New York Toy Fair 2020 - Some thoughts... (plus addendum 2/3/20)

This year's New York Toy Fair gave us all some pretty stunning reveals of upcoming toys in all the current lines... Though not all stunning in a good way.

Now, I've said before that my interest in the War for Cybertron Trilogy is limited - some of the individual toys look as though they'll be great for my Classics/Ongoing shelf, but the boxy, unimaginative Cybertronian vehicle modes have largely been a disappointment. Earthrise was sadly all to predictable a concept, but the execution is surpassing my low expectations in both directions simultaneously.

Starting with the bad, that Allicon might be a nice idea, but the execution is terrible - beast arms hanging off the robot's elbows, while the robot's entire arms are fully visible and literally just bent backward for beast mode? And the robot's chest and head are simply concealed by Allicon shell pieces that fold down onto his back? Pretty sure we got beyond that level of 'engineering' years ago... They might have been better off retooling the Power of the Primes Blot mold, since they're broadly similar sorts of 'beasts'. Megatron appears to be functionally identical to the Siege version, just with a new paintjob and a new 'sword'/tank cannon accessory, which looks awful. Not a fan of the original, personally, and no need for me to get this one either.

A new Arcee should be something to celebrate - G1's most prominent Femme-Bot now appearing in almost every G1-centric toyline - but the Earthrise version is a step backward from the Generations toy. Where the previous version had minimal crossover between robot and vehicle parts (the chest forming the front of the car, the thighs forming the rear wings and incorporating the rear wheels) this one is just an action figure attached to the underside of a car shell, which folds up on her back... and there's a part that can be detached to form what they're calling a 'sled'. That's just lazy.

The new Smokescreen looks OK, if you like the cartoon aesthetic of the head (I don't), though the hollow feet are a bit glaring, and we've only just had the Cybertronian versions of Prowl/Bluestreak/Smokescreen/Barricade, so do we really need their replacements so soon? Then Snapdragon, who certainly looks like more of an improvement on the G1 toy than Siege Apeface is, but could easily be ruined if they use the same KO-quality 'white' plastic... I have - and love - the goofy G1 toy, but I can't see myself picking up the new one, especially because of the weird way they've dealt with the dual-purpose HeadMaster. Airwave is the next mini-base bot, similar to Ironworks... and, for me, just as forgettable. Weaponisers like Sixgun and Brunt make sense and largely seem to work well... Even Ironworks looks alright, but I don't really have a place in my collection for a Deluxe class base-bot... As well as splitting up to become weapons and armour for other figures, Airwave turns into a gun emplacement and two different forms of platform... and that doesn't spark much interest from me.

On the upside, Scorponok and Sky Lynx both look awesome and huge. The latter in particular has an excellent, detailed - and fairly accurate - Space Shuttle form with a reasonable paint job... and I love that they've named the shuttle 'Magnificence', because it speaks for Sky Lynx's ego that he would never choose something mundane or pedestrian as 'Atlantis', 'Challenger', 'Columbia', 'Discovery', 'Enterprise' or 'Endeavour'. Also impressive that they've not removed the opening cargo bay doors feature or the sculpted payload (though it's not chromed, obviously), and have seemingly improved the articulation of the neck and tail, as well as recentring the shuttle on its carrier so Sky Lynx's neck comes out of a more natural postion for his space-dragon-thing.

My only gripe with Scorponok is that the extra features of the G1 base mode - like the lift platform and repair arms - have not been included in this update. I like that they've made him much the same size as Fortress Maximus (the G1 toy having been not much more than half the size of G1 Maximus) and given him the same double-HeadMaster treatment to fully balance the pair for anyone with the money and space to own both. Fasttrack being a separately-available, Deluxe class Weaponiser was predictable, and I was intrigued to learn that he can turn into some sort of staff for Scorponok. Shades of Black Zarak, perhaps?

Doubledealer and the Quintesson figures look good, though I'm not sure I'd buy either... and I'm a huge fan of G1 Doubledealer. That he's not a 'proper' Powermaster is unfortunate, but a symptom of the toyline he's been created for... and his two partners, Knok and Skar, are coming out as part of a special Generations Selects 4-pack, also including repaints of Rumble and Ratbat as Frenzy and Wing Thing, respectively. It's a fair compromise, as long as that 4-pack isn't some sort of ridiculously exclusive release. I'm also intrigued by the new, Wheeljack-based Runamuck figure - looks decent in and of itself, though I can see it being retooled/repainted into Sunstreaker as well as Runabout. Fingers crossed they all get unique vehicle mode parts, at least.*

Aside from the new figures, the only big surprise was... re-releases of Siege figures with Netflix series-inspired paint jobs, and here I feel somewhat vindicated for my opinion that Hasbro hadn't though the toyline through properly from the start. Siege toys were released throughout 2019 with 'battle damage' paint applications over boring G1-inspired plastic colours, and with no real connection to the IDW comics series that was rebooted specifically to tie in with the toyline. Now we've had a trailer for the upcoming Netflix series (which looks interesting, so I may give it a watch), those same toys are going to be re-released to match their look in the TV show... and there are already positive influences visible in the first handful. Mirage is a Decepticon (though it's been said that's just a disguise rather than an interesting reference to his G1 personality), and everyone looks faded, weathered and old rather than just splotched with silver... I'd wonder how many people are actually going to buy these new versions of toys they probably already have, but I suspect that's something of a foregone conclusion - the only real question is whether they keep the original Siege figures or try to sell them on to soften the blow to their wallets.

There's also been some news about vendor listings for a so-called 'Alternate Universe' Optimus Prime... which, on the one hand, is a case of "do we really need yet another Optimus Prime?" and, on the other, presents quite a few intriguing possibilities. Siege gave us a Galaxy Force crossover... is this going to be another reworking of that, or will it be a new version of RiD/Car Robots Optimus Prime to go with the RiD/CR-inspired Siege Ultra Magnus, or an Optimus from another different continuity?

Naturally, on the Studio Series side, the soon-to-be-completed RotF Devastator was pretty much the centrepiece and looks fantastic. I honestly wish I had the money and the space to complete the set and display Devastator, and part of me is hoping for a special re-release of the full set in one enormous boxed set at some point in the future (maybe an SDCC version with an improved paintjob to follow up on their Combiner Wars Devastator set from a few years ago). Even the final two components, Overload and Scavenger, look great in their independent forms, the former being particularly monstrous.

However, since we've been seeing parts of him since October 2018, even Devastator's thunder is somewhat stolen by the likes of Blitzwing (finally!), Sentinel Prime and... Bumblebee movie Cybertronian Cliffjumper? I mean, sure, that guarantees a Bumblebee repaint, but it's an intriguing addition to the line, and very much something I'd like to acquire. Less interesting are the second Wrecker, Topspin (who will become vastly more interesting if Leadfoot comes along as well, to complete the set), Skipjack (a yellow repaint of Rampage) and... for no conceivable reason, Revenge of the Fallen (AKA Satellite Mode) Soundwave, who's a prime example of robo-yoga substituting for a decent alternate mode.

Cyberverse continues to be very much not my thing, though its interpretation of Arcee looks leagues better than the Earthrise version in robot mode, while her vehicle form is a little janky. Hot Rod looks... OK... just with a very lacking paint job, particularly for his vehicle mode, which doesn't even have the flame pattern from the robot's chest (neatly confirming a cheated transformation). A new version of Starscream looks suspiciously like Konami flagship Vic Viper, so I may end up getting that as much for his jet mode as for the robot, which is fairly typical Cyberverse - stylised, gimmicky and cheap-looking.

All of which adds up to a really mixed bag... The main positive, for me, is that I probably won't be missing much as far as this year's output is concerned. That's kind of a relief, but also rather sad... And I really hope that whatever comes after War for Cybertron is something special.

* Addendum 2/3/20: I called it! Now, whilst I utterly loathe the cartoon style head they've saddled Sunstreaker with, I quite like the rest of the figure and I can see myself buying him as the old Classics figure never really worked as well as Sunstreaker as it did as Sideswipe. What'll really clinch it is if Hasbro release an Earthrise Sideswipe with the same vehicle mode but the Siege-style transformation. Now, it remains to be seen if Runabout gets unique vehicle parts or if Hasbro feel that the Countach-referencing design of Sunstreaker is an adequate fit for the Lotus Turbo Esprit that G1 Runabout transformed into.