That clears a lot up. Thanks!

 

If by any chance Legacy will be revealed at Pulsecon this year, we have 2 months to find leaked listings.

 

I'm really hoping they won't be handled at all, I hate that gimmick. I especially don't want Bludgeon as a Pretender.

 

The Takara Seacons aren't under the umbrella of "nuCHUG" - they're a continuation of the old CHUG/Prime Wars stuff. Meaning, they're reuses of old molds which in addition to being inaccurate to their legacy likenesses, don't have effects parts compatibility, don't have increased quality, nor aren't necessarily within the unified scale. The HM Jr's molds shouldn't be treated like old molds. We *should* expect higher quality from HasTak as time goes on.

Also,

 

Yeah, I agree that Pretenders are one of the most stupid and pointless gimmicks in Transformers history, and I hope that Bludgeon and Skullgrin return as normal Transformers. I don't see the appeal in having a robot toy that's in a weird looking organic shell. They're up there with Action Masters and R.E.D. in being out of place and redundant in the franchise. I know it sounds like I'm ranting or trying to start a fight, but I'm curious to hear an argument for Pretenders even belonging in Transformers, because I'm seriously confused as to why people want them back so badly.

 

to be fair, "nuCHUG" as you put it has used "old CHUG" molds on a few occasions, so the line is somewhat blurred

 

All this "NuCHUG" label stuff is ridiculous. You sound insane parsing what "does" and "doesn't" count.

 

Apologies. I'm just putting a label to what the Hasbro reps have been distinguishing the part of the line with "raising the bar", "sharing a unified scale like Studio Series", and "better representing their legacy likenesses", etc to be more clear. They're distinguishing the old and new Generations stuff from one another with various lines like that, so I thought it'd be easier just to make a new term that encompasses it all.

I'm confused with what part sounds "insane" or "ridiculous" though.

 

I'm of the viewpoint of "Why not?" the entire franchise is built on silly gimmicks, clunky sci-fi, and nostalgia baiting.

In my opinion, alien robots hiding in synthetic organic shells to pretend to be other species is no more silly than alien robots pretending to be cars, or turning into guns, or combining, or any of the other weird shit that G1 and the other series were riddled with. So the idea that something like that is too silly or doesn't belong in this franchise doesn't really add up in my mind. And besides, the pretenders and their shells had cool designs that would look great with modern updates, though there's the problem of how to fit them in with the current pricing model the series uses. At the very least I'd like to see the classic pretenders alternate color schemes get used at some point in GenSelects or something, Starscream especially.

And Action Masters/RED/Whatever I see mostly as a fun novelty thing, I certainly wouldn't enjoy it if it were handled like how the original Actionmasters were as the main line for a year, but yeah throw in some more accurate robots with funky color schemes into a sideline with transforming weapons and vehicles that's awesome!

 

Inb4 Siren is a Nightbeat repaint but then Takara goes and makes their own Goshooter anyway

 

After watching Kingdom, (no spoilers BTW) I think Legacy will have its own cartoon continuation picking up the threads dropped by Kingdom. Maybe farther in the future, using bots the same way that the toyline is taking the best ideas of T30, Prime Wars, and WFC. I don't want to spoil anything, but if cybertron were to be repopulated you could use every era simply as new characters fit into the WFC era or new designs for present characters with Unicron as the overarching threat. Prime OP could simply be a new design for WFC OP, for example.
If I'm right, then it should make speculating a little easier.

 

Why is it crazy to differentiate different eras? One can argue that WFC rebooted generations and give examples of why we believe this.

You aren’t obligated to see a difference but for some of us, it’s important for a variety of reasons. I personally want to curate a collection that has a cohesive look, so I tend to stick to post-WFC stuff.

Some of us also enjoy discussing aesthetics and design philosophies and this is one of those ways we examine how the franchise has evolved.

 

I feel it's less pointless and more so just mishandled. I'm not a huge Pretender fan, but I'm one of those people who feels every gimmick can have it's place if it's handled well enough.

Open the spoiler to see my further thoughts:

Spoiler

With a name like "pretenders", it really feels to me like they're more so going with the "robots in disguise" tagline, cause after all, these are technically robots disguised in organic shells.

Takara at least made them shrink down to human size, and the armor on the human shells were more like battle armor in the show, so that way they could actually blend in with humans within the media of Japan.

I couldn't really give a good method to "fixing" pretenders, while still keeping the shells. It's just an overall weird concept. Maybe have the fiction state they designed the organic shells to protect them from Energon radiation like in BW, but they also doubled as disguises among alien races who wanted to scrap cybertronians like Mechanibals or Quintessons, hence the name pretender. That would also work into the idea that pretender technology eventually lead to the beast upgrade.

The battle armor could be explained easily as literally being power armor used to protect the organic shell. The Autobots need the armor more because their shells resemble humans, and need more protection compared to the Decepticons generally using monsterous shells that probably have more natural protection.

I would definitely personally be more than happy to just get characters like Bludgeon and Metalhawk who just have robot modes based on their shells, with alt modes based on the inner bot's alt modes. But that method would make Stranglehold very hard to do, and Doubleheader would really be stepping on Rack'n'Ruin's toes. Though an Octopunch that looks like his shell and turns into a crab would be a dream come true.

 

That's exactly what I'm afraid of, Rooster Teeth getting their hands on another Transformers trilogy.

 

Agreed. At least it might inform us as to where the toyline is going!

 

The caveat to that separation though is that Greenlight and Lancer were both WFC branded but used pre WFC molds, Skytread was specifically made compatible with Battletrap, Omega Supreme was intentionally scaled to CW Devastator, Jetfire, Scorponok, Snapdragon, Apeface and Fangry (Yes, he is absolutely WFC as the worlds collide 4 pack is double branded for Buzzworthy and WFC) all using the Titans Return Titanmaster setup and the weaponizers were intended to go with the pre WFC titans as evidenced by Slammer's product description mentioning the old 2013 Metroplex figure.

Hasbro didn't so much draw a hard line in the sand between the two as some fans think. These examples give credence for mixing any Generations figure from at least the last 10 years into a collection. In fact it encourages it.

 

I am very easy to impress. I don't care about Faux Parts or Partsforming or necessarily "accuracy". I just care about play value. Some figures can just suck. MP-44 is way too complex. I don't like "spaghetti Transformations", where it feels like the whole figure explodes and gets rebuilt.

And I was watching DrLockdown compare Kingdom Rodimus to the PotP Figure and SS86 Hot Rod and saw something familiar. I was looking at PotP Hot Rod (the inner robot before combining) and saw ball joints in the elbow, but hinge joints in the shoulder. This makes me think something: Is JP93 from the Jurassic Park Collaborative Figure Set with Tyrannocon Rex a Heavy Retool (to the point of only sharing certain parts) of a Power of the Primes Evolution Figure? Wait, I looked closer and he is a remold of Power of the Primes Jazz. It all clicks. Or it could be the Earthrise Datsun Mold. The Possibilities are nearly Endless.

Anyways, I speculate that we will get more Collaborative Figures as well. For some of my ideas, one is Project Knight, a two pack featuring Autobot K.I.T.T. and Decepticon K.A.R.R. They will be the same mold, either having the Datsun Mold or a Mold similar to Earthrise Hoist. I just don't want the front lightbar to be split.

They could even make fiction surrounding it.

 

Look Hasbro, if you're going to threaten employees and leakers with the threat of death by Buzzsaw, you really need to release a Buzzsaw figure.

Edit: And an enforcer like Buzzsaw needs good intelligence operatives and backup, so he's going to need Garboil and Howlback. And if there's three, you only need one more to make it a Selects 4pk.

Edit 2: If Covert Agent Ravage speaks with a Russian accent, I'm just gonna headcannon Howlback with the classic G.I.Joe Baroness voice.

 

Don't make me choose between the lives of others by releasing an army of murderous Buzzsaws and getting a step closer to finishing the 84 bots. I'm not sure I'll like where I end up.  

 

I'm probably misunderstanding, but JP93 is an entirely new mold, it's Voyager sized and has a wildly different alt mode to both of those figures.

Also, as cool as it would be, word from Wreckgar is that there was a proposed Knight Rider crossover, but it never came to fruition and most likely won't anytime soon. Definitely want to see more Collaboratives in general though, so I hope you're right.

I also got the impression following the ending that there would be a Legacy show. I'd love it to be like you said, seeing Aligned, G1, BW, and hopefully UT all together would be awesome. Hopefully they get longer seasons as well, Kingdom felt a little rushed plot-wise and I know they wanted more episodes to flesh it out.