While it would make for another collaboration, it would mean negotiating a contract with the folks currently doing Micro Machines (hasn't been Hasbro for a couple of years now).
Transformers Collaborative (Transformers X Star Wars: The Mandalorian)
- Thread starter TriBlurr
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I was very explicit about describing the color scheme as "yellow and black" instead of just saying "similar colors" for the specific reason of preemptively heading off this response.
So you were. I'm not sure why the black vs. purple should be so significant, myself. But, yes, you did say that.
I mean, one's essentially a reissue, replacing a few purple bits with black, and adding Tonka logos. The other's essentially a reissue adding Tonka logos.
Yes, there's a difference, but I don't see how that difference is at all meaningful. They're both still essentially just reissues of toys we've gotten in the (still fairly distant) past.
I'm saying that there's no reason a Landfill Tonkanator wouldn't hold the same appeal that the G2 yellow Devastator Tonkanator does (or doesn't, for some people)... perhaps beyond G1 nostalgia for the specific mold (not a point we've been discussing, but one I can see an argument for). The fact that Tonkanator swaps out a secondary purple for black strikes me as an insignificant detail. Both toys would be, for the most part, so similar to what we've already gotten that they're practically reissues (but reissues of many-years-old toys have their own appeal, even without differences).
I mean, you may think differently, and I don't mean to dismiss your aesthetic taste, but surely you've seen the comments from folks dismissing Tonkanator by saying "Isn't that just G2 Devastator with some Tonka labels?" Sure, you can say "they changed the purple to black," and you'd be correct, but there's a reason that comment has come up....
And Landfill would have had the advantage (to some) of being both sturdier in combined mode than Devastator tends to be, AND appealing to the vocal-but-underserved group of fans who want to see homages beyond just the G1 era.
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I have never cared the slightest bit about G2 Devastator, but I like how this one looks. The black is immediately noticeable to me.
I kinda feel like part of that may have been the result of people's memory of G2 Devastator having had purple instead of black having been skewed by just how common the yellow-and-black Quick Change KOs were. Those things were all over the place back in the 2000s. Big Lots, KB Toys, Walgreens, CVS, you name it.
They were so easy to find back then that it wouldn't surprise me if folks who wanted the G1 molds but weren't willing to pay aftermarket prices for the originals back then picked them up and let the yellow-and-black deco cloud their memory/awareness of the fact that G2 Devastator was yellow-and-purple instead, since G2 Devastator was known as a "yellow Devastator" and the KO was just as yellow.
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I don't know if I'd ascribe such importance to the KO in particular, but I do think it's a given that most people are more familiar with Devastator's original colors than any of the later versions, most of which are generally referred to by their primary color just because all of them have purple as their secondary color so saying "and purple" is rightly seen as redundant.
To approach this from another angle, if Tonkanator was in actual G2 Constructicon colors, that would have noticeably detracted from the Tonka look and we'd be talking about how Hasbro tried to have their cake and eat it too and it didn't really work.
To approach this from another angle, if Tonkanator was in actual G2 Constructicon colors, that would have noticeably detracted from the Tonka look and we'd be talking about how Hasbro tried to have their cake and eat it too and it didn't really work.
Depends which Devestator they use, they might use the CW one or the Studio series
That's odd. It wasn't there when I posted it, if I recall.
Just curious, I've seen at least four people here refer to G1 Devastator as "fragile." That's not an adjective that I would personally use for that toy. I still have mine from the 80s and it's fully intact and holds together well in combined mode. I just took him down from my shelf and put him away a week ago and he's doing well. I'm guessing that that is not everyone's experience.
In my case it was the connecting tabs for various parts (though the arm-connection tab for at least some releases, like the one I had, were dicast, so that one was fine), plus Long Haul's head breaking off at the joint, and other 'thin' areas cracking over time. This happens in the KO's too, but a lot faster. Keep in mind, though, my expriance was with stuff that was DECADES old, so the modern one may give a lot better experiance, I really don't know.
Edit: I should also note re: yours above, which was also from the 80's, that mine were pretty heavily used in kids-play, I don't know what sort of abuse yours took, so my own experiance may not quite line up. If yours WERE heavily played with and still held up fine, I may simply have been unlucky. Toys DO break, sometimes in ways that don't quite make sense.
Edit: I should also note re: yours above, which was also from the 80's, that mine were pretty heavily used in kids-play, I don't know what sort of abuse yours took, so my own experiance may not quite line up. If yours WERE heavily played with and still held up fine, I may simply have been unlucky. Toys DO break, sometimes in ways that don't quite make sense.
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It's just possible (this being Wikipedia) that someone had removed it during the window in which you consulted the site, but it's been there for some time. I checked it myself just after posting my comment (I'd already known that Hasbro had given up Micro Machines, but had forgotten the exact company, myself, and so wanted to check).
I'd need to look, but I recall my G2 Devastator being pretty beat up. I know Hook's hook is broken and I think there is a wheel or two missing.
A bunch of nubs and pegs, mostly on the combiner kibble, can wear down or snap, making the whole thing unstable. But even complete and fresh out of the box, Devastator has always felt kinda weak and rickety to me.
I had the Constructicons as a kid, and played with them a lot. Replaced half of them with yellow G2 versions in college to try to make Devastator more stable, but it didn't really help. Bonecrusher will fall off his shoulder peg unless I prop him just right, and the tab to hold Scrapper in place cracked years ago. Never lost Long Haul's head, but my original Scrapper lost an arm.
I'm sentimental about mine, but I leave it in one spot on a shelf and don't move it at this point. I'd worry that the Target one would have the same issues in the long run.
I'm sentimental about mine, but I leave it in one spot on a shelf and don't move it at this point. I'd worry that the Target one would have the same issues in the long run.