I should mention that there is something good coming from it. The firetruck looks really good thanks to the ass kibble. So I can kinda see the sacrifice
Blitzwing: "What sacrifice?"    

But I don't see your point why copying the cyberverse would be an increased engineering effort  

The transformation is fun. Reminds me a little of Optimus. It was late yesterday, so whoever wants to know or doesn't see it on their own:

Spoiler warning. Continue reading at your own risk (I couldn't get the spoiler feature to work.. sorry. Maybe some admin can fix?)

1) take off the swords on either side of the truck

2) flip the windscreen down via the hinge between the legs. Flip the water hose back

3) fold the legs plus truck back kibble down. Rotate both legs 180 at their knee joints and collapse the truck kibble below and behind the lower legs

4) rotate the windshield to the back and rest it on his butt

5) rotate the head and neck section up into place (you can see the hinge for this behind the rear mirrors)

Cool part:

6) flip the sides of the cabin in towards the chest

7) fold the rest of the truck (the sides of the truck above the swords minus the small back parts) around sentinels shoulders and clip the faut chest pieces in on the chest (onto the pieces from step 6))

8) fold the backpack down and spread the cape

Let me know if you need pictures for clarification

 

No. Nothing.

The Silver paint job's cool, but some painted parts are prone to scratching if not done carefully, even though it's completely inevitable.

 

Plus every scratch will make this figure look better!  

 

Shockwave with two cannons!

Because having two cannons is way better than having two heads!

 

Yeah, I was mistransformed; I'm too tall in robot mode for my house so I keep my legs in car form and roll around on my wheels.

Jazz was correctly transformed, though.

 

But if I get it........I've got it!

We don't need another Constructicon, but if we have it...

that way, we'll have it!

 

3000 posts!
Here's the first wave of Studio Series, the line that made me postpone my slow down from collecting plan and made me go "buy almost everything!" (and for the first year, I totally did, sans exclusives! Distribution issues locally put a stopper to that in the 2nd year sadly)

 

Decepticons Attack,!!!

 

6 down two to go

 

I don't know the first thing about toy engineering so I might be totally off on my assessment here. Maybe Hasbro didn't try hard enough and just gave up incorporated the shield into the vehicle mode. Maybe it wouldn't have added to the cost that much. It's hard to understand their design process.

But, considering what we see/know of the transformation, utilizing the sword into the vehicle mode is basically the same as the Cyberverse toy. While the Cyberverse incorporated the shield, it was the sword that just plugged into the bottom of the truck mode. There was no way to incorporate both weapons into the vehicle mode.

The case is similar for the new voyager. With the sword making up the sides of the truck there might not have been anymore room to fit a shield in. Whether on the top or the bottom of the vehicle mode.

I'll say too that despite the sacrifices of the shield, Sentinel probably pushes the limit of what they can do in the price point because
a.) he's slathered in paint (not accurate paint mind you but paint nonetheless)
b.) it looks like he's got a ton of articulation that doesn't necessarily factor into the transformation (I would think that including any joint that doesn't serve a purpose in the transformation adds some variable of cost into the final product for Hasbro)
c.) it also looks like he'll be a fairly large voyager too (probably not 2007 or ROTF Megatron big but he'll be a little bit taller and bulkier than Prime for sure)

For him to include all that and have a shield, it's pushing the boundaries of what Hasbro can do.

As you and others have mentioned, the transformation looks fun and the figure pulls off all the different modes very well. It's a shame we didn't get all of his accessories from the film but at least 3rd party companies exist.

 

Team Decepticon 2007

 

EBAY. I found one MISB but the box was damaged. It was $40 shipped. Which would be close to buying it off TFsource or BBTS.

 

We will see who the better Bounty Hunter is.

 

Gonna be honest, seeing this photo of Devil Savior Devastator



Immediately makes me think of Hatchet



I need a Studio Series figure of him so bad!

 

I totally can make sense of the budget argument.

The swords on the side would've been too small to pull off in cyberverse scale, I think. That's all.

This!!!