Is Generation 1 Stifling The TransFormers Brand?

Just another little opinion piece, since I'm currently both struggling to work on any actual toy posts (the most recent Femme-Bot Friday having been completed about a month ago and scheduled to go live when it did), and a little grumpy due to being unwell. This is something that has been on my mind for quite a while, and which I've touched on obliquely in my complaints about the toys from Siege, the first chapter of the new War for Cybertron trilogy. Specifically:

Is the current laser focus on releasing new and improved versions of toys based on Generation 1 characters ultimately detrimental to the TransFormers brand?

Energon Treadbolt

(Femme-Bot Friday #66)

A few years ago, a good friend of mine developed a habit of buying almost anything with TransFormers branding and gleefully presenting it to me at the earliest opportunity. She also really loved visiting charity shops so, when she happened upon a TransFormers Energon toy sitting all alone and virtually complete, she snatched it up at a knock-down price and handed it over the next day.

Being based on a poorly-regarded Armada mold, Treadbolt isn't a toy I would have bought myself, but was more than happy to receive as a gift, particularly since the only thing missing was the missile for the Mini-Con activated missile launcher in the robot's side - even the collectors' card was included.

Funnily enough, it was only a couple of years ago that I discovered Treadbolt is actually a Femme-Bot, which naturally made her vastly more interesting, not least because she's a repaint of the Constructicon-themed Autobot Armada Scavenger, and essentially uses the G2/European Constructicon colourscheme.

Studio Series #14 Ironhide

Of all the Autobots from the live action movie, I'd say Ironhide got the worst deal in terms of his toy representations. The first Voyager class toy was a decent enough toy for the time, but totally inaccurate to the CGI, overburdened with poorly executed weapons, and was reused and repainted until the third movie's toyline... even though the character was unceremoniously killed off at that point. Dark of the Moon's Voyager class Ironhide was better than the first, but still not quite right, not least due to its weird proportions and bizarre arm jointing, and its Mechtech weapon was a bit silly.

Sure, there were toys in other scales - including the deeply flawed Leader class version which seemed to be presented as the character's swan song - but none really captured the junkpile look of Ironhide, or accurately represented the squat, heavy-set look of the CGI... and, due to his death in DotM, he's been absent from the movie toylines since about 2011.

Cue Studio Series, with it's impressive reworkings of a number of movie characters... and quite possibly the most screen-accurate interpretation of Ironhide outside the Masterpiece line...

Hunt for the Decepticons Tomahawk

I don't know what it was about the live action movies, but they led to a greater variety of attempts at turning helicopters into robots. Where toys that came before (and since) tended to follow a certain pattern that invariably led to large chunks of tail or cockpit just hanging off the robots' backs, the movie lines brought us the likes of Evac and Skyhammer (and, admittedly, the original Blackout, who followed the traditional pattern).

But where those were clearly of the movie aesthetic, Tomahawk occupied a strange middle-ground - sold as part of the extended RotF toyline, but closer to the more fanciful, sci-fi look of Classics/Generations and, like Skyhammer, made to accommodate the c-clip weapon accessories that debuted in that line.

Binaltech BT02 Lambor

OK, here's where Binaltech gets a little confusing. It seems that, when Takara first approached Lamborghini with the concept of the line, their application for a license was flatly rejected... They had similar responses from several vehicle manufacturers, and were working with the Dodge Viper as an alternative to the Corvette Z06 for Tracks. Somewhere along the lines, GM changed their mind, so Tracks got pushed back in the schedule to accommodate the ideal vehicle mode, and so the Dodge Viper alternate mode was repurposed as Sideswipe - or Lambor, as he's known in Japan.

Of course, he was called 'Lambor' because that was short for Lamborghini... only now he's something else entirely...

Keith's Fantasy Club Sting Thing

(Femme-Bot Friday #65)

Following the example of their first year, TFNation 2018 didn't have its own convention exclusive toy, as such. Instead, it had a small selection of 'show exclusive' figures available via vendors, and one such figure was the KFC/Big Tin Robot & Sid's Toys Sting Thing, a repaint of 2016's Scorpinator, again made available first at an overseas convention with the remainder appearing at TFNation 'exclusively', before being made available online.

When I wrote about TFNation 2018, I noted that I wasn't going to bother with this - the original is OK, but feels a little fragile and isn't really a 'must have' unless you're obsessed with having a complete collection of TransFormers microcassettes - until I read the bio and found out that Sting Thing is a Femme-Bot.

Not only am I all for Femme-Bots generally, but I'm particularly keen on the non-traditional variety, that aren't designed to resemble sexy humanoid females... So, here we go again...