Warcry wrote:I'm not sure how? I'm not writing a logical dissection of the thing's flaws, just saying I'm sad that he didn't turn out exactly the way
I wanted him to.
After reading back over it, I think I misread it as you wanting it more toy
and more cartoon like, but now it just reads like you want the cartoon look. Reading comprehension FAIL for me.
Now it is I that am the curmudgeon!
(Though that would have involved the Action Master's guns as accessories, so that was never going to happen)
What, like the skateboard that turns into a gun? Or was that Jazz?
Don't get me wrong. I totally get why he turned out the way he did. Wheeljack was always going to be one of the hardest to get spot-on just due to how different his character model was from his actual alt-mode. Aside from the handful of things I bitched about, I think this is about as close as you can get to having an actual Lancia turn into cartoon Wheeljack. The only one I can see giving them as much trouble is Cliffjumper.
This is, exceedingly, the problem with representations of G1 characters, whether by Masterpiece, Classics, third party, etc. The designers essentially have to meld together two distinct (and often contradictory) designs into one physical product simultaneously. The thing is it'll never be "perfect" because an individual may rate certain points more highly from one design more than the other which end up getting omitted.
They worked out a good compromise with giving Jetfire a hat on the Classics and upcoming Generations figure. Bumblebee, on the other hand, has an entirely different clip-on face. Obvious question for Wheeljack is, "one shoulder launcher or two?" They seem to have gone for one.
Even after reading that I'm not quite sure why the ears were a non-starter, though. Surely there must have been
some way to make them transparent without hampering the articulation.
It's not like you'd have to make the whole back half of the head clear like they do with Generations toys to light up the eyes.
I think his idea was that, if they were going to do the light up ears, they were going to do it right. Not light-piped, but electronic lighting. As he said, translucent silver that lights up blue is difficult enough from a production standpoint, plus the electronics wouldn't really have fit without taking out his neck or something.