Flashwave wrote:Just spitballing here, but I wonder if these Horrorcons might be legacy holdovers? How long does a toy linger in a design process? I ask, because we have heard a rumor of the Horrorcons for a while. I thibk tvat was the great big leak thst gave us the Combiners and really most of of Prime Wars, but anyway most of the leak that said "Horrorcons" ended up being true. Could these be those Horrorcons, just now findidng their way out of the design stage and maybe tweaked to by Titans Return compatible?
I could be way off base, but it will be interesting to see if the design asthetic for these matches older figures.
It's possible Apeface and Snapdragon were originally conceived as being part of Titans Return, but plans were changed around the time the decision was made to shorten subline imprints to one year only, like with Power of the Primes, instead of approximately 18 months like with Combiner Wars and Titans Return. In that case, I could see it being easy for Hasbro to finally put those molds out at the tail end of SIEGE, with TR compatibility intact, adding a bit of "battle damage" paint to the original designs to make them fit the "SIEGE" motif. It's also entirely possible that these are designs that began with fans asking "WTF?" when we didn't get Apeface and Snapdragon as triple changing Voyager Class figures in Titans Return.
Thinking about it now, Titans Return probably could have lasted two full years if Hasbro had so chosen. There was enough "unused" content left over to pull it off. We know already that some Titan Masters were scrapped. A few more waves of Legends figures might have given us most of the Throttlebots. The Deluxe Class could have included the Autobot Targetmasters to parallel the Decepticon Targetmasters we did get. Some later exclusives like Arcee, Grotusque, and Repugnus would have seen regular retail release instead. The Voyagers could have been filled out with the remaining triple changers (Springer, Sandstorm, Apeface, and Snapdragon) to give us a complete set of G1 triple changers reimagined with Headmaster compatibility. The sheer number of Leader Class figures that were pushed out was almost unprecedented, particularly when thinking about the number of unique and heavily retooled molds. That size class could have originally been planned to span two years of shelf life instead of just one with just the addition of a few easy repaints like Soundwave into Soundblaster or Blaster into Twincast. Then, there's the mysterious case of why we only got two box sets when the theme seemed to indicate four would have been better. Maybe a two year deal was the original idea before it was decided to keep refreshing the Generations brand yearly to keep up retailer interest. In other words, it might not be Power of the Primes that was cut short abruptly so much as it was Titans Return.
I'm eager to get my paws on SIEGE Springer. Looking at pictures of him, that looks like a very Titan Master friendly clear blue cockpit on both of his alt modes. I can almost see how his transformation would have worked without a fully integrated (non-removable) head.
D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I'm more surprised by the fact that there is the chance for a Wave 4 of voyagers or even a wave 5. Unless the Horrorcons are supposed to be exclusives or even part of the next line, or Siege is lasting past 4 waves
More than likely Apeface (and presumably Snapdragon) are the Wave 4 offerings. Springer and Thundercracker are only Wave 3, after all. We know we're getting four waves of Deluxe figures. Having 8 Voyagers across four waves still fits within Hasbro's 12-month per subline plan.