Fit For Natalie

I say give up and wait for Movie 2 Starscream. Assuming it stays on course for the 2009 release date, we'll have new toys by May next year.

They're probably doing an Ultra class G1 Galvatron for Universe anyway. As for Armada Megatron, I think him not particularly looking like anybody was kind of the point of his design. You gotta let the designers design with their own imagination, rather than merely paying homage to something somebody else did in the past, or we'll never get anything new I really like Armada Megatron because of all of his (relatively unobtrusive) gimmicks and his generally mean appearance. He just needed hip and knee articulation and he'd have been perfect. I'm the opposite, I often put characterisation into purchasing decisions, and since Armada Starscream was the superior character, I prefer him to his Energon body. Energon Starscream was just a characterless zombie yes-man because Takara and their writers just didn't care.

If they were to do non-G1 toys, I'd like to see an all-new Beast Wars Dinobot. Because Dinobot is awesome. But his toys suck. I'd also like to see new, articulated toys for Armada Megatron and Starscream.

I'm looking forward to Prowl, since it's been awhile since we've had A decent Prowl toy, or any Prowl really (which is odd given that a few years ago Hasbro seemingly released some sort of Prowl once every few months, but haven't in a long time). Ahh, trademarks. I should point out that Universe 2 isn't strictly G1. Theoretically, Hasbro can make new toys of other series characters for this line, which was probably why they used the catch-all 'Universe' name.

Dudes, dudes, dudes - who cares if it's plausible or not? It's Science Fiction. Anything and everything ever done in scifi is Because It Looks Cool.

I'm kind of dissapointed that they seem to be dropping rub signs for Universe, though Takara have done away with them as well for their version of Classics. Part of me would like to see them retool Sunstreaker in the future as a Headmaster, following IDW's Devastation plotline.

One thing Alts had going against it is sheer complication of the transformation. They're just not very fun to transform, or (SHOCK) to play with. I like to play with my toys, goddammit. Sunstreaker turned out quite close to the real car, though the roof has this weird ruffled effect on it that some wags have described as Sunstreaker having a potato chip on his chest (I don't know the real car very well). You were right about the transformation sequence though, the toy was designed with the Sideswipe transformation, then they figured out the Sunstreaker transformation (or mildly reworked the design to make it capable) afterwards.

They'll probably get around to Warpath sooner or later. They just got the name back.

Part of the problem with designing these things was to do it in a way that would appeal to the car manufacturers whom they hoped would give them the license, and that inevitably meant doing hood-chest designs because that shows off the car the most in robot mode, and generally compromises the car mode with seams the least (Tracks was the second design done, but was initially rejected by GM because of the seam down the middle of the hood). Back to Universe, part of me wishes that, as a kind of joke, Hasbro swapped the colours and names of the brothers around in Universe so that Sunstreaker is the guy with the hood chest, and Sideswipe is the guy with the roof chest, as originally intended in G1.

You would sooner get a non-combining Aerialbot as an F-14 than some dude from the japanese continuities. Sunstreaker is alright. Leg transformation is abit obviously based on Alternators Mirage, though. I prefer new ideas in design, or at the very least new ways of doing old things. Like Alternators Mirage - a breath of fresh air.

Eh. I find things like Animated toys to be more impressive engineering feats because of how stylised the designs are - one needs to get the toy in person to figure out how it transforms. Alternators are mainly elaborations of classic Transformers designs with increased size and budgeting allowing for interiors and increased detailing.

Guys, I really advise you to not get too excited at this news until we get more concrete evidence, given the text isn't even about Transformers OR Grimlock. I found Alternators to be supremely boring, then again, I find most collector toys to be boring because they exist to be put on shelves, and little else.

It actually doesn't say that. The text is apparently about Gundam 00 model kit prototypes. See here. I'm inclined to think this is Grimlock news a hoax until proven otherwise.

One thing to consider is that given Japan only ever had the G1 cartoon continuity as their Transformers for a long time, Grimlock isn't as popular there as he is in Hasbro's markets (with the Marvel comics to give Grimlock a more serious, credible characterisation). Hasbro themselves said at Botcon 2006 that if they were to do another Masterpiece toy, they wanted to do Grimlock (but at the time there were no plans). So IF this is true, this might be another Hasbro-initiated project, because TakaraTomy (with their more limited market) are forced to stick to what's popular in Japan TF for collector stuff. Problem is chrome robot parts aren't accurate. Prime's truck parts are chrome, but the robot parts are silver, unpolished metal (kinda dirty and beat up looking, actually). Best one could hope for is painted silver parts on some of the robot bits, like on Hasbro's.

I worded it badly and out of the blue, then, sorry. I mentioned you specifically because you're the truck guy here, and you've probably commented more upon it (even if it was in the distant past) than anybody else because you have experience with the real trucks. I consider whomever owned the truck Prime scanned in the movie fiction probably didn't use it for hauling stuff. It looks like one of those ridiculously decked-out trucks you see at shows with dragons or eagles on them.

It was sort of in response to your chrome comment above, and I was talking to somebody about the truck at Botcon and it hit me, and I recall you said in one of the earlier TF threads that the truck would be (in real life) considered ricery and ridiculous. I personally think it's beautiful, the deep metallic reds and blues on the back half, the way the hood fades from gold to orange to red, and all of that polished chrome. I normally hate ricer type paint jobs, but this is (so far) the only one I endorse. Judging by First Strike Optimus Prime, the truck looks kind of boring in G1 Prime type colours. I've not imported TFs from Japan in over a year, but IF TakaraTomy's Premium Prime has chrome, I gotta get it. I must. Sorry if my comment seemed weird.

A quick observation - the turbine looking things inside the bussard collectors are likely the mechanism that makes the collectors spin, just like they did on the original Enterprise model. Yeah, they're using the TMP-era style font and aztec hull plating. Really, fans can't expect them to have a carbon copy of TOS Enterprise on a movie screen, can they? Even the TOS Defiant on Enterprise and the TOS Enterprise on Star Trek remastered look, well, cheesy by the standards of today's visual effects because of the design and asthetic limitations.

I don't care what David says - I think the Prime truck is beautiful, and I regret the fact that nobody at Botcon 2007 had the presence of mind to get Peter Cullen to sit inside it for photographs. As sh002 said, Takara are doing releases according to their movie counterparts, so Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Ratchet, Ironhide, Bumblebee and Soundwave (one of Blackout's initial names was Soundwave). Sky Lynx and Omega Supreme are 'special' reissues as they've never been released there under the Transformers brand. It's fan-made. Not official.

As reported elsewhere, the Enterprise exterior will apparently be fairly similar to the class TOS ship, but the interiors will apparently be completely different, which is reasonable. Since, after all, the TOS interiors were made for a low-budget 1960s vision of what the future looked like. Star Trek needed a new perspective, too. Unfortunately, Star Trek had been under Roddenberry 2 (Rick Berman)'s dominion since 1990, and when you have an executive producer who likes to play it safe*, you're going to run out of stories to tell. *He got into lots of arguments with Ira Steven Behr and Ronald D. Moore over the Dominion War, and wanted it over in 2-3 episodes so they can go back to... I dunno, doing more madcap Ferengi comedy episodes. Now with 20% extra ZANY!

Other news from http://www.fantofan.jp - Bumblebee/Minibots reissue set - Japanese Classics - Japanese Leader Class Optimus Prime Battle Mode (Premium) appears to have CHROME PARTS! Bear in mind this may be a prototype so it might end up being the same as Hasbro's. Either way, keep watching and keep your options open for this better version if it eventuates.

Early pics were of hand-painted prototypes (usually box photos). These are stock photos of the production toys they use for their own websites.

Premium Leader Class Movie Prime. For David's benefit, I consulted with Josh and we've determined the following parts have been painted silver from these bad photos at this angle. Truck mode: - grill, bumper and lights - air filters - that erm... shade thing over the windscreen - the wheels - the fuel tank/toy battery cover Robot mode: - the crotch - the thighs - the stomach grill (maybe) Mold changes: new sword, new head.

Yeah, I know. I do not believe Don has a much of a hand in the design process in the same way the Hasbro designers do, in that he doesn't have that much of a say after submitting his detailed concepts to them. Marcelo Matare has been doing much of the same thing for Hasbro, too. Don designed a few Universe Classics toys recently, but I think he's had his fill of Transformers for awhile.

Don Figueroa or Guido Guidi's G1 designs are far superior for toy making. Especially Don's, as he actually draws TFs that are meant to transform. I strongly suspect Kaiyado (or whatever they are called) used Pat Lee's style because they sculpted the TF Revoltechs back in 2004. There's a Pat Lee-style Grand Convoy/Energon Prime Revoltech that they also sculpted, that particular toy will probably never see the light of day, now.

It's pretty accurate, even has the hiroglyphics on the sides of the tip. They probably didn't make the tipe as large for storage. Pic from the TF wiki The sword in the movie comes out and retracts as normal metal, but glows bright orange with energy. The photo of Premium Prime in Previews suggests more paint will be on the final version. I guess they don't think it's worth the time and have better things to do. It's quite possible the central photo center isn't located in the same building, as well, ie, they farmed out photography to a studio somewhere. Or they don't really care, which is just as likely Buy a GUN RACK!