So in the realm of weird things we didn't ask for, someone decided SG Wheeljack is blue, but we already had a blue Wheeljack as Actionmaster Slicer. Most people had never heard of Actionmaster Slicer, because he was a EU only release, but mainly because he was an Actionmaster. So we're doing a tribute to a character nobody remembers.His bio basically says he likes to fight and isn't detailed at all.

Then Timelines Botcon redecoed the Energon Downshift (the Energon toy that looked like G1 Wheeljack) as SG Slice, a bad guy off of the comics SG Wheeljack.

Now the Shattered Glass Collection has released a SG Slicer, but now he comes with Slicer's Actionmaster Exo-Suit as well as the Energon Slice guns (not the same, much better) He has a pink Decepticon symbol, like G1 Slicer, apparently this works for Evil Autobot SG Wheeljack

So the Fasttrack done in red has 3 official configurations in the instructions and a 4th on the box, but all of them have little problems. But for the first time I'm really enjoying the flexibility of a weaponizer. There are so many fan modes, I even set up Exo-Suit as a buggy form Slicer can ride around on. I have both of these molds in other characters, namely Black Roritchi and Exhaust, but somehow Slicer and Exo-Suit are so much
more fun to play with.

Especially with the red Energon tribute guns, with a hinge in the middle you can plug them in to the back of car mode and fold them around the sides to really get the Energon look, though I don't know why you'd want to tribute energon at all but at least they made it look cool.

It's such an odd tribute, it's both in-universe Slicer and SG Slicer/Wheeljack at the same time. I have never had a reason to even care about Actionmaster Slicer until now, not that I'm going to go hunt down the Actionmaster. (He's probably expensive, a EU exclusive hijacked for the SG line)

And as a small bonus the Exo-Suit even has the right colors for an animation accurate Tyrant Spear for Black Zarak, not that he doesn't have one already.

On Friday, March 10, 2023 at 10:36:53 PM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:

> So in the realm of weird things we didn't ask for, someone decided SG Wheeljack is blue, but we already had a blue Wheeljack as Actionmaster Slicer. Most people had never heard of Actionmaster Slicer, because he was a EU only release, but mainly because he was an Actionmaster. So we're doing a tribute to a character nobody remembers.His bio basically says he likes to fight and isn't detailed at all.

The problem is, the "rules" about creating a Shattered Glass character are basically "take the existing character, flip his allegiance, and give him somebody else's color scheme." If you're looking to create an evil counterpart to Wheeljack, there's no reason to, since Slicer already exists. He's a Decepticon version of Wheeljack in the wrong colors, so it ticks all the boxes. (So does this mean that a negative-universe Shattered Glass version of Slicer just looks like Wheeljack?)
> So the Fasttrack drone in red has 3 official configurations in the instructions and a 4th on the box, but all of them have little problems. But for the first time I'm really enjoying the flexibility of a weaponizer. There are so many fan modes, I even set up Exo-Suit as a buggy form Slicer can ride around on.

Mark Maher invented a weird buggy mode that he showed off on one of the Hasbro livestreams when Slicer/Wheeljack/Whatever was unveiled last summer. Looks like this:

https://static.seibertron.com/images/toys/uploads/1656006232-upload-2022-6-23-23-56-14.png

> It's such an odd tribute, it's both in-universe Slicer and SG Slicer/Wheeljack at the same time. I have never had a reason to even care about Actionmaster Slicer until now, not that I'm going to go hunt down the Actionmaster. (He's probably expensive, a EU exclusive hijacked for the SG line)

The European Action Masters have always been expensive, with some (like Slicer and Thundercracker) having become more infamous than others. I was always disappointed that Tracks and Bombshell and Sideswipe never saw a release in America.

I've always wondered whether Hasbro plans most of their redeco toys from the very beginning ("okay, I guess you can do a new Wheeljack, but only if we can resell it as Slicer or somebody down the road") or whether they get inspired after the fact? Like, it's looking more and more like the recently-released Needlenose is going to serve double-duty as Windsweeper, so that's a great way to knock out two relatively obscure characters at once. A couple more guys to add to the neo-G1 collection. Same with the recently-announced Beachcomber—I see it as inevitable that they're going to reuse him as Ruckus. There's no way that's not going to happen. But, there are some toys you just can't squeeze a redeco out of (Doubledealer, Apeface, Snapdragon, Jhiaxus, Cosmos). I'm sure they budget that sort of thing in. Not everybody gets to be twins or triplets.

But, I think at least some of the time, they look at an existing toy and ask themselves, "How can we sell this to consumers again?" and they have to think outside the box a bit. Especially if, say, a retailer like Amazon or Target asks for x number of exclusive toys, and Hasbro doesn't have the resources to dedicate to developing an entirely new mold for them. Redeco toys make much more sense, and can be ready to go in months instead of years. The only question is how they can put the toys together in a way that's thematically consistent. Sometimes there's a clear design theme ("Creatures Collide" was insects plus a Throttlebot Volkswagen, so the theme was "bugs") and sometimes there's basically no theme at all (Buzzworthy Bumblebee started out celebrating Bumblebee as a character, but there's no thematic element that ties together raw chicken Dinobot and Terrorsaur and Kup and Silverstreak and Jazz... it's clear "Buzzworthy Bumblebee" has simply become retailer jargon for "Target exclusives").

Zob (something tells me I'm going to spend huge gobs of money on Leader-class G2 Dinobots)

Making Slicer the SG character and not using Slicer's colors but calling
it SG Wheeljack turns out to have been foreshadowing, at least as far as the
comic was concerned.

Dave Van Domelen, not every Heroic Decepticon starts on that side....

On Saturday, March 11, 2023 at 10:38:53 AM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> On Friday, March 10, 2023 at 10:36:53 PM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon wrote:
>
> > So in the realm of weird things we didn't ask for, someone decided SG Wheeljack is blue, but we already had a blue Wheeljack as Actionmaster Slicer. Most people had never heard of Actionmaster Slicer, because he was a EU only release, but mainly because he was an Actionmaster. So we're doing a tribute to a character nobody remembers.His bio basically says he likes to fight and isn't detailed at all.
> The problem is, the "rules" about creating a Shattered Glass character are basically "take the existing character, flip his allegiance, and give him somebody else's color scheme." If you're looking to create an evil counterpart to Wheeljack, there's no reason to, since Slicer already exists. He's a Decepticon version of Wheeljack in the wrong colors, so it ticks all the boxes. (So does this mean that a negative-universe Shattered Glass version of Slicer just looks like Wheeljack?)
>
> > So the Fasttrack drone in red has 3 official configurations in the instructions and a 4th on the box, but all of them have little problems. But for the first time I'm really enjoying the flexibility of a weaponizer. There are so many fan modes, I even set up Exo-Suit as a buggy form Slicer can ride around on.
>
> Mark Maher invented a weird buggy mode that he showed off on one of the Hasbro livestreams when Slicer/Wheeljack/Whatever was unveiled last summer. Looks like this:
>
> https://static.seibertron.com/images/toys/uploads/1656006232-upload-2022-6-23-23-56-14.png

Absolutely nothing like what I made, except that the tires are on the ground.
> > It's such an odd tribute, it's both in-universe Slicer and SG Slicer/Wheeljack at the same time. I have never had a reason to even care about Actionmaster Slicer until now, not that I'm going to go hunt down the Actionmaster. (He's probably expensive, a EU exclusive hijacked for the SG line)
> The European Action Masters have always been expensive, with some (like Slicer and Thundercracker) having become more infamous than others. I was always disappointed that Tracks and Bombshell and Sideswipe never saw a release in America.
>
> I've always wondered whether Hasbro plans most of their redeco toys from the very beginning ("okay, I guess you can do a new Wheeljack, but only if we can resell it as Slicer or somebody down the road") or whether they get inspired after the fact? Like, it's looking more and more like the recently-released Needlenose is going to serve double-duty as Windsweeper, so that's a great way to knock out two relatively obscure characters at once. A couple more guys to add to the neo-G1 collection. Same with the recently-announced Beachcomber—I see it as inevitable that they're going to reuse him as Ruckus. There's no way that's not going to happen. But, there are some toys you just can't squeeze a redeco out of (Doubledealer, Apeface, Snapdragon, Jhiaxus, Cosmos). I'm sure they budget that sort of thing in. Not everybody gets to be twins or triplets.
>

I'm sure we'll get cel shaded Cosmos, they're leaving a fortune on the table if they don't. Then there's Pathfinder and SG Cosmos in Krok colors.

> But, I think at least some of the time, they look at an existing toy and ask themselves, "How can we sell this to consumers again?" and they have to think outside the box a bit. Especially if, say, a retailer like Amazon or Target asks for x number of exclusive toys, and Hasbro doesn't have the resources to dedicate to developing an entirely new mold for them. Redeco toys make much more sense, and can be ready to go in months instead of years. The only question is how they can put the toys together in a way that's thematically consistent. Sometimes there's a clear design theme ("Creatures Collide" was insects plus a Throttlebot Volkswagen, so the theme was "bugs") and sometimes there's basically no theme at all (Buzzworthy Bumblebee started out celebrating Bumblebee as a character, but there's no thematic element that ties together raw chicken Dinobot and Terrorsaur and Kup and Silverstreak and Jazz... it's clear "Buzzworthy Bumblebee" has simply become retailer jargon for "Target exclusives").
>
>
> Zob (something tells me I'm going to spend huge gobs of money on Leader-class G2 Dinobots)