2017 Titans Return toys revealed

[FatalityPitt]

Some more stock images of wave 5.

https://www.seibertron.com/transform...-wave-5/38467/

Glad to see they're painting the Titanmaster heads (hopefully the final product looks like that!).

[Jellico]

In-package images of the Wave 5 Deluxes.



MY Thoughts/Feelings:
- Windblade is a likely buy for me. I didn't think a female Headmaster would look good at first, because the stereotypical Headmaster tends to be quite big and blocky with a square head. But Windblade still manages to pull off her look while accommodating the gimmick. The face-sculpt looks really nice. This is proof of the progress made in toy design and crafting over the decades.

That's where I found that new Minerva Titanmaster interesting. She has a "female" body. I didn't expect any change from the blocky TM bodies we have seen so far.

What was Windblade's TM like and wasn't there a rumor of an Arcee TM?

[Dimi194]

given that they are asexual (or pan-sexual in IDW) and don't reproduce it seems strange to see her comically well endowed.
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^THIS. The idea that 'female' sex-less fictional alien robots that do not procreate like humans (or like any mammals) conform to the human 'feminine' body shapes/styles is actually ridiculous, considering the huge array of shapes and sizes TFs (that have been 99% 'male') have come in and still been considered 'male' because the fiction said so, NOT based on how they look... Hence why the remolding done to make Victorion (aka giving the car limbs/Pyra breasts) was so odd. Thought they were getting better with the silly ideas of 'feminine' proportions with Strongarm, but apparently not.

That said I love Windblade (both as a character and her general aesthetic) so I'll pick this one up, but glad I'm not the only person that finds the sexualisation of 'female' TFs inappropriate/outdated/unnecessary.

[FatalityPitt]

What was Windblade's TM like and wasn't there a rumor of an Arcee TM?

Scorchfire (Windblade's TM) just has a black version of the Fracas/Xort body but with a new head. I don't mind since the Titanmaster/Headmasters (depending on which continuity) are basically armored humanoids, like Iron Man or Patlabor. Would've been nice to get a new body mold though.

As for Arcee, I read some speculation that it might just be a repaint of the Loudmouth TM. I hope that's not the case and it's actually more than that. In the late-1980's an Arcee toy was planned but never made it to production; and it was just going to be a pink and white Chromedome repaint. Who knows, maybe the Headmaster Arcee will finally get made, though I think it'd be better as a Blurr repaint than a Chromedome one. It'd make sense for them to make her since she was a Headmaster in the Rebirth episodes of the US G1 cartoon.

I do hope the Minerva and Cab Headmaster molds get released in the Hasbro markets in some form. It'd also be a waste for Hasbro/Takara to create new molds but only use them once (and in an exclusive set).

[Jellico]

^THIS. The idea that 'female' sex-less fictional alien robots that do not procreate like humans (or like any mammals) conform to the human 'feminine' body shapes/styles is actually ridiculous, considering the huge array of shapes and sizes TFs (that have been 99% 'male') have come in and still been considered 'male' because the fiction said so, NOT based on how they look... Hence why the remolding done to make Victorion (aka giving the car limbs/Pyra breasts) was so odd. Thought they were getting better with the silly ideas of 'feminine' proportions with Strongarm, but apparently not.

That said I love Windblade (both as a character and her general aesthetic) so I'll pick this one up, but glad I'm not the only person that finds the sexualisation of 'female' TFs inappropriate/outdated/unnecessary.

For me it is not about sexualization. It is about recognition. I have had civilians unable to pick Strongarm's gender from the toy. Despite the modifications to Pyra etc there is no chance unless you know what to look for.

For various reasons people don't expect female characters so I feel that you need to knock them over the head with a sledgehammer. Body issues are important but being seen at all comes first.


*I had a Spay-c and it took me 30 years to discover she was female. It took me 3 or 4 issues to pick Lug for sure in MTMTE. I am sure this was intentional but it was a bit clever by half. Conversely my wife just announced MP11 Skywarp as female based on stock imagery. I am not claming an answer to any if this. Just it is an issue.

[Batfan007]

^THIS. The idea that 'female' sex-less fictional alien robots that do not procreate like humans (or like any mammals) conform to the human 'feminine' body shapes/styles is actually ridiculous, considering the huge array of shapes and sizes TFs (that have been 99% 'male') have come in and still been considered 'male' because the fiction said so, NOT based on how they look... Hence why the remolding done to make Victorion (aka giving the car limbs/Pyra breasts) was so odd. Thought they were getting better with the silly ideas of 'feminine' proportions with Strongarm, but apparently not.

That said I love Windblade (both as a character and her general aesthetic) so I'll pick this one up, but glad I'm not the only person that finds the sexualisation of 'female' TFs inappropriate/outdated/unnecessary.

So you like or dislike Strongarm?

[Dimi194]

So you like or dislike Strongarm?

Love Strongarm too (both as a character and a toy), esp because of the way she's a massive blocky truck.

[GoktimusPrime]

I quite like Strika in terms of being a really bulky and rather butch female Transformer, yet not without her soft side. One highlight for me was when Rattrap placed her in that induced dream thing where she looks at a view of a pre-war Cybertron and is entranced by its beauty. And yet she's also portrayed as being keenly intelligent - with both she and Obsidian being master tacticians. IDW Strika is ridiculously powerful.

[reillyd]

I love Strongarm because she's female and they don't make a big deal about it. Girls need robot role models too. We had Arcee and now a Windblade..... but Strongarm is for the next generation, without being stereotypically pink.


Personally I always thought Starscream was a female or at least somewhere in between, and the TF Prime incarnation even more so. I still loved her

[Jellico]

Wasn't he voiced as female in one of the translations?

I find the idea of a female Ratchet fascinating. The similarity to Nurse Ratched wasn't an accident. Sure they wouldn't have written a female character in the 80s in the way they wrote Ratchet, and he has evolved to be older over the years too. But I could really see a gender swapped modern Ratchet working as a character.

It is actually quite remarkable how Transformers missed out on a female main character in the first few years. Contemporaries like He Man and GI Joe certainly had them on both sides. I am struggling to think of one without one.