I’ve been wondering something it seems after introducing the corrupt caste system backstory they’ve been making the various sub-groups and body types (seekers) into all most entire subspecies. though even before that with Bayverse we have the Constructicons who were way more than 6.

BW and Prime had the Predacons though TFP versions have little if any connection to their G1 Counterparts. If anything they’re the G1 Terrorcons as a species since you know the TFP version of the G1 Terrorcons who make up Abominus were in the toyline. But they already used Terrorcons for the dark energon zombies.

I wonder if the Monsterbots are Firecons are related to them? Cyberverse included a tribe of Repugnus lookalikes.

In Aligned the Insecticons and apparently by Rid2015 the Dinobots have become a subspecies.

Iirc In JG1 so counting the Beast Era. There was also an army of Seacons (Turtler and an army of drones) from Masterforce plus the pirate crew of BW2.

Now in Japan the G1 Combaticons are are called the Combatrons. BW2 we had a group of planes called Combatrons (which include guys called Starscream, Thrust, and Dirge). Which gives me the odd idea of Seekers being a particular body type of “Combaticon/Combatron”. With Starscream naturally in charge of the Air Force while Onslaught commands the ground forces/Army (or at least the military vehicles portion of it). Finally, there were the Combatrons of Car Robots (who were repaints of the original team). Also iirc in Aligned the Aerialbots and Jetfire were formally Seekers.

The Protectobots in Animated were also their own faction predating the Autobots.

The idea I want to pitch here is that the Decepticon forces or at least Megatron’s part of it (Scorponok has his splinter faction and so on) are divided into “platoons” named after the various sub-groups.

Seacons are obviously the Navy. Aside from two pretenders there isn’t really any other aquatic troops. It’s basically just them and a name like Seacons is pretty all encompassing.

(Though I’d obviously add Tidal Wave as their living boat if I were to bring in characters from other parts of the franchise. Seriously, if the Autobots can have Sky Lynx, Omega Supreme, and Jetfire why not?)

I’d place the Battlechargers under the Stunticons what with them all being cars. They’d be the urban warfare or light infantry unit (granted there is nothing “light” about Motormaster).

The Triggercons could be the Artillery Branch of the Combaticons. The Combaticons being the heavy infantry, aviation branch (which at least the US army has-in this case Vortex, Blast-Off), etc.
(The 1992? Predators would also count as Combaticons)

The Clones (Pounce and Wingspan) would be with the Predacons. Being regular animals the Insecticons could fall into this group too, but I’ll keep them separate. Let the Predacons be the birds and beasts.

The Firecons (being walking flamethrowers they’d fall under the Chemical Corps of the army), but being monsters I’d place them under the Terrorcons. …wait wasn’t there a TFP version of Cindersaur alongside the TFP G1 Terrorcons together under the banner of the TFP Predacons? Wow, this works perfectly. Plus Chemical Weapons including Flamethrowers would easily fall under weapons of “Terror”.

The Constructicons are of course the Engineering branch.

I’d lump Duocons, Triplechangers, and Sixshot together under special forces since in DW they were part of Shockwave’s multi-form super soldier experiments. Though their alt-modes make Astrotrain and Octane also part of the Logistics branch (If there is a thing).

Soundwave and his Cassettes run the communication/intelligence network.

That leaves Megatron (leader), Shockwave (military ops. Commander), Trypticon (super weapon/assault base), and Reflector (the face of the all purpose grunt or given there a camera the security forces/military police).

According to DW the Nemesis can hold a crew of 200. It won’t be an even 20 all around but i think I can make this work for an idea I have.

 

What would be a good cybertronian version of the saying "out of the frying pan, into the fire"?

 

If the Stunticons became their own splinter faction they'd set up shop on Velocitron and members would include: Motormaster, Drag Strip, Dead End, Breakdown, Wildrider, Runamuck, Runabout, and Counter-Punch from Classic G1.
Blackjack and Off-Road from Combiner Wars
Ransack and Crumplezone from the Unicron Trilogy
Knockout (later quits), Slashmark, Wildbreak, Heatseeker from Aligned
Toxitron from Animated or Universe
Barricade from the Bay Movie Era

Anyone got any other ideas?

 

Maybe something like "out of the scrap shredder, unto the swarm of scraplets" or "out of Helex' torso, into Kaon's seat" or "dodged Straxus' scythe just to slip into the smelting pool".

 

A few possibilities?

- Premium pricing.
- Limited production.
- No need to budget for a line with multiple characters.
- Ability to produce only popular, or fan favorite characters.
- Targeted marketing, e.g. serving the market for a hyper detailed toy of a very specific iteration of a character.
- Lack of quality control constraints, not a knock; but you're not making a high end collector figure that needs to stand up to an 8 year old or a 40 year old playing with it.

There's a lot of moving parts, and it's being disingenuous to pretend any of these possibilities do not factor into third party toy making. Lord knows, I have enough third party Cliffjumpers to spotlight what I've mentioned above, and I will gladly throw cash at a Diaclone accurate Mirage. As fond as I am for G1 as an idea, I love that weird pseudo Sphinx head my Mirage toy had back in the day and not the G1 take... Or Windcharger for that matter. Shield mouth > Cartoon Face.

Of course Hasbro could address this by including swappable faces, or heads as they have with some figures (I think I've heard tell of this).

 

"Out of the flames, into the smelter / smelting pit"?

Something like that, maybe.

 

Out of the acid rain and into the smelting pit.

 

I know this isn’t a popular take on Thundercracker, but this is pretty much my idealized “mind’s view” of the character. As a kid I mentally blended the toy box art with the more heroic proportions of the animation model, and that’s basically what Takara started to do with the Masterpiece line before going pure toon.



I only recently discovered the Studio Ox art, which I think is fantastic. I love it. I found a collection of uncolored drawings that I’ve been coloring to my liking, and this is my ideal deco for TC. I know, it’s not the usual light-blue henchman from the cartoon, but it’s what I prefer.

 

god, if only hasbro would make this deco out of one of the seeker molds.

 

You and I might be the only ones interested!

 

If HasTak is listening, feel free to throw my name in the hat for this.

 

IIRC the Insecticons' function were: Electronic Warfare (Shrapnel), Psychological Warfare (Bombshell and Venom-the leader), Espionage (Kickback), Thief (Chop Chop), Warrior (Ransack), and Gunner (Barrage). I feel except for the last two there is an overall theme of some kind, but I can see Ransack and Barrage as the "muscle" of the team.

I'm just struggling to think of the term it would be called. Covert Operations?

 

You’re correct on the functions and “covert operations” would describe the team nicely if they weren’t giant robots that turn into brightly-colored giant mechanical insects. Back on Cybertron they may have had fairly inconspicuous alt modes, but “big-assed bugs” pretty much negate the possibility of covert activities on Earth.

I would love for the Deluxe Insecticons to be reinserted into the media, though— even if they can’t strictly adhere to their original borrowed toy designs.

 

iirc in Marvel comics they were capable of mass shifting down to the size of real insects. Would that help their covert activities?

 

That certainly would. Mass shifting is one of my personal pet peeves— I don’t like it and wish it wasn’t used in the franchise— but I don’t think most people take issue with it.

 

So Transformers was made from reusing Diaclone and Microchange toys, with diaclone meant to be scale vehicles that turn into robots for people to pilot and microchange being robots that pretend to be actual toys and appliances. I wonder how the franchise would've turned out if instead of mixing the toylines for each faction, they kept them divided, so like Bumblebee and the other penny racer minibots would be on the same side as like Soundwave and Megatron while guys like Starscream would be on the same side as Optimus.

Would they have made the microchange toys the good guys to play into a David v Goliath type premise, or would they have played more into the deception/imposter among us type angle?

Obviously there's no way to know, but I at least think it's interesting to think about.

 

I like it I like it a lot
It doesn’t scream “thunder cracker” to me But considering how many of those jets we saw I would’ve loveed to see this color motif on a character at some point

If you have a link to those studio ox artwork I’d love to see it all if you don’t mind posting it

No I’m sure you’d find a lot more fans interested in seeing a toy of this made out of maybe the classic mold or the masterpiece mold

 

This is why it says “Thundercracker” to me:


My first exposure to Transformers was through the toys, months before the G1 cartoon debuted. I completely understand why the light-blue, white-faced version is more familiar to most people, but this was the Thundercracker that established the character for me.

 

I full understand where your coming from

I was just explaining how I felt, I wasn’t trying to tell you that you were wrong of anything
I was exposed to the toys first as well, but The Thundercracker toy wasn’t one of the gets I got early on

my first was Starscream and soon after Skywarp, but I never got a Thundercracker toy till half way through season 2

But I would still love to see them use that color scheme on a future Thundercracker release or at least on the so many repaints of seekers they release all the time

 

I really wish they'd stop making Shockwaves newer versions turn into wierd tripod tank-things. It's not intimidating.