As I understand it the name is supposed to evoke the journey TO Earth, hence the emphasis on new factions that they encounter along the way. If that is the case, then it is a terribly confusing name, and the Earth modes make NO sense.
I don’t want to see characters that don’t have gimmicks be forced to be part of the gimmick. CW was a war crime, and POTP is pretty disgusting.
Funny, because CW had plenty of Legends without the combining gimmick, including all Leaders. POTP was essentially a repetition of the previous two toylines' gimmicks, in any case.
100% yes. As soon as the Modulators were planned as repainted of each other they destroyed the gimmick. Siege had 3 separate Weaponizers with basically a 4th coming and poor Earthrise got 2 molds for 4 characters. Earthrise feels like potp again.
Except nearly everything CW just sucked big time. POTP is essentially a rehash of both previous toylines without understanding why it made them tolerable/ good in the first place
This must be why CW TFs currently sell for multiples of the original price, right? I can definitely see Hasbro thinking "CW was a failure, let's bring combines back in POTP"
Or maybe you have to realize that eBay is a hive of scum and villainy run by scalpers? I can find CW sets in my local market for 1/4 of the price. I’ve seen the Hasbro version of Lynxmaster for 1/4 of the original price.
Just jerking your transformation cog. Those were some sweet setups. That said, I'm sure you'll agree most kids won't be able to get a few dozen ramp-formers.
Definitely maybe. If WFC has resonated with fans so well and sold so well then you'd think they'd try to continue it, but not by redoing what they have already done so damn well the last 2 years. I still think they can get mileage with PowerMasters, especially Optimus, some G2 and later Japanese cartoons. It would be a good time to introduce a new faction or something along those lines. If this line has done very well by making the best G1 representations ever done, is it wise to throw that away? I appreciate the perspective on 10 years ago by the way, I wasn't collecting Transformers then, but always thought "Prime" looked cool. HERE HERE!! That's really all that matters to me. Just about. The things they have done though excite me whether it's greasy paint apps or weaponizers or some bases. I prefer that greatly to Headmasters and Combiners actually. Although I would take a Combiner at some point in WFC. It almost seems wrong not to have one. You have to wonder. This is the first July in forever that I can remember NOT having buzz for Marvel Legends. They were a no show. Everything is a bit of a mess right now and it's definitely made an impact.
Omega was not included as he was not released as part of Earthrise. If he was he would easily be classified as major connectivity, much like Snapdragon is no connectivity here but for titans return he would be considered Major as he has use of his master figure in all three modes. Prime is minor because prime himself has no interactivity and his trailer only has the one removable part. I was on the fence where to put Astrotrain . While his coal car turns into a launch platform he himself doesn’t transform into a component of it, but he does interact with it. I will say that trying to get prime more involved would ruin what I feel is the best prime ever. Again I freely admit to loving Earthrise, especially the bases. This whole idea came to mind when I had Sky lynx ironworks and Grease Pit hooked together on my desk and the flock of cockatoos that operate my brain screamed “MORE!” And I was like, there really isn’t much more.
I think there is certainly a spot for a "legit" Power Master Optimus Prime. The Takara God Ginrai (or Super Ginrai or Magnus Prime) get it pretty much right when paired with all the Perfect Effect upgrade kits. But it's still compromised in the sense that, even with the new 3rd party cab and all the addon parts, the base Combine Wars Ultra Magnus engineering is still there to some degree. part of the problem with doing Power Masters nowdays is that the engineering of Transformers has radically changed. They're basically just interlocking panels and molded shapes now now that connect to other pieces with tabs, pressure joints, ball joints, swivel joints or pints. Besides bits meant for strengthening the toy, they don't have a lot of internal construction. EVen the big ones. If you ever added on 3p improved ratchets for TR Fortress Maximus, it's pretty much just hollow inside. To do Power Masters legitimately, you'd need a level of internal construction - with springs and screws and cog wheels - that hasn't been seen in some time. Probably the 2007 Transformer movie line is the last one to really feature it. But really, the best example is Armada. That line had more internal complexity than anything except maybe the original Power Masters. And they're great toys, just kind of poor Transformers and action figures (but there isn't anything else like them). The gimmick hugely compromised the toys. I think Optimus Prime / Ginrai is probably worth doing like that. But is any other Transformer? Probably not. I don't think we really need a Commander class Overlord that is brick for the sake of the powermaster gimmick. Lastly Japanese G1. I've been saying Hasbro should import these extremely good looking, new, dynamic characters for years. But they're just not going to do it. Even Star Saber. We actually have a virtual Commander class Star Saber. It's MP-24 Masterpiece Star Saber. He's as tall as Jetfire and very in scale with Generations. A legit in-scale with Masterpiece MP Star Saber would be about the size of Titan Class PotP Predaking. Hasbro has passed up opportunity after opportunity to import Japanese characters and they almost never do. We got a few Headmasters, Overlord, Black Shadow and that's it. But yeah I really don't know where Transformers goes themewise or gimmickwise after Kingdom. I don't think they'll recreate Beast Wars the way they've basically created a good 85% of G1. I don't think we'll see a new Leader class Polar Claw or something. I think we'll get post-Kingdom the few characters that it misses from BW and BM and maybe a fan favorite here and there, over the next few years. I don't think they're going to recreate or redo RID or the Unicron Trilogy except for low hanging opportunities (like Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime and Cybertron Hot Shot). They prefer to pretend Animated and Prime never happened. But in many ways, if you want to do "completely different", Prime and Animated are two excellent templates, because there's really nothing else like them in the history of the line. I wouldn't be surprised if they are more gimmick focused post-Kingdom though. That's been the norm since Beast Wars Transmetals.
I feel the only fail with the city link combination gimmick is it hasn't been around long enough. Figures like Over Lord who could have great base modes linking up can't link up. See also Metroplex, Trypticon and Fort Max. It's like if they brought in a completely new Headmaster gimmick for Scorpy and the Horrorcons (new band name, claimed it) just because WFC Trilogy is a "new line". Generations needs to be as forwards and backwards compatible as possible. It's a failure of Hasbro management to not plan ahead. I feel a few extra parts could easily fix this even now, and then the only failure would be on the part of fans if they chose not to combine to make mega cities.
I didn't think it even had a gimmick. Hell I I thought the best we would get with this line was the accuracy of the figures
