Transformers Legacy toyline

lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Meh, someone's gonna take that up if the opportunity presents itself. At least the trailer's still someone else's problem. It's just such an unnecessary budget complication at this point. (And it seems like an easy enough thing for them to engineer and produce and sell for way more than it's worth once the need is there. And if cost is too high or demand for it is too low to justify them making it, well, that just proves that Hasbro shouldn't bother either.)

Now if it were Armada Prime's trailer, or Rodimus', that's something that arguably should always be part of the main release. But the long gray box with minicar (sometimes) seems like something that just isn't a feasible ask at main retail price points, and so much gets compromised to make it happen at all that it ends up pleasing fewer than it should anyway (I didn't mind either ER or SS trailers, but I can see why some might feel underwhelmed, and boy I've certainly heard enough of that). Spend the money on something better. The Classics Voyager was a solid mold and the trailer wasn't missed; those who DID miss it eventually had ones they could get. And the field is fuller now.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
least the trailer's still someone else's problem.
I'd rather it not be.
I used to be on board with ditching the trailer but ER actually got me into the idea.
Yeah it doesn't do much, but there's something nostalgically awesome about Prime pulling a trailer and I'd rather have it with the figure I'm putting $50+ down on then having it be an overpriced add-on from a "third party" company.

Honestly i wouldn't mind if Hasbro just abandoned G1 Op trailers altogether and focused on putting the whole budget into the cab.
I'm sorry I just don't agree with that take.
I have ER Prime and he's pretty much perfect IMO. I can't think of what would have been added to the figure if you took out the trailer.
Likewise SS '86 Optimus looks like a major accomplishment of engineering on his own, and I'm not sure what ditching the trailer would improve on it.

When the last two takes on G1 Optimus have been pretty great figures in their own right AND came with a trailer then I'm not sure the trailer is that much of a millstone.

It seems to me like you're projecting your frustrations with the decision to scale the "G1 Universe" Optimus with the ER trailer onto the trailer itself but it's a line of reasoning I'm not following. It's a recent-ish release of a Prime trailer, the most recent with the toy deco.
It makes sense that Hasbro's likewise retail release of a figure modelled after Optimus' G1 toy would be compatible. They'd even get flack if it wasn't.

Again, this is a figure that is trying to mimic the G1 toy- hence hollowness- and be priced for retail- hence plastic construction with no diecast. It's gonna feel light, and the size allows for more integration with existing product out there, which will- in theory- incentivize people to pick it up.

tl;dr? trailer slander isn't cool my guys, gals, and non-binary pals.
 

lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Nah man. I can see how you got there, but I am reacting to two separate things separately. The combination is indeed confusing, I agree, so let's not go there.

Legacy Op is small, I don't agree it was worth going for that to match this trailer, done. I agree they'd get flak if it didn't match it, but let's be real, they're getting flak now that it does because it results in a smaller Op than we could have apparently gotten.

Now the trailer itself, and the notion of pack-in G1 Op trailers below the more luxurious Commander price point (Commander seems like the, heh, optimal price point to get an effective cab and a trailer that checks all the boxes). And getting flak.

Like I said, I was fine with the ER trailer, it did the job well enough. Sure, no Roller, but it had the internal drone arm whatever guy, that's not bad.

But when Hasbro does go the extra mile to make a trailer just to complete the package, it gets subjected to enough budgetary compromises that the end result is going to be complained about (I mean, EVERYTHING is going to be complained about, this just inevitably becomes an easier target). It's too small. Not enough paint. Where's Roller. Why isn't it filled with money. For real I've had to put up with geniuses whining about why a Prime with trailer is a Leader class figure, as if the trailer were free to produce.

And ER Op is not a mold we've really seen sold on its own so it's hard to tell if it's a Voyager by itself with a big accessory (the Studio Series 2007/DOTM Op was sold as a Voyager solo), or the entire package is one budgeted bundle. But it's looking like the trailer just gets what's left of the budget and that's where all the cuts get made; it's not a millstone so much as... Leftovers? Leaving aside the trailer we might have gotten a bigger parts count for the cab Op, different proportions, no weird reused and glued Siege legs, accessories you didn't have to buy with a Selects figure, maybe some more height, and so on.

I don't mind what we got (I mostly shrug at it... It's just okay). I'm just tired of the thankless effort to produce something that's doomed to fall short of the mark anyway. As I alluded to, this was one of the things talked about with the Classics Op-- no trailer, trailer would have bumped it up a full size class, and so on. But a decade and a half later we're at a production economics point where even going up a size class results in a trailer that's pretty limited.

I'm just over it, I guess, especially since for space and storage it does become a millstone; if people can't live without one with all the bells and whistles, let them put their money where their mouth is.

(Tbh what I'm really sick of isn't trailers, it's fans complaining about trailers. Damn Scots fans, you ruined Scotland trailers.)
 

Badgertron

Well-known member
Citizen
It's just that, because of the smaller size, this figure doesn't really GO with anything else. Obviously they couldn't do a "G1" sized figure and then have a properly sized trailer for a Leader price point, and we're getting a SS86 Commander so that's out, so here's my potential compromise: Sell the trailer separately...with a (slightly simple) deluxe, transforming Roller. It's almost a titanmaster type of solution, and he can either ride inside it or pull the trailer himself if ppl decide not to get the Optimus.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
(Tbh what I'm really sick of isn't trailers, it's fans complaining about trailers. Damn Scots fans, you ruined Scotland trailers.)
It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't thing. One of my favourite wiki gags was the caption they tossed on the Hasbro release of the first MP Starscream; "The fandom rejoiced... and then complained."

I remember a lot of complaining back when Voyager Classics Prime came out because he didn't come with a trailer. People explained he'd have to be a Leader class if he did, and the people complaining insisted that they'd pay it.

Fast-forward to ER, and they release a Voyager-sized OP figure with more articulation and a more involved transformation than the Classics mould, with a trailer, plus a removable Matrix, and what do fans complain about? The trailer.
I promise you that once SS '86 OP gets more proliferation into the wild people will be snarking at the trailer too.

Fans want the trailer until they get it. Then it's a useless box that doesn't do anything.

Fact is that G1 Optimus' trailer was the least involved of the "Convoy" inspired trailer pieces that would become the norm in G1 in both the West and Japan. It's modelled after an IRL tractor trailer, so it's just a box. It has a repair bay inside. That's what it is. If anyone's asking for a G1 Prime-inspired figure to come with a trailer... that's what you're getting. ER, SS, any of the MPs... that trailer is what it is. Even the third party option for Classics Prime back in the day didn't do much, aside from that neat mirror trick that I'm pretty sure everyone who had it did once and never again.

This is less directed at you ofc- I think we're both annoyed by the same people and behaviour.
It's just that I'd rather keep the trailer and let the complaining fade into the background. 'cause I know that the complaining would still be there even if they stopped making trailers entirely.

It's just that, because of the smaller size, this figure doesn't really GO with anything else.
This doesn't annoy me so much because it's not like there's a line of anything for it to "go" with. It's not like Hasbro has their own dedicated "ML" style line of G1 designs with joints that this OP is out of scale with. He's kind of an oddball in the line, and so I'm fine with him at the size he is.
 

Undead Scottsman

Well-known member
Citizen
I feel like reducing everything down to a generic "fans say" then of course things are going to sound contradictory. The fandom is not a monolith: Some people want things to line up exactly how they were in G1, while others don't care about their Prime figure coming with a big box and just see it as an added expense.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
I feel like reducing everything down to a generic "fans say" then of course things are going to sound contradictory. The fandom is not a monolith: Some people want things to line up exactly how they were in G1, while others don't care about their Prime figure coming with a big box and just see it as an added expense.
True enough, but I've been in the fandom since I hoped on the internet looking for info about RiD '01, and I feel like I've been around long enough to notice general trends.

"Why doesn't Optimus come with a trailer?" was a pretty loud complaint during the Classics run.

"Why does Optimus come with this box that doesn't do anything?" was a pretty loud complaint during ER.

Does this mean it's the same people? No it doesn't, but I'd bet dollars to donuts there's more overlap than you'd think. There are people in this world, regardless of interests or hobbies, who love to complain.

Personally? I don't see the point to any of it. Classics came around when I didn't care about the trailer but by the time ER did I was starting to feel nostalgic for my G2 Prime and setting that thing up with my buddies. So short of giving me a voice box ER hit at the right time for me.

So maybe I got lucky in that all of these no trailer/yes trailer decisions by Hasbro lined up with my preferences at the time, or maybe I'm just an easy going guy. I donno, honestly.

In the here and now though, I'd rather the trailer be a thing than not. Again, I love ER Prime. And while SS '86 Prime isn't my personal cup of tea I can admire it for what it is and does. So I don't think we as fans are missing out by the trailer's inclusion.
If you want it, it's there. If not? Storage is a thing. Toss it in a drawer.
 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Have Hasbro buy DinoZaurs from Bandai (since Bandai is just sitting on that property doing nothing with it and letting it rot) and do a complete reboot of that series (with better writing) as part of the Transformers brand. Boom! A full cast of completely different characters from the norm but with that familiar Beast Wars-esque feel.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
Have Hasbro buy DinoZaurs from Bandai (since Bandai is just sitting on that property doing nothing with it and letting it rot) and do a complete reboot of that series (with better writing) as part of the Transformers brand. Boom! A full cast of completely different characters from the norm but with that familiar Beast Wars-esque feel.
Allosaurus is my favourite dinosaur and has been since I was a kid. I've been waiting YEARS of a Sentai/Power Rangers or Transformers robotic Allosaurus and it's been nothing but broken dreams so... YES PLEASE
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
Allosaurus is my favourite dinosaur and has been since I was a kid. I've been waiting YEARS of a Sentai/Power Rangers or Transformers robotic Allosaurus and it's been nothing but broken dreams so... YES PLEASE

 

Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Allosaurus is my favourite dinosaur and has been since I was a kid. I've been waiting YEARS of a Sentai/Power Rangers or Transformers robotic Allosaurus and it's been nothing but broken dreams so... YES PLEASE
Unfortunately, there was no Allosaurus featured in DinoZaurs either.
 

Superomegaprime

Wondering bot
Citizen
this is why we need to move away from g1. start fresh with a new leader.

That is VERY hard as Optimus prime & Megatron are two of the most iconic characters and taking them out, is not going to generate Hasbro or takara, money, but maybe having them be more advisory role or secondary characters in a show would work, maybe tell a story where Optimus is the surpeme commander and he cannot lead every mission but being the surpeme commander, he apoints another bot, say for example: Metalhawk to handle things, the war is raging on mutable fronts and say Earth is just one battlefield of many spread across the galaxy! While on the con side, Megatron in a similar procession, yet he also going to battlefields personally, at least the ones that interst him the most, while others could be handled by lower level officers, say Straxis for example and those officers have their own personal goals, thus the Decepticons could be a sort of allience of powerful dangerous bots, yet Megatron is deemed the most dangerous and powerful of them all with the characters of a leader to back it up, unlike say Starscream, who so obcessed with taking control of the Decepticons, if he achived his wish, the allience, falls apart as the other elite officers, such as Zarak or Deathsaurus, view him as a weak fool, and chose not to follow him, so the resources are limited to him!
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
Sadly no toy.

Unfortunately, there was no Allosaurus featured in DinoZaurs either.
You're right. I was confusing DinoZaurs with Dinosaucers
 

Cybersnark

Well-known member
Citizen
That is VERY hard as Optimus prime & Megatron are two of the most iconic characters and taking them out, is not going to generate Hasbro or takara, money,
I feel like at this point the kids and collectors-aimed toylines are distinct enough that Hasbro could probably get away with leaving them out of the kids' line for a year or two.

There'll always be a new G1-with-movable-fingers animation-model-accurate Optimus Prime on shelves; let Elita-1 or Springer or Metalhawk headline the cartoon.
 

Superomegaprime

Wondering bot
Citizen
I feel like at this point the kids and collectors-aimed toylines are distinct enough that Hasbro could probably get away with leaving them out of the kids' line for a year or two.

There'll always be a new G1-with-movable-fingers animation-model-accurate Optimus Prime on shelves; let Elita-1 or Springer or Metalhawk headline the cartoon.

With collectors line, sure, I honestly expect not to see many Optimus prime figures next year along with Megatron as we just had a major run of them late, espeically OP and the only OPs we'll see, will likely be repaints of existing figures or reissues, but moving away from them completely, impossible at this point, they tried to do that back in the 80s with the movie, killing off many characters, without truly realising that they were fan favourtes and Rodimus wasn't embraced that well at the time, thou fans have soften to him over time
 


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