Titans Return Wolfwire Concepts by Emiliano Santalucia

Hopefully Amazon gets Overlord in stock soon. Wow, we're close to breaking 1,000 pages on this thread, don't think that's happened before.

Qwan wrote:From the Facebook page of Emiliano Santalucia, the toy concept designer and artist behind the designs for Titans Return Skullsmasher, we have a look at some of the earlier designs for Titans Return Wolfwire! While not as different from the final product as his crocodilian compatriot, there are still a few noticeable changes - such as a different, shorter cockpit design and an overall bulkier look to the toy. Take a look below, and let us know if there are any details you prefer in this concept artwork

If only the hind legs on the actual figure didn't have so much getting in the way of their articulation....

The feet look much less stupid in that Wolfwire concept than on the toy.

Emerje wrote:

Relic0037 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:If anything, I think overall the leader class was the most successful class in this line

I agree, or at least I do when compared to Combiner Wars in the sense that it's the most improved class. In CW the only Leader I found worth buying was Ultra Magnus, the three jets and two Megatrons just weren't doing it for me at all. Then comes Titans Return and I want them all. Only two Leaders I'm missing from Titans Return is PM Optimus Prime (I want one, but they barely showed up in my area and the online prices are getting crazy) and Overlord (getting the Japanese version instead). I don't have SDCC Primitive Prime either if you count him. My buying habits for the other classes haven't changed at all between the two lines, I either buy everything I can get or buy the Takara Tomy version instead, but my Leader class buys have been a huge step up and that trend looks to be holding up in Power of the Primes, I want all of those Leaders, too.

Emerje

Something the Titans Return Leaders had going for them that the Combiner Wars Leaders didn't was that they were integrated into the series gimmick. You could swap their heads with Titan masters of any other class, whereas in CW, the Leaders were kind of off to an island onto themselves. TR also featured some Leader figures of characters we hadn't gotten in years (like Sixshot) or ever in the States (Overlord). CW had bots like Starscream & Skywarp who regularly get new figures every few years. These are some of the reasons (IMO) the TR Leader Class was better than the one in the previous series.

It is nice that they made them feel more a part of the series, but in all honesty I'm not a big fan of swapping heads around and it doesn't really matter to me if they're Titan Master compatible or not, I would have bought these figures anyway. This is especially true since most (all?) of the Leaders don't require the Titan Master to be removed to transform them. They're just such good figures and in great scale.

Emerje

I agree with many of these points. TR made the leader class interesting again, provided some great characters that don't get toys that much, and very few of them needed the titan master removed, so they worked with the gimmick while being somewhat independent.

I know many fans purchase the toys based on their personal preferences, but for me, integration has a large part in it for me. In CW I purchased zero leaders, although I heard great things about Ultra Magnus as a toy itself. In TR practically everything had cross pattern play, but I had to draw the line somewhere, so I purchased BOTH Titans, All Leaders (for base Modes), all the Legends class tablets (for integration with Blaster & Soundwave) and all the Titan Masters. I know many of the deluxes and Voyagers got praise, but like I said, I had to draw the line somewhere,

For PotP, I see a similar pattern as I'll probably get all the combining Voyagers and Deluxes (and Predaking of course), as well as all the Prime Masters. I'll skip on the Legends. Leaders, although they look cool, I'll probably skip, unless they have some as yet unrevealed cross play pattern with the combiners.

Talking of Leaders, Sixshot's on Amazon for 35 dollars right now.
https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Gen ... 7ddc7a1c6d?tag=seibertron07-20&

I took Titans Return Wheelie off the shelf to transform him to switch up the display.

I'm convinced this is the worst figure released in the Titans Return line, probably for all of Prime Wars Trilogy. And it's been so frustrating getting him back into alt mode that I'd consider him the absolute worst figure ever.

If you even look at him wrong, he'll just fall apart. Is there a Top 5 (bottom 5?) list for worst figures yet?

Kurona wrote:Talking of Leaders, Sixshot's on Amazon for 35 dollars right now.
https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Gen ... 7ddc7a1c6d?tag=seibertron07-20&

Ah. I bit.

Kurona wrote:Talking of Leaders, Sixshot's on Amazon for 35 dollars right now.
https://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Gen ... 7ddc7a1c6d?tag=seibertron07-20&

I bought him at $37.79 a week ago. The price keeps going down.

I have now seen all Titans Returns figures/box sets in retail stores except for Overlord. Just came across 3 Slugslingers at the local walmart. Bought one to replace mine that had broken tabs.

Rysquad wrote: Is there a Top 5 (bottom 5?) list for worst figures yet?

There is a top 10 worst figures of all time and when you look at it I am sure you will feel a lot better about that Wheelie

https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... ime/34791/

o.supreme wrote:I know many fans purchase the toys based on their personal preferences, but for me, integration has a large part in it for me. In CW I purchased zero leaders, although I heard great things about Ultra Magnus as a toy itself. In TR practically everything had cross pattern play, but I had to draw the line somewhere, so I purchased BOTH Titans, All Leaders (for base Modes), all the Legends class tablets (for integration with Blaster & Soundwave) and all the Titan Masters. I know many of the deluxes and Voyagers got praise, but like I said, I had to draw the line somewhere,

For PotP, I see a similar pattern as I'll probably get all the combining Voyagers and Deluxes (and Predaking of course), as well as all the Prime Masters. I'll skip on the Legends. Leaders, although they look cool, I'll probably skip, unless they have some as yet unrevealed cross play pattern with the combiners.

I'm really only looking forward to the Prime Masters and the Legends class figures. The Prime Master shells are essentially the new Targetmasters to me. And the Legends figures can directly interact with Titan and Prime Masters.

I actually have Combiner Wars Ultra Magnus but he stays in a box with my Ultra Magnus collection (all-time favorite character). Fiction be damned but Ultra Magnus would have worked better with the Titan Master play pattern versus the one-off tiny Minimus Ambus (and Alpha Trion) pilot in my opinion.

It looks like Deluxe and up will have pegs for Titan and Prime Masters to stand on but I don't see any actual piloting going on.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Relic0037 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:If anything, I think overall the leader class was the most successful class in this line

I agree, or at least I do when compared to Combiner Wars in the sense that it's the most improved class. In CW the only Leader I found worth buying was Ultra Magnus, the three jets and two Megatrons just weren't doing it for me at all. Then comes Titans Return and I want them all. Only two Leaders I'm missing from Titans Return is PM Optimus Prime (I want one, but they barely showed up in my area and the online prices are getting crazy) and Overlord (getting the Japanese version instead). I don't have SDCC Primitive Prime either if you count him. My buying habits for the other classes haven't changed at all between the two lines, I either buy everything I can get or buy the Takara Tomy version instead, but my Leader class buys have been a huge step up and that trend looks to be holding up in Power of the Primes, I want all of those Leaders, too.

Emerje

Something the Titans Return Leaders had going for them that the Combiner Wars Leaders didn't was that they were integrated into the series gimmick. You could swap their heads with Titan masters of any other class, whereas in CW, the Leaders were kind of off to an island onto themselves. TR also featured some Leader figures of characters we hadn't gotten in years (like Sixshot) or ever in the States (Overlord). CW had bots like Starscream & Skywarp who regularly get new figures every few years. These are some of the reasons (IMO) the TR Leader Class was better than the one in the previous series.

It is nice that they made them feel more a part of the series, but in all honesty I'm not a big fan of swapping heads around and it doesn't really matter to me if they're Titan Master compatible or not, I would have bought these figures anyway. This is especially true since most (all?) of the Leaders don't require the Titan Master to be removed to transform them. They're just such good figures and in great scale.

Emerje

I agree with many of these points. TR made the leader class interesting again, provided some great characters that don't get toys that much, and very few of them needed the titan master removed, so they worked with the gimmick while being somewhat independent.

Totally agreed when it comes to Titans Return Leaders > Combiner Wars Leaders.

Insurgent wrote:Also, so much agree with the comment about how easy TR makes it to customise figures.

Any third-party and/or Shapeways folks making guns that can seat Titan (and Prime) Masters? I ordered the LG-EX headmaster set and some of the LG legion-sized figures that come with an extra headmaster and I'm just looking for places to put them when they're not piloting a vehicle mode or being used as a head. Basically, I'm looking for a way to get say 10 copies of the Chromedome gun in various colors.

Rysquad wrote:Totally agreed when it comes to Titans Return Leaders > Combiner Wars Leaders.

Same here, but it really isn't even a fair comparison, since 1/2 of the leaders offered were just a slight retool and recolor of Thrilling 30 Jetfire.

I will say this, though, CW Leader megs is a really solid toy. Maybe not the best Megatron (but certainly a decent one), but possibly the best tank-former design to date. They gave us working treads plus a full 360 turning ability on the tank turret. Also, being a solid enough Megatron allowed me to turn TR Megatron into TR Nitro Zues using the head the Thunderwing displaced from the TLK voyager.

TF-fan kev777 wrote: Maybe not the best Megatron (but certainly a decent one), but possibly the best tank-former design to date. They gave us working treads plus a full 360 turning ability on the tank turret. Also, being a solid enough Megatron allowed me to turn TR Megatron into TR Nitro Zues using the head the Thunderwing displaced from the TLK voyager.

A good tank, sure, but to be a good tank-former, you need to have a decent robot mode as well.

This is what I had come up with: https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... oys/32291/

He is definitely on the list, but not on top, to me.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:I will say this, though, CW Leader megs is a really solid toy. Maybe not the best Megatron (but certainly a decent one), but possibly the best tank-former design to date. They gave us working treads plus a full 360 turning ability on the tank turret. Also, being a solid enough Megatron allowed me to turn TR Megatron into TR Nitro Zues using the head the Thunderwing displaced from the TLK voyager.

Looks like there's a Shapeways kit to make CW Leader Megs Titan Master compatible.

https://www.shapeways.com/shops/arielsc ... Return&s=0

I must be in the minority but the TR leaders have all been lack luster to me in various ways (I don't have Skyshadow yet and waiting on takara overlord though I will more than likely pick up the hasbro overlord if it is ever in stores here as I prefer the colors).

Soundwave and blaster didn't even come with a transforming 'not' cassette included, then with Blaster being a repaint it still had an attachment for soundwaves shoulder cannon -laaaazy. Soundwaves usually a must for me and pretty much awesome in every toy form (apart from the Banus satellite) so I could easily have skipped on him, blaster was a sale purchase and a decent stand in for MP scale. Base modes feel kind of throw away on both, to me, neat for kids but kind of a poormans micromaster base. Might have been a neat touch for blasters insides being arc orange and soundwaves being all purple?

Powermaster Optimus also a sale purchase...his weird chest thing and no ginrai mode made him subpar compared to the G1, plus trying to lock his trailer parts in place, poorly holds his hand guns- and with the encore version being around £80 on release with godbomber compared to the £50 mark TR powermaster.

Sixshot...the gun transformer that doesnt have a gun mode...and even if using the 'submarine' as a gun the wings are way too flimsy for that purpose. Once again another toy that fails to be an improvement over the G1 though a great feature of figures being able to drive the vehicle mode, then totally derped by the figures look when connected as a 'base'. The wing connectors generally making the figure look like it's missing something from it's wings. Full price purchase, all his true modes look nice.

The TR Voyagers, Deluxes and legends (normally I'd avoid legends class figures) Have all been great (besides hasbro bee) and although I thought I was downsizing what I collect, they have been too hard to resist and truly one of the best toy lines so far. I have sold most of my other lines off tho if they can do other series figure updates as good as these, then my downsizing is obliterated for sure -I'm just about holding off on the beastwars TR legends characters in favor of only getting the BW MPs.

I've enjoyed TR overall but in hindsight I'm really bummed at how little torso articulation was present in the line. To me knowledge no Voyager or Leader has torso articulation. A real bummer overall.

I love that Metalhawk from the Siege of Cybertron set. However, it seem to be made out of bronze/gold plastics. It really worry me. Will it crumble to dust in a couple of years or is GPS a thing of the past?

-Kanrabat- wrote:I love that Metalhawk from the Siege of Cybertron set. However, it seem to be made out of bronze/gold plastics. It really worry me. Will it crumble to dust in a couple of years or is GPS a thing of the past?

Apparently GPS has been fixed since 2007.

Skritz wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I love that Metalhawk from the Siege of Cybertron set. However, it seem to be made out of bronze/gold plastics. It really worry me. Will it crumble to dust in a couple of years or is GPS a thing of the past?

Apparently GPS has been fixed since 2007.

Besides, Metalhawk's gold-colored plastic looks matte, no metal flake that I can see.

Speaking of Siege, I went over to my friend's for lunch, and his Pile o' Loot dropped...!I'm totally down with Other People's Piles of loot.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Skritz wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I love that Metalhawk from the Siege of Cybertron set. However, it seem to be made out of bronze/gold plastics. It really worry me. Will it crumble to dust in a couple of years or is GPS a thing of the past?

Apparently GPS has been fixed since 2007.

Besides, Metalhawk's gold-colored plastic looks matte, no metal flake that I can see.

Indeed, yellow/orange/gold/amber/brown plastic subject to GPS generally has a flaky or 'swirly' look to it. If the color and texture is mostly uniform, it is far less likely to be the type of plastic that will shatter into dust clouds.

Skritz wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Skritz wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I love that Metalhawk from the Siege of Cybertron set. However, it seem to be made out of bronze/gold plastics. It really worry me. Will it crumble to dust in a couple of years or is GPS a thing of the past?

Apparently GPS has been fixed since 2007.

Besides, Metalhawk's gold-colored plastic looks matte, no metal flake that I can see.

Indeed, yellow/orange/gold/amber/brown plastic subject to GPS generally has a flaky or 'swirly' look to it. If the color and texture is mostly uniform, it is far less likely to be the type of plastic that will shatter into dust clouds.

I'm so glad our figures are made better today....GPS is scary.

bodrock wrote:

Skritz wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Skritz wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I love that Metalhawk from the Siege of Cybertron set. However, it seem to be made out of bronze/gold plastics. It really worry me. Will it crumble to dust in a couple of years or is GPS a thing of the past?

Apparently GPS has been fixed since 2007.

Besides, Metalhawk's gold-colored plastic looks matte, no metal flake that I can see.

Indeed, yellow/orange/gold/amber/brown plastic subject to GPS generally has a flaky or 'swirly' look to it. If the color and texture is mostly uniform, it is far less likely to be the type of plastic that will shatter into dust clouds.

I'm so glad our figures are made better today....GPS is scary.

IMG_6345.JPG

GPS destroyed one of my most played-with and beloved toy of my childhood: Transmetal Megatron. He was the first of my transformers to suffer an irrepairable breakage. I remember it made my kid self very sad, because it just wasn't the same to have those Predacons fight Maximals on the kitchen table without their leader. It doesn't help that, due to badluck, all my Megatrons eventually broke, leaving me without a lead villain.

It just wasn't the same, I tell you. GPS can break your childhood...

Skritz wrote:GPS destroyed one of my most played-with and beloved toy of my childhood: Transmetal Megatron. He was the first of my transformers to suffer an irrepairable breakage. I remember it made my kid self very sad, because it just wasn't the same to have those Predacons fight Maximals on the kitchen table without their leader. It doesn't help that, due to badluck, all my Megatrons eventually broke, leaving me without a lead villain.

It just wasn't the same, I tell you. GPS can break your childhood...

Everyone that says Michael Bay ruined their childhood should hear your tragic story

Relic0037 wrote:

Skritz wrote:GPS destroyed one of my most played-with and beloved toy of my childhood: Transmetal Megatron. He was the first of my transformers to suffer an irrepairable breakage. I remember it made my kid self very sad, because it just wasn't the same to have those Predacons fight Maximals on the kitchen table without their leader. It doesn't help that, due to badluck, all my Megatrons eventually broke, leaving me without a lead villain.

It just wasn't the same, I tell you. GPS can break your childhood...

Everyone that says Michael Bay ruined their childhood should hear your tragic story

What made this infuriating is that I was a very careful kid and breakage only hapenned due to accidents. My first exposure to GPS was a horrific experience: one moment I'm transforming Megatron, going all *ahem* "Megatron, terrorize!" and going through the motions of his transformation, which I had done so many times. And then?

Crunch.

Nowadays when I take a Beast Wars figure out of the box I know what to expect in some of them and handle them carefully or avoid transforming fragile ones. But when you are a kid and this is your first exposure to the fact some transformers have some shoddy construction element that will cause their inevitable breakdown? Ouch. It's a real shock. For years I thought it was because I transformed him outside when it was colder but since then it has come to my attention that it's simply a problem with the Hasbro transmetal Megatron: that he has a waist that will inevitably crumble into pieces. It is a good thing that modern engineering seem to have, barring some still-existent problems, reduce the odds of a toy breaking this badly. Sure, Transformers aren't designed to last forever but in general there seem to have been an improvement in joints since the Beast era, which you'll recall had a lot of ball joints or weird, flimsy joints needed in transformation, as well as terrible weight/mass distribution.

All this to say: all I hope is that those kids who bought Transformers in 2017 don't suffer the same fate which befell those of us who grew up during Euro G1/G2/Beast Wars. This is why I worry about Titan Masters, that one day their little heads will snap and render these Transformers headless.

bodrock wrote:I'm so glad our figures are made better today....GPS is scary.

IMG_6345.JPG

Your memes always crack me up Bodrock, so glad to have you with us

We have heard from a few users that Transformers Titans Return Sixshot is currently on Amazon for 35 dollars USD. At the moment of writing, there are only 19 left. Let us know if you think this is a good enough deal. And if you have him already, let us know if you find this to be a good deal for those that don't have him yet. The original price for this Decepticon leader class toy on Amazon was 50$ making this close to a 30% discount. For those not in the know, Sixshot is a six-changer, meaning that he can change tino six different modes, just as the original toy did. If you find good deals like this in stores or elsewhere, write it in your corresponding sightings thread.

Sixshot is pretty hit and miss but I'd say he's worth it while on any kind of sale if you are remotely interested in the character or his concept. His articulation is a bit lacking but that's in part because he is a rather slavish update of the G1 figure to the point of crippling it a little bit. His lack of waist and wrist swivel as well as melee weapon is a real bummer for a guy associated with ninja stuff. He may yet be one of the least flexible ninjas to ever exist. That said, he has a plus in that you can transform him to all mode without ever touching his head titanmaster gimmick.

Are there better Sixshot out there? Yes, but they are all third party. At the very least one could enjoy all his fanmode potential.

william-james88 wrote:

bodrock wrote:I'm so glad our figures are made better today....GPS is scary.

IMG_6345.JPG

Your memes always crack me up Bodrock, so glad to have you with us

Thanks Will!

Wow, $35 for Sixshot is an excellent price.
I think bargain-hunting shall be upon us soon with Xmas less than a couple months away....!

I'm thinking it's the only way I may find Overlord at this rate.....hoping to get Trypticon for cheap too.

Skritz wrote:Sixshot is pretty hit and miss but I'd say he's worth it while on any kind of sale if you are remotely interested in the character or his concept. His articulation is a bit lacking but that's in part because he is a rather slavish update of the G1 figure to the point of crippling it a little bit. His lack of waist and wrist swivel as well as melee weapon is a real bummer for a guy associated with ninja stuff. He may yet be one of the least flexible ninjas to ever exist. That said, he has a plus in that you can transform him to all mode without ever touching his head titanmaster gimmick.

Are there better Sixshot out there? Yes, but they are all third party. At the very least one could enjoy all his fanmode potential.

I really only got him because I need places to put Titan Masters.

I got Sixshot by pure impulse -- I had to know how he compared to the original and was hoping for max poseability! It ain't bad.

I really liked Alpha Trion and Lione -- I see a fair amount of surplus for the former, but I hope others enjoyed him too.

bodrock wrote:I got Sixshot by pure impulse -- I had to know how he compared to the original and was hoping for max poseability! It ain't bad.

I really liked Alpha Trion and Lione -- I see a fair amount of surplus for the former, but I hope others enjoyed him too.

IMG_8278.JPG

Your ability to make toys that I don't think look good, look good, never ceases to amaze me. Guess I'm gonna have to bust out Alpha Trion again when I get home


Having never experienced G1 Sixshot I have to admit I was a little let-down by how incredibly abstract most of his modes were (I mean what car, sci-fi or otherwise, has 1/3 of its mass in front of its front wheels). On the other hand, his relative super-chunkiness, slightly-limited articulation and semi-realistic-at-best alt-modes gave me shades of the UT toys, so I guess he managed to somehow squeeze a bit of nostalgia out of me as well.

I wouldn't say he's the best Leader of TR (though admittedly I haven't been incredibly wowed by any of TR's Leaders either, good as they all are), but in my opinion he's pretty much worth the price of admission even without a significant price-drop. I bought mine at the standard slight-TRU-markup since that was the only B&M I could find him at, and I'm still pretty satisfied, so make of that what you will.

I'm not gonna lie that my enjoyment of Alpha Trion come solely out of the fact of 1) having an AT figure to begin with and 2) his Beast mode and design reminding me of a Transmetal, down to the derpy half-formed 'vehicle' mode.

Skritz wrote:I'm not gonna lie that my enjoyment of Alpha Trion come solely out of the fact of 1) having an AT figure to begin with and 2) his Beast mode and design reminding me of a Transmetal, down to the derpy half-formed 'vehicle' mode.

A Space Age Carrier is still more of a vehicle than most Transmetals have ever been

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Skritz wrote:I'm not gonna lie that my enjoyment of Alpha Trion come solely out of the fact of 1) having an AT figure to begin with and 2) his Beast mode and design reminding me of a Transmetal, down to the derpy half-formed 'vehicle' mode.

A Space Age Carrier is still more of a vehicle than most Transmetals have ever been

Yes, but just because it looks more visually complete doesn't mean it looks good.

Thanks Qwan! I try to give any bot I've spent money on some love -- especially if one of their modes fit some theme in my head.

But yeah, as much fun as AT can be, I've never bothered with his craft-type thang. I like him as a barbarian sage and liocorn, though!

To me, his lion-mode and large armored look remind me of a wizened yet-still-badass king, like some sort of aged King Arthur. While he may be generally remembered as an 'old sage' in the modern era, it is worth remembering that back in the cartoon Alpha Trion (or rather A3, as he was known) was part of the rebellion against the Quintesson. So it's not implausible to see him as some old badass who is equally an intellectual and a powerful warrior.

It is worth noting that due to molding, TR Alpha Trion has a shorter beard than his actual depiction. Maybe that's just Alpha Trion in his robot fifties rather than eighties? /headcanon-ing the hell out of one toy....

Skritz wrote:To me, his lion-mode and large armored look remind me of a wizened yet-still-badass king, like some sort of aged King Arthur. While he may be generally remembered as an 'old sage' in the modern era, it is worth remembering that back in the cartoon Alpha Trion (or rather A3, as he was known) was part of the rebellion against the Quintesson. So it's not implausible to see him as some old badass who is equally an intellectual and a powerful warrior.

It is worth noting that due to molding, TR Alpha Trion has a shorter beard than his actual depiction. Maybe that's just Alpha Trion in his robot fifties rather than eighties? /headcanon-ing the hell out of one toy....

The Titans Return version made me think of him as Master Bra’tac from Stargate SG-1.

Skritz wrote:To me, his lion-mode and large armored look remind me of a wizened yet-still-badass king, like some sort of aged King Arthur. While he may be generally remembered as an 'old sage' in the modern era, it is worth remembering that back in the cartoon Alpha Trion (or rather A3, as he was known) was part of the rebellion against the Quintesson. So it's not implausible to see him as some old badass who is equally an intellectual and a powerful warrior.

It is worth noting that due to molding, TR Alpha Trion has a shorter beard than his actual depiction. Maybe that's just Alpha Trion in his robot fifties rather than eighties? /headcanon-ing the hell out of one toy....

I hear ya on head-canons!

And yeah, this A-3 is certainly more combat-ready than the old sage we saw in the cartoon! I agree -- it's plausible he got this body upon becoming a Titan Master as well.

See, it does require a bit of headcanon to explain what the hell this Alpha Trion is supposed to repesent: while his design clearly harken to G1 cartoon Alpha Trion in head and color, the lion body is a clear homage to the 3H comic Leobreaker recolor which got scrapped.

So, okay, it's a meta homage which is damn cool. However it still beg the question where or how this guy's design fit into continuity...and the answer is problably 'nowhere' because he's just a toy in the Generations toyline. But speculating on such minute details is certainly something the fandom does, especially given that nowadays we can be assured pretty much everything is 'canon' to some degree in that it exist somewhere in the multiverse. Generally, we can assume design changes to a character are just artistic license in the engineering but that they still nonetheless 'represent' that character, such as how Generations Armada Starscream can be officially seen as an Armada figure inside the Generations line, even if the design was used in comics.

So is he a form of the (a?) G1 A3/Alpha Trion? He appears in some promotional material and there have been universal clusters named for far less. Is he Aligned Alpha Trion? Is he 'Alpha Trizer' from the Wing universe? Or am I simply overthinking a single figure? Probably.

He's based on both his previous Botcon toys -- the Vector Prime repaint (hence the alt-mode and the chest thingy) and the planned BW lion repaint. It's honestly pretty interesting to behold, especially in a line that is so incredibly G1-orientated.

Kurona wrote:He's based on both his previous Botcon toys -- the Vector Prime repaint (hence the alt-mode and the chest thingy) and the planned BW lion repaint. It's honestly pretty interesting to behold, especially in a line that is so incredibly G1-orientated.

I know, which is why his amalgamated design make me speculate all the more! He's the only retail Alpha Trion figure to exist and he's a big pile of crazy Botcon homages to boot, where you'd think that had they wanted a G1-accurate Alpha Trion figure they could have just retooled Scourge given that it is semi-canon that G1 Alpha Trion is some sort of space car and/or hovercraft.

Mind you I'm not complaining, he's certainly one of the most unique and unexpected releases in recent years.

whatdyamean planned? Legends Lio Prime was already released(a while ago)

No wait, we both got it wrong: it's a Beast Machine lion figure called Snarl.

Fun Pub gave the TR Alpha Trion toy a place in fiction by using it as SG Alpha Trion's upgraded form, lion mode and all, as many of their final prose stories of 2016 were giving heavy advertisement attention to mass retail toys (Combiner Wars in particular) from both Hasbro and Takara.

Sabrblade wrote:Fun Pub gave the TR Alpha Trion toy a place in fiction by using it as SG Alpha Trion's upgraded form, lion mode and all, as many of their final prose stories of 2016 were giving heavy advertisement attention to mass retail toys (Combiner Wars in particular) from both Hasbro and Takara.

Huh, guess I must have missed that detail. Oh well now I know. And kno- well you know how that saying goes.

Stuartmaximus wrote:whatdyamean planned? Legends Lio Prime was already released(a while ago)

Not a planned repaint of TR A3 into Leo Prime, what was mentioned was the planned repaint of Beast Machines Snarl (and/or Beast Wars Lio Convoy) into Alpha Trion - I can't find out how far back that scrapped idea dates to, but definitely way before Titans Return A3 came into being.

I myself had been under the impression the TR guy was an homage to both the redeco from Vector Prime, and the Botcon Alpha Trizer from Prime Thundertron; a short wiki-walk, however, informs me that the Alpha Trizer toy was itself an homage to the planned Snarl redeco so I guess I learned something today.

Personally I'd be all in favor of more of these unmade concepts being revisited later in toylines.

Qwan wrote:

Stuartmaximus wrote:whatdyamean planned? Legends Lio Prime was already released(a while ago)

Not a planned repaint of TR A3 into Leo Prime, what was mentioned was the planned repaint of Beast Machines Snarl (and/or Beast Wars Lio Convoy) into Alpha Trion - I can't find out how far back that scrapped idea dates to, but definitely way before Titans Return A3 came into being.

The earliest instance of the Snarl redeco proposal's existence dates back to near the end of January 2001, when Alpha Trion's "VEHICON ALERT!" dossier first went live on BotCon: Beyond.

Skritz wrote:Personally I'd be all in favor of more of these unmade concepts being revisited later in toylines.

Yes! And not only more of those, I'd also like to see those Asia exclusives we never saw in the States...at least we got 'Shadow and Overlord.

In general I really like the stuff-the-west-never-got side of Generations. Even with the internet making information and even physical copies of these older Japan- and Europe-exclusive toys easier to access and get, it still feels really fresh and new.