Emerje wrote:Eh, as far as I'm concerned multiple figures coming together in any way makes a combiner, it doesn't matter how essential or ridiculous their inclusion is. We still call Magnaboss a 3 figure combiner despite Silverbolt being nothing more than decorations and boob canons.
And really, it's silly that people are so hooked up on the arms when the legs are basically the same between both animation models so it's just the arms that are in question. Also since there's a break in Dragstrip where the elbow joint will be we can tell he'll be forming the bulk of the arm, why are we so hooked up on combiner pegs and fists directly inserting into the car?
Because of the elbow joint. It'll look more like a normal combiner than whole cars hanging off his shoulders. I'm looking forward to it, I think the arms with a dedicated elbow joint will look a lot better in the end than the elbow hips and crotch we had in CW.
Emerje
Menasor has long been the gestalt that nobody seems quite sure what to do with. There were just so many things about the Stunticons that didn't 'work'. Either the toys didn't jive with the cartoon model, or the cartoon model never looked like the toys. And that confusion has sort of carried on over the years to this very day.
The G1 gestalt was smaller, and it never looked very well designed. The Motormaster unit wasn't a very good torso, and the smaller cars didn't turn into proper 'limbs', they really were just the car figures, stuck onto the torso. I'm sure the animators for the cartoon show were looking at the toy and thinking 'how the bleep do we make this work?'
And what they came up with was that weird trailer/skeleton with the cars pasted onto it. It bore only superficial resemblance to the Menasor toy, and collectors had to grimace every time they saw the cartoon and were reminded that the figure they owned was little like what was on the screen. Even the animated commercial for the toy showed the Arialbots more than the Stunticons - probably because they wanted to gloss over the fact that the cartoon depiction was nothing like what was being advertised. And you have to admit - the animated Arialbots looked a hekkuvva lot more like their G1 toys than the Stunticons did, and that included their gestalts.
Fast forward to the CW line, when all our old favorite combiners started coming back, and Hasbro winced and said, 'I guess that means we have to do Menasor too'. But they had a problem. G1 Motormaster was a tiny little semi truck with a trailer attached. They couldn't do that, and scale him with the deluxe limbs. So they had to go cab only. Which could have been fine, except that they used the normal robot hips, splayed them out, and covered it with a crotch-shaped panel to make the pelvis. And it didn't work. The proportions are off visually, and the hip ratchets just aren't strong enough to support all that weight. So CW Menasor is a floppy mess that, for all the articulation, can't hold any poses, and must be constantly monitored to make sure it doesn't fall over. The Optimus Maximus and G2 repaints suffer the same problem.
This Legacy/Commander version seems to be their attempt at compromise. They know Menasor got the short end of the stick in CW, so they're giving him sole combiner focus in this line. Yes, it looks like the deluxe limbs will parts-form onto the Commander/trailer skeleton. But as long as the skeleton is rock solid, holds its poses, and is well proportioned? I'm OK with that. Especially if they fix the pelvis so it's solid and functional, not just the voyager hips hidden by a flimsy plastic loincloth. I'll make some compromises with appearance, in exchange for a solid figure with good articulation that can hold it's poses and balance well on a shelf. That appears to be where they're going with this version of Menasor.
I suppose we'll see some leaks of Motormaster soon, and then we can get a better idea of how this Menasor will look and scale. I'll reserve final judgement until then. But I sold my CW Menasor a while back, for the same reasons listed above. Here's hoping this time they make him a set worth collecting.
