Personally, I just like that Megatron apparently carries a set of binoculars around in his chestplate. Because of all the things a tyrannical war machine could be storing there, he chose binoculars. What else is in there? String? A cheese sandwich?

 

I like RTS Wreck-Gar better than Studio Series Wreck-Gar. Don't get me wrong, I like Studio Series Wreck-Gar, but the weird muppet mouth throws it off for me.

 

Just a list of random opinions:

Siege Optimus Prime is better than Earthrise Optimus Prime, though neither are particularly stellar.

Targetmasters are the worst implemented "little guy" gimmick, mainly due to the lack of original molds and transformations. They really need character-specific molds and deco.

The random vehicles that come with titanmasters often make better weapons than modern targetmasters. Some are better transformers even, like the triple changer that comes with Crashbash/Squeezeplay.

Judged by the unscientific metric of what I have and what I wouldn't mind having, Energon has generally better toys than Armada.

 

Hard agree. Targetmasters almost never look like convincing guns. Lionizer, smashdown, and the dino axe all have better weapon modes but their robots are rough at best.

 

Headmasters make sense as robots using transtectors, something I love from Japanese fiction vs US fiction. The whole powermaster think I kinda like in the US/UK comics, basically an organic filter dealing with toxins pumped into the atmosphere.
Target masters.... Nah. How adding a biological element to a computer targeting system really helps, I don't know. Maybe if we'd had some occasions where the TF was going to fire but was held back as the weapon itself saw something. Meh, can't really see it. Apologies if it's addressed better in Japanese fiction, I only got through the first few episodes of Headmasters !

Oh and from a toy basis, yeah, heads looked like heads, engines looked like engines and target masters looked like robots folded in half with a gun barrel on their back.

 

I'll throw my hat in with the "Wildly inconsistent scale between modes and characters drives me bonkers" camp. To me its especially egregious with combiners where one member is a vehicle that should be significantly larger or smaller than the others (e.g. motorcycles with cars, space shuttles with tanks) or when a triple changer has modes that entirely different scales (TR Broadside...)

Weirdly enough, I've noticed that Galaxy Force / Cybertron had a surprisingly consistent scale for despite the wacky scifi vehicle modes. I had Override, Hot Shot, Brakedown, Clocker, and Crumplezone lined up front of me and they have neat little seats in their cockpits that are roughly the same size. Even Megatron has a similar sized seat in vehicle mode, suggesting that his car mode is apparently a one-seater that is larger than a friggin' bus. There are a few outliers of course, like the way oversized motorcycles, but for the most part the vehicles look really good together.

 

We need a headmaster combiner.

 

Honestly, I think making the combiner kibble smaller transformers would be a great way to make the squads more imposing and not be so randomly thrown together. Make the helmets little headmasters, the hands their own guys, the feet too if we need. Go all in on it.

 

The lack of clear plastic on the faux windshield on SS86 Wreck-Gar's head bothers me way more than it should, so while I prefer the SS86 figure overall, I don't totally disagree.

 

Most mockups or fanart of an animated Devastator worked on that concept given that Dirtboss was basically a Headmaster already (...literally).

 

The lazy execution of fake parts is almost as bad as using fake parts.

 

Fake parts can be good when used well, but lazy execution definitely ruins it a lot of the time.

 

Faux parts are good when someone wants a screen-accurate robot whose proportions in fiction defied real-life physics and whose toy budget won't allow a more complex design. I prefer clever "honest" transformations over screen accuracy. But, not everyone has an issue with faux parts. I admittedly do. To me, they're like fake vents and useless wings on cars, fake breasts, colored contacts, faux shutters on house windows, gray-covering hair dye, etc. I like genuine stuff.

 

I hope the backlash against Legacy Bulkhead doesn’t lead to “oh look at that, we finally get non-G1 characters and people are just complaining about it!”
Yeah because the design sucks and strips every ounce of character out of it! We want non-G1 character updates, even “G1-ified” updates are fine just not as half-assed as this.

 

Using stolen Quintesson technology, the Headmasters can combine...

 

I kinda like it, but I thought the cool thing about Animated designs was their wonky proportions and cartoony style. And I thought the point of Legacy was to offer characters with an aesthetic that matched their respective universes. I'm cool with a geewunified Bulkhead, but I didn't think that was the intention of the series. Additionally, I don't especially care for the super-simple design and essentially shell-forming back.

 

I just hope everyone isn’t painted as being “ungrateful”, because there are plenty of valid reasons to be let down with this new Bulkhead

 

Oh they well be, since Bulkhead isn't G1.

And by the same people who threw a tantrum when ER Prime was revealed.

 

I actually would love this idea. But the problem I have with the figure is that it comes out of the Inferno/Grapple/ER Magnus style where the entire chest is the blocky front of the vehicle mode. I'm not a fan of that esthetic and passed on all the aforementioned figures in part because of that. If they had found a way to collapse part of the chest into itself or break up the lines better, then I think the figure would look miles better.

 

I never even watched RID, but I would be genuinely interested if MMC issued their Combaticons in Commandos deco. The colors on Ruination are damned cool.