Mayhem Transformers Discussion: United We Shelfwarm

[CoffeeHorse]

the worst thing about this Wingsaber design is that it is based around energon Optimus. What I would do if I was Hasbro, would be to forget about Energon Prime and just make this version of Wingsaber be the one that combines with the new Cybertron optimus

I like Energon Prime better than Cybertron Prime.

Cybertron Prime is so good that there's nowhere left to go, so his Wing Saber combination is boring. Energon Prime does his thing for all it's worth, and he gets combinations that are actually interesting.

 

[unluckiness]

Savage Claw mode is infinitely more interesting and deserved a better toy and more spotlight than Optimus Prime Super Mode but with swords

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

It was a neat idea, but Leobreaker is too heavy to make the toy feel good like that. And really needed a better design for the waist swivel so the arm mode could pose better

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Leobreaker needed a better everything. That should not have been an impossible design to pull off at that budget. They just gave up.

 

[Haze Arquebus]

I guess mathematically the line had to have some pretty powerful duds to to balance out all the crazy-good jive it was doing, so we unfortunately ended up with guys like Leobreaker and Backstop.

 

[unluckiness]

Backstop was the designer cooking too hard. The weird arms and awkward legs are too much baggage for a Cybertron scout who predominantly were simple, effective toys who didn’t try to reinvent the wheel.

Leobreaker is the posterchild for budget cuts. If they could shave off about a third of his mass and fold up his knees so that the savage claw forearm were shorter and thicker, it’d do a lot of good for the combination. A proper hand would be gravy.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I don't buy the budget excuse for Leobreaker. It's a catformer. The main transformation is just standing up. The arm mode was the only thing they needed to figure out, and they were willing to resort to partsforming. It should have been doable.

 

[unluckiness]

I don’t really know why else they would gut him otherwise. It’s either that or the original design killed volunteers during testing or something.

 

[Blot]

I will always laugh at that one design doc we've seen of Leobreaker that is just a page full of notes emphasizing how the arm mode should REALLY look like an arm, with well defined musculature and a fully formed hand and the final toy just... bam, shoulder lion.

 

[Destron D-69]

It's been so long I forgot how jive this Toynami Shadow alpha toy was... now I remember. Not exactly a transformer... but damn does it feel like the most expensive Titanium toy you could ever buy... I think I might have had to buy this directly from the toynami website back in the day... lol might even be my first online purchase.


... sadly it's the lie that proves the truth that the purple one is always the best. if I ever make a gundam diorama ... were looking at solid exploded background mecha right here.

 

[Princess Viola]

Isn't Toynami that company that has basically been shitting out the same fuckin Valkyrie toy (that they variously brand as either Macross or Robotech depending on their mood this year) since like 2005-2006 and has only done the most minor improvements to the mold, despite being people very openly being critical of and pointing out all the flaws the toy has, and the price has gone from something like $20 for these damn things something like $70?

 

[CoffeeHorse]

You probably mean their 1/100 scale Valks. And yes. I picked up a VF-1J back when they were $20, and for that price they were actually great. They feel flimsy, but they look okay, and the amount of stuff they managed to pack into the box was unparalleled. People were critical but dang the things were actually good.

For $20.

 

[Princess Viola]

Yeah those things.

I don't even know how they keep selling, like I can definitely see 'Yeah you could overlook most of the flaws when they were $20' but nowadays...I don't get it. I guess maybe it's just selling to people with nostalgia who see them on the shelves at the comic book stores.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

Curse my overnight work schedule! Got the link to the Zoom event with Steve Evans, but I HAVE to get some sleep if I’m going to be up from (basically) 5:30pm to ~9am. I’m basically going to miss everything today, including the sale items.

At least there is nothing I feel “essential”. Dinoking would be nice, but not THAT essential, and Hasbro’s been doing a good job on doing second runs if demand supports it. None of the other offerings really speak to me (though, I give props on Starduster’s cereal box accessory).

 

[Destron D-69]

yeah, if they dumped the gloves from the blitzwing repaint and put him in a voyager box I'd bite -even at pulse markup... it'll be nice to maybe have a chance at seeing Cosmos and ramjet this time around though.

 

[unluckiness]

Eh the announcements were kind of a dud.

 

[Haze Arquebus]

Yeah I do not regret sleeping through that in the least.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

At least I can finally get Cosmos without paying scalper markup. He sold out on Pulse almost immediately, but I got through on BBTS.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I'll totally buy Overcharge when they shelfwarm their way to clearance. The colors turned out great.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

If I hadn't bought a clearance Blitzwing, I might be tempted by a clearance Overcharge, but I don't like the mold nearly enough to consider double-dipping at any price.