Grave Considerations: Transformers Titans Return Pre-Thoughts

I have finally found some of the new Titans Return figures. Before spending time with them, let me give my thoughts on the line as a general idea.

The central gimmick of Titans Return is that Headmaster: a small robot that transforms into the head of a full-sized one. Storywise, this concept is slightly complicated by the point of origin for the story one chooses: in the American G1 continuity, the small robots were inhabitants of the planet Nebulous, where a civil war had broken out, not unlike that of Cybertrons’ past. Halves of the conflict ally themselves with either Cybertronian faction, acting as a second head being better than only one. Thus, heads and robots remain distinct entities, separate characters who more or less work together to do the things that the Cybertronian had been perfectly capable of doing on their own up until now. In Japan, the small robot WAS the character, with the larger body being an exosuit-type thing. Titans Return is predictably sticking with the American version, and so each Headmaster is a separate character . . . to whatever extent you consider a small robot who bends over to be an actual character.

Just based on the eye test, Titans Return is serving up more of stuff I love: “Classics”-style updates of classic characters, including characters from the original series of Headmasters. The gang’s all here: Hardhead, Chromedome, Mindwipe, Weirdwolf! Another Brainstorm! Blur and Scourge and Astrotrain and . . . wait, those guys have never been Headmasters. Neither have Galvatron or Megatron, or Optimus Prime.

Yes, Combiner Wars taught us a lot of great lessons, including that spreading the gimmick of the line to everyone is a terrific idea. Stunticons and Protectobots, of course; now, hows’ about some combinin’ Autobots who have never ever had this ability because . . . because! Hell yeah! Wheeljack never did this before WHO CARES!!! So, as the follow up, Titans Return looks to continue the trend. Blaster is a Headmaster now! Why? Because he’s being released in this line, obviously!

Everyone is getting a Headmaster in this line, and while I think that the world is ready for some updated Headmaster characters, I don’t personally find a lot of interest in an entire line of them. The larger toys, Deluxe and up, look fine, but prior to launch the line seemed to be built on a foundation of small, sub-Scout/Legends class toys that are simply a head robot and some little accessory, typically a vehicle of some kind, that transforms into some weapon or something for the larger robots. I’ve seen these in stores: for $5, you get a head figure and a tiny, tiny vehicle. At least, and I mean that as the very least, these retail for around $5, because anything over that price would be literal robbery. I think that some of the entries in this group are kind of neat, and some like Apeface are downright adorable, but overall, I’ve got no real interest in the little guys.


 And the Headmaster figures, rebranded "Titanmasters" for this line, and all heads, regardless of what type of *-master the character was originally, are far smaller this time around. After having recently gotten a Headmaster toy it would have been understandable to believe that the heads for Titans Return would/could be about the same size. They are not.  Compared to the G1 Headmaster figures, the new ones are downright tiny. The originals were large squares; Brainstorm from a few years ago was smaller and rounder; the new heads are just small. The face sculpts on them are very nice looking, and they retain the fused legs of the 80s version. You get a tiny robot that can sit down, or sit in a chair and dangle its legs, and then move its arms forward like it was reaching for something. In total fairness, there is nothing else than can logically be expected from these figures, as they really only serve the purpose of becoming a head. I at least wasn't expecting anything more, but the fact that these little guys only do one thing is what has me scowling at the individual head figures. Fortunately, unlike the G1 heads, these are secure in the robot necks, at least in my experiences so far, and they are not obviously a separate piece. This may mean that non-traditional Headmaster characters may not be overly burdened or marked by having Headmasters. This may be a real good thing in the long run.

While we don’t yet know the extent of the line, there are only a handful of figures that we so far know of that have my attention. The original Decepticon Headmasters, for sure. The Voyager Astrotrain gets my attention, but I’m probably going to have to see one to know for sure. There’s rumors of a Broadside and an Octane coming later, and at the moment, I’m interested, but we’ll have to wait and see, really. Initially I was super excited for the Leader class Powermaster Prime, but I think that I’d rather have an original G1 PMOP than a Headmaster version. I like Highbrow a lot, and Hardhead looks kind of good, but I know that if I go for some of the Autobot Deluxes I’ll wind up with all of them, minus Brainstorm. I think the Generations Brainstorm is just fine, and don’t have enough of an attachment to the character(s) to feel like I’d need another one. Recent pictures are showing Doublecross . . . Doublecross! . . . in the Deluxe class, and I find myself thinking that, you know, I sure would like a whole bunch of these toys. The list of figures that have my attention seems to grow each day.

I think the real issue for me with this line is that I was so in love with the last line that I feel almost anything else or less is destined to be a letdown. My love of Combiner Wars is extremely well documented here, and the combiner is one of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, Transformers development; the *-master concept has always been sort of goofy in my mind, even when I was a child. Most of these figures aren’t really even characters to me, as they appeared for four episodes of the G1 cartoon and a few issues of the old Marvel comic. Many of them are more fleshed out in current or recent Transformers media, so there’s that; but to me, they are still pretty new characters, granted those precious few sentence fragments of personality on the back of a G1 package, or in the always awesome character guides, such as Dreamwave’s “More Than Meets the Eye” collection.  

The more Titans Return Deluxe and larger figures I see pictures of, the more I start to climb onboard, but I am really turned off by the head-and-accessory bunch. I understand that Hasbro is going to try and push the head interchangability aspect, as this is a real new play pattern for a lot of people: I remember Headmasters from the 80’s, but a kid now or even younger collectors have no idea as to what this is. I think it’s kind of a waste, as a number of the individual heads are clearly Headmaster characters/toys, and so Siren and Squeezeplay will be perpetually disembodied, while Blur and Hot Rod will become Headmasters for no real reason. It seems we’ve arrived at that stage of the “Classics” line where the focus turns to 1986 movie and beyond toys, now getting their chance to be updated. And we should move beyond 1985 at some point: for all of the “Classics” styled toys we have gotten over the last nine years now, we don’t always need redone Starscreams and Primes. Eventually, you should move on to someone different. On to newer things then, and let’s see what Titans Return brings us.