Transformers Legacy toyline

[Steevy Maximus]

It still feels weird to see stuff like the Toxitron capsule and see toys INTENTIONALLY lacking paint apps as we’ve been harking about that for years.
Even weirder to see how much interest there IS for these items.

 

[Lobjob]

I mean, I've been oogling these unreleased designs since the Legacy book (fitting title, really) came out years ago. I imagine many other people have too.

Unreleased stuff has always sparked the imagination and in an era where movie figures rarely "pop", this insanity is a great course correction.

 

[Shadewing]

I have very minor issues with the Toxitron Collection decos, like I'd prefer if Jazz's and Sunstreaker's faces were different colors from their helmets, I wish Grimlock's stripes were along more then just his tail becuase that if a big ass sea of yellow there with almost nothing breaking it up. Might be waiting to see what Toyhax comes up with for him. But I think a lot of these guys are great.

 

[Onyx]

Were there any options to pre order the rest of the G2 capsule? Pulse only has Toxitron, Cloudcover and Jazz. Yet Grimlock is showing up on shelves and I think wave 2 Laser Cycle, Mirage and Sideswipe have released over seas. BWBB Tow-line and Legacy Evolution Medix as well. I'm expecting to see Strongarm, Shadow Striker, Bombshell, Bludgeon and the rest to drop before pre orders are even up at this point.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Even weirder to see how much interest there IS for these items.

There's something about the canceled G2 stuff. I don't know what the word is. I think about how they could have been it. They are not like canceled Universe stuff or canceled final waves in more recent lines. They are relics of a brand in collapse. Transformers had already been resuscitated once and was clearly still fading. The unreleased G2 stuff could have been the last versions of these characters ever made, except G2 ended before they even had a chance to be. Even though Beast Wars came along and saved the brand without another yearlong hiatus, it was such a drastic reinvention that there still might have never been another Jazz.

 

[Sabrblade]

There's something about the canceled G2 stuff. I don't know what the word is. I think about how they could have been it. They are not like canceled Universe stuff or canceled final waves in more recent lines. They are relics of a brand in collapse. Transformers had already been resuscitated once and was clearly still fading. The unreleased G2 stuff could have been the last versions of these characters ever made, except G2 ended before they even had a chance to be. Even though Beast Wars came along and saved the brand without another yearlong hiatus, it was such a drastic reinvention that there still might have never been another Jazz.

Reading this makes me wonder, had Machine Wars been more successful, if it could have been used as a venue to see the final unreleased G2 items released at retail as Machine Wars items.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Considering 100% of the molds in Machine Wars had never gotten a US release and some had never gotten a release anywhere, maybe. To the extent that there was a strategy for Machine Wars it does seem that diving into unreleased stuff was part of it.

 

[Dekafox]

Now you've got me imagining the whole Victory line(minus DInoking) being released under Machine Wars...

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

Reading this makes me wonder, had Machine Wars been more successful, if it could have been used as a venue to see the final unreleased G2 items released at retail as Machine Wars items.

Seems possible, but I wonder if MW was always going to be just this one wave, even if it had sold better.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Now you've got me imagining the whole Victory line(minus DInoking) being released under Machine Wars...

And Zone. And BATTLESTARS.

I want to live in the universe where Machine Wars sold so well that it got multiple waves.

I wonder if MW was always going to be just this one wave, even if it had sold better.

It depends on how much better. I don't think they would have ignored a surprise hit.

 

[ZacWilliam1]

I expect it was always planned as just one wave given the backstory of "jive we kinda promised them something G1ish at Botcon, what can we throw together that Toyworks/KayBee would buy for a quick exclusive."

-ZacWilliam, if it was meant to be more it probably would have had a wider release.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

I expect it was always planned as just one wave given the backstory of "jive we kinda promised them something G1ish at Botcon, what can we throw together that Toyworks/KayBee would buy for a quick exclusive."

-ZacWilliam, if it was meant to be more it probably would have had a wider release.

That's kind of my own thinking. To play the hypothetical "what if it had sold really well?" game, I could suggest that, even in such an unlikely scenario that sales were astonishingly high and thus couldn't be ignored, the result wouldn't be "more Machine Wars toys," but rather "a revival of vehicle-mode Transformers," but in an altogether new line.

Which, of course, is ultimately what we got.

 

[DefaultOption]

Yeah, between the unaltered sticker sheets, the altered packaging art from other toys, and the fact that they didn't even bother to come up with something that wasn't the Beast Wars typeface for the logo, Machine Wars was pretty clearly a half-assed effort to get something out the door to make the older fans happy.

Kinda fun to think about Hasbro dipping into JG1 to find stuff for a second wave though. Multiforce 2-packs as basics, anyone?

 

[CoffeeHorse]

I totally buy the story that it was slapped together to look like they kept a promise, and they never thought about another wave. Every piece of evidence points to it being a cheap rush job. Every one. But that ability to slap it together makes me think they couldn't have ignored a surprise hit without somebody in the finance department crying about margins.

 

[Sabrblade]

Kinda fun to think about Hasbro dipping into JG1 to find stuff for a second wave though. Multiforce 2-packs as basics, anyone?

Kinda like what Euro-G1 did with Overlord and the Brainmasters-turned-Motorvators.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

I totally buy the story that it was slapped together to look like they kept a promise, and they never thought about another wave. Every piece of evidence points to it being a cheap rush job. Every one. But that ability to slap it together makes me think they couldn't have ignored a surprise hit without somebody in the finance department crying about margins.

Again, I agree that they wouldn't ignore a surprise hit. I just don't assume that has to mean a second wave of Machine Wars, specifically.

 

[Sabrblade]

I just got an email from Hasbro Pulse saying my preorder for Toxitron Collection Cloudcover will ship soon.

 

[lastmaximal]

Even weirder to see how much interest there IS for these items.

There's something about the canceled G2 stuff. I don't know what the word is. I think about how they could have been it. They are not like canceled Universe stuff or canceled final waves in more recent lines. They are relics of a brand in collapse. Transformers had already been resuscitated once and was clearly still fading. The unreleased G2 stuff could have been the last versions of these characters ever made, except G2 ended before they even had a chance to be. Even though Beast Wars came along and saved the brand without another yearlong hiatus, it was such a drastic reinvention that there still might have never been another Jazz.

I'm always up for canceled things in general finally being revisited and done. That's one of my favorite things about this era and design team, and it's been worth putting up with exclusives just to get these. It's even worth putting up with intentionally withheld paint (although I wish we didn't have to-- Grim really needs more blue striping) since that's easier to remedy than making something exist in the first place.

There's a shallowness to it on my part ("oh I can't have this? Well, guess again, universe, it looks like I can") alongside the closure of getting something that fell through the cracks. They're like trivia questions come to life-- that Optimus Prime redeco they almost made, the Sideswipe we never got, did you know there were supposed to be all FIVE Dinobots in G2...

Plus for some of these especially, the looks are just cool and I'd get them even without the canceled factor. Toxitron, Mirage, Cloudcover, Sandstorm, Laser Cycle Jazz, Sideswipe...

Canceled G2 stuff in particular also brings back echoes of that time period (I am old enough now to have multiple nostalgia era buttons), and G2's sadly short time in the sun as well.

 

[Echowarrior]

I just got an email from Hasbro Pulse saying my preorder for Toxitron Collection Cloudcover will ship soon.

Same. I just hope me using my PayPal account to cover the cost won't be a problem.

 

[Gizmoboy]

That's a good sign that Walmart preorders might hit as schedules on the 19th.