You probably thought I was going to talk about the new pre-Toy Fair reveals, didn’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll get to that, but first, I’m going to dig into the origins of some of the current (and curiously unannounced) War of Cybertron: Siege toys.

Up until now, the line of Transformers toys that doesn’t have a current cartoon associated with it has hewed closely to the old toy catalogs from the 1980s. The last Power of the Primes wave even had the entire line-up of Pretenders. (The 1989 mini-Pretenders, incidentally, were some of the first toys I went back and collected, having missed them in my youth.)

Indeed, some of the characters we saw in that final wave could be considered a last gasp homage to the original 1980s toy line, with Action Master characters like Krok sliding in as a final nod.

War for Cybertron: Siege Leader Ultra Magnus

Picking up War for Cybertron: Siege Ultra Magnus, it was obvious that the alt-mode was drawing from something other than G1. But who’s nostalgia is Hasbro targeting this time, if not old-timers like me? Look no further than 2001’s Transformers: Robots in Disguise.

Inset: Robots in Disguise Ultra Magnus, Main image WfC:Siege Ultra Magnus (RiD image: Seibertron.com Toy image: Anthony Karcz)

The car carrier with aggressive cow catcher was a marked departure back in the early 2000s for a character who had always been “white Optimus Prime, but with armor.” It made Ultra Magnus’s design much more his own and helped redefine a character who was best known as “the guy who swore at the Matrix of Leadership.”

Siege Ultra Magnus left, Combiner Wars right (Image: Anthony Karcz)

What I love about this new iteration is that it doesn’t lose the classic inspiration either. In fact, Siege of Cybertron’s swappable armor and weapons gimmick gave Hasbro’s designers the perfect opportunity to essentially make Ultra Magnus just like we got him in the 80s.

Don’t talk to me or my son ever again. (Image: Anthony Karcz)

His trailer breaks down into chunks of armor that fit around, you guessed it, a white Optimus Prime. Now, side-by-side, it’s not exactly the same as the Voyager-sized Prime that’s currently on the shelves (and that I passed over for reasons we’ll get to in a second), but there’s no denying that faceplate and alt-form are direct homages to the original toy.

War for Cybertron: Siege Leader Optimus Prime

Cybertron Optimus Prime in the middle (Images: Seibertron.com)

Leader Optimus Prime is currently Hasbro’s worst kept secret. Despite the announcement of the entire fall wave, including Titan class Omega Supreme, we still don’t have an official reveal of Leader class Ops.

We do have bot mode images, alt-mode images, and even a video review of the figure, however. So I’m going to say it’s all but guaranteed that he’s going to be on the shelves sometime in the next few months.

Checking out those leaks, it’s apparent that Hasbro is going even further down the petro-rabbit hole.

Coming as a surprise to no one is that Ultra Magnus will be retooled into an armored Optimus Prime. But not just any ol’ Prime. This one is going to sport the distinctive look of Prime from the 2005 series Transformers: Cybertron.

Inspired by characters like Star Saber from the Japanese-only Transformers Victory series, Cybertron Prime is a beast of a bot, with dual “water” cannons and a chestplate/windshield that looks like it came straight out of a Gundam series. It was an impressive design back in 2005, and the updated version looks to be just as impressive (albeit a bit shorter).

Goodbye G1?

As cool as they looked, the early 2000-era toys weren’t so much loved as they were tolerated. Designed by Takara, they hewed to a much more complicated aesthetic that prized show accuracy and design over playability. So you ended up with gorgeous toys that you could never touch for fear of that one peg coming undone and the entire thing collapsing. Seeing them recreated in a toy line that’s exquisitely detailed and impressively durable is a special treat.

So does this mean that the Generation 1 well has gone dry? Definitely not. In addition to the “iconic” G1 characters, we’re still getting deep cuts like Skytread in the line. It’s nice to see that Hasbro’s designers are branching out and drawing inspiration from toy lines that were created in years that started with 2 instead of 1.

It makes me all the more excited to see what’s next in the already impressive War for Cybertron line.

New Reveals

Speaking of, seemingly fed up with leakers stealing their thunder, Hasbro has taken early reveals into their own hands, serving up official images of the first figures in the fall wave of War for Cybertron Transformers.

Omega Supreme

Omega Supreme, alt mode, and not-to-scale Countdown (Images: Hasbro)

This is the reveal we’ve been waiting for since last year. Omega Supreme is the next Titan-class figure coming to destroy your budget and available display space. An imposing 2-feet tall (just like Fortress Maximus before him), Omega Supreme cuts an imposing figure, with a design that’s so G1, it wasn’t until I noticed all that beautiful articulation that I realized I was looking at a new figure.

His alt-mode is an impressive homage to the original’s tank, rocket, and base configuration. It’s something designers haven’t been able to do in any of his modern iterations (though I’m still salty that we didn’t get an Animated Omega Supreme figure). He even comes with a Micromaster, Countdown (who had his own Micromaster rocket base in G1). Omega Supreme is well worth the wait. But with this remake, we’re out of truly giant G1 Transformers. I’ll be very interested to see who gets revealed as next year’s Titan. Maybe it’s finally time to revisit Unicron?

Jetfire

Soundwave not included (Cartoon image: TFwiki.net Toy images: Hasbro)

Looking at my Generations Jetfire the other day, I thought “Y’know, they really made the perfect Jetfire with this figure. I don’t see how they could improve it.” Then Hasbro went and did something I thought they’d never do. Yes, they remade Jetfire, but not G1 toy Jetfire (which was based on a Macross Veritech toy). That would be too easy. They made flippin’ G1 Skyfire (ne Jetfire) from his cartoon debut in “Fire in the Sky!”

It’s one of those nostalgia hooks that is completely unexpected. Because back in the 80s, everyone wanted a Jetfire toy, mostly because his toy was so much cooler than the blocky, loaf-shaped plane shown in the cartoon. But now, as the lens of time makes everything “authentic” more desirable, I find myself salivating over a gorgeously articulated, perfectly rendered blocky, loaf-shaped plane.

Impactor

I still function! (Comic image: TFwiki.net, Toy images: Hasbro)

All you need to know about Impactor is that fans have wanted an official version of him for nearly a decade. Ever since he re-debuted in Last Stand of the Wreckers, where he was the troubled leader of the Autobot’s most troubled team. And, no, the weak Generations combiner version doesn’t count.

I say “re-debuted” because he was actually an original G1 Wrecker during Simon Furman’s UK run of the Marvel Transformers comic. Brought back and brutalized in the comics, the bot mode is lovingly faithful to his modern appearance. His alt-mode is a weird Cybertronian tank thing, but no one’s going to display him in alt-mode anyway.

Mirage

That chest detail is pure G1 (Image: Hasbro)

I actually had to go back to my photo library to remind myself who the last revealed character was. Mirage is…fine, but this is one of those instances where I think the Combiner Wars toy gave us everything we were looking for in a Mirage toy. Plus that figure combines with Optimus Maximus, the greatest G1 combiner we always wanted but never got.

I’m digging the tech-ed out wheels, but I feel like the more streamlined Combiner Wars iteration did the F1 race car shtick a lot better. I mean…I’ll still get him. I am nothing if not a slavish completionist. But really I just want them to give us the redecoed Sideswipe as Sunstreaker already.

What Else?

What’s curious is what wasn’t revealed. We still don’t have confirmation of War for Cybertron: Siege Leader-class Optimus Prime. Some of the obvious repaint opportunities, like the aforementioned Sunstreaker and a repaint of Hound into Swindle haven’t popped up yet.

Maybe their future existence is just wishful thinking on my part, but retools and redecoes have become as much a part of Transformers toy lines as reviving old characters has. Now, whenever a toy is introduced, it’s a scramble to figure out who else Hasbro can create from that tooling.

It will be interesting to see what else, if anything, is revealed at Toy Fair later this month.