Were the 35th exclusives in a cardboard display on the endcap or in the aisle with the regular siege toys?
Whoa, whoa, i just saw preview images of Earth Rise Starscream!!
His robot mode not only looks CLEANER and even more G1 Accurate but, he also turns into his 80’s Earth Jet mode, which looks Great!
I kinda started indulging in the Seige line late in the game and was seriously considering getting Seige Screamer/Thundercracker/Skywarp but… now i dunno.
And you know damn well they’ll put out the other two, in addition to Starscream at some point also.
So if you guys only wanted to keep one seige Soundwave mold, Soundwave or Soundblaster. Which would it be?
I have both(found Soundblaster first) and thought for sure i’d want to keep reg. G1 Colors Soundwave but, Soundblaster is so cool looking! The glorious light piping is on point with that RED eyed sneer, the black paint looks slick, and i thought his elongated chest would look weird. But it “pops” in that neon orange/red color scheme and just adds to the coolness.
I try to keep an “optimized” collection and rarely ever double-dip on a mold to keep the numbers down.
Check out that light piping goodness! Thats not red paint. It all light piping. And the Neon Orange/translucent Red chest looks badass.
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Nice find. My understanding is that Soundblaster can hold two tapes while Soundwave can only support one. If they do an Earth Wars treatment of the character, I do wonder what it’ll be.
Sorry for the delay. I was in Maui last week. They were just tossed in the aisle.
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In the Japanese continuation of G1 after it ended in the states, Soundwave & Blaster fought to the death and killed eachother.
Soundwave was rebuilt as “Soundblaster”. Basically he’s a black colored soundwave and his cassette door was made bigger to hold two Cassettes (Like Seige Soundblaster can). While Blaster was remolded into “Twincast”. He’s pretty much a recolored Blaster with blue & Yellow instead of Red & Yellow.
Anyway, Hasbro/Takara always love putting out a SoundBlaster to get the most out of a mold. It’s rare when they don’t. I don’t think TR Soundwave got the Soundblaster treatment.
Edit: Fun fact, many of the G1 reissues of Soundwave in the past 15 years or so, were Soundblaster molds in Soundwave colors. Like that Toys’R’Us one here:
You made it sound as if you weren’t (completely)certain of the difference. Anyway, Masterforce is the only part of the Japanese G1 series i liked.
Headmasters was terrible. Basically 80’s anime characters/tropes/etc of the era, cosplaying as TFers. And Victory was just ‘alright’. Also i missed the ‘rustic’ metallic clanks & foot steps that was such a trademark of G1. In it’s place, everyone had these “Piston” like sounds, that resembled a mechanical lugnut tool. Blehh.
Naaa. It was that WFC: Siege Soundblaster is a slight retool. If you have Soundwave, look at the chest compartment. My understanding is you can put two tapes in Soundblaster and one in Soundwave.
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So anyone think Hasbro/Takara shoots themselves in the foot sometimes with it’s Fantastic CHUG lines, vesus Masterpeice sales? It seems like for every good MP they put out sometimes, there is an excellent CHUG version of that character released for a fraction of the price.
Like MP Ultra Magnus. I always kinda saw myself getting it eventually but, looking at Siege Magnus now on my shelf, i wonder why bother? He’s not perfect but Siege Magnus looks Great and captures the look of the character, and at a fraction of the price. Same thing happened with MP-10 and POTP Optimus. Then TR Soundwave & MP Soundwave. And if they ever make an MP Blaster, i doubt it’ll outdo the excellent TR Blaster we got.
Same for numerous others like Masterpeice Reflector. Would anyone REALLY want to spend $$$ on it after the Great Siege & special “Reconnaissance” team Reflector we recently got?
Also CHUG bots seems to be more fun to mess with regarding Transformation. Masterpeice bots looks Great and a feat of enginerring to be sure but, the crazy complex transformations can be a total pain in the ass. I had bots like MP Skywarp a while back and he looked great but was a collosal pain in the ass to transform. Also some masterpeice bots can be more fragile than your average CHUG figure(leers at MP Rodimus). Mass produced CHUG bots are cheaper to make and thus built to last usually.
CHUG bots are just a cheaper and more accessible way to own good looking renditions of our favorite characters. This Siege line for example, has been the G1 Season 1 of my adulthood lately.
Edit: And didn’t they recently announce an MP Hound? Again, we just got an excellent Hound Rendition in the Siege line.
Not at all. Different target audience and overall aesthetic. The most recent CHUG releases are pretty solid G1 renditions with liberties thrown in. However, engineering, paint apps, and parts count are significantly different. Putting MP Hound next to Siege Hound shows a pretty stark difference between the two (especially with the aesthetic). It again comes down to what you are going for. Siege is inspired by G1; MP is G1.
They want to charge an arm & a leg for MP stuff though (MP-44 anyone?). Makes it less accessible and less enticing for fans. Also the points i made earlier, with the overly complicated, sometimes frustrating transformations, and paying top dollar for a figure thats lacking in durability.
Also do we really need the MP line? Recent lines like the siege stuff proves we can have good looking robot & vehicle modes that represent the characters well in each. Without going overboard with the hyper-engineering, and pain in the arse transformations, the MPs have. The mass produced stuff may have caught up in that sense.
Getting a really nice and faithful looking Prime that doesn’t cost $400? Yes please.
To my point, it’s made for a different audience. You are right, the CHUG line has proven you can get a decent figure at a lower price point. However, CHUG is not on the same level as an MP figure.
It may not be what you want, bit there are many fans that enjoy the increased level of complexity to accompany the more faithful look of the characters as represented onscreen. For example, you have to go some really interesting stuff to make Sunstreaker have the same proportions as what was in the show. The lines can coexist without any real issue. It’s been that way for over a decade now.
If cost is the barrier of entry, it’s unfortunate but it is what it is. MP Sideswipe is not anything close to the same level as Sunstreaker. There was a push years ago where the fandom said they would be ok with a higher price point to give the figure more articulation, paint, etc. They’ve done that and it seems to have been a problem across all lines lately.
For me, I want my TFs to look like a G1 episode on my shelf. I have opted to get all in on the MP stuff. If there is a CHUG figure that I want to grab, I might pick it up. That has become a more rare occurrence now. In a lot of the FB groups and other boards I tell everyone to start with the end in mind. Just buy the stuff that brings you joy and will get you to the finish line of your collection.
Hasbro/Takara’s Recent G1 2.0 greatness is also eating into 3rd party sales too i’d imagine. Just got a notification about a new 3rd party Devastator: $500.00!!! WTF.
Yeah, no thanks! For a fraction of that price i could get the recent, excellent, CW Devastator. Which a quick e-bay search immediately shows one MISB for $188 shipped. 3rd party stuff was Great at first, until Hasbro/Takara started stepping up their game.
Getting more into Siege lately and wow! How has it taken Hasbro/Takara so f’in long to get to this point?! Proper G1 2.0 faithful figure goodness!
The OG Classics line-up back in the day? They were cool in their own right and all but, hot TRASH compared to the recent renditions, and they were NOT faithful to the characters! They always needlessly tried to “update” them in some way.
Some fans still hold the original Voyager classics Prime in high regard but, sorry, he is NOTHING compared to the recent Prime’s we got in POTP and Siege. If i had him he would be thrown up on E-bay! Same with Classics, Nerf Gun megatron. OG Classics sideswipe is another admitedly cool figure in his own right but, he’s still not shiiiaaatt… compared to Siege Sideswipe!
I won’t deny that the figures are pretty solid but the updates are necessary to keep the lineup fresh. If all they did was G1 2.0 through and through it’d become stale. I see the most recent interpretation of Prime as an example. I Siege Prime’s robot mode looks better (sans paint apps) as it cleans up a fair bit better (tires are visible in robot mode). ER has a better looking vehicle mode (for obvious reasons) but still has the general silhouette and transformation scheme from the previous figure. It’ll be really interesting to see where they go with the third part of the WFC line.
One figure to this day that many fans hold in high regard is the Thrilling 30’s Springer. It quite honestly might be one of the best CHUG figures ever done.
Nerf Megatron was a cool idea, but poorly executed. They need to just keep Megatron as a tank. I am interested to see what they do for WFC Megatron. My suspicion is that since WFC was G1 inspired, ER will be G2 inspired. There will be 2 decos one with the G1 paint job and the other with 90’s camo.
Is that Amazon?
Good price!
There are rumors that Sky Lynx may be next year’s Commander Class toy.
Nope. Target. It was $65 and through the insurance at work I had a gift card for $15. Add that to 25% off and it just was a "why not " purchase. If I get bored with it, I’ll just sell it at cost.
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But we already got a really nice Sky Lynx in Combiner Wars. Thats one of the guys i need to go back and pick up actually. Don’t care about the combiner gimmick but, the Shuttle & beast mode look pretty good for an updated G1 Sky Lynx.