Rock On!

I work at night, meaning I sleep during the day. Normally, I'm content to see whatever news came out after waking up. However, today (as of this writing) was Hasbro Pulse Con. An online convention centered around Hasbro products. Once again, I'm normally content to catch up with what happened after waking up... but today was different. For months listings of Transformers 'rocks'  had been appearing in store inventory systems. Rumor had it they were finally going to be debuted at Pulse Con and I was excited. By the way things were going, it seemed like these were Generations Rock Lords. As many of you know, that's a particular sweet spot for me. So I sat an alarm to wake up and watch this panel live. I had to know. It was worth it.

The newest iteration of Transformers Legacy, United, is slated to debut early next year and by the looks of it, will be great. I've been loving Legacy's updates to various Transformers characters from the history of the brand. In United, there's updates to Animated, Beast Era, Armada, Unicron Trilogy, and Prime. It looks great. But like the Junkions of Evolution and other type figures from series before, there is a new C.O.M.B.A.T System style set of figures. This is where we get the all new Armorizers and the most excited I've been in a long time.

Now when I say that, some folks will roll their eyes. I know, I get excited over a lot of things. I love Transformers, it's going to happen. However THESE have me absolutely ecstatic. I'm foaming at the mouth, wriggling in my seat, doing a little happy dance. THESE are wonderful. While they're not exactly Rock Lords, they're Rock Lord inspired. Armorizers are a mixture of Rock Lords, Mutores, and the rock-people of Daira. Personally, I also see some Monster Gobots in the designs. They're something new made from several old things. It's great. I love it.

To talk about the toys specifically, they don't outright turn into rocks. Like traditional Transformers, they turn into various vehicles. HOWEVER, they're not made from various metals and may not even be specifically robots. They're made of various space rocks, minerals, and stones. They specifically don't have a spark, they're some form of creature. That's neat. During Beast Machines, I was particularly interested in Beast Changer (Savage/Noble) because he wasn't a robot. That's a similar mindset going into these. There's a certain neatness to the concept for me that I can't quite put my finger on. It's just a cool idea.

Not to mention, they mentally remind me of Monster Gobots. That's probably a coincidence, but it's a good one. Then there's the He-Man comparisons that Rock Lords always had. With these and the imagery and characters United is providing... there's strong He-Man vibes here. I'm all for it, this feels like it was made specifically for me. The Armorizers can become armor or weapons for other robots and probably have a secret combiner form. Part of me wishes they'd just do complete lines of toys like this as it's fun. This has been a long post and I can probably say a million more things about these new toys... and probably will in the future. I don't own an Armorizer yet, but can already rave this much about them. I'm warning you now Zone Base readers, eventually I'm getting my hands on these.