Why are there so few train Transformers?

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by TFsound1, May 6, 2020.

  1. Beastwarsfan95

    Beastwarsfan95 Putting the ‘Bi’ in Bionicle.

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    The same reason there’s not a lot of bus Transformers: a very long, boxy shape doesn’t lend itself well to a proportioned robot. Most train-bots either have very awkward proportions, or turn into a weirdly shaped train.
     
  2. DanC

    DanC Delightful person

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    Aw damn now I want an el car transformer, preferably blue line
     
  3. IgnikaMarcus

    IgnikaMarcus Need new Legacy G2 Leadfoot.

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    We need a new Rail Racer team.
     
  4. Fallout

    Fallout Banned

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    transforming into a locomotive is a tough process. grueling n it doesn't come easily.

    what i'm saying is it requires a lot of training.
     
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  5. SG Roadbuster

    SG Roadbuster SG Wrecker

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    its not that America lacks a rail culture, its that our rail culture was smothered in it's crib by Big Oil and Henry Ford. they wanted to sell more gas guzzling cars to all the families across the nation. and you can't sell people a car when they can ride the rail to work and grandmas. so they bought out the passenger rails and tore them up to make more highways.

    so nowadays everyone associates trains with inconvenient crossings that make you late for work, elaborate graffiti, and movies about homeless junkies starring Obi Wan Kenobi
     
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  6. Booster Gold

    Booster Gold Superhero?

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    That's what I meant by lack of rail culture. What rail culture you had was "smothered in it's crib" the way you describe.
     
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  7. Excikaiser

    Excikaiser Well-Known Member

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    There's at least Optimus ExPrime. It should count for 10 points, there's never been an Optimus as boat.
     
  8. quiktake

    quiktake Well-Known Member

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    I am laughing at this thread. Loads of kids love trains! Think Thomas and friends. I know that might be a bit young for the typical hasbro customer. I think they would need to have it train transformers for little kids and they would need to make it compatible with the Thomas the train tracks for it to make sense. Most parents don’t want to reinvest in a totally new system. Make it part of the Micromaster line and it would sell great as long as they include track sections.
     
  9. DanC

    DanC Delightful person

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    My wife is an urban planner and no joke one of her favorite movies is Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
     
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  10. RodimusRex

    RodimusRex Well-Known Member

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    Funny thing being:

    Energon Sharkticon was based on the G1 Nemesis and probably would have sold BETTER with the shark bits hidden. Takara redecoed him as the Beast Wars Axalon.

    I feel like the aquatic characters who can be rebranded as air vehicles stand a better chance.

    Seaspray honestly wouldn't take much imagination to rebrand as a Star Trek style spaceship. The name is probably the thing that made him pegwarm. If you called him Starspray and Siege-ified him, oversized the turbines, made the yellow bits brighter or gold or pearl, I think he'd market better to kids.

    Oh! Oh! Siegeprey. Or Seizeprey. There we go. Seizeprey. Function: Vast-speed Predatory Raptor fueled by Furman Particles.
     
  11. Matty

    Matty @StayingInTheBox Veteran

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    I agree here, I do think the discussion could be simplified to this. Mass transit in the form of trains is just not widespread in North America.
     
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  12. Autobot Burnout

    Autobot Burnout ...and I'll whisper "No."

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    I feel like you could do some interesting stuff with trains, even boxy diesels, you just really can't use modern ones since they're kinda samey and purely utilitarian.

    You gotta go back to when you had multiple companies still competing with Cab units - ALCo, Fairbanks Morse, Baldwin, and classic Electro-Motive Division.

    I mean, just look at the ALCO PA series - it's basically got the lines of a semi truck!

    [​IMG]

    Or the Baldwin Sharknose, one of the more unique cab units
    [​IMG]

    Hell, maybe even one of the (in)famous Union Pacific 'Big Blow' Gas Turbines, some of the most powerful locomotives ever built period.
    [​IMG]

    So, if you needed to make a Train transformer that isn't a steam engine, the options are there.

    But, unfortunately, the problem does remain that trains still need rails and thus they're extremely limited in usefulness when you've got robots that become planes and automobiles, and I don't think the Snowpiercer angle of all-terrain trains really works even by Transformers standards.

    That's not at all what happened.

    WWII's post-war period happened.

    The onset of WWII not only essentially revitalized the crippled American economy by rapidly expanding industry, but it also indirectly led to the creation of the national interstate system purely so there was a network of roads for the armed forces to quickly cross the nation if the Communists invaded or something - railroads were still under government regulation at the time and had to operate passenger trains even though by then the railroads were actually trying to slowly kill off the unprofitable passenger trains eating at the freight profits. Additionally, people were moving out of the cities into the suburbs, so cars were a natural choice since, unlike trains, they went pretty much wherever and you didn't have to share it with strangers on your commute. So, with Interstates and a rapidly developing road network, why take the train when you could just drive there on your own time?

    The great Streamliner passenger trains, which were created more in the hopes of riding the WWII explosion of demand, also suffered competition from the birth of the airline travel industry, since a train can't cross the entire country in mere hours.
     
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  13. imfallenangel

    imfallenangel Well-Known Member

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    I'm going to go with:

    There might have been plans to make more, but those plans get derailed?
     
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  14. Maximus Danz

    Maximus Danz Trying to achieve something

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    From a Marketing perspective:
    Trains aren't as popular in the west. Why do you think it was TT who announced MP Raiden and reissued it there (And released as TFs in the first place).

    Toy perspective:

    There aren't really too many creative ways to get a robot to a train and back, in comparison to cars. You pretty much either have a brick (Old train bots) panels collapse with a chest sticking out (RID Train bots)
     
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  15. Cyberbot8460

    Cyberbot8460 Who The Hell Do You Think I Am?

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    That's where you are, but for the majority, trains are just kinda dead. Mostly, you got metros and subways, but they aren't really significant parts of culture here as they are in Japan.
     
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  16. mx-01 archon

    mx-01 archon Well-Known Member

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    Metro/Subway trains also make for the least-interesting alt modes ever, essentially being metal Twinkies with wheels.
     
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  17. Motor_Master

    Motor_Master Lets the balls touch

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    I love trains, esp Lego trains and while I'd love to see the likes of the Trainbots released in the US, trains just don't have the mass appeal that cars and planes do.

    :lol 

    Right. Other than while visiting a major metropolitan area, a theme park or to tour a scenic vista, I have no use for trains as a mode of transportation.

    It's not widespread because it's not feasible as a mode of mass transit outside of major metropolitan areas. America is a vast expanse, spanning thousands of miles from coast to coast. When it comes to transporting people, trains cannot compete with the airlines. If someone wants to go from Boston to Los Angles, they're not going to spend over 3.5 days on a train when they can jump on a plane and be there in about 5 hours. Even Boston to Baltimore takes 6+ hours by train vs 1+ hours by plane.

    Then there's Americas love a fair with the car and the freedom to go where ever we want whenever we want, however you want. It's a great reflection of the American spirit.
     
  18. fujishig

    fujishig Well-Known Member

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    We never got Web Diver either... also for good reason (though I thought it was cool).
     
  19. fujishig

    fujishig Well-Known Member

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    Which also reminds me, we don't get many food-formers. I like my Microman Cup O Noodles helicopter.
     
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  20. Matty

    Matty @StayingInTheBox Veteran

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    For sure. I was referring more so towards local mass transit (subway, light rail, etc.). Poor choice of words on my part, but I hear you.