As our first piece of 2019, we at Refined Robot Co. would like to wish you a very happy new year. But what will the next twelve months bring in terms of Transformers? The stand out line looks like it will be the start of the new War For Cybertron Trilogy: Siege. So let's digest what we've got from the first taste of a line that promises to be a heartier meal than we've had in years...
Returning to the gritty flame-lit days of the Transformers' war before they set foot on Earth, Siege offers a much different beast to its predecessor Power of The Primes. The whole design of the line is a clean break from the brighter Prime Wars Trilogy, from the packaging and instructions, to the use of scale and detail. But somehow, even with wacky space vehicle modes, the line already appears to lean harder into the G1-But-New aesthetic than anything prior. For many this is either a huge selling point or a massive turn-off; but whatever your mileage may be, there's no denying Siege is offering a new pinnacle of Generations quality.
Starting at the bottom, the smallest pricepoint in Generations originally introduced with the Titanmasters and expanded with the Primemasters, now encompasses the Battlemasters. Legion-esque sized weapon partners including classical Targetmaster gun-to-man fellows along with animalistic Action Master partners. Ostensibly another "G1 thing we've not updated yet" for Hasbro to cross off their list, these figures fill (hand)holes left in your collection from Titans Return but also push the central play pattern for Siege: Guns. Calling this a "gimmick" feels like a bit of a reach when 5mm and 3mm compatible weaponry has been the only other playable feature alongside transformation for the entirety of Transformers' history. It's more accurate to say Siege drops the line-wide thematic gimmickry of the Prime Wars Trilogy and just delivers you each figure on a case-by-case basis, albeit absolutely riddled with ports to let you tool them up to your satisfaction. The only real new thing offered by the whole line comes in at the Battlemasters size class however: effect parts. Long a mainstay in many a high-end Japanese collectible, now you can stick see-through explosions and blaster fire on your Transformers and their guns and to a toy photographer like me, this is quite simply a godsend. Even with only the single yellow SPOOM! I got from Blowpipe.
Next up the hierarchy are more small robos mined from the rich seam of Toys We Left In The 80's, Micromasters! Replacing the Legends size-class from previous lines, for your (roughly) £10 you now get two tiny Mini-con sized guys instead of one anemic Scout Class figure. To an Armada fan such as myself, the idea of only getting two mini men for your ten English pounds is quite frankly hurtful - especially when there's room in the box for one more - but putting that aside you can instantly see where that money goes. While appearing to just regurgitate half of a Micromaster Patrol of your choice with knees this time, the Siege Micros offer so much more. Upon opening the pair in my possession (Flak and Topshot), I was instantly hit by how high quality they feel. Positively covered in paint with crisply applied detail and tiny (white-bordered, that's important!) Autobot badges they certainly look the part. Add to that ball-jointed shoulders and hips and working knees along with a little head movement, and you've got a pair of barely 2 inch tall figures offering more articulation than all of the toys on supermarket shelves four times their size. But wait, there's more! Remember Guns? These guys can do that too! Able to combine into a - well ok yeah it's kind of crap - gun mode, the Micromasters also get in on the whole 5mm party. And with a little imagination and ingenuity can even fill that Mini-con shaped hole in your heart thanks to their own little posts to jam in Megatron's shoulder or wherever...
Now we begin to get to the meat and potatoes of the line. The Deluxe class offers the first tangible yet admittedly hard to define step up in quality for a retail Transformers line in years. Seeming to adopt a design ethos from the concurrent Studio Series, each figure in the line stands at a height appropriate for their character, with some (like Hound) substituting height for mass or extra points of articulation. I'm just gonna come out and say it, these are basically Masterpiece figures in a main line. Engineering is painfully elegant. Detailing is perfect. Articulation is solid. Paint is abundant. The overall finish is that of something far superior to your regular deluxe. This first wave offers a strong selection including a pair of '84 Car A-listers, The Duocon You Really Wanted and the first of a new subset of figures: the Weaponizers. Cog may historically be a complete nobody that only completists will worry about standing at the feet of their Fort Max, but now, now he's Cool. The largest figure in the wave, he can form two smaller vehicles or one long tank thing but his real selling point is how he makes a load of guns. Able to thoroughly dismember himself into an arsenal of 5mm compatible weaponry, there seems no end to the combinations you can make with other figures. And he's only the first, with Brunt and Sixgun following in future waves to suddenly make you need all these cityformer companion nonentities more than actual characters like Prowl. At least that's how I'm feeling.
Continuing the onslaught of indisputable quality, the Voyagers hold nothing back to give you the most definitive feeling Optimus and Megatron since Classics. Optimus in particular is where the Masterpiece vibes continue. Takara's hand in the design is no more clearly felt than with this figure. Intricate, complex, taking a huge number of steps to give you all the beats of the classic Optimus character model, this figure is the real wake-up call for this line. I never expected to feel so good about having a (for the most part) toon accurate Optimus Prime, but here we are. Perfectly detailed and much more proportionate and posable than MP-10. The figure is a triumph. Even with the half-baked space truck mode, there's nothing about it that doesn't scream Optimus Prime at his best. To think I picked this up off an actual store shelf is crazy. A (semi)regular retail figure would never be this good.
But Megatron is no slouch either! It's no overstatement to say that no other main line figure captures a proper Megatron likeness as good as this one. The Titans Return one was adequate? In which universe? In terms of my collection, I feel like I finally have a capital "M" Megatron. No other attempt has really done him justice until now. Apart from the lack of light piping and wrist swivels, this is a perfect G1 Megatron figure - and it isn't just a G1 Megatron figure... You can find details that call back to G2, War Within, IDW's Cybertronian form and most prominently in the formation of his vehicle mode, Armada. After the reveal of a Cybertron Optimus themed reworking of Ultra Magnus, this alt mode has my teeth itching with how close it is to being my Megatron; ditch the panel in the front and the antlers on his head would even poke out where they're supposed to. While it's not as strong a show of engineering wizardry as Optimus, Siege Megatron is simply the best update of the character we've ever had. Throw in the sword and there's just no backing down from the fact they've finally got Megatron right.
Now we reach the final stretch for the Siege line, with the top of the totem (until Titan Omega Supreme is officially shown off), the Leader class. This is where the largest shift in what you get for your arbitrary amount of cash per figure comes into play. To put it simply, the figures are smaller. But where towering size is lost, an abundance of quality is gained. So Magnus only stands a head taller than Prime, but he's still huge. Playing with scale in this way will inevitably annoy some people, but honestly I find it refreshing. Rather than keeping to a set average size for each size-class, you get the characters being as big as they need to be in respect to each other within a collection; with room for cool extras. Shockwave is essentially a Voyager figure with some bits to stick on. Where's that other ~£25 come from? I don't know but I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt it's one of the best figures of this year. Yeah it's only January. "Quality over quantity" could become the mantra for Generations going forward, and why would that be a bad thing? These figures are basically perfect. How long have you waited for a new Magnus with a white Optimus inside? How long have you waited for a full size Classics Shockwave? If the answer is "a long time", pal you are not gonna be disappointed. I started the new year very, very close to dropping almost 3X the price of Leader Shockwave on the MP29+ figure. I must have been mad because to my eye, Siege Shockwave is better in every way. He's got the dark purple, he's got the badges on his arms, he's got the hose, he's got the most unstoppable light piping but he's also got a set of armour to give him four arms. And as for Magnus, I am one of the people who care about the white Prime mode so to see it realised without being an Optimus repaint, while also working in a RID truck homage? I was always gonna put that cash down.
Siege then, has got off to a blistering start. Each figure from Deluxe to Leader feels like a complete 10/10 - even with the I've Been In A Scuffle paint. Anything smaller is a nice bonus for the 5mm system and a rare focus on the tiny guys of G1. All in all, it's an unbelievably stellar line and I am vibrating with anticipation over what's to come from it next. When it's already given me unbeatable figures of some of the most iconic designs in Transformers, it's hard to believe it can get better than this, but all grey prototype or pixelated box shot signs point exactly to that future. Better get ready because 2019 looks like the year Hasbro will well and truly have your wallet under siege.
Follow Ben @Waspshot23
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