Transformers Legacy toyline

Darth_Prime

Well-known member
Citizen
I am a little upset these are core size. And I love the core class, I think the figures are fun and its great for putting with the Titan class figures. Hasbro / Takara have really been nailing it with the size classes lately and better scaling. With that, I wish these were all deluxe class to fit in a little bit better.
 

unluckiness

Hello everynyan!
Citizen
Skullgrin being a last minute thing explains why he looks like the action figure equivalent of unfinished middle school homework
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
Confirmed by Mark Maher: The Energon Monsters were dropped at the last minute and replaced by Skullgrin and most likely Bomb-Burst.
giphy.gif

But what were the energon monsters supposed to be?
The “logical” inference would be something akin to the Fossilizers/Weaponizers/Modulators we’ve been getting since Siege started. Some sort of little energy monsters that would become weapons/armor for the larger figures. Probably one of those things that sounds FAR more interesting “on paper” than what Hasbro would have been able to deliver in the end.

That said, the omission DOES sting a bit harder because it comes across as Hasbro moving away from trying anything new in favor of just “MOAR G1 remakes”, regardless the characters being far less used than other options. The Energon monsters might not have been particularly impressive…but it still would have been something that was somewhat “new” (or at least, interesting) in a brand segment that is seeing less and less of it.
And you KNOW one of the Energon monsters would have been a play on Kremzeek as well! And knowing that we lost an Energon monster for that (frankly, exceptionally mediocre) Skullgrin isn’t much of a consolation.
 

Steevy Maximus

Well known pompous pontificator
Citizen
Since these Pretenders just transform without any of the shell nonsense, there really is no reason that they have to be the same size. Other subgroups are allowed to be different sizes.
And in terms of the Pretenders, with Core class Spike and Rumble, Hasbro has established precedent for that being roughly “normal person” sized characters. I’d almost prefer to see the Autobot Pretenders in that scale since they’re supposed to be “in disguise” as people. Though, I’m fine with some play with the Decepticon sizes.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
The loss of the Energon Monsters probably explains why wave 1's clear plastic weapons gimmick disappeared. Legacy seems to have had a chaotic development.

I don't hate Skullgrin's tank mode but it is a strange downgrade from what they originally had in mind. I don't get what happened.

Bombburst looks like a home run though. I haven't cared for the modern Pretender approach but they've finally convinced me. I guess it's because they finally convincingly made a shell based robot mode look like a totally separate thing from the vehicle mode. They didn't just slap a monster head on a normal robot, nor did they invent a new vehicle mode to match the look of the shell. They made the shell and the inner vehicle mode morph back and forth between each other.
 

Future_Erika

singularly focused
Citizen
What if the rumored voyager metalhawk has the shell and they use that as an excuse to go "see, we listened to your feedback!"
 

LiamA

Active member
Citizen
Will they be doing Autobot Pretenders? That'll be interesting to see since the Decepticons are based on the shells.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Will they be doing Autobot Pretenders? That'll be interesting to see since the Decepticons are based on the shells.
Metalhawk at least is coming, but we don't know if he'll look like his Pretender shell or his inner robot mode.
 

ZacWilliam1

Well-known member
Citizen
At core size the amount of face you see inside their helmets is gonna be too small to really even need a visor I think. You'll barely be able to see eye shapes at best.

My most wanted Pretenders they havnt announced:

Waverider
Landmine and Cloudburst (I always think of them as a pair due to the Marvel Comic)
Submarauder
Catilla
Roadblock
Pincer
Grimlock
Sky High
Doubleheader
Carnivac
Spider-Banditto
Vroom
The Monster Pretenders
Gunrunner


-ZacWilliam, and then all the rest. I guess I do kinda want them all darn it.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
Is it wrong I want to see them try the Ultra Pretenders and see how they handle the transformers equal to those Russian nesting dolls?

Though if we're gonna see Autobot pretenders, Vroom might be a possible remold for Iguanas. G1 toy transforms roughly the same way, and head can just be Vroom's robot head rather then the human face.
 

CoffeeHorse

*sip*
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I've been wanting the Ultra Pretenders for a long time. They seem like they would be pretty fun if they didn't both have GPS.
 

LiamA

Active member
Citizen
At core size the amount of face you see inside their helmets is gonna be too small to really even need a visor I think. You'll barely be able to see eye shapes at best.

My most wanted Pretenders they havnt announced:

Waverider
Landmine and Cloudburst (I always think of them as a pair due to the Marvel Comic)
Submarauder
Catilla
Roadblock
Pincer
Grimlock
Sky High
Doubleheader
Carnivac
Spider-Banditto
Vroom
The Monster Pretenders
Gunrunner


-ZacWilliam, and then all the rest. I guess I do kinda want them all darn it.

How about a Pretender Bumblebee?
 

Alexcoene

Member
Citizen
Thinking of it, thanks to IDW, the Monster Pretenders are basically the only Pretenders whose inner robots, or at least their combination, are more 'iconic' than their shells.
 

lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
The loss of the Energon Monsters probably explains why wave 1's clear plastic weapons gimmick disappeared. Legacy seems to have had a chaotic development.

I don't hate Skullgrin's tank mode but it is a strange downgrade from what they originally had in mind. I don't get what happened.

Bombburst looks like a home run though. I haven't cared for the modern Pretender approach but they've finally convinced me. I guess it's because they finally convincingly made a shell based robot mode look like a totally separate thing from the vehicle mode. They didn't just slap a monster head on a normal robot, nor did they invent a new vehicle mode to match the look of the shell. They made the shell and the inner vehicle mode morph back and forth between each other.

Legacy does seem to have been weirdly disjointed.

For all its flaws in execution, WFC was presented from the beginning as a trilogy, with a clear mission statement and even a basic plot arc. IDK if that got shaken up a bit by the pandemic, as I don't recall whether the BW pivot was always planned as such a core part of part 3. The last two years are mush in my mush brain. Regardless, from the get-go, there was "[x aesthetic] plus Micros plus Weaponizer style components", which remained consistent through the three lines (albeit with Kingdom shifting to Core class).

From the first announcements of it, What Follows WFC lacked any of this cohesion. No Trilogy IIRC, just one line at a time for now, not sure about longer-term structure. Even little things like item numbering are gone. (I'd dismissed that as collector-pandering Takara imitation, but it does add some consistency and cohesion to lines and I'd gotten used to it just in time to suddenly lose it.) And we're seeing things like vestiges of these Energon Monsters (we hardly knew ye, you sounded cool) and these phased-out Energon weapons (which I'm fine with if especially if it means we can get opaque cassette bots down the line). Maybe there was some similarly canned stuff from WFC that just didn't get leaked or whatever. Micros did get phased out but that seems to have been a retailer thing (grrr).

Legacy's very premise lends itself to a chaotic, reshuffling-prone feel, too, as it basically doubles down on Kingdom's "let's have a mix of lines/character groups" which makes it a bit tough to get a unified sense of what's in each wave or line. Not necessarily a bad thing, mind: it's been really cool to see Bulkhead, Override, Jhiaxus, etc revisited and in some cases revisited really well. And it's been refreshing to break away a bit from the "cross off the G1 checklist" game (although that's been good for collecting too). But rather than move forward one era at a time (say, a Kingdom-style "G1 and UT" trilogy), it's Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Maybe if there'd been SOME fiction to help tie everything together, and which would also be evidence of a stronger planning process. By comparison, WFC felt more coordinated because there was a Netflix show tied to it, and quality concerns aside, that gave the line a bit more weight. Here, not so much, although I suppose with Earthspark being a/the new media focus and with IDW's license ending and IDK what terms they're on with Netflix there aren't a lot of venues for media for this line.

Supporting fiction has been instrumental in helping "throw whatever in there" groupings feel more cohesive -- Wreckers started out that way, and for years every single Botcon/TFCC set was "here's a bunch of characters", sometimes with a unifying theme (2006) and sometimes with far less of one (uh... most years, as even ones with a supposed unifying theme like 2013 got pretty mixed up). BUT strong narratives that tied everything together helped a lot. Here, it's just "Alexa, play Portals" and you do the rest.



I wish all these Pretenders were Deluxe class, but obviously this way lets them cover more ground rather than just one a wave. Plus, the size diversity would make group shots more visually interesting. Maybe NOW I'll finally pick up an Iguanus like I've been waffling on. If they make a Finback, I am definitely all over that.

I still want my wackily-colored Wingfinger, dammit. Yall couldn't have packed him in with the Wreckers? Maybe for wave 2? Please? We've gotten so many of the other two.
 


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