The Crushing Ennui of Modern TransFormers Collecting (w/ Addendum 28/9/21)

OK, perhaps that's a little dramatic, but the dearth of activity on this blog over most of a couple of months basically comes down to a fundamental loss of impetus due to a number of factors.

First and foremost, the War for Cybertron Trilogy has been a massive disappointment in my opinion. Not just in and of itself, considering how few of the toys I've bothered to purchase, but in what it represents. Not only had Hasbro already devoted the preceding decade to remaking G1 over and over again, literally re-treading the same ground, just with a different gimmick each time, but they then chose to take yet another crack at it with War for Cybertron and then failed to keep to their original plan for the line. Dunno about anyone else, but it gave me the impression they never really had a plan other than "Quick! We need more G1! But different! Only not too different!"

A Missed Marketing Opportunity

Just a short, silly thing from a few days ago...

While I was working on the Kingdom Huffer write-up, my girlfriend bought me a bottle of Irn Bru from one of the local shops and, seeing the two together, observed that they could be related:

It's no Pepsi Optimus Prime, but it's a decent alternative

War for Cybertron Trilogy Centurion Drone

Something I wasn't aware of when I wrote about Brunt was that his design had been based on the Centurion droids from the IDW comics, as a massive improvement on the crummy, seemingly Fantasy-influenced design of the green, dome-headed droids from the G1 cartoon. It seemed only logical, then, that a repaint should be in the works, since the figure seemed to be very much geared toward those who like to build armies of identical figures, like the Vehicons from TransFormers Prime.

Leave it to Hasbro, then, to re-release the figure only as part of a limited edition boxed set, along with a set of accessories missing from their individual toys. And, typically, it was long sold out by the time Hasbro Pulse reached the UK.

Since Brunt was - for my money - about the best toy in the entire Siege line, I was keen to get hold of the repaint, even if troop-building was out of the question (had been desirable to me in the first place, which it... wasn't... honest). The set was re-released by Takara Tomy earlier this year, but that set was equally hard to find. Thankfully, the repaint figure was the only part of the boxed set that I wanted, so I figured it was only a matter of time before someone put it up on eBay having bought the set for the accessories. Back over the summer, that's exactly what happened, so I snapped him up.

Thirteenth Anniversary

While, once again, I've not bought a great deal of new stuff since last year, it's not been as easy to pin down a Top Ten because, frankly, the official merchandise has been largely disappointing to one degree or another. According to the numbers, I have bought more than last time - both official and Third Party (12 and 4 figures, respectively) - but only because of the three I held over from last year. In a lot of ways, I'd have felt better at doing a Top Five and some honourable mentions... What's happened here is perhaps predictable, but sad nonetheless.

A good chunk of the problem is that the whole War for Cybertron Trilogy, with the surprising exception of a couple of Weaponisers, has been a complete waste of time for me. This appears to be true for many others as well, considering how quickly people seem to be reselling some of these toys! I first got into the franchise via G1, back in 1984, at around ten years of age. I've now been an adult TransFormers collector far longer than I was a collector as a child, and we've now had about a decade and a half of G1 reboots taking centre stage. I'm more than a little fed up of Hasbro producing the same thing over and over again.

At this rate, Third Parties would be set to become the only good thing about being a TransFormers collector, except many of those have been frightened off producing direct analogues due to the much-publicised raids on various Chinese knockoff-makers and the arrest/incarceration of toy-modding genius Black Apple. Still others have been put off by the vitriolic 'fandom' response to their products. Meanwhile, much the fandom is intent on convincing themselves that the QC issues and the overall decline in build quality are minor. In response to a Facebook post about the so-called Studio Series '86 Coronation Starscream - a Leader class package made out of the Voyager class Earthrise Starscream and some accessories - I suggested this approach was "a little insulting" and, while a handful agreed that Hasbro might have at least remolded a few parts to make it a bit more 'toon-like, others got defensive - there was one comment along the lines of "you act like they're forcing you to buy it"... which is kind of misses the point while somehow also being the exact opposite of the case.

But I digress. Let's get into it...

War for Cybertron: Kingdom Huffer

Most of my earliest TransFormers toys, back when the toyline first launched in the mid-1980s, were Mini Autobots bought with pocket money. I have a clear recollection of buying Cliffjumper first, then Windcharger, and then I'm pretty certain my third Autobot purchase was Huffer, because I found his Budiansky-authored character bio utterly delightful (what can I say, I was a weird and occasionally somewhat grumpy kid!).

So when Huffer was revealed as one of the new Mini Autobot recreations coming out in the Kingdom line, I was initially very much on board. After all, while WfC's new Deluxes tended to be on the small size, and Earthrise Cliffjumper is almost a perfect match for Scout class Reveal the Shield/TF United Windcharger, even if he does compare less favourably with the Legends class Mini Autobots from RtS or the Prime Wars Trilogy.

When the toy was actually revealed, however, I initially decided not to bother after all. Hasbro had essentially taken the engineering from an existing Third Party figure and cut it down to the bare bones, leaving the lower legs hollow and awkward flaps of plastic for feet, then sought to achieve the desired pricepoint by throwing in unnecessary accessories - specifically a riot shield and a shotgun. These were better suited to the concept of Siege than Earthrise and, even then, more appropriate to one of the few Autobot warriors than to a character who was - in the original G1, at least - a Construction Engineer. All of this turned Kingdom Huffer into an easy pass...

...Until I found myself with a £10 voucher which could be used at The Entertainer, amongst other stores. Lacking any other, more constructive use for such a voucher for the time being, I reluctantly spent it on acquiring what had appeared to be a fairly lacklustre figure. Could Kingdom Huffer turn out to be a pleasant surprise..?

Hasbro Pulse/Shattered Glass: OK, I Honestly Didn't See THAT Coming...

The final figure in the Hasbro Pulse Shattered Glass 'Capsule Programme' has been revealed (by leaked images) as Jetfire... This presents two genuine surprises.

Neither should be surprises, all things considered, but I have to admit that I didn't see either coming and, even if I'd expected the first, the second would still have been unexpected.

The first surprise, then, was that they'd repainted a Commander class figure. The reason it was a surprise is that these figure are pretty huge, and the idea that they'd turn one into what's ostensibly a limited edition figure seems like more of a risk than I'd have thought Hasbro would be comfortable with. The reason it shouldn't have been a surprise is that Hasbro tends not to make a mold if they're not planning on releasing at least one repaint, and there aren't exactly abundant options with Jetfire. The Classics Jetfire mold may only have been repainted as the random and nondescript Universe Treadbolt by Hasbro, but it was also used by Takara Tomy to create Dark Skyfire, and for BotCon Dreadwind. 

The second surprise is the colourscheme because, where SG Starscream took on the colourscheme of G1 Jetfire, SG Jetfire has just been giving a bland, mostly black paint job with a few highlights in silver/gunmetal, purple and green. Essentially a colourscheme somewhere between Siege Skywarp and Hotlink, but with a lot more black. This was a surprise because a lot of fans - myself included - would have predicted a Jetfire in Starscream's colourscheme. Shattered Glass wasn't all straight colour-swaps between analogous characters on either side, but it would have made sense in this case. Of course, the reason it shouldn't have been surprise was that it's basically a rip-off of the Takara Tomy Dark Skyfire figure, which had been officially repurposed as SG Jetfire in BotCon 2012's follow-up story, Invasion.

Still, assuming a Commader class figure was always on the cards, a repaint of Rodimus Prime would have been more logical... if a little predictable... making for a bit of a no-win situation for Hasbro, in my opinion. Do the predictable thing and people are disappointed by the lack of originality. Do the unexpected and people are disappointed that it's not unexpected enough.

So... Touché, Hasbro - you've done something somewhat unexpected... I hope you're proud of yourselves for defying my predictions.

...But your whole take on Shattered Glass in its entirety is still a bit rubbish, and you'd have been far better off creating figures of characters not featured in the BotCon comic book... Or featured in the comic book but not appearing as BotCon exclusive toys. Straight remakes - most of which are fundamentally inferior to the originals - are both disappointing and dull and, given the premium prices you've been charging due to their exclusivity (be it real or just perceived), just not worth the money.

Here's hoping your next 'Capsule Progamme' does something a little better.