I'm still shocked that NO ONE has ever attempted to do Landcross again. Yea, it'd be ambitious as hell money-wise since they're triple changers, superlink combine, and then all combine together, but it still baffles me no one has taken a crack at it. With the rise in popularity the Japanese designs have been recently, I hope a Haslab could be done or someone like Fanshobby could try it.
@@R0-83-RTG2 Bumblebee was a repaint of his original figure, the Go-Bot was a repaint of High Beam (it eventually became RId Crosswise) And let's be honest here. I would be surprised if any figure that cannot transform makes it's way onto a top 10 list of _transformers_ toys.
@@medafan53 I didn't know the Go-Bots figure was a repaint. And to be fair 1990 is going to be tough because on the Hasbro side of things it's mostly action masters and micro masters, so it wouldn't surprise me if at a few Action masters sneaks its way on the list. Especially considering action master elites didn't come out until 1991. Even on the Takara side of things I believe the only significant figures to be released were the 3 Powered Masters.
I remember back in October '89 when I was a high school freshman, I went on a class trip to Japan. By then I was well past being into Transformers (and toys in general). I remember walking through a mall and as I passed a toy store, a box caught my eye so I went in, curious as to what this "Star Saber" was. The toy store owner spoke very little English: basically I recall him telling me that Transformers were "low class" and directed my attention to something called "Gunpla" models, which I willingly ended up spending my money on instead (as a teenager, I thought buying models would be more socially acceptable than "kids toys" in front of my peers). In retrospect, I should've heeded the words of a certain Templar knight from a movie that I saw earlier that year: I chose...poorly.
I found Landcross at an antique store last Christmas! I was surprised how good he was! So much play value! The store was closing own too, so it was on sale, and not just a little on sale.
The best part of Landcross is you can combine all of them with all of them. The worst part of Landcross is that inevitably ends with people laughing over making Tackle and Waver into Tackle Waver.
Wow #8 hit me in the feels! I completely forgot I had that set as a kid and seeing it now may have finally convinced me to start a retro shelf. New grail identified, thanks for the countdown TJ!
I have to wonder if Takara is going to redo Liokaiser since Victory Saber, Deathsaurus, and the all but inevitable Dinoking remake are happening or have already released
Overall, I feel I prefer Takara’s output over Hasbro’s in terms of Transformers. Their output has a lot more toys that I like, not to mention the improved paint jobs from imported Hasbro toylines.
@@banobobot Me too, Takara has always done robots so much better than their US partner Hasbro did. Every time we got new Transformers in the 80s and 90s, they always had GI Joe'ish faces, but when Takara did new robots, they had Gundam'ish looking faces.
@@karatgaming5792 Fun fact: Kunio Okawara had a hand in some of the Transformers designs in the mid-to-late 80s. He was even the lead designer in TF Victory and also contributed to the Brave Saga.
While Transformers fans are more forgiving towards the literal statues (like the XM Studios); the different attempts at action figures in general are absolutely hated. With the possible exception of ReAction Unicron; the closest we'll ever get to that prototype toy. If there was anything nice I could say about Action Masters; it'd be with Shockwave and Armored Convoy with Optimus Prime. Shockwave looks mostly truer to the animation model that came later and while there's orange on him, he surprisingly looks good with it. Though I normally wouldn't make that color part of his default color scheme. That and the fact he can't transform is still disappointing (unlike with Megatron, that gun alt mode makes sense for Shockwave). As for Armored Convoy with Optimus Prime, there's more effort put into Optimus's playset than with many of the other action masters. Safe to say though that when comparing Powermaster Optimus in his default form with the Action Master Optimus; I prefer the stylization of that default form Powermaster Optimus. Action Master Optimus just looks cheap in comparison. Also considering that Galaxy Shuttle in the European line came out the same year, it's safe to say this is the one time the G1 line Optimus isn't the best toy. Thankfully Optimus would regain that crown in the G2 line.
There were interesting ideas tried during this part of the G1 era, might have worked if they had any sort of cartoon to really sell these new play patterns at the time. *EDIT: US content. Japan was doing their own thing.
Correction regarding the Micro Change derived G1 Bumblebee: the legs are separate pieces that you extend and fold the feet up for transformation. How do I know? I own the Walmart G1 reissue from 2018.
I'm aware of this, I own two copies of the mold. The legs are separate parts but they do not widen in any way so his feet look like they aren't separate.
Victory Saber does feel more like a Super Sentai auxiliary zord combo than a true combination, so understandable to bump them down one. I’d probably put Crossblades over Vroom, but that’s just personal preference. I do kind of want to see what these last couple lists would be like if you were limited to only stuff US fans could have gotten their hands on, but I understand the better scope you want to hit. (Plus Japan really was doing it better with more faith in the original concepts).
1990 was no doubt a really bad time for The Transformers. If we can include the European line; Galaxy Shuttle is likely the best The Transformers had that year.
I'm glad Vroom made the list.. however, I can't believe you have Landcross above Deathsaurus!!!😅 IMO, Deathsaurus is number one. He is so much fun to handle and play with. He really feels great with the springs and die cast. Liokaiser is sweet two, but I'd have him behind VS and DS, personally. Thanks for the great list! I look forward to 1990!
I have the Kabaya Gum Gaiacross. It's hardly as solid as the real deal, and uses parts forming for the arms, but it's really cool to experience the combinations. I wish we'd get a new version of it. Heck, reissue it! :D
My personal opinion is that if you could by them all in a single purchase during the year they originally came out, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with ranking them together. It's about bang for your buck
After this series, I know I'd love to see a discussion on the various play patterns of the franchise, and if/how they could be done in the modern day; disregarding anything that would violate modern day toy laws/regulations (see the sparkbots for a great example) We already know that Devastator & Scramble City Combiners are possible, so any other Combiners (2-piece, 3-piece, 4-piece) should still be possible. We know Headmasters can be done, because an entire line was dedicated to them (Titans Return), and we even got proper versions of Apeface and Snapdragon in either Kingdom or Legacy. We know Micromasters could be done, but it would really need some refinement and need to be the central focus of the line. Targetmasters seem harder to do, because if you release them as originally envisioned (the Headmaster/Powermaster gimmick but the small robot turns into a gun), something has to be sacrificed for the gimmick to work (the small robot sucks, or the two partners are separate purchases, and neither can have the Targetmaster interact with the larger character's vehicle mode). But could things like Powermasters still be done in the way it was intended? What about the various forms of Pretenders? Dare I even mention Action Masters?
I personally Star Saber is the transformer of 1989 because not only is it a really fun toy but it also looks good. Lio-Kaiser to me just seems like it is trying to be a sentai mech from that era.
While Devastator is still the best combiner from the original run (with Computron being the best looking Autobot combiner); Liokasier has got to be the second best combiner.
Poor road caesar.. he's always been the odd one out of the victory combiners. I never really liked how he works, basically ending up as a worse build king.
Laser Optimus is without doubt the best G2 toy from 1995. They even further improved its looks in Robots in Disguise with the proto-Nemesis colors. Though I also like how G2 Air Raid looks. As for 1994; there's the unique Dreadwing. He comes with G2 Decepticon Smokescreen, but Dreadwing is the bigger highlight.
I am SHOCKED that Star Saber wasn't number 1 and lost out to a combiner team that all have animal names but non of them are actual beast formers. I've never liked that combiner team and it's all specifically because I expect them to actually be beastformers not vehicles. If they were all tripple changers then the vehicle modes would be fine but why have the beast theme if none of them are beasts? I'd rather have Predaking, Abominous, or King Posiedon over this set cause they're actually more interesting combiners. Liokizer is just confusing.
My list 10: Thunderwing, the main reason why I rank him so low is that I don't really care for the organic looking outer shell which modern versions always base his robot mode on. He looks more like some kind of reptilian alien creature than a Transformer. In fact for a long time I didn't even realize the shell could transform until TJ pointed it out that Mega and Ultra Pretenders could do that. Realizing that is really the only reason any of them made this list. 9. Black Shadow which I realize is a retool of Thunderwing but it gives the shell a more robotic appearance. By the way I think this might be the first time we're seeing extensive retools of existing molds in Transformers. I mean there's been minor remolds even back in 84 but you could still tell they shared engineering and parts. This is really the first time that the retools are so different that you could easily mistake them for brand new molds. And I just like the look of Black Shadow better than Thunderwing. 8. Blue Bacchus who is a retool of Crossblades. The original version didn't even make my list at all because as much as I dislike the organic look of Thunderwing, I REALLY hate the Pretender shells with human faces. Those guys didn't even make my list. Blue Bacchus solves a problem for me by giving him a more robotic appearance. And I'll admit both Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus are really generic looking robots but I'd happily take that over the creepy uncanny valley effects of the human faces on all the Autobot Pretenders. And by the way, I actually like the idea of having Transformers with organic human alt modes but I'd prefer Alice from RotF or Sari Sumdac from Transformers animated where they actually transform from robot to human rather than just a shell the robot hides inside of. And the shells are never even convincing as actual humans... they just look creepy. 7. Bumblebee... And I'm going to specify here with this one that I'm talking about the K-Mart exclusive version which I actually had as a kid. I never had the Pretender shell, the K-Mart exclusives were sold as just the inner robot without the shells. I don't care for the Shell, and this is how much I dislike those Pretender shells, the actual Pretender version would not even be on my list, I'm only putting the inner robot here because it's a childhood favorite character and a weird nostalgia thing for a toy I actually use to own and lost in a move. 6. Road Caesar, I put him kind of low because of the awkward proportions in combined mode. He looks a LOT better in the animation model and even his box art because they fixed his hips and moved them into a more natural position. If any combiner team needs an update with modern engineering it's this guy. 5. Galaxy Shuttle, I'll admit he's not the most exciting Transformer of the year compared to other things that were being released at the time he feels a bit basic. But compared to other Transformers that came out on previous years I think he had better proportions and articulation than a lot of G1 toys at the time. So I like him a lot actually. 4. Landcross, having both the Energon style of combination plus being able to combine all together is pretty impressive. RID2015 actually had the same capability for the combiners in the show but the toy line was so simplified with spring loaded gimmicks that they sold the 2 member combiners and full team combiners as separate figures. This could do it all in one and that's pretty impressive considering they've never attempted this with modern engineering. It's a unique play style among combiners I would love to see again. 3. Greatshot, who is just a retool of Sixshot. I actually like this version of the mold better than the original. I like the colors more, the new molding turns his wolf mode into a rhino which I think looks so much better with the proportions of that figure. He doesn't really look good as a wolf on the original toy due to how big and blocky the legs and body are but as a rhino, the armored look fits so much better. I'm not going to give the original too much grief cause it's a product of the time, but I was hoping the modern version would smooth out the proportions on Sixshot to give him a better looking wolf mode. Even on the modern version Greatshot just looks better because the proportions make more sense for what he transforms into. Sixshot in my opinion needs to be slimmed down to more Anime accurate proportions in order to look good but Greatshot already looks good with his original toy proportions. 2. Deathsaurus, I don't care if he's a chicken dragon, I still like him. I do wish his little minions changed his appearance more though. Specifically Eaglebreast. Like all of the pictures I see of Deathsauraus usually show him with Tigerbreast, which does not look like a tiger by the way. He's the most interesting one to just leave inside the chest cause without him Deathsaurus just looks kind of bare and generic. All Eaglebreast really does is change the color from grey to red. If there was a way to attach him while leaving the wings out in the same way that Tigerbreast's wings fill out more of the chest he'd be way more interesting but it's just a flat plate. Essentially Deathsaurus just looks incomplete without Tigerbreast but Eaglebreast doesn't really feel like it adds anything. They could make a modern version with Tigerbreast just permanently molded in and not even being a separate figure and I wouldn't feel like I lost anything cause I'd probably just leave him attached even if it did come out. 1. Victory Saber, yeah I REALLY like this set. And I can see why it almost had a Power of the Primes release as his gimmick already fits the leader class gimmick of the time. Saber is a small inner robot with his own vehicle mode that combines into a larger vehicle and a super robot mode. Victory Leo is also a really cool design. These two also remind of Wing Saber and Leobreaker from the Unicron Trilogy. And yeah they barely combine. Though I will give them credit that they can combine in alt mode and robot mode which is pretty rare that a combiner has a combined alt mode. They look cool, there's a lot of play value in the set, this is easily the best toy of the year for me. Oh and I didn't include Liokaizer for reasons I already mentioned. I also didn't include Dinoking because their alt modes don't really look like anything. Some of are some what passable and I do like the look of the Legends Dinobots that we know are getting repainted into them but the originals I would like a lot more if they just transformed directly into their dino modes instead of having them as Pretender shells and their actual alt modes are just kind of vaguely beast shaped. But they're so vague you can't actually tell what they're meant to be. The Dinoforce by the way are the one exception where I don't mind modern versions making the Pretender shell part of the actual character design because in this case the Pretender shell is replacing the alt mode not the robot mode so we don't end up with an organic looking robot and instead end up with better looking beast modes. I'm all for modern Dinoking, I just hate the original toys. I can't even give them the "they're a product of their time" excuse because we've seen better beastformers in previous years. So they aren't just bad by modern standards, they were bad even for the year they were released. The only other Transformer I can compare them to is Blot who has a similarly terrible beast mode. And I've always hated Blot as well. If you like these combiners great for you, I'm not judging you for including them on your lists, this is just my personal opinion of the toys. And I will repeat... I am shocked Victory Saber wasn't TJ's number 1, I thought for sure we'd both have him in that spot.
I'm still shocked that NO ONE has ever attempted to do Landcross again. Yea, it'd be ambitious as hell money-wise since they're triple changers, superlink combine, and then all combine together, but it still baffles me no one has taken a crack at it. With the rise in popularity the Japanese designs have been recently, I hope a Haslab could be done or someone like Fanshobby could try it.
Fr
Multiforce is a great team. I picked up the reissue set about 20 years ago, and had a blast with the duo combinations and finally Landcross.
@@MrYeet270 hi dude how are you
@@JohnDoe-gr9kg good bro, this is a random comment😭
@@MrYeet270 it is not so can I ask you something please
Isn’t there an Action Master Bumblebee? Can’t wait for the 1990 list. Bring on Dai Atlas?
I was thinking that myself there was also the G2 figures.
@@R0-83-RTG2 Bumblebee was a repaint of his original figure, the Go-Bot was a repaint of High Beam (it eventually became RId Crosswise)
And let's be honest here. I would be surprised if any figure that cannot transform makes it's way onto a top 10 list of _transformers_ toys.
@@medafan53 I didn't know the Go-Bots figure was a repaint. And to be fair 1990 is going to be tough because on the Hasbro side of things it's mostly action masters and micro masters, so it wouldn't surprise me if at a few Action masters sneaks its way on the list. Especially considering action master elites didn't come out until 1991.
Even on the Takara side of things I believe the only significant figures to be released were the 3 Powered Masters.
I remember back in October '89 when I was a high school freshman, I went on a class trip to Japan. By then I was well past being into Transformers (and toys in general). I remember walking through a mall and as I passed a toy store, a box caught my eye so I went in, curious as to what this "Star Saber" was.
The toy store owner spoke very little English: basically I recall him telling me that Transformers were "low class" and directed my attention to something called "Gunpla" models, which I willingly ended up spending my money on instead (as a teenager, I thought buying models would be more socially acceptable than "kids toys" in front of my peers).
In retrospect, I should've heeded the words of a certain Templar knight from a movie that I saw earlier that year: I chose...poorly.
I would dare say the classic pretender inner robot bee was a better toy than the original
I wish they released the arms in euro G1, big rescue team is just funny with arms
I found Landcross at an antique store last Christmas! I was surprised how good he was! So much play value! The store was closing own too, so it was on sale, and not just a little on sale.
The best part of Landcross is you can combine all of them with all of them.
The worst part of Landcross is that inevitably ends with people laughing over making Tackle and Waver into Tackle Waver.
My 10 - 10. Overload 9. Flattop 8. Roughstuff 7. Erector 6. Countdown/Rocket Base 5. Bludgeon 4. Thunderwing 3. Star Saber 2. Deathsaurus 1. Loikaser
I'd agree with your list, but I'd replace Ultra Pretender Roadblock with Roughstuff and that would be my top 10 (but not in the same order as yours)
Wow #8 hit me in the feels! I completely forgot I had that set as a kid and seeing it now may have finally convinced me to start a retro shelf. New grail identified, thanks for the countdown TJ!
I knew Star Saber would be on this list.
I have to wonder if Takara is going to redo Liokaiser since Victory Saber, Deathsaurus, and the all but inevitable Dinoking remake are happening or have already released
My brother had that motorcycle pretender. I totally forgot about how cool that inner transforming was
Takara treated Transformers so much better in 1989 than Hasbro tried to.
Overall, I feel I prefer Takara’s output over Hasbro’s in terms of Transformers. Their output has a lot more toys that I like, not to mention the improved paint jobs from imported Hasbro toylines.
@@banobobot Me too, Takara has always done robots so much better than their US partner Hasbro did. Every time we got new Transformers in the 80s and 90s, they always had GI Joe'ish faces, but when Takara did new robots, they had Gundam'ish looking faces.
@@karatgaming5792 Fun fact: Kunio Okawara had a hand in some of the Transformers designs in the mid-to-late 80s. He was even the lead designer in TF Victory and also contributed to the Brave Saga.
Takara always make better designs, shows, and toys
@@banobobotwell they did create the toys afterall
While Transformers fans are more forgiving towards the literal statues (like the XM Studios); the different attempts at action figures in general are absolutely hated. With the possible exception of ReAction Unicron; the closest we'll ever get to that prototype toy.
If there was anything nice I could say about Action Masters; it'd be with Shockwave and Armored Convoy with Optimus Prime. Shockwave looks mostly truer to the animation model that came later and while there's orange on him, he surprisingly looks good with it. Though I normally wouldn't make that color part of his default color scheme. That and the fact he can't transform is still disappointing (unlike with Megatron, that gun alt mode makes sense for Shockwave).
As for Armored Convoy with Optimus Prime, there's more effort put into Optimus's playset than with many of the other action masters. Safe to say though that when comparing Powermaster Optimus in his default form with the Action Master Optimus; I prefer the stylization of that default form Powermaster Optimus. Action Master Optimus just looks cheap in comparison. Also considering that Galaxy Shuttle in the European line came out the same year, it's safe to say this is the one time the G1 line Optimus isn't the best toy. Thankfully Optimus would regain that crown in the G2 line.
Pretender Jazz’s shell should have been black.
I have heard this a lot, it would have been cool to do that as a tribute to Scatman Crothers.
Victory Leo is basically like a weaponizer
Huh, I suppose he is
There were interesting ideas tried during this part of the G1 era, might have worked if they had any sort of cartoon to really sell these new play patterns at the time. *EDIT: US content. Japan was doing their own thing.
I'd like to see Galaxy Shuttle on the list, too. It is insanely cool that he can interact with the Countdown rocked base!
Correction regarding the Micro Change derived G1 Bumblebee: the legs are separate pieces that you extend and fold the feet up for transformation. How do I know? I own the Walmart G1 reissue from 2018.
I'm aware of this, I own two copies of the mold. The legs are separate parts but they do not widen in any way so his feet look like they aren't separate.
Watch out he has a bumblebee 😮
Funny enough recently found my Liokazer set from Cominer Wars. I got a con from a few years ago. Still in box. Sitting under my predaking set in box
Victory Saber does feel more like a Super Sentai auxiliary zord combo than a true combination, so understandable to bump them down one.
I’d probably put Crossblades over Vroom, but that’s just personal preference.
I do kind of want to see what these last couple lists would be like if you were limited to only stuff US fans could have gotten their hands on, but I understand the better scope you want to hit. (Plus Japan really was doing it better with more faith in the original concepts).
I'm surprised the 3rd party legend creators haven't tried to make the micromaster bases to interact with the legend class
1990 was no doubt a really bad time for The Transformers. If we can include the European line; Galaxy Shuttle is likely the best The Transformers had that year.
I'm glad Vroom made the list.. however, I can't believe you have Landcross above Deathsaurus!!!😅 IMO, Deathsaurus is number one. He is so much fun to handle and play with. He really feels great with the springs and die cast. Liokaiser is sweet two, but I'd have him behind VS and DS, personally. Thanks for the great list! I look forward to 1990!
Hasbro, please hear us out. Next HasLab project, LIO KAISER !!!!!!!!
I have the Kabaya Gum Gaiacross. It's hardly as solid as the real deal, and uses parts forming for the arms, but it's really cool to experience the combinations. I wish we'd get a new version of it. Heck, reissue it! :D
My personal opinion is that if you could by them all in a single purchase during the year they originally came out, then there's absolutely nothing wrong with ranking them together. It's about bang for your buck
After this series, I know I'd love to see a discussion on the various play patterns of the franchise, and if/how they could be done in the modern day; disregarding anything that would violate modern day toy laws/regulations (see the sparkbots for a great example)
We already know that Devastator & Scramble City Combiners are possible, so any other Combiners (2-piece, 3-piece, 4-piece) should still be possible.
We know Headmasters can be done, because an entire line was dedicated to them (Titans Return), and we even got proper versions of Apeface and Snapdragon in either Kingdom or Legacy.
We know Micromasters could be done, but it would really need some refinement and need to be the central focus of the line.
Targetmasters seem harder to do, because if you release them as originally envisioned (the Headmaster/Powermaster gimmick but the small robot turns into a gun), something has to be sacrificed for the gimmick to work (the small robot sucks, or the two partners are separate purchases, and neither can have the Targetmaster interact with the larger character's vehicle mode).
But could things like Powermasters still be done in the way it was intended? What about the various forms of Pretenders? Dare I even mention Action Masters?
I loved count down as a kid
I personally Star Saber is the transformer of 1989 because not only is it a really fun toy but it also looks good. Lio-Kaiser to me just seems like it is trying to be a sentai mech from that era.
I can’t wait to get the Dino force out of the Dino bots.
Landcross is one of the toys from Transformers Victory I wish I owned along with Liokaiser.
i bought pretender bumblebee years ago & i still have him today.
It's insane how Countdown never had a Decepticon equivalent and was not a huge hit? Maybe they should have framed Countdown as a leader?
While Devastator is still the best combiner from the original run (with Computron being the best looking Autobot combiner); Liokasier has got to be the second best combiner.
Poor road caesar.. he's always been the odd one out of the victory combiners. I never really liked how he works, basically ending up as a worse build king.
And so begins the decline we shan’t recover from until 1994 at the earliest and 1995 at the latest.
Laser Optimus is without doubt the best G2 toy from 1995. They even further improved its looks in Robots in Disguise with the proto-Nemesis colors. Though I also like how G2 Air Raid looks.
As for 1994; there's the unique Dreadwing. He comes with G2 Decepticon Smokescreen, but Dreadwing is the bigger highlight.
Hey! You cheated!
But you admitted it!
I am SHOCKED that Star Saber wasn't number 1 and lost out to a combiner team that all have animal names but non of them are actual beast formers. I've never liked that combiner team and it's all specifically because I expect them to actually be beastformers not vehicles. If they were all tripple changers then the vehicle modes would be fine but why have the beast theme if none of them are beasts? I'd rather have Predaking, Abominous, or King Posiedon over this set cause they're actually more interesting combiners. Liokizer is just confusing.
My list
10: Thunderwing, the main reason why I rank him so low is that I don't really care for the organic looking outer shell which modern versions always base his robot mode on. He looks more like some kind of reptilian alien creature than a Transformer. In fact for a long time I didn't even realize the shell could transform until TJ pointed it out that Mega and Ultra Pretenders could do that. Realizing that is really the only reason any of them made this list.
9. Black Shadow which I realize is a retool of Thunderwing but it gives the shell a more robotic appearance. By the way I think this might be the first time we're seeing extensive retools of existing molds in Transformers. I mean there's been minor remolds even back in 84 but you could still tell they shared engineering and parts. This is really the first time that the retools are so different that you could easily mistake them for brand new molds. And I just like the look of Black Shadow better than Thunderwing.
8. Blue Bacchus who is a retool of Crossblades. The original version didn't even make my list at all because as much as I dislike the organic look of Thunderwing, I REALLY hate the Pretender shells with human faces. Those guys didn't even make my list. Blue Bacchus solves a problem for me by giving him a more robotic appearance. And I'll admit both Black Shadow and Blue Bacchus are really generic looking robots but I'd happily take that over the creepy uncanny valley effects of the human faces on all the Autobot Pretenders.
And by the way, I actually like the idea of having Transformers with organic human alt modes but I'd prefer Alice from RotF or Sari Sumdac from Transformers animated where they actually transform from robot to human rather than just a shell the robot hides inside of. And the shells are never even convincing as actual humans... they just look creepy.
7. Bumblebee... And I'm going to specify here with this one that I'm talking about the K-Mart exclusive version which I actually had as a kid. I never had the Pretender shell, the K-Mart exclusives were sold as just the inner robot without the shells. I don't care for the Shell, and this is how much I dislike those Pretender shells, the actual Pretender version would not even be on my list, I'm only putting the inner robot here because it's a childhood favorite character and a weird nostalgia thing for a toy I actually use to own and lost in a move.
6. Road Caesar, I put him kind of low because of the awkward proportions in combined mode. He looks a LOT better in the animation model and even his box art because they fixed his hips and moved them into a more natural position. If any combiner team needs an update with modern engineering it's this guy.
5. Galaxy Shuttle, I'll admit he's not the most exciting Transformer of the year compared to other things that were being released at the time he feels a bit basic. But compared to other Transformers that came out on previous years I think he had better proportions and articulation than a lot of G1 toys at the time. So I like him a lot actually.
4. Landcross, having both the Energon style of combination plus being able to combine all together is pretty impressive. RID2015 actually had the same capability for the combiners in the show but the toy line was so simplified with spring loaded gimmicks that they sold the 2 member combiners and full team combiners as separate figures. This could do it all in one and that's pretty impressive considering they've never attempted this with modern engineering. It's a unique play style among combiners I would love to see again.
3. Greatshot, who is just a retool of Sixshot. I actually like this version of the mold better than the original. I like the colors more, the new molding turns his wolf mode into a rhino which I think looks so much better with the proportions of that figure. He doesn't really look good as a wolf on the original toy due to how big and blocky the legs and body are but as a rhino, the armored look fits so much better. I'm not going to give the original too much grief cause it's a product of the time, but I was hoping the modern version would smooth out the proportions on Sixshot to give him a better looking wolf mode. Even on the modern version Greatshot just looks better because the proportions make more sense for what he transforms into. Sixshot in my opinion needs to be slimmed down to more Anime accurate proportions in order to look good but Greatshot already looks good with his original toy proportions.
2. Deathsaurus, I don't care if he's a chicken dragon, I still like him. I do wish his little minions changed his appearance more though. Specifically Eaglebreast. Like all of the pictures I see of Deathsauraus usually show him with Tigerbreast, which does not look like a tiger by the way. He's the most interesting one to just leave inside the chest cause without him Deathsaurus just looks kind of bare and generic. All Eaglebreast really does is change the color from grey to red. If there was a way to attach him while leaving the wings out in the same way that Tigerbreast's wings fill out more of the chest he'd be way more interesting but it's just a flat plate. Essentially Deathsaurus just looks incomplete without Tigerbreast but Eaglebreast doesn't really feel like it adds anything. They could make a modern version with Tigerbreast just permanently molded in and not even being a separate figure and I wouldn't feel like I lost anything cause I'd probably just leave him attached even if it did come out.
1. Victory Saber, yeah I REALLY like this set. And I can see why it almost had a Power of the Primes release as his gimmick already fits the leader class gimmick of the time. Saber is a small inner robot with his own vehicle mode that combines into a larger vehicle and a super robot mode. Victory Leo is also a really cool design. These two also remind of Wing Saber and Leobreaker from the Unicron Trilogy. And yeah they barely combine. Though I will give them credit that they can combine in alt mode and robot mode which is pretty rare that a combiner has a combined alt mode. They look cool, there's a lot of play value in the set, this is easily the best toy of the year for me.
Oh and I didn't include Liokaizer for reasons I already mentioned. I also didn't include Dinoking because their alt modes don't really look like anything. Some of are some what passable and I do like the look of the Legends Dinobots that we know are getting repainted into them but the originals I would like a lot more if they just transformed directly into their dino modes instead of having them as Pretender shells and their actual alt modes are just kind of vaguely beast shaped. But they're so vague you can't actually tell what they're meant to be. The Dinoforce by the way are the one exception where I don't mind modern versions making the Pretender shell part of the actual character design because in this case the Pretender shell is replacing the alt mode not the robot mode so we don't end up with an organic looking robot and instead end up with better looking beast modes. I'm all for modern Dinoking, I just hate the original toys. I can't even give them the "they're a product of their time" excuse because we've seen better beastformers in previous years. So they aren't just bad by modern standards, they were bad even for the year they were released. The only other Transformer I can compare them to is Blot who has a similarly terrible beast mode. And I've always hated Blot as well. If you like these combiners great for you, I'm not judging you for including them on your lists, this is just my personal opinion of the toys.
And I will repeat... I am shocked Victory Saber wasn't TJ's number 1, I thought for sure we'd both have him in that spot.
By 1989 Transformers was a memory. Ninja Turtles was in.
And also the video game industry beginning with the NES.
@@twistedgaming9185 correct. RBI Baseball, Techmo Bowl, Mario Bros...