Bit off-topic, but I’d argue an easy way to introduce Deszaras & Liokaiser is to simply market them as Powermasters now.

I know it’s not 100% accurate to the canon, but considering their companions are also ‘rectangle that turns into a robot or animal’ that should be an easy enough sell and establish a big enough play pattern with other figures, especially as hardcore fans know the difference.

You could even give the regular US Powermaster engines a third weapon mode, turning them into Powermaster / Targetmaster hybrids (which the Brestforce essentially are) I think that would make them a much easier sell then.

Plus if Star Saber’s success is an indication that HasTak may now focus more on Japanese G1 going forward, considering for the first few years Japan & the West are closely aligned, an easy place to start is with later G1 like the Powermasters (who were released over here, but had a bigger focus in Japan)

 

1000% agreed. A perfect example of this is the POTP Dinobots. Made them combiners and we see how they turned out compared to the newer studio series ones

 

Mine is paid up as well. Can’t wait to have this in hand

 

Guess Netflix Soundwave doesn't count as interacting with other figures since he came with tapes. Deathsaurus won't be a combiner, this isn't combiner wars.

 

Spoiler: Improper Updates

Do I think they'll shoehorn in a combining gimmick? No, but let's not pretend every new figure lately has been an exact 1:1 show only functionality kinda thing. Some add features like transformations, some remove features, some are just wildly inaccurate.

 

Awww c’mon, leave the Ark out of this. It’s a good toy! The last autobot homage is a bonus, the ark mode is a solid nod to G1 (I didn’t say slavish recreation, just a solid nod), and it’s a 19 inch tall bot, which is always awesome in itself. Is he perfect? No, nothing is, but he doesn’t deserve being chained to that gang of misfits he’s been lumped in with here.

Also, DS doesn’t need to be a combiner. He’s already combined with his “pectoral pals” and that’s good enough.

 

Was trying to make a very dated reference to Rorschach/Watchmen.

I will take whatever interaction I can get these days, though.

 

Never said he was a bad toy, never judged any good or bad qualities on any of the toys (here at least), just that, if we're talking strictly recent releases, these are the least accurate updates that have been put out. I even agreed that DS likely won't be a combiner, and I agree that he shouldn't, just saying "we've got nothing but proper updates" is an incorrect statement.

 

What I meant is overall proper updates for a solo character like Deathsaurus, adding a combiner gimmick makes no sense. You agree with me on that. Generally speaking updates have been proper updates and not having a line wide gimmick like Titans returns or Combiner wars where everyone was a combiner

 

Also I never said we got nothing but proper updates, just that updates nowadays have been proper , generally speaking of course.

 

But but the hollow parts!!

 

Personally, the ark really is more of a new character rather than an update

 

Unless you want to count the Kingdom cartoon treating Teletraan-1 as the Ark transformed.

 

Can always treat it as a Transector with Teletraan-1 as the 'Compmaster'.

 

I’d argue the difference with the Ark is in the past (TT Metroplex / TR Fort Max notwithstanding) Titan toys have been designed for robot / combined mode first, with the other modes being secondary.

Whereas the Ark is the other way round, making the ship mode as accurate as possible this time, while making it as accurate to Mainframe / The Last Autobot where possible.

 

I'd argue the toy ark is a different and new character since Teletraan-1 is his own figure. Plus the cartoon and toyline are separate from each other in terms of story telling

 

Teletraan-1 has never had a toy prior to Kingdom though. An argument could be made that Mainframe is not an accurate update, but there's not really a previous Ark figure to update, so the Ark itself is more of a new character to the toyline

 

Agreed, I consider the Ark to be a new character within the toyline's story universe. The WFC cartoon is much murkier, but we can discount it anyway.

 

I don't have the Ark and bought "Mainframe" second hand. But since this will always be Mainframe to me:


I've decided to rename him "Mentat." Thus he's completely a new character for me. 

 

Kind of hard to stain a mouth plate. For how else will the others be warned.