Still needs the blank square headlights, but even the tooniest of toon based Primes won't go that far.
Studio Series discussion
- Thread starter Paladin
- Start date
It's weird. Every company that handles this brand (officially or otherwise) is competing to see who can go the most toon. Toon forever and ever. Autobots can't have shoulder cannons anymore. Nothing matters but toon. Toon toon toon... up to a point.
There are some lines nobody will cross. There are some points where it's just too far, and all these companies that aren't talking to each other agree where those points are. One of those is Prime's blank square headlights.
There are some lines nobody will cross. There are some points where it's just too far, and all these companies that aren't talking to each other agree where those points are. One of those is Prime's blank square headlights.
To be fair, there ARE sequences in More Than Meets The Eye where Optimus Prime DOES sport dual headlight pairs…
They should just include extra swappable plates. Big square or two smaller squares, your choice!
But for real, though, the double-headlights seem REALLY rare. Not even any of the model sheets sport them! You'd think that would be what they'd make their call by, if anything.
But for real, though, the double-headlights seem REALLY rare. Not even any of the model sheets sport them! You'd think that would be what they'd make their call by, if anything.
MP still has realistic altmodes where applicable and Studio Series isn’t as slavish when it comes to sculpted detailing and vehicles so I guess it’s simply not a priority.
That's nothing to do with clear windows. Smallfoot has four different oranges despite no clear windows.
Hasbro is just bad at matching finishes and colours, because they don't prioritise it.
I think a LOT of that can be chalked up to the fact that, depending on the episodes, there WILL be slight variations on how a character might be portrayed. Grab any 5 episodes across all 90-some episodes of G1, and you might might well come across 3-5 slightly different portrayals of Optimus Prime's character models.
Sometimes in the same episode!
More pictures of the SS86 Constructicons.
It's basically just a fancier version of the G1 Devastator combination.
Long Haul's trailer is so goofy but I love it.
Long Haul's trailer is so goofy but I love it.
But not to the same extent as Menasor and Superion, at least.
Kinda looks more similar to the amount and kind of combiner kibble pieces that both the original 1985 toy and the Combiner Wars Titan had, with the added bonus that these pieces can also be configured into a trailer of sorts for storage.
It's definitely more kibble than CW, since CW Long Haul fully formed Devastator's waist and thighs. It is pretty comparable with G1 though, just with Devastator now being more fully formed between his stomach and knees.
Given that Devastator was always a very kibble-heavy combiner, I'm more OK with this than the full frame that Menasor and Superion are using. It's still more of a cheat than CW, but much less of a cheat than the other recent combiners. I'm pretty happy so far.
My main remaining question is how the arm joints are handled. The weak arm joints was one of the biggest problems with CW combiners, and that's been one of the big improvements with the frames. Devastator's knee joints will certainly be in the mini frame and just connect to some solid attachment point on the leg guys. I'm assuming the elbows will be handled similarly, with strong joints being part of the forearms and bundled into that Commander price point. But what about the shoulders? There's no obvious frame piece around the torso, no obvious joints built into Hook, and I can't imagine good shoulder joints fitting into a Deluxe budget. I would certainly hope they aren't skimping on good shoulders amidst an otherwise solid Devastator. Maybe there's just some engineering black magic incorporating them into Hook somewhere?
It's very hard to see where the budget is going on these two, and those windows look pig ugly.
That’s disappointing. with the trailer method of combining, I’d at least expect Long Haul to be the slim Sunbow design but he’s still really wide. Looks like the only thing Hook has over CW/UW is a bicep rotation.
I'll stick with my UW set. I'm not even slightly tempted by this one.
I understand this was never going to be my dream all-in-one Devastator. I can even understand making this more reliant on kibble than the CW/UW design. For Long Haul's sake especially, I do get it. And the trailer here is thematic enough. But if they're going to go for a more kibble heavy approach, I would need the results to look better than this. Combined mode still isn't quite all the way there. Long Haul is still overly chunky. And Bonecrusher. WTF. I would eagerly forgive it for looking like that if it contained one of Devastator's forearms, but no. It looks like that for no reason at all.
It's only a compromise if you actually get something in return.
I understand this was never going to be my dream all-in-one Devastator. I can even understand making this more reliant on kibble than the CW/UW design. For Long Haul's sake especially, I do get it. And the trailer here is thematic enough. But if they're going to go for a more kibble heavy approach, I would need the results to look better than this. Combined mode still isn't quite all the way there. Long Haul is still overly chunky. And Bonecrusher. WTF. I would eagerly forgive it for looking like that if it contained one of Devastator's forearms, but no. It looks like that for no reason at all.
It's only a compromise if you actually get something in return.
These will be cheaper than getting the CW or UW versions on the secondary market?
The biggest draw would be better robot scale. Putting the UW Constructicons next to Siege onwards makes them look positively gargantuan
This and the overall combiner height are my main considerations, but I'm still not super into it.
I've had to miss several weeks of Transformers anything because of work, but I kiiind of feel the same on-the-fenceness about the Aerialbots. I like Silverbolt's robot mode and Superion's overall less weedy look, but Silverbolt having a bizarre wing trailer thing looks ridiculous in altmode and every Aerialbot is basically the most lateral of moves. The Stunticons were greater improvements on what came before and the "combiner frame in a hitched box" was more excusable with Motormaster.
But in general this "let's just put the combiner body in a separate box rather than engineer the main figure to do it all" has been disappointing. And to see them STILL do that with Long Haul is just... I can't agree with it.