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Toy Fair 2015 Analysis - Summarizing What We Learned And Answering Questions

There was a lot of information delivered from Toy Fair. Some of it came as reports from those who attended, but most of it was in the form of photos. With so much out there, it can be a little hard to keep up with what's what, so we're going to bring you the highlights of the coverage and break things down for you. Is Constructicon articulation really that limited? And why are they so big? How small is Minimus Ambus? Why is Defensor sad? Click through for the answers to these questions and more!

So let's start with the big one:

Devastator


Aren't the Constructicons pretty under-articulated?

This is a big issue, but as tends to happens it's a bit overblown. The Constructicons have a range of builds which depend a lot on what job they have to do for the combined whole. This isn't a Scramble-type combiner, which means each individual can be specifically designed for a specific role. Scrapper's the one getting pointed to most because it definitively does not have hinging elbows. Scrapper is holding up the his whole team though, and his forearms are bearing the load primarily. Elbows without ridiculously strong ratcheting joints would collapse under the strain. Having joints like that would subsequently make posing the arms difficult anyway, and at that point it makes more sense to not add many extra parts for a very small functional gain.

Long Haul also effectively does not have elbows. There are mid-arm hinges, but they bend sideways as is generally called "curling elbows" or "gorilla arms". But I don't see these being functional as elbows for the robot based on what that hinge is actually for. See, Devastator works a little differently. Devastator's shoulders aren't where the arms attach to the body. Bonecrusher and Scavenger plug on to Long Haul and actually contain the shoulder joints internally. This is something I worked out from the early unobstructed picture from Germany. Long Haul is the core body unit for Devastator, where on the G1 toy Long Haul and Hook both shared in supporting the combined whole. Long Haul's forearms are the connection sockets for Bonecrusher and Scavenger. The elbows are sideways because they're meant to flip backwards and the hollow faces of the forearms are in fact sockets. There may well be a secondary locking point on Hook for better stability, but the majority of it is taking place right here. So while Long Haul has the hinges in the right place, he's practically in the same situation as Scrapper.

But what do the Constructicons pretty much all have? They all have shoulders that are either wide-ranged ball joints, or complex compound joints that include hinges and swivels - again, depending on their exact function for Devastator and thus how robust the joint needs to be. Hip joints that fall along the same range of design variance. Long Haul will be the special case where his own hips are also Devastator's and so will be the most complex with heavy ratcheted universal joints. Everyone has knees including Long Haul, whose knee joints are actually involved in Devastator's poseability. A variety of ankles also appear to be present, but largely these are the result of transformation joints.

Bonecrusher, Scavenger, Hook, and Mixmaster all have elbows, though Hook and Mixmaster approach it in a strange way with hinged panels that make the arms look broken but permit the forearms to meet the biceps to look more like uninterrupted panels. Hook and Mixmaster also have forearm swivels, giving them effective wrist rotation, just based higher up on the arm. Bonecrusher and Scavenger get effective bicep swivels thanks to ball jointed elbows. And everyone has some functional form of thigh swivels, be it an actual mushroom-peg style swivel or a ball joint doing double duty as a knee that allows rotation too. Everyone also has neck joints of one kind or another.

So it's true that some members have some very specific limitations that feel inconsistent with what we may expect as a basic standard degree of articulation. But taking the time to stop and examine the whole unit, it's clear that the Constructicons measure up in terms of articulation far more than the ways that they lack. And the lack they show is for the sake of the structural integrity of the combined whole, appearing only where it is absolutely required to make sure Devastator is as strong and sturdy as possible.


But why are they so big?

This is a really fun question because there's a cool answer for it. The designers who were on hand at Toy Fair explained that the intent was for the Stunticon and the Constructicons - the two full Decepticon teams revealed at this point - to share at least something of an internally consistent scale based on their vehicle modes. It's been suggested Long Haul was the starting point using one of those "biggest machine in the world" deep-mining dump trucks as the general template. So as a result the distinctly bigger vehicles give distinctly bigger robots - roughly 9 inches tall or so - and a distinctly bigger Devastator over the other combiners in the line. Since two of the Autobot teams will also be using either reworked Stunticon molds or new car molds that are similarly sized, it has the added effect that the Constructicons are vehicle scaled to most of the line.

Hasbro's designers also expressed that they perceive Devastator as the biggest and most powerful of the combiners, making it appropriate to build the toy to be the biggest as well. That may be a point of contention for some fans, but I find I'm more satisfied given there's an internal logic that was being followed in making this toy what it is.


I'm still having trouble grasping how big the Costructicons are.

The Constructicons are all about the same height, between 8 and 9 inches. That means each is about as tall as a combined G1 Devastator. Other things that are around that height include the tips of Generations Brainstorm's wings in robot mode on the higher side, or a Universe-era Ultra figure such as Silverbolt or Onslaught on the more conservative end. It's also around the height of Energon's Constructicon Maximus, or its recolor Classics Devastator. With this in mind we can do a rough scale image to help give a sense of the height and volume of the Constructicons with these reference points.


Sizes are approximate. For general reference only.


What happens to all of Devastator's parts like the chest wing and the forearms?

Devastator is still part of the Combiner Wars line, so there's still places and uses for things when the figures are separated. Long Haul has a variety of ports and connectors to be able to securely carry accessories around in vehicle mode. In robot mode things get spread out. The forearms become weapons, not too unlike how it is for the Scramble teams. The hands flip in and there's a missile rack molded on the other side. The backs of the hands themselves have flip down pegs, and so the forearms become big missile racks. The chest wing breaks down in to at least three pieces. The center becomes a gun, and the wing portions themselves can be hand held as ...swords? I guess? Finally, Devastator's rifle splits in two. The barrel has its own 5mm peg so it can be carried, and the rear of the gun has a 5mm sub-peg behind the giant grip Devastator uses. Meanwhile, Devastator's head is contained on Hook, and the hip flaps appear to fold back and fill in some of Long Haul's dump bed. So despite not being perfectly self-contained any more than Superion is, everything that doesn't stay attached at all times still stays in use with the team.


Ultra Magnus


So does Ultra Magnus have to have the little guy inside to make the robot mode work?

Not at all. In fact, the earliest photos of the displayed piece showed Magnus without Minimus Ambus inside the torso. It was only a bit later on that Hasbro's John Warden at the request of some of the visitors took the Minimus figure off its display stand and added it to Ultra Magnus to demonstrate how that interaction worked. But Ultra Magnus is fully self-contained so if you're not a fan of that particular element of the IDW interpretation of Ultra Magnus, you're free to disregard it.


What about Minimus? He's like a pack-in Legends figure, right?

This was one of the hardest things to work out based on the photos since Magnus and Minimus were relatively isolated on their display, so you couldn't get outside scale to figure them out. But someone took care of that and brought a Legends figure along and discovered Minimus Ambus is just about half the height of Generations Tailgate (or Windcharger). Minimus is about 2 inches tall, so it's smaller even than a Cyberverse Legion figure. We're squarely in the Mini-Con or Micromaster territory here. Sadly this means that you can't have Swerve take Magnus's suit out for a joyride or anything like that. However...


Again, general reference only. Pictured is a "super-articulated" Halo figure equivalent to a Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed mini-figure.


Two inches happens to be the same height as the advanced mini-figure body currently being produced by Mega Bloks for some of their older collector-aimed lines, including Halo and Call of Duty. There are poseable two-inch human figures that are the same size as the figure designed to ride in the fully-detailed Gundam-esque cockpit inside Ultra Magnus. Some of you may already see where I'm going here: you could very likely recreate a bit of the third season G1 episode "Only Human" and have a person driving Ultra Magnus around using one of the Call of Duty soldier figures. If I wasn't sold on this Magnus already, I sure would be now!


Why did vehicle mode Ultra Magnus have different colors than the robot?

Ultra Magnus is still pretty early in the physical sample stage. The robot mode display figure was a test shot in production colors, or close to them. The vehicle mode copy was a hand painted one reflecting the planned deco. It's notable that the press kit images show Ultra Magnus more consistent with the test shot, so as happens sometimes, the expected plastic color breakdowns when the painted deco master copy were made didn't conform to how the tooling needed to be laid out in actual practice. The robot mode display unit at the show is probably the most representative of the toy's final look. Minimus Ambus had the same split, with the vehicle being a hand-painted sample and the robot being more or less in final plastics and paint operations.


Protectobots


Defensor's face looks all downcast and sad.

You'd look sad too if you had Toy Fair's showroom mood lighting accentuating all your lines unflatteringly. That's honestly it, a combination of specific sculpt ideas and lighting that does not do anything to make it look as good as it ought to.


How many Protectobots are new molds?

In the Deluxes, just one. The great part is how non-obvious it is that two of them are reuses. Blades is obvious as Alpha Bravo because the only physical change was putting a new head on it. Streetwise is a pretty thorough reshell of Dead End, retaining the base engineering and a chunk of the robot mode parts but otherwise being new elements. First Aid does the same thing but possibly a little better by significantly altering the outline of Off Road upon which it's based. Rook is the only new mold figure in the group of Deluxes.

Rook has a helmet designed to resemble the "crown" on the top of the "rook" chess piece, and has cannons on the forearms that are also 5mm ports. These replace typical 5mm compatible hands, but function better with Rook's accessory, which is an extended-reach claw. The designers also let on another concept they had with this arrangement: The forward facing 5mm pegs effectively let Rook equip combiner fists, a set up they likened to Hulk Hands.


Why, Groove? Why?

Groove is a Legends to keep more reasonable relative scale to the rest of his team, although of course not perfect. Unfortunately the choice to make it interact with Defensor as a supplemental chest piece looks like it significantly informed its design. Given it's making a chest plate over an already well formed integral layer of chest armor makes this really regrettable. Particularly, the overly long looking legs seems like a direct result of the way the limbs need to bend and arrange to achieve that shape. On the other hand, Groove looks like it'll have a solid range of articulation, with the typical arm joints, plus the legs having a dedicated thigh swivel besides the standard hips and knees, and the transformation requires some ankle articulation. So Groove may look a little funny, but it seems like it'll be a pretty good little standalone figure with a bonus not that great ability to interact with Defensor.


Others


Viper really is a Cobra Rattler!

Viper's a pretty great little inclusion, and it has so much GI Joe love applied to it. I think anyone would have been totally content with a straight up Powerglide redeco in the basic colors. But on top of that it has Cobra logos specific to the Rattler (with a Decepticon symbol incorporated too) on multiple locations, and a head specifically retooled to resemble the pilot's mask of Rattler pilot Wild Weasel. The colors aren't exactly right, but that's in the interest of preserving the overall deco. The resemblance is absolutely there physically. For being the sole representation of GI Joe at Hasbro's Toy Fair exhibit, it's a good one!


So who is Cyclonus supposed to go with?

Right now Cyclonus doesn't have a planned or revealed limb team waiting and is notionally an extra torso to help facilitate making up your own combiner above and beyond the usual suspects. That said, since every combiner has a color code, it's likely Cyclonus will see a particular color on its packaging which will either tie it to the Stunticons, or be a unique one the same way Optimus Prime has a color all to himself at the moment.


Why didn't they show its combiner head or torso mode?

We aren't really sure. There's a couple of reasons, first is the Cyclonus shown was a hand-painted sample in both modes and the presenters were uncomfortable handling it very much, and certainly not to the degree needed to reveal the other head. The other clue comes from the pre-showroom presentation where Galvatronus was noted as to be revealed at a later date. So it seems there's a combination of the toy not being in a shape to present that aspect, and that they have some kind of plan for its reveal later on explaining why a dedicated torso-mode display unit wasn't on hand to account for the early stage of the toy making it untransformable. Most likely we'll see this at Botcon for the first time. As for what factor is leading them to hold off on the reveal is unknown. There may be another coordinated event in the works for the comics, or it could simply be something they think is especially cool and want to share at a convention setting rather than Toy Fair.


How much of Silverbolt was changed to make Cyclonus?

It looks like consistent with my study of the Battle Tactics art the torso itself was replaced, and new wings and a different nosecone were added. Besides that, the combiner chest pieces on the legs have been changed with Galvatron-styled versions. Ultimately, the only parts that don't seem to have changed between the two toys are the base structure of the arms and legs, which still got new or different pieces put on top of them. It's a pretty extensive remodel of the toy, and I think it lends weight to the idea that the inventory list leaked Scattershot could also be a use of this base mold.


Wasn't there a rumor of a Leader Class toy that nobody had leaked information on?

There was shortly before Toy Fair began, and it was implied it might be revealed at Toy Fair, but that obviously didn't happen. Now it's looking like Starscream recolored from Leader Thundercracker is that last Leader figure, and if that's the case I'm gonna go out on a limb and say we didn't miss out on much with it not being there. The only particular benefit would have been if a display at Toy Fair could have shown whether it would get any new accessories like a crown or changed weapons.


Weren't there supposed to be Masterpieces and G1 reissues and things like that?

Some of those things were seen at Nuremberg's Toy Fair and so we assumed they could be shown at New York. But here in the United States we have more opportunities to show those things off to a lot of people at once, such as Botcon and SDCC. Further since it's likely that any of those will be store exclusives, having them at Toy Fair would only serve to let them get shown off to fans. With other events in the summer there's little lost by not having them on hand right now.


Robots in Disguise


Robots in Disguise has Mini-Cons now. Do those work with everybody?

Drift and Fracture are the standard Mini-Con users as depicted by the cartoon, so they're being released in special versions with Mini-Con interactivity in mind. There is no indication the Warrior Class figures will follow suit with in-built compatibility even though Drift's Warrior toy is currently in distribution and a Warrior Fracture is on the way in a later assortment. Super Optimus prime was specifically called out as having the ability to use multiple Mini-Cons at once, indicating they may be a feature that remains tied to the simpler play gimmick driven elements of the line.

The Mini-Cons themselves seem like an evolution of the Data Disc Legends toys from Generations in 2013, using uniform non-robotic forms that either quick-change or auto-transform in to their robotic modes. With numerous different Mini-Cons planned to fill out their own price point, this appears to be a significant play pattern being brought in to the toyline.

2 Images - Click to Enlarge

Construct Compare (1 of 2)

Minimus Compare (2 of 2)

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