If only we had a two inch starscream and the ability to magically turn blue plastic in to silver plastic.  

 

I was thinking about some alternate heads they could pack in with these guys, maybe as exclusives:

Onslaught:
Energon Barricade
IDW

Swindle:
Animated
IDW

Brawl:
Bay Movie
IDW

Blast Off:
Error (forehead eye)
Regular
IDW

Vortex:
IDW (green re-cast?)
Movie Blackout
Any other ideas? An IDW pack of heads on its own would be pretty cool, though I mostly want an Animated head and cannon for Swindle.

 

I think there are some materials that could change their color by changing the temperature!

 

Thermochromatic materials have been in use for ages in toys, but it's wholly impractical for this purpose. You want your toy to be evenly coloured, and not constantly in a state of flux between the two colours as you pick up the toy and handle it and transfer the heat from your fingertips. Or watch as the toy changes back to the wrong colour in a couple of minutes as it sits on the shelf.

 

It would work for me because I’m planning on displaying the individual bots in a glass-door refrigerator in my Alaskan holiday home, whilst the combined mode will sit on a shelf in my greenhouse in Dubai.

 

Just need to do the comic colour variant that no one but me would buy…

 

Please tell me we are going to get a Toy version. I really don't care for this look now that I see it.

 

Stunning! I do wish the "headlight" details on Onslaught's, umm, crotch, were larger, but I can live with his crotch as is.  

 

This guy displays!  

 

@edgecrusher funny how much conversation sparked by diecast premium/not premium/blah blah.

When it comes to toys, the various aspects of materials (incl diecast), design, articulation, how it looks in both modes, how a combiner functions (looks, connects, poses, etc) all have to work together to result in a great figure.

At the end of the day, I think much comes down the personal preference. Personally whether it's something subconscious for all humans - I really don't give a crap. I just like what I like and whether others agree or not, well.. I don't really give a crap about that either. Lol.

Nobody has to agree with me on anything and that's totally ok. We all pick our purchases based on how we feel they score on our personal score cards. When I asked my rhetorical question about why not let collectors request heft if they want it... I wasn't asking for a quorum of whether it was right or wrong to add diecast and I wasn't asking anybody in particular to answer, but was more trying to say, let everyone request whatever they want. If it's popular, it'll happen. If it's not, it won't. But why waste time telling someone they are wrong to like diecast? Or they are wrong to think it's premium.

In my personal opinion, if there were 2 identical figures, one 100% diecast and the other a mixture of materials and both performed the same on articulation, paint, and everything else... I would consider the diecast one premium because if I threw it against a wall or the end of the world came, then die cast version would be more likely to survive. If anybody doesn't agree that's ok. We can still be friends.

Regarding this combiner and preorders....

If you order from www.showzstore.com u pay $1 to secure the item and lock in the lowest pricing. So that'd be like $5 for the whole set. Not much of an investment to worry about if you decide to drop out of the set. Anyone who is ordering from sites that make you pay 100% up front better be getting a massive discount as I agree u are financing their operations.

I think it's best to play it cautious with combiners especially if the company has a history of pulling switcheroos. If the company has a track record of delivering what they advertise, its a little less concerning...

 

That is my perspective as well. I don't understand why certain people have to mock and belittle one feature over the other and are so obsessed with badmouthing die-cast that they have to bring it up in a thread like this where it's not even part of the product. Like I said, in hindsight, I should have just asked why he felt the need to attack features that aren't even present on this figure, rather than stooping to engaging on the same level to defend the irrelevant features being maligned.

I'm happy this set doesn't have a feature that it doesn't need. I think we all are, and we were all in agreement prior to that detour.

 

if you made any modern figure out of 100% die cast it would be a floppy, horrid mess. and if you tossed it against a wall so much paint would chip off that 'survive' is a bit of a misnomer. see hasbro's titaniums line as an example of too much die cast.

 

Are they going to release Vortex in toy colors? i like the purple torso.

 

All of my Titanium figures have survived great. I love them. I consider diecast a good thing, but i agree that an all diecast figure is not the way to go.

 

I think this set is looking great overall- really nice, toon-like individual bots with impressive build-in engineering.
If I had any critique it would be that Onslaught's head looks awfully small for his body. I think this is because he wears the bruticus helmet like the G1 toy? (I may be wrong). Regardless, he'd look great if his head-to-body proportions were as nice as his colleagues (and maybe less gribble on his arms too).

Also the animations style chest shield on Bruticus is awesome- just wish it had the space-shuttle round section that the toon had. I assume the flatness is because of limited room when transformed?

 

Y'know, @JSix, I'd been thinking that Onslaught's torso was too long. But your edit has me thinking that it might just be his head is too small.

 

Bruticus' chest design had variations to its curvature in the cartoon. MMC's flatter subtler interpretation is still accurate.




And imo it looks way better as is. I do think the chest panel has to sit flat against his canon turret underside as well so I don't know if theirs literally even space to make it thicker for a more pronounced curvature.

Your other two edits also directly conflict with the toys engineering design. Bruticus' head has to sit on top of Onslaughts head with mmc's toy. Upsize Onslaughts means you have to upsize Bruticus' and then his head isn't going to fit inside the back anymore. Likewise Onslaughts won't be able to fold in to his chest for vehicle mode if you make it bigger.

And the hip skirts wouldn't be able to hinge if the disc details were overlaid on the pin hinges and they also need to be able to fold all the way up for combined mode. They wouldn't be able to do that if they were thicker to accommodate larger disc details that don't conflict with the pin hinges and that would conflict with the upper segment of his waist line too:



All reasonable critiques of the visual design, but basically would break the toys ability to work unless mmc dramatically overhauls the entire design of their Onslaught.

 

Yeah, as stated in my post, I expect there are engineering reasons for the flat chest shield and shrunken head.

 

It's humorous to me that the examples presented of how a flat chest-piece is accurate are pretty evidently still frames from scenes that the low-budget cartoon's artists failed in their attempts at presenting the rounded chest-piece from off-angles.  

 

Gotta talk about something while this set trickles out eh..