The Counterpunch Articles: Why I love Transformers Part4: Cybertron

This series of articles will focus on what was good about certain toy lines of figures, focusing on the positive, rather than the negative: Transformers Cybertron

I thought the Armada article would be hard to write. Convincing people that Armada was genuinely a good series of toys was set up to be a challenge. The cool thing about that one was that there were all these cool little aspects of Armada that were largely glossed over. So, in pointing them out, and establishing the ‘Ah-HA!’ type moments, it was relatively easy to explain why I thought the series was great. Now I get to Cybertron and quite frankly, don’t know what to say. It very nearly goes without saying, in fact, that the Cybertron line is outstanding. Cybertron is a refinement of Energon, a technological leap above Armada, and draws a line in the sand between the New School and Even Newer School of toys (Movie & Animated).

I know, whether or not you as a fandom out there admit it, that you guys love this toy line. I know this, because the spreadsheet I keep for my collection shows that the secondary market value of Cybertron shows an approximate 100% increase in the value of these toys when compared to the retail value. What has that happened in, like 2-3 years?

Somewhere along the way, Cybertron became the newest collector’s line. While we all marveled at how wonderfully full the shelves were during its tenure in stores, apparently we failed to notice that those shelves were sold out by the end of the wave. To top it off, there weren’t a whole lot of repeat performances of figures in later revision waves. One board-member said it best when they described the situation as resulting from a discrepancy between when the characters actually appeared ‘on-screen’ and when they were released in stores. See, the toys always made their store appearances long before their TV ones. By the time we as collectors had gotten our fill of Scourge and Leobreaker, kids were now seeing these guys on TV and making them permanently disappear from the shelves. Hence, Scourge will now run you between $60-80 new and Leobreaker $40-60. Shelf-warmers my ass.

I can’t say that high prices are what makes me like this line, but what I really do think is fun about Cybertron is the near universal acceptance we grant to it. (well, as universal as Transformers fans can get…) Due to the nature of the fiction, we’ve got 5 different planets by which character design can wrap around.

Like those Beasties? We’ve got mechanical ones, just like in G1.
Are you weird enough to have enjoyed the post 86’ movie? We’ve got futuristic designs, just like G1.
Like those City Bots? We went and got you some Metroplex. Remember him from G1?
Realistic Alt Modes? Oh, there’s a few. If you’re into that kind of thing, I’d check out some G1.
And of course, there’s Primus. Thank Primus. (He was shy in G1… but still there.)

It’s almost as if, well, it’s almost like someone, somewhere went and, I don’t know…listened to Transformers fans? If only these toys had loads of articulation and avoided being flimsy…

Right, right…yes, I suppose they do all that too.

Transformers Cybertron is literally the most expansive TF line since G1. It is essentially gimmick free in that Cyber Planet keys are about as non-offensive as you can get. Add into the mix that we got some of the very coolest TFs ever from Cybertron and it is little wonder why we have a modern day collector’s dream.

Why I like this line essentially boils down to one fact: Everything we as fans disliked about Armada and Energon was done away with while providing us with more detail, articulation, and variety than ever before. Everyone knows that Primus, Optimus Prime, and Starscream (Galaxy Force version here, sorry Hasbro…) are simply outstanding. These three epitomize excellence in the series. I’ll go over 5 toys you might have glanced over, just to show how expansive this line is.

5. Metroplex
The toy actually has two distinct robot modes, essentially a short and tall version. Both are quite excellent and help to scale him depending on the situation. Metroplex may be the best articulated toy for its size in all of Transformers displaying a Marvel Legends style range of movement. The biggest critique of Metroplex is his alt mode, as apparently, it looks like “nothing”.

http://www.asnee.com/blog/wp-content/up ... Mover1.jpg

Metroplex would like an apology from many of you.


4. Ransack GTS
A neat little repaint here and counterpart to the very popular Dark Crumplezone. Ransack GTS sports a surprisingly cohesive black, gold, and green color scheme. The figure itself is no different than the original release, but is instead indicative of how great the Cybertron repaints were in bringing out the beauty of some otherwise hidden details in the original releases.



3. Scourge
Has there ever been a dragon Transformer you wanted to get in a fight with…less? Scourge is a big dragon and an even bigger robot. Sure, his force chip gimmick is weak, but his big ass axe sure isn’t. Lots of Transformers bring their energon swords and spears to a fight. Scourge brought a giant axe. That’s a pretty good trick right there…



2. Mudflap
Personal bias be damned, this is a good toy and it was an undeserving shelfwarmer. Mudflap retains that old school boxy style while still displaying a full range of motion. His transformation is nearly kibble free and neither mode suffers for the other. Mudflap’s crane sits firmly under his arm as a melee style weapon. If only he had been painted neon green, someone would have loved him…



1. Cannonball
Yar…I don’t think Pirates are particularly cool, but Cannonball is for a variety of reasons. Cybertron did something very creative with this figure. They gave him a deco and back-story that made everyone notice an otherwise vanilla release. For those that don’t know, Cannonball is a space-pirate who uses his proceeds from villainy to purchase expensive deco schemes. Why he doesn’t just steal those too is a mystery of piracy. Cool thing about him, is that like the Dread Pirate Roberts, he ain’t the first. Oh yea, Hasbro did it, they gave genuinely cool back story to a random repaint character. He even has fiction over at the TF CC site.



Cybertron was an outstanding close to the trilogy. Love or hate the last 6 years of Transformers, you’d be hard pressed to ignore the leaps that Cybertron made in every regard for TF toys. There is enough in Cybertron alone to create your own modern day G1-ish population of Transformers. I like that a lot. The series was huge and full of redecos. All the same, it was a fun ride and it seems that no matter which camp of TF collector you fall into, something in the mass of releases in Cybertron was meant for you.