I want to photoshop the toy in those colors now.
Last edited:
Generations 2027: No More Primes! It is the Age of Evolution!
- Thread starter Steevy Maximus
- Start date
I want to photoshop the toy in those colors now.
You know, I don't disagree with the idea of Machine Wars, Universe, and RID0.5 being just lines to get easy product out the door, and any fan service was a bonus. However, I find it hard to believe that Classics wasn't made with the G1 fans in mind. The line was just packed with G1 fan service with G1 seekers, Coneheads, Gun mode Megatron, Bumblebee, Optimus, Mirage, and the best Jetfire toy* we have ever got! We even got some great seeker repaints and a white Optimus Prime for Ultra Magnus.
* Yeah, I said it. The new one pales in comparison to this 2007 toy, as it is just a giant lumbering toy that is rotting away to yellow while my Classics Jetfire is just as fresh twenty years later and looks great next to the other CHUG figures.
If I was in Hasbro back in the 90's, I'd color Overlord in black, white, red and olive green then call him Skyfire. Just because it'd be funny for the first toy of Skyfire to be so close yet basically nothing like Skyfire.
I mean it seems kinda silly. While yes RiD eventually turned into what Universe was before changing the name... it was still RiD. The packaging was very clear about this
Of course retailers continuing to order RiD after Armada launched (post-Armada RiD if you will
) got Hasbro thinking that two lines at the same time was very viable. Which lead to Universe '03. But all of this is to say that MW was doing that first, at least in NA retail. No one's being disingenuous to point that out.
As far as Jetfires go, I prefer the Takara version of the T30 figure, without the chrome. One of the few T30 designs that worked. Other than him, though, I agree that Classics is better than Siege.
As for Classics itself... Hasbro was probably willing to lean into fans more than they had up until that point because it was just supposed to be a gap filler line. Thing is, it sold way more than Hasbro was expecting.
Which is why I think it's a mistake to say Universe 2008 wasn't a collector oriented line. Yes, it went in a very Bayverse direction with overly-complicated transformations relative to the designs, and a focus on realism over G1 accuracy, but it was still pitched as a Classics revival based on Classics' shockingly strong showing at retail two years prior.
Thing is that back in 2008 the idea of dedicated collector and kids lines really hadn't taken hold? Everything had to do everything. So no, Classics and Universe '08 weren't exclusively collector focused like Generations is now, but they were certainly more collector focused then anything Hasbro had done until then and set the stage for the collector/kids line separation that would really manifest with CW and RiD '15.
TransTech was funny because their design for Starscream was very much rooted in MW Starscream's design. MW may have been considered a flop, but it's interesting to see them go "ok this was the last time he appeared on shelves, that's our starting point."
Imagine a world where MW Starscream's design eclipsed G1 as his standard look
Ok, ok, I know that was never going to happen long term because the nostalgia cycle would have mandated a return to his classic look eventually, but let me dream the impossible dream.
I mean it seems kinda silly. While yes RiD eventually turned into what Universe was before changing the name... it was still RiD. The packaging was very clear about this
Of course retailers continuing to order RiD after Armada launched (post-Armada RiD if you will
*Walks away from the screen to not get into it again*
So here is the thing, I wouldn't call Classics a collector line either. Like sure us TF collectors liked the Classics line, but I think that we can agree that Classics was aimed at all the people that grew up with G1 more so than all of us on the message boards. At that point, all of us G1 kids were in our mid-20s to mid-30s, and were prime* for the revival line. I think a collector line would be something more like Masterpiece, Alternators, or even the G1 Reissues.
*Pun intended.
Last edited:
Classics could use better feet, but otherwise it's still a fine toy.
Classics is a better Jetfire, but Siege is a better Skyfire.
"The online fandom" is not synonymous with "collectors".
Nothing that is at physical retail is really aimed specifically at only the former, especially not if you limit it to "message boards" and don't include fans who just follow Transformers content on YouTube, Twitter, etc.
G1 reissues were if anything even more "for anyone who wants the one they had as a kid".
Classics may have tapped into some surface-level G1 nostalgia (by which I mean it homaged G1 character designs in a modern updated manner as opposed to faithfully recreating how the G1 characters actually looked in their original 1980s designs), but it was definitely still meant to just be a filler line. Hasbro needed a year's worth of new product on the shelves to buy time until the 2007 movie and its toys were ready to go, and that bare minimum single-year's worth of new product was all that Hasbro made for Classics. Once Classics was done with new Hasbro product, Hasbro was done with new Classics product. That's why Greg Lombardo suggested to Fun Pub that they finish off the Classics Seekers for BotCon 2007, because Hasbro proper had already decided that they weren't going to make Thundercracker, Dirge, or Thrust themselves, because Hasbro was done with the appetizer that was Classics and had already moved on to the main entree that was the 2007 movie line.
Classics even remained a Hasbro-exclusive line with no presence in Japan for two years until after Universe started up in 2008 and added enough new molds to suffice for Henkei! Henkei! in Japan, as opposed to how all three Unicron Trilogy toylines and the Alternators/Binaltech line before Classics, as well as all the movie toylines after Classics, were all released in Japan concurrently to their Hasbro releases, despite Classics arguably being the main mass-retail Hasbro Transformers toyline of 2006.
Classics even remained a Hasbro-exclusive line with no presence in Japan for two years until after Universe started up in 2008 and added enough new molds to suffice for Henkei! Henkei! in Japan, as opposed to how all three Unicron Trilogy toylines and the Alternators/Binaltech line before Classics, as well as all the movie toylines after Classics, were all released in Japan concurrently to their Hasbro releases, despite Classics arguably being the main mass-retail Hasbro Transformers toyline of 2006.
Which, again, wasn't overly new in mass retail products. I'd point to the mid-90s Kenner Batman spin off lines, which leaned into using comic designs and concepts, which, ostensively, appealed more to older consumers.
I'd argue (as I'm prone to) that broader market forces were just as big a factor in the collector/kid segmentation. The revival of Marvel Legends and launch of Star Wars Black were more emblematic to it, but it was a pretty focal trend starting in 2013.
That's, frankly, why I LOVE the Classics Grimlock design. Excluding the Action Masters and G2, it was clearly derived from the last newly designed converting Grimlock toy, which was the Classic Pretender. Which was MY childhood Grimlock, and that Classics toy just hit ALL the right notes (even if the feet and crotch were a little iffy).
I'm still holding hope that, 20 years on (!), we might see a another take on the Classics Grimlock design ;P
My apologies, for using that as an example, as one didn't have to be in the online fandom to be a collector, but I would dare to say that the Venn diagram of collectors and online forum members in 2007 is almost one circle.
Well, Youtube wasn't really a thing back then. Yeah, it was around, but it was basically home videos and pirated tv shows. Pretty much the only way to follow transformers online in that era was message boards or something even older that we do not speak of.
Maybe there was some of that, I grant you, but I really think of it more as a collectors' line in the same vein as Masterpiece, especially as the line continued on with less iconic characters. Also, this gives me a reason to repost this:
I wouldn't be surprised at all if we get reworks of the Classics Pretenders sooner rather than later, if the Thunderwing rumor is true. They were a major opponent for him in the comics and we already have a suspiciously compact new Jazz mold that looked very out of place for a one-shot con exclusive cereal box homage set. Any of Bumblebee's recent toys could be easily squashed into a shell as-is, which only leaves Grimlock and Starscream, their inner bots could be the all-new molds of the wave other than the shells. It would be one case where 'hollow' would be a positive thing, if a Pretender shell isn't, it doesn't work very well.
Now if they really want to fan-bait us, make the rather generic human faces of the shells resemble the voice actors...if some people complain about 'toy accuracy', that's a future exclusive, or just have swappable heads. Figures have that that feature for years now.
Now if they really want to fan-bait us, make the rather generic human faces of the shells resemble the voice actors...if some people complain about 'toy accuracy', that's a future exclusive, or just have swappable heads. Figures have that that feature for years now.
You know, I wonder about that. We know that they have said that it takes 2 years to bring a toy to retail, so how is it a filler line? Like did they just rush everything through? Did they find out the delay years in advance? I am not doubting the story that it was a filler line, but I just have these questions.
As much as I agree with you that Classics and Classic Pretender Grimlock were both great, there was a more recent Grimlock toy that they made two years earlier:
Grimlock (Energon) - Transformers Wiki
I understand that most people don't think of him out of trying to block out the trauma.
I'd say the "found out the delay years in advance" is a good guess, as Armada was a similar case in that it wouldn't be ready to go until 2002, leaving 2001 in need of new product. At one point, Hasbro had considered extending Beast Machines for another year, hence the later releases of obvious new BM toys in RiD and other known unreleased BM toys like the Deluxe class version of Obsidian. But they also had requested the BM cartoon be extended into a third season as well, but which would have required the second season's tight-knit story to be stretched out with padding that the writers did not wish to do, as there were no plans for any story material set after the planetwide reformatting of Cybertron that was always intended to be the grand finale of the show. So, BM ran for only two seasons as planned, no third season happened, and the toyline did not reach its third year before cancelation, leading to the need for something to fill the 2001-2002 gap until Armada was ready. But unlike this case, where Car Robots was already available to be quickly imported and rebranded as Robots in Disguise (with Saban already knowing how to dub anime rather quickly and efficiently, too), the only things Hasbro had that were already available to use for Classics were the leftover Mini-Con molds that had been originally designed for Cybertron's two-packs. So, they got to work on making a grand total of eleven new molds (eight Deluxes and three Voyagers) made especially for Classics. Everything else in that line consisted of the Cybertron-made Mini-Cons, redecos, retools, repacks, and bundles of existing product.
As much as I agree with you that Classics and Classic Pretender Grimlock were both great, there was a more recent Grimlock toy that they made two years earlier:
Grimlock (Energon) - Transformers Wiki
tfwiki.net
I shall handle this in a mature and adult manner...
"BURN HIM!!!" *waves little torch and pitchfork*
-actually I'm still bitter about him and Swoop, I saw them in a store and had even already repainted some Energon Insecticon weapons for Grimlock, but a lot went wrong job-wise and I had to leave them, then never saw them again. Later I found out the hands weren't 5mm anyway, but still...
Supposed leaked pics of Megatron Rising wave 1. From what has been said previously, it's 100% possible (if these are even a real leak) that these are just the quick AI "concept only" mockups and may not be especially close to the final version.
Neat! Hydraulic looks good. Can't wait to see better pics.
Yeah, I'm a big fan of the *-izers type play pattern, so I'm looking forward to these. From these pics, it looks like the theme is gonna be "Construction B-Team," which I can definitely get behind.
Last edited:
Scorponok looks pretty good. For the rest, I'll wait until there are non-terrible pictures to comment further.