Reflecting on 'Dark Portents'

A little over three years ago, I wrote an opinion piece - Dark Portents - reflecting of the TransFormers brand during Titans Return, just before the shift into Power of the Primes. It occurred to me to go back to that and consider how things actually transpired versus my dread pronouncements on the matter... and then opine a little further on what the future may bring.

Micromasters & Action Masters - In a way, I hit the nail on the head with this. Micromasters were touted as a significant part of War for Cybertron: Siege and Earthrise, though they seem to have been dropped from Kingdom in favour of Core class figures (including, stupidly, another Optimus Prime and smaller Fossilizers). Safe to say, one would hope, than Micromasters are not set to become "the sum total of the line".

Additionally, we have a new series of toys - the 'RED Series', being an acronym for 'Robot Enhanced Design', which feels somewhat shoehorned - which is basically Action Masters. However, where Action Masters were largely G1 characters, random robot designs and repaints of both, RED Series started with G1, but will add characters from other continuities as well... Not my thing, but perfect for those bizarre people who feel that a TransFormer need not transform. I have to say that both Cheetor and Arcee look decent enough (though Arcee's handlebars are absent from her elbows, it seems). I can see myself getting Arcee, just because she's a Femme-Bot and a reasonable representation of the CGI... But she needs a better paint job.

"The simplest thing for Hasbro to do about rising costs is to simply switch their size classes: eliminate Leader class and make Voyagers the new Leader class, Deluxes the new Voyager class and Legends the new Deluxe class." - I kind of wasn't wrong here... All of the so-called Leader class figures in Siege and Earthrise have been Voyager + Accessories... though I hadn't anticipated Commander class, or the continuation of Titan class. While Deluxe class has remained largely consistent - albeit a little smaller - Cliffjumper is undeniably a smaller size class bumped up by accessories. With the engineering improvements introduced in recent years, that's not necessarily all bad... but it's certainly a shame than the first unique mold for Cliffjumper doesn't match up better with Classics Bumblebee, even if he is a nigh-perfect fit with Titans Return Cosmos and Brawn, and the Generations version of Swerve, Tailgate and Windcharger.

So, with a whole bunch of new images out today for upcoming Kingdom toys, following some images - and video reviews - of Studio Series figures based on the 1986 animated movie. I am, in equal measure, intrigued and frustrated by the crossovers. Cyclonus is a Voyager class figure in Kingdom, but Hot Rod, Kup and Scourge are going to be part of Studio Series. That just looks like bad planning. But then, Galvatron features on the Earthrise packaging, but there's no sign yet of a toy. Baffling as Earthrise is, its stupidity will be entirely eclipsed by a toyline that includes renditions of Beast Wars characters (some of which put the Masterpiece line to shame) and new versions of both Cyclonus and Warpath, neither of which look to be significantly better than the Deluxe class Classics/Generations versions released in 2009 and 2011 respectively. The former looks utterly terrible, but has clearly taken some design cues from the Masterpiece scale Third Party versions, while the latter is pitched very much more to those who want everything to look as much like the Generation 1 cartoon as possible.

I'm very impressed with the early photos of Kingdom's Megatron and Optimus Primal, with the former's robot mode backpack being a concern. Primal in particular has a decent, well-articulated beast mode and gorgeous sculpted fur. They've even incorporated the concealed guns in his forearms, with release buttons on the opposite sides. The only question I have is that, since I have the original Kenner Optimus Primal/Black Jack and Megatron, as well as the reworked Beast Wars Reborn set, do I really need updated renditions of these two iconic characters? Guess I'll have to wait for some reviews...

While I eventually got on board with the Weaponiser idea from Siege, the Fossilizers from Kingdom just look daft to me... Which is a little strange considering how much I want a set of half a dozen of Boss Fight Studios' skeleton warriors so I can create a homage to Ray Harryhausen's stop motion skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts. Beast Wars made sense once the TV show gave it some context, but dinosaur skeletons that transform into robots? And also split up to form weapons for the other robots? This is Age of Extinction/The Last Knight-tier bollocks.

Plus, the artwork revealed recently apparently features characters who won't appear in the Kingdom toyline... but that gaffe should come as no surprise, really, considering the Earthrise artwork featured the old, Generations Trailbreaker rather than the new version and hinted at Galvatron... Still, if we're not getting a new Polar Claw, what does this mean for Gears, Huffer, Tracks, Waspinator, Airazor, Dinobot, Rhinox and Scorponok, all of whom feature in some of the artwork? Admittedly, Waspinator and Rhinox look suspiciously like their Generations toys. Galvatron featuring in Kingdom's artwork may well be as meaningless as his appearance in that of Earthrise. Galvatron is apparently slated to be one of the Leader class figures, so that could prove interesting considering the number of Third Party options already made.

The trailer for the second chapter of the Netflix series looks ridiculous, since it's supposed to be Earthrise (isn't it???), yet appears to feature Megatron and the Decepticons still on a dying Cybertron and the Autobots... lost in space, and running into a team of mercenaries led by Doubledealer (sporting a faction symbol not used on his toy, and a head that looks nothing like his Earthrise toy). I'll probably force myself to watch it, if only to report on how terrible it is. (Addendum - took another look at the trailer, and noticed that it features Exhaust as part of Doubledealer's crew... but they gave him Wheeljack's head with red eyes.The also cheaped out by using the Coneheads in their Cybertronian forms, allowing all to have identical vehicle modes rather than the unique wing structures of the toys)

The stop-motion ad for the Top Gun crossover, Maverick, revealed an interesting transformation - very Macross, and so quite reminiscent of the G1 Jetfire toy - but the plastic and the 'weathering' print both look awful. With improvements to those two factors, and a better head sculpt, it could almost be an update to one of the G2 Cyberjets. As it stands, it's not looking any better now than it did in the initial reveal photos. Weirdly, some people claiming to be former military are saying that real F-14s on deployment, particularly on aircraft carriers, end up looking like that... but I suspect whatever weathering they develop, it's not as speckly as the print on these toys, and the colour is not a weird midpoint between a shit-brown and an unhealthy green.

But perhaps worse than this is the revealed prototype for the third Masterpiece Starscream, with its new, cartoon-homage aesthetic. I've said before that I'm a huge fan of the original, with its convincing jet mode (even if the colours are a bit wrong) that even looks OK from the bottom. The reworked version reduced the accuracy of the underside for a more 'toon-style robot mode, but this new version leaves me cold. Granted, it appears to have an impressive, intricate and innovative transformation (the weapons look like they transform, too!), but the underside of jet mode shows just how much of it has been utterly faked - jet mode's entire nose and cockpit will seemingly vanish into the body, while the fake cockpit on the robot's chest is covered over in jet mode... The puffy turbine sections remain perfectly visible on either side, but no longer have the turbine detail that looked so good on the earlier MP Seekers. I can imagine some folks complaining that jet mode is now too detailed, and will need to be toned-down substantially for better 'toon accuracy. Still, given the cost of Masterpiece figures, I'm glad I can cross them off my list... I like my robots to look like robots, not piss-poor cartoons.

Still, as my girlfriend pointed out, I should probably be thanking Hasbro/Takara Tomy for saving me an awful lot of money over the coming months... if not years.