Cool concepts and missed opportunities

Galvaplexia

Flamboyant Cuddles!!!
Citizen
Apologies if this thread is ripping off a similar concept in another recent thread or something; feel free to merge if that’s the case.

Thread “rules” are simple: what are some concepts you felt could have or should have been incorporated into a Transformers-related story, fiction, or toys that would have exponentially enhanced the enjoyment of the specific story, toy, property etc..... but weren’t? How do you think it would have made the story/toy better?

I’ll go first.

The Matrix in the Shattered Glass Universe - I don’t think the Matrix was even a concept mentioned in any of the SG-related fiction we’ve gotten, though I could be mistaken. Still, I think an awesome idea for the Matrix in the SG-verse would have been that it functioned like The One Ring in the Lord of the Rings universe. Whoever possesses it basically gets driven insane with obsession and addiction for it and its power. And power they will get granted, including super strength, endurance, etc. I felt that this would have been a far cooler driver for SG Optimus instead of a “mysterious thing” that drove him insane cus reasons. It would have also been an interesting story element as a way to explain Optimus Prime as not just some rando evil dude with Reasons for his evil, but a way to explain an evil dude with supernaturally-enhanced powers that he should have had. I felt like it would have made him a much more formidable threat being something like a Sauron-enhanced baddie rather that just another generic villain with generic world domination goals for generic reasons. Also, the Matrix, being considered an object of power that bots want and how they want it; if it were portrayed like The One Ring, it turns the concept of a morality-operated coveted object of wisdom to an ambitious/ obsession-driven object of fear, which is on-theme for the whole mirror counterpart concept of Shattered Glass. And that’s no more of a ripoff or homage to other story elements in other properties than anything else in that universe.

Kingdom Waspinator as a Weaponizer - I mean COME ON. Don’t really have to get into why this woulda been THE dream version of Waspinator. If they can make janky skeletons and block battle ship/tank/building dingers into Weaponizers, I see no reason why they wouldn’t have the ability to do it with Waspinator. (Ya has ONE job Hasbro! 🤣)

Anyway, love to hear what other people think are concepts that should have made it into the TF lore or toys.... but didn’t.
 
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Stepwise

Not Crew.
Citizen
My daughters had some older My Little Ponies with magnets in their feet. Touching the magnet to spots on some toys caused doors to open, etc. I always thought it would've been cool to incorporate that action feature into a Transformer. No idea how it would've actually been applied, it just seemed cool at the time.
 

Galvaplexia

Flamboyant Cuddles!!!
Citizen
My daughters had some older My Little Ponies with magnets in their feet. Touching the magnet to spots on some toys caused doors to open, etc. I always thought it would've been cool to incorporate that action feature into a Transformer. No idea how it would've actually been applied, it just seemed cool at the time.
I think there’s a feature like that that I’ve seen on a third-party figure. Forget which one, but basically run a magnet (included as part of an accessory) over the robot head and the eyes light up or something.
 

ZacWilliam1

Well-known member
Citizen
Yeah it was a cool Concept setting with extremely poor storytelling around it. That whole section of the series didn't bother to explain anything we saw in a way that made any sense.

-ZacWilliam, which you can do successfully in a SciFi "Big Spooky Space Mystery" plot, but only if you do it well and this did not.
 

The Phazer

Well-known member
Citizen
I really liked the initial classics approach of not having any faction symbols visible, save for the rub sign, in alt mode. Really sold the "robots in disguise" thing. It's a shame it was dropped so quickly.

I kind of like the idea of the Maximals and Predacons coming about as a result of the "bad ending" of Unicron/Galvatron winning, they should keep that. It's more interesting than downsizing for energy reasons.
 

LBD "Nytetrayn"

Broke the Matrix
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Seeing this image...

D8BC430B-B426-4BA8-847F-8C030C63DEC6.jpeg


...made me realize what I would have loved to have seen in the Kingdom cartoon, as I already felt that no Rodimus was a huge misstep.

Image via this video, btw.
 

Galvaplexia

Flamboyant Cuddles!!!
Citizen
Yeah it was a cool Concept setting with extremely poor storytelling around it. That whole section of the series didn't bother to explain anything we saw in a way that made any sense.

-ZacWilliam, which you can do successfully in a SciFi "Big Spooky Space Mystery" plot, but only if you do it well and this did not.
I loved the space station trapped halfway thru a rift in space from Netflix Earthrise. It was such a cool concept and visual that was largely squandered there for some contrived fight against Scorponok.

Agreed. Such great potential for some alternative universe Easter egg homage-ey goodness but they had to scrap all that To Sell More Toys. 🙄

I really liked the initial classics approach of not having any faction symbols visible, save for the rub sign, in alt mode. Really sold the "robots in disguise" thing. It's a shame it was dropped so quickly.

I kind of like the idea of the Maximals and Predacons coming about as a result of the "bad ending" of Unicron/Galvatron winning, they should keep that. It's more interesting than downsizing for energy reasons.
I do wish it was done more ubiquitously in other lines besides G1 and Classics. It’s an awesome concept.

I really wished they explained a little more how the Maximals and Predacons came about in an admittedly uninhabitable Cybertron.
 

Haze Arquebus

Cursed Punweaver
Citizen
I've always felt it was a big shame that we never got any further iterations on truck Rodimus post-Energon. It was just really cool, and making him a wild super sci-fi rocket truck that has a backwards transformation in comparison to the common Optimus one would keep him separated from Optimus, while at the same time making the Hot Rod-to-Rodimus shift much more visually interesting than "Hot Rod, but a bit taller and tired, and redder if we bothered to remember that Hot Rod's magenta this time".
 

The Mighty Mollusk

Scream all you like, 'cause we're all mad here
Citizen
POTP would've been the perfect opportunity for a Powermaster Prime with a full combining armor trailer. Instead we got a truck with half of Orion Pax on the back that combines into a discount MP10.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Titans Return's Voyager class being tailor-made for Apeface and Snapdragon's triple-changer Headmaster gimmick, yet no sign of them anywhere until Siege and Earthrise two-to-three years after Titans Return ended.
 

Haywire

Collecter of Gobots and Godzilla
Citizen
Yeah, that was quite the lag getting the Headmaster Horrorcons out. On the flip side, at least they maintained compatibility with the other Titanmaster figures.

I think there was a missed opportunity in the Bumblebee movie for us to get an 80’s patrol car Barricade. The tiny one from the toy line is my favorite iteration of the character, wish he’d gotten some screentime.

Also, Buzzworthy Shatter feels like a missed opportunity to get car-mode Shatter with a non-battle mask head.
 

Superomegaprime

Wondering bot
Citizen
I think Hasbro missed the chance to do a great Ultra Magnus figure using the ER Prime mold, the retool is ok but I'm not displaying him in his seperate robot mode because the butt plate part looks rather silly, even when lifted up onto his back, then again, maybe we'll see a Studio series Ultra Magnus that is meant to be his 86 movie self and they use that mold as the inner robot.

Another serious blunder in my view, is they could of used the siege seeker mold to do the Earth form of the seekers, I mean much of the alien jet hangs on the back of the figure and a few changes and they could of created Starscream in his earth form!

The most serious blunder I can think of, is the old Universe Galvatron figure, it was desgined to be a voyager class but for some reason he got bumped down to deluxe and the figure suffered for it, which is a shame really, it could of been great but then it seems Galvatron keeps having issues, regardless of the line, since then, the TR figure got stuck with the TR gimmick and a flip up mask, plus a arm cannon that can only sit in one direction in robot mode, then the Kingdom Galvatron gets his shoulders put together wrong, while the selects verison gets stickers instead of paint, the hearld of Unicron just can't seem to get a break from issues!
 

Fero McPigletron

Feel the fear!
Citizen
An official Masquerade toy configuration. Prime and Mirage were around in Combiner Wars and Jazz eventually got scramble city'd but no dedicated Sideswipe? Or Windcharger? Windcharger as a deluxe might have been cool.

Yes, I would have loved a weaponizer, modulator Waspinator! Spare parts!
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
An official Masquerade toy configuration. Prime and Mirage were around in Combiner Wars and Jazz eventually got scramble city'd but no dedicated Sideswipe? Or Windcharger? Windcharger as a deluxe might have been cool.
One of the ex-Fun Pub people's regrets was never making CW Sideswipe, which they thought Hasbro was going to make.

Though, it would have been just a straight redeco of CW Breakdown with no new head.
 

ZacDeath

WWOPD
Citizen
I like the flip out weapons from the Cybertron line, but I think Crosswise is one of the only few who did it right. The Prime cartoon did it. I think space robots who can transform their bodies shouldn’t need weapons they need to hold in their hands. IDW Skids did it right as well.
 


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