I was quite adamant that the team was
not happening, but after a run of leaks, an Australian listing, and
a confirmation at New York Toy Fair presumed certain, its on. We may
have something to look forward to before Titans Return, despite what
I said in my Combiner Wars opinion piece. I was wrong, sorry folks, but at
least we get a classic combiner team.
I went back to double check exactly where I'd got the impression the Technobots weren't happening, and I can't find an outright denial. It seems I misinterpreted the lack of them in waves 4 & 5, along with Hasbro not giving a definite answer. Here's what is known, via various low quality images which I shall not post here due to legal concerns(1). Scattorshot is back after his solo release, Nosecone is Brawl with a drill, Lightspeed is either Dead End or Streetwise, Strafe looks to be Air Raid and most surprising of all, Afterburner is a retool of Deluxe Groove. You know, the toy Takara supposedly made because Rook wasn't G1. They come as a $100 boxset, release date given as August/September for Australia, and May for America. This great news, up to a point. Its not immediately clear what level of retooling is going on with the limbbots, and the toys where we have a solid idea, aren't that brilliant. Scattorshot, subject of a rather nasty review over at Tformers, regrettably retains all of the Superion bits, although it looks like the combiner hand and feet might be different. Nosecone looks to only differ from Brawl with the weapon, and Brawl ain't that good. One hopes they'll fix the waist issue on the mould for its reuses. Recent images from Botcon regarding General Drill Horn also imply that the proper way to form the vehicle mode is to have it drive around backwards with a drill sticking out of its butt.
Speaking of Predacus, like most people,
I'm increasingly of the opinion that this represents a de-facto
preview of the Technobots. Looks nice at least.
Anyway, I'm tempted to make comparisons
to the Combaticons I just reviewed. Its probable that a majority of
the team would be simple repaints, not necessarily a bad thing, but a
clear a step below sci-fi revamp the team needed. But if they really
are in the 100 $/£/warbucks bracket, that ain't a bad deal. Now we
need to talk about the other big surprise, of which the only
supporting evidence is a piece of official-looking artwork. It
is however very interesting, as it would answer a long stand
question, who could they possibly retool Sky Lynx into? With every
mould in Combiner Wars fated to be used as often as a pair of my
shoes, what could they possibly use a dino-cat-bird for?
The answer seems to be Liokaiser.
For those whom are not au fait with the
Japanese exclusive series Transformers Victory, Liokaiser is both a
combing holy grail for fans, and a demonstration of a Japanese toy
company misusing English words in the stereotypical “Engrish”
fashion. Unusually for the time, Liokaiser was formed from a team of
six, whom integrated the gestalt hands and feet into the individual
toys. Only the combiner head and weapons were separate. The actual
sub-group however had an unusual gimmick that leant them their name. Brace yourselves. The Breastforce.
Please take a moment to process that.
This team, and the leader of the
Decepticons at that time, had partner animals that turned guns, and
chest armour, so, The Breastforce. They had a few curious names like
that, such as Kilbison, and Helbat. As why they they are using the
team? Well, probably because they don't have beast modes, and so
could be done with existing moulds. At which point, a reader should
probably ask “hang on, why Sky Lynx then?”. Well, there was a
non-combining Breastforce member, the aforementioned leader,
Deathsaurus, and he had a bird monster mode. It would appear that he
is filling in for two team members, but then again, the body is in
Leozack's colours, who was a jet.
I'd probably get the set, despite the
fact that it has two Brawls in it.
Image copyrights Hasbro, TakaraTomy,
and Botcon, art sourced from TFWiki.
Foot notes
1) Hard to give proper credit if I
don't know where it comes from, which I usually like to do with
images. Plus, the quality is terrible.
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