I think Barricade looks alright and an improvement over the 2007 Deluxe (mould/design wise, not colourwise; although that's probably because that's the way he'll look in the film, which isn't Hasbro's fault).
Bumblebee's not doing it for me - looks like a step backwards from AoE Deluxe Bumblebee, which already was a step backwards from previous Deluxe Movie 'Bees.That Berserker suffers from what I think is a common problem we've had since AoE; a kibbleless robot mode. Any bet that's the way that Paramount/Dreamworks has designed it, because that's what we saw in AoE. This forces HasTak to make Shellformers where the main robot bodies carry now hint of the alt mode.
I suspect that this is due to Josh Feldman. Back when Aaron Archer was in charge, one mandate that he placed on Michael Bay was that the Transformers had to have noticeable alt mode kibble. e.g. doors, windows, tyres etc. Archer explicitly stated in the DVD interview that he asked Bay to change the designs to reflect this, and Bay also mentioned that Hasbro had asked him to make these changes, and both sides reached a compromise. We know that this was one of the earlier concept designs for Optimus Prime:
And Archer explicitly stated that he couldn't approve this design because it was too difficult to make into product, particularly with the split tyres. But Bay himself said that it was Hasbro who insisted on Optimus Prime being a red truck, but Bay wanted him to be a blue truck and he explained to Archer that it was because blue was easier to film than red, and the compromise resulted in the more extensive chopper flames. But importantly, when we see the end result, we can see the iconic red chest and smoke stacks etc.
We know that Archer has since left that position at Hasbro after Dark of the Moon, and we can see that Archer's successor (who I think is Feldman, but again, do correct me if I'm wrong) has not continued this mandate with Bay. Without any checks on Bay, he has allowed the Transformers to become more like the early concept designs in the first movie - kibble-free metallic creatures. When you look at the Transformers transforming in Age of Extinction, most of their alt mode kibble just disappears. When I watch AoE Optimus Prime transform frame by frame I can see the entire back half of the truck get swallowed up into his lower back!It's as if he has a magical Doraemon-like inter-dimensional pocket there or something. But this is why when you look at Age of Extinction Optimus Prime there is very little alt mode kibble. It honestly looks like someone wearing a costume made from parts of an automotive vehicle which has been randomly tacked on different places rather than being parts of a vehicle which has shifted there during transformation.
In short, Bay has done what Archer never wanted him to do - he's made the transformers morph (quite literally for the Decepticons) rather than shift-parts-form. Granted Archer did allow this to happen with the Maximals in Beast Machines (I don't know if that was Mainframe's or Hasbro's idea), but at least Hasbro learnt from that and insisted that they not do it again... ever. But since Archer's departure, it appears that Hasbro has forgotten this lesson. *sigh*
I think that Barricade looks the best in that lot because he's the only one that appears to be a partsformer and not a try-hard wannabe morpher. And he appears to have a better posture and more human-like body than the original figure. So I might get Barricade, but the others are an easy pass.
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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
