What do you consider to be the WORST G1 Toy Concept?

[VERT]

I actualy kinda liked action masters but only because of the old characters. But what I did not like much was pretenders and I hate micro masters. Little cheap falling over all the time little #!&% that they are :-P

[Lord_Zed]

I thought Hun-Grrr was really well done. But I suppose he's different because he wasn't some randomly invented monster like the Monsterbots or Firecon, but rather a double-headed dragon (i.e. sort of based on an "existing" mythological creature). Do alt modes based on mythological creatures count as "Weird Monster Things"? Cos Sinnertwin transforms into an Orthus (2 headed dog from Greek mythology), as opposed to Blot who transforms into... umm... I have no idea. A blot.

Heresy! Flamefeather is one of the best Transformers ever, any fool can see he turns into the mythical Griffin beast, he is clearly up there with the proper mythological beast transformers.

The other two are more of a grey area.

[GoktimusPrime]

FWIW Flamefeather is my favourite (or least hated?) Firecon. Cindersaur's my least favourite.

[BigTransformerTrev]

Well, I think that 'Action Masters' unsurprisingly was the definite winner of the 'worst g1 toy concept' (18 at last count), followed by Pretenders which lagged far behind but was still a definite second (5 at last count). Oh Hasbro, if you had just stuck with what had come before (barring the Firecons - lot of hate for the Firecons came out here), you could have had us emptying our wallets for so many more years!

Out of interest, those that voted 'other' - what particular figures did you have in mind? (Don't have to answer if ya don't want).

[Megatron]

... I just think Headmasters is the worst idea for Transformers ever.

[GoktimusPrime]

I can see why some people might not like Headmasters -- they're not the greatest concept ever... but worst ever? How are they worse than Action Masters?

IMO these are some of the ways that Action Masters are considerably worse than Headmasters:

(1) Headmasters were only one limited sub group. Action Masters dominated the line when they came out. If you didn't like Headmasters, there were plenty of other toys to collect at the time -- Throttlebots, Targetmasters, Technobots, Duocons, Terrorcons, Clones, Monsterbots etc. If you didn't like Action Masters, aside from Micromasters there was nothing else to collect.

(2) Headmasters don't have 'realistic' based Earthen alt modes, unlike say the Throttlebots (e.g. the Throttlebots gave us a VW Beetle, Ferrari Testarossa, Chevrolet Corvette C4, Jeep CJ-7, Ford RS200 and a dump truck), but at least they HAVE alt modes! Action Masters transform into a whole lot of nothing. And the Headmasters alt modes are recognisable for what they are (unlike the Pretenders). Skullcruncher's a gator, Highbrow is a helicopter, Hardhead's a tank, Mindwipe's a bat etc. They may not be the greatest alt modes, but at least you can tell what they are. Waverider was my first Pretender in 1988. I opened that toy and started playing with it, making Waverider zoom about in the air because I thought he was a jet. Then I read the tech specs and discovered he's meant to be a submersible. Oooohhh...

(3) Some of them have less than inspiring transformations, like Chromedome and his "bend be backwards, now you're done" transformation (so simple that the smaller (and die-cast) TF Jr. version transforms in the same way!). Even Fortress Maximus has a pretty darn simple transformation... he just lies down to transform to battleship mode, and the city mode is just the robot lying down with legs tucked in (Fortress Maximus is more impressive a _massive_ play set more than as an action figure really). But still... at least they can transform. And the engineering of even the worst Headmaster completely outclasses any Action Master Elite IMHO. Look at Omega Spreem's alt mode... suddenly Chromedome looks like a Masterpiece by comparison!

Anyway, that's just my opinion. But I'd be curious to know how you would rate Headmasters as being worse than Action Masters.

"It cannot even transform, this thing is useless. Get rid of it." - Megatron (Transmutate)

[liegeprime]

Well, I think that 'Action Masters' unsurprisingly was the definite winner of the 'worst g1 toy concept' (18 at last count), followed by Pretenders which lagged far behind but was still a definite second (5 at last count). Oh Hasbro, if you had just stuck with what had come before (barring the Firecons - lot of hate for the Firecons came out here), you could have had us emptying our wallets for so many more years!

Out of interest, those that voted 'other' - what particular figures did you have in mind? (Don't have to answer if ya don't want).

I voted for Others since my choices would not be classified under the rest of the masters"etc. Sixchanger - as Ive mentioned just because you got 6 transformations doesn't make it cool especially when all of em modes are lame looking,
Battlechargers - altmodes ok but for the sake of the gimmick they've become a rolling transformer which ''transforms'' like a tombstone rising

and the firecons - these can be classified as weird monster almodes category, BUT, that's what I love about them, it's their bot mode that irks me a blocky bot non articulated with kibbles all over which you only recognise as the bot mode coz it's got the face. -(due to just turning around as a "transformation" - lame)

[GoktimusPrime]

I voted for Others since my choices would not be classified under the rest of the masters"etc. Sixchanger - as Ive mentioned just because you got 6 transformations doesn't make it cool especially when all of em modes are lame looking,

It worked well with Sixshot IMO, but yeah, Quickswitch (and thus Sixknight) suck. I got both for free though. (and my free Sixshot came complete w/ box and foam tray!)

Battlechargers - altmodes ok but for the sake of the gimmick they've become a rolling transformer which ''transforms'' like a tombstone rising

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Battlechargers either. Their robot modes aren't as solid or well made as their preceding Jumpstarter counterparts, although arguably they have better alt modes being more realistic (whereas the Battlechargers are these fantasy rocket sled things - and their heads aren't even concealed). The way the robot modes flop down is ridiculous, and zero shoulder articulation FTL. Having said that, I once watched a younger cousin of mine _really_ have fun playing with Runamuck once (she was still in primary school at the time). I don't think I've ever seen any child seriously enjoy playing with an Action Master.

[High_Q]

I voted Pretenders for two reasons; (i) the outer shell has minimal/no articulation (worse than Action Masters), and (ii) the inner robots mostly contort instead of transform. At least the Action Masters never pretended to be able to transform.

I'm surprised the Headmasters received any vote at all, as i consider the Headmaster concept the best toy gimmick in mainline TF history, and am hoping beyond hope of this concept getting a Classics/Generations treatment. Having a pilot/trainer figure integrating in such a way just adds so much playability to the main figure, IMO.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I'm surprised the Headmasters received any vote at all, as i consider the Headmaster concept the best toy gimmick in mainline TF history

Well the three groups that haven't gotten any votes as the worst (as yet) are certainly the three I didn't think would because they are so cool! I just thought I had better put them to make the whole thing fair:

Targetmasters: Little Nebulan dudes who turned into guns and could attach to either the vehicle or robot was a great idea! Maybe they got it from Megatron pretty much being treated like a Targemaster in the cartoon. THe one thing I liked about the Action Masters was their targetmaster partners, very cool to have characters like Catgut & Gatoraider (seriously - didn't Michael Bay get alerted to that? Could have made a FORTUNE in cross-promotion in the movies with him in it) turn from animals into guns. And of course it made the smaller Seacons have more play value.

Combiners: Seriously - who the frag doesn't love combiners? Combaticons, Stunticons, Constructicons, Aerialbots etc etc that combine into giant hulking robots - just fricken cool man! To my mind one of the very BEST TF toy concepts!

Pallette-swapped characters: We wouldn't have Skywarp and Thundercarcker - nuff said! Though I would kinda have liked to see with those guys like they did with Ken & Ryu in Street Fighter, make them stay similar but with a little more individuality and difference in each iteration.