I’d rather they pull a SS86 Hot Rod and up them to a voyager (or leader, depending on the character) and include the minicon and put the rest of the money into engineering (such as making the attack mode work without springs).

 

just thought i'd say that i've heard word of stuff shipping out after Chinese New Year, possibly including Galvatron. so we may see leaks in the coming weeks

 

Well, that's terrifying.

 

I think a minicon 3 pack in a deluxe price point of the Starsaber, Skyboom shield, Requiem blaster, and Perceptor would be perfect to be the lines version of Weaponizers/Modulators/Fossilizers.

 

I hate to say it but i have a horrible feeling that if they do minicon partners they'll be like the buzzworthy Bumblebee Spike figure, minimal move a few bits and stand up. I hope and want to be wrong, but i just have a feeling that's what they might do.

 

Well seems like that MPM reveal next week is that thing we were expecting.

 

The WFC micromasters were already pretty much minicons, hell they even had a facsimile of the star saber, just made up of 2 micromasters instead of 3 minicons

 

Oh yeah forgot about that. They could always just recycle the same few molds painted differently over and over.

 

As long as they make better mini-cons than the...thing...that was supposed to be Jolt with the 2008 Armada Hot Shot figure, I'll be happy.

Granted, 2008 Armada Hot Shot is probably a poster child for how not to do an update. So many weird design choices with that figure that you can't appreciate how awful they are all together until you have the figure in hand.

 

The more stylized takes, updates, and designs of Universe 2.0 are long a thing of the past, for better or worse depending on your opinion on them (I go with better), so I'm sure a new Hot Shot will be closer to the original with added articulation than what we got in 2008.

As for the Minicons, my guess is that they'd be on par with the new Micromasters: Some will be pretty neat, some might be lacking.

 

I'd argue that looks wise the 2008 Hot Shot is EXACTLY what you'd want from an update. It looks great. It's just a horrible toy. Horrible transformation which works against itself, and a horrible robot mode due to two pieces of shoulder kibble competing to occupy the same space. Absolutely dreadful. Throw in a minicon that cant even stand up for good measure.

 

I do like how that one looks, and I actually keep him out with T30 Starscream as part of my Armada representation, but I know in the hands of the designers of today they can get a better toy out of him that still looks good, too.

The Minicons, though, given how the Micromasters are I'm not holding my breath that they can fix the "can't even stand" issue. It's going to be hit or miss depending on the figure.

 

All they would need to do to fix Jolt is just give him some flip-out heel supports.

 

I kind of misspoke there: I'm sure they can add supports or something to fix the issue, but given how they did the Micromasters I just don't know if they actually will.

I really do hope that they make improvements on the concept of modern small Transformers so that they can be better in the same way that the original Minicons were a big evolution over the original Micromasters, though, I'm just not going to bank on it is all.

 

I will be perfectly honest in that I don't have a single one of the new generation Micromasters (I did end up getting G1 Free Wheeler and G1 Detour in a random toy lot off eBay two months ago though  ), so my frame of reference is probably not as up to date as it should.

 

I learned about that toy years after it happened, and like, man, that figure is a mess. The way the shoulders look is so bad.

I think the Minicon gimmicks could be done w/o the ports integration. Maybe the way T30 Armada Starscream had them more for flavor than getting in the way. A few of them were firing missiles which they thankfully don't do anymore so I'm curious as to what they'd do for someone like Demolisher.

 

Mini-con gimmicks honestly were always nothing more than glorified normal gimmicks that could have been activated with a button, since the ports are either 'dummy' ports or they were connected to a spring catch release (sometimes the catch holding another catch release I.E. Starscream's giant backpack needing Swindle plugged in all to even pull back on the port to release the shoulder null lasers/missile launchers).

I'd be happy if they just included dummy ports on any new UT figures, since attaching Mini-cons is more recognized than them actually doing anything (especially since on the subject, 2008 Hot Shot's one interaction with Jolt was vehicle mode limited, the rear axle bazooka was completely omitted though that might also have been from the shoulders being so terribly designed in the opposite direction that he couldn't even get the bazooka)

 

They should slap some flip up 5mm pegs, so they don't get in the way and you can attach the hopefully packed in minicons

 

that would probably cut too much into the budget; they don't need to flip up. T30 Armada Starscream worked fine with 'em on him

 

Pegs are part of the Armada aesthetic, they don't need to flip away.
I'm really looking forward to these UT figures, i like how chunky the designs are.