We'll see. A lot of the Unicron Trilogy was utter garbage. Armada was a mess from start to finish. Energon was somehow worse. Cybertron was better, but had worse animation than Beast Wars. Toy wise, a lot of the best figures were homages to older characters (Armada Unicron, Optimus Prime, Energon Downshift, Energon Shockblast, Cybertron Voyager Starscream) and a lot of the new characters had forgettable or lousy toys. I was in college when the UT was airing. A lot of bought it at the time because the thought that we'd get Generations as we've come to know it was a far away dream. It was the golden age of the buy-to-reupurpose.

The'd have to be selective with what they do with bringing back UT characters. Hot Shot from Universe is probably the best way to go about it. Doing an Armada Starscream mold, at modern voyager scale, with modern engineering, would be money. Armada Blurr or Energon Inferno or Energon Ironhide would be updates to bad designs (Blurr has the makings of a good design but moved rigidly even in the cartoon).

I appreciate all Transformers era, because we only got here through them. But I'm not romantic about them. UT was generally a quantum leap backwards from BW era engineering took the engineering experimenting that went around around the Universe 2.0 / ROTF time to properly fix. There's some things worth revisiting, but much of it was left behind for a reason.

 

A lot of the G1 designs weren't that hot either, yet many still clamored for proper remakes of them. Wheelie has seen several redoes over the years, anyone from the UT can get the same. Sure the originals weren't the most articulate but they were fun nonetheless.

 

Indeed, a lot of G1 designs were trash. And some that were really good (cartoon Skyfire) didn't get a proper figure until recently either. But generally speaking, UT figures hold up better. There is a strong argument for Armada Prime, Armada Megatron, Tidal Wave and a few others all getting new entries. But in WFC:T, we got fricken Spinster for crying out loud. Because his figure is still pretty great, we're not likely to get another Evac. That's why I said the way to do it is look at Universe Hot Shot. Only... what, 6 years or so after the original figure? But he desperately needed to happen, because the original Armada Hot Shot figure was incredibly bad. For the same reason, thats why I say, give Armada Starscream the Voyager mold he deserves. But we probably don't need to revisit Scavenger.

 

Maybe for you. For me it's the golden age of reinvention. I loved the imaginative designs, both of classic characters and new, the integration of the action features, the overall feeling of experimentation with Armada. Experimentation is a distant memory these days. As for the shows, Energon was garbage. It started strong and then drove off a cliff by the second episode. Armada started weak but was great once it found its stride. Cybertron was a lot of fun, and still has the most satisfying ending of any TF media for me.

I got UT figures to serve as those characters, not to repurpose.

No. That figure was unstable garbage. I literally can't transform him without the legs popping off. They overthought the transformation WAY too much, and when trying to improve on the complaints about the original, made something far worse. Just take the original transformation, add some more articulation, and retain the axelzooka feature.

That would be a downgrade, considering how the original towers over current Voyagers. Make him a Leader, with current articulation and the flip out null ray cannons.

I'd still take whatever was done.

Honestly, I'd take straight Armada reissues over the stuff we're getting now. That was the true era of "engineering experimentation", not the era of stuff like Origamihide and floaty head Prowl. Every figure in Armada was a new, novel experience, and while not every experiment worked, in general I was pleased with what we got back then. WFC is boring in comparison.

 

Nah, Voyager works for Starscream as, if they do the rest of the cast, he'd be roughly in scale. Sure he would be small among the original toys but I don't think anyone's buying CHUG to fill those gaps.

 

I'm not worried about scale. I'd just like a new Starscream to have similar shelf presence as the original.

 

surround him in nothing but minicons, problem solved

 

Skids is only important/memorable as the MTMTE character and as one of several Budiansky guys who tried to go AWOL and get a human girlfriend, so I don't particularly care if they never do a Sunbow CHUG toy.

 

Sunbow CHUG, no. But I'm not a fan of Sunbow CHUG in general.

But I'd be totally on board for a posable update of the original toy, with Charlene companion figure. The IDW-style Skids just missed the mark for me.

 

Important to me as the original G1 toy. Sunbow version was forgettable, and I don't care much for his IDW character (it's just not... Skids).

 

That's interesting because my copy of the TakaraTomy Encore G1 Skids reissue will be arriving soon from BBTS.

 

Similarly, I just dug the TRU reissue out of the shed.

 

ol' Skids has one of the sharpest headscupts of the Diaclone era. I'd probably give Sideswipe the nod over him, but it's close (Hoist is up there too)

(Crosscut's is fantastic too)

 

Strong agree on all of those. I always loved Hoist's.

 

I mean he's blue, which is pretty much pre-MTMTE Skids's defining trait.

 

I went for the TakaraTomy Encore reissue of G1 Skids because it's currently in stock at BBTS and I wanted the missile launcher to have all of its springs restored to working as well as they did on the original Diaclone releases of the mold. Also, I agree on those head sculpts looking good too. I love the head sculpt on the original Optimus Prime toy.

 

Truth.

Megatron and Seekers were better in Siege.
Pretty much any Siege Voyager is better than Eggface.
A good argument can be had that Snapdragon beats Apeface, but then Siege follows up with Magnus and Galaxy Prime. Earthrise is left with Grapple. who I love, but its just not enough.

And as that dust settles, Kingdom struts in with Cyclonus in the lead.

Game over.

 

Don't really know if this is an unpopular opinion (considering there's 600 pages to this thread), but MP Car bots should have rubber tires if the wheels themselves don't have to transform. I've never had problems with any of my toys that have rubber tires and prefer them over plastic ones.

 

I meant the personality, really, but I understand what you mean. If the Sunbow cartoon is your reference, Skids is a complete wallflower.

 

A bit old, but I agree. He's a really great toy overall. Chunky with a nice transformation. I can just pick him up and play with him and have fun.   And oh god I love how they integrated his weapons! Having the windvane and smokestacks transform like that? Brilliant! And hell, I actually like the bits on his arms. They're shields to me.