Alternity 04: Starscream and Skywarp

Post by **Blackjack** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 4:16 am

The concept looks nice- Starscream as a car. Better done than the Bumblebee one, anyway... however, considering the price point of these toys, it's another pass for me...

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Sat Feb 20, 2010 10:20 am

Despite my retiring from collecting, I would be very tempted to pick up Skywarp if he were ever available at a sensible price.

(So very unlikely I'll ever end up with him, all things considered!)

I like the style, love the cars - it's something a bit different, and I think it works. I didn't expect it to from the art, but it does.

Binal Convoy · Post by **Binal Convoy** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:27 am

http://www.e-hobby.co.jp/cgi-bin/omc?po ... e=tf_as_09

http://www.e-hobby.co.jp/cgi-bin/omc?po ... e=tf_as_10

car info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsuoka_Orochi

Shrapnel Clone · Post by **Shrapnel Clone** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:11 pm

I wouldn't recognize these two as Screamer and Warp if it weren't for the topic title.

Sure, they've got the right guns, and Starscream even got the stripe on his 'wings', but that's where the simularity ends if you ask me.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 2:49 pm

On top of that they look absolutely awful. Why not buy in some Roadbots while you're at it? Seriously, if these were from another line, no-one would give a shit.

Halfshell · Post by **Halfshell** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 4:00 pm

"Can we make a car that transforms into a robot that looks like it transforms into a jet?"

"Yes sir. Like this, sir."

"Is there any way we can engineer it so that it doesn't just look like we've tried to make a car that transforms into a robot that looks like it transforms into a jet?"

"Without actually just making a robot that transforms into a jet?"

"Yes."

"No, sir"

"Ah, well. Stick it out anyway. Colour it like some 1984 characters we still own the names for... some bugger'll think they're awesome."

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:11 pm

Which'd be pretty disgusting if it wasn't for the way fans keep settling for the approach and mindlessly buying. The people demand shit figures and lo, Takara doth deliver. It's kinda hard to blame them - why go mad hiring proper designers and making good toys when you can get away with crap like this?

Halfshell · Post by **Halfshell** » Wed Mar 10, 2010 6:16 pm

Worst case scenario - give it the same name as some random cartoon character that never got a toy and let eHobby have it as an exclusive. It'll still sell.

Post by **Sades** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:20 am

I'm vaguely reminded of insects.

They're seriously just running out of ideas now, aren't they?

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 10:29 am

I dunno, Transformers doesn't need many ideas, it just needs the ones it has already got to be done properly... What I find unfathomable is why they're forging ahead with dross like this instead of, say, doing new Classics/Henkei moulds. Or even new smaller-size Masterpiece figures (I largely dislike the line, but at least it had a point). I just don't see what Alternity is for, apart from just getting another Convoy on the shelves...

Post by **Sades** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:35 am

Money? Money.

Halfshell · Post by **Halfshell** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:38 am

Cliffjumper wrote:I just don't see what Alternity is for, apart from just getting another Convoy on the shelves...

It's just basically Takara refusing to let go of the Binaltech notion, innit?

"Hey, licensed scale cars of classic characters was an awesome idea, but we sort of hammered it into the ground... what can we do next?"

It speaks volumes for the company that "PVC models of underage anime girls, accompanied by disturbing light-paedophilia fiction" ranked higher on the list of ideas than "make them a bit smaller".

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:48 am

Sades wrote:Money? Money.

Thing is, dreadful though the Alternity figures are, it surely can't cost much more to design a Henkei mould - less, I'd imagine. It just strikes me as odd - the way I'd heard it (which could, I'll admit, be bollocks) is that the Movie stuff and Henkei were the best selling TF lines in Japan for many a moon, which makes you wonder why they've decided to go back to the stuff that wasn't selling to the point where they got taken over by a rival...

Post by **Warcry** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:04 pm

Cliffjumper wrote:It just strikes me as odd - the way I'd heard it (which could, I'll admit, be bollocks) is that the Movie stuff and Henkei were the best selling TF lines in Japan for many a moon, which makes you wonder why they've decided to go back to the stuff that wasn't selling to the point where they got taken over by a rival...

Isn't this what Takara always did whenever they got any measure of control over the Transformers line? After a few years of Hasbro-controlled lines making the series popular, they go off on a tangent and do their own thing under the mistaken impression that what their fans actually want is something completely different than what they're buying.

I think the big problem is that they don't want to admit that the Western version of Transformers is what attracted most of their fans in the first place. I think that's where things like Masterforce and Kiss Players or Alternity come from -- the idea that making the series more 'Japanese' and/or aiming it at serious mecha fans will make Transformers a runaway hit in Japan. Every time they've tried that it's been a terrible failure, and you'd think they'd learn, but obviously not.

Post by **Clay** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:22 pm

I dunno. It's not as if they're flooding their market with the things. They only put out three toys in 2009 (in various colors), versus 170 different movie toys.

I like the new mold, myself. I have no plans to buy it until after somebody else gets and makes a gallery so I can see not-stock photos, but the whole look seems to complement the movie stuff neatly.

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 4:36 pm

Clay wrote:I like the new mold, myself. I have no plans to buy it until after somebody else gets and makes a gallery so I can see not-stock photos, but the whole look seems to complement the movie stuff neatly.

Quiet, Jafanboy scum.

I'd just rather have Transformers that didn't look like generic anime mechs, especially if Takara are going to arbitrarily slap old names on them. I'd also like TF fans to be more discerning about what they spend money on so the rest of us don't get saddled with the fruits of their apathy. And for John Lennon to do some live dates, which is more likely. There are people out there who'll happily chow down on those plastic turds rather than picking up an SoC because Voltes V doesn't have the same name as someone from the G1 cartoon.

Post by **Clay** » Thu Mar 11, 2010 5:12 pm

Cliffjumper wrote:I'd just rather have Transformers that didn't look like generic anime mechs, especially if Takara are going to arbitrarily slap old names on them.

See, I don't buy anime mechs at random, though. I think it's mostly because they don't do anything, whereas the transformers are puzzle by default. If Takara want to make three toys a year that look like a thousand other robots while adding the key feature that actually draws me, I don't have a problem with it, and may even bite.

Post by **Sades** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 3:15 am

You know what's funny? I think I would be likely to give them a more of a chance if they weren't given the names they were, and were painted differently. Got to admit though, after thinking about it- it's better than yet another repaint.

I don't give two shits about Starscream, but depending on how the toy turns out I might look at Skywarp.

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:31 pm

Warcry wrote:I think that's where things like Masterforce and Kiss Players or Alternity come from -- the idea that making the series more 'Japanese' and/or aiming it at serious mecha fans will make Transformers a runaway hit in Japan. Every time they've tried that it's been a terrible failure, and you'd think they'd learn, but obviously not.

Hmm... going to go out on a limb here. I don't think Takara/Tomy has ever tried to make Transformers into a 'serious mecha' type series. I think the closest we got was Binaltech, which had little in the way of actual support. Certainly the bulk of the toylines are more kitsch, or odd-ball, and not really more 'hard core' like the very successful Gundam and Macross lines have been.

Honestly, if Transformers were going to take more cues from Gundam and Macross, that would probably be a good thing overall. But I don't expect it to happen in the near future.

Post by **Warcry** » Sat Mar 13, 2010 5:22 pm

TFVanguard wrote:Hmm... going to go out on a limb here. I don't think Takara/Tomy has ever tried to make Transformers into a 'serious mecha' type series. I think the closest we got was Binaltech, which had little in the way of actual support. Certainly the bulk of the toylines are more kitsch, or odd-ball, and not really more 'hard core' like the very successful Gundam and Macross lines have been.

However, the bulk of the toylines are developed with Hasbro, who sensibly think about things like whether or not they'll be able to sell the toys they design to their target market.

The lines that are created exclusively for Japan are different, though. Either they make generic robot anime (Car Robots or Masterforce), niche market stuff (Device Label, the Disney TFs) or they try to compete in the 'serious mecha' market (Alternity, Masterpiece). Regardless of quality none of these ventures seem to be as successful as the main-line Hasbro stuff, which is what I was trying to get across.

TFVanguard wrote:Honestly, if Transformers were going to take more cues from Gundam and Macross, that would probably be a good thing overall. But I don't expect it to happen in the near future.

I really don't think it would. The people who want Gundam or Macross toys already buy Gundam or Macross toys. They're not going to switch allegiances and become Transfans if Transformers gets turned into a clone of those lines. On the other hand, it would be a great way to alienate the Geewun crowd. It probably wouldn't help much when it came to selling the toys to children, either.