Same--Menasor is the only one I would replace, since he generally looks weird and the roof hinges on my Dead End and Wilder seem to have gotten tighter and feel like they will snap if I transform them...I'd even replace the G2 version (which I got for $30) as the off deco they copied from someone's Deviantart page bugs me a little (the one time I would have bought upgrade repro labels, and Toyhax never made any...)

 

Genuine question: what makes you enjoy it so much?

 

I like the gimmick a lot too, then again I loved rebirth as a kid. Binary bonding with a Transformer.. Who wouldn't want that?! Especially a city former like maximus. Yeah I wanted to be Spike. Not so much these days anymore haha...

 

Fair enough, in universe it seems pretty cool. I guess I always felt as toys they weren’t that good.

 

I think they're also just a fun play pattern, especially with the potential of what they did with Titans Return. Being able to make big bases manned by those tiny characters and having multiple ways for them to interact with the larger Transformers is just a neat thing. Probably another reason I like the Mini-Cons and Micromasters, though those are less standard, and thus can't interact in some of the same ways (i.e. driving vehicles and sitting in turrets).

 

Oh I love Minicons and Micromasters as well!
I just personally have always found that headmasters take away from the main figure. To each their own I guess : ) : )

 

There's also the potential for turning existing characters into new and/or reimagined characters, by swapping heads. F'r'instance, when I got SS86 Hot Rod, I took TR Hot Rod, Titan Master Ptero, and the Thunderhawk sticker set from Toyhax, and did this...



I might also get SS Thundercracker (the Nitro Zeus retool) to give to Overkill as body, and make Dreadwing  

 

Because you can swap heads with the characters. I know generally almost every modern figure has a swappable head because of the ball joints in them, but headmasters and titan masters just feel fun. They can also interact with other toys in titan master/humanoid mode

 

There are definitely scenes where Tidal Wave is unabashedly huge in Armada being twice the size of a combined Optimus. But I think for the most part he wasn't really much bigger than twice the size of Megatron and this is definitely true in Energon. His size relative to Scorponok in Energon in fact is a bit inconsistent because he's been less than twice his height but also makes him look like a deluxe in Megatron Ressurected. If we do end up with a new Armada Megatron (which is starting to seem more realistic) he'd most likely be a leader or at least a really tall voyager (looking at how SS ROTF and DOTM Megatrons were done, both of these are possible at the same height). The thing is Tidal Wave also interacts with other characters; the scene that instantly comes to mind for instance is his handshake with Jetfire (granted he's a bit undersized in that scene and was at toy scale). If we're talking a titan that's more like Omega or any non combiner he'd be way too big to feel like he could interact normally; a commander sized figure would still make him noticeably bigger than a leader but small enough to still feel like he belongs in a crowd which he definitely did feel like in the cartoons whenever he was with the others. A more combiner sized Titan might work but he'd still be a smidge too big.
UT ratchets would 100% make the figure better anyway and just looking at the SS Optimus Jetfire combination they're definitely capable of engineering a combined mode out of two differently sized figures that are both well articulated.

I would love for this to be the case but seeing how they've mostly been going more show accurate a new Bruticus would probably have a Blastoff chest. Although who knows; if we're lucky he could have two chest layers where removing the Blastoff one could reveal a toy accurate one; very unlikely though

 

This actually happened to my UW Dead End, the roof hinge became so tight, it just snapped right off one day. I was fortunate to find someone selling an individual UW Dead End figure on eBay (for a hefty upcharge, of course), but I don’t intend to ever repeat that mistake again.

So a new Menasor is pretty appealing to me. (A new Orthia would be amazing, too, that Elita-1 torso mold is terrible.)

 

It's only a problem if you buy things just to fill imaginary holes in a collection instead of just stuff you actually want.

Of course we all do it anyway, it's hard not to. I know I did with CW Menasor. He's a big letdown and I should have just skipped him and hoped for something better to come along or just learned to live without.

 

The Marvel Comics, initially. I hated Rebirth because I felt they screwed up the Nebulon characters. I wanted to see Galen and Llyra and Zarak like they were in the comics. Alas, the comics ended up ignoring them except for Zarak. In the end, I love Transformers with little partners. So all of the *masters appealed to me as a kid/teen, though I didn’t have that many. I actually quit collecting from 1990-2002 with a few one off exceptions. Armada pulled me back in with the little partners and I’ve stuck with it since then.

 

Yeah. Maybe three years from now I'll change my tune lol

 

I remember when I bought stuff just to fill out a cast of a movie or show and man, it didn't make me happy. Like half the toys were ok But I didn't feel anything from them or want to mess with them.

 

The fact that they are tiny little pilots, and the fact that the designers have to create an interior adds a whole new level of playability.

 

Thank you all for your replies!! It’s super cool learning about why other people enjoy things that maybe I don’t find much interest in : ) : )

 

I like the Japanese version of it where it's smaller guys taking control of a bigger body, but not the Rebirth one with binary bonding between two individuals

 

Agreed.

 

It’s not my favorite, but I like how it allows designs that wouldn’t work without extra engineering. Twinferno and Triggerhappy are my examples here.

 

Plus, it is also reminiscent of the origins of the original Transformers toys (Diaclone and Microman) where small pilots controlled larger vehicles and robots.