New "Wildocking" Animal Limb Combiners from TakaraTomy

[Steevy Maximus]

I think these are rather nifty. My first, full, impression is that this feels like a ”Transformers by way of Super Sentai” vibe that doesn’t look terrible. If anything, nothing I’m seeing overtly negates Hasbro’s ability to import these as part of Cyberworld (CyberCombiners?), besides maybe nixing some deco.

Some really interesting ideas, and some intriguing redeco possibilities (G1 Dinobot theme set of limbs? Ultra/Delta Magnus repaint?). But I’m not sure they are “pay import prices” nice, though. I think it will heavily depend on if Hasbro opts to bring these over the states in some capacity. Again, aside from the level of deco, there isn’t much sticking out that would negate Hasbro’s ability to release these, and I’m sure they’d be a bit cheaper.

It IS fascinating to see the not only the divergences between Hasbro and Takara’s “kid initiative”, but also the commonalities. A big one is the mixing of G1 stylings with beast characters or characteristics, but also the move back to “toy first” gimmick directions. Takara opted for a “Megazord Transformers” thing, while Hasbro opted for a smaller scale play system.
Given how the brand has been the past decade or so, it remains refreshing to see both sides of the world embrace a more “toy centric” approach to a product line.

 

[lastmaximal]

I genuinely dig these, and it's all seeming more cohesive and appealing than Cyberworld is right now. A big part of that is the apparent bigger per-figure budget, and the execution that allows for essentially the same core box body to take on different forms with just altered forelimbs and add-on parts.

It does make Cyberworld's unusual mix look more intentional and less random by comparison than it looked by itself, too. It's also a bit of a relief to get back to a toyline that's toy-centric, with a line gimmick consistently guiding all the design decisions, and with a fictional/narrative base for all that too -- in this specific, more familiar, simpler manner. (Both toylines do that, but Cyberworld's kind of trades that internal consistency for redeco flexibility that allows them to justify using existing characters in whatever new forms. This is more traditional in that there's a clear segment of existing characters and a cast of new ones, rather than "the mostly G1 cast are trapped in a Quintesson cyberzoo that has reformed everyone but the leaders into beasts, buy Giraffe Bumblebee and Triceratops Starscream now!"... Which, damn, why did I sell myself on that.)

If anything, I'm warming more to the beasts than Op/Megs, although I do also like those. I agree that this is the least boring the Evergreen whatever Megs design has been, and Op having a less Earth-y altmode and bright yellow windows is quite refreshing. But the new characters and designs and color schemes surrounding them are absolutely what I'm here for.

I hope these shake out as fairly affordable in the end (the prices aren't terrible but it'll be a slow roll getting into this; I may wait for the Nemesis pack first), because I'd like to get at least some of this line.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

This is growing on me. And looks better than some of what we're getting. (Some.)

I particularly like something about this Optimus, including the truck mode. Kinda fresh, but kinda familiar. The yellow windshields really set it off.

Say, I wonder if you can combine combiners... you know, one bot is the thigh, the other a calf for a leg, or one as a bicep and another as a forearm for the arms?

 

[Glitch]

I like the look of this and hope they come in Selects given they're more -izers for the collection.

 

[LordGigaIce]

The reformed Megatron is no saint either. For someone who's supposed to be redeemed, he sure is leading Captain Volca on by letting him think Megs is some prophesized hero of legend.

Reminds me of the time in the Iron Man comics that the Mandarin hired a director to make a movie based off of his life ala Mr. Burns.

"So... weren't you in Afghanistan running an opium production operation when Iron Man showed up to stop you?"

"Western lies! I was.... saving the children! From the American imperialist Tony Stark... and... reading to the blind ones! Yes that'll do! Do not look into this further."

 

[Exatron]

The reformed Megatron is no saint either. For someone who's supposed to be redeemed, he sure is leading Captain Volca on by letting him think Megs is some prophesized hero of legend.

Yeah, that is a little shady. Cerainly nothing someone like Optimus would ever do.

 

[unluckiness]

I’m of two minds on this. It's clearly inspired by Sentai mecha/Megazords in general, so I would have been okay if they were sold as and functioned like them, i.e. complete boxsets, less articulation but with dedicated body parts and better-defined anatomy for the body parts. The way they currently are isn't terrible but I dunno, the asking price is a bit much for middling torsobots and a bunch of bricks that you stick an animal head and tail onto.

 

[Haywire]

...a bunch of bricks that you stick an animal head and tail onto.

Yeah, it's basically Takara's version of Machine Robo Mugenbine. At least, the original Mugenroids. I don't hate it, but after Liokaiser, I'm going to have a hard time justifying the price this year.

 

[unluckiness]

With the contemporary megazord design philosophy of the leader robot forming pretty much everything and a bunch of relatively small zords that form arms or backpacks. Can't say I'm a huge fan.

 

[Sabrblade]

First two episodes of Wild King uploaded by Takara in one video:

If you turn on the closed captions and switch the language to auto-translated English, you can get a not-terrible English translation of the dialogue with a decent understanding of what the characters are saying.

Also, at the end of the video is a toy advert for Optimus and Lightlong's toys, which shows the full transformation of each. Optimus's toy transformation is nigh identical to that of the Generations Thrilling 30 Legends class Optimus toy from 2013.

 

[ZakuConvoy]

I do kind of like what they're doing with Megatron being a combination of different kinds of Megatron designs. A G1 Megatron with a Beast Wars Megatron-style T-Rex arm, and Armada-style horns.

The giraffe could get annoying with all the "rai rai rai"s. I get it, you have the thunder element, but it's a little much. He's going full "Raichu" on us.

So, I guess the only Elemental we haven't seen yet is the "Earth" one. I suppose that breaks the tie. Since Optimus seems to be getting the Thunder Giraffe and Water Elephant. And Megatron is getting the Fire T-Rex and Leaf Triceratops (Hmm..."Fire Red" and "Leaf Green"...the Pokemon parallels are piling up). Odd that they made the "important" tie-breaking one...brown. That's just not a very exciting color. But, maybe they'll make it more bronze or something, who knows?

 

[Sabrblade]

The giraffe could get annoying with all the "rai rai rai"s. I get it, you have the thunder element, but it's a little much. He's going full "Raichu" on us.

Verbal tics. Unavoidable, I'm afraid.

So, I guess the only Elemental we haven't seen yet is the "Earth" one. I suppose that breaks the tie. Since Optimus seems to be getting the Thunder Giraffe and Water Elephant. And Megatron is getting the Fire T-Rex and Leaf Triceratops (Hmm..."Fire Red" and "Leaf Green"...the Pokemon parallels are piling up). Odd that they made the "important" tie-breaking one...brown. That's just not a very exciting color. But, maybe they'll make it more bronze or something, who knows?

Incidentally, the earlier toy listing leaks revealed several more Energy Beasts coming, so who knows if they'll introduce more elements or start doubling up on some of the main five elements.

 

[Destron D-69]

I could see myself getting these at a con as a set, but only if they end up making 8 limbs. I'd want at least both of these torsos to not have to share team members. I doubt I'd need more than that, like a 3rd torso might be pushing it

 

[NovaSaber]

Verbal tics. Unavoidable, I'm afraid.


Incidentally, the earlier toy listing leaks revealed several more Energy Beasts coming, so who knows if they'll introduce more elements or start doubling up on some of the main five elements.

Or both. Some of the leaked names are definitely doubling up (Ignite Bite has to be fire, Thunder Beak has to be lightning, etc.), but also there seem to be twelve in total.
If that's the final number, a sixth element would still let each of the two tribes have one of each.

 

[Sabrblade]

Also, there's no telling how long Takara is going to leave these episodes up on their YouTube channel for public viewing, as they have a bad habit of uploading episode videos and then either taking them down, making them private videos, or geolocking them, later on.

So, watch this and other episodes while you can.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

I could see myself getting these at a con as a set, but only if they end up making 8 limbs. I'd want at least both of these torsos to not have to share team members. I doubt I'd need more than that, like a 3rd torso might be pushing it

There are at least 12 coming:

Light Long - Lightning
Hydrophant - Water
Captain Volka - Fire
Leafback - Grass

Coming up from solicitations we have:
Ignite Bite - Name suggests Fire
Spirituan - ?
Drill Horn - ? Earth ?
Thunder Beak - Gotta be Lightning
Abyss Rain - Water?
Lavamuleta - ?Could be Fire or Earth?
Frost Saber - ? Water?
Sky Report - ?

-ZacWilliam, Spirituan seems to be the Spino...

 

[Sabrblade]

Houston, we have a fansub!

It's by someone new, and there are a few typos throughout, but the dialogue is simple enough in the episodes for this translation to at least be serviceable.

I left a comment on the video with some criticisms regarding the translation that they will hopefully take to heart for later episode translations. Needs to improve on proofreading, fixing typos, uppercasing all proper noun names, spelling Captain Volca's name correctly, use of "Wildocking" over "Wild King" for the combination, etc. Though, they did at least catch the name of Flame Megatron's first attack as "Jurassic Ball Flare", which was stumping me for a bit. The second attack, however, should have been "Volca Burning" and was instead subbed as the nonsensical "Orka Burning".

But as is, it's a mostly B+ translation, and I say that because, again, the simplistic dialogue isn't too hard to understand.

EDIT: They responded to my comment rather quickly and received my criticisms positively.

 

[Steadfast]

Lightlong in animation looks even more ungainly, wrong, and pantomime horse-ish.

I cannot wait to get these guys and swap their animal heads around.

 

[Platypus Prime]

Do you suppose after the Orca Burning they'll stop with the whale murder, and a new merger with a land mammal will make a Buffalo Dump?

It would be a homage character. Seriously. Check tfwiki.