While Transformers cartoons are fun, entertaining stories, they are ultimately commercials designed to sell toys. This is not a bad thing. A toy character that has a fully fleshed out origin and personality as well as adventures with similar friends and enemies is more fun to play with. Kids can make new stories at home based on the character, rather than just bashing action figures together in fight scenes. Of course, this can have a down side. When the character or story needs to change because of time, some will have a hard time accepting the change. I thank DC and Marvel for introducing the idea of multiple, co-existing universes and timelines because they helped us know that it is ok to have many variations of our familiar characters. So it is important from the start to acknowledge that War for Cybertron is separate. It is its own story with its own characters, familiar as they may be.
Lets get on to the review. This is going to be about the toys associated with the show, not the show itself. Any spoilers will only be in the form of who will appear because their toy appeared on the shelves. I will attempt to leave out plot points unless they are specifically about the appearance of a character and it’s toy.
First, a general note about the character models for the show. Unlike other shows that smoothed over toy models or started with animation models that toys were based off of, War for Cybertron faithfully, slavishly, uses the toy models for its animation models. You can see pegs and ports and all kinds of kibble. It’s really distracting until you get used to it. In fact, if you pay attention, you can spot the characters that did not have toys designed by the time the show was made by the design of the characters. They look great compared to the clunky toy model characters.
For the most part, these toys are pretty G1 accurate. The toy line seems to be balancing the line between a modern reinterpretation of an 80’s toy line and show, and deliberate G1 fanservice, with other Transformers franchises thrown in every now and then. When there is a character, like, oh say, Optimus Prime, who has a Cybertronian big rig mode in the Siege toy line and show, it is like Hasbro is saying to G1 fans: “Just wait. Buy this now, but something even better and more G1-y is just around the corner.” In other cases, such as large toys, like Omega Supreme, or minor characters like Springer, Hasbro has made near perfect modern G1 versions right now.
Lets start with the Autobots. The main characters in the show are Optimus Prime, Elita-1, Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack, Mirage, Red Alert, Chromia, Hound, Ironhide, Prowl and Ratchet, with a few other familiar faces sprinkled in. Bumblebee is present, but is not aligned with a faction at the beginning. There are a lot of trooper type characters in various colors. These are mainly based on Cog, Hound and Sideswipe. The Siege toys that were available (a long time before that show aired) were Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Mirage, Red Alert, Chromia, Prowl, Hound, Ironhide, Cog and Sideswipe. These were available in the basic waves to all retailers. Ratchet, who played a key role in the show, was a Walgreens exclusive. Another exclusive line was the Walmart Exclusive Netflix line. These were repaints of existing toys that showed more ware and battle damage than the regular releases. They were supposed to be more show accurate. They included Sideswipe, Hound, Chromia and a Decepticon version of Mirage. There was also a special Spoiler Pack of Ultra Magnus. There was some confusion what the spoil was, but some time after the show came out, someone figured out that the Cybertronian writing in the packaging could be decrypted to get a hint about what would happen in the show. Not to be left out, Amazon had its exclusive that included a repaint of Cog in red, hologram Mirage and a Decepticon Impactor. I have not mentioned Impactor so far because, although the toys generally have Autobot symbols, he is a Decepticon in the show and will be covered later. Another Autobot that was in the show and had a toy was Omega Supreme. I never saw the toy on shelves, so he must have been an internet exclusive. The toy is glorious, but does not have the motorized functions of his predecessor. Also, the tank turret can not traverse. Otherwise, the toy is awesome. It also includes a nod to the Micromaster rocket station and comes with the Micromaster Countdown (not seen in the show).
Speaking of things not seen in the show; most characters never transform. This is very disappointing in a Transformers show. The Decepticon Seekers transform to fly and Optimus Prime Transforms a few times, but that is about it. So if you are expecting transforming in a show called “Transformers”, nope, you will be disappointed. Sorry, minor spoiler there. But I just had to get that out since it is a sore point for me and relates to the toys. Also, the toy line includes Targetmasters (including new versions that include melee weapons such as axes and hammers) and Micromasters. Though Cog is in the show, other characters like Sixgun and the Decepticon Blunt are missing. Each of these belong to a Titan in G1 continuity, and the Siege toys can separate to form weapons and upgrades to attach to other Transformers. It is strange that a Transformers show, which is basically a commercial for toys, does not include several major groups of toys that represent different play modes for the toy line are not present. Also, Springer. Great toy, never in the show.
In another, equally confusing point, several main characters in the show were not represented in the toy line. These included Elita-1, Bumblebee and Wheeljack. As I mentioned earlier, Elita-1 and Bumblebee looked significantly different than the other character models, so their toys probably did not exist when the show was created. Wheeljack looked like everyone else, though. The first scene in the show was a reference to the first scene in the G1 cartoon, where Wheeljack and Bumblebee were on Cybertron looking for energon. But both characters were without toys in the Siege line. Because Wheeljack looked like a toy, it was safe to assume that a toy was forthcoming. Elita-1 was a mystery. In the past, Hasbro has stated that boys don’t want to play with toys of Girl characters. They have been proven wrong and have released many female characters, to great success, in the last decade. But because of the animation model, in this case, there was doubt. Bumblebee is another story. Since the 2007 movies, we have been inundated with Bumblebee. Fans have become sick of seeing shelves full of different versions of Bumblebee. But kids love Bumblebee, so right now we have a Bumblebee subline, Bumblebee Cyberverse and a lot of Bumblebee in the Studio Series. But no Bumblebee for the Siege line, when he is a key character? WTF? I hate to say it, but where’s my Bumblebee, Hasbro?
On to the Decepticons. Megatron, Shockwave, Soundwave, Starscream and Jetfire are the leaders with Baracade, Impactor, Skytread, Spinister and several Seekers (I know Skywarp was named and Thundercracker was present) as lieutenants. There were a slew of Refraktors and other Seekers as troopers. Megatron, Shockwave, Soundwave, Starscream, Baracade, Impactor, Skytread, Thundercracker and Refractor were available in the basic waves to all retailers. I am not sure what Spinister was. In some places he was listed as a Generations Selects (a Hasbro/Takara Exclusive line), but elsewhere, like Amazon, he came as a regular Siege toy. So, whatever. He was some kind of online exclusive. Jetfire also seemed to be an online exclusive and doubled in price as soon as the show came out, though he was rereleased later at a more reasonable price. Great toy. Jetfire has always been one of my favorites, and this toy does not disappoint. Skywarp was an Amazon exclusive. There was also a Seekers Rainmakers 3-pack called Seeker Squadron that I think was an Amazon exclusive. These were really bright, so didn’t fit well with the dark tones of the show, but they add to the crowd if you want more troops. The Netflix Edition Walmart exclusives included Megatron, Impactor, Scrapface (a Refractor clone) and Hotlink (a generic seeker). Refractor also came in an internet exclusive three pack, in his original toy colors and able to combine to form a camera because of the three figures. It also included extra camera parts that you can not get elsewhere.
The Decepticons are the most numerous on the show, with most of those numbers made up of Refraktor clones, being both troopers and workers, lots Seekers and a few Impactor clones. If you are in to troop building, you can get five different Refraktors and seven Seekers, excluding Starscream.
There is a scene with a mercenary version of Soundblaster. He was available (with a Decepticon symbol) as a 35th Anniversary exclusive from Walmart. He (with the show accurate Mercenary symbol) was also released from HasbroPulse during their online con in 2020 as an exclusive preorder. It is supposed to ship early in 2021, so it is not in hand yet.
Since I am writing this review of the siege toys really late, I can add that several of the key characters have been released as Earthrise has come out. You may have noticed these in my pictures. We just had to wait a year or so for them. The first is Wheeljack in his Earth deco. After that you have to go to Walmart’s Netflix line, which is being released in conjunction with the Earthrise line. It includes a more show accurate Wheeljack, Elita-1 and Bumblebee! So far, it has been easy for me to find Wheeljack and Elita-1 on the shelves, but I have only seen one Bumblebee. So if you can get your hands on those last few, you can have the full primary cast of Siege, if you don’t mind a really Earth mode looking bumblebee.
The toys from the Siege toy line represent the characters on the show very well, though it may be difficult to get all or specific characters from the show. Yes, I am talking about Bumblebee. Overall, this is a pretty great toy line.
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