they might have been shooting for a great idea, but the execution (seemingly fairly overwhelmingly so) is botched; when about the nicest things most folks are saing is “it’s not that bad” or “I can ignore it” you haven’t exactly knocked it out of the park.

I’d much rather see that budget have gone to more ACTUAL paint apps on the figures or including more of those Blast effects, which I’m really like if the look of and it’s a shame only come with the Battlemasters (seems like conceptually the Micromasters and Weaponizers at the very least should include them)

 

Ive kinda scrapped the whole "Cybertronian" mode idea in my mind for this line because half of the Autobots are basically futuristic Earth mode cars. They didnt give us the Tron alt modes most of us were expecting. And besides, im not going to display them in alt mode anyways. Ill just simply mix them in with pieces from every other CHUG line based on the cartoon seasons casts. But year hopefully we get a 3rd party fix for that fusion cannon that works for both modes.

 

I'd buy him if only he had a neck. It wouldn't need to be a massive, giraffe neck, but right now his proportions are off so that he looks to me like a cartoon character who's been hit with a mallet so hard that his spine's been compacted.

 

They did indeed state that was a deliberate decision to not do something like this because that would alienate current day kids:



Imagine if we'd have an entire line like that - Personally, I can see the logic in that being quite a challenge to sell to all consumer audiences.
Personally, I think they struck quite a sweet spot compromise with what we're getting, as I'd probably grow a bit tired of all-out ambiguous space vehicles.
That's why I sorta dig the FoC line, but I can't tolerate too much of it.

 

I think it was a crappy decision. I would love to have seen the whole line like those images. Or at least like the WFC (video game) line which did quite well. These are 35 year old characters that only grown men give a crap about. Hasbro corporate has their head stuck up their ass when it comes to "kids" who now a days prefer smart phones and video games to action figures. I think G1 alt modes would have sold just fine to anybody whose going to buy CHUG figures regardless of their age. How many "kids" do you thing Hasbro interviews before they create a line ? Ive never seen a buyer survey included with a figure I purchased. Ive also never been asked by any retailer to disclose my age (or the age of the intended gift recipient) when purchasing a toy. Half of CHUG figures made get bought by collectors. Maybe another 25% end up in scalpers basements or online retailers warehouses. Maybe the remaining 25% of the figures are actually purchased by/for kids and are actually "played" with. Bit Hasbro is blind. To them every unit sold is assumed to be bought by some happy kid when they make these decisions. (Even the figures that still remain MISB for the last 5 years) Hasbro is good at what they do engineering wise, but they need to do a better job identifying their true fanbase and get their head out their ass. Maybe Hascon didnt do as well as they thought it would or it would be a yearly event. How many kids from far other states really showed up to a toy convention ? Toy conventions are for man-children. (Like myself and most people who post here) Kids who still play with conventional toys just go to toy stores.

 

After looking at these pics more. It looks like Megatron spent the day in his art studio than in war. Silver on gray doesn’t look good, especially when it’s more like blots than scarring. Me thinks some dry brushing with gunmetal or black will do wonders. 

 

Several occassions I gave Xmas TF gifts to my little nephews ; and I know they gravitate towards anything with wheels which clearly identify as wheels.
Heck, one of them refered to TR Blurr as "That robot I want - the one who turns into a jet".

Also, don't forget, in many cases it's parents, grandparents and uncles/aunties buying these toys for the kids. I'm sure proper market research has proven
their purchasing choices gravitate towards TF's with altmodes which can be identified to a certain extent.

 

Im not by any means saying kids dont play with action figures. Im just saying if you give them a choice between an action figure or a really cool electronic toy, 4 out of 5 kids will go for the gadget, be it a smart phone, RC drone or car, video game or something more in touch with the times. Granted a kid might get action figures shoved down their throat by their collector parent and they might love them. But I dont think kids are just born wanting a G1 style Moonracer. Its like me wanting to play with a 1950s tin toy when I was a kid in the 80s.

 

I think the product competition between these 2 categories is a seperate discussion.

I mean, if the physical toys were really at risk of extinction, then Star Wars figs and Lego's wouldn't survive anymore either by now.
The majority of mainline Generations without any integrated electromic gimmicks have proven themselves to sell plenty well enough.

Let's have this hypothesis. Hasbro decides to sell 2 packaging variants of Siege Optimus Prime;
- one, packaged in truckmode
- the other, packaged in truckmode with hover mode enabled ( basically, with the wheels flipped over and occluded from sight )

Guess which one is likely to sell more of ?



* On topic about this Siege Megatron ; if you look closely at the sculpting of his Fusion cannon, you should be able to see detail which is
made to look like the commander's hatch from a tank turret. So yeah, it's really not a random design choice.

About the tin toys. I dunno.... I'm from 78 and I was happy enough to play with tin toys like these: https://tinyurl.com/y6uk8pyy

 

Thank you @Sol Fury for the review and fantastic photo gallery!

I can't wait to get this guy in hand.

As far as his not being a gun...US law limits toys looking like guns. It doesn't matter if it's dumb kids, overzealous or politicians, or triggerhappy cops. Honestly, it makes more sense from a marketing standpoint for Megatron to not be a gun, but adults today will be less likely to buy them for children. The fact that G1 Megatron is actually rather silly and stupid. It literally makes no sense for a bot to have an alt mode that requires someone else to handle it. A tank has become the logical replacement to the gun mode, and that is acceptable to me.

The "submarine and space cruiser" modes are Hasbro's attempts at giving G1 fans what they want while bypassing the strict US toy laws. I honestly don't understand collectors complaining about that.

If you want a more G1 like figure, get the MP. This is a toy, meant for children, designed with fans and collectors at heart. It looks great and I will buy it, perhaps twice to mod that sweet secondary gun of his. I am sorry, but I cannot understand complaining about this figure's tank mode when Takara has already given collectors the MP Megatron as a gun. A CHUG collection is made up primarily of Hasbro mass release toys...expect compromises, and be thankful they throw us Gwunners a bone occassionally by sneaking in these sub modes.

Side note, I am willing to bet we will see replacement Fusion Cannons on Shapeways and possibly by Dr Wu and Nonnef once these hit mass retail.

 

Havent Hasbro avoided alt mode packaging for some time now? I think the goal is to market the alt mode first. I agree the truck would sell better than the hover truck (assuming kids were the only buyers) But then again, are they looking to play with a robot or roll around a truck ? What are the in it for most ? Also lm along the lines of putting small wheels under the bottom of the hover truck so it can roll. Would visual wheels sell a kid more than an adult ? Probally. But whos actually buying Generations toys is debatable to begin with. I would have said TF Prime and RID are more suited for kids who like the concept but dont have any attachment to 35 year old incarnations of namesake characters. But with cyberverse they really engineered the toys to a 5 year old level that older "kids" wont appreciate. So now its like a 7 year old kid who doesnt want a baby engineered toy only has 2 choices Generations or Studio Series. One line is geared towards 40 year olds tastes but "encouraged" for kids to ennoy. The other line is geared towards a more modern incarnation of Transformers, but the engineering is done at an adult level. So while both lines are marketed (AKA sugarcoated) for kids, neither of them is completely free of adult collector oriented themes in some fashion. In my opinion, Hasbro needs the adult collectors to keep the brand afloat. Kids and the cyberverse line cant do it alone. Hasbro nust wants us to think they can so everytime they do an obscure character from 30 years ago they can say they threw us man children a bone. But in reality cyberverse was Hasbros way of throwing 5 year olds a bone in the current market that is becoming more and more adult collector dominated. Brunt and Sixgun in the mainline ? Cmon now....thats not something they wouldnt have entertained 5 years ago. At least thats my opinion. On tin toys, I can only tell you they look pretty boring by 1980s standards when we had transforming robots. Lol

 

I agree on several parts of your statement, but as far as alt modes goes...these are iconic characters being released, repeatedly, for better or ill, and THAT is their selling point in package. People who buys these toys for kids may know Optimus Prime and Megatron from common media considering their pop culture status, but they may not know their alt modes. Also, bot modes, in many cases, are more streamlined for packaging. Often the figures are mistransformed to make them fit in the limited space.

I see no real issue with them being in bot mode over alt mode. Adults will recognize icon characters, and kids will most likely look at the packaging back to see the alt mode before choosing. It's pure marketing common sense if you ask me, and you gotta give kids some credit. When they are being forced to choose one toy at the store, they are going to look at the packaging to choose.

 

I like him, but I still don't know that I want my Megatron or Prime in less than Leader Class size? My biggest complaint for Galvatron was that he is so small compared to Prime, Megatron and now Rodimus Prime...

 

Can you please inspect his (and all other Siege toys) packaging with a black light.

Apparently the outer boxes have some secret message or info printed on them but those that have done it are keeping silent because they don't want to spoil the surprises.

 

Now I'm imagining an alternate reality where the Great War never happened because Megatron got an art scholarship. Instead of fighting each other on the battlefield, both sides are really vicious art critics.

 

According to TFWiki,Megatron's box says "RISE FROM THE SHADOWS" and Optimus Prime's box says "LIGHT THE DARKEST HOUR".

 

I'm digging my copy of both megs and OP but a lot of this line will be box display pieces for now.

On the subject of gun v tank, I gota say, if your Megatron, and given you can use your cannon as a makeshift thruster for transport, you actually have very little reason to transform into anything else anyway.
That said, if you did transform and had to sacrifice everything to get absolutely world shattering weaponry capability out of the alt mode (and anything less would diminish that firepower) that is not a bad compromise in that you give that power to an inferior bot who you trust to have excellent combat skills already. Worst case scenario is Megs just transforms back to robot mode if things go awry.
Additionally, the shooter is the one who gets the blame for the attack to those who don't know better and Megatron stays anonymous even while striking with all his might.

That's my reasoning anyway.

 

I think the only time Megatron's gun mode transformation has really had a justified reason for existing was the Infiltration chapter of the IDW comics. Otherwise, it just gets used because it's there and they flimsily had to advertise his toy. There was very little reason to use him as such when he could just shoot whatever down by himself.

 

No one will understand his work and The Great War will be still be waged.