Strange... They said there was going to be a grey prototype.

 

It's Toyworld...

 

Did they say that or did someone say they said that?

 

Well they said that but they said “before CNY” so maybe January

 

So... before Chinese New Year 2025 then. Gotcha.

Chances are it'll suck ass anyway. People keep forgetting that their last group of designers, now Zeta, have left the building. The people working on Predaking have probably never made a combiner before. Or maybe they've never even made a Transformer before. Who knows? We sure don't. Let's hope they do.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I hope it's good, but not partsforming pants is honestly a red flag for me.

 

They said something on their weibo page.

 

Yeah no pants is a huge red flag

Im hoping its good though but im not expecting much

 

Yeah, but Zeta's designers are not good at all imo, maybe it was good for TW to let them go...

I, on the other hand, feel relieved that they will try something else to avoid using pants and fake torsos... all ZT's combiners look the same to me now thanks to that.

 

Highly debatable, but you're very biased against Zeta, so that's not really a fair argument to begin with.
I know their Combaticons leave a lot to be desired but as someone who has been endlessly and very vocally critical of them, I still really like them in person, and the quality is pretty decent.
Their Aerialbots, on the other hand, are fantastic. Still flawed, but fantastic.
Figures like Coolsville/Jazzy are also worth mentioning because they are also flawed but decent. That one in particular is interesting because it's frustrating as hell in places but also has several strokes of genius in the design and engineering.

By your argument though, all combiners look the same. After all, the hip pieces are very similar between all the combiners in the show anyway.
I prefer that they get rid of the weird proportions and inherent, relative instability like both Unique Toys Ordin and, especially, Ragnaros have.
Not to mention that scaling is a huge issue without the cheating parts - nobody using integrated hips or all integrated parts (MMC/OX) has been able to get them to scale with the likes of Constructor, for example.
Granted, it's possible, but I'd worry about the instability, something which Ragnaros has more than Armageddon (and both have their fair share of stability issues even then, but the latter is way bigger and heavier overall, and is arguably still more stable than Ragnaros).
And on top of all of that, the fake torso bits aren't the entire torso - Onslaught and Silverbolt are still required to actually form the combiner, unlike the various Menasors we're currently seeing (especially DX9's, where you don't even need Motormaster and can just form the entire combiner without any of the five robots if you really wanted to - some fake car shells would finish the look for a fraction of the price, too). Not that I'm trying to change your mind, but just to give you some perspective - that it could be worse, and that there are good reasons to do it the way Zeta have been doing it this whole time.

Oh, and ToyWorld didn't let Zeta go. Zeta left because they weren't paid. Supposedly other designers left ToyWorld in the past for the same reason.

 

Almost every non-pantsforming combiner I've seen has skinny thighs and weird hips or some other drawback. Constructor is comprised of 6 bots and still uses pantsforming to get decent proportions and size. Looking at the silhouette for this Predaking, the arm bots appear to be about half the size of the leg bots, so I'm gonna take it with a grain of salt and just wait to see what the prototype looks like before making any assumptions about it.

 

I don't mind pantsforming. I'd like the pants to turn into something else when not being pants, though, even if it's just a perfunctory base like the Zeta Combaticons.

 

If the pants transform I am ok with that! Warbotron is the first one that does it that comes to mind.

 

I have both, and Armageddon is so top heavy that the only pose he can stay without give me problems is an A stance. Ragnaros suffer from QC problems, but not necessarily stability issues, I don't move him too much out of fear of breakage (ratchets), Armageddon is well built, but he has terrible design flaws.

 

Doubtfull. They must have at least renders.

Sounds bloody uncomfortable, but I would do that!

Yeah me 2. Or compromises the bots to oblivion. I really wish they do it Constructor Style in the end.

 

Are you guys making a joke about pants or are you actually mispelling parts as pants?   Or is "pantsforming" another TF collecting lingo word I am unaware of?

Typed "pantsforming" into TFWiki and couldn't find anything.

 

Everyone is referring to "pantsformers" as any MP combiner that has a torso component that does not transform; TW Constructor, Zeta Bruticus and Superion, likely FansToys Stunticons and Aerialbots based on what dallianjj has said. This is because the leg bots plug into the torso piece to give it the correct MP scale height while the torso bot tends to transform into a cube like mass that fits into the torso piece so the arm bots can be attached as opposed to the leader bot being the entire torso.

Toyworld has specifically said this iteration of Predaking will not be a pantsformer, i.e. will not have a non-transforming torso component.

Pic for reference (from Zeta Superion):

 

I use pantsforming only for the combiners that use non transforming pants... I think I was the first to use the term.

 

Parts forming has never bothered me on a combiner. I'd rather have a nice, stable bot mode.

Zeta Superion is the shit. Quite possibly my favorite of any 3P combiner so far.

 

I mean, everything currently on their slate is a project they bought and are putting under the TW brand. I'd be shocked if they actually have anything done beyond those concept pics.

 

Well....who knows?