Generations 2027: No More Primes! It is the Age of Evolution!
- Thread starter Steevy Maximus
- Start date
I take this as a good omen that I am finally finally finally about to get my money because they're about to make a line where I don't want to buy a single thing.
We knew MW Megatron was coming, but Go Bots Megatron????
On the one hand, I like how much new stuff is in this, down to new names and so on. Is this where they formally begin the split between "represents existing media portrayals" and "fresh/remixed ideas" between the Studio Series/other line? If so, it's probably no surprise that Scorponok isn't a direct Energon or Action Master representation (but has elements there that could aid a Studio Series release of at least the former). Just my guess based on what's been said about so far.
On the other hand, there's not much that wows me just yet. I'm intrigued by a lot of this and appreciative of some novelty, but given this is likely not going to get any fiction furthering it anyway it's a harder sell. I can literally not afford much of a line of new stuff where I have to fill in a lot of conceptual blanks (in addition to the homage line/s) right now. But it's very cool that there's a deliberate space carved out for that, and I hope it has a strong audience.
I am even intrigued by the shift on the take on the conflict. But rather than Shattered Glass Again I'd rather see the likes of Nominus Prime, Zeta Prime, Rong, Froid, Roller, Pyra Magna, Exarchon, and other characters who could slot in to a "corrupted ruling class" faction present in the early days of the war (repurposed here to be postwar). Really anything but more This Guy You Have Four Of But Evil This Time. Especially since their Shattered Glass Again stuff doesn't actually deliver on Shattered Glass stuff I WANT to see, like a proper Starscream and Goldbug based on the Cybertron molds that we know they now have. (Of course, if the Corrupt Bee is tribal tatted up Botcon 2007 Bug Bite from the Devastation mold, I'll finally have a reason to buy that mold... But I still want the Cybertron redecos.)
Still looking forward to Barricade, Lugnut, Nightbird, and Thunderwing.
Ya lost me with combining Megatrons, and with TM Megatron (again, this probably doesn't rule out a Studio Series BW-faithful new mold, but that's why this is getting confusing). Unless this take on the mold gets rid of all the rubbery plastic, which would at least be intriguing. But I do want to see that Go-Bot Megs, and especially to have it be reshellable into various Spychangers. Fling that door wide open, Megs.
Curious about Astrotrain, but deco might not be enough to win me over. It does sound cool though. A new Mirage, about time, let's go. I wonder if the new Ironhide will be G1 as well, making the AOTP 3-pack another "let's get one more use out of these before doing new molds" thing.
On the other hand, there's not much that wows me just yet. I'm intrigued by a lot of this and appreciative of some novelty, but given this is likely not going to get any fiction furthering it anyway it's a harder sell. I can literally not afford much of a line of new stuff where I have to fill in a lot of conceptual blanks (in addition to the homage line/s) right now. But it's very cool that there's a deliberate space carved out for that, and I hope it has a strong audience.
I am even intrigued by the shift on the take on the conflict. But rather than Shattered Glass Again I'd rather see the likes of Nominus Prime, Zeta Prime, Rong, Froid, Roller, Pyra Magna, Exarchon, and other characters who could slot in to a "corrupted ruling class" faction present in the early days of the war (repurposed here to be postwar). Really anything but more This Guy You Have Four Of But Evil This Time. Especially since their Shattered Glass Again stuff doesn't actually deliver on Shattered Glass stuff I WANT to see, like a proper Starscream and Goldbug based on the Cybertron molds that we know they now have. (Of course, if the Corrupt Bee is tribal tatted up Botcon 2007 Bug Bite from the Devastation mold, I'll finally have a reason to buy that mold... But I still want the Cybertron redecos.)
Still looking forward to Barricade, Lugnut, Nightbird, and Thunderwing.
Ya lost me with combining Megatrons, and with TM Megatron (again, this probably doesn't rule out a Studio Series BW-faithful new mold, but that's why this is getting confusing). Unless this take on the mold gets rid of all the rubbery plastic, which would at least be intriguing. But I do want to see that Go-Bot Megs, and especially to have it be reshellable into various Spychangers. Fling that door wide open, Megs.
Curious about Astrotrain, but deco might not be enough to win me over. It does sound cool though. A new Mirage, about time, let's go. I wonder if the new Ironhide will be G1 as well, making the AOTP 3-pack another "let's get one more use out of these before doing new molds" thing.
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I'm all in on every Machine Wars release they do.
Everything else? We'll see, but I appreciate that they seem committed to some original ideas and characters. And even dipping into segments of the brand Generations wouldn't have bothered with before.
Everything else? We'll see, but I appreciate that they seem committed to some original ideas and characters. And even dipping into segments of the brand Generations wouldn't have bothered with before.
This just hit me. Do you guys suppose that the reason the Binder writers decided to have Megatron name himself after The Fallen (by way of giving The Fallen the proper name of "Megatronus") as a supposed-to-be-clever-and-cheeky nod to how often Starscream would say "Megatron has Fallen!"?
That's the thing: he doesn't. He only said it that one time, when Megatron literally fell.
As always, I’m a wait and see until final information is released. There’s stuff I like and stuff I’m indifferent on, par for course. Still cutting back, but I still have my weaknesses.
Megatron Rising The Narrative: While I can see where the fatigue is coming from in regards to collectors in a “Autobots now BAD” narrative angle…I like this “Neo-Animated” approach. It’s nice to see Hasbro willing to “blur the lines” as they seem to be doing here. Where we have Decepticons as the core of a resistence, but mostly still evil. But the good guys weren’t always bad. There was a corrupting influence that caused many traditional heroes to “fall”, but there are still classically good Autobots around working with Decepticons to overthrow the corrupt rulers.
I like the nuance relative to Shattered Glass’s straight mirroring or going back to a known group of “corrupt” Autobots. And maybe that corrupting influence will be expanded on in future themes?
New toy reveals/details:
Voyager Demolisher- Assuming he’s a leftover as Hasbro starts more “delineating“ between Generations and Studio Series, I’d hope they’d do a novel deco on the old Armada design. The “Sixshot” deco might be interesting to see, especially with the late era love I’m seeing here.
Voyager Ironhide- Who knows. Will we get an Energon homage? Will be an amalgamated movie and G1 thing? Something all new?
And keep in mind that Shockwhale is still on deck for next year as well.
Leader Scorponok- I’m actually liking the new details more than just the idea of a “Energon Scorponok”. I think he’ll compliment the rumored SS Fortress Maximus nicely.
Leader Transmetal Megatron- I’m NOT liking the new details on this one, though. I’m going to operate under the assumption this was done to move tooling dollars to something better. We’ll see, but I think THIS version of Megatron is important enough to warrant a new mold. I’m CHOOSING to hold hope that a lesser Transmetal showing will allow a greater Beast Machines showing later on.
Leader Astrotrain- New tooling? I’m surprised since I’d have guessed it to simply be a redeco. I’m still not sure they’ll be able to change much to get me to buy it, but toy-centric fans might dig it.
Deluxe Mirage- Yay? I mean, I’ll have to see what they opt to do, but I’m not eager for another F1 Racer Mirage already. I would have flipped my lid for a Machine Wars Prowl if they HAD to do a new F1 mold, at least initially. But with the WfC repaint set, the Prime Changer, and the NUMEROUS uses of the mold…I’m just not hyped for a new Mirage right now.
I think the new narrative details make the Resistance capsule more interesting. But as for the Corrupted Capsule:
Optimus Prime- Nice to see the ReActivate mold make another appearance. I’m still hoping for a standalone rerelease of the original deco. But something Shattered Glass should make this look mean.
Bumblebee- Probably a slight retool or repaint of one of the Bumblebee flavors we have. I’m not excited
Prowl- If they go with the “Latin Prowl” variant deco (as seen on the Magic card), I might actually bite.
Slug- We’ll see. The only two references I’ve found are FunPub art with Slag as a yellow and green, and others all reference a Trypticon color set. If it’s the Trypticon colors, I’ll pass. But the Green and yellow might be interesting…
Again, we’ll see how things shake out. I assume Hasbro will be revealing names and info next week, but we won’t see anything substantive until Toy Fair in February. Barring any early streams or leaks, of course
Megatron Rising The Narrative: While I can see where the fatigue is coming from in regards to collectors in a “Autobots now BAD” narrative angle…I like this “Neo-Animated” approach. It’s nice to see Hasbro willing to “blur the lines” as they seem to be doing here. Where we have Decepticons as the core of a resistence, but mostly still evil. But the good guys weren’t always bad. There was a corrupting influence that caused many traditional heroes to “fall”, but there are still classically good Autobots around working with Decepticons to overthrow the corrupt rulers.
I like the nuance relative to Shattered Glass’s straight mirroring or going back to a known group of “corrupt” Autobots. And maybe that corrupting influence will be expanded on in future themes?
New toy reveals/details:
Voyager Demolisher- Assuming he’s a leftover as Hasbro starts more “delineating“ between Generations and Studio Series, I’d hope they’d do a novel deco on the old Armada design. The “Sixshot” deco might be interesting to see, especially with the late era love I’m seeing here.
Voyager Ironhide- Who knows. Will we get an Energon homage? Will be an amalgamated movie and G1 thing? Something all new?
And keep in mind that Shockwhale is still on deck for next year as well.
Leader Scorponok- I’m actually liking the new details more than just the idea of a “Energon Scorponok”. I think he’ll compliment the rumored SS Fortress Maximus nicely.
Leader Transmetal Megatron- I’m NOT liking the new details on this one, though. I’m going to operate under the assumption this was done to move tooling dollars to something better. We’ll see, but I think THIS version of Megatron is important enough to warrant a new mold. I’m CHOOSING to hold hope that a lesser Transmetal showing will allow a greater Beast Machines showing later on.
Leader Astrotrain- New tooling? I’m surprised since I’d have guessed it to simply be a redeco. I’m still not sure they’ll be able to change much to get me to buy it, but toy-centric fans might dig it.
Deluxe Mirage- Yay? I mean, I’ll have to see what they opt to do, but I’m not eager for another F1 Racer Mirage already. I would have flipped my lid for a Machine Wars Prowl if they HAD to do a new F1 mold, at least initially. But with the WfC repaint set, the Prime Changer, and the NUMEROUS uses of the mold…I’m just not hyped for a new Mirage right now.
I think the new narrative details make the Resistance capsule more interesting. But as for the Corrupted Capsule:
Optimus Prime- Nice to see the ReActivate mold make another appearance. I’m still hoping for a standalone rerelease of the original deco. But something Shattered Glass should make this look mean.
Bumblebee- Probably a slight retool or repaint of one of the Bumblebee flavors we have. I’m not excited
Prowl- If they go with the “Latin Prowl” variant deco (as seen on the Magic card), I might actually bite.
Slug- We’ll see. The only two references I’ve found are FunPub art with Slag as a yellow and green, and others all reference a Trypticon color set. If it’s the Trypticon colors, I’ll pass. But the Green and yellow might be interesting…
Again, we’ll see how things shake out. I assume Hasbro will be revealing names and info next week, but we won’t see anything substantive until Toy Fair in February. Barring any early streams or leaks, of course
Also! With GoBot Megatron confirmed-ish that means they are just a repaint away from CR/RID Artfire/Hot Shot.
And to be honest? I think I might want to wait for that…
And to be honest? I think I might want to wait for that…
Okay I'm definitely buying the Machine Wars stuff if it doesn't get canceled. I won't believe it until I finally see it. I have trust issues at this point.
And I might buy that Astrotrain. That mold was made for toy colors, and they picked the best toy colors.
I don't know about the rest. If the Megatron combiner turns out great, maybe. A Megatron combiner made of Megatrons from various universes does sound like something Beast Wars Megatron would do in some some fever dream Takara pack-in comic, and he's involved here. If the combination is good enough it might almost make up for the inaccuracy of this TM Megatron. Almost.
But doing TM Megatron this way is just the wrong decision. Whatever the reasoning behind it, it was wrong, and they should have known that it was wrong.
And I might buy that Astrotrain. That mold was made for toy colors, and they picked the best toy colors.
I don't know about the rest. If the Megatron combiner turns out great, maybe. A Megatron combiner made of Megatrons from various universes does sound like something Beast Wars Megatron would do in some some fever dream Takara pack-in comic, and he's involved here. If the combination is good enough it might almost make up for the inaccuracy of this TM Megatron. Almost.
But doing TM Megatron this way is just the wrong decision. Whatever the reasoning behind it, it was wrong, and they should have known that it was wrong.
Ha! And there we have it: A character said something so memorable one time that it became such a meme that led many to believe it was something said multiple times over. Just imagine if this phenomenon really did inspire the Binder writers to have Megatron name himself after The Fallen just because of something Starscream said only once.
Thinking about it, being a retool of Kingdom Megatron isn't an automatic failure for TM Megs. It would heavily depend on the level of retooling, though. The tail weapon being removable between modes is easy enough. The dino head arm would need major retooling or partsforming to accomplish TM Meg's robot mode. The dinosaur thighs/VTOL fans already end up on the back kibble and with modification, might be able to fold down over the actual shoulders. Only question is how much retooling is HasTak willing to do? If there is a combining gimmick and if it isn't completely half-assed, they'd already presumably be doing a LOT of retooling, so maybe a decent TM Megs would be possible.
It has to have the giant shoulder pads of doom. Technically they're kibble and they do get in the way of articulation, but on a visual level they just work. He's not just a villain. He's the boss. The design screams it. "Fixing" the articulation but losing the vibe would not be worth it.
Starscream did say "Megatron has fallen!" more often then Kirk said "beam me up, Scotty."Ha! And there we have it: A character said something so memorable one time that it became such a meme that led many to believe it was something said multiple times over. Just imagine if this phenomenon really did inspire the Binder writers to have Megatron name himself after The Fallen just because of something Starscream said only once.
Anyway... I think the decision to name the Fallen "Megatronus Prime" was born out of pure unimaginative writing. My first reaction upon hearing it was "that's the most Live Journal fanfiction name I've ever heard" and I still feel that way.
IMO the only piece of media that's actually justified "Megatronus Prime" as a name was TFO, and that worked precisely because they ignored the whole "Fallen" angle.
I appreciated when Megatronus as a name became a thing because Rodimus was no longer the dumbest most contrived name in there.
As someone who was reviewing IDW for this site... yeah "the Autobots are evil" does get an instant eye roll from me.
Shattered Glass- which I don't really like either for unrelated reasons- is far less egregious because it's an intentional polarity flip. Autobots are supposed to be the good guys... so of course in a mirror universe they're evil. Hell, I'd like SG more if it committed to the campiness of the old Star Trek Mirror Universe instead of falling into the trap of taking itself dead seriously.
The issue with IDW is that it tried to present this as part of a "morally complex narrative," but ended up twisting itself into all kinds of knots.
The Autobots start as fascist thugs and the Decepticons as justified revolutionaries until the narrative has to return to the status quo of "Autobots wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons" and the narrative is straining under the weight to make it happen. There are entire flashback issues dedicated to Optimus going "ok Sentinel and Zeta are gone now we're not fascist anymore, guys!" and Megatron going "ok I know this whole thing started because we don't like oppression but hey let's do multiple genocides across the galaxy?"
I'm sure that a good enough writer could thread these needles but to be frank? A writer that good has never worked on this brand, and why would they?
Like you have Megatron in the present day telling Optimus "I would walk through an ocean of sludge to kill the last Autobot standing, just because it makes me happy," and then flashbacks make him an uwo softboi revolutionary who never wanted to hurt anyone until The System
made him... and the cover to bridge these two takes is "lol I was kidding"? Get the f outta here.The closest IDW got to making any kind of sense about its version of this conflict was in the trial of Megatron when Starscream testifies that the Decepticon movement was one big riot that got out of control and Megatron wasn't even really in charge of it after a certain point, but that directly contradicts other stuff we see and besides, they never followed up on that interpretation anyway.
All of this is to say that I see "THE AUTOBOTS ARE EVVVILLLL NOW" and I can't help but scoff and roll my eyes.
To be clear I don't think it will matter to the toyline. We're likely not getting package bios or fiction for this... it'll be limited to livestreams, IG posts, and maybe some box art. At the end of the day it's just fluff to go along with the next year or two of Gen releases and that's fine enough.
But the idea is still irksome.
He did say similar things a few times, just not always with the same phrasing.Ha! And there we have it: A character said something so memorable one time that it became such a meme that led many to believe it was something said multiple times over. Just imagine if this phenomenon really did inspire the Binder writers to have Megatron name himself after The Fallen just because of something Starscream said only once.
"Megatron has tripped! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron has stubbed his toe! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron has a cold! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron has a sore throat! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron has an itch he cannot reach to scratch! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron is confused! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron is napping! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron is watching television! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron is bored! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron is doing his nails! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron is bird-watching! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron is swimming! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron is knitting! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
"Megatron has a new hat! I, Starscream, am now the new leader of the Decepticons!"
(Disclaimer: Not direct quotes.
)
So I am not opposed to this idea, as it is a nice concept and a good change of pace for the toyline itself. How well it's executed remains to be seen.
Speaking of being seen, I am going to wait until we get to see the toys before making any judgment on them. I am digging the idea of several of these but space is limited and they will have to make the cut.
Speaking of being seen, I am going to wait until we get to see the toys before making any judgment on them. I am digging the idea of several of these but space is limited and they will have to make the cut.