Bradimus wrote: phantom1592 wrote:Bradimus wrote:I have the Aerialbots standing guard on the coffee table in the den, and I can't help but be disappointed with Hasbro. No, not because Alpha Bravo has replaced Slingshot. I like helicopters and have no issue with the aesthetic of Superion. My disappointment lies with Firefly, who could have been best of the bunch.
As seen in the picture below, Firefly has a sleek upper body design. In fact, the figure could easily be turned into a fembot by simply swapping out the head. However, the figure has what looks to be a cape.
I can see it now, the classic G1 look with the small plane on the back of the Aerialbot. Still a good figure, but an unfortunate missed opportunity.
I'm a little surprised that this bugs Transformers fans so much... I've always felt that the 'kibble' was what gave the robots their charm... made them stand out from each other. Things like Prime's Grill and windshield... and Prowl's Door wings were the kind of things that I loved as a kid. To look at the robot and know exactly what he turned into.
I'm really on the OTHER end of the spectrum. I don't mind the plane parts on the robots. I'd be disappointed if they weren't there for the Aerialbots. No, what always bugged me about the G1 Superion parts was the whole 'plane stands up' brick that the robots were. Seeing all that Robot kibble underneath the plane just breaks up the 'disguise' purpose of the Alt Mode and with no moving parts, the robots were pretty boring to play with too.
CW fixed a great deal of that for me. The arms on the sides still feels a bit cheap (though I do like them broken up a bit with some reprolabels... makes it less noticeable) and Silverbolt still has way too much under him... but I have three modes now and all three look pretty awesome and can do cool poses.
Honestly... I never saw Firefly as having a cape. Honestly, I love capes... Since you brought it up, I wish that had been intentional and they went a bit further with it
Um... I don't get it.
You like identifiable kibble like door wings on Prowl, Optimus' grill, etc., but you don't get why fans want the Aerialbots to have their identifiable small plain on their backs kibble?
Also, you didn't like the G1 toys because of the kibble under the plain but you love CW figures with the same problem? I mean, these toys look almost identical to their G1 counterparts (main difference being updated jet alts), but have more articulation, so you overlook the kibble in alt mode because the robots can strike poses?
I don't understand at all.
Ahhhh.. See, I misread that. I thought you were complaining that he had too much 'plane on his back'. Not that he didn't have enough! I've seen people complain about that or Dinosaur heads or door wings...
It's all personal tastes, but to me it's all about the 'robots in disguise' philosophy. The robot mode in all the media gets altered and compromised when they choose their alt modes. It's why I was always fascinated with 'what did they look like on cybertron BEFORE they saw an 18 wheeler or tape player....'
So yeah, Having a robot walk around with Planes and wings and windshields and such is absolutely fine with me. However, when the Planes have robots underneath... then the really aren't fooling anyone. The disguise only works when looking down on the plane.... and how often would THAT happen.
As for CW, They tried. THey straddled that line between G1 Nostalgia... and updated for an actual toy. The jet modes don't look as good as my classics Starscream... but They do have a more detailed transformation then 'make legs longer, Then stand up.' The original G1 toys had ugly looking jet modes... and ugly robot modes... And I never saw superion completed... but my devesator was pretty wobbley, So that's 3 modes and none really 'worked'.
Silverbolt is still ehhh... but the rest make me happy. All of them can strike some pretty sweet poses in robot mode