Ongoing Transformers Rumors and Discussion

[Mandalorianknight]

On 5/31/2024 at 2:18 AM, Shiva said:

Yep, Cliffjumper, even the name sounds familiar. Pretender, yes. Bomb-Burst_(G1)! Grimlock, Action Master, confirmed. Checking tfwiki.

Too many great LEGO sets in too short time...

Cliff's a favorite of mine, partially just because I like red and little guys, but I also like that they made being overshadowed (by bumblebee in real life) part of his character. He's always aching to prove himself. There's a great panel back in an older run where Bumblebee and Wheeljack are stranded and one says something like "Who'd be staring mindlessly at a tiny distress relay on the OFF CHANCE that someone's under attack" and then it immediately cuts to cliffjumper strapping himself with guns and going "it's showtime". He pulls a rocket launcher out of literally nowhere and takes a potshot at megatron within about two seconds of the transformers waking up back in the original cartoon.

Agh, I was close. Bomb Burst actually just got a figure last year too, it's a sort of strange mix between his outer shell and inner robot.

1 hour ago, TotoMagnus said:

Yeah, 86 Grimlock I was talking about. His Comic Version looks good as well, but that’s not „my“ Grimlock. 
 
I‘m also hoping for Lego Cons, but these would get difficult, due to having mostly military Altmodes. Soundwave and the Constructicons would a) work and b) have the needed popularity (assuming Lego would stick to G1 as reference). 
 

Happy to see so much Transformers love here!

That's fair.

Megatron will be tough, but I'm sure they're coming up with something as we speak. The Seekers will likely come after Soundwave and Megs, but their colors schemes should allow them to squeeze through eventually, even if Skywarp ends up being a touch more purple than normally. Soundwave is like you say the easiest con to adapt. Devastator would also be fun, but I can't imagine they'd be able to effectively pull off a combiner without either making the individual bots significantly smaller than bumblebee will be and/or having devastator's components not have bot modes.

[TotoMagnus]

For Devastator I could imagine something like the Voltron Set from Lego. Nothing to transform, but a solid unit. 
 

Seems like we will get the SS86 treatment for the Constructicons soon (next year?), so Lego and Hasbro could go hand in hand, like Bumblebee this year? 

[Mandalorianknight]

15 hours ago, TotoMagnus said:

For Devastator I could imagine something like the Voltron Set from Lego. Nothing to transform, but a solid unit. 
 

Seems like we will get the SS86 treatment for the Constructicons soon (next year?), so Lego and Hasbro could go hand in hand, like Bumblebee this year? 

Ironically, Voltron does transform from the mech into it's component lions. Though that may have been what you meant- that they'd have alt-modes and a combined mode but no individual bot modes. Either way, I dunno- I feel like they'd want to make it significantly bigger than Prime if it was meant to match with the other bots in any way, meaning it'd have to be pretty expensive even if you made the component bots smaller than Bee.

 

Yeah, a number of the constructicons leaked for SS86 2025. I don't think there's any correlation between SS86 and lego though- if anything they'd want to avoid competing products. I think Bee is coming in both lines just because Bee's a popular character- Hasbro puts out G1 Bees pretty consistently, I own one that they released just last year.

 

[TotoMagnus]

On 6/3/2024 at 11:11 PM, Mandalorianknight said:

Ironically, Voltron does transform from the mech into it's component lions. Though that may have been what you meant- that they'd have alt-modes and a combined mode but no individual bot modes. Either way, I dunno- I feel like they'd want to make it significantly bigger than Prime if it was meant to match with the other bots in any way, meaning it'd have to be pretty expensive even if you made the component bots smaller than Bee.

 

Yeah, a number of the constructicons leaked for SS86 2025. I don't think there's any correlation between SS86 and lego though- if anything they'd want to avoid competing products. I think Bee is coming in both lines just because Bee's a popular character- Hasbro puts out G1 Bees pretty consistently, I own one that they released just last year.

 

Oh, Voltron does? I was always under the impression that it is „only“ a statue. Thanks for the knowledge 😁

From time to time (Lego Star Wars) releases seem to overlap with Hasbro, not only due to the fact that they are treating the same movie or series. The christmas Ewok comes to mind. Of course, I don’t imagine Lego and Hasbro making the decision for this figure release over a shared coffee break, but it being steered a bit by Disney.

 I can imagine Hasbro telling Lego some of their planned releases though. 
I don‘t see Hasbro and Lego releases as competitive, more as complementary. 

[Mandalorianknight]

Oof, I'm gonna need to see that vehicle mode and some more poses.

Pros: Feet are excellent, head is excellent, chest is solid, forearms appear good from what I can see.

Cons: Shoulders are hilariously bulky, legs are literal rectangles. What the hell happened here? (Also the gun is weirdly oversized for Bee and altogether just a strange shape)

 

I suspect the arms aren't as bad as this image makes them look, but man, that's disappointing. If I'm wrong about the arms being better than they look in this image, and the vehicle mode isn't incredible, I might actually wait for a sale. Lego's really letting me down this summer.

[mantax]

I didn't relly expect Bumblebee to look as great as Optimus in robot mode, because his transformation isn't that simple. But overall I think he looks great.

I've seen better looking mocs of him that also transform, but you also have to remember that official Lego models need to fit a certain quality standard with it not being too fragile.

He appers to be more complex then Optimus, so I'd be really interested on how the transformation works. Especially how the legs work and where is his front windshield in robot mode. Since I con't see it from this image, so that might be somewhere on the back.

From first impressions the set looks great to me, and I'd be definitely getting this at some point.

[Artanis I]

Bumblebee looks pretty G1 representative, in terms of both the cartoon & toy robot. I'm guessing that the car mode will be a lot nicer looking, but that's too bad, because I'd rather put him on the shelf in robot mode.

 

18 hours ago, TotoMagnus said:

Oh, Voltron does? I was always under the impression that it is „only“ a statue. Thanks for the knowledge 😁

It 'transforms', but some disassembly of the black lion is required. The weight of the full robot was too heavy for the hip joints if they were articulated, so you have to take them off to rotate them.

But we keep in mind for Transformer combiners, there is the full robot mode, the individual vehicles mode, but also a third individual robots mode - so even more complexity required.

[TotoMagnus]

4 hours ago, Artanis I said:

It 'transforms', but some disassembly of the black lion is required. The weight of the full robot was too heavy for the hip joints if they were articulated, so you have to take them off to rotate them.

But we keep in mind for Transformer combiners, there is the full robot mode, the individual vehicles mode, but also a third individual robots mode - so even more complexity required.

Ah, thx for the info. I might watch a review from back then :)

For the combiners: I‘m not sure for myself if I would mind Lego going a cheaper round by releasing Devastator as a (firm) statue, without transformation option 🤔

For Bee: He definitely skipped some leg days, but I still like the presence. More clearer pictures, please!

[CF Mitch]

Huh,
Bumblebee looks... odd?
Overall not bad, but, as stated before, his shoulders/entire upper arms are WAY too big. His chest kinda seems too wide, too 
The head and foot definitely are the highlights for me.

Regards,
Mitch

[Shiva]

Ohh, that's, actually, nice!

[Mandalorianknight]

12 hours ago, mantax said:

I didn't relly expect Bumblebee to look as great as Optimus in robot mode, because his transformation isn't that simple. But overall I think he looks great.

I've seen better looking mocs of him that also transform, but you also have to remember that official Lego models need to fit a certain quality standard with it not being too fragile.

He appers to be more complex then Optimus, so I'd be really interested on how the transformation works. Especially how the legs work and where is his front windshield in robot mode. Since I con't see it from this image, so that might be somewhere on the back.

From first impressions the set looks great to me, and I'd be definitely getting this at some point.

Yeah, I've warmed a bit to it since then. Still not a fan of the shoulders, but I like the rest of it. Plus, I can't stay mad at that face print!

11 hours ago, Artanis I said:

Bumblebee looks pretty G1 representative, in terms of both the cartoon & toy robot. I'm guessing that the car mode will be a lot nicer looking, but that's too bad, because I'd rather put him on the shelf in robot mode.

The fact that they seemingly prioritized the alt-mode makes me wonder if this is going to be a licensed Beetle. 99% of transformers prioritize robot mode unless they're licensed vehicles, so it would fit.

On 6/7/2024 at 7:33 AM, TotoMagnus said:

From time to time (Lego Star Wars) releases seem to overlap with Hasbro, not only due to the fact that they are treating the same movie or series. The christmas Ewok comes to mind. Of course, I don’t imagine Lego and Hasbro making the decision for this figure release over a shared coffee break, but it being steered a bit by Disney.

 I can imagine Hasbro telling Lego some of their planned releases though. 
I don‘t see Hasbro and Lego releases as competitive, more as complementary. 

I think that's moreso just on the sheer quantity of products both companies release. There's bound to be some overlap. This is especially true with Optimus and Bee, where we get some form of them almost every year. We had G1 Optimuses from Hasbro in 2022, but I don't think that's why they chose to do him first.

Overall I just really can't see Hasbro wanting lego to make a G1 Devy next year. Putting aside all the issues with a potential lego Devy (It wouldn't be able to transform, which is kind of the whole point, plus all the more iconic characters we'd need first like Soundwave or Grimlock), I think there would be competition between the two models. For most transformers it's fine. Someone who buys a $170 Optimus is probably not going to then skip the year's Core Class or Voyager. A $90 bee isn't really competing with the $25 SS86 one. But both Devys would be multiple hundreds of dollars, and I think at that point a lot people are going to choose one or the other. Much easier to skip that risk and do Soundwave or a cybertronian tank Megs.

2 hours ago, CF Mitch said:

Huh,
Bumblebee looks... odd?
Overall not bad, but, as stated before, his shoulders/entire upper arms are WAY too big. His chest kinda seems too wide, too 
The head and foot definitely are the highlights for me.

Regards,
Mitch

Totally agree about the shoulders/upper arms. The chest does look a little wonky, but it's 8 wide, which I think fits with Optimus's 12 wide.

 

I hope that face print doesn't get too expensive, because I am ALREADY getting a parts list ready for Cliffjumper.

Edited June 8, 2024 by Mandalorianknight

[BrickBob Studpants]

That Bumblebee looks quite nice to me! Excited to see it transformed

It’s been two years since the Optimus set came out, and it still feels extremely weird to have collabs between Hasbro and TLG. It‘s gotten even more intense now with the the D&D Ideas set and CMF series!

I hope they continue. This may not only result in more Transformers sets (that aren‘t Megatron), but also a Mr Potato Head figure for Toy Story 5

[Mandalorianknight]

3 hours ago, BrickBob Studpants said:

(that aren‘t Megatron)

I really do think they'll make Megatron. His G1 bot mode is pretty easy to make into a tank, and they should be able to make it look "cybertronian" enough to not explicitly resemble real-world tanks. 

I feel like this is at least in the ballpark of what lego would find acceptable.

[cosmic]

I was shocked to see a lot of negative feedback on instagram for the Bumblebee leak. I really enjoy this design. I think the head looks so good and I am vey excited to see how he scales next to Prime.

As for the desire for Devastator, I think that would be very expensive to produce. Isn't he made of like 6 different Decepticons? If they're made to scale and released individually, each one would be around the price of Bumblebee, probably more given they are construction vehicles and he's a punch buggy (right? lol). If they are all included in one set they would have to be quite scaled down and that would minimize the impact of the Devastator, and likely still very expensive. I find that to be very hard to pull off, honestly.

Agree that Megatron would be very exciting to get.

And finally, how would you guys feel about Transformers as figures, ala the Kreo line? They have made so many Transformers at the scale of their mini Kreo figures, how would you feel about Optimus Prime as a mini figure? I personally would enjoy this, even knowing they wouldn't be able to transform. I just think these $200 + sets would easily rack up to amount to thousands of dollars if we get brick built versions of all the Autobots, Decepticons, and even Maximals that I would like to see. I'd love a mini figure of Arcee, curious how you guys feel about that.

[Mandalorianknight]

13 minutes ago, cosmic said:

I was shocked to see a lot of negative feedback on instagram for the Bumblebee leak. I really enjoy this design. I think the head looks so good and I am vey excited to see how he scales next to Prime.

As for the desire for Devastator, I think that would be very expensive to produce. Isn't he made of like 6 different Decepticons? If they're made to scale and released individually, each one would be around the price of Bumblebee, probably more given they are construction vehicles and he's a punch buggy (right? lol). If they are all included in one set they would have to be quite scaled down and that would minimize the impact of the Devastator, and likely still very expensive. I find that to be very hard to pull off, honestly.

Agree that Megatron would be very exciting to get.

And finally, how would you guys feel about Transformers as figures, ala the Kreo line? They have made so many Transformers at the scale of their mini Kreo figures, how would you feel about Optimus Prime as a mini figure? I personally would enjoy this, even knowing they wouldn't be able to transform. I just think these $200 + sets would easily rack up to amount to thousands of dollars if we get brick built versions of all the Autobots, Decepticons, and even Maximals that I would like to see. I'd love a mini figure of Arcee, curious how you guys feel about that.

I was offput at first, but am coming around to it. It clearly isn't a completely accurate G1 bee, and I still think there were solutions to make the shoulders a bit less bulky (Transfer the kibble to the backpack), but it is a pretty solid representation overall. 

Exactly! Either he's $7-800 and missing some aspect of his transformation, or he's $200 and just a statue. Either way, I'd much rather have Megs, the Waves, and the Seekers first.

 

I'd love it, provided they don't replace the mainline sets. I think a diorama battle of autobot city would be fun, or midi-scale sets of the Arc and Nemesis with their main crews.

[CF Mitch]

20 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

Totally agree about the shoulders/upper arms. The chest does look a little wonky, but it's 8 wide, which I think fits with Optimus's 12 wide.

I guess so, but...
What 'bothers' me the most is that I remember Bumblebee's chest being more square-shaped, at least the roof area. 
Looking at pictures on the web, I see it that same way...
I realize that might be a bit hard to replicate in LEGO, especially with an actual transforming function, but visually the difference is still somewhat jarring, to me, and I consider that an iconic feature of Bumblebee's robotmode, so  

Regards,
Mitch
 

[cosmic]

On 6/9/2024 at 12:00 AM, Mandalorianknight said:

I was offput at first, but am coming around to it. It clearly isn't a completely accurate G1 bee, and I still think there were solutions to make the shoulders a bit less bulky (Transfer the kibble to the backpack), but it is a pretty solid representation overall. 

Exactly! Either he's $7-800 and missing some aspect of his transformation, or he's $200 and just a statue. Either way, I'd much rather have Megs, the Waves, and the Seekers first.

 

I'd love it, provided they don't replace the mainline sets. I think a diorama battle of autobot city would be fun, or midi-scale sets of the Arc and Nemesis with their main crews.

Yeah Devastator is kind of a headache to produce. I hope the actual Hasbro Transformers line brings back Combiner Wars eventually so people like me who missed out on him can get him. Also unpopular opinion but I really liked Victorion, the fan vote bot, and would love to get my hands on a newer, more refined model of hers eventually as well. 

I agree the figure scaled Transformers should not replace the mainline series, but given how each brick built Transformers is easily $200 +, a set with figures of these characters can provide a way for people to get more than 1 character without forking over half a grand, to over a grand, depending on how many bots they get. The figure scaled Transformers would be unlikely to transform, but honestly, getting more than 1 character in a set sounds kind of exciting for me. It's also easier to photograph these characters together when they're small, lol.

[Mandalorianknight]

40 minutes ago, cosmic said:

Yeah Devastator is kind of a headache to produce. I hope the actual Hasbro Transformers line brings back Combiner Wars eventually so people like me who missed out on him can get him. Also unpopular opinion but I really liked Victorion, the fan vote bot, and would love to get my hands on a newer, more refined model of hers eventually as well. 

I agree the figure scaled Transformers should not replace the mainline series, but given how each brick built Transformers is easily $200 +, a set with figures of these characters can provide a way for people to get more than 1 character without forking over half a grand, to over a grand, depending on how many bots they get. The figure scaled Transformers would be unlikely to transform, but honestly, getting more than 1 character in a set sounds kind of exciting for me. It's also easier to photograph these characters together when they're small, lol.

I have great news- next year we're getting SS86 constructicons. Unfortunately if you do specifically want the combiner wars versions the SS86 leak makes it unlikely they're gonna reissue like they did Siege Jetfire or Titans Return Fort Max.

Totally misunderstood your question- I thought you were talking about minifigures, not smaller brick-built figures. I'd totally be down for characters roughly the size and price point of the generations line, so like a $25 bumblebee, $35 Prime, etc, where they're all 2-in-1s. In fact, now that we've had a transforming Prime, I think I'd prefer it, just because this collection will quickly become prohibitively expensive and space-consuming and we'll never get characters like my boy Jetfire or @TotoMagnus's devastator.

[CloneCommando99]

@Mandalorianknight sentenced me with a post on this thread. So here goes:

I think Bumblebee looks fine. Albeit a bit wide in the chest.

Hopefully next year we’ll get either: Ratchet, Soundwave, Shockwave or Megatron.

If they did one as large as Megatron, they could theoretically make an in scale Arcee GWP.

[Shiva]

Ahhh, Jetfire, Generation1, the "redeco" Macross VF-1S Super Valkyrie.

Robot itself in LEGO form, is possible.

So, some other version of Jetfire is possible.

[cosmic]

13 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

I have great news- next year we're getting SS86 constructicons. Unfortunately if you do specifically want the combiner wars versions the SS86 leak makes it unlikely they're gonna reissue like they did Siege Jetfire or Titans Return Fort Max.

Totally misunderstood your question- I thought you were talking about minifigures, not smaller brick-built figures. I'd totally be down for characters roughly the size and price point of the generations line, so like a $25 bumblebee, $35 Prime, etc, where they're all 2-in-1s. In fact, now that we've had a transforming Prime, I think I'd prefer it, just because this collection will quickly become prohibitively expensive and space-consuming and we'll never get characters like my boy Jetfire or @TotoMagnus's devastator.

No you got it right the first time! I'm asking for a mini figure of Optimus Prime, a mini fig of Bumblebee, a mini fig of Arcee, etc. As you mentioned, the figures would be great for a potential Cybertron set! Might sound crazy but I would even enjoy a Transformers CMF line.

[Mandalorianknight]

12 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

I think Bumblebee looks fine. Albeit a bit wide in the chest.

Hopefully next year we’ll get either: Ratchet, Soundwave, Shockwave or Megatron.

If they did one as large as Megatron, they could theoretically make an in scale Arcee GWP.

Yeah, the more I look at it the more I have to agree with you and @CF Mitch. The 8-wide chest in itself is fine, but G1blebee has a more square torso, not this horizontal rectangle. That, along with the massive shoulders, makes his chest look wide and gives him an overall top-heavy bruiser look, which is weird for bumblebee.

My money's on soundwave and/or megs, though I really hope Ratchet isn't far behind.

Depends on the scale, but I could see it. Motorcycle Arcee would work, but if they stick with G1 she'd be taller (though also slimmer) than Bee. I think. G1 didn't exactly have the most consistent sizes. Personally I'm hoping we get casseticon GWPS at some point, just because there's a good number of iconic ones and I can't see them giving soundwave more than two or three.

5 hours ago, Shiva said:

Ahhh, Jetfire, Generation1, the "redeco" Macross VF-1S Super Valkyrie.

Robot itself in LEGO form, is possible.

So, some other version of Jetfire is possible.

Yeah they'd have to be careful- I know Macross can be really protective of that jetfire design- but I want to see him in lego!

7 minutes ago, cosmic said:

No you got it right the first time! I'm asking for a mini figure of Optimus Prime, a mini fig of Bumblebee, a mini fig of Arcee, etc. As you mentioned, the figures would be great for a potential Cybertron set! Might sound crazy but I would even enjoy a Transformers CMF line.

Oh, than yeah, I stick with what I said originally too! Definitely wouldn't mind a CMF of the figs. We'd get some fun accessories too, like we could have a Sam microfigure, and I'd love a minifig-scale Matrix of Leadership or Ion Blaster.

[CF Mitch]

11 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

G1blebee

Also, Ratchet would be a great choice! Arcee as well, though.
However, I have a feeling the one after Bee will be a Decepticon, for the sake of variety.

Regards,
Mitch

Edited June 12, 2024 by CF Mitch
phrasing

[CloneCommando99]

13 hours ago, Mandalorianknight said:

My money's on soundwave and/or megs, though I really hope Ratchet isn't far behind.

I might be in the minority with this one… but if they did Ratchet I would love it to be his TFP design. (With retractable Knife hands)

This is because that is honestly my favourite version of Ratchet. Since it was my first proper introduction to him. (They could even include an Agent Fowler minifig)

 

[Mandalorianknight]

5 hours ago, CF Mitch said:

Also, Ratchet would be a great choice! Arcee as well, though.
However, I have a feeling the one after Bee will be a Decepticon, for the sake of variety.

Regards,
Mitch

I agree. Optimus was the obvious first choice, and after him it was a toss-up between Bee or a prominent decepticon. We got Bee, so (if he does well) I think next up is Soundwave and/or Cybertronian Tank Megatron.

3 hours ago, CloneCommando99 said:

I might be in the minority with this one… but if they did Ratchet I would love it to be his TFP design. (With retractable Knife hands)

This is because that is honestly my favourite version of Ratchet. Since it was my first proper introduction to him. (They could even include an Agent Fowler minifig)

Yeah, I get where it's coming from as I also love Prime, but I think you are in the minority there. At this point for consistency if nothing else (though the G1 designs are my favorite anyway, especially with Skybound's current run using those designs)

A Fowler minifig would be great though. Best human side character in the entire franchise. On that topic, what accessories are we thinking we'll get with Bee? Just the blaster is certainly possible, but Optimus came with a lot, most of which weren't on that front-of-the-box image, so I'm hoping we get a couple for Bee as well. Besides his gun, I'd love to see a Spike minifigure, but that might be wishful thinking.