$25 for a $12 figure in a basic shell probably wouldn't sell, it sounds fun but the pricetags are very high for a limited use toy, and unfortunately it's really hard to create yet another SKU between those two pricepoints. It would be easier to sell this as a deluxe at voyager pricepoint, we see this from time to time with stuff like Hot Rod and Ironhide, at least the toy is significantly-sized with those, where a $25 core class would be really difficult to convince people to buy.

A fun idea that would never happen would be to offer core figures like Bomb Burst at retail, and exclusive versions from Fan-Channel that have a second head and a simple pretender shell with just one or two paint ops so fans can paint them up more if they want. It wouldn't be profitable but it'd be an official product.

 

Honestly, I feel like the only “true” pretender we might get will be a leader class Thunderwing with a core fogure that can fit inside him.

 

Loved seeing the host rep his own childhood Bomb-burst right on camera for the Hasbro team!

 

All I got from this is.... DOTM Devcon is back on the table!  

 

Personally I think they should keep doing with what they’re doing with the pretenders. For me at least the inner robots are bland and the shells while cool looking (at least on the Decepticon side) don’t transform so feel pointless as the main feature of a Transformers toy, but blending both of them creates something with an interesting design and can transform.

 

Interesting to hear there were restrictions on what characters they used to be able to make toys of. I kind of assume this means "If they weren't G1 or can't work with a G1 character's mold, then don't bother asking" kind of rule.

Nice to see the focus seems to be on characters who haven't figure rep in 10+ years. Personally this is why I'm happy SS86 happened, I assumed that moved a lot of the '84-'86 mainstays over to Studio Series.

 

YES to Pretenders!

 

I\'m for the idea of something similar to a Titan Master where the TINY \'bot is the \'pretender\' and the larger \'bot is the robot, as shown in the Japanese cartoon... that always made more sense. But I\'m also down for Voyager priced figures that are basically Core class robots inside Deluxe sized shells. I do expect Thunderwing to be done as a Double Pretender... bonus points if it\'s a large figure that can use the old Generations version as an inner robot.

 

i get where you're coming from, and my one big gripe is theyre mixing up size classes for them so ill never have my decepticon masterforce trio looking good, but i think out of all transformers concepts, Pretenders are the absolute hardest to port to a mainline. In animation, Pretenders...
-had two alternate "robot " modes
-each of those modes could randomly phase-warp to the other when necessary
-both of those modes were totally different sizes within fiction. in the show, the sizes were actually backwards from the g1 toy. Bomb Burst was a human-ish sized bat monster, and a transformer sized jet plane dude.

Theres... theres just no way to bring all of that together into a mainline toy without breaking the laws of physics. Core Bomb Burst nails it for me, give us the more interesting robot mode and fudge in the pretender alt mode. Conceptually i seriously think we cant get closer, unless we had some weird Punch-Counterpunch thing goin on with both the bat and robot mode, as well as the jet. Im fine without shells. i dont need a big, limited, hollow bat statue on my shelf. (in the show they werent even really shells, like i said they just phase warped between robot and creature)

What would you propose to get use closer to animation accurate, Masterforce style pretenders? (not being snarky, legit curious what you would want)

Side note: god im happy we arent getting much in the way of human headmasters. im glad we're getting all the creepy decepticon monsters, its so much more interesting than "man in power suit" imo.

 

Well they said that was for the Studio Series, not the mainline.

So its not a case of, that's UT, we can't do that, It was more steering clear of AOE and TLK which were very fresh in the public mind, TLK being an abysmal failure and AOE sharing most of the cast and design.

Well no, its that AOE (outside of grimlock) wasn't being considered at the start of the line. We have a bunch of AOE/TLK stuff that are coming in now and no doubt more to come.

 

While I like the current "outer shell transforms into inner vehicle" MO, It would be really cool to have 1-2 special characters like Thunderwing or Bludgeon have the shells plus inner robot combo at the commander or leader price point.

 

In the cartoon of g1 the inner pretender robots are normal sized transformers and their shells were mostly human sized so that they could pretend. So core class for the shells and deluxe or voyager for the inner bots would be in line with the show.

 

I still don't fully understand the "AOE and TLK were off limits" rule considering we did get a handful of new-mold AOE/TLK characters early on, like Grimlock, Lockdown, Stinger, Drift... obviously they were definitely less of a focus than Movies 1-3 and the current (at the time) Bumblebee movie, but they were there. And of course we had a handful of TLK toyline repaints released in SS as well, like Cogman, Drift, and KSI Boss.

I get from a planning standpoint they wanted to prioritize older movie characters who were A) more popular and B) not as recently released as toys (the TLK toyline had just wrapped up a few months prior to Studio Series), that makes sense to me. I just have a hard time seeing it as a firm rule.

In any case, we are very close to 07-ROTF-DOTM being completed in Studio Series which puts the remaining focus squarely on AOE and TLK by default. And of course they've already started delving more into them with this year's releases.

 

Ohhh true yeah that does make sense. Basically reverse of what the original toys were

 

Yes yes yes to Pretenders. Core-sized inner bots with shells at Deluxe price point sounds perfect.

 

You mean the ones from Super God Masterforce correct? The Pretenders never had a US animated appearance. And going off that, what about the three Decepticon Pretenders whos shells were regular sized as they were meant to be ancient inspiration for mythical/fantasy monsters.

 

I want the Pretender Beasts like fucking bad. Carnivac, Catilla, Snarler, and Chainclaw. I feel like the animal bodies would be large enough to allow posable limbs whilst having a good sized cavity for the robot inside.

Hell, most Pretenders have some sort of mechanical backpack or armour. That could be the "hatch" for the inner robot, leaving the rest of the shell a largely unencumbered figure.

 

I 100% support the idea of paying Voyager for Deluxe + Shell. Heck, I wouldn't even mind if the Shell was nothing more than just that - a plastic shell with little (maybe arm?) to no articulation and ability to hold the same weapon as the inner robot.
Hm.. come to think of it, any 3rd party folks interested in filling this niche if Hasbro keeps putting out the characters?

 

I prefer the shell figure even smaller 2 inches or so. Make a subline of them like red. Throw in mini gi joes and human characters and you’ve got a line that just keeps going! Shells do nothing for me.

 

I'd be happy with that execution but once again, I'm not wedded to them all being the same Size class/Pricepoint, say Cloudburst from a Triggerhappy or Misfire Partial at Deluxe but the POTP Decoy Suit shell gun portion retooled as a more G1-accurate homage to his OG1 gun for example, with Waverider & Landmine larger Size class/Pricepoints (simply because a sleek Cybertronian jet is easy at Deluxe but a Sub or Mining vehicle suit larger scaling IMHO).

Also a more sophisticatedly transforming Waverider would be a great basis for a Nautica re-use, I reckon.