The long-awaited Wave 5 initial reveal happened yesterday, giving us our first look at the box art.
Within the product description was this tasty morsel of information:
The Wreckers: The fan-favorite Autobot special-forces team make their debut in Titan Masters Attack. Led by Sergeant Kup, the Wreckers get the toughest jobs done, no matter what the cost.
When IGN dropped their reveal article, it included one more important clarification, along with our first look at Kup and his associated Titan Master:
There are 46 new character cards in the Titan Masters Attack series, 43 of which have never appeared in Transformers TCG.
https://sites.google.com/view/computronslab/database/preview-galleries?authuser=0
If the description above is accurate, Kup is clearly one of the three characters that have already been in the game. Beyond that, we’re almost guaranteed to also see Powermaster Optimus Prime, based upon the box/pack art. We’ve also seen battle card art clearly featuring the Titans Return Megatron model.. Barring any weirdness or technicalities, those are probably our three returning characters.
As a result, it seems unlikely that we’ll be getting Wave 5 versions of Springer and Impactor, which is a little sad, as we won’t be able to use any battle cards with them that focus around the new Wrecker keyword. Everyone’s fingers are crossed hoping for a Strategem card that can grant the Wrecker keyword to a character, though.
If Wreckers are going to be a major part of Wave 5, let’s indulge in some rampant speculation.
We can possibly look at the introduction of Mercenaries in Wave 4 as a basis for how many Wreckers we might see, in which case, we could see somewhere around six of them. With Kup already revealed, we can assume we have about 5 more waiting to be revealed. Since Wave 5 Kup seems to be using art assets from the Titans Return packaging, let’s begin by looking at the possible Wreckers from that toyline.
Let’s begin by making clear that there have been multiple different incarnations of the Wreckers over the years, including at least one where Kup was the leader (Regeneration One). In addition, the introduction of Kup to the first IDW comic universe (in All Hail Megatron) involved him leading a Wreckers-like team.
From that photo alone, we can pull in a number of possible Wreckers characters that have existing Titans Return art assets.
Obviously, we have our boy Kup and his associated Titan Master. Chances of showing up: 100%.
Perceptor was a major player in Last Stand of the Wreckers, before hooking up with Rodimus’s crew in More Than Meets the Eye. Chances of showing up as a Wrecker: 33.320131918%.
In the background of the comic panel above, we also see Roadbuster hulking behind everyone else. Even though he plays a prominent role in the comics, he didn’t show up in Titans Return AND his packaging art doesn’t quite seem like it would mesh well with existing character card art. Chances of showing up: 25%.
Topspin and Twin Twist are almost guaranteed to be there as cards, hopefully with a Runabout/Runamuck type of gimmick where flipping one can also flip the other. Alternatively, if Kup’s alt mode ability is indicative of the design behind the Wrecker keyword (possibly focused around taking damage in order to trigger an effect), then you can look at Last Stand of the Wreckers as inspiration, so that damaging Topspin somehow affects Twin Twist, and vice versa. Chances of showing up: 90%.
Broadside is generally one of the less prominent Wreckers, but being in the Titans Return toyline ups his chances. On top of that, he’s a triple changers with one of his mode being a boat, which means that we might see some battle card support for that tribe. Perhaps most importantly, it seems that they need to have at least 2 triple changers in order to print sheets of them. It seems likely that Wave 5 Megatron will also be a triple changer, so with that likelihood, Broadside is looking pretty likely. Chances of showing up: 75%.
I’m putting Whirl in the same boat as Roadbuster. Without a Titans Return toy, it seems a little less likely that we see him in Wave 5. Chances of showing up: 25%.
The TFTCG team has already shown a willingness to bring in characters from other continuities than G1 and the various different iterations of G1 (Wave 1 gave us Demolisher from Armada, Wave 4 brought us Lockdown, who first appeared in Transformers Animated and Mudflap and Galaxy Optimus from Transformers: Cybertron). In Transformers: Prime, Bulkhead’s main claim to fame was that he was a Wrecker. Chances of showing up: 25%.
tangent
I’m a HUGE Monsterbots fan, and they all had updated toys released in Titans Return. They’re also shown in the IDW comics as being the guys that even the Dinobots and Wreckers feel uncomfortable around, because they’re willing to get their hands even dirtier.
That ends my speculation for now. Apologies if this is a bit more scattered than usual; work has been keeping me extremely busy, but I felt compelled to quickly get down some thoughts on who we might see. If again, it shakes out with a similar number of characters as Mercenaries, here are my top 5 Wreckers who will be joining forces with Kup.
- Topspin
- Twin Twist
- Broadside
- Perceptor
- Some type of wildcard, unexpected character (I’m going with Bulkhead).
As always, keep your eyes on the Wreck ‘n Rule YouTube channel for our usual shenanigans. Also consider supporting us on Patreon, since the proceeds go toward helping us upgrade our recording set-up AND toward throwing some sweet custom swag your way! Plus, we now have merch available too!
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