Thoughts so far on figures of note:
1. Quintesson- my favourite of the lot, nailed it 100% with the screen look and faces, I'll probably get 3.
2. Scorponok- pretty cool, but will be passing as I skipped Fort Max and the other '87 bots.
3. Runamuck- looks nice and clean, I wish they'd have put some orange highlights on there, think I saw a TFW digibash with orange waist and collar/neck area that was so much better.
4. Alicon- very slick robot mode that looks even better in the actual IRL toy they displayed, alt-mode is passable but could be better. I will definitely get at least one, maybe a second.
5. Arcee- While the robot mode looks nice, the kibble and hoverboard situation is just plain unacceptable. I'll be staying with my Takara Legends Arcee.
6. Smokescreen- He looks great, but I am infinitely peeved about releasing this after just giving us three very GEEWUN Datsun bros, albeit with Cybertronian (barely) alt modes. I will probably get him, but only because I hadn't actually got Selects Smokescreen yet.
7. Sky Lynx- one of the best looking figures revealed in the newer CHUG lines, so much interactivity and cool features. Super excited.
I hate to sound super sour, but I'm really disappointed in Hasbro about the whole "now retool all the Siege figures into Earth modes and sell them again" thing. It's really obviously money-grubbing, which is a shame given so much recent dedication to meeting fan expectations that otherwise comes through in the other figures. Having options is great and the Siege toys themselves are cool, but they knew what they were doing when they gave us irresistable cartoon robot modes, which most probably didn't expect to see sold back to them a year later with slightly better alt modes that only just warrant a repurchase. Now there's a bunch of people feeling stupid for having what was only last year pretty definitive versions of characters. Seekers are a little more forgivable, given that their Siege figures had specific purpose in existing due to the tetrajet alt mode, so I'm mostly fine with them.
I expect nearly all the other Siege bots done so far will get new Earth mode figures:
- Sideswipe
- Red Alert
- Hound
- Prowl
- Bluestreak
- Ironhide (lacking good representation before Siege)
- Ratchet (lacking good representation before Siege)
Pretty disappointing at the least and aggravating at the worst. Hard to say how fans will respond with their wallets, but something's telling me we're gonna give in and buy the new versions anyway. Also pretty cheap of them is throwing blue Frumble into a four pack exclusive with a bunch of obscure decos, when he didn't need to be. Pretty low, Enemy would have fared much better, and Frumble should have been in a two pack with the now absent Buzzsaw.
Seeking the Following:
- CW Brawl
- Earthrise Runabout
- Earthrise Thrust