Favourite Subgroup/gimmick/concept?

[Lint]

Mine has to be Predators/Turbomasters. Any toyline that has projectile launchers that are actually strong enough to knock over a transformer has got to be a winner. Thunderclash's gravity fed launchers and Skyquake's "camera guided" carpet bombing have got to be two of the coolest gimmicks ever

Honourable mentions also go out to micromaster combiners, micromaster bases and combiners in general.

[GoktimusPrime]

Thunder Clash's Mega-Missile launcher gimmick is indeed spectacularly awesome! A real shame that Hasbro USA totally gutted it when they retooled the mould for Machine Wars Optimus Prime.

[Bartrim]

G1 gestalts. I always loved them as a kid but could never afford them. Now I am an adult I am slowly collecting them all.

[Kapryiath]

favorite gimmick? i'd have to go with trucks with trailers that convert into bases/play sets / power ups for robot mode

i love them all from landmine ( not quite a truck but you get the point ) to g2 laser prime i think they give so much play-ability which was fantastic when i was younger , and al ot of posability it takes a long time for the figures to get " old" because there is always a different way to have it displayed

favorite sub group would have to be the seekers i love the way they developed there personalities and really managed to "sell" the same toy over and over by giving it a different personality that makes the toys feel like more than just another repaint

[GoktimusPrime]

favorite sub group would have to be the seekers i love the way they developed there personalities and really managed to "sell" the same toy over and over by giving it a different personality that makes the toys feel like more than just another repaint

Agreed, although it's a shame that one of the most interesting Seeker personalities - Thundercracker - is also one of the least developed by writers. IDW recently gave him some welcomed character development, but before then he suffered decades of neglect by writers!

I made this skit back in 2003...

[5FDP]

G1 gestalts. I always loved them as a kid but could never afford them. Now I am an adult I am slowly collecting them all.

Just because you earn money doesn't mean you're an adult

[GoktimusPrime]

Just because you earn money doesn't mean you're an adult

He can trialed as an adult.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

It took some thought, but here's mine: the recent trend towards doing repaints and minor retools of new molds/characters into homages to older characters - especially the obscure ones like Skullgrin and Axor. I try not to get multiples of the same mold (with a few exceptions, like the Seekers and Rumble/Frenzy), so those repaints/updates of 'classic' characters mean I have a lot more Classicsverse TFs - of fairly obscure characters no less - than I would otherwise.
I have to admire it from both the business and engineering perspectives (I mean, Wheeljack and Tracks from the same mold? With distinct-looking robot modes? That's pretty damn cool.), and it's a nice nod to the fandom on Hasbro's part.

[GoktimusPrime]

Yeah, I do like the idea of retooling/repainting moulds as new characters! What I like about the idea is that someone at Hasbro is actually putting creative thought into their retool/repaints! We all know that Hasbro benefits from repaints because they get more "bang for their buck" with what they invest into developing new moulds, but we also know that seemingly random or pointless repaints (e.g. Bumblebees!) are about as appealing as being slapped in the face with a live trout and end up peg/shelfwarming. But thoughtful repaints actually give a impetus for people to buy the toy! These are the kinds of repaints Hasbro should be putting more focus on instead of doing all their random repaints that don't sell.

P.S.: Skullgrin's not really obscure - he had a prominent and repeated canonical appearance in G1 and G2 (and later in Dreamwave and IDW). I agree that Axer is pretty obscure though - never had any canonical appearances during G1/G2 or DW -- only ever made a brief "hi then bye" appearance in IDW's Spotlight: Arcee

[Bartrim]

Just because you earn money doesn't mean you're an adult

touche