That's cool about Hot Spot!  

Hey - if they're open to going back to the drawing board to satisfy the preference of one individual fan, could you tell em Liampope would rather have the Mitsubishi Fuso alt mode the toy turns into instead of that random Mack thing the toon had!   We'll never know the story behind why the toon model is a completely different vehicle, but could speculate that in this case the photocopied/faxed from Japan reference material was so bad, or just missing, that Mr. Dery had to just pop outside and draw the first fire truck he saw!

I'm kinda perplexed XTB already made a 'no base mode' statement. I can understand why fans are asking for it, but XTB themselves would know, being the designers, what some of us can deduce - that the base mode didn't really add any more complexity as it was pretty much just a halfway transformation state of the bot to trailer figure with a couple extra joints and pegs added to make it a bit better and hold together. So, imho, if the combiner skeleton is gonna transform into... something... and like Mensaor they find a halfway transformation that looks sort of base-modey and just needs a few little additions to finish it off, then why the hell not have a base mode if there's no down side?

Fan perception I guess - most blame the base mode for how the figure turned out, demanded no base mode, so they give them no base mode. Shrug.

What most fans really want, is a skeleton that's simple, robust, not a chore to handle, does the job and looks good. That's probably best achieved by it just not transforming into anything - just be the skeleton. Or, as was suggested by, I think it was @TigerBlade, why not it transform into only a base mode - something like G1 Hot Spot does that would be super simple and at least it's something with play value.

Anyway, my consultancy is free.   More pics soon please!

 

So is there a definitive release date for Van Guard yet? I've only seen him available for PO on a few sites but only ShowZ is saying late September and the rest say unknown.

Also, according to ShowZ Jocund is coming late October and Bombusbee has him scheduled for September. What gives? Who's coming out when? The people demand answers!

 

id say jocund coming september is trustworthy, given it was from xtbs facebook. I havent seen them say anything about dates for hot spot though.

Unless they separate hotspot somehow, i imagine they may leave hot spot to last. Though they best be careful for those of us who havent forgotten menasor trailer...

 

It isn't the base mode that made Menasor a pain in the arse to transform. It's folding up and turning inside out a 20" tall robot into an elongated cube that did that.

The Protectobots base mode really wouldn't complicate anything as long as it was just a torso and I'm sure the original designer knows that.

 

As far as I know...Groove is around Sept/Oct - Hotspot POSSIBLY Dec/Jan

AS FAR AS I KNOW...

 

Good enough. thanks.

 

Wish we could see more Hotspot renders. Its got to be that black magic complex transformation from that detailed firetruck to a very clean robot mode.

 

Soon-ish

 

I always thought that including the base mode or going with 1 accurate trailer made major changes to the original menasor skeleton that they teased. THe old prototype photos had a lot of differences compared to what was released. The parts and joints of the released product may have been optimized so that it's base mode configuration comes from a reworked midtransformation state but we don't know how that would have compared in terms of complexity and parts needed or altered for the original prototype. THe prototype looked like it would have been more substantial in the torso and feet which potentially would have improved his handling and balance. He also lost a slight flare at the bottom of his legs that was also shown in the renders. It's cool that they got an all in one menasor with an accurately scaled trailer and a nod to the toy's base mode, but I think it came at a cost.

 

Remember that original design, the one with mandatory faux shells, did not transform into a trailer. That skeleton just folded up somewhat and fit into two huge trailers. We never knew for sure if the skeleton all fit into one trailer and the guns, etc fit in the other, or if the skeleton separated and required some of the space of both trailers. But the combiner parts storing in two trailers was confirmed by XTB and the designer at the time. Those two trailers, pretty much just shells similar to OP, formed the original huuuge base mode. So absolutely that original skeleton was simpler and more robust - cos it didn't have to turn into a box trailer, just did a bit of yoga.

It was at that point, shortly after those original design prototype pics, they went back to the drawing board. Then it became only one trailer, a smaller trailer, the skeleton turns into the trailer, not stores inside it, can hold a car, still has a base mode, faux shells mostly optional. The thread exploded - how could all this be possible?

To me it's a miracle they could take pretty much the same bot mode that didn't even transform (much), and engineer it to turn into a trailer with very minimal impact to the bot sculpt and proportions. Your side-by-side shows this pretty well - they lost the flare to the calves you mentioned, feet became messier, chest flatter, some left over panels hanging on the back, and that's really it. Designer deserves huge kudos - not the bashing he/XTB are getting, imho. That's where all the complexity was added compared to that original prototype. So yeah it came at a cost, and possibly if they had done it this way from the very start rather than having a finished bot mode and now having to engineer it into a trailer, or if they had accepted more change/compromise to that bot model - almost no trailer showing, or if they let the trailer be bigger, then maybe it could have been a little simpler - like DX9's, but it didn't go down that way.

Base mode really is almost an afterthought. It's literally the front half of the trailer as-is, and the back half flopped open all using joints that serve the primary transformation. A couple panels flip to improve the appearance, and some hooks were added to hold it together. Oh and they sculpted some missile pod details underneath his knee.

 

@Grifter Prime F it, sense we're trying to get beans spilled, I'll just ask it - any word on a youth/toy version?

 

For Defensor and the Protectobots? No word yet.

 

Thanks! I'm all in on the Youth edition stunticons, and would be the same for the protectobots...

 

Asking NOW!

 

@Liampope I always figured that Hot Spot was drawn that way in the toon because they used the Inferno line drawings and slapped a different grill on it to make it look different.

 

He drew a pretty accurate depiction of an American Mack CF fire truck...



There's a lot of distinctive features, particularly the front of the cab that are all replicated. I don't personally think you'd get that close without being literally looking at one to copy it! The only real deviation is he added a double rear axle. I'd speculate he knew from the bot mode reference that it had six wheels, so assumed it would be a double rear axle. It's certainly not much like Inferno's line art, which was based heavily on his toy...



Meanwhile Hot Spot's toy was one of these...





I'd have personally preferred this, but I can understand why XTB went toon model. MMC have gone with the Mitsubishi, but imho not done it as well as XTB would have done, and got some wrong era 90's version cab design on it.

Anyway, if XTB's super realistic Mack truck is really turning into that accurate clean Hot Spot bot with literally no sign of any of the truck, I'm good with that.

 

And Ultra Magnus?

 

Whoever releases their version first is who I will buy...so if it means having two XTB Groove/Hotspot & two MMC First Aid/Blade then so be it. I skipped Streetwise as I dislike the character.

Once I get all four, doesn't matter the company, I'm done....so MMC better hurry up.

 

Lets not get ahead of ourselves here. Virtus was supposed to be released in February and here we are still waiting

 

Yeah, I agree that 598 or whoever it was that designed the trailer did an impressive engineering job knowing the major changes in scope it had.