The sales numbers for Legacy will determine what happens next. I personally have interest in about half the announced figures or fewer.

 

Starscream himself will remain a staple in the line. I think that much is irrefutable. However, it doesn't have to be G1 Starscream.

As long as there is some version of Starscream (or Optimus, Megatron, or [insert iconic Transformer here]), the general public isn't going to care which continuity it's from. As long as he has a black helmet, wings on his back with Decepticon insignia, and transforms into a jet - it's Starscream.

As far as Legacy goes, I'll have to see. Laser Optimus (and the inevitable Scourge repaint) are musts. Finishing out the BW characters as well. As far as UT and Prime, I'll reserve judgment until I see the physical product, rather than CGI renders.

 

If Scourge doesn't have Car Robots pink, it can go to hell. It can go to hell and die . . .


Back on topic (sort-of) I'm really curious to see how Armada Starscream turns out.

 

I haven't bought a single ER Seeker, and only got Siege Thundercracker because he was on clearance. I have the G1 guys, the Armada Seekers and Classics. That's plenty for my collection.

I'm not against buying individual Seekers if the design is novel, but I've long since sworn off getting the complete set, especially since Hasbro has gone beyond the generic redecos and is apparently just tossing darts at a color wheel at this point.

 

As someone who owns every retail release of the Classics Seeker mold by both Hasbro and Takara, plus a good chunk of exclusives*, I'm going to say that I'm perfectly happy having bought only Earthrise Starscream and no other deco or tooling of that figure.



* I think. I know I don't have the latter few BotCon exclusives like Nacelle because... well, because BotCon.

 

This is me. CHUG Seekers are one of the rare groups where I will even get repaints at all…much less multiple molds and multiple repaints of each mold. It’s a bit outside of my level of crazy. I only got Starscream out of Seige…but I’ll be all-in on the 6 basic seekers from the ER mold, and that will be my only set of Seekers. After that, I am done with Seekers. I can’t imagine getting ALL of the Seekers in every mold. It would be nuts.

 

Transformers moving away from G1.

 

Your complaints and criticisms are completely valid in my book even though I bought in on the ER seekers. Just the original trio, because I refuse to pay over msrp for a design that while I enjoy does not impress me.

This part I'm not as optimistic about. We went over a decade before we got new G1 style seeker between Classics and ER. Sad thing is they could've done a damn waist swivel, similar to how the did with Cyclonus. There is enough play in the hips I feel like I can fake a limited waist, but a dedicated swivel would've been awesome...

 

They could’ve but Takara for some reason only gave Hasui half the time to design Earthrise Starscream(which is weird because not only is Starscream a main character but Hasui’s nickname IS Mr. Starscream. This was their chance to make Earthrise Starscream THEE Generations G1 based Starscream for years to come).

 

The thing that's worse in all this, is that my criticisms and such are about the shortcoming, but I do admit that the alt modes (at least from the top mostly) do look great. I want to like them, and I think that the coneheads alt modes are gorgeous... but I can't like a toy for just half of it to the level that they are. Even if I wanted the coneheads, I refuse to hunt them as hard to get exclusives and pay the scalper pricing.

You could easily put me high on the list that wishes that Hasbro hadn't done the "good enough" thing with the seekers, especially when the Siege mold was darn close to perfect in most ways.

And about the possibility of the future, again, we're seeing a LOT of characters getting redone quite quickly, and with the distribution issues, I can't imagine that nobody at Hasbro hasn't realized that a lot of fans have missed out on a lot of figures, and that they have a window to profit from it, before too many just end up fed-up and leave the hobby altogether.

I can understand that some believe that 6 to 10 years is "a lot" as being younger, you can't realize how fast a decade can go by, but I would easily see a new mold released within 3 years. With the impact of 3d modelling and the speed and ease a design can be create compared to the wood prototypes and expensive molds from even 20 years ago, they could easily hash out new design on a yearly basis without that much trouble. I would think that such a scenario might make those that have chased these releases and spent a small fortune to get a back chill up their spines, but that's the way it goes... one shouldn't buy into anything that isn't "good enough" so easily/quickly, but I can understand the fear of missing out "if" these are the last seekers even done like this. I just don't believe that this mold deserve the praise it's gotten. I know that I will never care for it and never will have regret of not having a single one, but that's just me, and I look towards the next one with a bit of hope that it will be better.

The irony would be that with how cheaper and lower quality that we've seen lately from Hasbro, that the next version might correct all of the fault, but at the same time have it's own set of flaws that mades it just as bad... and why I already stated that I might end up skipping the next version too.

 

I'm kind of shocked to learn I wasn't the only person with the mindset of why do I need Earthrise when I have Classics. I have no intention of ever getting the Siege Seekers (nor any potential retools) and, I was going to skip the Earthrise Seekers as well due to not having the Coneheads and Starscream being OoP (kind of but not really) but, then they announced SS86 Coronation Starscream and my response was:



and I placed a preorder for SS86 Coronation Starscream as well as the Earthrise Skywarp & Thundercracker 2 pack.

I'll be using the Classics Coneheads until the Earthrise ones get a re-issue or when something better ultimately comes along for the 50th anniversary (I don't care about the size difference because the Coneheads being miniature lackeys is hysterical to me).

While Earthrise didn't improve on everything that I would have liked (and altered/removed some things that I did like), it's a lot closer to what I wish the Classics Seekers had been and that's what ultimately knocked me off the fence. The Classics Seekers/Coneheads will always have a better silhouette and proportions to me though because, they have a heavy DON vibe going on (which makes sense given that he helped Shogo Hasui and Eric Siebenaler design it). If the Earthrise Seekers had that same vibe (I didn't know about the Coneheads until far too late), I wouldn't have had any internal debate and they would have been an instant purchase.

 

Good use of the meme, but it works better with the caption, as not everyone has seen R&M.

That was my thought process on the Siege Seekers. I forget exactly what switched me from "fuck all of them" to "give me all of them so I can fuck them". Maybe it was when BBTS had Redwing for a decent price and I figured out that I'd be able to get nearly all of them except Skywarp (whom I ended up getting).

 

I think the problem is the coneheads look far too smooth because that wasn't meant to be a head design. In other continuities when they do a conehead design theres actually some detail around the face so it fits in better and actually works.

I would love it if generations versions of G1 Seekers had the option of switching between a Block head and a conehead

 

You can laugh, but there are a lot of us who are just plain tired of G1. Hasbro needs to change things up a bit, and there's a lot of TF history that Generations has covered only slightly, if at all.

 

I don’t get it. I thought SS86 Coronation Starscream was just the same figure with a few Medieval Barbie accessories thrown in.

 

Earthrise Starscream is OoP and the price is climbing. I do not own one because I didn't know about anything after Siege Shockwave, Megatron or Optimus Prime until May of 2021 as I stopped keeping track (the line at that point wasn't what I was looking for and I figured I would need to skip another design cycle). I wasn't interested in trying to track down a MISB copy of Earthrise Starscream for MSRP and not having the stock OH for an exchange if one was needed.

SS86 solves that issue while adding articulated hands, the coronation gear as well as the Decepticon throne (all of which would easily cost as much or more via 3rd party and aftermarket products). For me, Starscream doesn't have to only wear it for a few seconds just because that's how it was in TFTM.

 

Um...yes? Dead serious. There's only so many times you can milk 1984-1987 before the udder starts bleeding.

See: 1996 - 2006. 10 years. Leaning too heavily on G1 almost killed Transformers in the early '90s. Come on, bro. The brand was already getting stale before Kingdom introduced the BW characters.

(Psst. Spoiler alert: Legacy is heading in that direction).

 

Ah, I didn’t notice the articulated hands. If they could rotate it might almost be worth it, but I’m not into accessories. I like one or two weapons, and usually toss other stuff in the bin. That’s all just pricetag fluff to me.

 

Okay, but a lot of the design is ripped right from the classics mold. Not to mention multiple 3Ps have produced seekers with a waist swivel. Time constraints seems like a weak excuse in this situation at least to me...

I agree, the Siege Seeker design is better in most respects.

I'm 45. Realizing how fast time goes by is exactly why I finally caved on the ER Seekers lol.

I'll disagree with the whole lower quality, as I think the mainline is killing it right now. I suppose it comes down to I've wanted great Voyager seekers for a long time. Are the ER ones great NO, but they are good, and I don't care to wait forever...

 

Hasui did mention that it was based on previous versions like Classics Starscream in the interview within the context that he was given half the dev time compared to other figures. In addition, the concepts given to him seem to not have been from G1 and it seems like he was the 1 who went for the G1 approach since it had most of what Hasbro/Takara wanted anyways.

It may seem like a weak excuse but I place the blame on the higher ups. However it’s not surprising given that they only gave Yuki 2 weeks or less to design MP-05 Megatron.