Eh. I see Sunbow as an offshoot of the Siege continuity if we’re being metafictional about it.

If you think of Siege as a continuity family that includes IDW and Netflix, I’m fine with considering Sunbow part of the same substrain.

Take Siege Starscream. The figure is a figure of Netflix Starscream. It’s a figure of IDW 2019 Starscream. I think it’s also a Sunbow Starscream figure.

I think Jetfire’s faction flip is entirely for Sunbow reasons. Same as Seaspray having an arm tattoo of his mermaid girlfriend’s name.

 

Either way, how about part 2?

 

I think this is the best way to look at it. Siege is built to work as a vague prequel to Sunbow, as well as a brand new thing for anyone who is interested.

Consider the original Diaclone figures, as a comparison. The Diaclone figures were made to be part of their little separate continuities, and the G1 line then took their appearances and used them in a new canon (the show & comics). A Cassette Man figure is thus two things: a Japanese robot meant to fit into Micro Change, and a Decepticon named Soundwave.

With Siege, these figures are all designed to fit as closely into G1 as possible, but they also have inspired new continuities. I think if this wasn't the case, they wouldn't go so far out of their way to make every robot mode look almost exactly like the G1 designs. Remember, this is a line designed to coincide with a big anniversary.

The entire point of WFC is they can take these classic characters and make *BRAND NEW* toys with them that look the same in robot mode but different in their alt modes. The whole pitch is "Before they came to Earth, Optimus/Bumblebee/Starscream were on Cybertron and looked LIKE THIS!" It's clearly playing into a gap in G1 canon that's never been filled in, and any inconsistencies are just caused by creative exaggerations. My point is that people using these as G1 toys aren't in the wrong. Frankly, when I get these I never think "Wow, look at this figure of G1 Starscream but from a slightly different universe!" It's just Starscream to me.

 

Also, the Ghostbusters crossover comic apparently has it so that no Decepticons came to earth so I’m betting while the robot modes are cartoon accurate (no 5mm peg ports like the main IDW book), their vehicle modes will probably look like if Floro Dery drew the Siege vehicle modes. So I bet the Decepticons in this line will look just right next to Ectotron minus a little spare kibble.

 

Honestly, I wouldn't be shocked if the Netflix series tried to subtly be a G1 prequel somehow, in the same way, that Beast Wars was a subtle sequel to G1 (well, not by the end but still). It would take a lot of restraint to not have certain characters cross paths, but I bet it would be tempting.

Hey, it just occurred to me that if all these designs were the way that the Transformers were on the Arc, then is this technically a Beast Wars line too?

 

I think that’s possible. I don’t expect it to line up with every G1 flashback episode though because those didn’t even line up with one another. Megatron made the Constructicons into Decepticons for example but the Constructicons (wearing Decepticon symbols) created Megatron.

I am cautious, though, after Prime Wars. What was weird there was that they could have fit Sunbow with a few stray lines of dialogue added. They had some dialogue that alluded to it.

But then you have post-Earth TFs who have never seen combiner teams before and a non-Brit Perceptor. (Wheaton did one of the better acted performances though!)

So I’m also cautiously preparing myself for the possibility that Netflix Ironhide will have a bad Cockney accent and Sideswipe will suddenly be Australian and Prowl will be a redneck. At least Prime, Megatron, and Starscream have more or less a range of vocal sounds they stick to. Sure, Animated Prime doesn’t sound like Peter Cullen but he doesn’t sound DISTRACTINGLY like somebody trying NOT to sound like Peter Cullen. (Wouldn’t be bothered by Cockney Ironhide HORRIBLY unless they get a guy from the southern US who sounds like Cullen’s Ironhide naturally to fake a Cockney accent; TF cartoons have done that kind of thing before.)

It’s one thing if you have a different person play Hamlet and they use a natural voice. It’s another thing if they’re doing a voice just to sound unlike anybody who ever did it. If you’re gonna do a fake voice, aim close to prior versions.

 

I’ll also note that while Animated was in development, Cullen hadn’t been cast for the Bayverse and the easy favorite in Hollywood as Prime was Tom Hanks, who’s a big TF fan and Spielberg buddy. So I think Animated was aiming for a Tom Hanks adjacent take.

 

I dont think Astrotrain is part 2 but if it is then cool.

The biggest thing I want from part 2

Legends class to return I dont mind if battle masters are in part 2.

Bumblebee
Cliffjumper
Brawn
Powerglide

Would be a good start

 

I came up with two alternative ways to look at how Siege fits in with existing Sunbow canon (this is just for funsies and not based on anything official.)

The first is that Siege is the "true" history of Sunbow G1. The 80s cartoon was a poor historical recreation ("documentary") of the war and now you're getting the true recordings (Siege fiction.) Siege and Sunbow G1 can exist together with this idea but Siege can freely retcon any elements it chooses from G1 Sunbow by simply using the excuse that what you previously knew was mistaken historical records.

The other alternative is to simply say Siege is now the "True G1" canon and completely overwrites G1 Sunbow. This is a total revamp/reboot of the continuity. It's set in G1 and Sunbow has no canonical value but is obviously the inspiration for Siege.

But its just for fan funsies ideas and not based on any official word from HasTak.

 

I saw someone use Soundwave's gun extension dealie with Megatron as his shoulder barrel and it looks great. I honestly think that's what it is actually intended for.

 

What are the chances, you think, that we might get a WFC Metroplex? I think the G1 design is great and can be done better than the Generations toy. I know that's more of an undertaking that Omega Supreme even, but I think it would be good for Parts 2 or 3...

 

I'd love a Supreme Class Metroplex for the MicroMasters.

 

I think maybe about 40/60 against? My bias is saying that WfC chapter 3 is going to be Beast Wars/Unicron Trilogy themed and that the Titan will be based on those lines. I could be talking out my arse though. It feels harder to predict who the next Titan will be after Scorponok. Most of the other contenders don't feel all that compelling to me.

 

Part of me is relieved. Part of me regrets that didn't happen. It would have been hilarious.

 

The sequels are what interest me. Tom Hanks nearly played a character ripping a guy’s face off...?

I think the big case against Titan Metroplex is where you’d even pencil it in for release.

On one hand with all the Sunbow love, Metroplex is probably the most frequently seen city bot in American G1 animated form and the old figure is pretty off-model from that. You could get a jumpstart taking the Metroplex re-tooling that turned the figure into Fortress Maximus, give Metroplex parts of Maximus, and go from there.

But Scorponok hasn’t been done. I’m not sure ANY of these Titans are huge sellers. Two Commander class releases a year in place of one Titan would probably please more people unless it’s Unicron or Scorponok.

And I think I’d rather see diorama building kits anyway. Because whatever size your shelves are, the Titans are probably the wrong size for it.

 

Exactly. Putting aside price, the two drawbacks for me with the Titans (and this may be entirely personal) are: (1) space - they’re just so huge; and (2) generally, I just don’t find the alt modes that compelling. If I had Unicron, I would never keep him in planet form. Moreover, combining the two, while I have very little space to keep a giant titan robot, I have zero space to build a sprawling cityscape.

On the other hand, the commander class is a more manageable size and generally are going to be vehicle alt modes and similar configurations. I’m pretty excited for that class to expand and perhaps delve into some underutilized characters (thunderwing, Star Sabre etc as previously discussed) and potentially as new characters from the new IDW comic and Netflix series fiction.

 

This does make me wonder if they're phasing out the Titan in favour of the Commander.

 

hopefully not before we get scorponok