i jumped full on into legends the second i picked DX9 gabriel. legends had been out for a little bit since plex dropped. thanks to IF for starting what we see today.

but the second i saw the mp omega's i realized that i was going to finally be able to have a collection that i had always wanted since i was a child.

these are the bots i dreamed of owning as a kid.

while they are cool too look at the MP figs never really spoke to me the way these legends do.

 

To be fair, there are only so many ways you can skin a cat.

The original G1 figure was pretty much the same - the treads become the legs, the scoop becomes the chest, and the arms become the top of the vehicle. That’s the classic Bonecrusher transformation and I’d expect the Magic Square one to do the same.

Even the big ‘innovation’ here (the edges of the scoop disconnecting to form feet) was done by TFC a decade ago. There’s nothing really new or innovative about that Yeung Bonecrusher whatsoever, and to claim that one is a copy of the other - when both are so heavily indebted to the original toy - is disingenuous to say the least.

I mean, Newage pretty much copied the G1 Transformation for the Datsuns as well. Sometimes the original transformation is just perfect already.

 

Like others responding to this comment, I'm in my mid-40s. But I'm not solely a Legends scale collector, I'm a, "do I think it looks cool" collector. So I do have a lot of the IF/NA/MS/MFT offerings. But I also have a lot of Official and 3P MPs, whatever scale Fans Hobby and the TFC Rolling Thunder Optimus/upcoming Destro's Dominator Megs are (do folks consider them CHUG?), and several of the official figures from Combiners War til now. Like I love Seekers, so I have every variation of the Siege and ER molds out (and G2 Ramjet and SG Starscream on preorder). And the DNA Design upgrades did a lot to push me into getting certain figures like Predaking, Scorponok and Optimus Primal. So I do know what Hasbro's offering, and I'm not alone, as those announcements will still make it to the 3P threads of the same characters, often for comparison.

But to your points, some of these Transformers WERE those sizes. MFT Astrotrain is exactly the same size as the original. A lot of these Legends scale figures are the same size as the Scramble City combiner limb bots. But I have Constructor, all 3 MP Combaticon sets and all 4 MP Stunticon sets, and having the old combiner teams in the same scale as the official MPs is definitely neat. But I also like these legends offerings that are the same size as the originals, but with way more detailing and articulation. Which goes into my next point about pricing. Its not about being a bargain. These aren't like the scramble city or mini-bots of old where the transformation is just a, flip one side, and here's a brick-like representation of a robot. Many of these are mini-MP, but while some may say, "these are the price of an actual MP!", technically, not anymore as MP has gotten expensive. But even at old MP prices, I think its like apples and oranges, where its not about the size, its about the quality, and its not a direct "well, these are half the size, so these should be half the price!" thing.

Heh, or get them all so you don't have to make a choice! If you need to cut yourself off, you can just be, "no transparent or golden lagoon versions!" Unless those float your boat.

 

I understand where you are coming from. I believe majority of collectors think that way. We have this Transformers group in our town. I am the only third party legends collector. They're like, "WHAT!? THAT TINY FIGURE IS $$$?" But room/size doesn't even cross my mind. I admit the WFC line is an improvement from the previous trilogies but Hasbro figures just don't appeal to me. I just love how Magic Square, Iron Factory, Newage and Mechfans figures look. And it's funny to say that legends is for the youngins cos these designs are so eighties. We're the target market

 

Well im your age and been collecting since 2007. I started with CHUG scale and stayed faithful to it. I did buy some MP figures but never felt the need to upgrade my main collection to a different scale. And after 3rd party became irrelevant to CHUG scale collectors, I avoided those companies all together. I realized its one big trap.

 

I’m 44, and never stopped collecting transformers except for the period between g2 and beast wars. To me, hasbro is making the best chug they have ever made. But it just no longer interests me, since 3P is making what I actually want.

 

I hear ya. For me personally, I never want to have a hodge podge of different figures from different companies mixed up on one shelf again. Im a completionest when it comes to G1 cartoon characters and I like them to have matching aesthetic. No sharp edges, over-use of lines, or over-engineered complex transformatiins. In CHUG scale collector world, the term "placeholder" is almost non-existent these days. Hasbro has given us virtually every character in the G1 cartoon in the same aesthetic while MP and Legends scale collectors are mixing and matching (and paying big bucks) just to complete the 1984-85 cast. Third parties lost a lot of collectors to Hasbro in the last 5 years so they created their own scale to try and get them back. Im not biting. Im good getting a leader class figure at the price a legends scale collector pays for one of those little figures. And I can buy it all in retail. When you can find obscure characters like an Alicon and Flywheels in Walmart, what can 3rd parties do for me ? More Primes, Soundwaves, and Seekers ? No thanks. Been there done that.

 

What can 3P do for me? Good combiners. That's what this thread is about, and is the one category where Hasbro still does
incredibly poorly compared to 3P.

 

Like you said, its your prerogative to collect what you like. And this is probably not your intention, but calling buying things from 3P companies as "a trap" and not falling for them does come off as holier than thou and making the rest of us sound like we're being stupid. Just like you have your preferences, so do we. I think the reasoning you've given in your posts is perfectly valid of how and why you collect what you do. But we're not you. I don't care about mixing scales and styles nor having only one representation of something. Like even within the main Hasbro line, I have two versions of the original Seeker trio and Barricade and at least 5 Megatrons in addition to the 3P versions. I'm not going for an aesthetic where I have only one representation of every G1 character. Like I said, if it looks cool, I buy it.

But that's the joy of this hobby, people collect what pleases them.

 

I disagree, Hasbro has not released a complete set of transformers in a consistent scale and style. Hasbro’s scale has been shrinking slightly over the years, and the styling changes constantly. For instance, you can’t line up Combiner Wars figures with seige’s figures that have battle damage, they don’t match. Also, Hasbro makes some characters leader class for no reason and then their scale is totally jacked. Or when Hasbro made devastator and predaking a different scale than the other combiners.

None of these lines are perfect, full stop. And to me, chug is the furthest from perfection.

I also don’t agree with your statement that 3P has lost a lot of collectors to Hasbro. I sure don’t know any collectors who went back to chug. There are lots that collect both. But to switch from one to the other? Nah. once you go 3P, chug isn’t good enough.

 

I have some legends figures from NA, you simply can't compare them with the mainline stuff... It would be unfair to Hasbro... You get what you are paying for.

 

LOL I'm imagining it's like a western where you're a new guy in town and for the first time, you walked in our saloon. The piano stops playing and we regular customers all stop what we're doing and stare at you.

Looks like we have TOTALLY different priorities man. But it's all good

 

This... just looks kinda plain. NA usually knocks it out with alt mode details.

 

regardless of this argument of designs/transformation/engineering being copied, the plain and simple reality is ppl will still gladly buy this NA devy over buying STLs that you need to 3D print, assemble and paint themselves. and similarly it's the same principle with ppl having bought NA ratchet/ironhide vs ogling a non existent jizaitoys version. it all comes down to a matter of availability and ease of getting something you want. most ppl won't pay attention to where the designs may have come from or if it's been ripped off. especially since this is 3p anyway, which aren't even official licensed Takara/Hasbro products.

agreed, i don't restrict myself to completing any self imposed rules and collect what i want, and for me it's regardless of brand, scale or aesthetics. i do look at some official takara/hasbro mainline of figures out of interest from time to time, but as a whole they just don't do it for me especially compared to what 3p can offer - be it aesthetics, quality of plastic or price value. in the end i'm happy with my decisions for myself, and that's all that matters.

i was thinking that myself. even with the standard version, NA usually has more paint app details than this. this is void of any whatsoever in comparison.  

 

this is probably the most anyone has talked about chugs on this side in a longtime...lol

 

I still collect chugs. I just don't talk about it here.  

 

To be fair, NA will probably do an EX release of the Devastator set. Seriously doubt there is only one version of this set coming out in the future. G2 yellow, G2 orange, Toy version, clear version, gold version (this would be sick!), etc. Gotta believe they would reveal those potential additional sets once the initial set is complete and available.

 

No idea why I'm biting on this one, but...

My collection is all over the place: masterpiece, legends, quite a lot of CHUG as well, particularly from the last few years. And I agree with you on one point - that Hasbro has recently been putting out the best products (at CHUG at least, their official MPs have been going downhill for a while) for years, and I can understand how a collector could currently focus on just CHUG, and be happy with it. For me though, CHUG is the equivalent of a McDonalds burger: it's cheap(....ish, though getting less so), it's fine and I can get it anywhere, but it's not exactly haute cuisine, is it? They're fun toys, but often spoiled (again, for me) by hollow limbs, unsightly backpacks, over-simplistic transformations and a general lack of premium finish. They're good toys to play with, but not really good toys to display, and as a collector, the display is part of it for me.

Masterpiece (both 3P and official) tends to be the opposite: looks great to display, generally not super fun to play with. (And I say that as someone who genuinely likes complex transformations! But there's a difference between "this is fun and interesting to do once here and there" and "this is a toy I'll happily flip back and forth between modes 3 times a day for a while after purchase.")

Legends, though, delivers the best of both worlds for me - they're generally a lot of fun to play with, and in the past few years have started having materials, look and finish that's almost on par with masterpiece stuff (particularly Newage, though MS is doing a lot of good stuff too.) Take Newage Darius (aka Galvatron) for example - to my eyes, it's just in a completely different league from the upcoming Kingdom one (which I also have preordered, FWIW - I'm happy to have multiple versions of a characters as long as there's something interesting about each individual toy). Hasbro's one looks like a fun toy, but Newage's looks like it stepped right out of the movie and it's a fun toy and it takes up less space on my shelf (but that last one's really just a bonus.) For another example, Magic Square's Megatron is, to me, the best representation of the character we've ever got in toy form, at any scale - yes, I like it more than MP-36. It looks great from every angle (which is nigh-on unheard of for a G1 Megatron), and is still straightforward (though clever) enough to transform that I'm happy to do it regularly. A few years ago, when the legends scene was a lot more simple and / or stylised, I wasn't really interested, but with NA and MS absolutely knocking it out of the park on a regular basis (as well as MFT, on occasion), it is to me the single most exciting area to be collecting in right now.

So yeah, 3P legends scale may get you less plastic per dollar than Hasbro's mainline stuff, but it's a price I'm more than happy to pay to get (in my eyes) a better product, that combines the aesthetics of masterpiece with the playability of CHUG.

 

Yeah even if they kept the monotone look, they still could have added some subtle accents that are basically the same green but just a shade or two lighter/darker.

 

i'm hoping that's the case that NA will announce ahead of time other planned version before releasing any of these like they normally do. i don't want to pick these standard version up just to find out later that there will be another deco i'd prefer.   if even they just painted just the outer treads black or dark grey/silver, i'd be happier.