A Pretender Shell For Whom?

[Slag]

It wouldn't be that hard. If you made the shell decent, then you'd have to compromise on the quality and articulation of the inner robot. The problem with the G1 Pretender humans is they're all built like a brick s**t house (as the saying goes). I'm not even talking about the articulation. I mean, I don't recall ever seeing anyone with a physique like that, well except crazy muscle men body builders.

King Kong Bundy , Andre the giant and Earthquake..

[GoktimusPrime]

So are the humanoid upright ones... think Tutankhamuns coffin - it's a got a face and hands and feet etched to it but it's not helping the shell at all - it's just a hollow brick coffin, LOL

Mmm... sarcophagus fresh...

and the most UBer coffin of all are SkyHammer and Roadblock - talk about double burial there

Mmm... sarcophagus-coffin combination fresh...

having well sculpted pretender shells would also keep the dust iff your fave tf's

Unless you're like me and display the robots outside the shells.


Mmm... zombie fresh...

[snazzbot 101]

They were available well after my time of being into Transformers should have been gone (beyond looking at them longingly at the toy store and wishing for simpler times). But the idea of robots in humans seemed stupid even then (at least from a practical, toy perspective).

But thinking of it now, some variation of Pretenders-by-way-of-Exo-Squad could work.

[GoktimusPrime]

The concept of Pretenders started from Hasbro wanting to create Transformers who could transform into humans. Takara instead suggested enclosing TFs in human shells. Hasbro agreed to this (and the Decepticons would be monsters).
(source: Ono Koujin interview)

The problem with the 1988 Pretenders isn't just that they're enclosed in human/monster shells, but also that the robots are badly compromised as a result. Uber thin robot modes that simplistically bend/fold over to transform. Landmine's alt mode is basically the robot bent over with a gun on its back. Pretenders like Iguanus and Gunrunner are too kibble-dependent.

The 1989 Pretenders were thankfully a LOT better. Take Bumblebee and Bludgeon for example - both have good solid robot modes that transform into clearly identifiable vehicles (and they were mostly cheaper too ).

[liegeprime]

Yeah, the 1989 pretenders have good innerbot alt modes which thank goodness wasnt limited to vehicles for alt mode - e.g crab, rhinoceros. Unfortunately the size got smaller as well.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah but they were better value for money IMO. Although I personally prefer the "Space Marines" look of the 1988 Pretender Autobot human shells, whereas the 1989 human shells are like random dudes in armour. One is a wrestler and one is a conjoined twin?? And of course, Mario-wrestler is a Decepticon and one of the Autobots is a walrus-man!

But yeah, the robots themselves were definitely better. Hasbro later sold the Classic Pretender robots separately as "Legends" (not available in Australia - they were Kmart exclusives in the US). And while none of the 1989 Pretenders were sold in Japan (Japanese fans go nuts over them!), Takara did sell the Classic Pretender robots on their own in the "Hero Set" pack. Can you imagine if they sold any of the 1988 Pretender robots on their own? Who'd buy Gunrunner?!?

[snazzbot 101]

Yeah, I can see value in the Idea now, but back then - with no access to any fiction - all they were was a compromised toy within another compromised toy.

With today's technology they could definitely update the concept, but my instant thought is why should they try and and sell us two toys at once when they just sell us one?