I like them better because:

• they don't have the risk of chrome flake
• They look super evil and served as Unicron's Four Horseman for a lot of people (never mind there were five, I guess Predacon can be The Beast or what have you)
• They came with cool mini-cons, especially Airrazor
• Predacon* (Bw Megs repaint) was GPS free, last time I checked anyways

*I need to re-buy him

All in all, if they were screen accurate (or at least an approximation of those colors, only Cheetor and Megatron made it on screen) I'm sure they'd be more popular, but I had much better QC with them than I did with my Transmetal originals, granted I was much younger when I bought those figures.

 

The Protectobots and Defensor are badly underrated and underserved by pretty much all of the fiction that they've been in, at least that I've seen.

 

Thanks for being interested, I appreciate it. Welp, time to practice, practice and practice!

 

I could be wrong, but I believe the Combiner Wars Legends Class figure and the Fall of Cybertron Thundercracker both have a lighter blue. I've never had them in hand, but they strike me as such in the photos I've seen of the two. I do think the original Thundercracker toy was a navy blue, though. Still, I hope that helps!  

 

Lemme rephrase that.   I want him in his cartoon lighter blue.

 

I vastly prefer Gerwalk fan-modes in a Transformer toy over the intentional Gerwalk modes in Macross toys.

For better or worse, the Macross toys have almost no kibble. That's great for jet mode and robot mode, but Gerwalk mode (due to the lack of kibble) barely has anything tabbing together for Gerwalk mode. For example, if you untab the legs from Bandai's VF-31, you're also releasing the tabs that keep the wings in place. Then, you disengage the arms, which transform into part of the wings and help bear the weight of the wings in jet mode. Welcome to floppy wings that are held up by tiny hinges.

If you release the legs on Bandai's VF-25 to transform into Gerwalk mode, then all that's holding the legs onto the jet is a thin black tab above the intake that goes into a slot, and it DOES NOT HOLD.

Aesthetically, I also think some of the Macross jets have ugly Gerwalk modes. Again, for better or worse, the Macross toys have very little kibble. When you transform the jet into Gerwalk mode, you lose parts of the jet when they change into arms and legs. This looked pretty cool for the VF-1, VF-2, VF-11, and YF-21--in my opinion, they look pretty cool as the front half a jet + limbs.

However, other jets simply don't have enough "jet" remaining. The YF-19 and VF-17, for example, lose too much "jet" in Gerwalk mode. The YF-19's Gerwalk mode does not look like it can fly or even take a hit before it falls apart. I'm talking about the toy and the animation model, mind you. The wings are held onto the body by such a thin piece, the YF-19's wings should really break off if it even flies too fast in Gerwalk mode. The VF-17 Gerwalk mode, again, simply doesn't have enough jet. It looks like a skeletal jet with arms and legs, and it does not look like it can fly.

Ironically, the VF-1's Gerwalk mode was an afterthought, but it holds together quite well and it actually looks cohesive. Yes, the rear half of the VF-1 is now legs, but the front half of the jet looks robust. There isn't a skeletal look, and a VF-1 Gerwalk actually looks like it can take a hit in combat. Virtually all other transforming Macross toys have intended Gerwalk modes, but they feel and look like afterthoughts.

On the other hand, for better or worse, Transformers do have kibble. When you transform the figure halfway, there's still some kibble keeping the figure together. Take the DOTM Deluxe Starscream mold, for example. If you disengage the arms and legs from the jet, there's enough kibble that keeps the jet relatively sturdy and all together. Even with the arms now being arms and the legs being legs, there's still enough "F-22" so that it doesn't look like a skeletal jet, and it looks like something that can withstand combat.

Ditto for other Transformers that can do Gerwalk mode, such as (off the top of my head) the Combiner War jets, the Cyberjets, Generations Whirl, Classics Jetfire, etc.

 

I'll never understand people who bitch about a Transformers toyline being for kids. Duh! Of course they're for kids. Barring the mps and exclusives and such specifically for adults with money to spare, they will always primarily be for kids.

 

Skullitron and Steelbane are great Deluxe figures

 

Ah, I see. Still, I think FOC Thundercracker might be your best bet. It would even match your Skywarp (I think I've seen you post pics of the Fall of Cybertron Skywarp, right?)

I concur. While I'll agree stuff like most One-Step Changers are a little too extreme in simplicity over aesthetic, stuff like the Movie 1 and 2 Fast Action Battles, the Animated Activators, the RID2015 Three-Step Changers, the TLK Armor-Up guys, the Cyber-Battallion figures, and the upcoming Cyberverse Scouts, Ultras, and Ultimates all for the most part look like like good representations of the source material while still being simple enough for kids. Besides, if these are seen hanging on pegs or sitting on shelves (insert your joke about distribution here) among other toys that kids are supposed to be able to play with, then imagine how frustrating it might be for a kid who finds out they can't play with it, or the parent(s)/guardians of said kid.

Personally, I can still recall breaking some of my older Transformers from sheer frustration because I couldn't figure them out. Call me dumb for not being able to figure it out if you will, but I imagine a lot of kids would be happier with a toy they can quickly change from one mode to another in the middle of playing than a toy that takes half an hour to change into its alternate form. We have Masterpiece for adult-oriented collector figures, and if the price is a problem, I imagine it's that they are a lot more expensive to produce (greater parts count, die-cast a lot of the time, I will agree $200+ for even Megatron or Beast Wars Dinobot is unreasonable though). It's important to remember that even a more collector oriented mass retail figure like a Generations or Studio Series Transformer has to be able to appeal to as many people as possible.

 

Your not dumb. Besides, I still get frustrated with some of the transformations even with the instructions. ^^

 

I was just throwing that in there as a bit of self-deprecation humor, but I appreciate the sentiment.  

For an unpopular opinion... having him in hand, I actually really like Universe Cheetor. Like, more than I did the original Beast Wars one I used to have. He's really kind of a fun toy, even if he's not all that accurate to any one thing and looks a bit like a bizarre mix of Beast Wars Season 1 and Beast Machines Cheetor.

 

Ive spent entirely ENTIRELY to much time thinking about how to mask prime and paint the inevitable tsunami bukkake of POTP Clearance Starscreams into the rest of the seekers in Voyager scale.. I think the first two COULD be relatively easy with a clever masking and spraying strategy.

 

I particularly love the recent god ginrai with the PE upgrades.

 

CW limbs as gestalts are equally good as what they should do. 7/10 or 8/10 on what they did, CW was such a fun and well-done lind.

 

I agree the limb bots were very well-designed for the most part (I mean, Brawl is frustrating), the torsos are probably where the most problems arose for the line, mostly due to stability issues. I think Superion, UW Computron, Abominus, and UW Grand Galvatron do what they set out to do perfectly (though I only have part of Abominus and Superion, of those). I may replace my Bruticus with the upcoming MMC Ocular Max version and my Menasor with...something (though I'm considering the PE torso upgrade) but I don't see Superion or Abominus getting replaced any time soon.

That said, I was trying to track down a couple of limbs in the hopes of getting my Superion the proper characters for his limbs (I have Alpha Bravo and Blades in place of Quickslinger and Air Raid) but given how expensive they are on the aftermarket, I think a lot of people agree with this one...

 

Prime-Masters' flaw as a gimmick means jack to me because it resulted in mini-Pretenders, which are likely, even in this age of obscure treats, to be the only Pretenders we're ever going to get.

 

Stability is crap and hunchback is unfortunate, but he pulls off an awesome beast mode and that's a hell of a job for a deluxe Cheetor to pull off.

 

Yeah, it's kind of a awkward figure to pose, but I like the kind of unique look he has in robot mode, and as you mentioned, the beast mode is killer.  

 

I feel like a lot of people dislike Beastformers for being overly simplistic. Front legs become arms, basically just stand the figure up is how I've heard them described.

I actually like Beastformers more than vehicles. First of all that's not an accurate description. Sure some are like that but those are like the worst ones. Most Beastformers are way more complex than that. And if they're really well done you can do a lot more with a well articulated beast mode than you can with a vehicle. The only really fun vehicles are ones with actual moving parts like a tank turret or construction vehicles. Cars can only roll across the floor and that's it. It's a pretty boring alternate mode.

I don't hate vehicles by the way, just think beastformers are generally more fun to play with.

Also not sure how unpopular this is but I hate when every member of a combiner team all transform into the same thing. That's why my favorite combiners are Bruticus, Defensor, and Computron because they have the most diverse teams with no two members having similar vehicles. Airealbots are boring to me cause they're all jets.

I also hate when parts like hands and feet are accessories rather than being built into the figure.

 

Gonna add to this and say i think defensor is the best combiner we got in CW. Specific mention goes to scale satisfying Groove, innovative transformation, strong bot modes by all (esp Hotspot, by god, hotspot) and a total chunklord combined mode.

Only have hungrrrrrrrrrr for potp so far but he may be a contender.

I’m willing to change my mind if someone would like to gift me cw computron to compre.