Generations 2027: No More Primes! It is the Age of Evolution!

[lastmaximal]

Thing is, this news seems like it could lead to more diversity in SS, rather than just G1 all the time. They've been teasing a comics SS subline, with IDW and Marvel specific versions of characters named. If that does well enough to justify more releases, you could toss in DW, Skybound, maybe even some Devil's Due stuff.

Granted, a lot of this stuff is G1 adjacent, but a lot of it is also pretty distinct in its own right.

And if SS G1 is on the table, that opens up the possibility of SS UT, SS Beast Era, etc...

That's just it though, that's more focus creep. Currently that's the main remaining distinction; Studio Series/84 is now movie/games+ G1 cartoon+ I guess comics? While the rest of the franchise history, whether series (Beast Era) or G1 adjacent takes (not comics anymore, I guess) gets represented in Legacy (it was interesting that this was specifically used -- top of mind despite being a year plus into AOTP, but also apt for that theme).

Mind, I wouldn't MIND a line that goes all in on Unicron Trilogy, but subsuming another segment/era into Studio Series would seem to go back on the current firming up of the distinction between the two directions.

To be clear, I am more splitting hairs about this idea than outright dooming at this point.

In all fairness, a pretty sizeable chunk of the live action cast has been done already. Aside from the rest of the AOE Autobots, who is even left?

This is true. There's two versions of Skids and Mudflap to get through (ROTF/DOTM colors, not even counting the ice cream truck), and a handful of other onscreen mains/names. I wonder how revisiting things like the TLK Knights/dragons, or TLK Nitro Zeus, etc, might go. There's a wealth of offscreen/background redecos/retools and concepts to throw in every now and then (I admit this is just padding, but I did like the ones they've already done.)

But I think this line might also benefit from some of the same kinds of retakes the G1 line has gotten. Try another all-new Bumblebee (2007 etc) base mold that finds a different way to get the front tires out in robot mode without them covering the doors, or an all-new Bumblebee (2018) design that hews closer to the onscreen model. A suitably portly AOE Hound. Maybe a Commander class take on DOTM Megatron that improves upon the Leader class figure. Dreads with detachable articulated hard plastic dreads. A slew of rereleases without the clear plastic. And so on.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

They should do 2007 toy colors for the 20th anniversary. I think I'd be morally obligated to buy them.

 

[Undead Scottsman]

It feels like there's been an uptick in reissues, repacks and even additional waves filled with redecos. They're trying to save money any which way.

I feel like this is less "Let's fill the line with 1984 cast" and more "let's fill the line with toys we've already done and can just re-release with minor deco changes."

 

[Platypus Prime]

I could get behind that...give me a toys color BW2 Galvatron...

 

[Stepwise]

I hear what you're saying about focus creep - I was part of the same conversation around Missing Link.

Sounds like characters from specific shows or comics would be in "Studio Series: Armada," or "Studio Series: those picture books where Cliffjumper's car had eyes."

Legacy could have characters like Jalopy alongside Powerdashers and Omnibots. (Hint. Hint. Hint. ) And maybe "similar but not g1 w/ knees" like sports car Blurr from 2010 or T30 Trailcutter.

Works for me. Package refreshes are fine, too, because it's nice to be able to pick something up when I missed out on it the first time around. (Or when the first release had transparent windows that have already cracked.)

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Package refreshes are great. There is so much I've had to miss these last few years because it was more important to buy food.

 

[lastmaximal]

Package refreshes are great. There is so much I've had to miss these last few years because it was more important to buy food.

Definitely, especially for things that were exclusive and brought additional hoops to jump through and/or costs.

I first noticed the uptick of these with Earthrise; I missed out on Siege Astrotrain but got the Earthrise refresh. Rung was a a similar case, I think, but I'm not sure now. Some (Wheeljack and Arcee in Kingdom) were headscratchers, but some (Jetfire, Omega Supreme) seemed to make sense given the demand at the time. This was especially notable with the former exclusives that got folded into Legacy.

Those were also extra helpful because for some (Origin Bee, Ramjet) the originals happened to also have gotten caught in the speed-yellowing phase. I wondered why they never bothered with a package refresh on SS86 Hot Rod, for which the prices had gotten absurd, to the point where the anniversary timeframe was reached and it made more sense to do a new release instead.

Sounds like characters from specific shows or comics would be in "Studio Series: Armada," or "Studio Series: those picture books where Cliffjumper's car had eyes."

Legacy could have characters like Jalopy alongside Powerdashers and Omnibots. (Hint. Hint. Hint. ) And maybe "similar but not g1 w/ knees" like sports car Blurr from 2010 or T30 Trailcutter.

The T30 stuff seems like it could fall under the comic side of Studio Series, but only because of (1) the strong T30/IDW tie-ins of the time and (2) the focus creep leading to including comics. New additions to the old, like Jalopy or Paddles (please), would make sense for Legacy. Plenty of G1 characters for whom their media appearances were just cameos at best, or one-offs in less prominent branches. Definitely wanting those Omnibots.

(I wonder, is there a cutoff for "G1 comics" that Studio Series may go into? Is Studio Series just Marvel/80s/90s G1-2, or does that widened umbrella include Aileron, Shredhead, Nautica, Velocity, Termagax, combiner Thundercracker, Furparent Thundercracker, Quippy Skids, Lanky Metalhawk, Prowlastator, Bartender Swerve, Nominus Prime?)

Legacy/whatever makes more sense being the catch-all across eras, maybe leaning harder on some eras (Armada, RID2001) for a line/trilogy segment (but still with a mix) and then changing things up to highlight another. Sort of like how we steadily built up the Animated Autobots, but more deliberately and within a narrower timeframe. Dedicate a chunk of that to it instead of a chunk of Studio Series, because if both can notionally do it, we're back to them being less differentiated than this move accomplishes.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

Well, I never once thought I'd see a return to gold plastic, touting a 'new improved formula' and restarting the 'wait a few years to see if it self destructs' clock.

Smart, enterprising fans with 3D scanners/printers will scan the gold plastic parts before they have a chance to deteriorate.

 

[Exatron]

In all fairness, a pretty sizeable chunk of the live action cast has been done already. Aside from the rest of the AOE Autobots, who is even left?

TF2007:
Frenzy!!! It's kind of absurd that he's still missing from both SS and MPM. Hopefully they'll get something out for him next year.

RotF:
Skids & Mudflap
Demolishor
Alice, Scalpel, & Reedman (would all make good figurines like Wheelie, Brains, Igor, etc.)

DotM:
Devcon
Crankcase that isn't a Crowbar repaint

AoE:
The Autobots, as mentioned
The Dinobots (in progress)
Various KSI bots (Junkheap, Two Head, Oreo, Aston Martin, Lamborghinis)
Steeljaw

TLK:
Bumblebee (he's incoming, right?)
Hound
Drift (not using the oversized original TLK mold)
Sqweeks
Daytrader
Canopy
Megatron (incoming)
Nitro Zeus (really just needs a new head)
Onslaught
Dreadbot
Berserker (technically, but the original TLK version is just fine)
Infernocus
Quintessa (would be a good figurine)
The dragons

Bumblebee:
Just the generic seekers

RotB:
Stratosphere
Transit

Really, aside from AoE and TLK, the rest are VERY close to being completed. That's part of what makes it so frustrating that they won't just go ahead and finish them off.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

If they make a Minicon-sized Sqweeks and keep the trailer of the TLK toy I'd buy the heck out of that. I kinda wanted the Deluxe but it's just too big to fit with anything else.

 

[lastmaximal]

I think we have gotten or will have gotten a bunch of the AOE Autobots. There's been a Crosshairs (or was that TLK), we got blue/black copter Drift, Optimus just came out, Evasion Optimus and AOE Bee are coming. Hadn't realized we didn't get a blue/black car Drift in Studio Series yet, just the TLK colors one. Huh.

This line really could benefit from package refreshes. Even the ones they HAVE done have been out of print for quite a while. Although I suppose the vehicle mode licenses must complicate that considerably.

 

[LordGigaIce]

...but subsuming another segment/era into Studio Series would seem to go back on the current firming up of the distinction between the two directions.

I think what they're doing is attempting to give some internal structure that's been missing since SS '86 and, a bit later, Gamer Edition.

SS '86 was a last second thing. They made the decision to switch the focus of the last part of the WfC trilogy from the '86 movie to Beast Wars. Half of the planned '86 figures had to get dropped from the line to make room for the Beast Wars cast. SS '86 was a last second solution to get those figures out concurrently with the '86 figures that were sticking around in Kingdom. Which is why you have stuff like Kingdom Rodimus' Hot Rod form in SS '86 or why Galvatron and Cyclonus were Kingdom releases but Scourge was a SS '86 release. It was all slapdash and last second, arranging slots so everyone could get released in some way.

Now it seems to have worked out. SS '86 has not only stuck around, but expanded. And it's lead to SS Gamer Edition. Both '86 and GE have muddied the distinction, because both of those sublines do stuff that people had come to expect from Generations. You can't even point to something like opaque cell shaded windows as the tell, because SS '86 Windcharger, the first version of SS '86 Jazz, and both versions of SS '86 Rodimus use clear plastic windows, like you'd expect from normal Generations releases. And the SS '86 Dinobots didn't even attempt the matte finish and colours of the Sunbow models, instead going for a weird halfway amalgamation of toy and Sunbow. You also have GE, releasing new versions of designs who originally were released in the standard Generations line.
The distinction between SS and mainline Generations just seemed arbitrary, made worse by the packaging getting near identical with AotP on the Gen side. The only real clear points were that video game and live action stuff would be SS releases, but anything G1 could pop up in either and it wasn't even sure if either side had clear design guidelines to distinguish them.

All of this yapping on my end is about Hasbro finally seeming to set some ground rules for what will distinguish Generations/Legacy/whatever from Studio Series. SS will be the media accurate line- be that comics, movies, games, cartoons, whatever. And Generations/Legacy/whatever will be for playing around and getting creative.
Notably, there are leak lists with MW Starscream for Generations 2027, and that makes sense with this new direction. MW had no media, outside of a few niche TFCC comics. So by dedicating SS as the "media accurate" line you can open up some Generations slots to stuff that doesn't neatly fit the "media accurate" idea.

This is all idle speculation. Maybe in practice none of this pans out and the two lines remain confused and indistinguishable.
Still, Hasbro seems aware of that and made the point of having a brand team member clarify and state what they plan on using to distinguish them going forward, so there is some reason to speculate on how that might work out in an ideal scenario.

 

[lastmaximal]

Yeah, that's what I was referring to as the effort toward firming up the distinction -- a bit more deliberateness and structure. We'll likely know more and better as time passes and we're able to see how they concretize that intent further.

I do wish the packaging could be more distinct again. As elegant as the minimalist approach seems to be aiming to be, it can feel a little plain, and having that same overall design for two different lines just contributed to them blurring and overlapping in my mind. I'm generally not fond of the current packaging design direction in general -- kid-aimed products (Authentics, Cyberworld) on white cards and red bars and slap the logos on there, and Generations-style stuff on black with two different color strips and back-of-box backdrops is just so bland and generic.

 

[LordGigaIce]

This is true. There's two versions of Skids and Mudflap to get through (ROTF/DOTM colors, not even counting the ice cream truck), and a handful of other onscreen mains/names. I wonder how revisiting things like the TLK Knights/dragons, or TLK Nitro Zeus, etc, might go. There's a wealth of offscreen/background redecos/retools and concepts to throw in every now and then (I admit this is just padding, but I did like the ones they've already done.)

I loved the dragon knights from TLK, and still have them. I wouldn't mind seeing what they looked like as modern re-dos though. Hell, maybe a Quintessa? The only figure of her was that tiny clear plastic figurine from the TLK line.

I'd also love to see what SS could do with TLK Megatron. That is, by far, my favourite live action Megatron design. The Voyager from the TLK line was fantastic, but too small. The Leader wasn't nearly as elegant. So I want to see if SS could do TLK Megatron as a Leader and skew it closer to the design of that original Voyager.

TLK was a trash movie, but I loved its designs and ideas.

 

[The Phazer]

The rules for what is in which line have always been non-sensical, they only exist to get retailers to give an additional few shelf spots when they're not paying attention.

 

[LordGigaIce]

The rules for what is in which line have always been non-sensical, they only exist to get retailers to give an additional few shelf spots when they're not paying attention.

Yes, but they seem to have gone out of their way to state an intent moving forward on a more solid distinction.

Whether that means anything is up in the air, but speculation is never a bad thing.

 

[lastmaximal]

I've had a fun time just taking lore bits and designs from the live-action movies and fitting them in my headcanon, so I'm always down for more and better takes on those showing up. The Voyager Megatron was such a great take, and I wish he'd come with the fire effects. Would also welcome a Dragonstorm with the current engineering approaches, and an Infernocus that wasn't the nth milking of the iffy Beast Hunters Terrorcons. (despite thisI also want them to go back and finish Wei Jianging their own Legion class Terrorcons so Windrazor and Twinstrike aren't so lonely.)

In general, live action Studio Series has been a nice chance to get fresher releases with less of the budget-rich era's (ROTF/HFTD) fiddliness and overengineering, and less of the budget-slide era's (mostly AOE/TLK) occasional hollowness and simplistic feel -- all in fresher, less aged (for now) plastic. The ones they've done have felt compact but substantial while generally being much more accurate, and have sometimes been really fun surprises.

I just keep bringing up a plastic change because while I'm still blown away by how good TLK Hot Rod is in Studio Series, I'm always so nervous about the tiny panels and tabs and clear plastic and the feel of stretching some bits in transforming. The Bingo Racing Optimus Prime was my first try of the Crosshairs mold and I was holding my breath the ENTIRE time with that clear plastic roof/upper half of the damn car. And with both Deluxe class ROTB Mirages (core line and Studio Series) having some breakage concerns... It's still tricky finding the balance of accuracy, budget, and durability, but i hope they keep pursuing it.

 

[Blot]

Now it seems to have worked out. SS '86 has not only stuck around, but expanded. And it's lead to SS Gamer Edition. Both '86 and GE have muddied the distinction, because both of those sublines do stuff that people had come to expect from Generations. You can't even point to something like opaque cell shaded windows as the tell, because SS '86 Windcharger, the first version of SS '86 Jazz, and both versions of SS '86 Rodimus use clear plastic windows, like you'd expect from normal Generations releases. And the SS '86 Dinobots didn't even attempt the matte finish and colours of the Sunbow models, instead going for a weird halfway amalgamation of toy and Sunbow. You also have GE, releasing new versions of designs who originally were released in the standard Generations line.
The distinction between SS and mainline Generations just seemed arbitrary, made worse by the packaging getting near identical with AotP on the Gen side. The only real clear points were that video game and live action stuff would be SS releases, but anything G1 could pop up in either and it wasn't even sure if either side had clear design guidelines to distinguish them.

Heck, even the designer comments we'd get would flip randomly depending on the day of the week, from "even though it's the cartoon accurate line, management said no pink Hot Rod" to "Yellow for Grimlock's deco? In the cartoon accurate line? What was I THINKING?!"

 

[CoffeeHorse]

"even though it's the cartoon accurate line, management said no pink Hot Rod"

Worth noting that that whole layer of management likely doesn't exist anymore.

 

[LordGigaIce]

The rules for what is in which line have always been non-sensical, they only exist to get retailers to give an additional few shelf spots when they're not paying attention.

Also I'm not even sure this is true.

Don't get me wrong, Transformers has run with more than one concurrent line more often than not since RiD and Armada proved it was possible but... are Studio Series and Generations separate lines? We talk about the confused distinction between them and Hasbro certain sees them as "separate," and is trying to carve out more distinct boundaries for them but... are they? Like... officially and logistically? Studio Series is considered part of Generations, at least from a branding perspective.

It's possible that if Hasbro decided to just do away with separate Studio Series labels and just considered it all "Generations" then the amount of slots wouldn't change, just the umbrella terms.

Seems to me that the two "concurrent" lines aren't Generations and Studio Series, but Generations (with a portion of its retail slots reserved for Studio Series) and Cyberworld.