Transformers: Retire Studio Series

And now, an old man yells at a cloud...

 

Things tend to rattle around in my brain. I’ll have an idea, run through it, write some of it down, and, on occasion, shelve it. Sometimes you don’t like the first draft, or you forget it in favour of more interesting things. Sometimes, the article gets unpacked after I remember it, or I feel that I need to fill a slot. So, here we are today, with an article that’s a bit of both. An article whose conceit may be both tritely obvious and inflammatory. I put it to you, dear reader, that Studio Series no longer serves a distinct purpose, and is in fact merely an imprint of whatever collectors line Hasbro is doing that year.

Studio Series Cogman, 2019

So, context and history. Studio Series is part of the all encompassing Generations block of collector aimed Transformers. It's stated goal was to appeal to fans of the live action films with high fidelity, premium toys matching the big screen as much as possible. Studio Series kicked off in 2018, the films having been an ongoing concern for a decade or so at that point, so there was definitely an audience for such a thing. More over, there was something of a need for do-overs. The original bayverse designs were infamously complex, which was something the toy people took a while to overcome. Some characters weren't well-served or lost in the shuffle. As time progressed, Hasbro opted to divide movie stuff into two, simple merch for kids, and more complex stuff for serious toy fans. The latter evolved into Studio Series, offering the chance of a do-over for some many characters. Studio Series was a fundamentally good idea then, catering to market I personally wasn't in, but entirely justifiable. The first toys appeared shortly after The Last Knight line wrapped up, actually inheriting a couple of moulds, the titanmaster-based Nitro Zeus and Cogman moulds. This was something of an odd blip now I come to think of it. The entire headmaster thing was something cut from the film, so it's kinda odd that they were in Studio Series. I mention it as it I need to bring up a fundamental point about Hasbro Transformers, which explains that and many similar oddities. Generations, be it Studio Series, Legacy, Kingdom, Earthrise, Siege or whatever, are all ultimately the same toy line. It's melange, spread across varying price points and imprints, but still ultimately from the same place and matching product numbers. I know I bring that up whenever I do opinion pieces on toylines, but it is vital context. So, other than those two early reuses, Studio Series was generally fulfilling it's brief, jumping up and down the timeline like Generations usually does. As mentioned, I'm not a movie guy, but they were doing good work and things people wanted. I mean, doing Devastator as a team of eight, spread across the deluxe, voyager and even leader pricepoints? That's pretty awesome.

Studio Series 86 Grimlock, (and an awful Wheelie), 2021

Mind you, simple reality would soon catch up with Studio Series. Come the time of the Bumblebee film, not even two years after Studio Series started, Studio Series had already made a significant dent in the bayverse roster. As much as I like that film, Hasbro seemed less invested this time around, and wasn't going as hard on the merch. So Studio Series stopped being purely about nostalgia and do-overs, and became the premium bit of a movie line for a while. And it immediately fucked up. The initial three toys for the tie-in, Bumblebee, car mode Shatter, and helicopter mode Dropkick, were based off outdated character models and thus had an only passing resemblance to the film. This defeated the entire point of Studio Series. And maybe they should have put the line on hiatus then, but they didn't. Instead they did two things. First off, they remembered the 1986 movie was also a film, so they could do actual Generation 1 characters too. Its the Generations Grabbag again, its things spilling over. Then they chose to do a toy for each character featured in the Cybertron scenes of the Bumblebee movie, a few brief minutes of fanservice with G1-adjacent designs. Because that was what we needed, when Earthrise had been fully G1. And Cyberverse was doing G1 but YouTube. And Kingdom being half G1 stuff. For Studio Series to alternate between actual G1, and characters that looked G1, but had mere seconds of screentime originating in reshoots.

The mainline Voyager class Rhinox toy, 2023

In all fairness, I did like that Brawn. Anyways, like I said Studio Series and Generations are the same thing. Anyways this continued for a bit, until we catch up with the near past. Studio Series would bide its time for a while, doing the most G1 of G1 stuff, until the new film happened, Rise of the Beasts. This had been subject to delays and reshoots, and was a little bland as movies go. Toyline mishaps also happened, as its arguable star Mirage was largely forgotten, in favour of the usual suspects. There was also two sets of "proper" movie tie-ins, one doing fun stuff like battlemasters and Studio Series releases seemingly benefiting from the delays. For some reason, the deluxe and voyager price points were present in both, competing with each other. Why?! Did the delays mess things up so bad? Was Hasbro trying to double dip and got the timing wrong? Regardless, ‘beasts came, did pretty much everybody, and went with an almost spectacular lack of lasting impact. Even the TFNation dealers room was noticeably light on beasts stuff, and that should have been a gimme. I mean, that might just be my experience, ancedotes are not evidence, but I suppose the box office wasn't great was it? If it had took, we'd be swimming in beastformers. That's another story though. Then we got some video game stuff, the so-called Gamer Edition, which are, um, not top tier? Then we got the reveals that got me writing this the first place, way back in November, the toys based on concept art. Which, by definition, aren’t on screen.

Stock image of Concept Art Megatron, unreleased at time of writing

So, where do I stand on this? Well, I feel conflicted. The concept art Megatron is honestly fascinating as a piece. It's what could have been, and is a triplechanger, so it should be fun to mess with. If I saw it on sale, I'd be tempted. Then again, and this is the autistic bit of my brain talking, what is Studio Series for if its not slavishly matching media? Doing a concept art toy in Studio Series is a contradiction in terms. So what I'd suggest here is either a pause or a rebrand, or some combination of both. Studio Series has had a good run, but the bottom of the barrel is not only visible, but showing scratch marks. You could rebrand it as "boutique" or similar, and concentrate on the difficult and interesting. Or, you could retire it for a year or two, let people grow to miss it, and come back with fresh eyes. Or they could just continue as they are, just treading water until the next film comes out. And with that, eventually, they’d have to think about doing Skids and Mudflap.

And no sane person wants that.

 

Transformers: Studio Series Brawn is Something That Exists

 

Coming out in December 2019, Transformers: Bumblebee is by most metrics the best Transformers film. Yes, including the 1986 one and Bay's first attempt. The reasons for this seem to come in spite of the Hollywood system rather than because of it. Director Travis Knight was much more interested in characters than Bay was, and could still do a quality action scene. Seriously, compare Mikaela Banes and Charlie Watson. Same basic character, just one director clearly isn't leering into the camera. Mind you, reshoots and higher level politics had their influence too. There was a decision made to change the film from a prequel to a soft reboot, prompting the famous sequence on Cybertron. This was pure, targeted, and refined fanservice. Also welcome, to be frank. If the 2007 film had been more like the 2019 one from the start, the franchise might be in a better place. Sadly Travis Knight isn't back for Rise of the Beasts, but let's attempt optimism. Springing fully-formed from those reshoots is today's subject, Brawn, whom is legally distinct from my earlier article, but damn if there wasn't an overlap to work around.

 

Let us acknowledge the Big Convoy in the room, it's really really daft that this exists in toy form. This is some Star Wars level barrel-scraping, as opposed to doing almost anything else. This version of Brawn had mere seconds of screen time, and didn't manage to anything cool. He only got shot. It's geewunner pandering in the purest sense, possibly more so than the 86 cast getting the Studio Series label. Granted, there comes a point where you run out of big screen characters, and nobody with a functional brain is in a hurry to see Skids & Mudflap again, but retiring the label until the next movie was finished might have been justified. So, my bias clearly stated, I'm not particularly predisposed to go in for this sort of thing, which is why this toy only entered my hands at a discount on an otherwise mediocre day.

 

The 2010 Revenge of the Fallen Brawn Toy

 

 

 

So, then, Brawn. Blank slate and apparent shelfwarmer. Not the first movieverse Brawn either. There was a toy-first version from 2010, a shellformer with some clever touches and twin pistols. That’s something that happened a few times actually, where a character gets a toy for one film, but not a screen appearance, only for a later film to override it with a quite radically different take. See Arcee and Lockdown for good examples. This newer Brawn is more of a modernisation and reinterpretation of the G1 version, hitting iconic design elements like the colours, but still having movie verse complexity and mechanical details. He's a tough, stocky little guy in green, mustard and brown. You can see why this guy's name is synonym for physical strength. New elements are however present, like the much-commented-upon Juggernaut helmet and general resemblance to The Doom Slayer. I was personally put in mind of something Gimli Son of Gloin might pilot in The Lord of the Rings, alternate universe, mecha fan fiction you are now imagining. There's some good paint applied too, subtly complimenting the plastic colours. I can't really fault it, although I might spend some time weathering it. Articulation and play value are similarly pleasing; he's got a lot of well-placed joints, a rather big gun, and a drill bit to turn it into a drill spear. These notably use a 3mm peg for storage on the back, a feature that is nice to have, if not super secure. There’s also 5mm ports on the feet, in what seems to be vestigial weaponizer compatibility. So, while I question the reasoning behind this item, if that reasoning was "let's just make a good robot mode, dammit" I'd say they went and did it.

 

Brawn's vehicle mode is where things get interesting. The vast majority of the reshoot characters didn't have a vehicle mode, which probably presented a challenge to the toy designers, until you remember that Cybertronian altforms generally don't look like anything. In all fairness though, they did a good job. The transformation spins around his back to become a cockpit bubble, inverting the lower legs so the kneecaps wrap around some newly revealed front wheels. There is a fair whack of creativity at play here, so while we must apply a qualifier for it being Cybertronian, honestly? Fair play to 'em. The resulting vehicle looks somewhere between one of those new League of Voltann models and a hypothetical Among Us vehicle expansion. It looks vaguely cute and fast, maybe? It doesn't say "space landrover" and it's not really disguising robot bits either, with the head and feet noticeable. But it has character, as much as the robot mode does. It also has the option to mount the gun up top, and the drill up front as a ramming spike, the latter being a nod towards a scene from the G1 cartoon. With these applied, it looks a bit more Brawny, so the overall effect works. And possibly pierces heaven... 

 

My point? Only that Studio Series Brawn is something that exists. He's probably a lot better than he needed to be, which is odd when you consider he might not have needed to be, full stop. While I knew it would be good blog fodder, I didn't expect to like it as much as I do in person. We’re not talking S rank here, but they didn’t half-arse this, as they so easily could have.