released just to keep the same mold out of the same wave or maybe to add variety, at least in the case of Alpha Bravo and Off Road. Rook seems to be there either for retools or scale.

 

thank you for recapping what we already know.........

 

Just as Alpha Bravo was a pretool for Blades and repainted into Vortex.

 

Yah Groove was always an oddball out on scale. I don't have the legend but the Deluxe makes a PE$RFECT 3.3/4 scale motorcycle btw.

I like having an alternate member for each team for one simple reason... it lets you leave a favorite limbguy out and play with them WHILE still having the team in combined mode....I wish there was an Extra Combaticon so I could have Swindle get into Shenanigans while the rest are Bruticus but oh well. Thanks to TransmasterC I have offroad to go with my G2 Menasor and he often frees up a Stunticn to play with loose ( Usually Breakdown but the last week or so DragStrip)

Truth be told tho I am still catching up on CW limbs and need Blades, First Aid, AB, ( and or ANY G1 Aerial bot with a lot of white on him to be an alternate) ....and will gkladly take whatever new protectobot, Aerialbot Stunticn or combaticon they want to give us in POTPs. There's no reason those teams should be limited to 5 guys or the minimum it takes to make a combiner they seem like they should be based on team function... which is why I retroactively put say Prowl as a Protectobot anyway

 

And equally if not more useless snark helps in what manner?

 

I have these three as their own stand apart guys usually. Alpha Bravo rides around on Omega Supreme's shoulder with Chromia (I like to think he has the personality in Vangelus's review of him), Off Road is rocking an electric guitar with Scorponok's crew, though if I get brave enough, he'll ride Menasor's shoulders doing that Doof Warrior style, and Rook is in the super hero landing pose, being all poseable and awesome while rescuing people. Although at the moment, Rook is standing in for Streetwise in Defensor as I wanted my police Autobots all together.


Whatever reason they made these guys, I'm glad they did because they are such good fun.

 

Don't forget Blast Off. We are getting the G1 style shuttle soon also.

Why were they released? I think the answer is simple. To allow G1 fans who want G1 versions of the teams rather than being forced to have IDW teams. It's called having options.  

In my case I don't have any of the new guys. I'm a G1 only kind of person.

 

Alpha Bravo was an easy pass for me, but Rook was too good a figure to ignore and a legends sized Groove just made so much more sense to me in terms of scale. Rook adds some nice much needed muscle to the team too, and I modded his back piece to be a removable riot shield (like it should've been all along). He's just so, so nice.

Didn't mind jet Blast-off either for my military combaticon team, especially with the Renderform head upgrade. Tho I'll probably pick up shuttle BO too - but for Galvatronus.

Which brings me to Offroad... I debated getting him, but knew Wildrider was inevitable so passed. I regret not picking him up now, as he would've made a great 4th limb for Galvy. I'm still hoping to stumble upon a reasonably cheap one someday down the road, but I won't hold my breath

 

...Offroad is also nice to have kicking around now that Starscream is taking up spare limbs.

The 'Cons are seriously short in terms of Limb to torso ratio... no extra Combaticon ( Yet) and so far no Sweep limbs for Galvatronus...I picked up the G1 versions of Motor Master ( and silverbolt for that matter) to compliment/ allow G1 looks to my G2 Manasor and Superion sets so I have either silver or Purple motormaster, Cyclonus AND Star Scream at any give time looking to snake limbs from someone.

 

The reasoning is simple: Mold Reuse.

Let's say they did every character correctly the first time (and I am leaving out box sets):

With Superion you would have had four new jet molds. With Menasor you would have had four cars that would be new molds. Now we move to Defensor. You get a remold for Streetwise... and then three brand new molds: a Helicoptor, an ambulance, and a motorcycle. Next is Optimus Maximus. The car mold is reused again, the ambulance is remolded into a truck, and two more cars are remolded. Let's assume they stick with the remolds as they were.

Next are the Combaticons. We get a repaint of Blades, a new mold for Brawl, a new mold for Swindle, and a new mold for Blast-Off.

Then we have Sky Reign. Repaint/retool of the Stunticon car again for Wheeljack, repaint of Swindle, repaint of another Stunticon car for Smokescreen, and repaint of Ironhide.

Now, where does that leave us? Every piece of Superion, deluxe wise, is brand new. Menasor has three pieces remolded... and Wild Rider is the odd man out. Three remolds for Defensor... and Groove is odd man out. Bruticus has TWO brand new molds never being able to be used again. That is a grand total of 8 molds that are not used for general single release.

Now, I can already hear you saying "But they did that in Titans Return! A lot of characters got brand new molds that weren't reused!"

Ah, but here is the difference: Hasbro had no way to know how this line would go. This was brand new designs. THey had done combiners before with PCC and it crashed and burned in terms of pleasing fans. Suddenly you are asking them to invest a TON of money into a TON of new molds (a grand total of 14 new molds and only 6 will get repeat use! That is a HUGE gamble and a ton of money designing figures they couldn't be for sure would sell well. It could have fallen flat on their face. And they didn't dare try doing the same mold in the same wave... that would have been a disaster in the making, as general fans wouldn't want to buy the same mold twice for the same combiner (as there was no promise general fans would invest enough to get multiple combiners they would most likely just complete one or two).

So a choice is made to help with cost: Take the molds that they could do the least with and replace them with molds that were close to the originals. We reuse Blades/Vortex to make Alpha Bravo. We use Ironhide/Red Alert/Trailbreaker to make Offroad. We use Firefly to make Jet Blast off. Some they can't do... you can't make Brawl anything but a tank, for example. But the others? You can sneak them in.

Then, once it became clear people were loving the line... an experiment was decided upon. Let's make repaints of figures that would work for the missing limbs. And to avoid those clogging the shelves we do them as special releases for just the die hards.

And they sell huge.

Meanwhile, Takara takes the Blast Off Shuttle idea and makes it for their box set, as they can easily make up the cost of designing him with said box set and just using designs already made for Bruticus. And when THAT does really well... well, they wait until another combiner line comes along and BOOM! Shuttle Blast Off.

That simple.

 

Haha they released it that way for the $$$$$$ son. Everybody went ape shit when sling shot and wildrider came out and commanded higher prices by hasbro, 3Rd party sellers, and scalpers. They know we can't help ourselves. Just like right now eveybody can't wait to get that potp blast off to complete bruticus.

Mystery solved. Your welcome.

 

Off Road was originally meant to be Ruckus. Black Jack was also made a Stunticon thouhh originally it was going to be a Battlecharger.

I love G1 and am always glad when we get brand new characters like them or a character from another series is retroactively made G1.

I wouldn't mind POTP Inferno being repainted as Red Hot, First Aid as Fixit, Streetwise as Stake Out, Blades as Cybertron Evac and Sea Watch gets a new mold like deluxe Groove.

 

Alpha Bravo was basically 90% Vortex from day one. The mold didn't really work for Blades (maybe if he had the arms from the Victorion helicopters), but still got worked pretty hard. As for Slingshot, I always thought the CW Firefly mold fit him more anyhow. As for Offroad, its not completely clear who his alternate use was originally intended to be, while First Aid was made from him he was also a very heavy retool. Ironhide and Trailbreaker being made from him came much later IMO. Rook is another strange one since he never really seemed to be intended to completely replace Groove. Alpha Bravo and Offroad at least seem to take the colors of Slingshot and Wildrider, but Rook just seems like a complete bonus figure the popped out.

+-MWG-+

 

Well, I like them. I'm not fussed about the whining that accompanies ANY and all moves Hastak makes away from pure G1 as long as they make decent figures that enhance my collection and fill out the roster some more. And bitching about mold-reuse........purlease......this usually from guys with 15 seekers.

After all, had G1 continued on totally uninterrupted from 1990 in the Western World to this point who is to say these guys wouldn't simply have turned up as part of that continuum?



"Welcome to the Crew Son.......you're going to be a shin,"

 

Alpha bravo was everything a pre paint should be and more  

 

I don't mind. Alpha b makes a sweet limb for my sky reign.

 

I need to find a replacement Alpha Bravo and Offroad