According to at least one leaker awhile back, Crankcase is a brand new mold.
So I've found Bulkhead in the wild and Amazon shipped me Arcee and Skids. They're decent toys. Arcee is very clever and Bulkhead is surprisingly involved. I'm not the biggest Skids fan in the world so take that as you will. Looking forward to core and the other 2 deluxes.
So I picked up Bulkhead, G2 Prime, and Blaster/Eject.
Blaster is great. Near-perfect. He'd be a 10/10 if they'd given him the Marvel comic book head (a rare case where I prefer the Marvel look to Sunbow look).
G2 Prime is, like Blaster, pretty damn perfect. He's got a lot going on that I didn't know I was missing from Transformers figures. He feels like something from the old CHUG days.
Bulkhead...
Bulkhead.
On the whole, I like the toy. He's very solidly built, and his hollow chest serves a purpose/is used well. I thought I'd hate the tarp, and I don't. He's a great toy.
So why do I feel so...blah...about it? I mean this is my jam. I love the G1 aesthetic. I love the idea of non-G1 characters re-imagined as G1 characters. And this is a good example of that.
I suppose...I suppose my issue is that this is Prime Bulkhead. Not a G1 re-imagining of the character. And I know I've been dismissive of that. I bought into the line that if you wanted a Prime Bulkhead Prime FE and PRiD toys were out there on the secondary market.
But...I realized that was pretty selfish?
First, Prime is being discovered by a whole new generation of fans. These kids might want a Prime Bulkhead, and given how pricey the old toys can get? This Legacy version the best option for parents...and he doesn't look like he does in the show.
And further...
I've loved this design team because they've given me what I want. I like G1 and BW. They've given me accurate G1 and BW figures that often draw from just the right cutsections of toy and animation accuracy that I love. They're really good at hitting those notes.
And I guess...well...don't Prime fans deserve to have that done with their characters? I think they do...
I donno. Legacy Bulkhead is a great toy, but calling him "Prime Bulkhead" makes him feel a bit...dirty I guess? Like this slot in the lineup wasn't for me, but I got it anyway after getting so much other stuff I love.
I donno. Just me thinking out loud.
Blaster is great. Near-perfect. He'd be a 10/10 if they'd given him the Marvel comic book head (a rare case where I prefer the Marvel look to Sunbow look).
G2 Prime is, like Blaster, pretty damn perfect. He's got a lot going on that I didn't know I was missing from Transformers figures. He feels like something from the old CHUG days.
Bulkhead...
Bulkhead.
On the whole, I like the toy. He's very solidly built, and his hollow chest serves a purpose/is used well. I thought I'd hate the tarp, and I don't. He's a great toy.
So why do I feel so...blah...about it? I mean this is my jam. I love the G1 aesthetic. I love the idea of non-G1 characters re-imagined as G1 characters. And this is a good example of that.
I suppose...I suppose my issue is that this is Prime Bulkhead. Not a G1 re-imagining of the character. And I know I've been dismissive of that. I bought into the line that if you wanted a Prime Bulkhead Prime FE and PRiD toys were out there on the secondary market.
But...I realized that was pretty selfish?
First, Prime is being discovered by a whole new generation of fans. These kids might want a Prime Bulkhead, and given how pricey the old toys can get? This Legacy version the best option for parents...and he doesn't look like he does in the show.
And further...
I've loved this design team because they've given me what I want. I like G1 and BW. They've given me accurate G1 and BW figures that often draw from just the right cutsections of toy and animation accuracy that I love. They're really good at hitting those notes.
And I guess...well...don't Prime fans deserve to have that done with their characters? I think they do...
I donno. Legacy Bulkhead is a great toy, but calling him "Prime Bulkhead" makes him feel a bit...dirty I guess? Like this slot in the lineup wasn't for me, but I got it anyway after getting so much other stuff I love.
I donno. Just me thinking out loud.
i just want to see Bulkhead remolded slightly (mostly the tarp-shield) as our first TF School Bus toy.
It will not happen.
-ZacWilliam, it just feels like a good opportunity for getting one even though it's not something I expect to see.
It will not happen.
-ZacWilliam, it just feels like a good opportunity for getting one even though it's not something I expect to see.
I feel if you divorce the idea of it being Prime Bulkhead from the toy it's actually a decent Bulkhead. Unless it's trying to be Energon Bulkhead, then it's doing a terrible job.
I mean it's not like RtS Lugnut was deemed to be Animated Lugnut or RotF toylines Lockdown was the same one we really saw in the movies later on. Yet both are good representations of the character they are based upon.
I'll give that Legacy Bulk's vehicle mode isn't quite either Animated or Primes exact vehicle mode like the previous two had matched well with. But it's in the vein of Animated's SWAT van therefore I find it a melting pot between Animated and Prime. I think if they had just left off the Prime descriptor we wouldn't be seeing as big an issue. It's a decent Bulkhead. To me he's IDW Bulkhead or the like. My G1 Bulk.
Now Prime Arcee is tougher to differentiate since that's the only time Arcee has looked like that. Heck It's a tad disappointing we didn't get it in more normal Arcee colors as Energon Arcee. If anything I'm happy to see characters outside G1 get any representation. I have no desire for Drag Strip, Kickback, or Skids. I have them already and neither have to be slavishly G1 accurate to make me happy. Give me another Lugnut or Clobber, Wildwheel, Strika, Obsidian, Demolisher, Hot Shot, Tidal Wave, Ransack, Dirt Boss, Crosswise, Crumplezone, Knock Out, Strongarm, Steeljaw, Side Burn, X-Brawn, and the list goes on... This is Transformers Legacy. So many Characters and designs to pull from for years worth of media and toys.
And most of all! LEGACY SIGNAL LANCER! Make it happen HasTak!
I mean it's not like RtS Lugnut was deemed to be Animated Lugnut or RotF toylines Lockdown was the same one we really saw in the movies later on. Yet both are good representations of the character they are based upon.
I'll give that Legacy Bulk's vehicle mode isn't quite either Animated or Primes exact vehicle mode like the previous two had matched well with. But it's in the vein of Animated's SWAT van therefore I find it a melting pot between Animated and Prime. I think if they had just left off the Prime descriptor we wouldn't be seeing as big an issue. It's a decent Bulkhead. To me he's IDW Bulkhead or the like. My G1 Bulk.
Now Prime Arcee is tougher to differentiate since that's the only time Arcee has looked like that. Heck It's a tad disappointing we didn't get it in more normal Arcee colors as Energon Arcee. If anything I'm happy to see characters outside G1 get any representation. I have no desire for Drag Strip, Kickback, or Skids. I have them already and neither have to be slavishly G1 accurate to make me happy. Give me another Lugnut or Clobber, Wildwheel, Strika, Obsidian, Demolisher, Hot Shot, Tidal Wave, Ransack, Dirt Boss, Crosswise, Crumplezone, Knock Out, Strongarm, Steeljaw, Side Burn, X-Brawn, and the list goes on... This is Transformers Legacy. So many Characters and designs to pull from for years worth of media and toys.
And most of all! LEGACY SIGNAL LANCER! Make it happen HasTak!
I mean, we're gonna be getting a Prime Knock Out who looks more a red Jazz than Prime Knock Out proper.
It would appear that, this time around, Hasbro is simply content to not recreate the Prime character designs in as faithful a manner as they do for the G1/G2/BW characters.
It would appear that, this time around, Hasbro is simply content to not recreate the Prime character designs in as faithful a manner as they do for the G1/G2/BW characters.
I think the goal of having a mostly uniform aesthetic is trumping source accuracy. If we were getting a TFP equivalent of Studio Series this would probably be a different story
Y'know...depending on how they approach Knockout....he'd probably be a decent foundation for a Cybertron Crosswise.....
Certainly better than CDF Hot Shot was from Hound anyway (Energon Strong-arm though...). Also, RiD Steeljaw is pretty close in broad designs to Cybertron Overhaul.
Certainly better than CDF Hot Shot was from Hound anyway (Energon Strong-arm though...). Also, RiD Steeljaw is pretty close in broad designs to Cybertron Overhaul.
Has that been confirmed? 'Cause I might actually have a use for a red Jazz...
The use of the Prime moniker for some of these is a little bit of a stretch, though. Arcee is pretty clearly based on her Prime incarnation, but Bulkhead could have just been Bulkhead and not tried to maintain the Prime connection, and it wouldn't have raised as much of a ruckus. (As an aside, I kind of feel like Legacy Bulkhead should have used the GI Joe APC as an altmode.)
Not that we can go back and look at this point, but I wonder how these conversations about Prime characters are compared to conversations around Classics Prime, Rodimus, and Bumblebee; or Generations Blurr (the Drift redeco) and Kup from 2010 or 2011. We were getting old-school characters, but they didn't look like their original character models.
(...and those conversations were 12+ years ago now. That shouldn't surprise me anymore, but it still does...)
(...and those conversations were 12+ years ago now. That shouldn't surprise me anymore, but it still does...)
I feel like those were within their own little world that it’s not quite as jarring or “wrong” as something like Bulkhead is now. I know I personally always thought the 2010 Laser Prime was particularly a poor iteration of the character since it was too small at Deluxe size and the shoulder pylons were more rounded than I would’ve preferred.
I don’t think BW 10th Megatron is a bad toy but would be pretty put off if that was the BW Megatron they did for Kingdom.
I don’t think BW 10th Megatron is a bad toy but would be pretty put off if that was the BW Megatron they did for Kingdom.
Back then, we were getting those toys from a Hasbro team who made it very clear that they didn't give a flip about making faithful recreations of characters' classic iconic looks, "because kids in the 2000s don't care about designs from the 1980s".
Now that we have a new team that does go out of its way to make such faithfully-recreated designs, it's jarring to see when that older team's design mentality is applied to certain figures made by the current team while the majority of their other figures are all faithful recreations.
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There is that. But it's also trying to keep Characters within a certain aesthetic so they can reuse models easier which in the end sadly does G1ify the non Beast characters so far. I do wonder how things will continue past Bulkhead. So far in Legacy we have G1, G2, BW, and Prime. Prime is the outlier in design comparatively to the other vehicle robots so it's got the most to change in order to fit the Generations aesthetic.
Even so, They didn't even attempt to really do Prime Bulks vehicle mode, yet still labeled him as such. I get why people are frustrated with it overall. It's just not something I care to dwell on. Bulkhead gets a new figure and I'm happy for the big lug.
Even so, They didn't even attempt to really do Prime Bulks vehicle mode, yet still labeled him as such. I get why people are frustrated with it overall. It's just not something I care to dwell on. Bulkhead gets a new figure and I'm happy for the big lug.
My wife picked up Bulkhead for me the other day, and I've been even more pleased with him in-hand than I was expecting. Animated was one of my favorite series, so I've been wanting to see a "Generations Style" Bulkhead for a long time. When the first pictures came out, I was glad he was getting made, but I did feel like this mold was a little too square and, not "tall" or "skinny," per say, but I guess "classically heroically proportioned" for a character that had always been huge, but round and stumpy-legged. In hand, though, it's definitely a very fun toy, so a lot gets forgiven on that basis alone. Like others have said, as long as I just interpret it as a toy of "a" Bulkhead and not specifically Prime or Animated Bulkhead, I can be pretty happy with it.
I actually always really enjoy seeing characters reinterpreted into a different series' style. I think it's very fun to imagine what traits would carry over to a universe with very different aesthetics and design constraints. G1-ified Movie Barricade, Bay-ified Animated Lockdown, Reboot-itized G1 Brawn just as some examples of some great ones.
I actually always really enjoy seeing characters reinterpreted into a different series' style. I think it's very fun to imagine what traits would carry over to a universe with very different aesthetics and design constraints. G1-ified Movie Barricade, Bay-ified Animated Lockdown, Reboot-itized G1 Brawn just as some examples of some great ones.
Some complained about them, but you have to remember we hadn't really had any form of "Nu-G1" line back then. We were also coming out of the AEC toy lines which had their own aesthetic. Consequently, the original Classics line was something we hadn't seen or really imagined. Since its whole things was "updated" G1, it worked.
IIrc, Astrotrain was the first image we got of the Classics toyline and nearly everyone was blown away by it.
That is absolutely how I remember it, too. After years of the occasional G1-inspired repaint of AEC molds, the very idea that there would be actual-and-true updates of G1 characters was new and exciting. It also helped that the toys were, for the most part, very good toys that still hold up to this day. I resisted buying a lot of new Optimus Primes because none of them were better than the Classics Prime I already had.