That aspect bothered me as well since I first saw photos of it.

I did end up canceling my pre-order, but mostly because I collect other stuff too. I need to prioritize my purchases and I really don't have any room to display it. I have that really large 1/6 scale Kaneda's motorcycle and a 1/6 scale Kaneda figure on pre-order this year. Among all the Star Wars, GI Joe, Marvel Legends, anime stuff, and Transformers I collect my plate is full.

I had visions of doing some kind of display, but I really feel I can accomplish what I want with some kind of backdrop diorama than this huge toy. Keep in mind I already have large toys like the Big Millennium Falcon, Big AT-AT, Jabba's Sail Barge, and I even have the Razor Crest on pre-order. When a take a step back and think about it, all I really need are a couple of large shelves and a nice backdrop for each to put my Transformers on display.

 

In most respects, it's been a literal translation when possible. And again, there have been bonus features added to some characters but never less features.

And yes, I'm not buying an out of scale statue of the Ark. If it goes on deep clearance, I'll buy it for Mainframe and Sky Spy and toss the rest in a bin because if I'm going to eat up display space with something, it better be worth my while.

The main frame of reference is the cartoon and the comics, in which it served as a space ship for either 3 minutes or 6 panels respectively. The rest of the time, it was a base. If it had no base mode to lose, then the time spent in Mt. St. Hillary was just a weird cavern with thrusters sticking out of it. And it certainly didn't transform into a robot to fight Trypticon in the cartoon or it might have been around longer. We finally get a decent sized Ark and it's NOT A BASE, the very thing it was for 15+ years of the franchise in G1 and Beast Wars. We can go round and round on this but, IMO, Hasbro shit the bed and lost a sale with me.

 

well i kinda like this. really glad the teletraan one portion is able to be removed without compromising the main ship as i was worried it would leave a glaring gap since i plan on leaving mainframe on my season one shelf and the ark on my beast wars/kingdom shelf.

as someone who is not a fan of those freaky looking super articulated hands i see as third party add ons and hates finger joints that loose grip over time i like the hands.

turrets being solid pieces is a bit disappointing but im seeing a lot of compromises across all tf lines these days so im thinking its the nature of current mindset or manufacturing costs rising

one thing i found very interesting about the video is it shows a regular person trying to transform it and it highlights why i like the wfc line so much compared to previous offerings. im a veteran collector and some transformers are like 4 dimensional rubix cubes to the point where i gave up transforming them! wfc has the right balance in my eyes but again im used to it. (although reviewers like emgo are sometimes godsends for his transformational vids)

this guy is coming in as straight newbie and its like the mysteries of vector sigma. im not saying i want only digital instructions but perhaps a link to a hasbro employee tranforming it? just to get past those awkward bits.

 

The Ark should have a base mode, huh? If only it had a Teletraan One you could yank out of it that would scale with your regular-sized toys. A shame really that it doesn't.

 

Exactly the only neat thing I can think to do with it is have it either as a crashed into MT Hillary with my core/legends infront of it or have it displayed like it’s launching, other than that it’s gone backwards in terms of its original functionality.

 

The core robot integration is still making this guy for me, he looks fun and really solid. I want to try and fanmode a spacebridge out of him when I get the larger bot in hand, see what all those joints are capable of to give the ark itself something more to do while Teletran's in console mode.

 

Is this a p*** take?

 

I wonder how many people would have bought a $160-ish Ark if it only functioned as a ship and a playset. I certainly wouldn't have bothered, and I think there would be a distinct possibility enough people would have passed that it would have made it unfeasible for Hasbro to try to go that direction. Of course, I have no evidence to back up that claim, but it just would have felt like a waste of money. Hell, I still think this is a pretty risky venture for Hasbro. I'm excited to get a Last Autobot toy, but I don't think that's a deciding factor for too many people either.

 

You say this, but there is a whole lot of fandom that have wanted an ark that can actually hold figures for quite some time, ever seen DOTM Ark and it’s play pattern? Imagine that but with a titan size one. Does it have to scale to the actual interior? Of course not, hell make it even more retro and just have hollowed out squares for bots to sit in ala the original Kenner millennium falcon. All I’m saying is if DOTM ark and Prime cyberverse wheel jacks ship can do that at that scale then a titan ark could easily do more.

 

What figures will you be using? How big would this thing be?

I mean, I guess you could make something really big and hollow for $160? Maybe? Maybe not?

WFC figures are big. Or were you expecting Hasbro to build a play set for core class Ratchet and Optimus to hang out in?

 

Core and legends, why would anyone expect anything else, deluxes and voyagers would never fit.
Core and legends have always been the play pattern for titans, before that it was micromasters and minicons.

 

Honestly speaking I'd be likely to jump on a Haslab Ark for Unicron pricing if it meant an Ark that could unfold into a base scaled to regular figures. Not too much, essentially a dollhouse-*cough* I mean, action set with maybe two floors at most, one being a regular hangar and the other the bridge of the ship, obviously this wouldn't be in scale in vehicle mode but you could make something work. It'd be something that expands on your overall collection, that's for sure.

 

Having a robot mode is pretty important to me for all Transformers toys, but I could imagine the Ark ship flipping inside out to form a CHUG-scaled G1 Autobot base being well-received, provided it had enough gimmicks to justify it including the Mainframe/Teletraan figure. Or taking it a step further to have it transform into Autobot City to align with the other titan figures' base modes. But I definitely would not pay for a playset for core/legends-scaled figures.

 

I think you underestimate how big regular Transformers figures are (versus Cyberverse scale) and how big of a... box.... hallway you'd have to somehow fashion out of an opened up Ark spaceship for it to be at all workable.

Like, seriously, let's workshop this. Imagine the existing Titan Ark spaceship. It.... unfolds in half, maybe? Gets you a floor and a wall? Guess what, that thing's fitting like two Deluxe figures, tops. Wow, that's... underwhelming.

Here's Zarak standing on an opened-up Scorponok:



Wow you can almost stand one guy on it.

That's why the thing just comes with a Teletraan I. Put that anywhere, stand your characters around it... that's all you'd be getting out of a playset anyway. And it doesn't involve building walls out of a round-ish spaceship toy in a way that'd be better served by buying a bunch of those interlocking plastic panel grids.

 

Looks really good. Quick question. Am I the only one who kinda wants to give him a Metroplex head? I feel like since he's a bit smaller for a titan, he'd look good against Trypticon.

 

But that’s the point, look who you’ll have in there: Megatron, Optimus, Rattrap, Starscream, Soundwave and some dinky Micromasters. That’s not appealing.

Maybe if Hasbro had been building three years of cool core class figures, I could see the appeal of a playset. But with what is currently out, it’s not.

 

You can make it for both. The GIJoe PIT is essentially the perfect template for an Ark playset. Imagine the wings forming Teletran on one side and Ratchet's repair bay on the other wing.

This was $129 back in 2007. Doing something similar should fit today's $159 price point.

 

:'(

Some fan will absolutely do a Siege Omega headswap onto this, though. I can already smell it.

 

You realize Transformers Deluxes are a bit bigger than GIJoes, right? There's not even room for a Transformers toy to stand on one of those railings.

 

maybe i should realize i'm arguing about realistic feasibility with somebody named wishfulthinking

 

you do realize core and legends exist and have been accessories to playsets for decades now?