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Zob's Thoughts on Legacy Titan-Class Guardian Robot and Lunar-Tread
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Zobovor
Mar 26, 2023, 6:12:29 PM3/26/23
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I've been wanting a Guardian Robot redeco of Omega Supreme pretty much ever since John Warden showed off the Omega toy in 2019 and hinted that multiple Guardians could connect together. There's no real reason to buy two Omega Supreme toys, but there is absolutely a need to own the same toy in a different color scheme! I'm so glad it finally happened.
This guy went on pre-sale on March 3rd, and I received mine yesterday on Macrch 25th. That's a super fast turnaround!
For those who maybe don't know, "The Secret of Omega Supreme" was the episode that first established that Omega Supreme was once a Guardian Robot, one of the protectors over Cybertron. "War Dawn" expanded on this idea and demonstrated that the Guardian Robots were a multitude of large machines, all decked out in a blue-and-white color scheme (leading me to the conclusion that Omega Supreme got a new paint job to distinguish himself, following his service as a Guardian). "Forever is a Long Time Coming" expounded upon the idea even further, positing that prior to their time as Cybertron's defenders, they were built and controlled by the Quintessons as enforcers to keep their slave robots in line, and they were called Dark Guardians back then, and had a somewhat different color scheme. (Would I buy this toy yet again as a Dark Guardian? Why, yes. Yes, I would.)
We previously got a G1-sized toy of the Guardian Robot from Takara in 2008 as an eHobby exclusive, but for some reason it was marketed under the name GADEP (which ostensibly stood for "Ground-based Auto-DEstruct Powerbroker"). Third-party manufacturer Impossible Toys developed a prototype in 2009 for a one-foot tall Guardian Robot figure, but they never released it. This is the first official version of the Guardian Robot by Hasbro.
The Guardian Robot comes packaged in a plain brown Hasbro Select box with black printing, like Black Zarak did. He is strapped down to an inner cardboard tray with rattan ties. Some consumers have reported that their toy arrived broken, possibly due to manhandling during the packaging stage, or possibly due to the relative lack of inner packaging protection. Those little rattan ties are the only thing stopping him from rattling around inside the box!
So, it should come as no surprise to anybody that this is a redeco of Siege Titan-class Omega Supreme. The Guardian Robots were arguably drawn a little bit differently than Omega Supreme in the episode (they seemed fatter, with a different-looking face, no gun in the back of the head, shorter wings, different backpack, etc.) but to do a straight Omega Supreme redeco is not disingenuous. It's close enough for government work, certainly.
Interestingly, the Guardian Robot is not just a color-for-color pallete swap from Omega Supreme. For instance, Omega has a mostly grey body with a red belly, but the Guardian's body is an even mix of white and blue. Omega has yellow for the shoulders and the locking clips on his legs, but on the Guardian, these are blue as well. He's got a light blue upper chest window, which is screen accurate, and he has the same face sculpt as Omega Supreme, with blue eyes. The rockets inside his flip-up shoulder armor are bright red. He has no Autobot sigils to speak of, which is also accurate to his G1 cartoon appearance. There was a time when Hasbro would have slapped an Autobot symbol on him anyway, for brand recognition, but the current Hasbro team favors screen-accuracy, and I love them for it.
The Guardian Robots were never shown in the cartoon to transform per se (and if they were originally Quintesson creations, then the Dark Guardians *definitely* didn't transform), but one supposes that when Omega Supreme was retrofitted to transform, maybe there were still a handful of other Guardians who were, too. Who knows?
The rocket base configuration is the same design as Omega Supreme, but is an even mix of blue-and-white. The rocket ship component is dark grey, as are the tracks for the tank module, and its functionality is the same as Omega. I'm not going to lie—I haven't transformed my Guardian Robot and I probably never will. That's not why I own it.
Lunar-Tread is a redeco of the Micromaster Countdown figure that originally came with Omega Supreme. He's decked out in mostly white for vehicle mode, which is honestly awesome, and reminds me of real-like moon rovers like the one on the Apollo 15 mission. He's got blue wheels, which is the likely result of being gang-molded with some of the Guardian's blue parts. As a robot, he's got an orange-painted body and head, and the color scheme reminds me a little of Movor from Robots in Disguise. I also love the name Lunar-Tread, since it strongly fits the 1990's "we're running out of trademarks, so you get what you get" naming aesthetic, like Heavy Tread. It fits perfectly.
The Guardian Robot comes with seven blast effect pieces, the same ones that came with Omega. They're translucent orange, and lack the black paint that the ones that came with Omega had. The Guardian itself is free of scorch marks, resulting in a much cleaner look than the Omega Supreme release. Care should be taken not to leave the blast effects attached to the toy, because the plasticizers from the rubbery parts can leech into the ABS plastic so that the parts end up fusing together.
The only thing that bugs me about this toy is the price. Omega Supreme was around $150 when he first came out, but this toy was $200. I recognize that the costs of shipping and distribution have skyrocketed (and have you seen how much EGGS cost lately?!) but it sucks to have to pay such a significant markup, especially on a toy that had no new development costs associated with it. A while back, I had considered getting two of these guys whenever this color version came out, but not at current pricing. That's outrageous.
With that said, I'm so happy this release came to fruition. It's basically a love song to the G1 cartoon, and while this guy only appeared in a single episode, I've been hoping since 2019 that we'd eventually get one. There some redeco toys that seem super obvious, but they never come to pass, for one reason or another. I'm glad this wasn't one of those!
Zob (now to go see if my poor G2 Mini Autobots can be salvaged...)
This guy went on pre-sale on March 3rd, and I received mine yesterday on Macrch 25th. That's a super fast turnaround!
For those who maybe don't know, "The Secret of Omega Supreme" was the episode that first established that Omega Supreme was once a Guardian Robot, one of the protectors over Cybertron. "War Dawn" expanded on this idea and demonstrated that the Guardian Robots were a multitude of large machines, all decked out in a blue-and-white color scheme (leading me to the conclusion that Omega Supreme got a new paint job to distinguish himself, following his service as a Guardian). "Forever is a Long Time Coming" expounded upon the idea even further, positing that prior to their time as Cybertron's defenders, they were built and controlled by the Quintessons as enforcers to keep their slave robots in line, and they were called Dark Guardians back then, and had a somewhat different color scheme. (Would I buy this toy yet again as a Dark Guardian? Why, yes. Yes, I would.)
We previously got a G1-sized toy of the Guardian Robot from Takara in 2008 as an eHobby exclusive, but for some reason it was marketed under the name GADEP (which ostensibly stood for "Ground-based Auto-DEstruct Powerbroker"). Third-party manufacturer Impossible Toys developed a prototype in 2009 for a one-foot tall Guardian Robot figure, but they never released it. This is the first official version of the Guardian Robot by Hasbro.
The Guardian Robot comes packaged in a plain brown Hasbro Select box with black printing, like Black Zarak did. He is strapped down to an inner cardboard tray with rattan ties. Some consumers have reported that their toy arrived broken, possibly due to manhandling during the packaging stage, or possibly due to the relative lack of inner packaging protection. Those little rattan ties are the only thing stopping him from rattling around inside the box!
So, it should come as no surprise to anybody that this is a redeco of Siege Titan-class Omega Supreme. The Guardian Robots were arguably drawn a little bit differently than Omega Supreme in the episode (they seemed fatter, with a different-looking face, no gun in the back of the head, shorter wings, different backpack, etc.) but to do a straight Omega Supreme redeco is not disingenuous. It's close enough for government work, certainly.
Interestingly, the Guardian Robot is not just a color-for-color pallete swap from Omega Supreme. For instance, Omega has a mostly grey body with a red belly, but the Guardian's body is an even mix of white and blue. Omega has yellow for the shoulders and the locking clips on his legs, but on the Guardian, these are blue as well. He's got a light blue upper chest window, which is screen accurate, and he has the same face sculpt as Omega Supreme, with blue eyes. The rockets inside his flip-up shoulder armor are bright red. He has no Autobot sigils to speak of, which is also accurate to his G1 cartoon appearance. There was a time when Hasbro would have slapped an Autobot symbol on him anyway, for brand recognition, but the current Hasbro team favors screen-accuracy, and I love them for it.
The Guardian Robots were never shown in the cartoon to transform per se (and if they were originally Quintesson creations, then the Dark Guardians *definitely* didn't transform), but one supposes that when Omega Supreme was retrofitted to transform, maybe there were still a handful of other Guardians who were, too. Who knows?
The rocket base configuration is the same design as Omega Supreme, but is an even mix of blue-and-white. The rocket ship component is dark grey, as are the tracks for the tank module, and its functionality is the same as Omega. I'm not going to lie—I haven't transformed my Guardian Robot and I probably never will. That's not why I own it.
Lunar-Tread is a redeco of the Micromaster Countdown figure that originally came with Omega Supreme. He's decked out in mostly white for vehicle mode, which is honestly awesome, and reminds me of real-like moon rovers like the one on the Apollo 15 mission. He's got blue wheels, which is the likely result of being gang-molded with some of the Guardian's blue parts. As a robot, he's got an orange-painted body and head, and the color scheme reminds me a little of Movor from Robots in Disguise. I also love the name Lunar-Tread, since it strongly fits the 1990's "we're running out of trademarks, so you get what you get" naming aesthetic, like Heavy Tread. It fits perfectly.
The Guardian Robot comes with seven blast effect pieces, the same ones that came with Omega. They're translucent orange, and lack the black paint that the ones that came with Omega had. The Guardian itself is free of scorch marks, resulting in a much cleaner look than the Omega Supreme release. Care should be taken not to leave the blast effects attached to the toy, because the plasticizers from the rubbery parts can leech into the ABS plastic so that the parts end up fusing together.
The only thing that bugs me about this toy is the price. Omega Supreme was around $150 when he first came out, but this toy was $200. I recognize that the costs of shipping and distribution have skyrocketed (and have you seen how much EGGS cost lately?!) but it sucks to have to pay such a significant markup, especially on a toy that had no new development costs associated with it. A while back, I had considered getting two of these guys whenever this color version came out, but not at current pricing. That's outrageous.
With that said, I'm so happy this release came to fruition. It's basically a love song to the G1 cartoon, and while this guy only appeared in a single episode, I've been hoping since 2019 that we'd eventually get one. There some redeco toys that seem super obvious, but they never come to pass, for one reason or another. I'm glad this wasn't one of those!
Zob (now to go see if my poor G2 Mini Autobots can be salvaged...)
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