Machine Wars Optimus Prime (1997)

With Toys R Us still in the process of closing its doors forever (at least in the US. Stores in other countries have found buyers, some of whom even look to be retaining the "Toys R Us" name), I had occasion to recall the closure of KB Toys yet again recently when I discovered Machine Wars Optimus Prime for sale at a local store and decided to add it to my collection. As long-time fans already know, Machine Wars was a short-lived line that was exclusive to KB. I discuss the line in a post I wrote in preparation for BotCon 2013, which featured a Machine Wars theme, so I won't repeat all that here. Instead, I'll focus on what made this version of Optimus Prime distinctive.

Reactions to the 2013 BotCon Box Set

So, now we know (cue "and knowing is half the battle" response).

Over the past few weeks, fans have been treated to previews of the toys that will be featured in this year's BotCon box set, based off of the old Machine Wars line.

Long-time followers of BotCon will, of course, already know that these five toys won't be the only exclusive toys to come out of BotCon 2013. These are simply the ones that we can order in advance (actually, there will one more toy you can order in advance if you want to this year. For the first time ever, the toy that will be made in the Customizing Class will be available to everyone in an unpainted, but assembled, form. But we won't know what that toy looks like until the convention itself. And, of course, there's also the attendee-only exclusive...). Even so, these revelations have caused plenty of reaction so far on the online boards, and not all of it has been positive.

I am not here seeking to defend Fun Publications (henceforth, "FunPub," for the sake of brevity), although I hope not to denigrate them, either. I myself am particularly disturbed that the character that most needed a remolded head (Megaplex, because pretty much the only thing known about the original Machine Wars version of the character is that he's a Megatron clone, and thus he shared Megatron's head shape) is the one toy that doesn't get such a head. FunPub has explained how this came to pass, and while I still wish that another decision had been made, what's done is done, and the mold being used for Megaplex itself is very appropriate for the character. It just needed the Megatron-y head to finish the homage. That said, to get as many as four of the five figures in the set with new heads is unprecedented!

I do think a lot of the negative response arises from fans holding either of two different, but related, ideas: 1. a misunderstanding of FunPub's intentions (this isn't a reworking of Machine Wars concepts so much as a "second series" of Machine Wars figures), 2. a feeling that a set that purports to be Machine Wars-themed should more closely resemble the original line than what was actually done, regardless of what FunPub's intentions were (although noting that Strika and Obsidian are from Beast Machines is not to be ignored). To the extent that fans have misunderstood, both FunPub and other fans need to do a better job of explaining the reality in ways that people can hear (although this is undoubtedly an uphill battle). To the extent that fans simply think that FunPub should have done something else... well, there's little to be done on that account. Opinions will always differ.

Like many fans, I'm also a bit put off by the ever-increasing prices attached to the set (up $25 from last year, for a set which has one less figure than last year's had), but acknowledge that the prices of toys at retail venues have gone up quite a bit (to use the easiest example, most fans still have a lingering mindset that Deluxe-sized toys should go for about $10, even though that hasn't been true for several years now. The current around-$15 price reflects a huge increase from those levels). That said, I've done calculations for the "retail multiplier" of exclusive toys on the data pages, and these suggest that this set actually is more expensive than last year's, even accounting for retail inflation. This year's price is better compared to the "retail multiplier" a couple of years ago, but considering that I calculated that set as the highest such multiplier of all time, that's not necessarily high praise.

Ultimately, the question comes down to whether or not fans will buy the set regardless of whatever deficiencies it is perceived to have. As long as these sets continue to sell out, neither FunPub nor anyone else has any real reason to change the current pattern.

BotCon 2013 Speculation Via Machine Wars Mirage

A few weeks ago, the theme for the 2013 BotCon was announced to be "Machine Wars." We still don't have any more specific information in regard to characters or molds that will be used, but that obviously hasn't kept fans from speculating about what a set based on the 1997 Machine Wars line might look like. Let's look at Machine Wars Mirage as we consider the possibilities...

As I've mentioned before (for example, when featuring Machine Wars Hoist back in 2009), the Machine Wars line was exclusive to KB Toys, and consisted entirely of molds that had been created for previous lines (although many had not actually been released previously). Of course, all BotCon toys are exclusives made using previously-existing molds, so this distinction of Machine Wars isn't especially helpful. Perhaps more relevant to Machine Wars is the fact that most Machine Wars toys used the names of Generation One characters. Still, what would make a BotCon "Machine Wars" toy any different than any other Generation One homage that they've done over the years? (And even there, there are two noteworthy exceptions: Machine Wars Hubcap is almost certainly not the same character as the Generation One character of that name, and Megaplex is an entirely new character, even if he is a clone of Megatron...)

Machine Wars molds came in two basic types. Four "basic" molds that all featured a "flipchanger" one-step, spring-loaded transformation (I'm not counting the step of pulling the figure's weapon out of storage, which obviously must be done manually), and four larger molds that originated in the European markets in the later years of Generation One. The four "basic" molds were all used twice, while the four larger molds were used one time apiece, for a grand total of twelve Machine Wars toys. While I can't see BotCon going with "flipchanger" designs (which exist, but aren't especially common among more modern molds), I do wonder if a possible pattern exists here that BotCon might emulate for their "Machine Wars" set. I could easily see about half of their dozen-ish toys (recent BotCons have given just over that number) being repaints of each other....

But what about the homages themselves? Now that I'm getting around to Mirage, I can say I've covered all four of the "basic" molds in the Machine Wars line, although in the case of Beast Wars 2 Dirge, I covered a later redeco of the Machine Wars mold, since I don't have either of Machine Wars Thundercracker or Skywarp. Looking strictly at those toys, it becomes fairly clear that two of these molds — this Mirage mold and the one for Megatron/Megaplex — have heads that were clearly molded to resemble the Generation One character the toy is named for. The same cannot be said of the Hoist/Hubcap mold or the Thundercracker/Skywarp mold (FYI, Mirage's Machine Wars redeco was named Prowl, but although Prowl is apparently intended to be the Generation One character, there's little in the mold that suggests it's any kind of an homage beyond the name use). This doesn't give us much help in determining a pattern, except perhaps to note that the same hit-and-miss pattern of homages might be said of BotCon exclusives of the past, as well.

I have less experience with the larger, Europe-originated, molds that were brought over and redecoed for Machine Wars. In fact, the only specimen I currently own that uses any of these molds is Universe Soundwave. Even so, there's not much of a pattern that I can glean out of those four toys, except to say that they pretty much all make for fairly weak homages for one reason or another. That said, since we're only talking about eight molds, total, for the entire original Machine Wars line, the lack of cohesion among the homages has been suggested, itself, as a way that BotCon 2013 might create its set of "Machine Wars" toys. However, I'm not at all confident that a set of toys that bear little-to-no resemblance to the characters whose names they're given will go over very well with fans once the choices are announced.

I do have one additional note that I'm holding out a small hope that the folks at BotCon might notice. The Tech Specs for the Machine Wars toys all used the Generation Two faction symbols! These are symbols that have been largely forgotten today, although they have resurfaced on the occasional Generation Two homage. BotCon 2013's "Machine Wars" toys represent a rare opportunity to give these symbols some love. However, I don't think these symbols appear on any of the original Machine Wars toys themselves (which mostly ignore symbols entirely for some reason, and the few symbols that do appear are of the Generation One variety, since in those cases the molds were created back in that era^*), so I can't say that I hold that hope with any real confidence that BotCon will follow through. Time will tell....

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^*It was later brought to my attention that there was a G2 faction symbol on the original Machine Wars Skywarp toy. Sadly, the reveal of BotCon 2013 Skywarp on February 12th displays a G1 symbol.

Weekly Transformers Feature: Machine Wars Megaplex and Megatron

When I first thought to do this entry, it was going to just be about Megaplex, a character that has only ever appeared (in America, at least) in the Machine Wars line.  But I quickly realized that I couldn't do a discussion of Megaplex properly without also talking about the Machine Wars version of Megatron.  So, even though each of these toys was available separately back in 1997, it's another "2-for-1" week here at Transforming Seminarian!

Throughout this entry, Megaplex will be depicted on the left, and Megatron will be depicted on the right.  This bears emphasizing, because it would be easy enough to assume that I've made a mistake if one just goes by coloration.  Note how in the box art above, the gray robot is on the right, while the blue robot is on the left.  Yet, in this picture, the gray plane is on the left, while the blue plane is on the right.  Yet I continue to insist that Megaplex is the one on the left in both images.  Obviously, an explanation is in order.

As I mentioned when I discussed Machine Wars Hoist, Kenner used each of the small Machine Wars molds for two toys each. Most of the time, it was enough to just slap a different name on each toy and be done with it, but since this toy was obviously intended to be the infamous Decepticon leader (as will be clear when we see the robot mode), the name-and-bio gurus decided that it would make sense to explicitly consider one of the Megatron-mold toys to be a clone of Megatron, apparently to be used as a decoy in battle.  The clone was called (in another fit of name creativity) "Megaplex."  Now, which one should be which?  This is where apparently even the folks at Kenner got confused.  The art for the blue robot was attached to the package that contained the gray toy, and vice versa.  This isn't just some packaging variation.  All Megaplexes and Megatrons were packaged in this way.  It seems reasonable to me that the designers intended for Megatron to the be gray toy (and Megaplex to therefore be the blue one), but the folks who put the toys in the packages apparently didn't get the memo. The toys pictured on the backs of the packages don't really help matters much, as the "Megaplex" toy pictured there is a black (or at least very dark) jet, and that deco wasn't ultimately used on these toys at all!

Anyway, even though Megatron had never been made available as a jet before (certain intentions — and even the Tech Specs on Machine Wars Megatron's package — notwithstanding) the head clearly signals that this is the familiar Decepticon leader (or, in the case of Megaplex, it signals that you're supposed to think this is the familiar Decepticon leader.  Confused yet?).  And if you think that Megatron should be gray, and/or that designer intentions matter more than the name actually given on the package, go ahead and consider Megatron the one on the left, instead of the one on the right.

Or is that what Megatron wants you to think?

Weekly Transformers Feature: Machine Wars Hoist

After the Beast Wars line injected new life in the Transformers franchise, Kenner (the subsidiary of Hasbro charged with selling Transformers at the time) found themselves with a few unused small vehicle-type molds, created for Generation Two, and presumably wanted to find a way to make some money off of them. Using each of those molds two times apiece, and bringing over a few molds that were previously used only in the European market, Kenner arranged for a line of vehicle-mold toys to be sold exclusively through KB Toys (*sigh*) in 1997. This was the Machine Wars line.

Hoist's Tech Specs bio suggests that he's intended to be the same character as the Generation One version, and the vehicle mode, being another kind of tow truck, would seem to be consistent with this. It's certainly a far more organic match than Hubcap, which is the other Machine Wars toy to share this mold, although to be fair, the Tech Specs bio on Machine Wars Hubcap does not seem to indicate that he's the same entity as Generation One Hubcap. Pretty much all the two Hubcaps have in common is a yellow color scheme.

Transformation for all of the small Machine Wars robots is essentially the same. Flip the front end down (with the aid of a lever in back, in the case of Hoist), and the toy essentially unfolds into robot mode on its own (although not quite as dramatically as toys such as G2 Roadblock). Pretty much all of the smaller Beast Wars toys of this era transformed in this way as well, and fans have taken to calling toys of this transformation style "flipchangers." In the case of Hoist, there's technically one more step: remove the grille from the front of the vehicle, which can then become the robot's weapon. Honestly, though, I often ignore this step. The robot transforms just fine if you leave the grille in place, and I don't always want Hoist to be holding a weapon. On the other hand, I do appreciate this trend, which could be argued to have started with these very designs, (although the Beast Wars toys were actually released first), of incorporating all of the parts (weapons and all) into both modes in some way, so that there are no parts left over. It certainly makes keeping track of everything easier!

One further note should be made about the Machine Wars character art, especially since I've started including such art in these features. Most of the Machine Wars art wasn't created for these toys at all, but in fact reused art for completely unrelated toys, retouched just enough to kinda-sorta resemble the new toy. In some cases, such as with Machine Wars Mirage, the result is pretty laughable (the face, for example, isn't remotely right), but Hoist didn't fare so badly. In fact, Hoist seems to be the only one in the entire Machine Wars line (well, Hoist and Hubcap, I guess, since the art's just recolored, too) who got art specially made for the toy actually in the package!