Probably a response to LiamA's post mentioning "Pretender Bumblebee".
Energon Monsters?
That's everyone question, becuase we never seen anything about them, they were announced and then got replaced at some point with Pretenders.
The only fiction I'd throw on Legacy is it's a Secret Wars story set on a battleworld that is patched together from multiple Cybertrons and resides in a bubble universe, the combatants sparks have been pulled from multiple realities to take up protoforms and fight. As for the Wreckers and Speedia 500, some decide to police divisions while others decide to settle scores racing (No Decepticons need apply).
The planet also appears to be composed of what is known in the aquarium hobby as clown barf gravel.
General consensus (as Hasbro never admitted it outright) is that the third part of the WFC Trilogy was originally going to be all TFTM themed, with the Studio Series 86 figures that were released in 2021 originally meant to be in the line that ultimately became Kingdom, with the none of the Beast Wars figures originally meant to be part of the line (and with the Fossilizers likely originally going to be something more TFTM-appropriate than dinosaur skeletons, and named something else of course), the BW figures only added to celebrate their 25th anniversary after Hasbro previously failed to celebrate BW's 20th anniversary and likely didn't want more flack for missing the anniversary as second time in the row.
The premise for Legacy as described by Hasbro in their livestreams is that dimensional portals have opened up and are bringing all of these non-G1 characters from other universes into a G1 universe to all team up together in a big multiversal war. It's kind of like the 2003 Transformers: Universe line (and sorta like RobotMasters too, with the portals) in that sense, but with all new molds instead of redecos.
It's also like the 2008-2009 Universe line and the 2014 Thrilling 30 line that likewise made new-mold toys of characters from across the various different series to celebrate the Transformers brand's 25th and 30th anniversaries, respectively. Legacy's main difference from Universe 2008/09 and Thrilling 30 is that it's not celebrating the brand's anniversary, it's simply doing what those lines did just because (and probably because enough fans complained about the lack of non-G1 updates since Combiner Wars).
Yeah, I get that about Legacy. That's my POINT, is that that thin elevator pitch is all the fictional/conceptual spine this line has. It's funny you compared it to those lines for clarity or illustration, when both of those got a decent amount of media depictions fleshing out their story and featuring their characters, and here, it's just "uh, more portals opened up! Look, it's That One From That Show! (Repeat per wave)" It's gotten about as much care as naming Red Cog, Guard, and Breaker.
The brand's 40th is gonna hit around the time the third line in this supposed trilogy (I think this was mentioned when Legacy was announced or thereabouts), so presumably this is a three-line-long tour of the franchise or something. It's kind of a long time to meander, but eh. Maybe they can prep better for lines 2 and 3.
And yeah, that makes sense about the third line for WFC. Character selection got pulled to pad out Studio Series (and this has since become its own thing), etc, which actually also kinda explains the returning Earthrise figures as padding (although it's kind of funny that they A, picked Arcee rather than a better mold, and B, didn't put her in 86, although that worked out well for everyone).
This is the first I'm hearing of the Fossilizer spots originally being more TFTM themed. Junkions? Lithonians? Dang, would've been cool.
But idk about the sense of making up for failing to celebrate BW 20th. It makes sense enough that they saw the 25tg coming up and wanted to do something for it unrelated to/independent of the last anniversary, and the opportunity coincided with the gaps left in WFC.3 to make SS86.
The brand's 40th is gonna hit around the time the third line in this supposed trilogy (I think this was mentioned when Legacy was announced or thereabouts), so presumably this is a three-line-long tour of the franchise or something. It's kind of a long time to meander, but eh. Maybe they can prep better for lines 2 and 3.
And yeah, that makes sense about the third line for WFC. Character selection got pulled to pad out Studio Series (and this has since become its own thing), etc, which actually also kinda explains the returning Earthrise figures as padding (although it's kind of funny that they A, picked Arcee rather than a better mold, and B, didn't put her in 86, although that worked out well for everyone).
This is the first I'm hearing of the Fossilizer spots originally being more TFTM themed. Junkions? Lithonians? Dang, would've been cool.
But idk about the sense of making up for failing to celebrate BW 20th. It makes sense enough that they saw the 25tg coming up and wanted to do something for it unrelated to/independent of the last anniversary, and the opportunity coincided with the gaps left in WFC.3 to make SS86.
With long stretches and loops of self-replenishing asphalt.
I'm not quite at the "they convinced me" state, but I do have to admit that Bomb-burst really does get the look they're going after "right." It's still not a Pretender once you've ditched the outer shell, IMHO, but if they refuse to do Pretenders correctly, and insist on doing the characters anyway, this is a decent compromise.
If only the others that attempted this concept did so this well.
Universe 2008 had fiction?
It's mostly speculation than anything concrete that the Fossilizers would have been something else. But since the third line was going to be TFTM-themed, it would make sense for its gimmick figures to be as well, since dinosaur skeletons wouldn't really fit with the TFTM theme and feel like they only came about to match the Beast Wars-themed part of the line.
Well....there was that time that Megatron and Cyclonus (the only one that actually had a current figure at the time!) were hanging around. Bumblebee and Prime were there, too! Someone blew up a gas station, I think.
Pretenders are due for a conceptual rework, IMO.
If I were writing it, they'd be normal transformers with living biotissue directly grafted on to them so they can pass as organics. (Humanoids in the case of the Autobots, monsters in the case of Decepticons) rather than sticking with the "robot in a shell idea."
If I were writing it, they'd be normal transformers with living biotissue directly grafted on to them so they can pass as organics. (Humanoids in the case of the Autobots, monsters in the case of Decepticons) rather than sticking with the "robot in a shell idea."
ACTION BLAST
I think
I think
Like Beast Wars, but with people!
Oh, man, people hate humans in Transformers now, just wait until there's humans on Transformers!
(Seriously, though, I think it's an interesting idea!)
Like Beast Wars, but with people!
Oh, man, people hate humans in Transformers now, just wait until there's humans on Transformers!
(Seriously, though, I think it's an interesting idea!)
The funny thing is that Masterforce was the only one of the Japanese series I've watched, too! Whoops!
Masterforce is imo the best way to do pretenders conceptionally. A secret force of Autobots hiding as humans, the ultimate take on 'Robots in disguise' with the Decepticons using their Shells to try and distract humans from their activities. Take a bit of IDW's Infiltation protocols as well, while mixing in a bit of super-heroics with the Autobots armored forms. Either set it in a post-war period (Typical G1 story, a bit like Cyberverse Season 2 where they skip past that era but still imply it happened) with Earth knowing of and probably being damanged by the war or follow Infiltation with it doing something that isn't the typical 'ark crash then war' with a more cold war-ish approach to the Transformers conflict.
Anything is better then the 'obviously giant humans' from Marvel's take where they had to make the rest of the universe giant sized to make the concept work off-world.
Anything is better then the 'obviously giant humans' from Marvel's take where they had to make the rest of the universe giant sized to make the concept work off-world.