The thing that's fun to me is that they gave deluxe Primal a more interesting interaction w/the leader (space ship, bridge of the leader jet mode(?), ape weapons, surfboard, Primal attachment) than Rodimus/Optimus got because they weren't being slavish to the older media. We'll see how the final execution of it goes, but it looks like so much fun. I could see, if they did Star Saber and Deathsaurus in this line, that Star Saber would be fine and good and Deathsaurus would be totally dope because the deluxe/leader interaction could be ANYTHING!

 

Don't forget that robot mode Primal will have a big mecha gorilla buddy.

 

I won't disagree with the breadth of characters offered by G1, but I think you misunderstand what I imply when I say "G1 flavor", which admittedly is a vague metaphorical statement. I'm referring to the style of character and mech design, with the blocky, rectangular aesthetics of those simple 1980s toys. All of your "flavors" share that. And while they do draw on a wide array of characters (which we have seen before), we're also inundated with the Big 4 (OP, BB, Megs, Scream) in every line, in every size class. CW Voyager Prime, CW Ultra Prime, TR PMOP, TR Voyager Prime, TR Orion Pax...

I guess my actual complaint is that the brand has lost its ability of total reinvention, and is instead only focusing on refinement and reincarnation. I don't think we're ever going to get the kind of new ideas we got from Beast Wars, Car Robots, the Unicron Trilogy, or Animated again. RiD's nice enough, but it's really a half-commitment to being new. "Maybe the kids won't like the new beast-vehicles... at least we still have Prime and Bumblebee to sell! Buy all 15 versions of them! Don't even bother looking for figures of the new characters!" I think it's because Hasbro used to have to reinvent themselves for each iteration of the brand, they were pressured into creating new and fresh product because they were serving kids who wanted something new. But now Transformers is more than a household name, it's a pop-culture mainstay, and they can ease back and sell a "legacy" to collectors who want an increasingly-long list of G1 characters revamped.

I'm just tired of legacy product.

 

I've seen one none G1 character and that's if you ignore the actual fiction he's from.

 

Just curious, about how many people turned out for the awards dinner?

I have always attended the Botcon dinners/special events, but at $212 per person, I couldn't afford to take my fanmily of 4 to a $848 dinner.

Did Mark Wahlberg show up for very long? Did he have much to say? We saw 8 minutes of him at the Last Knight panel, and he really didn't talk to the audience.

 

Munkey, not back to the future hoverboard.

 

I talked to a clerk at the collector store I go to about Optimal Optimus and man was he surprised.

 

I'm not super familiar with Beast Wars. Like, I know the basics of the general story and such.

So I'm a bit confused here. Optimus Primal turns into a bot, an ape AND a spaceship? Because that's a heckuva lot cooler than I've ever given the guy credit for or is the spaceship mode a new addition? I always thought he was a bot and monkey only.

And that Moonracer is to love.

 

Yay, Optimus Primal!

 

Optimus Primal is a robot and gorilla, his upgraded form, Optimal Optimus, is a robot, gorilla, "spaceship", and "car".
this one seems to switch Primals' gorilla mode with a spaceship/hoverboard.

 

Oh, okay, thanks. Yeah, now I get the hoverboard jokes now at least. I guess now I know why I thought people were calling the same figure two different names over the years too. Optimus Primal and Optimal Optimus are two different figures but the same guy.

I really need to watch Beast Wars and it's sequels and not just read about it in summary. It makes no sense since the series is so available to watch and it's the only TF series that I haven't at least sampled or watched halfway through.

 

To expand a bit:

Oprimus Primal had three forms during the run of Beast Wars.

The first was a robot that transformed into an organic looking gorilla. The robot mode was pretty heavily armed, wit twin swards and arm mounted blasters.

The second (Transmetal) was robot with organic components with a technoorganic gorilla alt mode. The alt had a flip out panels on its legs that could form a hoverboard for the gorilla.

The third (Optimal Optimus) was a bulky robot that had three alts - a mech lookng gorilla, a 'jet' and an 'armoured transport'.

This PotP Leader seems to be homaging all three forms in one figure.

The combined mode looks like Optimal Optimus, and has the robot , mech-gorilla, 'jet' and ground vehicle modes.
This can separate into a core robot that resembles Primal's first robot mode, with the armour transforming into a gorilla.
The core robot can transform into a spaceship alt that can be ridden as an alt by the gorilla, similar to to the transmetal version of Primal

This is somewhat awesome, in a way.

 

This post needs pics.

 

Yeah, my mind went loop de loops just reading that but in a good way. Guess I'll be adding this to my "get list." lol.

 

I second that.

 

Long story short:

 

Maybe not so much the sequels....Beast Machines was something that I was interested in seeing after my kids went thru the whole Beast Wars, it was pretty unwatchable.

 

From what I know of Beast Wars, doesn't the story get better as i̶t̶ ̶t̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶f̶i̶x̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶s̶s̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶i̶n̶c̶o̶n̶s̶i̶s̶t̶e̶n̶c̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶d̶e̶c̶i̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶e̶t̶r̶o̶a̶c̶t̶i̶v̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶t̶i̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶G̶1̶ it gets really creative and more bold? I've heard it both ways. Beast Wars is the business but Beast Machines is ehhhh and vice versa. I think the thing that always kept me from getting into it was the bad CGI animation at the time. I'm not (as much of) a animation snob as I was when I was younger so I can deal better but back then, all I could see was the bad textures and weak moving animation. "But it won awards." Yeaaaaahhh, well...  

Do you have both girls and boys? My two girls are picky when it comes to which Transformers they take to but the boy, he likes any TF series.

They all like Gatchaman and Voltron tho'. They're in agreement there.