First revealed in mid-2018 at San Diego Comic-Con, War for Cybertron: Siege, in keeping with the installments of the Prime Wars Trilogy, features a line-wide gimmick: weaponry. Most Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader Class figures each come with at least one or two weapons that can transform, combine, and/or be placed into any C.O.M.B.A.T. System posts, 5 mm posts littered all over their bodies, essentially an updated version of the Powerlinx system and Takara's previous Arms Micron play system. Another line-wide feature is battle-damaged paint jobs on Deluxe-and-up figures to fit with the gritty "war" aspect.
Returning to this toyline are Micromasters, which are bundled in two packs, replacing the Legends Class of the last half-decade, and are now able to combine into large weapons as well as transform into their vehicle form. This size class is also used for Soundwave's minions, who can turn into cassettes or be used as a shield with fold-out pegs.
Replacing the Prime Masters from the last toyline are "Battle Masters", small Targetmaster-type figures that can combine with other weapons and figures. They include additional "Fire Blast" effect pieces that can be placed onto other weapons included with other size classes, as well as hardpoints on the figures themselves to simulate being 'shot' or on the back of vehicles to simulate "rocket boosters" or "speed", depending on the effect part. Each effect part attaches via a 3 mm hole, or in most cases, 5 mm posts too.
Some Deluxe Class figures are classified as "Deluxe Weaponizers," which can be disassembled into multiple weapons to be used in the C.O.M.B.A.T. System. Leader Class figures are very similar to Power of the Primes, in which smaller figures come with additional armor that can be added to vehicle mode or robot mode to increase their size to become the height of a Leader Class figure. This is likely due to robot mode scale playing a much larger role in this series than in the past, with characters sticking reasonably close to their relative heights in the original cartoon.
The boxes of the figures have black-light revealed cybertronian script on them which can be put into the "Found a hidden code?" game on the Transformers website.
Please note that the exclusivity listed below (except for Amazon) only applies to the United States. Other international markets got these items through other venues, either as general retail releases or as exclusives to other stores and chains.
Following in the footsteps of Arcee, Grotusque, and the three Prime Wars Trilogy "Special Edition" figures in 2018, Hasbro debuted a special edition Selects deco of Voyager Class Megatron at Toy Fair 2019 to celebrate the War for Cybertron Trilogy. Announced at New York Toy Fair 2019, Combat Megatron was exclusively available in the United States via online retailers such as BigBadToyStore, Entertainment Earth, Hasbro Toy Shop's eBay, and Hasbro's new replacement for the Hasbro Toy Shop site, Hasbro Pulse. This was the first in a line of redecos catering to fans.
Like The Last Knight, Power of the Primes, and Studio Series, TakaraTomy's Transformers Siege (トランスフォーマー シージ) toyline sees their new "brand unification" strategy in full effect. As such, Takara Siege toys are completely identical to their Hasbro counterparts, just released in different waves and given new "ID" numbers.
While not branded as part of the War for Cybertron Trilogy, the IDW Transformers comic series that commenced in 2019 extensively uses contemporary toy designs; consequently, numerous main characters appear in Siege toy designs.
The names of many individual figures from this line were revealed by listings on Walmart and Amazon Australia prior to being formally unveiled by Hasbro at conventions.
Siege toys debuted at the tail end of October 2018 with the Voyager Class available from U.S. comic stores and private dealers, followed up by Battle Masters at Target on November 4, 2018.
Deluxe Class Red Alert was accidentally revealed by Hasbro by being featured as the "core" figure in the stock CG render showcasing the use of Brunt's Weaponizer parts released during New York Comic-Con in October 2018. Full on stock renders were found on different websites, such as Target and Amazon leading to New York Toy Fair 2019, midway through February, where his existence was finally acknowledged.
Although battle-damaged paint is one of the distinguishing features of the Siege imprint, it seems that Hasbro's dedication to it is pretty tenuous. The Voyager Class toys are the only ones that seem to receive any significant amount, while Leaders hardly get any and Deluxes range from little to none.
Many buyers attempted to remove the battle damage paint using isopropyl alcohol. The effectiveness of this treatment varies from figure to figure. The deluxe scale figures often had minimal drybrush-applied paint that cleaned off easily, while the voyager scaled figures, which had the battle damage paint printed onto them, were much more difficult to clean. Some figures, such as Soundwave and Springer, had battle damage paint applied directly over their deco paint, which meant ruining the deco in the effort to clean the battle damage.
Starting with this toyline, many of the Deluxe and upwards figures are downsized, the Leaders (plus additions) either being just a head short of a Voyager class figure from previous lines, or simply being Voyager core figures sold with extra parts to make up the price point. Siege also features a heavy focus on articulation, with common standards found on Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader Class figures being waist joints and ankle pivots, something which the following lines continue to feature. According to Shogo Hasui, this is to ensure that the feet of each toy can stand whilst holding gear from the C.O.M.B.A.T system.
It was decided that ball and socket joints were not up to the task of bearing the heavy load of the weapons that are created by the C.O.M.B.A.T system play pattern. As such, most of the articulation utilizes pinned or "mushroom cap" joints (though balljoints are present in smaller figures and the necks of larger ones). This created the challenge of balancing part count as well as maintaining parts that were important to the transformation and basic structure of the molds.[2]
Thanks to the C.O.M.B.A.T. System play pattern of adding weapons and armor to figures, it was decided to go with a war-torn aesthetic for the toyline, which included taking design cues from Last Stand of the Wreckers and Generation 2 and the addition of battle damage.[2]
Foreign names
Mandarin: Biànxíngjīngāng Shìdài Xìliè Sāibótǎn zhī Zhàn - Wéichéng zhī Zhāng (Taiwan, 變形金剛世代系列塞伯坦之戰 - 圍城之章, "Transformers Generations Series War of Cybertron - Siege Chapter")
References
↑TakaraTomy Mall lists their Soundblaster as a normal Siege exclusive, with an ID number of "SG-EX", while Hasbro Pulse lists the same Soundblaster as an imported TakaraTomy Selects exclusive, given the different ID number of "TT-GS12".
