I know a shit ton of people got butthurt when non-HM characters became Headmasters in Titans Return - I don't give a shit, it doesn't hurt the toy at all - but I think for all of the former Targetmasters in the line, there could've been a way to have them keep their old gimmick. Excluding Blurr and possibly Kup, all of the ex-Targetmasters in TR have had their hands told into their forearms, and most of them have a way of disabling the Headmaster gimmick. What if when you folded their hands in, there was a port identical to the ones used for plugging in a Headmaster, and instead of a face on the Titanmaster's back, there was a folded up gun that would give the TM a gun mode? The new Targetmaster's head would plug into the wrist port on the larger figure, just like in the Headmasters anime. If the gun part were small enough, the Targetmaster would even still be capable of riding in the larger figure. I'm sure there's a way to similarly integrate Powermasters, but we're only getting a total of three in the line, so there is that.

Would this have been a good idea? I guess for the mini-vehicles, there could've been two HMs and two TMs per each wave. I don't know. Just wishful thinking. Targetmasters are probably my preferred of the three 'master gimmicks, and repurposed Microns don't fit in TR cockpits, which is disappointing.

EDIT: Holy crap, I didn't use italics in this post a-no! Don't undo your success!
...Wow, it took nearly five hundred posts, but I did it! 

 

Well let's see if Takara does anything with Triggerhappy first.

While I would have loved for the Targetmaster gimmick to return to mainstream, I don't think this idea would work very well because there's no reason for the gun and the head to share the same ports when they only function as either a gun or a head. That would result in a lot of hand puppets and face-guns (ok, that would be cool) should someone try to interchange parts.

 

I've never understood the complaint about no target masters. You can take any figure and put a transforming gun in there hands and boom they are a target master. Why cant you have a targetmaster/headmaster? You can choose for mini cons, microns, capsules, 3rd party, or target masters that have come with other figures like generation scoop, universe cyclones, legends cosmos, legends starscream, all the pcc figures, masterpiece rodimus and the list goes on and on. I got a big bucket of targetmasters already but what I have very little of is modern headmasters.

 

I just pretend fracas is still a tm when he sits on that seat and is handheld. Aint perfect but it works

 

I wouldn't mind seeing "faceless" titan masters released that could plug into a vehicle/weapon.

For me, the Targetmaster was like getting a second transformer, since you could display both the Transformer and the Nebulon in robot mode simultaneously. Headmasters aren't as versatile, since the Nebulon had to be in head mode to make the larger robot...

Plus, in terms of imaginative play, it is just weird to think about a little person living inside a character's head. Should they be talking to each other in there? Is one mind more dominant? Are they really some new synthesized character? Is the Transformer technically dead and merely providing a host body for the smaller figure? (Of course, in the Japanese version the head and the body were literally one character, so less of an issue there.)

Targetmasters side-step all of this.

And, yes, I am thinking to much about it.

 

This is why I prefer the Japanese continuity where the head IS the transformer. The body is just a vehicle that transforms into a bigger body for the head master. I like the fact that the head masters had cockpits and such. A feature that wasn't brought over to the Target masters and Power Masters unfortunately.

 

I think you are making it far too complicated:
Offcourse they are two guys; the body is the transformer and the head is a nebulan or wathever you want it to be.
Its a basic symbiosis, i dont see what's so hard about that.
And it makes a very interesting potential for fiction. Thats why i always preferred the Rebirth version to the Japanese cartoon.
I would also love targetmaster buddies for Kup, Triggerhappy etc but i hope Perfect Effect releases them all in a set at the end of TR.
Speaking of wich: i hope we'll get Sureshot, Crosshairs, Pointblank, Misfire, Slugslinger and maybe even Cyclonus so we can have all Targermasters in the same line.

 

As others have said, no reason to share a port. Just make little guys that turn into weapons.

I don't care all that much about non-headmasters becoming headmasters. I just hate headmasters. With a target master if my kid loses the little bot, I still have a fully functional big bot. With headmasters, if the little robot gets lost or broken, the toy is ruined. It's a terrible gimmick.

It's worth pointing out though that Hasbro has been making legends and scouts that could turn into weapons for other transformers for years across multiple lines. The results have often been mixed.

 

The targetmaster concept is alive and well in Titans Return. All the Titan Master class toys have a weapon mode, with the exception of Sawback, but a shield is used in combat and can be use offensively. Also all the deluxe and larget toys have guns that the Titan Masters can sit in to do what ever it is G1 targetmasters did. so yeah it's not 100% like the G1 targetmasters but the spirit is there.

 

Honestly, there are two major reasons Headmasters are a better line (in total) than Targetmasters or a mix of -masters

1. Interactivity. Putting Kup's weapon in Hot Rod's hand (Targetmasters) or switching their engines (Powermasters) doesn't make a new character - this matters to kids that play and imagine (or 35 year olds, like myself), customizers, and purveyors of exclusives (e-Hobby, FunPub RIP). You can put Clobber on Mindwipe, call him Mindlock and have a new character. That's fun. Target- and Powermasters are not fun in the same way and it's harder to build a play pattern around that gimmick alone that works at all (or at least many) size classes*.

2. Consistency. Headmasters have a gimmick in which each mode has a place for everything. In robot mode, the headmaster fits in the head. In alt mode, the headmaster fits in a cockpit. Targetmasters, as separate characters, don't have that consistency. If you don't provide spare guns, when the Targetmaster is in the cockpit, your character is weaponless. If he comes with guns, what's the point of the Targetmasters? Or if you have the Targetmaster be in robot mode when the body is, everyone is weaponless. With Powermasters, what do they do when they aren't the engine**?

None of this is to say that a line more like T30 or an unbranded Generations line couldn't or shouldn't have Power- or Targetmasters flitting in and out of the line. It's just not worth building an entire 6 wave line around at 4-5 size classes

* This isn't to say that I don't like either gimmick, but flipping the engines or exchanging weapons is not a compelling reason to buy another toy in the same way that the Titanmaster class provides added value to other figures.

** At least in Hasbro's original conception of Powermasters - something more like what Fansproject does with their Warbots would be self-consistent, at least, but wouldn't be a Powermaster.

 

I pretty much agree with Bob. I always had an issue with the Targetmasters gimmick because it didn't make sense to me. Theoretically anyone can be a Targetmaster-- so what's the point? What makes them special? Hot Rod could function without his Targetmaster partner and someone who never was a Targetmaster could easily become one. Powermaster and Headmaster characters could not function without their 'master' so that made sense. I just never really cared for the Targetmaster idea.

 

We had a Modern Targetmaster with Generations Scoop and I seem to remember a huge amount of "meh, He's too boring to pick up, why did they make Him?" Going on at the time.

Funny how that works.

 

I get it that you don't, but the main reason I collect now is for nostalgia. TMs were an integral part of the G1 characters, everything about their names to Galvatron hating humanoid partners. That's what I want. It's cool that people don't care, but that's what makes TM special to me.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say if this was a TM Pointblank or TM Slugslinger or any other Sunbow/Headmnaster cartoon TM, the response would be different.

Well for me, so that's all I can say. I have no affinity to Scoop.

 

I concur. I didn't even remember the original toy of Scoop (or any of the Autobot double-targetmasters).

 

the mastershooter collectables are great. I have 3 of their sets arming and plan to get more

 

I think that the reason the Titan masters themselves incorporate with their vehicles/beast's weapon modes, to be the closest thing to target masters while retaining the tm head gimmick.

 

While Scoop was a flawed toy in itself (the cabin doesnt lock in place in vehicle mode) the integration of the Targetmasters in vehicle mode was badly done: the figures where too big, the plug was too loose, and they just didnt sit right onto the vehicle.
Targetmasters the size of Titanmasters would work much better.

But these are not readily available to everyone.
Perfect Effect is a much bigger name, i hope they might do a multipack of Targetmaster partners.

 

bbts has a bunch of mastershooter sets for sale.

 

First off all I wanna say that this line is fantastic and Second of all I wanna say that I been saying that I wanna rip the faces off of the loud mouths and fangrys to put a 5mm peg back there cause their feet already look like double barreled guns! And I'm about to check bbts for those master shooters now

 

You've missed the point.

As far as Hasbro are concerned, they dipped a toe into TMs and it probably didn't set any sales records for them, and they had to make a couple of TMs that required more parts and paint than just a single mold weapon usually does for them.

Plus I highly doubt they care about "I liked this guy more than that guy and it would have gone over better...." As far as they are concerned Scoop was probably no more or less a z-lister than either of the other choices listed.

Anyone want to try and convince me Doublecross was on that many people's Absolutely-Most-wanted lists before the current wave of toys hit, did he have a much larger fanclub than Scoop?

The point beyond that is that Hastak can MAKE us go nuts for relative nobodies like Triggerhappy (and they have) within their current play-pattern and budget by the sheer quality of the end product. Beyond a hard core bunch of "It's Not G1 Enough" complaints on here I'm pretty sure they will go where the sales are for a while and where production costs are cheapest for their investment.