I'm really just here for the free food and open bar.
I think the design brief was just stuffed to begin with. The alt modes had to be 'complete' to appeal to the Star Wars fans and as a consequence the bot modes just ended up being generic unstable humanoid with a character head. Although technology has improved over the last 10 years it looks like the design brief has not changed so even the most experienced design team is going to find it challenging to counter the inevitable shellforming.
I'm not making any excuses for the Marvel crossovers though
Ouch, March is going to be expensive for me since I feel like I need to replace my Omega Prime with his cracked tyres.
I got my original one out and compared it to the photo in the post above, and it is a new mould... but the new one looks a lot worse.
If the Japanese designers are on this new one, it should have looked better... but the chest and arm kibble makes it look like a TIE Advanced with a Vader head sticking out of it.
I'm not sure who designed the original ones, but considering the engineering on some of them (like the Darth Vader Death Star), I would have to imagine that they had the Japanese designers working on some or most of them.
Official images
http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/10/10/t...-images-351838
http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/10/10/t...-images-351815
http://news.tfw2005.com/2017/10/10/s...-images-351894
https://www.seibertron.com/transform...topspin/39785/
https://www.seibertron.com/transform...-magnus/39786/
Note the comparison images in Seibertron's article.