Combiner Wars/Generations

[Dangard Ace]

Originally Posted by bcon

Anybody else break off Superion's head yet? I was transforming from Superior to Silverbolt and one of the thin pieces that connect to the torso snapped from stress. I was pissed to say the least.

You have pics of the stressed area? I'm sure all of us would like to know what to be aware of.

[bcon]

http://i.imgur.com/Ikgda5S.jpg

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the super glue I used was strong enough so I might be buying a new one.

[CanBot]

Here's a quick question about Menasor: who are these extra guys, and why didn't they keep the original G1 characters?

Is this Menasor more in line with the IDW character, or did they just make new characters with a bit of creative license? Is "Combiner Wars" an IDW comic storyline? Not that it makes any real difference to me now, but just wondering.

And also...why Dragstrip in the Superion wave? Just to get a bit of crossover appeal, given the swappable limbs for these Combiners? Or was it a Hasbro mistake?

[Undrave]

Originally Posted by CanBot

Here's a quick question about Menasor: who are these extra guys, and why didn't they keep the original G1 characters?

Is this Menasor more in line with the IDW character, or did they just make new characters with a bit of creative license? Is "Combiner Wars" an IDW comic storyline? Not that it makes any real difference to me now, but just wondering.

And also...why Dragstrip in the Superion wave? Just to get a bit of crossover appeal, given the swappable limbs for these Combiners? Or was it a Hasbro mistake?

I think they wanted some variety, not just all Autobots or all Decepticons in one wave, but that might have turned out not to be that great of an idea? Or maybe to push the idea of getting more than just one wave on the retaillers? There's probably a good reason they went that way...

I don't mind getting Dragstrip early, he's fantastic and I don't really care about the Aerialbots.

As for the new guys, Alpha Bravo and Offroad, I'm certain that they were conceived AFTER the later use of those molds (Blade and First Aid in the Protectobots) were designed. They're just retools meant to give Hasbro more buck for their design bang. Wildrider and Slingshot can easily be retools of teamates after all.

As for the legend dudes... I guess they're just fun addon. G1 Motormaster had some empty car drone to form Menasor's chest, not the little car drone is a micromaster guy! That's going to be repainted as Rodimus!

[down_shift]

Originally Posted by bcon

http://i.imgur.com/Ikgda5S.jpg

Unfortunately it doesn't look like the super glue I used was strong enough so I might be buying a new one.

It's a good thing Silverbolt will be on shelves for the next 4 months at least. Just return it and get a new one.

Originally Posted by CanBot

Here's a quick question about Menasor: who are these extra guys, and why didn't they keep the original G1 characters?

Is this Menasor more in line with the IDW character, or did they just make new characters with a bit of creative license? Is "Combiner Wars" an IDW comic storyline? Not that it makes any real difference to me now, but just wondering.

And also...why Dragstrip in the Superion wave? Just to get a bit of crossover appeal, given the swappable limbs for these Combiners? Or was it a Hasbro mistake?

It was to promote that anyone can be part of any combiner. Hasbro said they wanted to emphasize that if you wanted one figure from each team for your own Combiner they wanted kids to feel like that was okay.

As for the concept of A B and Off road, in an interview with Yuki (I think it was) he said he didn't understand why Hasbro chose to use those characters for the teams so the Japanese teams had to make due with what they had to fill in those blanks. So I think Hasbro wanted new characters all along but as they usually do, designed with remolds and repaints in mind.

Oh, and in the comics Wildrider isn't dead. He just left the team.

[Shockwave 75]

There's no need to rely on speculation; here are the actual answers to those questions given by Senior Director on the "Transformers" brand Jerry Jivoin:

Originally Posted by CanBot

Here's a quick question about Menasor: who are these extra guys, and why didn't they keep the original G1 characters?

"We wanted to introduce some new characters. There is also names and which we have, which is trademarked and what we're allowed to release. You've seen that in the past where we've had to change the names of some characters. Also we wanted to make sure the scales of everything were what needed to be. Sometimes scales were a bit funky in the original releases, you have a motorcycle that's the same size as a helicopter. Some of those decisions came into play. We wanted to create the essence of what the original characters were originally with the colors and type of characters you can make in the big Combiner character."

And also...why Dragstrip in the Superion wave? Just to get a bit of crossover appeal, given the swappable limbs for these Combiners? Or was it a Hasbro mistake?

"Yeah, some of that just came down to development timing. A lot of these are new tools. So some of it had to do with the new tooling that in the actual product that was being created. Looking at it now I would prefer we had all the Aerialbots at once, that's essentially wave one. Then wave two would be all the Stunticons and then today we released Defensor with the Protectobots. But what we did was, wave one and two will be the only time that happens. Once we get to wave three with Defensor as you saw today, all the Protectobots are in that wave three. Whether it's the wave three of the Legends assortment, the wave three of Deluxe, the wave three of Voyager everything in there is making Defensor. We kind of learned from that. Sometimes with development things get delayed and also tooling as well. It just kind of worked out that way. Not completely ideal but by the time we get through wave two all those characters will be out there and you can make both. And the great thing is that since they're interchangeable you can still buy Dragstrip and he can be the temporary leg of Superion until the Menasor product comes out in wave two!"

[Blitzwing]

Originally Posted by CanBot

Is this Menasor more in line with the IDW character, or did they just make new characters with a bit of creative license? Is "Combiner Wars" an IDW comic storyline? Not that it makes any real difference to me now, but just wondering.

IDW is currently doing a crossover called "Combiner Wars" that is being used to promote the new toyline. I'll give a rundown, beware of spoilers though:

The first issue shows Blackjack seemingly being part of the Stunticons all along, Wildrider leaving the team is mentioned and Offroad is the new character that has replaced him.

The storyline will also feature Superion, Defensor and Devastator based on the covers we've seen. Slingshot was killed in a previous storyline, so Alpha Bravo was chosen as his replacement, while Powerglide also joined the team and will most likely be a Targetmaster for Superion.

Defensor hasn't shown up yet, but all the Protectobots have been seen on the Lost Light in MTMTE, and the last issue featured Rodimus saying that he'll be sending a group of crew members to Cybertron. This might also include Cyclonus, since he'll be getting a Combiner Wars toy as well.

Scrapper is currently dead in IDW and has been replaced by Prowl. Covers have shown the more traditional Devastator configuration and there have been hints that Scrapper has somehow survived through the Contructicons' shared memories, so I would expect to see him return.

[Undrave]

Speaking of Wildrider and Slingshot, the official Transformers Facebook page just teased two characters, Brake-Neck and Quickslinger with the line 'The Rumors are True' so I think they found some new names to use.

[Blurrz]

[Undrave]

Yeah that one!