Zob's Robot Heroes Wish List
Zobovor
post my completely made-up Robot Heroes fantasy list. Note that I
came up with this around September of last year, intending for it to
be the 2010 product line, so by all right the first wave would
"really" have come out by now. I didn't include characters from
Armada/Energon/Cybertron or Animated since it seems like those shows
are still too recent to have any nostalgia value, though I think you
could make a pretty good argument for Animated characters being fun
for the kids. I left the movie franchise alone because, honestly,
they've got that covered really, really well.
I'd really be interested in knowing which of these sets you guys would
actually buy, which ones you absolutely would not spend money on, and
which changes you might make to the character assortment. Character
pairs with an asterisk (*) after their names denotes that I envision
that set reshipping in the wave that follows it. My comments are in
parentheses below.
Wave 1
Autobot Tracks vs. Decepticon Scrapper
Wreck-Gar vs. Scourge*
Dinobot vs. Scorponok
T-AI vs. Sky-Byte
(I decided going into this that I wanted each wave to feature at least
one 1984 or 1985 character pair, one 1986 character pair, one set from
Beast Wars or something, and one that was a total off-the-wall
surprise that would make the fanboys drool. I am, of course, catering
to my own tastes here, since it seems silly to include toys I wouldn't
even buy myself.)
(Scourge was problematic for me since I envision buying lots and lots
of him, for both armybuilder Sweeps and for me, as a fan, to repaint
into alternate color schemes like those of Soundwave, Swindle,
Breakdown, etc. from "Five Faces of Darkness." There are almost no
really good armybuilder Autobot characters, though, but there was at
least one episode that had two Wreck-Gars in it so that sets the
precedent.)
Wave 2
Dinobot Slapper vs. Astrotrain
Autobot Springer vs. Bonecrusher
Airazor vs. Terrorsaur
Botanica vs. Diagnostic Drone
(For our purposes, Slapper is "really" Sludge. Hasbro's already made
a mess of Slag and Snarl's names, so what's one more? Yes, I was
determined to include a Constructicon in every wave. I wasn't going
for anything specific with the character match-ups, though I did
rather like the symmetry of putting Springer and Bonecrusher together
since they're both voiced by Neil Ross. And I was not going to do
this without including at least one Beast Machines set. It astounds
me that the two coolest characters on that show never got Hasbro toys
of any kind.)
Wave 3
Side Swipe vs. Ramjet*
Blurr vs. Hightower
Omega Supreme vs. Decepticon Reflector*
G2 Megatron vs. Jhiaxus
(I would personally buy at least two Sideswipe/Ramjet sets so I could
paint one set into their G2 colors. Hightower is, of course, Hook the
Constructicon. Reflector was another problem character because I knew
I'd have to own three of them for him to be "complete," so I paired
him with Omega Supreme since I could fan-paint the extra two toys into
a Guardian Robot and Dark Guardian. I know I paired two bad guys
together in the G2 set, but Hasbro did the same sort of thing with
their RPM version of Mudflap vs. Skids so I think I can probably get
away with it.)
Wave 4
Autobot Grapple vs. Long Haul
Autobot Wheelie vs. Dirge
Sky Lynx vs. Trypticon
Nightbeat vs. Thunderwing
(Yes, that last one is also from Marvel Comics. And no, I don't
seriously think that Wheelie is a good match for Dirge, but Hasbro
never paid attention to that with the official pairings. I mean,
seriously. Optimus Prime vs. Ravage? Bumblebee vs. Soundwave?)
Wave 5
Hoist vs. Mixmaster
Dinobot Swoop vs. Cyclonus
Metroplex vs. Quintesson
Transmutate vs. Rampage
(I didn't mean to copy the pairing of the Backyard Brawl set... that
just sort of happened. Also, one could argue that Transmutate and
Rampage don't really belong in a "versus" pack since they were
friends, but they already did Silverbolt. Cyclonus is another
character I would have bought multiples of, but there really weren't
any Autobots left that made sense to buy in bulk. Maybe I'd have
painted Swoop into his Diaclone colors or something, who knows. I
really wanted a Quintesson Judge in there somewhere, and yes, I
realize Metroplex would stomp him into the ground. Hasbro would never
pair Metroplex against Trypticon in the same set, though.)
Wave 6
Wheeljack vs. Ratbat
Kup vs. Constructicon Scavenger
Fortress Maximus vs. Scorponok
Autobot X vs. Nightbird
(I figured I could get away with doing a single pair of cartoon-only
characters. Yes, Nightbird would have a Decepticon symbol. I've got
mixed feelings about this because the final wave of any assortment has
traditionally been difficult to find, and by this point retailers
might stop ordering. That's why I didn't do any reships for the last
few waves. And, well, if Wheeljack vs. Ratbat ended up being the next
Prowl vs. Laserbeak, then I guess there's always eBay sellers from
Singapore, right?)
Zob
Gustavo Wombat
> Spurred by the nonchalant urging of Gustavo Wombat, I've decided to
> post my completely made-up Robot Heroes fantasy list. Note that I
> came up with this around September of last year, intending for it to
> be the 2010 product line, so by all right the first wave would
> "really" have come out by now. I didn't include characters from
> Armada/Energon/Cybertron or Animated since it seems like those shows
> are still too recent to have any nostalgia value, though I think you
> could make a pretty good argument for Animated characters being fun
> for the kids. I left the movie franchise alone because, honestly,
> they've got that covered really, really well.
A/E/C has at least as much nostalgia value as RID -- both are mostly
forgotten.
And there are lots of them that I would buy, particularly from Armada.
Hot Shot vs. Megatron
Optimus Prime vs. Demolishor
Red Alert vs. Starscream
Rad vs. Alexis
And maybe a box set with a big Unicron, and PowerLink Prime,
Galvatron, Thrust and Sideways
And I would buy anything from Animated.
> I'd really be interested in knowing which of these sets you guys would
> actually buy, which ones you absolutely would not spend money on, and
> which changes you might make to the character assortment. Character
> pairs with an asterisk (*) after their names denotes that I envision
> that set reshipping in the wave that follows it. My comments are in
> parentheses below.
>
> Wave 1
>
> Autobot Tracks vs. Decepticon Scrapper
> Wreck-Gar vs. Scourge*
> Dinobot vs. Scorponok
> T-AI vs. Sky-Byte
Oh, you just brought up memories of the T-AI and Sky-Byte in the
bathtub figurine. Hey, speaking of inappropriate, did you ever notice
that figurine is only one small space away from "fig urine"?
Is Sky-Byte in robot mode or shark mode? I think I would buy this set
either way, but I would prefer the shark.
>
> (I decided going into this that I wanted each wave to feature at least
> one 1984 or 1985 character pair, one 1986 character pair, one set from
> Beast Wars or something, and one that was a total off-the-wall
> surprise that would make the fanboys drool. I am, of course, catering
> to my own tastes here, since it seems silly to include toys I wouldn't
> even buy myself.)
>
> (Scourge was problematic for me since I envision buying lots and lots
> of him, for both armybuilder Sweeps and for me, as a fan, to repaint
> into alternate color schemes like those of Soundwave, Swindle,
> Breakdown, etc. from "Five Faces of Darkness." There are almost no
> really good armybuilder Autobot characters, though, but there was at
> least one episode that had two Wreck-Gars in it so that sets the
> precedent.)
There were a whole bunch of Junkeons in the TF:TM, weren't there? Did
they have their own character models, or were they similar?
But, I would swap Tracks and Wreck-Gar around -- there are
opportunities for Robot Heroes Road Rage that seem more appealing than
slightly recolored Wreck-Gar... Or drag out the Prowl mold, since it
only had a limited release.
We have some precedence for larger characters getting larger toys as
part of box sets. I would save Sky Lynx, Trypticon and Metroplex for
those. Probably Omega Supreme as well.
> Nightbeat vs. Thunderwing
Box Sets -- A good way to make people buy the same toys again, with
slightly different finishes, with one or two new toys.
Battle In Space! Oversized Sky Lynx packaged with Galvatron, Cyclonus,
Scourge and Quintesson
Battle Of The Dinosaurs! Oversized Trypticon, Grimlock, S Tricerotops
(beast mode), Swoop, S Stegosaur (damned if I can remember their
current names)
Battle At Autobot City! Oversized Metroplex, Megatron, Acid Storm,
Soundblaster and Buzzsaw
Zobovor
> Oh, you just brought up memories of the T-AI and Sky-Byte in the
> bathtub figurine.
No. Nonononononononono.
Just no.
> Is Sky-Byte in
NO.
> Is Sky-Byte in robot mode or shark mode? I think I would buy this set
> either way, but I would prefer the shark.
I envision him as being a super-deformed robot, so you can re-enact
the fantasy scenes from the RiD cartoon in which Sky-Byte imagines
himself as a, well, super-deformed robot.
> There were a whole bunch of Junkeons in the TF:TM, weren't there? Did
> they have their own character models, or were they similar?
There were actually several unique Junkion designs. Wreck-Gar really
wasn't supposed to be duplicated (and he wasn't in the movie, only in—
I think—"The Big Broadcast of 2006.")
> But, I would swap Tracks and Wreck-Gar around -- there are
> opportunities for Robot Heroes Road Rage that seem more appealing than
> slightly recolored Wreck-Gar...
Here's the thing, though. For consumers to buy multiple Scourges so
they can have their own little Sweep army—and don't think they won't—
there has to be an Autobot where it makes sense to have that many,
too. Unfortunately, there really aren't any.
Wait, is it too late to pair Scourge with, say, a Guardian Robot?
There was a large army of them in "Forever is a Long Time Coming."
> Or drag out the Prowl mold, since it only had a limited release.
Maybe I need to bring him back for Wave 7 as Silverstreak. That would
be a good idea.
> We have some precedence for larger characters getting larger toys as
> part of box sets. I would save Sky Lynx, Trypticon and Metroplex for
> those. Probably Omega Supreme as well.
Hmm, you may have a point there. I'm generally not in favor of the
multi-packs because it seems like an excuse to throw in pointless
redecos (or even more strangely, pointless resculpts, in Ratchet's
case) but I do agree about those characters needing larger toys.
> Battle In Space! Oversized Sky Lynx packaged with Galvatron, Cyclonus,
> Scourge and Quintesson
Ooh, I like this one. And putting Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge
together gives me a reason to buy two or maybe three of these.
> Battle Of The Dinosaurs! Oversized Trypticon, Grimlock, S Tricerotops
> (beast mode), Swoop, S Stegosaur (damned if I can remember their
> current names)
If we're going to go that route, I think Grimlock should be in
dinosaur mode, too.
> Battle At Autobot City! Oversized Metroplex, Megatron, Acid Storm,
> Soundblaster and Buzzsaw.
You had me at oversized Metroplex, but then you lost me with Acid
Storm and Soundblaster. Sorry.
Now, what about the combiner robots? I would love to see big ol'
versions of Superion and Bruticus. (Not so much Menasor and Defensor,
not really as much of a fan of them.)
Zob
Shin Hibiki
>> Is Sky-Byte in
>
>NO.
*snigger*
>Now, what about the combiner robots? I would love to see big ol'
>versions of Superion and Bruticus. (Not so much Menasor and Defensor,
>not really as much of a fan of them.)
Superion is the one I've never really cared for. The others
are all good.
- Shin Hibiki
SteveD
wrote:
>Superion is the one I've never really cared for.
He was kind of a generic-limbed stick figure, wasn't he? At least
Menasor's limbs mostly transformed in different ways.
-SteveD
Craig Little
protectobots back in the day, so maybe he sucked as a toy)
Zobovor
> Defensor always looked the best to me (granted I never did get all the
> protectobots back in the day, so maybe he sucked as a toy)
I think of Groove as the absolute worst Scramble City mini-vehicle
ever designed. He really does bring down the Protectobot team as a
whole. Hot Spot also seems like sort of a cheap rip-off of Onslaught,
from a design perspective, but I suppose if I'd bought Hot Spot first
then I'd look at Onslaught as the carbon copy. The actual Defensor
toy is pretty solid, but he also got less media exposure than Superion
or Bruticus so I never really developed a fondness for him.
Menasor is the least interesting of the combiner robots to me,
visually. He's all black and grey with cars tacked onto his arms and
legs. (And I hate, hate, HATE how in the cartoon, Motormaster
essentially transforms into Menasor by himself, and then the other
Stunticons just lock onto his arms and legs like magnets. If he can
do that, why does he even need the others at all?)
I expect that theoretical Robot Heroes versions of these characters
would take the best elements of both the cartoon models and the Hasbro
toy designs and fuse them together, so perhaps this would eliminate
Superion's stick-leggedness and Menasor's boringness.
Zob