This thread has got me looking at the collecting options again. I sold up the full CW/UW sets (with all the various 3rd party upgrades) before when I had clearouts.

Kicking myself for selling the last of my misb uw devastators and superions last summer though.

 

I'll chip in: Generally, I loved the line when it came out and still do. Perfect? Certainly not, but definitely good. I'll toss in my own opinions.

Superion remains the top of the class. I didn't mind Alpha Bravo at all (as you can see in my profile pic). The non-G1 members were a good way to try something new while maintaining strong connections to the source material. Great individual bots and a fantastic combined form. Powerglide was also a nice addition: extremely creative targetmaster mode that didn't compromise either the bot or plane modes.

Bruticus is second for me. Great combined form. The changes to the torso greatly improved the stability relative to Defensor. Swindle, while not cartoon accurate, was a lot of fun, and the battle humvee fits better with the theme of the group. Blastoff being a jet also makes sense, although the choice of head was puzzling. Brawl had a disappointing bot mode, but the tank and leg modes are great.

Defensor's unstable torso was the lone drawback, but it's a big one. Individual bots look great, and Rook was a nice addition. An entirely new character that doesn't look out of place. The option to get deluxe and legends sized Grooves was nice. Hotspot's ladder backpack was a bit much, but was perhaps unavoidable.

Menasor was much better as individual bots. Motormaster's robot and truck mode were fantastic - the torso, ehhhh... I'll say that the Dragstrip mold has not aged well for me. The Breakdown mold is the second worst one in the line, only behind Brawl. The Deadend one, conversely, was quite nice. I didn't mind it getting reused for Streetwise and eventually Wildrider.

The recolors were a bit much. I got (my son) Optimus Maximus but not Victorian, Computron, or the Sky Lynx one. Cyclonus stands out to me; I thought he was a really smart remold of Silverbolt. As you can sort of gather, I don't mind things deviating from the cartoon if the result looks good, and Cyclonus certainly falls into that category.

 

The new characters were annoying because everything was so G1 except for them. Like, go all in one way or the other, don't just make one random change.

And somehow these guys everyone hated go for insane amounts on the aftermarket. When I got Sky Lynx I thought Alpha Bravo and Rook would make fun limbs for him, but they were gone from shelves at that point and ebay sellers were expecting $50 for each of them.  

 

Got me there. Wasn't exactly sure of the timeline anymore, and it wasn't really important enough for me to look it up.

Vitriolic? Yes. Because I'm under no obligation to make up with toys or respect the work or effort that went into gutter trash. Precisely because they're toys I don't care enough to "fix" any issues I might have with them. My energy is better spent tackling real world problems.

Angry? No. I stopped being angry back in 2015. Not being angry is not the same as acceptance or respect however, two things I will never have for CW.

 

My favorite teams ended up mostly being the newer ones.
Grand Galvatron
Megatronia
UW Computron
Thunder Mayhem

Even Alpha Bravo and co were cool after I accepted that they were team additions and not replacements.

 

I really enjoyed Combiner Wars.

My issues were: 1) Hunting down the missing original character limbs was a bit tedious and caused me more anxiety than a hobby should, 2) I would have skipped buying the G1 Autobot cars if I knew the Siege versions were coming, 3) Breakdown/Sunstreaker hips are sooo annoying, and 4) the Technobots were robbed, I tell ya (I'm looking at you Nosecone and Lightspeed).

But, other than that, the updated versions of just about every classic combiner robot were fun, nostalgic homages to characters that had previously been bricks with faces. And it was nice to actually see new characters. So I guess I don't really "retroactively" think they were cool, because I thought they were cool then.

Oh, and I liked that there were pack-ins that preserved the box art so I didn't feel bad throwing away packaging.

I've never actually assembled any of my combiners, so I can't really speak to the quality of the combined modes.

 

You have a wonderful way of just radiating negativity. It must truly be horrible to feel like you do.

 

Combiner Wars was awesome. I was winding down collecting Transformers at the time and that really got me drawn back in.

I thought the aesthetics were mostly good - a blend between G1 accuracy and more modernized design cues and alt modes. I didn't mind the changing up of some of the team members, and they ultimately did make it so all the classic teams had all their original members.

Did the figures get a little samey? Sure, but it all worked towards very stable combined modes with very serviceable articulation. Plus, it was often very interesting to see just how much they could remold from one figure to the next. The HFGs were pretty novel inventions although Hasbro clearly improved on them later with the rocker ankles.

And, while not part of the main size classes, Devastator was an incredible piece and a masterclass in engineering.

 

I still think Alpha Bravo as an Aerialbot makes no sense. Four jets that hurry on along to battle, one helicopter that shows up maybe an hour later depending entirely on distance.

I don't mind introducing new characters, just don't know that he was placed properly.

I like that they managed to get the combiner teams out again but, much like the Titan line, including characters that were never combiners seemed unnecessary. Especially since they already proved that they were willing to introduce new characters for the sake of squeezing out repaints.

If they were set on reusing characters, I would've preferred that they used more lesser known characters as repaints. I would've taken the Throttlebots or Micromaster characters who could've been more readily "adapted" into repaints/minor retools over characters forced into them like Prime, Prowl and Cyclonus. More so knowing that Prime, Prowl and Hound all got better figures in the Siege/Rise series.

 

Alpha Bravo made as much sense as Blast Off  

 

Yeah, no doubt. At least I can write Blastoff... off as "80s" when space was exciting and everyone wanted to be there.

 

I still prefer CW Spinister over Siege Spinister. Completely bypassed the latter, cockpit legs be damned.

The only one I felt was really off was Motormaster. I'd like a re-do on him.

 

I think he'd be a good candidate for a Selects remold, using POTP Optimus as a base. Hear me out. The cab would be Motormaster himself, similar in look to the CW toy. He'd then combine with an extensively remolded trailer to become the core of Motormaster. The existing Stunticons would then clip onto the arms and legs as armor, like they did on the animation model. The animation model for Menasor was really bizarre - he was basically an alternate robot mode for Motormaster with the rest of the team as armor.

 

It could be done.

 

I appreciate the effort on Hasbro's part, I really do. But with that said I do wish they had some things differently.
2 being less straight up repaints and more variations (Alpha Bravo to Blades/Vortex and "Blast-off"(obviously you know who) to Firefight and, FINALLY, "Quicksllinger, and finally, the Dead-end/(Break-neck)Wild-rider, Streetwise, and Lightsteed(ugh) and Prowl)
wish the deluxes were bigger to add more size to the overall combiner.

Don't get me wrong I went in for Combiner Wars and like that have them on my shelf. But Unite Warriors > Combiner Wars  

Man,  , I got shame asking how any of you posting pics manage to pose this guy as I dread touching mine.

 

I guess one thing cool about this line though it was a recurring theme for a while was the choice between Hasbro or Takara. At this time I was venturing more into collecting Takara. I was glad I waited for UW since I was more into the G1 cartoons. It was so nice to get Groove at the time. Blast Off was a disappointment though I ended up getting the Prime wars one eventually. The biggest difference was pretty much CW and UW Computron. Talk about Takara coming through for the cartoon fans. The red superion thing wasn't going to work out for me though I understand for those who wanted to save money. The biggest disappointment overall was Menasor. He really needs to work those hips.

 

I see where you're going...but I think he just needs an all new mold as, even then, it wouldn't look right in single robot mode since the cab is supposed to become the feet. The problem Hasbro encountered was that they seemed to be trying to keep Motormaster in scale with the other Stunticons...and you just can't if you want him to look "right".

Actually, the best place to start for a heavy retool might be TR Astrotrain. Replace the train bits with truck bits and the wings as trailer sides that fold in. The Menasor head can fold around from where the Titan master cockpit originally was. Haven't thought the whole thing through...but it could easily at least be a "sharetool".

Overall, I agree. Menasor was better from Hasbro, though, IMO. Sometimes, anime bland decos are...well...bland. And the CW Motormaster doesn't disintegrate at the waist like the UW will ala Beast Wars TM Megatron.

Also, while UW Computron is arguably better - TT kinda shot themselves in the foot on it literally by not going with the better feet and hands that Hasbro offered. And anime Afterburner just isn't as good as Hasbro's, IMO. So, you really need BOTH to complete the BEST Computron, unfortunately.

And you gotta give it to Hasbro...at least they TRIED to give us LioKaiser.

Otherwise, yeah, UW just did a better job overall.

 

Yes, I agree, I do that CW Stunticons were better than UW's Stuntitrons. Definitely on Drag-strip, just being all that yellow was boring. That part about disintegrating -   wow for real??

Yeah, after Victorion/Megatronia, both companies should made those the standard combiner feet. And I still do kinda, sorta want that LioKaiser. I may have missed out hoping that Takara would tackle it. OOPs upside my head for that  .

 

Unfortunately. even on TFWiki.

 

I love Rook and Legends Groove for Defensor, and Offroad was cool but I still replaced him (he felt a little odd-man out, and Takara's Prime Breakdown redeco became my go-to for that mold)

Alpha Bravo, as a straight up pre-paint just kinda sucked and was pointless, and while I 100% agree a fighter jet makes WAAAAAAYYYY more sense then a space shuttle on the Combaticons, the fact that he was just a straight repaint in a line where very nearly EVERYBODY, including a (admittedly cool) repaint of a terrible Optimus Prime mold nobody asked for got new heads was just rediculously lame.