anyhow
Metroplex's buddies
Now combine them!
Huh, never did work Slammer into this....
Post Pictures of your Transformers, Let's see 40 years worth of Transformers!
- Thread starter Ave Destron
- Start date
Now combine them!
Huh, never did work Slammer into this....
Autobot shuttles
The next line should be all 'Poor Fashion Choices'. Cybertronians in cloaks has been done many times. Sometimes we see vests or ammo belts. Rarely, robes pop up. You hardly ever see more, but...
I had started typing up my thoughts on a MW capsule, then I thought "Wait, this is a picture thread "
Oh, and we were talking about Machine Wars. A quickly thrown together concept made out of compromise that everyone complained about when it came out and only had to be good enough to get out the door. Who's only return was a concept with more thought than the last attempt, made out of compromise, that everyone hated when it came out, and was good enough to get out the door. Only for every new proposal to have more thought than the last attempt, made out of compromise, which many will hate, but will be good enough to get out the door.
Also: Toy. An empty Pretender shell with more story to it than Machine Wars.
Oh, and we were talking about Machine Wars. A quickly thrown together concept made out of compromise that everyone complained about when it came out and only had to be good enough to get out the door. Who's only return was a concept with more thought than the last attempt, made out of compromise, that everyone hated when it came out, and was good enough to get out the door. Only for every new proposal to have more thought than the last attempt, made out of compromise, which many will hate, but will be good enough to get out the door.
Further thinking about the capsule breakdown:
Unless the capsule will have more than one wave, it won't allow for 2 versions of the same mold- thanks to production using a mold already for ONE version- eliminating both. Again, unless another wave is greeenlit and I doubt that.
I originally thought these capsules had only 1 Leader, then I remembered both Toxitron and Grimlock (though shipped in their own cases).
So, with that in mind, and no Commander, we can have:
4 (5 at best) Deluxes- 1 for each vehicle type
1 (2 may be possible, but that hasn't been done since V5K ) Voyager
1, 2 at best Leaders.
*Ended before completion*
Unless the capsule will have more than one wave, it won't allow for 2 versions of the same mold- thanks to production using a mold already for ONE version- eliminating both. Again, unless another wave is greeenlit and I doubt that.
I originally thought these capsules had only 1 Leader, then I remembered both Toxitron and Grimlock (though shipped in their own cases).
So, with that in mind, and no Commander, we can have:
4 (5 at best) Deluxes- 1 for each vehicle type
1 (2 may be possible, but that hasn't been done since V5K ) Voyager
1, 2 at best Leaders.
*Ended before completion*
Also: Toy. An empty Pretender shell with more story to it than Machine Wars.
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And whoever wins this race is the real Optimus Prime!
Yeah, I can see Shadewing's objection to this. The Autobots in particular sacrifice better likenesses for the inexplicable benefit of being a combiner, and I for one would much rather have the former. Combiner Wars and POTP tired me out on the "so you look very little like you're supposed to look, but at least you get to be an arm or a leg". I don't need these to combine at all.
I'll take a Kingdom Mirage retool for Prowl/Mirage, and either Scraphook or Hoist for Hoist/Hubcap. I'm not super into the Spinister mold and wish we'd get a new helicopter mold out, but it might look good in Sandstorm colors. Just use opaque plastic for everything.
Regarding MW slander...
It's a mess of a line. Absolutely. It was a rush job. They didn't even make sure the paint schemes and stickers matched the new colour schemes of the moulds they were using. Like Starscream has black paint... on a black toy. The boxes, instructions, and decos can't decide if they're using the G1 or G2 'Bot and 'Con symbols. Art was recycled from other vaguely related toys and thus wasn't super accurate. They straight up mixed up Megatron and Megaplex's figures and cards. Decos were weird too. Why is Optimus mostly grey with olive green highlights? Why does Megaplex have Estonian Air Force markings? Why does Megatron have Polish Air Force markings? Why is Starscream black? Why is Soundwave grey, red, and green? Prowl's the right colour scheme (mostly) but he's a F1 racer for... reasons. Mirage having the right alt mode and only a slightly off colour scheme actually comes out ahead of most.
Also while Optimus as one of the bigger ticket items makes sense... why is Megatron a tiny jet? Why is he small enough for Starscream to punt him?
And you know what? I love 'em.
Part of it is nostalgia. They were K-B Toys exclusives and we mostly got experience those when we went to the States on vacation. The K-B interior is just burnt into my brain. And ofc I could never get MW figures the one year I saw them when we were on vacation because "we already got you something at Disney" and so on.
So MW kinda sat there as this mythical thing in my head for a few years and it was actually kinda a letdown as a teen discovering the online fandom in the early 2000s and finding out it was widely regarded as a joke. Like not even the people who liked Beast Machines stood up for it.
As I got older I just grew to appreciate it more though. Yeah it was a rush job. No, nothing makes sense even if you add the caveat that it's not G1 and thus they're free to shake stuff up.
The weird colour schemes, mould choices, tampo choices, even the way the packaging was weirdly consistent with Beast Wars packaging... it all adds to the charm. It's the ultimate hipster TF line, and as someone who still has a working VCR, that's appealing to me.
It's offbeat, it hasn't been homaged, redone, given the premium MP treatment... none of that. Heck, even Beast Machines got something in Legacy, even if it was a single Core class toy. Machine Wars didn't even get that...
... and I donno. That level of offbeat weirdness, combined with my earlier memories really wanting the toys but not being able to get them, just clicks right with me.
In some ways Machine Wars getting a fully dedicated, lovingly homaged Generations capsule line would be a shame, like when your favourite indy band signs a record deal and hits it big. Oh, you got a modern update. Like everyone else. I see how it is
But it would be a very nice final capstone to it, one last tip of the hat for the line that nearly was, before it's never referenced ever again.
G-ddamn. Some people take cough medicine and it knocks them out. I get introspective on Machine Wars.
I like the mould myself. The double cockpit is all kinds of goofy but it's goofy in the way I can appreciate.
More to the point, though, it's already been repainted and remoulded into Rotorstorm. And the original Rotorstorm was what MW Sandstorm was repainted from. So if you're planning a modern MW capsule that's a very easy slot to fill. You don't need to do anything. The new tooling you'd need is already there.
Abandoning the Combiner stuff would work great for getting Prowl/Mirage and Hubcap/Hoist as moulds that better reflect the originals. The issue is... what do you do about Optimus? If you don't use the Motormaster mould then I'd suggest using Laser Prime. Maybe design a new trailer, maybe see what you can do to retool the cab robot... but it would be a neat double homage.
That's MW Optimus' box art. That's art for G2 Laser Prime redone to try and match the MW toy.
So if you could somehow retool the Laser Prime mould to fold the shoulder truck halves/pylons away... then you'd be cooking with fire.
The box art for this line was all tweaked versions of earlier box art anwyay, but I'd rather the toys match the toys. Even going with Mirage/Hoist or Scraphook for the other Autobots doesn't preclude using a Motormaster for Prime in this scenario. Of course the next question is the feasibility of Commanders at all for a capsule (although SG did use Jetfire, it was a Hasbro capsule rather than Amazon/Target/Walmart, iirc), but we're just talking mold usage here.
It's a mess, but a beautiful mess. So many things about it are "wrong" that it turns into a cohesive weirdness. Megaplex looks more like Megatron than Megatron does. It's so much more fun than if they'd put the toys on the right cards.
When everything is wrong, nothing is wrong.
When everything is wrong, nothing is wrong.
The Legacy Motormaster mould apparently has that Thunderclash alternate tooling worked in, so it would work as MW Optimus.
Problem is... it's also a Combiner torso/frame. So even if you went out of your way to never mention it on the box... it's still there. And people will make their own combiners out of it.
But you know what? An abandoned gimmick the packing itself refuses to acknowledge resulting in some weird functionality that's not even complete... I can't think of a better Machine Wars homage.
They kept the Predator scopes in but removed the mirrors. This line is post-modern art in toy form.
That's a big part of what draws me to it. It's a big weird reboot before those were really that much of a thing in Transformers (specifically "weird", in that BW cut away as cleanly as it could at first, but this has it both ways in the strangest manner).
It's got some of the same divergent vibes as G2 (Megatron is a tank? A handful of the original cast are all Matchbox cars?) but taken even further. It's like getting RID2001/Armada (same names, totally different presentation), except in the thick of Beast Wars and being the first real inkling of a return to G1 vehicleness. And it's this big "everything's different" surprise, which is a glorious new sandbox of possibilities.
It's got some of the same divergent vibes as G2 (Megatron is a tank? A handful of the original cast are all Matchbox cars?) but taken even further. It's like getting RID2001/Armada (same names, totally different presentation), except in the thick of Beast Wars and being the first real inkling of a return to G1 vehicleness. And it's this big "everything's different" surprise, which is a glorious new sandbox of possibilities.
(shrug) I'd be fine with that. People are going to say and do what they want regardless. Not going to trade in five closer likenesses/homages to avoid something that'll happen anyway.
Besides, it IS the modern combiner frame situation. Let DNA or whoever has time and a 3D printer whip up connectors to staple these Autobots to the combiner frame, done.
(Idly wondering if it's possible to retool Windsweeper to add a swivel to the jet backpack arm so it can swing around to be the right orientation for the MW jets in robot mode)
G-ddamn. Machine Wars Optimus turning into a torso while two ER Hoists and two KI Mirages hang unwieldy off his limbs with 3P connectors actually sounds kinda amazing.
I forget what year it was, maybe around 99 or 2000; Like you, we were on vacation. Visiting relatives or something. I went to a KBs and the lights over the action figure isle were mostly out... except over the Transformers. And there, was the Machine Wars line. It felt like I was literally guided to them. I walked out of there with almost the entire line, I think I blew my entire "budget/allowance" doing it. I didn't care, I had new transformers. I spent the entire night in that hotel room working on the stickers and such. For me the oddity of them being the only thing lit up in that asile has always stuck out to me, and is why this has become a core memory of mine. I never much cared that they looked different; what bothered me was the fact that they seemed like they could have been more articulated but weren't. Like Optimus's shoulders, or some had legs that could have moved more freely with minor alterations. I didn't realize at the time of course that these were leftover G1 toys.
I don't think anyone outside of Europe did. On one hand it makes sense... Hasbro had these moulds the American market never got... the brand is healthy again thanks to Beast Wars... let's see if these things have any juice?
It's just that, when you compare where even G2 was near the end articulation-wise, and where BW was, Machine Wars' bigger items are just weirdly limited.
That was another thing. Since I never got any MW toys I just had this mental image of them, and I assumed the bigger toys must have been articulated. My first go with a MW mould was Universe King Atlas from the Starscream/Skyquake mould, and I remember being really disappointed at how limited it was.
ofc these days I love it. The fact that this line ran late G1 moulds out there- with all the limitations that implies- at the height of Beast Wars in all of its ball jointed glory is just fantastic.
When doing some research awhile back, I watched the Bob Forward panel video YouTube from BotCon 1997, and while the majority of the questions asked of him were appropriately Beast Wars related, there were some in the room who just kept on pestering and badgering him about a Machine Wars cartoon that Bob had no knowledge of or association with since it was never even going to be a thing. Yet so many in that room were so sure that such a cartoon was coming and that Bob and Larry were definitely making it.
I kind of want to find out more about how Hasbro came up with the name. Like I'm sure it was some variation of "try to be consistent with current branding, so Something Wars" and "to go with Wars, Vehicle sounds too on the nose and has too many syllables, got anything with two syllables?", but I'm curious if anything else was a factor.
And really, the rest of it too. Like was it a small team within a team tasked with this, were they on a sharp deadline, was it just one guy who liked military decos, was he drunk a lot, how did the box art come about (this not too long after Some Kind Of Bucket)...
And really, the rest of it too. Like was it a small team within a team tasked with this, were they on a sharp deadline, was it just one guy who liked military decos, was he drunk a lot, how did the box art come about (this not too long after Some Kind Of Bucket)...
That’s because the Machine Wars cartoon was made in secret by the same studio that faked Unicron’s Cybertron landing. The completed episodes were then recorded to VHS, boxed, hidden in a series of dorm rooms, and finally deposited next to the Ark of the Covenant and the 27 volumes of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons Bill Watterson has been making every day since the strip finished in Area 51 down the hall from Elvis and Micheal Jackson’s recording studio.
When I have a conspiracy theory, I like it to go ALL THE WAY. Also, wrestling is fake.
