So, here's the thing, I recently got myself this toy as a treat. Also because I thought it would be good blog fodder. So I drafted a review as I was working through some issues, and came to the conclusion that my usual style wasn't cutting it. It wasn't a bad draft, but I didn't feel I was adding much to the conversation. I don’t actually need to review everything I get, after all, but Needlenose held my attention. So, rather than do my usual deep dive into obscura and mode-by-mode commentary, I'm just gonna talk about why Needlenose is how he is.
The 1988 Needlenose toy
So, let me preface the discussion by saying Needlenose is OK. Needlenose is a fairly complete release that ticks the boxes he should. He's got two modes, he's got two dudes that turn into guns, some little bits he didn't need, and generally feels like they tried to update the 1988 toy with modern production values. As a jetformer with two guns, there is a certain appeal to him, and Legacy era toys usually don't skimp on either articulation or paint... so it's not that he's lacking much. I have much time for gun-fu poses and whooshing plane noises. The problems however start with the targetmasters Sunbeam and Zigzag, whom are functionally identical to the G1 toys. They weren't modernised as such, which is a problem as the whole little-dude-becomes-a-weapon play pattern gets done every few years, each time better than this. A case could even be made that these are worse than the originals too, which used pinned components, and had no tolerance issues that I’m aware of. Zigzag has so much black paint on him its a stress mark concern. Moving onto Needlenose himself, there's another issue, this time with parts integration. Needlenose carries his entire altmode on his back, the robot bits compressing into a box on the underneath of his jet form. It would probably be a trivial matter to separate the almode from the robot, and unlike most shellformers that do that, there is barely any jet to form a shell around or otherwise detract from the robot. They did however attempt to add a bit of value, as Sunbeam and Zigzag can, via an easily missed tab, form an external booster for the jet mode. The fact that its two dudes in odd clothes planking together doesn’t exactly help the look of the thing, but an attempt was made. Again, none of this is without an appeal, but this is succeeding in spite of its design choices, not because if them. So, why has this happened? Why do we have a Transformer that so clearly struggles with its two main features?
Let's start with the matters of budget and parts count. Since the era of Titans Return, the concept of tiny dude becomes a gun has been largely relegated to individual low-cost releases. The solo titanmasters were a good example of this, being simple pocket money toys, although becoming a gun was only part of what they did. This price point would eventually be dropped for Kingdom, although you could make the case that the toys it featured gradually declined in complexity. The Primemasters had more raw plastic, but ultimately did less, while Siege's Battlemasters went back to basics with simple but elegant toys with those blast effects everyone loves. Then Earthrise ruined it by having the little dudes become roads, but let's not get sidetracked. The point is that Hasbro generally wasn't putting paired figures in Generations, such things turning up in RID2015 and more kid-centric lines, but even then, the gun-dude was often a separate purchase. So, is it merely that these chaps got priced out? Well, that's a definitely a factor, but I'd like to point to another phenomenon. Hasbro seems entirely willing to bring this play pattern back in force for Rise of the Beasts, but not for the Studio Series releases, instead for the more kid-based lines. The simpler, mass market toys in other words. Generations seems to be stuck in a rut where they really want to appeal to collectors and their perfectionism, but always seem to want the retail market too. So Legacy and the like tend to be very good for articulation and paint, but simpler amusements are being cut.
So, with the above in mind, we have Needlenose. He exists in a serious-minded collectors line, see Blaster, one that tends towards self-defeating fidelity to its source material, see Blitzwing, or a melange of neo-G1 styling, see Bulkhead. Needlenose has however has had no cartoon appearances, and kinda infrequent comic appearances, so there's less to draw on. This means, as mentioned, the designers have gone and tried to directly update the original toy, which isn't actually a bad thing by itself. However, there we hit the problem, Needlenose & his gunbuddies were explicitly the budget offering of their year. The kid-centric, cheap, pocket money releases I mentioned above, and were actually simpler designs than the original Targetmasters. And indeed late-G1 offerings like Actionmasters and the hysterically named Breast Force. So, somebody went and tried to make a luxury version of something designed to be cheap, and they are retaining the flaws because they think that's what we all want. That's dumb. I struggle for a metaphor to stress how dumb that it is. Possibly a gourmet plate of fish & chips, served on a sheet of imitation newspaper? And costs more than three times the comparable meal from the local chippie? Its not necessarily bad, I’m not saying that. I’m saying someone missed the point, and there’s probably a better option out there.
There’s a further interpretation too, one still a bit uncertain at time of writing, and that’s retooling. Its been a central part of Hasbros business practices to aggressively reuse moulds and parts for its Generations releases, something which I’ve had a lot to say about. This is one of those things that isn’t technically bad, more a nuisance if you are completionist/perfectionist about things. Hasbro has gotten pretty good at selling the same toy five times, either through paintwork or substantial redesign, and if I’m honest its kinda fun. Some very interesting toys have come out of it, and its a common occurrence in my writings for this point to come up. Of course, a completely fair argument against it, one which Needlenose could easily be subject to, is that if you’re gonna ask for premium prices, people are gonna want a premium product. Money for old rope, and all that. Needlenose can connect to the concurrent Sky Quake toy in jet mode. This, along with circumstantial evidence like his removable tailfin, suggests that Needlenose is intended to be reused for the obscure Predators group. That would be a compelling explanation for his jet mode, because you could take all that off and replace it, no trouble This wouldn’t be the first mould to pull double-duty and be compromised as a result. But, as I said, this is still up in the air.
I mentioned better options above. What could those options be? Well, the simple solution would have been not to include the targetmasters at all, and instead do what Siege Spinister did and have two modular weapons instead. I guarantee that you'd loose no functionality, and the entire effect would be better because they wouldn't so obviously be two chaps lying down. That's a harsh judgement, I know, but a fair one. I strongly suspect a future retool will omit them completely, in favour of more jet bits. Alternatively, promote Needlenose to a voyager and spend the budget on making the gun dudes good and maybe rework the jet mode? Or, we could just have Needlenose be a head swap retool of another toy? It worked before. It also worked for Quake.
My point? Only that Legacy Evolution Needlenose is something that exists. To give him the benefit of the doubt, he's an earnest attempt to do slightly the wrong thing. And he's probably better than Pointblank.
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