Grave Considerations: Transformers Titans Return Final Thoughts/Power of the Primes Pre-Thoughts

In keeping with the age old tradition established at the end of Combiner Wars, I wanted to take some time and give a closing thought on the current Transformers toy line before its successor, Power of the Primes, launches . . . whenever it’s going to launch. Like its own predecessor, Titans Return has been a line of good things, and a line of infuriating distribution.

While it was greeted with skepticism initially, Titans Return ended up being a line filled with good toys. It was a line that gave us the missing members of subgroups as well: Kickback to complete the Insecticons, a full set of Decepticon triple changers, all finally in the same size class, and Broadside to complete the Autobot triple changers. The line primarily focused on introducing the *-master characters into the “Classics” toy scene, albeit by making them all Headmasters. It inexplicably brought the Jumpstarters into the 21^st Century of toy engineering. It was also a line that totally cut out actual Headmaster characters, relegating them to the smallest and cheapest price point as swappable heads with converting accessories. Apeface, Nightbeat, Fangry, Squeezeplay, Horri-bull, Siren, all discombobulated characters now, along with others that probably didn’t need to be remade. I skipped that entire portion of the line, not finding any need for random heads and not understanding the concept of an established character wearing the head of another established character. But that was my decision, and by all accounts, the Titanmaster figures were generally judged to be a good time.

But the line was horrifically distributed in my area, an issue that often surfaces towards the end of a line, but has been going on for a literal year here. Really, a year. Last year, right about this time, I found Wave 3 with Hot Rod and Twinferno. Yesterday, the 22^nd of October, 2017, I saw Target pegs of Hot Rods and Twinfernos. In fact, that’s kind of all I’ve seen for a few months now. This is concerning, as Misfire, Twintwist, and Slugslinger are really all I need to complete the line for myself, and I’ve begun to think I am never going to see them in a store. My plan is to just order them online when I get paid next, and put an end to the whole shenanigans. I suppose my concern is that, since Power of the Primes is (I think) supposed to be out by years’ end, the last few toys I want will be shipped off to the secondary stores like T J Maxx, and that always ends up being just finds of good fortune rather than anything else. I’m not willing to take that chance, as Misfire and Slugslinger are needed to complete the Decepticon Targetmaster group, and Twintwist is needed to make Topspin valid. I’d also like to snag an Overlord.

The distribution has been so poor that I’ve probably bought more Titans Return figures at Walgreens than Targets. In the beginning, it seemed Walgreens was the only place that had figures outside of Wave 1, and more recently, Krok and Quake were only seen at Walgreens stores. It has gotten to the point that, if I’m out looking for figures, I can’t help but think that maybe Walgreens is the place to go. Every line suffers from distribution issues, but this time, it has been a constant, not just a problem popping up as lines wind down and prepare to shift to the next one.

And, that shift may not be quite so drastic this time, as Power of the Primes looks like it’s going to be an amalgamation of Combiner Wars and Titans Return. There are combiners that have already been shown, such as the Dinobots, and more in the pipe, like Abominus (finally), and Starscream, Elita-1 and Inferno based teams as well, for some reason. Full Dinobot and Terrorcon teams of limbs have been seen, while the other torsos belie the existence of future Deluxe figures, as only Jazz, Dreadwing, and Darkwind have been displayed as of the present time. The Dinobot figures look nice, but the combined mode sort of doesn’t. Hun-grr is going to be a remold of the Combiner Wars Silverbolt (AGAIN!!!!! and also, huh?) so Abominus should work out fine, as it will be a Combiner Wars combiner.

In addition,  Power of the Primes will be bringing back the Titanmaster concept, this time in the guise of tiny versions of the 13 Primes, or something. This part is kind of lost on me, as I haven’t been keeping up with the chatter on the story concept behind these figures. I can’t handle the back and forth on fan sites over these. They are clearly Titanmaster figures housed inside tiny Pretender shells, but they don’t have faces: they have some vague symbols or designs, apparently meant to represent the 13 Primes in some way. The Titanmaster figures can attach to some sort of bracer or armor part, obviously the new hand foot gun design, to become a power up of some sort to the larger figure. Fan sites are going crazy trying to promote the idea that these obviously Titanmaster figures, as they can apparently plug in to the neck joints of Titans Return figures and serve as abstract faces, are not at all Titanmasters, but something completely different. And that makes sense, of course. Why would Hasbro reuse a concept from a previous line in a totally new line that reuses concepts from the previous two lines? It’s like you don’t even love a corporation to think things like that. In fact, enormous portions of the Power of the Primes toy line has already been leaked or suggested, and that information was loudly decried by the more allegiant members of the online community, only to have them embrace the official news like they had both never heard it before and also known it all along. That must be exhausting. I am all for being surprised by new toys, but don’t understand the reasoning behind vehemently denying information, only to later act like we’ve been in the know all this time. But, I’ve got my issues with the fandom, so I sometimes just feel like I’m being a contrarian. I don’t honestly believe that, as I’ve got a blog full of articles about how I like official products, and about how I like toys in general and Transformer toys specifically. It’s not that I’m just some crank on the Internet who wants to tell you that the thing you like sucks; I just don’t believe in loving a company to the point that I’d find them utterly flawless under all circumstances, or that I’d convince myself that the thing that I see as an obvious reuse of concept is something entirely new and never before seen because the company adds a different prefix to it.

I am personally not too excited about what we’ve seen of Power of the Primes, and I’m not sure that too many other things either leaked or alluded to will be sufficient to get me any more excited. I think pretty much everything looks fine, but I don’t feel like it has much allure for me. I’m in for the Dreadwing and Darkwind, and the Starscream because I have to be, and I do like the Dinobots except for their combined mode. Perhaps I could finally get the rest of the team to go along with 2007 “Classics” Grimlock.

But why I have such a cool response to the new line is what I’m contemplating. I loved Combiner Wars. Titans Return wound up being so, so much better than I’d originally thought it was going to be. So what would I not like about a line that combines the two? I don’t have a problem with gimmick reuse or anything like that, as some people online are apparently upset over. And I suppose I could see their point, as two lines in a row focused on different gimmicks and the next one is shaping up to be the toys they couldn’t squeeze into the last two lines. It doesn’t feel like any new stuff, just . . . “more of the same” implies some negative value, and that is not how I feel. But this feels like an instance of wanting to change the name of the toy line every two or so years to make it seem like things are always different is the clear strategy by the brand. I get it if the intention with the new line is to unite the previous two, and show that your combiners and Titanmasters can all play together, but it seems more a bone for collectors than kids: the latter never needs a reason or excuse to have figures from disparate universes or series interact with each other, while the former occasionally (to be kind) obsesses over the invisible boundaries between groups of toys, sometimes believing these to be uncrossable borders that must always be respected.

I think another element of my indifference to the Power of the Primes reveals is a sense that my collecting has really taken a third party turn, and that most of the figures I really want are third party ones. I look at pictures of the impending Abominus and think that, a few years back, it would have skyrocketed to the top of my want list. But these days, I just keep dreaming of Unique Toys’ Ordin instead. A Titan class Predaking has been announced, but I find TFC Toys Ares more than good for my collection. This is not to say that I won’t be picking up some Power of the Primes figures, examples like the Dinobots being prime examples of toys I want in my collection but not being interested enough to spend the big bucks on their third party versions, and my wife knows that, no matter how many times I say I’m not too interested in the new toys, some of them will still come home from the store with us. Provided we ever see them at stores.

Maybe, and I’m just thinking out loud here, maybe this would be a good place to finally make my break with Hasbro, or at least its mass retail wing, and refocus my collecting on higher end, collector focused pieces instead. Being years behind on the third party scene means I’m also years behind on the Hasbro Inferior wagon as well, right? I don’t know. I still do like a whole lot of what Hasbro does, but I really feel that the third party pieces I’ve amassed are better than the official ones. Maybe my lingering indifference toward a new toy line is due to exposure to what I would whole heartedly deem better toys. Maybe it’s due to the new line being more of the same. We had two years of combiners, and then two years of Headmasters. And now, we’re about to embark on two years of combiners and Headmasters. The previous two lines have had some total gems in them, but if Power of the Primes is going to be a greatest hits tour, it would need to turn out at least equivalent highlights, and it just does not look like it will be able to. Ultimately, that’s fine, as it will provide me opportunity to get caught up on things that I really do want more than any of the new products.

So, while the Coffins’ work on Titans Return figures is not yet over, this does seem like a good time to bid farewell to the line, as we did with Combiner Wars, since the new stuff is apparently supposed to come around fairly soon. We will see what the actual response to Power of the Primes is, and it will probably be a positive if slightly indifferent one, but it does have some strong competition to live up to. We will see what the future holds, and what our response to the new toys ends up being, but for now, it doesn’t seem to be as strong as what we felt about the last two. Ultimately I was wrong, but I knew how I felt about Titans Return from the first reveals. I know how I feel about Power of the Primes as well, but this time it feels more certain because Power of the Primes is going to mainly be a rehash of previous figures. I’m fine with that; I just don’t know if I really care.