Hasbro Made-to-Order Figures

[Misfit]

When the old X-Men movies were dead set on being more "grounded" I wanted to see the sentinels introduced as either 8-10' tall robots or as mech suits for human soldiers that would be around the same height. Now that we've left that era behind they can just be big robots whenever Disney and Marvel get around to finally doing X-Men, though hopefully not too big.

 

[joshsquash729]

I do loathe the "more grounded, realistic take" that seemed to sweep superhero movies for a while, and feels like is still present, even if it isn't as much as it used to be. I know it's not Nolan's fault- moreso Hollywood's for taking the wrong message from it, but I'm so glad that we're pivoting away from that.

That's why I like the Titan Heroes Sentinels; they were a cheap alternative to the Haslab/made-to-order, but they're not obnoxiously large compared to the Legends. But they also show what, in my opinion, would be a pretty good compromise. They're maybe 2.5 - 3 times the size of the Legends themselves, which I feel like would be a good size in the movies too, if they were around, say, 15-20 feet. That way they're still imposing, but still not dwarfing other large characters. Such height may work in animation, but for live action, I think anything larger needs to be reserved for the bigger threats, like Galactus, or else they risk losing their menace too.

Actually, now that I'm typing all this out, I looked up the size of the Days of Future Past movie Sentinels, and apparently they were around 16-20ish feet tall or so, and I felt they were kinda undersized in that. Could work as either a Mark 1 Sentinel, or like a Sentinel Scout, but I think the base Sentinel should probably be bigger. But to each their own.

 

[Schizm]

I never thought about how much money each Sentinel would cost to make until this thread. People here work in manufacturing - what's the ballpark figure on a 12 foot, 30 foot and 200 foot robot with firepower, coils, rocket boosters, a voice box, scanning eyes?

 

[joshsquash729]

I don't work in manufacturing, but I'd have to guess at least a couple hundy milly each, and that's if they don't wanna cut corners and make 'em cheap. And because it's for war and not something silly like feeding the hungry, we know the government would fund it!

 

[Damien]

I think the problem with a REALLY big sentinel is that it seems counter-intuitive to what sentinels are designed for. Hard to hunt down mutants with building-sized hunter-killer robots that level half the city to catch like 3 mutants. Likewise, when you're trying to track down all the mutants it seems to make sense to make more sentinels, which seems like it would be way too resource-ineffective if you're making them 80 feet tall.
I mean yeah... a 20' sentinel is also silly for those same reasons, but definitely LESS silly.

 

[joshsquash729]

I suppose, then, it would be smartest to have multiple sizes of Sentinels. The bigger ones for the mutants with stronger powers, but also smaller ones that perhaps move a little more agile and can, in theory, infiltrate smaller spaces and could overwhelm by sheer numbers. Not Prime Sentinels, per se, but something similar. Heck, I'm surprised there hasn't been the X-Men equivalent of the Inquisitors from Star Wars, where mutants volunteer to eradicate their own kind in exchange for whatever. Or has there been?

 

[Damien]

Heck, I'm surprised there hasn't been the X-Men equivalent of the Inquisitors from Star Wars, where mutants volunteer to eradicate their own kind in exchange for whatever. Or has there been?

Wasn't that basically Bishop.

Also, it seems like 'big sentinel for big powers' is the opposite of how it goes. If I recall, the most powerful sentinels were the smaller-ish ones, like Nimrod. Right?

 

[joshsquash729]

You're probably right. Been a while since I've read any of the arcs heavily involving Sentinels, and I don't know if I ever fully made it through anything Nimrod related. Most of what I've ingested is among the "Make Sentinels big, big go boom" variety.

 

[JakeEkiss]

What's interesting is depending on which version of the sentinels you're talking about they vary in toughness independent of their size. The ones from the Byrne cover from early post Giant Sized days are remarked as being easier to deal with than previous sentinels on an individual level. It seems different groups take the construction more or less seriously when they start to manufacture the things. Obviously it's really down to any given writer how badass they are or big they get as a matter of aesthetics and taste.

I figure in world some of it is shock and awe related. It's not just that sentinels are there to hunt mutants, they're there to be seen hunting mutants. The size intended as not so subtle psychological warfare. If we can't ferret them all out, we'll send them all to ground to get away from these giant death machines. Nimrod I think we can take as an outlier, since he (and by extension Bastion) are effectively time-displaced super-sentinels. The punch of a full scale modern sentinel (or more) in a smaller package. Sort of the mutant death machine equivalent of that saying about how you have more computing power by several orders of magnitude in your pocket now than they had on the Apollo lander. If you take them out of the equation Sentinels hover around a specific level of effectiveness where a single sentinel can be terrifying for a single mutant, especially an untrained one, but the more danger-room hardened X-Men you throw into the mix the more scrap metal comes out the other end.

 

[Chooch555]

The optimum Sentinel size is 2 stories for stealth.

 

[JakeEkiss]

The optimum Sentinel size is 2 stories for stealth.

I legit love the sound effect they had for their robotic movement. The sort of giant servo joint sounds. Like the old and new '97 cartoon blaster sounds a lot too.

I think it'd be hilarious to see someone do a photoshoot of the ninja Sentinel here.

 

[Damien]

do a photoshoot of the ninja Sentinel here.

What sentinel?

 

[JakeEkiss]

What sentinel?

That brown brick looking thing behind the purple and red fire escape. Obviously.

 

[TFitz]

I've got a dio with all the Sentinels made attacking all 90's era X-Men. Oh and the Reavers are helping the Sentinels, too.

 

[Stoopid_Sandwich]

Yeah, Sentinels definitely creeped up in size over the years, and I always thought it was odd. They started off as big robots...twice the size of a grown man, then became freakin' Shogun Warriors somewhere along the way. I guess the writers thought that them getting bigger and bigger was more intimidating? To me, 30 foot tall was plenty intimidating, and at a certain point they seem more suited to battle Godzilla than a team of mutants. Maybe this is why I've just stuck with the original ToyBiz BAF in my collection...not because it is better than any other versions they've done, but I guess he's suitably imposing enough for me without taking up a huge amount of real estate on my shelves?

Yeah it’s stupid to make the sentinels absurdly huge. Especially since the joke behind the sentinels is that they are an escalation trope. Bolivar Trask (or someone else in charge) deploys one or two sentinels and they are easily dispatched by the X-Men. Then he sends 20 more in retaliation and the X-Men have a harder time defeating them but not so much that they can’t accomplish their mission. And then inevitably it’s like “Well then what about 20,000 of these fuckers and a Mastermold? Would that help?”


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