With Slithe's army builder figures, Super7 might have complicated the way they could pull off Army Builders for the Foot Clan.
The Foot Soldier getting a rerelease won't cut it.
In a Worst Case Scenario, I wouldn't mind getting the same old Foot Soldier, but not many would.
But what would be the options?
Color coding squads? While that works for Konami videogames, a multicolored army of Foot Soldiers would look off. Case in Point the GITD foot soldier. Unless you have enough of them to have a squad, it will look off next to a group of normal Foot Soldiers.
Slightly changing the color in a small detail like the eyes of Foot Insignia keeps most of the uniformity, yet adds a bit of difference...
But is it enough?
Since these are meant to be Army Builders, let's build an army for The Foot!
Foot Soldier Army Builder Type Alpha:
Same as the OG Foot Soldier Orangey Yellow Eyes and Orangey Red Insignia.
Same Hands as OG Foot Soldier
Comes with 2 Foot Soldier Knives, new Sword
A Mouser.
Foot Soldier Army Builder Type Beta:
Eye: Lime Greenish
Insignia dark red.
For Weapons a Naginata that can turn into a Bo and short sword, 2 FS Gun
An A6 Turtle Exterminator AKA Utrom Security drone, 2 Spy Flies.
Foot Soldier Army Builder Type Gamma:
Red Eyes, yellow insignia.
New Sniper Rifle, pair of Tonfa
A Roadkill Rodney with Accessories
Foot Soldier Army Builder Type Epsilon:
Deluxe Battle Damage version
New body with interchangeable heads and arms. Various battle damaged effects.
For weapons bent grabber, broken knife, normal mace. Extra battle damage effects for the wrists that can be used on normal Foot Soldiers to simulate chopped hands.
Those are 4 examples of things that could be done to "sell us" the same old Foot Soldierall over again. I know I kinda cheated with the Type Epsilon.
The other Army Builders would be The Shredder Elite Guard with the new Shredder inspired heads and the big straw hats.
Japanese division of The Foot Clan aka Mirage style Human Ninja. These guys would look great with Karai.
Another alternative could be a Heavily Battle Damaged Foot Soldier. I mean Heavily damaged to the point that you can see most of his robotic innards from the front. And the arms. Just like the Type Epsilon mentioned above, heads and arms should be swappable.
The last version of the Foot Soldier I'd like to suggest is a bare endoskeleton. I know it hits too close to Terminator, but the Foot Soldier Endoskeletons would look sweet as Chromedome's personal squad.
Roadkill Rodney could get its own release as an "accessory pack" hear me out:
-2 Drilling out the ground "heads". They're mot actual heads, just 2 accessories to pretend that 2 more RRs are coming from underground.
-2 stands. The stands are L shaped where the vertical wall plugs into the axle while the horizontal "floor" has a slight depression to hold the cylindrical wheel in place.
-The front panel hinges and you could plug in one of the 2 blasters.
-2 short tendrils
-2 long tendrils
-2 or more Utrom drone figurines (no articulation)
-2 or more Spy Flies (No Articulation) spy fly is 2 pieces (main body in mouser blue and propeller in clear plastic with painted details to simulate spinning)
All three "characters" would have a color palette similar to the Super7 Mousers.
Light blue body, red eye, red foot insignia, black and dark blue accents.
You'd get an 8+ army of tiny enemies.
While Technically they're Krang's Army, Rock soldiers would be sweet. While I'd prefer a more cartoon inspired Aesthetic, it would clash a bit with the theoretical Ultimates Traag if he's vinrage toy based. If Traag is Vintage Toy based, then the Rock soldiers should copy SOME of that aesthetic. The main differences between Traag and his army would be:
-Size:
Traag might be a big chunky guy ($65+) but the rock soldiers should be MOTUC Sized.
-Creepy crawlies:
The army builders shouldn't have them for the sake of lack of individuality.
Since they're made of rock, one of the variations could be rock colors. The second variation could be body type. One body type could be "more humanoid" in proportions. The other could be more rocklike with irregular proportions and maybe have a "hunched" look. Like say, a mini Traag. Super7 could look at the videogames as a reference on how to classify the rock soldiers.
Here's a crude drawing of what I'm thinking.
Both should be the size and build of a standard MOTUC/Conan/Thundercats figure. The only difference is that the "hunched" body would look a smidge shorter than the "upright" body.
Their color palettes are based on the vintage Traag, and what a theoretical Playmates styled Granitor could've looked like if it followed Traag's color scheme.
With those two bodies we can get a couple of variations:
Upright orange, Upright Gray
Hunched Gray, Hunched Orange.
With different looking heads we could get even more variations.
The boots also offer some variation.
Broken left, broken right, both broken, none broken.
The accessories would also allow for differences between each soldier.
Let's use the Upright body and make a couple of variations:
Infiltrator:
Gun, knife, gas grenades. One of the heads should look like a rocky Kurt Russell with bad 1980s toy likeness
Grunt:
Rifle, gun, futuristic grenades in the style of WWII German stick grenades, Flamethrower. One of the heads should look like a rocky Martin Sheen with bad 1980s toy likeness
Saboteur:
Mines, Plastique, oversized chain cutter, silenced blaster, knife. One of the heads should look like a rocky JCVD with bad 1980s toy likeness
Sniper:
Oversized sniper Rifle, rifle, gun, binoculars. One of the heads should look like Jean reno with bad 1980s toy likeness.
Now the hunched bodies:
Mower:
Minigun, 2 rifles, lead pipe. One of the heads should look like a rocky Arnold Schwarzenegger smoking a cigar with bad 1989s toy likeness.
Bruiser:
I beam, Machete, extra hands with knuckle dusters sculpted on, dual guns. One of the heads should look like a rocky Hulk Hogan with bad 1980s toy likeness.
Exploder:
Knife, Bazooka, mines, plastique, grenades. One of the heads should look like a bouldery Sylvester Stallone with bad 1980s toy likeness.
Grunt:
Rifle, gun, shoulder mounted missile blaster. Should look like a bouldery Dolph Lundgren with bad 1980s toy likeness.
The whole rocky or bouldery X with bad 1980s likeness refers that we're NOT trying to make an accurate representation of the person mentioned. We're going for Oddly proportioned Caricature style mashed with Vintage toy Traag kind of look.
For the one with Schwarzenegger face, the main aspect would be the mouth, with Arnie's jawline and tooth gap, but the rest of the face doesn't resemble him. For Stallone, the droopy eye would be the main feature while the rest of the face isn't very Stallone-like. For Hogan, the Jawline and Handlebar Mustache would be the focus, while Kurt Russell's brow, eyes, and nose would be the focus.
Holy crap! This has turned into a long-winded rant. But yeah. I have shown that TMNT has a LOT of potential for building an Army for the Foot. Assuming they were to be made, the biggest issue would be pacing:
Dropping over 2 characters for army building at the same time is a bad idea. The idea is to say, toss Upright Rock Soldier and a Foot Soldier as a pair of non-wave items a few months after wave 10. Then some months later throw in the Rodneys and a Hunched Rock Soldier. Once the first non-wave army builders ship, the Rodneys get a rerelease with a Foot Soldier. The following cycle brings the Shredder Elite, and Japanese Foot Clan as Alternative to the Robot Foot Ninja. Mousers 2.0 (same mousers as before with new extra accessories) replace the Rodneys. Color swapped rock soldiers replace the previous rock soldiers.
Because dropping 3 $55 per figure Army builders as a 1 time only item the week after Black Friday is, how do I say this a boneheaded move. If they were $35, one could easily get all 3. With the current $55 pricetag, what once covered 3, now stays $5 under covering 2.
No comments:
Post a Comment