Takara Missing Link G1 Series

lastmaximal

lastmaximal

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I'm somewhat intrigued by the idea of a Missing Link Skyfire that hews more to an Arcee approach than an Ironhide approach. Just sort of a "we tried to recreate a Macross-ish design from memory" with lots of surface-level "limited by 80s engineering" jank. But I hope it looks like the show model rather than the intermediate Macross-based commercial animation model. Or, hell, give us both if they can get away with it.

I would LOVE a prototype Unicron, especially with improved articulation. A big part of the draw there for me, as with Arcee and to a degree the lost-mold Sunstreaker, is getting "G1 toys" of them at all in the present day. You say he now ALSO has ankle tilts and butterfly joints and whatever? Dude, you already had my money at "we're making you the janky beach ball Orson Welles robot man you have saved JPEGs of since the early days of the internet".
 
CoffeeHorse

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I love the Unicron prototypes. Trying to morph the planet into a robot torso instead of having it be a shell around a robot torso is still extremely difficult to do today. That third party one does make some color compromises. Trying to do it with 1980s technology was hilariously optimistic. I would buy one.
 
MrBlud

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the toy should still look like the original one did when not posed in ways the original could never have accomplished. Otherwise, I might as well be buying a modern toy that isn't attempting to emulate the 80s one. We've got lots of lines for those already.
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Under those standards, there wouldn’t be *any* difference between Missing Link Ironhide and Universe (2008) Ironhide which is crazy IMO.

ML Ironhide doesn’t hew near as close as the others but he very clearly emulates the original toy.
 
Shadewing

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G.B.Blackrock

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MrBlud said:
Under those standards, there wouldn’t be *any* difference between Missing Link Ironhide and Universe (2008) Ironhide which is crazy IMO.
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But that's the point. I see no reason for this ML Ironhide to even exist. Nor do I imagine any *other* way of doing ML Ironhide that I'd be happier with. They should have simply done something else.

Harsh, perhaps, but that's how I feel.
 
LBD "Nytetrayn"

LBD "Nytetrayn"

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I'm more willing to take it as "the Ironhide we all wished the original was when we were kids" at this point.

Because that's kinda what it's starting to feel like to me now.
 
CoffeeHorse

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As neat as this feature is, for me it's just another little thing that beaks the illusion. Unless there's a little seat back there, it's too obvious that this is backported from the toon, not something that might have existed in an alternate universe Diaclone toy.

Some of my frustration is misplaced. As much as I want to love Diaclone Reboot and am still stunned that it exists at all, it's increasingly leaving me cold. It got off to a great start but most of the designs are barely recognizable. Missing Link is scratching my Diaclone itch better than Diaclone Reboot. I can barely afford food but I 1000% would have found a way to buy the black repaint of a proper Missing Link Ironhide. It's a great design in the context it was designed for. It is cool how much stuff unfolds out of that compact box of a vehicle.
 
Donocropolis

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CoffeeHorse said:
As neat as this feature is, for me it's just another little thing that beaks the illusion. Unless there's a little seat back there, it's too obvious that this is backported from the toon, not something that might have existed in an alternate universe Diaclone toy.

Some of my frustration is misplaced. As much as I want to love Diaclone Reboot and am still stunned that it exists at all, it's increasingly leaving me cold. It got off to a great start but most of the designs are barely recognizable. Missing Link is scratching my Diaclone itch better than Diaclone Reboot. I can barely afford food but I 1000% would have found a way to buy the black repaint of a proper Missing Link Ironhide. It's a great design in the context it was designed for. It is cool how much stuff unfolds out of that compact box of a vehicle.
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I see your frustration. What you want is "Improved 80's Diaclone", but Missing Link is "Improved 80's Transformers." Obviously, the Venn diagram of those two things is aaaaallllmost a circle, and up until now pretty much everything that they've put out has been smack in the middle of where those two things intersect. The one outlier was Arcee, and as a non-Diaclone toy, while she didn't improve on any Diaclone design, she didn't detract from any, either.

But, to make an improved 80's Ironhide toy, they actually REMOVED a lot of his Diaclone-ness. That makes sense to Takara, as making improved Diaclone toys was never their goal, it was just a part-and-parcel of improving the majority of the designs that were imported from Diaclone into Transformers unchanged. But Ironhide and Ratchet were always presented so differently in Transformers compared to their Diaclone toys that making an articulated Diaclone mechsuit actually didn't get them any closer to a good Transformers toy.
 
CoffeeHorse

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Donocropolis said:
I see your frustration. What you want is "Improved 80's Diaclone", but Missing Link is "Improved 80's Transformers." Obviously, the Venn diagram of those two things is aaaaallllmost a circle, and up until now pretty much everything that they've put out has been smack in the middle of where those two things intersect. The one outlier was Arcee, and as a non-Diaclone toy, while she didn't improve on any Diaclone design, she didn't detract from any, either.

But, to make an improved 80's Ironhide toy, they actually REMOVED a lot of his Diaclone-ness. That makes sense to Takara, as making improved Diaclone toys was never their goal, it was just a part-and-parcel of improving the majority of the designs that were imported from Diaclone into Transformers unchanged. But Ironhide and Ratchet were always presented so differently in Transformers compared to their Diaclone toys that making an articulated Diaclone mechsuit actually didn't get them any closer to a good Transformers toy.
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In fairness, Takara definitely threw fuel on the fire by including drivers, and in Ultra Magnus' case they didn't stop there in restoring Diacloneness that Transformers originally cut.
 
Donocropolis

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CoffeeHorse said:
In fairness, Takara definitely threw fuel on the fire by including drivers, and in Ultra Magnus' case they didn't stop there in restoring Diacloneness that Transformers originally cut.
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Very true. I do think that, as long as making good Diaclone toys didn't interfere with making them good Transformers, they were happy to do both at once. Ironhide and Ratchet are kind of unique in those being conflicting goals.
 
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