Transformers Legacy toyline

[ZacWilliam1]

To be fair, as soon as Furman took over the Pretender Shells as disguises angle was completely dropped and after that they were portrayed as super powerful body armor that could both heal the robot inside and become a second simultaneously active body for them. He made them seem pretty cool despite Budiansky having missed the obvious trick of having them shrink in "human" form.

-ZacWilliam, for Pretenders I really prefer a hybrid approach. They are super armor that can be a second body like the comic but also the Autobot ones can shrink to Human-size for disguise.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

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."

So, Beast Wars, then....

 

[lastmaximal]

I'm warming up to this "transforming shell" stuff although designwise it's a tricky target to hit. Bomb-burst manages to nail it at Core class, Iguanus a little less well, and Skullgrin... I wish he had more shell design cues. Overall it's finally clicking for me that the concept now is "they're all Mega Pretenders"; I'm reminded of the old Generations Thunderwing (who admittedly lucked out as that shell always HAD an altmode).

But I'd love more stuff on par with Bomb-burst. Although I'd prefer it if we somehow got Micromasters or Mini-Cons or whatever of the inner robots who could Powerlinx or piggyback onto the altmodes (like I think Generations Thunderwing's drone jet was meant to, iirc they originally wanted it to transform). Just to get as close as we can to the original concept without the unfeasible need to physically use these as suits for the inner robots.

 

[UndeadScottsman]

It is (by far) the best one too.

Interesting, I thought it was easily the least of the G1 Japan exclusives. It's a fun, weird thing where they basically made a tokusatsu based on Transformers, but I had trouble engaging with the show early on.

Victory was the one that one the really suprised me with how good it was.

Beast Wars was the right way to do Pretender beasts.

Eh, they're never really "pretending" in Beast Wars. Cheetor almost immediately pegs Waspinator as a Predacon (and let's face it, giant arthropods and miniature extinct animals are TERRIBLE disguises) and it's never really used as a disguise after that. It's used for energon insulation and by S2 they're not even bothering to design them to look like real animals anymore, with Fuzors and Transmetals.

Beast Wars is top 3 all-time for me, but it ranks pretty poorly on the spectrum of "robots in diguises"

 

[Future_Erika]

Beast Wars is top 3 all-time for me, but it ranks pretty poorly on the spectrum of "robots in diguises"

Y'know that's probably why, as a beast wars kid, that aspect of the franchise has always been very low priority to me

 

[MrBlud]

Interesting, I thought it was easily the least of the G1 Japan exclusives. It's a fun, weird thing where they basically made a tokusatsu based on Transformers, but I had trouble engaging with the show early on.

Victory was the one that one the really suprised me with how good it was.

It took me several tries to get into Victory.

I watched and enjoyed it but it was definitely a slog at first.

I like tokusatsu, maybe that’s why I was so taken with Masterforce.

 

[Sabrblade]

Victory got good, great even, by its second half. It was its first half, however, that felt rather run-of-the-mill. It's around when Liokaiser is formed for the first time that the show really takes off.

 

[Alexcoene]

I mean, honestly, the concept of a transformers with tissue making them look human just make me think of Sari Sumdac.

Speaking of which, she's kinda long overdue for a toy.

 

[Sabrblade]

I mean, honestly, the concept of a transformers with tissue making them look human just make me think of Sari Sumdac.

Speaking of which, she's kinda long overdue for a toy.

Sari's case is basically like if a Maximal protoform scanned a human for their alt mode instead of an animal.

 

[Shadewing]

It took me several tries to get into Victory.

I watched and enjoyed it but it was definitely a slog at first.

I like tokusatsu, maybe that’s why I was so taken with Masterforce.

Yeah, same on both accounts. Masterforce is easily my favorite of the Japanese series, but I am also a big Toku/Sentai fan.

 

[Platypus Prime]

Wait, what if that's why we never see 'modern' Pretenders in the main line? They keep remaking Rumble, and Rumble cracked all their shells...

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Victory got good, great even, by its second half. It was its first half, however, that felt rather run-of-the-mill. It's around when Liokaiser is formed for the first time that the show really takes off.

Victory starts out run-of-the-mill in a way that feels like a deliberate soft reboot. They stripped out the gimmicks (aside from how gimmicky the toys are, which the show liked to ignore outside transformation sequences anyway) and went back to basics. The Autobots and Decepticons are back to just fighting over energy, and the Decepticons aren't led by some poorly explained space thing like JG1 otherwise loved.

 

[Suspsy]

I’d like an evil version of the Wingfinger mould. Shattered Glass Swoop, perhaps?

 

[ZacWilliam1]

I always rank Masterforce as easily the best of the Japanese shows. It's bright and fun has good animation and characters that all have fun personalities and interact in fun ways and the story develops and goes somewhere. It feels kinda like if a TF show was also a GI Joe show. I wish all three of the shows were Masterforce.

I have Victory but I've never made it all the way through, the early episodes feel very cliche "kids anime." I do mean to finish it someday.

Headmasters on the other hand I've watched all of. it is very flat as a whole. Very little personality in any of the new characters, weak animation, and the story is overall both dull and meandering.


-ZacWilliam, I wish Headmasters had the writing of Masterforce but those characters are in desperate need of personality.

 

[Shadewing]

Yeah, I'd rank them the same. Headmasters is too bland, Victory feels too kiddy, and Masterforce is the series where plot and characters are strongest.

 

[MrBlud]

Headmasters runs on nostalgia alone. It was nice to see more adventures (boring though they were) with the characters we were attached to.

If you did the same show but with new characters it would be painful to watch.

 

[Princess Viola]

The only thing I dislike about Masterforce (and I'm using the term 'dislike' very loosely here since it is my fave JG1 series and my fave Transformers series overall) is that the whole setting of the series feels very incongruent with the previous shows. Like Headmasters was obviously very clearly set in the then-future of the 21st century since it was continuing from season 3 of the original American cartoon (the whole 'season 3 is set in 2010 in Japan vs 2005/2006 in the US' thing aside, that doesn't really matter here) but Masterforce feels like it was set in the then-contemporary times of the late 1980s.

Also yeah gotta agree with the stuff about Headmasters. It's a complete boring slog of a show. I'd say it's better than The Rebirth but that's not really high praise because being 'better' just means 'Well at least they weren't trying to cram an entire year's worth of toy reveals into three stinking episodes and also AKOM didn't animate it'. At least the Omni dub is fun and Omni dub Galvatron is my internal Galvatron voice.

 

[Dake]

Random question (and I'm sure I'm late to the party). Looking at Motormaster's box art, there's an Acid Storm (or at least a green Seeker). Are we getting an ER Acid Storm?

 

[TheSupernova]

There's usually been a decent track record of characters on the box art showing up as toys in relatively short order.

That said, I don't think there's been any rumours of Acid Storm to this point...?

 

[Dake]

That's what I thought.