Hey, I for one think Armada was pretty decent. Maybe it's from the fact I grew up with it (Armada Hot Shot was my first TF, still got him, too), maybe it's from my unexplainable liking for micromaster-ish robots and mini-cons, but the line did have its high points.
Regarding the idea of another Energon style combiner : I've been wanting to see other 'Special Teams' as Energon style combiners for a long time now - I think the retrospective potential is very strong. But prefer it if they started off with just the Protectobots initially to even out the sides consisting of 4 design original scouts and one original deluxe suggestive of the 1984/85 version. Then along with that 2 new Aerialbots scouts, & 2 Constructicon compatible scouts and 2 new Bruticus ones.. having them just make classic scouts at all would be good for characters like Seaspray and Warpath and some of them being energon compatible combiners seems like a good idea to me it means we get another version of a nice character like Blades or First Aid and it really adds to the existing toys too. Then once all 4 characters have 5 pieces each they can make new boxed sets with them [eventually] - If Devastator's core [Steamhammer] was yellow and some of the limbs were yellow then you'd have the potential of a Movie Devastator homage with mixed colors and also using previous parts from other sets to make a G2 homage that is yellow. I'm not bothered by the Energon weapon aspect of the scouts hands and feet- they could always use Opaque plastic for their weapons though and once they'd retrospectively addressed the old 3 existing toys then they can make the Stunticons and others like the Terrorcons, Technobots & the Seacons. If the idea is to have a completely new design style of Combiner then a new Predaking might be nice to see or perhaps Computron and Abomibus might work with larger parts.
Ah, ok, didn't know that. My first thought was they closed it due to the arguing or something (though tbh, I know pretty much nothing about 4chan, lol).
Energon gestalts revisited? Ya, there are dream scenarios that'd be great. But I can imagine a less 'pie-in-the-sky' scenario. Aim low: Torsos: -Hot Spot(Hot Zone) would be a new deluxe/torso-bot mold -"Motormaster" would be a repaint/remold of Hot Spot. Either a straight up gray/black/purple 'evil fire engine'(legends Menasor is a bit of a precedent) or perhaps the ladder could be replaced with a cannon or he could be like a tow-truck bed-truck, carrying one car fully on his bed. (E.Stormjet is far removed from being a Concorde, so any kind of truck, not just a tractor/trailer I think could be acceptable for Motormaster) Defensor's limbs: -Blades would be a straight repaint of the Energon helicopter mold -Streetwise would be a new car mold -Then 1 more new scout/limb mold, either a motorcycle or a van/ambulance could be made. It'd be First-Aid or Groove, and the odd protectobot out would be a repaint of this mold or the Streetwise mold. Menasor's limbs: -Repaints/remolds(ie remove light bars) from the 2 new Protectobot molds. 2 cars and 2 motorcycles or vans or 3 cars and 1 motorcycle or van or even all 4 cars. In all that's 1 new deluxe mold and 2 new scouts with remolds for any and or all of them. I think that'd be pretty do-able/reasonable from Hasbro's end. The people that hate re-used limbs will hate it again, but I'll love it, and I'll appreciate it that it's far, far, far better than nothing.
I suppose Frankensteining a Stunticon into Streetwise is possible but undesirable. The reason personally I think revisiting the Energon idea for combiners is a good one is they make good filler - Construction Devastator's not been out for a while now and Bruticus is still really hard to get but his memory will still be fresh if they did revisit the idea it's not like they are trawling the past just extending an idea that is on shelves right now (with Superion and Bruticus). They could even just make a running design change to the packaging of Bruticus and Superion into generic (Non movie) packaging or even use a similar design to the Singapore boxes (only sans the Universe tagline). I think they could continue to sell the 3 they have already made as is - and just make new limbs as scouts. Then with new (compatible) designs they could sell a repaint of the scouts in their G2 colors if one wanted to achieve the Energon Duplicate limb look. Or even just offer the alternative color characters to a store like Walmart, Target or kaybee as individual scouts or as boxed sets. Speaking personally again my ultimate aim is to try to have a combiner possible for each core body that can use all the same limbs X4 each limb in a different color. it is possible to pretty much do this already but I'd still welcome the idea of more combinations. I realise that is not a priory for most people but I like the potential of a Machine Robo look as an option. But an Energon compatible Protectobots and or Stunticons would be very nice to see eventually. it just seems to me that now makes ideal sense if they decide to make G1ish scouts in 2010/2011 and so close on the heels of the repaint Superion and Bruticus. If they are going to make post movie toyline scouts anyway why not just make some of them Combiner limbs ?
Huffer was one of my favorite early G1 characters. Targetmasters were one of my favorite late G1 gimmicks. I think I will buy this. Who doesn't love a cynical robot?
That looks very little like Huffer, the head looks very movie like. I'm thinking it's a toy from the new cartoon series which will have design elements from the movieverse.
Armada did? really? I thought RID did, they they lit a dud firecracker (armada) and came back to their senses with Energon... but that just imo. Thought Huffer would be a bit cooler. I'll repaint the movie scout. much more in line with 2.0 to me.
IIRC RID's sales were so so, but Armada were through the roof, hence the extra toys and repaints they threw in, as well as the extra stuff at the beginning of energon that helped boost that line...
Well, yeah. Honestly, i deserved this rather literal minded and factually correct forum-post beatdown for overestimating TFW's capacity for irony. Clearly i flew a little too close to the ironic/moronic wire there. For the record i was 'trolling'. That is to say, following up a carefully considered and well balanced post with an oblique, facetious and utterly contradictory statement. You moderators should know better though, i'd demand my money back if i wasn't too tightfisted to donate owt. i know not everybody hated armada. fanbois love everything hastak knock out, regardless of how entirely without merit it is.* *yes! well spotted.
RID was a fan-favorite, yes, but if you look back over the talk from Hasbro about sales-numbers, Armada UNQUESTIONABLY did them the kind of crazy-business that the TF brand hadn't seen in years. Love it or hate, we're at with the brand where we are on the foundation that Armada laid. EXACTLY, those Beast-Wars re-tools with the hard-points came about because they were selling SO much product that they needed to fill some pegs and FAST. With no time to develop brand-new product (Which tells you how unexpected the scale of success was) they had to whip something out very quickly. I for one LOVE Armada. There are some poor molds, but the play pattern is all late-era-G1 in the ways that I ADORE. I still remember the CRAZY bidding war over the first few Armada Primes that Hasbro pitched in for charity at BotCon etc. It was fresh, it was new, it had play-value, it was awesome. I think any Armada-hate is pure nostalgia-glasses-in-reverse. D/L
Folks: I like Armada, partly because it's the series that got me back into collecting. The minicons did it. Love those tiny TFs. I don't worry about scale; I just consider them to be a sort of "Microverse Transformer" that just happens to be different in size, just like the Earth humans are 1/8 the scale of the Femaxians.
Tell me about it, I absolutely LOVE those little beepers! I want more... but then I'd have to buy another Unicron to hold them all. The Unicron I have now is displayed in robot mode with all my minicons attached.(there's no more room!) Did you know ROTF Arcee's sidecar can act as a Minicon seat? It's just the right size! they need to release more Minicons.8D Back on topic: I can't wait for these to hit stores.. The little Minions (minicons, headmasters,targetmasters) are the best part!
