I'm not gonna lie, I usually trust the chans as that is the hub of hapless discovery and disgruntled employees. And it almost all checks out:
-Micromaster 3rd spy patrol came true (still waiting for BBTS to fulfill my order )
-Blaster and a Third (earth) Soundwave have been speculated for a while too happen.
-Artfire Checks out as I find Hasbro has 3 repaints as the magic number, so Grapple, Inferno (New head), Artfire.
-Were getting all 3 Coneheads (Thrust at retail, Dirge, and Ramjet in the Decepticon hunter team)
-I knew there was something about that random art of Primal Prime in the Generations book.
-The Micromasters, Minerva, and Omnibots are unfounded though cool.

 

With all that in mind, I'm going to add on.

Fact: Hasbro has indicated an interest in media fidelity with respect to scale, citing Studio Series as an inspiration. However, some characters such as Flywheels and Elita 1 appear to deviate from prior media scale. Speculation: Hasbro is taking inspiration from scale charts, not binding commandments from them. Where media and media sources have differed, Hasbro can pick whichever source they want or invent a new one. This is mainly about situating characters with high sales potential at the $30 or higher price and the scale is flexible based on anticipated sales.


Facts: To date, all Weaponizers and Modulators have been deluxe class. Standard weaponizer connection points include the bottoms of feet, sides of forearms, and back with figures tending to have no fewer than 10 connection points. Speculation: Victory Saber was one of if not the primary influences in designing weaponizers with his unusual stilts combination being replicated here. Wings are common but Victory Saber's stilt configuration went from being nearly unique to being something every Voyager with a deluxe Weaponizer can accomplish. This suggests Victory Leo will be a Deluxe figure which positions Star Saber as Voyager size class figure.

 

I'm not sure about Elita (since we are getting an inscale new one), but Flywheels has been the exception as Warden Stated they wanted him in scale with Battletrap.

 

These are good points. I'd probably have rephrased them a little bit, along the lines of...

Fact: John Warden has stated that the WfC trilogy is designed to be in scale, using the G1 scale charts. Speculation: As some figures have deviated from the available scale charts, we can infer that Hasbro are matching up to the scale charts for the first two seasons, and possibly TF:TM. Creative judgment would appear to be in use for characters not appearing on those charts, such as Flywheels and Elita-1.

Fact: Weaponisers and Modulators have been Deluxe class. Speculation: A potential Victory Saber could be achieved with a Deluxe version of Victory Leo and a larger Star Saber.

...just so the lines between facts and the speculation are a little bit clearer and drier, but that's just me.

 

If Elita is based on the Chromia or Arcee figures we've seen, they've fudged her scale to suit the molds we have available. As it stands, I think Elita should probably be around Ironhide's size while turning into a car that looks like Blurr's without visible car parts.

The new media makes her smaller but I believe Hasbro confirmed everything in the cartoon is taken from new toy 3D models. So nothing should be inaccurate scale wise in a cartoon where the toys are the starting point with obvious scale cues like 5mm ports baked in.

Fair. I just want to clarify that my basis for speculating Victory Saber is that I've felt since WFC weaponizer combos were shown that his transformation/combination seems to parallel weaponizers.

Pre-2018, if you'd described a transformer who splits apart to form shoes and a backpack for one or more slightly larger Transformers, I think you'd have fewer candidates for that list and Victory Leo might be the only one for most of us.

Then again, if you'd said Optimus Prime gets a trailer and a minibot will get released as a deluxe with extra pieces to replicate a single cartoon scene and has a partsforming backpack visible over his shoulders, we'd probably mostly assume this was referencing Huffer and not Cliffjumper.

 

Way way way way back before we saw the Modulators, I was speculating on getting Voyager versions of Victory Leo and God Bomber (or whatever they'd rename him for the western market) to go with a hypothetical Leader Class Star Saber and PM:OP. So, I'd totally defend your line of reasoning.

And you know, the whole Modulator/Weaponiser gimmick seems to be popular, so there's every chance it'll carry over and/or evolve in some capactity to whatever comes after WfC, if we don't get before then.

 

I honestly think Star Saber will end up being whatever height Powermaster Prime ends up being. They have the same gimmicks (Master character, merge with their trailers to make bigger robots etc) which then puts Victory Leo & Godbomber (Iron Apex/Roller/whatever they call him in the West) at roughly the same height too.

I’m not sure who the nearest Decepticon version of that would be, probably Armada Megatron & Tidal Wave, but while I can see them doing Armada Megatron as big as Star Saber or Powermaster Op, I think Tidal Wave would likely be bigger than Victory Leo or Godbomber.

 

Jazzed that Minerva appears to be in the works. Almost impossible to find the original online without dropping a ton of money.

 

With the reveals we got recently confirming some of them on this list I think it's very likely we'll see the rest show up before the WFC trilogy ends. Soundwave especially.

 

wfc3: starscreams ghost possess waspinator and starts a predacon conquest

 

Actually there were 4 in Siege including Chromia. But since Impactor was part of the fan vote we would count him separately, so the numbers still work out.

 

@Jtprime17 anything you found line up with these rumors?

 

Nothing that’s worth anything talking about.

@Jacewiththeface may be able to get info on them, if they’re truly from southern hobby.

Since the rumors are from 4chan though odds are They’re 98% false.

 

I’d be down for a Minerva and the rest of Headmaster Jr.’s. The fact that she is Selects is worrisome. Would she have the Headmaster gimmick or just be a simple repaint?

A few years ago, I’d would take a vehicle Soundwave, but with the so true to g1 in Earthrise, I was really hoping for the tape deck.

 

Ok I did more digging, this is what I can Share. Southern hobby added this years toyfair reveals, plus the selects figures rumored for this year into their system on the 29th of January this year.

“looks at date of 4chan post” Yeah if
Southern hobby added Minerva in their system in September of last year. I would have found it.

If Minerva is supposed to be GS-20, why would Southern hobby add her to the system before the figures that are most likely GS-11-19?

So that’s the biggest red flag.

 

 

A problem I see with that is that he'd LIKELY be identical in size, features, height, weight, and articulation to the Masterpiece Star Saber with the possible exception of Titan Master gimmick in place of the Brainmaster gimmick, given Hasbro's tendency to unify/consolidate similar gimmicks.

My reasoning is fairly straightforward. Hasbro and Takara just released PM Primes at the old Leader scale (which no longer exists) a few years ago. Hasbro even released Takara's retool as Magnus Prime in a boxed set. They don't even have a distribution strategy for that size class.

If they made Powermaster Prime smaller than the old Leader class, the miniature Optimus and the truck mode would only have play value with Micromasters and would be unable to use a Micromaster sized Hi-Q as a parallel to Doubledealer's gimmick. Granted, a WFC Leader class Powermaster Prime with a Micromaster truck mode might be REALLY FUN but it doesn't line up with Hi-Q being in scale or matching the play patterns of Doubledealer's partners.

A Titan Powermaster Prime would produce a ridiculously large truck and a basic Optimus that towers over other figures and is too big for a cassette Hi-Q. If the Titan were composed of a Commander sized Optimus packed with a Godbomber, we are effectively still talking about a Commander sized figure.

Commander sized Powermaster Optimus in this scenario means Commander Star Saber. In addition to taking up a once per year slot on a character Hasbro isn't aggressively marketing, the Commander class figure has a problem.

One way or another, it's essentially releasing a Masterpiece figure with a $169 retail price at $80 with $50 sales likely. Sure, Hasbro isn't selling new MP Star Sabers but it would erase any pricing advantage the MP brand has as a luxury collectible to release a sturdier, better, engineered, more articulated, more media accurate version of an MP at half price at the same size. They might as well upscale Siege Sideswipe to Voyager, get rid of the gaps, add hand articulation, and sell it for $30.

The narrow gap between MP and WFC can't be allowed to close unless the MP line is dead. size, complexity, and parts counts vary but MPs appeal relies on CHUG staying one size down since CHUG size and complexity also increases with parts count.

Okay. So let's imagine a Leader Star Saber. I won't rule that out. So then maybe he has a Saber form like white Optimus is for Siege Magnus? Maybe. Maybe not. Hasbro has taken liberties when adapting JG1 elements.

Leader Star Saber would then be heavy enough he'd probably need a Voyager Victory Leo. Throw in a Leader Deathsaurus and I think suddenly Hasbro is banking a LOT on multiple JG1 purchases. You've potentially ruled out Rodimus Prime, Cyclonus, and Galvatron to do this because there won't be five molds at Leader size, all of these have good reasons to make leader sized, and reasons why not doing one means not doing all.

On top of that, you have Victory Leo as the only Voyager Weaponizer whose ability to armor up Sideswipe or whatever is in question. Worse, the majority kids market who buys these ends up breaking all their Cliffjumpers and Hounds when they follow the play pattern and attach Victory Leo to them.

I think this leaves us with the likeliest breakdown being Voyager or Leader Deathsaurus. (I actually think Leader is workable with Rodimus/Cyclonus/Galvatron hogging the rest of the slots) Voyager Star Saber. Saber is his Titanmaster with no intermediary mode. Deluxe Victory Leo.

And if Victory Leo is a deluxe, that SUGGESTS 2-3 more beast weaponizer molds as a theme.

And hypothetically that theme works well with Blaster getting a Voyager and another Soundwave and Breastforce because "robots combine with beasts" lines up with his cassettes as MMs. There's a synergy with MM beasts of various types and a line you can build with TFTM characters combining with beasts.

I could be 100% wrong. I'm just showing my work here.

 

8 Actually, least for the siege branded stuff and not selects or wfc trilogy
Galaxy Prime
Chromia
Barricade
Greenlight
Impactor
Acid Storm
Ion Storm
Nova Storm

 

I'm going to say that one way or another depending on how media scale is handled that my wild hunch is that Waspinator would make for a very good weaponizer.

I know it isn't exactly a legacy gimmick except to the extent that Waspinator was a weapon for a Legends class Starscream. None of the Weaponizers except for Victory Leo or arguably Energon Autobots would be a Legacy gimmick though. MM bases never turned into robots or armor. Powerdashers didn't turn into armor.

But in my mind's eye I'm picturing a popular choice in the future being to display a ghost redeco of Earthrise Starscream wearing split up Waspinator bits.

 

I was thinking more among the lines of waspscream, transmetal waspinator, but man I really like that idea.
plus this could tie into modulator transports that become armor for their respective micromaster, or larger bots

rambly mc rambles time: I don't think monstructor will be a titan, or moreso I'd rather not want that to happen, look at cw dev, he was incredibly compromised in the individual bot modes to make sure the combined form looks......good..? ehhhh. I'd rather just have the ss dev like thing where they spread the pieces out
there's a couple other combiners that eh I can see and can't at the same time: landcross seems like a bitch to do. Road Caesar isn't a real and should stop be proposed as real, Motorvator will happen before I die, Liokaiser could happen, railracer or landfill could happen as commanders, if we do see beast wars I would kill for a tripredacus and magnaboss and a vowel in jaguar as a repaint/retool of tripredacus, I dunno, one could make an arguement that the first attempts of combiners were...sketchy and should have another stab taken at them but I'm not sure if we'll see them in wfc3 or any time soon

in conclusion: bigmotorvator as commander or titan for wfc3 and you cannot stop me

 

The difficulty for Hasbro with making Soundwave's alt mode a straight up tape deck is the average kid - and indeed many adults - around today might not have the first clue what a cassette tape is, let alone a tape deck. That said, given Siege Soundwave had a hidden, 'official fan mode' street lamp second alt mode - which is strictly speaking his Cybertronian alt mode - which was even printed on one of the flaps of his box, I'd say it is HIGHLY likely that this ground vehicle Earth mode Soundwave will have a similar 'official fan mode' where he can be a tape deck and not just in a 'almost right' sense like the Siege one is without third party addons.