Things you never realised about Transformers (toys etc)

[GoktimusPrime]

Sounds like an unused/missed opportunity for the fiction?

It would have been very advantageous for Pretenders to be capturing and hijacking opposing faction's shells and then impersonating them. Headmasters swapping out heads and gaining even more awesome powers and strength increases makes zero sense.

The Pretenders' shells were psychically synced with their host Transformers. This allowed the hosts to remotely control their shells as extensions of themselves, so if they were separate from their shells, it would act as their own personal backup. The downside to this was that whatever damage was done to the shell would be felt by its owner, and critical damage was so intense that it could render the owner unconscious. The greater the critical damage, the greater the mental feedback. Bumblebee was knocked out for some time after Thunderwing blasted his shell. Carnivac allowed Spinister to destroy his shell (to make the Mayhem Attack Squad believe that they had killed him), and the pain that he felt from the destruction of his his shell was so intense that it nearly killed him.

So I doubt that, canonically speaking, Pretenders can swap shells since they seem to be 'imprinted' onto their owners. In G1 Anglophone continuity anyway.

[Verno]

What do we have here? Looks like a kicked off a little debate

As much as I'd like the third part of the Prime Wars trilogy to be all about beasts (and I don't just mean Beast Wars characters -- the Dinobots and G1 Predacons are long-overdue for the Generations treatment), I'm becoming more inclined to think it would be a gimmick-based line like Combiners and Headmasters, with an interchanging playability, and the only real G1 gimmick for them to draw on is Pretenders.

Given the technology available and design prowess these days, I'd be inclined to think they'd be along the lines of the Mega Pretenders and Ultra Pretenders, with both the external shell and inner robot having the ability to transform.

The sometimes organic or bestial nature of the Pretenders would be a logical segue into a line of Dinobots, Predacons and more Beast Wars toys!

But this is all just the musings of a madman.

[MayzaPrime]

What do we have here? Looks like a kicked off a little debate

As much as I'd like the third part of the Prime Wars trilogy to be all about beasts (and I don't just mean Beast Wars characters -- the Dinobots and G1 Predacons are long-overdue for the Generations treatment), I'm becoming more inclined to think it would be a gimmick-based line like Combiners and Headmasters, with an interchanging playability, and the only real G1 gimmick for them to draw on is Pretenders.

Given the technology available and design prowess these days, I'd be inclined to think they'd be along the lines of the Mega Pretenders and Ultra Pretenders, with both the external shell and inner robot having the ability to transform.

The sometimes organic or bestial nature of the Pretenders would be a logical segue into a line of Dinobots, Predacons and more Beast Wars toys!

But this is all just the musings of a madman.

Well Grimlock was a pretender... So you might not be as mad as you think

[Verno]

Well Grimlock was a pretender... So you might not be as mad as you think

I think there'd be an uproar if Grimlock got a Pretender toy before a proper T-Rex

[MayzaPrime]

I think there'd be an uproar if Grimlock got a Pretender toy before a proper T-Rex

Lol, you are probably right but maybe your idea of a Transforming shell could be implemented

[Verno]

Lol, you are probably right but maybe your idea of a Transforming shell could be implemented

Something along the lines of Generations Ultra Magnus?

[griffin]

After all the times I've seen CW Trailbreaker on display (at BotCon or in stores in Melbourne) or the images online, I never noticed that the right arm has been replaced with a gun arm like Shockwave.
I haven't seen what he currently looks like in the IDW comic (if in it at all), so I guess it is to replicate the original cartoon/comic that had him with his toy missile plugged into the wrist like a pointy gun... this one looks weird for being a big barrel gun.
So I'm surprised I never noticed it before.

I had just thought it was only a redeco of Ironhide with a new head (it should have been a redeco of Firstaid though, as the original Trailbreaker had a canopy tray not an open tray).