We at TFW2005 have decided to set up what we think will be a fun little activity for the community to participate in – monthly polls! These will mostly relate to recent events and will be open for the entire month before the poll is closed and a new one is moved onto. Results will be shared in each subsequent news post.
With that out of the way, let’s get to it. The first poll’s topic was a pretty easy one to choose – Titans Return is approaching rapidly, and now that we’ve seen a good chunk of the line, we’d like to hear your opinions on it thus far.
Click the discussion link below to head on over to the thread, where you can cast your votes and share your thoughts!
Mechafire
Thanks for playing guys, next poll will be up shortly.
Lord Dcast
Who doesn't like Turn-A?
Also not going to rebut your argument. It'll just cause more chaos.
SouthtownKid
Nah, it's cool. I'm not arguing and I do respect your preference.
But as for your Gundam analogy, it would be more like if they upgraded the original Gundam into the Turn-A in the middle of the original series. Before Z Gundam, before ZZ, before Victory, G, Wing, whatever. Powermaster Optimus was still part of the original, evolving storyline. I'd also dispute your analogy on the grounds that PMOP and original Optimus are much closer in aesthetic than RX-78 and Turn-A.
But then again, I really like the Turn-A, too.
Lord Dcast
I am in no way new to this, and I respect your opinion. I'm just saying that Optimus heads have always had a certain chunkiness to them. The Powermaster one always seemed…to round for my taste. I'm taking into account everything that came after as well. Its like saying the Turn-A Gundam can't be considered different because it was made far too long ago. You can, regardless of how old something is.
But maybe we should end this here before it goes into a full blown argument. I personally don't like it, you personally do. In the end its our collections and we do what we want.
SouthtownKid
What does "usually does" mean? You're coming at it as if from the perspective of someone new to Transformers who can look at the entire history as one big thing that happened in the past. There was no "usually does" when the Powermaster headsculpt originally appeared. There was plain Optimus, then there was his Powermaster upgrade. That's IT.
Anyway, I've always been a bigger fan of the Powermaster version of Optimus than the plain version, so this is right up my street.
Lord Dcast
Eh…I'd go the exact opposite of fantastic. The Powermaster head sculpt never really appealed to me as it seemed too far away from what the character usually does, and while the idea of a combining trailer is interesting when its executed in a slightly lighter shade of Games Workshop grey I can't see myself buying it.
Also I never liked the cab to begin with and the vehicle mode looks like a hollow mess.
But hey, if you like it thats fine. I mean I'm now one less person scrambling to get one, so you're one person easier to getting your's.
SouthtownKid
The forearms are unfortunate. They did a better job hiding the hollowness on Magnus' arms. But it still looks spectacular.
Lord Dcast
He just looks too hollow to me.
SouthtownKid
For me, it's the opposite. Leader Optimus looks great, like we are finally getting a worthy Classics Optimus, after the original Voyager, which I hated the looks of, and the CW Voyager, which I was mostly indifferent to.
Meanwhile, that Optimus Deluxe G2 thing looks like complete junk to me.
Lord Dcast
Leader Optimus looks blech to me, but Deluxe Optimus is looking mighty fine indeed.
There's plenty of Deluxes I want. It's sort of a two-tier system; ones I really want and one's I wouldn't mind getting. There isn't really anyone who I want to avoid…yet…I'll have to see the repaints.
XW1n5t0nX
I'm in the middle I'd say. There's definitely figures I want in deluxe and I'm liking the look of Optimus. But for now that is kind of it; I just like how they look. I'll most certainly buy one or two, but I'm not getting myself too excited just on the off chance I don't like them in hand.
JazzIsBack
Absolutely love it, only miss so far was head only Apeface but there's still time to fix that…….right?
Lord Dcast
As much as I'm a hater of partsforming, when a toy looks good it looks good. Some figures are lame from this line so far, but most of them are pretty damn nice. The only bad ones I can think of so far are Soundwave (the mould doesn't fit him), Powermaster Optimus Prime (just seems hollow and dull) and Stripes/Ravage (wafer-thin mid section).
Other than that the figures are quite nice. If there's ever going to be a time where I cure my Headmaster-phobia, it would be now.
Predaking000
A non-Headmaster head generally looks cleaner w/ less robot kibble + it takes away from the G1-ness of characters that otherwise look very G1 (Galvatron, Blurr, Blaster, Scourge, PM Prime). As far as the other actual G1 Headmasters, I'm kind of looking forward to them.
Haywired
Thing about bots who were Headmasters back then is that their canonical head designs were made to accomodate it. So Highbrow or Skullcruncher still look good.
But with bots who weren't headmasters originally, it ends compromising their clean look. Not so much with Voyagers/Leaders and their helmets, but Scourge and Hot Rod heads need creative painting to not look like a complete waste of plastic. And even then they look "OK, but not great".
I suppose it won't be too hard to file off this excess plastic, fill the gaps and paint it, since I won't be using the gimmick anyway, but that's an amount of removal I'd rather skip.
Transboticon
I just dont like all the designs and money being spent to develope tiny shitty robots just so they can be heads. Its an idea that works waaaaaay better in comics or movies, but in the real world they can't mass shift enough not to look stupid as heads.
And the realities of sculpting at that size mean all the head robots are simple lame designs with a big screw in the belly. I'll never use those little dopes for any thing so Im just left with a toy with an unstable ungainly head instead of a nice normal head on a swivel. I remember my energon Omega Supreme had a head master and all it would do is fall apart every time I tried to turn Omega's head, and that was just annoying.
G1StarSaber468
You know that the arcs are actually based on the lines not the other way around? Plus if this line does well hasbro spends that money into making more good mold of it doesn't the next line won't have too many new molds
artiepants
i'm looking forward to seeing some good fan combinations: Despite head swapping being the gimmick of the line, i imagine for the most part those swaps are going to look pretty tacky due to mismatched colors and aesthetics, but there's bound to be a few that'll be nice surprises.
The one I've got my eye on is Clobber/Grimlock on the Voyager Megatron mold with the Autobot stickers: seems like it might be a serviceable Pre-Earth Grimlock.
maltesefalcon
I agree with scourge and a few others but takara has repainted the back/arms so it provides more contrast its just Hasbro not painting the heads as usual
Bountyan
Partsforming and it makes the heads look worse. To me the head is one of the most important parts of a toy to get right.
You can't look at Scourge's head and tell me with a straight face that it wouldn't look better if it weren't forced to have that block of headmaster robot kibble behind it.