Is availability a valid reason to ground-up redo a figure? They are reissuing guys like Dirge basically as-is now without issue. SS ROTF Jetfire and DOTM Shockwave go for a lot on the aftermarket, should they get brand new figures?

It's fair to believe certain characters are low priority, but doesn't it become a subjective guessing game at that point? We know why Snarl is in SS86, but can he really be 'justified' with a half second appearance in the movie, much like Grapple?

At the end of the day every fan of every series would love to see the characters from said series completed. I think the frustration lies in G1/86 meaning that that cast is completed multiple times over before anything else approaches completion once.

 

It's time to go big. Hear me out.

SS86 Unicron.

 

just like how SS86 prevents Live action stuff from existing? .-.

 

SS86 Unicron with half-eaten Moonbase 1.

 

I kinda agree with you on some points, and disagree on others. I think that SS86 was conceived for two reasons:

1. There were a lot of G1 characters left to do in WFC, but people were getting a little sick of the onslaught of G1 in the mainline, so they took many of those releases out of Kingdom and dropped them into SS86 instead. This is pretty obvious when you compare Kingdom to Studio Series at the time- it seems genuinely random which line a given character would end up in. Scourge? SS86. Cyclonus? Kingdom. Hot Rod? SS86. Galvatron? Kingdom. SS86 was an excuse to satisfy people who wanted more G1 without interfering with those who wanted new continuities.

2. Studio Series was running out of ideas at the time. Realistically there aren't many characters left to do for the live action movies. If SS86 never happened, they would have very quickly ran out of characters for Studio Series and the line would have died. SS86 gives a good way to pad the line so that live-action fans stay invested for longer.

Now that Legacy is around, having a reliable source of easily marketable G1 characters to choose from makes a great deal of sense. G1 is an easy sell for Hasbro, so SS86 was needed to balance the riskier character choices happening in the main line. That being said, the mission statement of movie-accurate characters being remade exactly how they appear on screen is and always has been a farce. SS86, by design, fills slots left in your mainline Generations collection. People like to call SS86 figures aesthetically different than mainline Generations, but that honestly isn't the case. There are simply too many examples of mainline and SS86 molds being used interchangeably for the SS86 "mission statement" to hold true. Coronation Starscream is an SS86 figure, and yet the base mold is from the mainline, that being the highly-greebled ER Starscream. IDW Blurr is branded as part of Legacy and yet mostly uses the sculpting from SS86 Blurr. The upcoming G2 Jazz is part of Legacy and is a direct repaint of SS86 Jazz. Same with G2 Grimlock. Even the character choices are suspicious- Scourge got an SS86 figure but Cyclonus and Galvatron didn't? It seems unlikely that Ironhide would get an SS86 figure after a very minor role in the movie before Cyclonus gets anything. Of course in reality Cyclonus did get a figure meant to go with SS86 Scourge... it just wasn't in SS86.

Which brings me to my final point: if the SS86 goal wasn't actually screen-accuracy, and was in fact just meant to be supplemental to the mainline- then the SS86 branding serves literally no purpose except to limit which characters can appear. At first this wasn't an issue. We were waiting on new Dinobots, a new Jazz, a new Scourge, etc, and the branding of the line they showed up in didn't much matter. But now that most of the major players from the 86 movie have been done either in SS86 or in the mainline, they're grasping at straws for which characters can appear. I think SS86 was very cool and necessary at first, but now that we're a couple years down the line, SS86 doesn't have much of a reason to exist. There's a new live action movie out, plus they're getting into the game designs, so Studio Series should have plenty of material to work with. It no longer needs to be padded by G1 characters to continue. That being said, the need for a G1-centric CHUG line still exists. People like G1. People will buy G1. Limiting the G1 subline entirely to characters who appeared in the 86 movie serves no purpose now, but I think a subline of G1 characters meant to supplement your CHUG shelf separate from Studio Series would still sell.

Maybe we could call it Classics or something.

 

So tell me which figures hasbro has in their pipeline waiting to release when 86 may be over with?

 

I wish they were are all on SS86 Hot Rod's level, some of them aren't.

But I'm still glad it exists. The Dinobots are a dream come true for me.

Even though Ironhide has had a few releases, this still might be the best we are gonna get.

 

as I and others mentioned. Characters from the games as well as a bunch of others from the movies themselves like the other AOE Dinobots, TLK Cons, Que, etc

 

Hasbro really messed up not catering to the millions of TLK Dreadbot fans out there ngl

 

Snarl hasn’t had a figure since POTP, this is his first proper sized figure so yes, regardless of the line he’s in he’s clearly justified. This sounds like you’re moving the goalposts now. First it was redos now it’s all new molds of characters who needed a proper figure for. Also availability is a reason a new figure would sell well which is what that line of thinking is in response to. Especially when the first version wasn’t the best. We ironhide has its feet hanging off the back and parts forms compared to an all in one like 86. A redo typically aims to be better than before AND if it’s more available then the first version that’s a bonus for collectors

So we would for sure be getting all of those if 86 didn’t exist?

 

“Dreadbot? Who is that? Anyways I can’t wait for my favorite iconic Transformers character, G1 Scrapheap!”

 

Uh, lets see... I got a list here.

"Que"
"Nameless guy who shows up for 10 seconds total"
"Volleybot"
"Bulkhead but he's called Hound."
"The Hitler Watch"
"That other guy who showed up in a single scene."
"Bonecrushers twin from ROTF"
"A 12 bot combiner team that becomes the dragon from TLK"
"Long haul but a different shade of green and a truck"
"Long Haul but a garbage truck"
"Devcon"
"Steve Buscemi bot"
"The other Garbage truck but its three guys instead of one."
"Shockwave but with a second head."
"The other Primes that appeared in that weird afterlife / near death scene from ROTF."

 

Scrapheap while relatively extensive of a retool, is an easy reuse of a mold belonging to a popular character

 

No, but I do think it's reason enough to do at least a reissue. Yes, or at least a reissue.

I think we can make educated estimates on character priority by looking at resell values of their previous version (if there even is one). For example, you can buy Earthrise Grapple new right now for like $25, so not a great candidate for SS86 imo.

 

Obviously they should be making a new Snarl alongside all of the other Dinobots. What I meant was we are getting into highly subjective territory where this or that live action character is bottom barrel or was only on screen for X seconds when we have characters done in 86 who were also only on screen for a few seconds. One should hope that the 'if they appeared at all they get an SS figure' applies to *all* series featured in Studio Series and not just 86.

Based on my research, when SS was purely live action from 2018-2020, Bayverse had approximately 85% of the line and Bumblebee Movie had the remaining 15%.

2021 onward, the breakdown is 38% 86, 36% BBM/ROTB, 18% Bayverse, 8% WFC Game.

It definitely seems likely to me that at least some of those guys would have happened if 86 didn't jump to owning nearly 40% of the line.

Very well thought out response! I get exactly where you are coming from - I totally understand that many of those early 86 characters were those that needed to be done sooner rather than later and that's what helped to get them out while also supporting Beast Wars in Kingdom. Makes sense to me.

I think my other issue - and this is probably a separate argument, is that if they were truly running out of live action characters, well, they should have just gotten those out of the way and moved on. Then you might have had a line that was entirely 86! And that might have been perfectly acceptable, because no one else was being left waiting. I wouldn't be wondering about series balance per line if one of those series was fully checked off and peaced out. But that might be another discussion.

 

So is Dreadbot tho? They literally made Crowbar back in 2018.

 

Even all of the remaining Bayverse characters aside, as long as they keep making new movies Studio Series will never run out of characters. Rise of the Beasts is doing a great job dominating Studio Series this year and I'm sure the same will happen when TF: One releases. I think Studio Series as a whole is in pretty good shape conceptually. Focus hard on the new movies when it's a movie year, and do 86/Gamer Edition/remaining 1-5 characters as needed to fill gaps and add variety. 86 Ultra Magnus is not super exciting as the first SS Commander, but he also has the job of justifying a second Commander slot to execs. It's a safe release of a popular character that will most likely sell well, which will lead to more Studio Series Commanders in the future.

Those of us looking for the remaining 1-5 characters don't have a lot to look forward to in 2023 (unless Hatchet finally comes out) or 2024 (only TLK Mohawk IIRC). But we were sure eating good in 2022 (Sideways, Galvatron, Hot Rod, Crosshairs, The Fallen). I don't think Hasbro has forgotten us.

You can't tell me it wouldn't be the coolest shit ever if they actually pulled this off.

 

Those bozos put NEST Bumblebee in Studio Series while Bayverse and 86 fans are still waiting for more characters.

 

I was critical during Kingdom, when we have 86 movie characters like Galvatron & Cyclonus, Rodimus & Ultra Magnus showing up. But that was me being biased and wanting to get as many Beast Wars characters out as possible.

With SS86 I think it stands as a nice way to get those characters out there in a ‘this is probably the best official version you’re ever going to get’ for these characters but without bogging down the mainline of Legacy. I know Bayverse fans don’t appreciate that it looks to be coming at the expense of more Bayverse figures, but I feel like they’ve done anyone of any real importance at this point.

Moreover it represents a chance to do figures as they should (IMO) be done, no gimmicks. I love Siege Shockwave for what he is, but if SS86 gives me an option for a non-greebled, non-battle damaged version? I’ll dump the Siege in a heartbeat. I own Netflix Soundwave and love it, but if they offer me a more cartoon accurate version I’m there day 1.
Kind of like Legacy Blitzwing; the TR versions of the triple changers were awfully hamstrung by the inclusion of a gimmick they never should have had, the headmasters. As a result they were only ever going to be ‘stand ins’ until a proper version arrived. Legacy Blitzwing is released, TR Blitzwing goes off to a new home. Same thing happened to Astrotrain in Siege and will (hopefully) happen to Octane before too long.

 

ss86 was not a "mistake", it's entirely on people who want everything done in WFC to be redone because of whatever fucking reason.

we don't need another shockwave, we don't need another mirage or prowl or hoist or astrotrain.