If it works, I don't mind. Curious to see how Ironhide will turn out. On one hand, I'll be able to get a Classics Ironhide without having to hunt down a Universe one. On the other... He's going to be a repaint of Offroad. Like I said, if it works. However, I do feel the combiner peg chest will kinda kill a lot of the non-combiner figures. Especially those who have prominent chest designs.... Like Ironhide's window chest...
I'm actually pleasantly surprised with how they're working with it. Yeah, it's kind of cheating, but I don't think they can afford to spend so much money on new molds for every new combiner. As for the characters like Optimus, Prowl, and Cyclonus in Combiner Wars, I like them, but would rather save up for the Classics/Universe/Generations versions.
The new characters don't float my G1 boat, but I can understand not wanting to put 2 of the same exact mold in one wave/combiner. I am happy that Hasbro (thus far) is giving us the original member later as an exclusive. I would take more issue with it if Hasbro wasn't doing re-tooling/new heads on them. The fact that G1 scramble city combiners were all basically extend legs a bit, jam head of figure in socket, rinse, repeat with different shell, this is a line that I think it works well enough for. Hasbro has really upped their game with retooling on many of these figures.
I own Universe 2.0 Cyclonus and really don't mind buying CW Cyclonus. I'll just make CW the official one and make Universe 2.0 version "his armada". xp
This is my logic for wanting the upcoming Masquerade guys, really. I never got Universe Ironhide and he seems terrible anyway, I also got an ugly sticky paint Prowl, and I never got Universe Sunstreaker or Classics Mirage. As far as I'm concerned, this gives me a chance to get a bunch of classic Autobots that I never had in my collection with the bonus ability to combine. Oh, and yeah, same logic for Cyclonus-- never got the Universe version, plus I like the bulk and vehicle mode of the CW one anyway, so win-win.
As has probably been said over and over in this thread... good feats of engineering/maximizing the investment cost for the mold designs, but at some point the bean counters took over and it's just gone completely out of hand. I mean instead of speculating how awesome combiner x will be, we're sitting here dissecting which current or incoming bot/mold will be repurposed into limb/torso of blah. Or keeping track of how many remolds each mold has to see if there is a "pattern" for upcoming potential releases Or debating if such and such was a premold or a remold of something or other.
It feels like there are an awful lot of reuses this time around. Granted they're at minimum getting new heads, and a lot are mere rumor so far, but it seems like just about every mold is getting 2-3 (or more) uses. And then the 'fan built' combiner is also just repaints. Doesn't help there are a LOT of cars and planes floating around, which are already common as it is.
as i've stated before.. i don't mind the retooling and repainting, just as long as other aspects get more attention.. but they haven't, and that sucks. i mean.. we're getting so many retools and repaints that i'd hope they'd be able to spring and give us something like a predaking. also.. i would love to see a devastator that actually fits in with the rest of the line, but i doubt that'll happen. i really think these things should've been given proper hands and feet.. feet with some articulation. with all of the retools and repaints, you'd think they could afford to give us a nice set of hands and feet.
This, I like to think of it just like us humans. There are thousands of people out there who look just like me. Albiet we all have small differences, but similar none the less. If Prowl and Smokescreen are only differentiated by colors I'll buy it. I guess I'm a guy that as long as there is an in-universe explanation I'm happy with it. I also like that Hasbro reuses base molds to that way the saved money can used to make even more figures (even if they are using the same mold.) This year and next year we are getting. (I've only included figures we know are coming eitherby official or listings. -Optimus Motormaster White Optimus -Ironhide Ratchet First Aid Offroad (possibly Swindle And a technobot.) Maybe even Trailbreaker too. -Dead End Streetwise Prowl Smokescreen Brakeneck -Firefly Skydive Air Raid Quickslinger (Possibly Strafe.) -Alpha Bravo Blades Vortex -Breakdown Sunstreakor (Possibly Lightspeed.) ??? -Rook (Possibly Brawl.) (Possibly Nosecone.) -Mirage Dragstrip -Silverbolt Cyclonus (Possibly Scattershot.) -HotSpot Onslaught -Megatron Armada Megatron -Thundercracker Starscream -Powerglide Viper -Warpath -Groove (Possibly Afterburner.) (Possibly Wreckgar.) -Rewind (Possibly Eject.) -Stripes (Possibly Ravage.) -Shockwave -Bombshell -ChopShop -Wheeljack. I'm SO fine with mold reuse.
Yeah, Streetwise and First Aid for example are almost completely remolded from Dead End and Off Road. They share a transformation, but almost all of the parts are brand new. I don't mind, because it is very reminiscent of the original Combiner toys where most of them transformed in the same way, but just had different looking bodies.
I'm very much sticking to the original combiner characters (like Silverbolt) and selected new characters (like Alpha Bravo). If I already have a CHUG figure of a non-combiner character being released in CW I'll proberbly avoid it (like Optimus Prime or Cyclonus) unless I feel it's an improvement over the original (like Ultra Magnus).
The only thing out of hand is were almost five months into the year and most of us still can't find this stuff on shelves. So mold re use and characters are quite irrelevant
Rather than getting fifteen new molds out of three Gestalts, we got twelve. Mold reuse doesn't seem "out of hand" to me. The rest of the remolds like Op and Cylonus are line-padding fluff, which has existed since time immemorial. Peeps need to get off the complain train.
I had my mind set on not getting CW Cyclonus because I have the Universe 2.0 release and the Henkei release. But this idea changes eveything. I had never really thought of that. Especially since I have Energon Galvatron as my Classics Galvatron. That would be a better progression down in size From Galvatron to Cyclonus to his Armada to Scourge and then the Sweeps.
Now that Botcon reveals have been made and additional redecos of other characters (Wheeljack, Hound, Sunstreaker), I am actually preferring the Classics over these. That Wheeljack is just so Goddamned awful looking!!!
