Wasnt sure if this was a general topic discussion but since it's pretty much a production issue when it comes to the origin of the seekers I figured (no pun intended) the toy discussion forum seemed appropriate.

So yes, we all know why the seekers look the same with the coneheads being the only "deviations" and the way we identified them was by their color schemes. But now that Hasbro introduced the "smirky face" with Thundercracker/Red Wing, I think it's time to take the next step and start making the seekers less generic and start giving them more varying appearances, not just an expression change.
Perhaps give one seeker a faceplate. Another a visor (or a cylon style strip, wouldn't be the first time designers borrow from BSG for this franchise) or a HUD type setup. An eyepatch. Change the helmet designs.
From a storytelling perspective other than developing their personalities and giving them different colors now you can mess around with their appearance to make them even more distinguishable from one another.

Of course, from a production standpoint yadda yadda yadda Hasbro will never do it.
It would probably take one of the artists working on the comics to start playing around with the designs and then a 3P would come in.

Or are you guys OK with the seekers all looking the same and accept it as part of their charm?

 

I like the Seekers being pretty much the much the same robots over and over, but I can definitely get definitely new Seeker subsections. As long as the existing ones don’t have to change, I would really like to see new variants. Hell, some new characters in general would be great.

 

Seekers that dont look the same are no longer seekers. I can deal with minor aesthetic variations as a group from line to line, but that's where I draw the line

 

To me, Seekers will always be Cybertronians who are identical to Starscream. I’d be okay with maybe some small variations like different wings or types of weapons but besides that I don’t think the Seekers really need to change all that much. Being repainted Starscream’s is just part of their identity to me.

 

I wouldn’t mind seekers still sharing the same alt mode however I could get behind different appearances such as faceplates and single “cyclops” visors but I think they would have to be their own sub group.

Maybe like an infiltration/black ops unit with darker colour schemes

 

As a big fan of weapons and accessories, I've always thought we should get Seekers that have identical bodies, but unique tactical gear. Keep the standard issue null rays mounted on their biceps, but give them some unique equipment here and there. Hotlink has a flamethrower, why not give some of the others stuff like a machete, a sniper rifle, a drone, a chainsaw, an LMG, a riot shield, etc; and maybe even stuff like a visor or battlemask and hidden weapons or tools in their forearms, stuff that can store away to keep the uniformity? But then I tend to put a lot more thought into weapons myself, given how it seems like most people say they just throw their weapons into a box and forget about them...

 

I’ve wished for generations to bring back flip out weapon gimmicks on TFs for years now. Stuff like hidden shoulder missile pods or flip out dual blasters/missiles on forearms for seekers.

Would be nice to get a bit more of an integrated arsenal for CHUG scale

 

Honestly, having their robot modes look similar is fine by me, but it would be nice if their vehicle modes were different kinds of planes. But to do all new molds for every character, Hasbro would probably have to raise prices. I'd be okay with that, but I know a bunch of people here would do heinous heinous things before paying $30 for a deluxe.

 

The smirk has been around in other lines and so have seekers that where different molds. The "different seekers did not attract the same attention as the repaints those iterations are a little hard to remember to put it lightly.

 

maybe Hasbro should just take a break from the seekers. there are plenty of other decepticons jets to use.
or maybe make some new characters.

 

Personally I prefer the uniform look though the Seekers in the Bumblebee movie have made me relax my rule so I'm happy to display the Armada and Cybertron Seekers with the Siege versions.

That said, I never liked how Armada Skywarp and Universe Ramjet had the fins and faceplates but that's my general distaste for faceplates anyway.

 

I thought the Armada Skywarp/Ramjet head was so cool. I loved that Fun Pub replicated it for the T30 mold. Armada Thrust and HFtD Dirge were cool too I thought.

I think we’re pretty conditioned to just want repaints because it’s G1, but I love seeing unique and reimagined Seeker molds. It’s something I’d like to see done with other repaint characters like Bluestreak or Red Alert.

 

I wish they would gradually differenciate Screamer/Cracka/Skywarp more from one another. They were their own unique characters in g1. Keep the rainmakers as the generic clone troopers.

Repaints are lazy, fast and easy. And a necessary tradition, I know. But look at what Mortal Kombat has done with all of their ninja characters. At first, they were just pallete-swaps due to lack of memory space. They're now completely different-looking from one another. (with the exceptions of Scorpion and Sub-Zero, as they are the most iconic characters)

The TMNT used to look practically identical in the original comics. Then they gave them their own featured colors. And now, they are depicted differently from each other in different heights, skin tones, body types, and style of fashion accessories.

 

The reason I did not buy generations Armada skywarp was, because he had a different head.

 

I want a fat seeker based off of the Super Guppy.

 

Give them different heads, like in the colouring books.

Give skywarp a nice hat.

 

For me G1 style seekers need to be physically identical. Having a unique or signature weapon for each guy? Sure, I can dig that. That's what MMC did for the Hearts of Steel seekers and it worked out well enough to make them "same but different."

 

I guess the sekers all looking similar doesn't bother me that much.





Different accessories might be nice, but otherwise I'm not fussed about it.