Transformers Legacy toyline

[Shadewing]

While I like the smaller guys being at a small size; I much prefer Core being "playset sized" versions of the bigger guys. Even if they aren't to scale, they'll still look good around Titan Base modes and its easiler to set up battle scenes with.

I would be totally fine with them being their own subline/capsule/whatever, even if they had to be two packs, like someone else suggested .Becuase two guys at $25-30 with some accessories would be great... hell, resurect the old "Battle in a Box" title for it. Two small figures of opposite factions. Maybe have one big name and one lesser name, but give them a bit of fiction, maybe a SS-eque diarama, etc. I feel that would off set the cost since they are no longer "smaller figure vs bigger figure" Its "small boxset" sold around the same price as the regular big figures. Its increase their value to consumers, imo.

 

[lastmaximal]

I agree. This is a big part of why the T30 range started out with small main cast members iirc, to go with Metroplex. And we've been getting more and more such city/basebots for them to go with in the years since. Idk if they're specifically avoiding splitting or diluting the buying audience, because a new scale is a whole nother "reboot" they could market, making people buy everyone over again.

Aside: while it's too late now to bemoan the Deluxifying of the Minibots (especially as some like Warpath have been solidly for the better), I do wish we'd gotten POTP Battletrap style figures for Flywheels/Skytread's halves.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

What made Cyberverse work for years was the 'verse' part. They were smaller and cheaper toys that didn't offer everything that their Deluxe and above counterparts did, but they leaned heavily into diorama building, which let them offer something the larger toys didn't.

Prime Wars Legends ditched that, but they tied in with their lines' gimmicks, so they were still relevant.

Siege Micromasters really didn't fit the line's theme, and weren't super great toys in their own right. Earthrise almost fixed it by adding the Micromaster Bases, but unfortunately their associated Micromasters were punted into a 10-pack instead of being available at retail, and that's when their associated Micromasters were made at all.

Core seemed like a return to the T30 model, and then the Ark said "Nah". I think that was quietly devastating. Aside from Rattrap, Core was immediately an irrelevant sideshow. It wasn't built around anything. It didn't complement the larger stuff. The line's own Titan was apathetic to it. It was just smaller and cheaper, but not even that cheap. The only hope for it at that point was character selection.

Good job with the character selection, Legacy. It started out as mostly repaints and repacks, and Pretenders. And the Pretenders were actually decent. But then Skullgrin immediately showed up and tossed out any notion that Core was going to be the basis for a Pretender collection going forwards. So Core still had no discernable hook.

Then Core turned into a sea of grey for a year, for the sake of a combiner we were incentivised not to buy because it was a lousy preview of a better toy we knew was coming.

 

[Haywire]

If we're talking Legacy, this is why some form of Core/Legends/Legion class should continue:

How many generations of Transformers and Transformer-adjacent lines can you find represented?

 

[Shadewing]

What made Cyberverse work for years was the 'verse' part. They were smaller and cheaper toys that didn't offer everything that their Deluxe and above counterparts did, but they leaned heavily into diorama building, which let them offer something the larger toys didn't.

Cyberverse is what I feel a lot people would like. We like the bigger more complex guys for being cool little puzzle boxes that are also a cool vehicle and action figure; but what we like as much if not a little more, is setting up awesome battles and diorama and such... and that is hard to do with the larger figures. Not impossible, but much more space is needed. Having Core size, or better Two different core sizes like Cyberverse did, becuase some guys should still be bigger even at small scale, gives the chance to do much bigger and impressive scenes. Titans and Combiners are almost made for Core class scale imo. And I dont mean things like Prime Abominous or Core Volcanicus (Both of who I like) but if you really want to replicate the imposing or impressive feel of Combiners from fiction, you put some core classes around even CW or POTP guys, and they start to feel as massive as they should be.

It doesn't have to be entirely its own thing due to this. There can still be some synergy with the main line. Like Jetfire to me would be SO much better if some of his gimmicks were designed for core class figures, like the 5mm handles being 3mm instead. His robot mode is fine for the regular line Deluxes and Voyagers, but his alt mode being scaled to core would give him more playability. Of course Core didn't exist back then, but its just an example of how regular main line releases could still have syngery with this "Battle in the Box" line. Have the occasional guys that are supposed to be big in Alt mode feel big my giving them ways to intereact with Cores as wells as ML.

 

[Haze Arquebus]

Aside: while it's too late now to bemoan the Deluxifying of the Minibots (especially as some like Warpath have been solidly for the better), I do wish we'd gotten POTP Battletrap style figures for Flywheels/Skytread's halves.

Yeah, big missed opportunity there.

 

[Haywire]

There's things that the Deluxe/Voyager/Leader size classes do really well. One of those is the potential for remolding far exceeding what is feasible at the Core/Legend/Legion scale; not saying it's impossible (Core Ironhide and Ratchet proved that, though I'm sure that was planned into the mold from the outset), just that the practicality for all the variations and deep cuts we've gotten recently simply isn't there. (Straxus, Xaaron & Flame, Minerva/Elita-1/Strongarm, Skids/Medix/Crankcase, etc)
Another is poseability, which is great for static displays or photocomics.

But if we're just talking playability, smaller, less complicated scales are the way to go. Being able to transform them quickly is a plus (raise your hand if your Transformers had to have a force field during transformation to keep your siblings or friends from taking them out while between modes), and being able to set up a battle in a relatively small space is a necessity for most of us. And that's not even getting into things like playsets and vehicles; I recently re-acquired a DotM Cyberverse Ark, and Haywire3 (who turned 6 today!) loves playing with it with his smaller Transformers and Gobots. (he's a kid after his daddy's heart!) Outside of Titans (which are not actually made for the purpose, and also pretty expensive) there's not really much in the way of playsets or vehicles in Transformers toylines these days, even though there is certainly plenty of fictional material to pull from; partly I believe this is because such things would only work well for scales smaller than Deluxe.

TLDR: Deluxe and larger figures as they currently exist make great display pieces, but I feel like there needs to be some form of Core scale figures that are better to play with.

 

[Sabrblade]

(raise your hand if your Transformers had to have a force field during transformation to keep your siblings or friends from taking them out while between modes)

It was more like a Pause button than a force field.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

FWIW, to me the biggest draw of the Core class was getting TF figures roughly in scale with the small Gobots figures. Granted, we've gotten more Gobots homages at Deluxe than I ever imagined we would, but I've always figured it would be easier to get Transformers that scaled with Gobots rather than new Gobots scaled to Transformers.

I have liked Core, alot of cool figures came out in that size class (finally got my tiny Soundwave, Ironhide, and Ratchet!), but I would be fine with simpler transformations on "small versions of bigger figures" in the Legends of Cybertron vein.

Now I just want them to release Transformerized GoBots at that scale, and just call them "GoBots."

Since they don't even bother with tie-in fiction now, they could just... y'know, do it. No better time.

 

[Steevy Maximus]

It's the 40th Anniversary, and Hasbro is making sure anyone who wants any flavor of Optimus Prime can have theirs!
Appearing at Target, Power of the Primes (2018!) Leader Evolution Optimus Prime is being stocked (seemingly in number) at Target stores. Possibly an exclusive offering. This joins Siege, Earthrise, and Bumblebee movie flavors that have or will be rereleased in the coming months.
You can even keep an eye out on the Target website to order at retail prices (eventually, I assume)

Transformers Optimus Prime Leader Class Evolution Action Figure

Read reviews and buy Transformers Optimus Prime Leader Class Evolution Action Figure at Target. Choose from contactless Same Day Delivery, Drive Up and more.

www.target.com

I think this is actually a logical reissue. With the Orion Pax to Prime transformation being a big part of the upcoming animated film, this is one of the few toys that captures that idea in a G1 format.
Though, I'm holding hope this might lead to a Star Convoy reissue as well...

 

[Princess Viola]

Somehow, Power of the Primes returned.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

It continues to disappoint me how POTP was the perfect opportunity to do a fully combining Powermaster Prime, and instead they did.....that.

Yeah, I know they'd just done the TR one, but that one sucks.

 

[unluckiness]

I’d hoped to never see another toy with those awful foil stickers again.

 

[LordGigaIce]

It continues to disappoint me how POTP was the perfect opportunity to do a fully combining Powermaster Prime, and instead they did.....that.

Yeah, I know they'd just done the TR one, but that one sucks.

Given how they seemed to at least have a general sense of where they were going during the PWT it's really weird that they knew the upgrading Leader class gimmick was coming and decided to do PMOP in the line right before it instead.
... why?

I guess doing a vanilla G1 Optimus in PotP instead was novel because it gave us the first Generations toy version of Sunbow Orion Pax (and later his chainsaw mohawk Nemesis version) but still. The gimmick was tailor made to justify PMOP and it just never happened.

 

[Sabrblade]

Given how they seemed to at least have a general sense of where they were going during the PWT it's really weird that they knew the upgrading Leader class gimmick was coming and decided to do PMOP in the line right before it instead.
... why?

From what I remember hearing from back then, they didn't yet know what the Leader class gimmick was going to be in the next line after Titans Return at the time that they had decided to do Powermaster Optimus as a Leader class in Titans Return. After all Powermaster Optimus was a Wave 1 Leader class, coming at the very beginning of the line, meaning he would have been one of the very first figures worked on when first creating the Titans Return line. At that point, the next line wouldn't have been on Hasbro's mind just yet. And with Titans Return being so heavily 86/87/88-focused, it makes sense in that regard that the big Optimus they chose to do for the line was the big Optimus from '88.

I also recall someone at Hasbro saying that the decision to do Orion/Optimus in POTP came about because of their having already done Powermaster Optimus in Titans Return and not wanting to do it again so soon after, and that if they hadn't done Powermaster Optimus in Titans Return, they would have done him in POTP instead of Orion/Optimus.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I still love the idea of the POTP Leader gimmick. It's a shame the execution was so iffy. I'd be willing to pay for refined versions. Get rid of the stickers. Give them opening hands that can hold their Matrices. Fix Optimus Prime's truck mode (which the Star Convoy version already partially has). I really can't think of anything else I want. They're not that bad as is. They just seem a little unfinished.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

I also recall someone at Hasbro saying that the decision to do Orion/Optimus in POTP came about because of their having already done Powermaster Optimus in Titans Return and not wanting to do it again so soon after, and that if they hadn't done Powermaster Optimus in Titans Return, they would have done him in POTP instead of Orion/Optimus.

Not that it would make much sense with the line's theme, and having Hot Rod become Rodimus Prime and Optimus Primal becoming Optimal Optimus...

 

[lastmaximal]

I can shrug off not redoing PMOP that soon, and the Evolution aspect of Orion Pax works well enough for me in tandem with Hot Rod/Rodimus.

But I might've been interested in a PMOP in Takara's Gen Selects instead of Star Convoy. (Although I suppose that would've changed the manga by a fair bit or something.) But then, with a G1 cab slotting in basically an Op torso, that's kind of what it ended up as anyway, just with some disappointing Star Convoy bits. Just give me some disappointing PMOP bits instead, lol. The body was never going to work for Star Convoys entirely distinctive proportions.

Of course this idea is a total lateral move vs SC, but it's hitting bronze while shooting for silver, not gold, at least. That was just one of the most underwhelming executions, especially up against the other Takara Gen Selects stuff.

Ah well. One can hope that with the Constructicons taking an SS86 Commander class spot, there's room in the main Generations line for this. (or is that Silverbolt already, idk? Whatever, just don't Haslab it.)

 

[Donocropolis]

I'm sure they're letting Commander Class SS Prime have some breathing room for a couple of years, but SURELY there has to be a Commander Class Powermaster Prime at some point, right?

 

[unluckiness]

Next year's is Silverbolt and then if the pattern holds, they'd want a bad guy after that or if not, to finish Nexus Prime.