Let's count, shall we:
* Groove being an Arcee repaint (despite there being a criminally underused Legends-class police motorcycle mold)
* Blue Groove (odd both for the similarity to Arcee and randomness)
* Red Hot Spot (this one I understand, at least)
* Hot Spot's a crane (uh... this one, less so) and not using the, well, Hot Spot head
* Just using the Blazemaster mold at all since it's... not a popular mold, and very out of place as the only movie mold.
* Prowl and Ratchet basically being less painted reissues of their Prime figures (seriously, they're way too similar)

 

I would agree with all of those, and these three in particular are baffling to me. I've got no problem with a Legends-class, gender-swapped Groove, but making her G1 or G2-based, instead of Micromaster-based, would have made her far less similar to Arcee. Giving Streetwise and First Aid color schemes (and in particular color schemes on their heads; why not at least make their helmets white and red, respectively?) so similar to the original versions of the molds just makes them look like Ratchet and Prowl variants. And Hot Spot is such a weird mix: Grapple head and crane, but with Inferno arms, feet, and side panels. So weird. The crane still drives me bonkers. At least on Artfire it made sense because It could hold the Targetmasters (and when doing so looked more like a ladder or extending arm), but this is just... A fire engine with a crane.

I would also add:

*using the original Ratchet head when we know this mold has an alternate head sculpt that has never been released, and for which this set would have been the perfect venue.

 

The gray crane instead of the water cannon makes him look even more like Hosehead. He is totally gonna be my Classics Hosehead.

 

Wait a minute, I've suddenly realized. Wasn't Hotspot blue?

 

You don't say!

No, seriously, his unreleased G2 re-release would have been red.

His Guard City redeco "Fire Chief" was also partially red.

 

My sets arrived about 10 minutes ago. Will be opening them after I've been away for the monthly "big shop".

As people have speculated the sets are 16 & 17 of 30 - Evac Quad is 16 and Emergency Response is 17.

Once open I'll be able to confirm if First Aid has the same dodgy knees as Cannonball did.

 

i saw that the three protoctobot package was listed on Amazon.

does anyone have a link for the two protectobot package for amazon or is it not being carried by amazon?

I searched protectobots, kid asia, etc and no dice.

 

So far, no one has been able to find it...

 

And it's good news. First Aid's knees are fine.

However mine seems to be a little loose and they have a strange soft-wiggle to them. Stands fine and looks OK, but the wiggle is a bit worrying. It's probably just mold degradation though.

 

Agreed, they could have gone above and beyond with these Protectobots but instead they are amongst the absolute laziest of Transformers repaints.

You know that's actually not a half-bad fit.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ILA28MO

 

Awesome, thank you. Don't know if I need the 3-pack, but the two pack is now ordered, along with some Lipton tea to push my order into the free shipping range.

 

Hosehead is a pretty smart choice given Nightbeat's recent release and there's that Takara could've-been Siren floating around too.

Still. I'm thinking Red Hot, Stakeout and Fixit...

 

Thanks got one. No need for the helicopter though. Oh well. No desire in the three-pack either.

 

Ha, I ordered the tea as well.  

MIKE
engledogg

 

Is it me or the figures pictured on page 26 are completely different toys than what is being offered by Amazon, is there two different sets coming out this year? Or did I miss something completely?

 

This is a fan-photoshop of 2015 Generations Combiner Wars toys if that's the difference you're comparing

 

oh, gotcha. I think I was mistaking them for the upcoming gesault basic figures. My bad everyone.

 

Anyone getting these and do not want the hotspot and or groove please message me. I will gladly trade in your favor for these. Woulds actually like to get 2 of the hotspots.

 

Every time we get that Inferno mold as something new, it irks me just a little bit more that it isn't a LSOTW style Pyro. Slap the GDO HotSpot head on there and differ the paintjob and it should be more than enough to differentiate it from the Botcon release.