Shattered Expectations

Following the Fan Fest event, earlier this month, and its revelation of Shattered Glass Blurr - the first in a special set of five Shattered Glass-themed repaints, each to be accompanied by one issue of an IDW limited series comic book - I was disappointed on a couple of levels.

First and foremost, they were repainting the new Studio Series mold... which, to me, looks like crap. Yes, the Shattered Glass version has a new, unique head sculpt... but it's based on the one BotCon/Fun Publications put together over ten years ago.

Which leads neatly into the second level of disappointment, in that it's not only a rip-off of the BotCon Shattered Glass concept, but it's a rip-off of the BotCon SG Blurr head sculpt and paint job, lightning bolts and all.

I could understand Hasbro picking up the Shattered Glass continuity, as it allows them to do something vaguely interesting with some existing molds... but to simply re-make a figure that already exists, using that character's latest mold is lazy. I'd wager that anyone interested in the Shattered Glass concept already has the BotCon 2008 boxed set, and probably at least some of the additional figures. Hell, even I have a handful of them - Megatron from the 2008 event, Galvatron from the 2011 event, Turbo Tracks from the 2012 event and the Subscription Service 5.0/Combiner Wars Starscream from 2017 (did have Rodimus and Jazz as well, but sold them last year) - but most of the figures, in terms of both the choice of character and their premium paint jobs, didn't interest me a great deal... And Hasbro's first offering in their Pulse-exclusive 'Collection' didn't either.

Today, they announced the second figure in the set: Shattered Glass Megatron... and I really don't know what to make of it. Let's break it down:

• It's another remake of a Shattered Glass figure that already exists.
• Its colourscheme is taken directly from the BotCon 2008 toy.
• It uses the Siege Megatron mold, which has already been repainted about a billion times.
• Siege Megatron looks like crap in both - unimaginative - modes.
• It has been noted by some that the head sculpt from Generations Selects Combat Megatron would have been a (marginally) better fit for this concept, since BotCon SG Megatron's unique head scupt was based on the erroneous artwork from the earliest Marvel comics... So they didn't even need to create a new, dedicated head sculpt for this figure, but still went with the ugly, bland original.
• The BotCon colourscheme applied to this mold looks terrible... as if they got bored and stopped halfway.
  
• They've Fanmoded it into an approximation of TF:Prime Megatron's vehicle mode by way of partsforming wings and cockpit/nose pieces. 
• Given all the above, I have a sinking feeling that all five of Hasbro's Pulse exclusive Shattered Glass figures will have been either part of the BotCon boxed set or the Convention Souvenir packs rather than characters new to the Shattered Glass continuity.
• Given that it comes packaged with both of the original version's weapons - the fusion cannon and the gun/sword thing - it looks like it should be able to transform into the original tank mode... but would that be an improvement? The front and rear tread sections will be different colours.
  
• It's priced at £35 in the UK, which is £10 more than a standard Voyager class toy.
• Admittedly, the additional parts and the exclusive IDW comic probably make up the price difference adequately.
• On the other hand, it's being sold at $37 in the US, which is approximately equivalent to just £26/27 at current exchange rates.

I've seen enough of Siege Megatron to know that I'd be disappointed by it, and the supposedly 'new' vehicle mode is tenuous at best... And yet part of me wants to preorder it. But would I still respect myself if I do?

Probably not.

I suppose I'll keep an eye out for the remaining three reveals but, just to put this out there, my predictions are:

• Optimus Prime - because, obviously. Siege mold, since they've already done a Shattered Glass Optimus Prime using the Earthrise mold.
  
• Goldbug - because Hasbro are fixated on Bumblebee. Either the Earthrise mold or the dreadful Buzzworthy version with a blue head. Theoretically, though, since SG Goldbug was based on the Galaxy Force Exillion/Cybertron Hot Shot mold, it could easily be a repaint of Sideswipe... On which subject:
• Sideswipe - because it's an obvious repaint of a mold they've already re-used to the point where new iterations are breaking almost as soon as they're removed from their packaging.
  
• Soundwave - hopefully they'd package him with at least one cassetticon... But Siege or Earthrise?
  
• Starscream - because they'll surely want to milk the Voyager class Seeker molds as much as possible. The only question is Siege or Earthrise?
  
• Ricochet - only because SG Jazz's paint job was barely different from the standard version. Studio Series mold.
• Grimlock - can't think of any other way they'll be able to make further use of the Studio Series mold.
• Rodimus - another obvious Studio Series repaint.
• Cyclonus - somewhat less likely, but an obvious repaint of the Kingdom mold.
• Galvatron - highly unlikely, I'd hope they do a G1 toy version of the Kingdom mold instead.
  

If any of the remaining three turn out to be new characters rather than any of these ten possibilities, I'll post an appropriately surprised apology.