War for Cybertron - Character Sigils Last Update - 8/15/20 The sigils on War For Cybertron: Siege packaging are composed of three parts. However, the division of parts is different for the two factions, further muddying the waters. An article on Hasbro Pulse talked about the origins of the sigils and gave some examples, but not a complete key. This document will attempt to figure out what's left. http://www.dvandom.com/images/SiegeSigils.JPG is a copy of the image from the Pulse article. [Note 11/13: Some of these were apparently pre-final images, such as the medical one. 8/15/20: While I have no reason to expect the Race Track Patrol to be medics, they have a cross with a "blip" line in their sigil, which could be the final version of the Medic.] The official Siege page has entries for most of the Deluxe and up toys (https://transformers.hasbro.com/en-us/brands/siege), and gives the Division, Unit, and Rank, but it's also riddled with errors and inconsistencies, both internally (referring to the same symbol as two different things) and externally (having a different sigil than the actual toy packaging does for Omega Supreme and Ratchet, not to mention just copying Ironhide's entire image onto Springer). So it's not necessarily any more trustworthy than the Pulse article's image. In-package early pictures of Earthrise figures confirm the sigils will continue to be used in Earthrise. Bot Autobots and Decepticons use the same basic organizational plan, with each sigil indicating Division, Unit, and Rank. According to the Pulse article, this is the "System" (Decepticon System and Autobot System). Generations Selects toys have no Sigils, as their packaging is completely generic and they didn't compensate by putting it on their instructions. According to the Pulse article's image, which may not be final: The Divisions are Ground, Water, Air, and Space. Water seems unlikely in Siege itself (and hasn't shown up on any toys I've seen to date), so we'll probably be seeing a boat in Earthrise. (Seawatch seems likely, as the other halves of a few G1 Patrols are already confirmed as Earthrise sets.) Units are Infantry, Intelligence, Medic, Engineer, Special Ops, Artillery (a lot of Battle Masters are in this), Recon, and Transport. Ranks are Private, Sergeant, Captain, Major, and General. The official Siege webpage renames the Divisions as Ground Command, Water Command, etc. Decepticons have Espionage Unit instead of Intelligence Unit, and they seem to have consistently replaced the rank of Private with Raider. There's also a Specialist rank on the Autobot side that uses a rank symbol not seen in the Pulse article. AUTOBOTS Autobots all seem to share a common core, which vaguely resembles a Cyber Planet Key sort of "circle with bits on it". The top half is their Unit, the bottom left quarter is their Division, a bottom right edge detail is Rank. The bottom right quarter is the same on everything, even though it's shown in Division color, unlike the Decepticon common element which is left black. The bottom right quarter looks much like the Ground Division part, which originally gave me the false impression that all the others were Ground/Air or Ground/Space (especially since Springer was one of the early flying Autobots). Division: The common part looks much like the left side of the Ground division symbol, but with a notch for the Rank symbol to snug into. Ground: Almost symmetric bottom half, looks vaguely like a sword crosspiece with a circle in the middle. (Confirmed by Pulse article and Siege webpage.) Air: Adds a swept wing on the left side. (Confirmed by Pulse article and Siege webpage.) Water: Four claw-like bits on the left side, which I suppose are stylized waves. (Confirmed by Pulse article. So far, nothing has this, so it's not yet clear this is the final design.) Space: A selection of dots on rods that evokes an orrery (mechanical planetary arrangement) on the left side. Not confirmed, but since this was the only thing NOT shown in the Pulse samples, the process of elimination made it clear once this showed up on Omega Supreme. This is confirmed by the Siege webpage, which puts both Omega Supreme and Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime into Space Command. Weirdly, it appears that Earthrise Ironworks is in Space Command. Unit: Always the top cap on the sigil, almost half the total space of the sigil. Infantry: Looks like a sort of blade or damaged building. By far the most common unit. (Confirmed by Pulse article and Siege webpage.) Intelligence: Unknown. If Red Alert really is Medic as the Siege webpage indicates, there's no one so far who is Intelligence. It's even possible that this Unit was completely removed and only exists in the unfinalized information in the Pulse article. Medic: This one gets confusing. The image in the Pulse article has a sort of cross symbol, but apparently that was a non-final design. Red Alert's webpage entry indicates that the six-pointed star (which is also a real life ambulance symbol) is Medic. In any case, Ratchet doesn't have a Medic symbol at all. Hoist, in Earthrise, does have this. Engineering: I initially thought this might be a half and half symbol when I saw it on Jetfire, it's a sort of pointy gear in the upper left quarter and a few small towers on the upper right quarter. Walgreens Ratchet also has this symbol on his packaging, rather than Medic, and the Siege webpage agrees that he's an Engineer, although it erroneously gives him Mirage's entire sigil, shifting Ratchet's over onto Omega Supreme. From early Earthrise packaging, Wheeljack and Ironworks are both Engineers. Special Ops: Four wiggly blade-shapes pointing up and to the right like a nasty comb. I thought this was recon, but given what a diverse group has it (especially Impactor), and given that Powertrain has it and is explicitly Covert Ops, I guess this one is Special Ops. The Siege webpage mostly agrees with this. Artillery: A trio of missiles, big one in the middle. All the Battlemasters have this one, so it's a safe bet. Recon: A sort of maze pattern or hair combed to the side. Only appears on Roadhandler and Swindler so far, and their G1 function is recon. No Micromasters on the Siege webpage to confirm, but process of elimination suggests it (unless the Recon name got eliminated in the final versions!). It's also possible that this symbol is Intelligence or even Espionage, as it is visually similar to the Decepticon Espionage symbol. Transport: This looks similar to the Infantry cap at first glance, but is more of an undamaged cityscape look. The Siege webpage identifies it as Transport, which is a good fit for Omega Supreme, but a poor fit for Ricon and Irontread. (The Siege webpage has entirely incorret symbols for Omega Supreme, giving him Ground division, engineering unit, and a weird rank symbol not seen elsewhere. He's next to Ratchet, and Ratchet got Mirage's symbol copied over, Omega got Ratchet's.) Rank: Indicated by the details in the lower right edge, more of a ribbon theme than a rank stripe. Private: a single zig-zagging line that hugs the lower right quadrant and then has a sort of arrow pointing down. (Confirmed by Pulse article and Siege webpage.) Specialist: There's a mistaken symbol on Omega Supreme that is the Private rank with a single small vertical dash next to the upper right part of the Private ribbon. Ratchet is the only one so far I've seen with this rank symbol. This might be the Specialist rank that Ratchet's online card says he has. Sergeant: Private, plus a second curved line not attached to the first one. The down-arrow is a little longer. (Confirmed by Pulse article and most uses on the Siege webpage.) Captain: Sergeant, plus a sort of sideways T stuck on the right side. (Confirmed by Pulse article and Siege webpage.) Major: Captain, but add a second horizontal bar to the sideways T, extend the right side vertical stroke of the original Private shape downward, and add a downward stroke next to that to the Sergeant stripe. This is Ultra Magnus's and Prowl's rank, so I'm guessing it's Major, confirmed by the Siege webpage. General: Really ornate and not really based on the other symbols, but it appears on both Optimus Prime toys so far. Confirmed by the Siege webpage. DECEPTICONS The Decepticons gotta make trouble. There's a ring common to all sigils, and a rank symbol tacked onto the bottom of the ring, but sometimes the Division is on the outside of the ring and the Unit inside, sometimes vice-versa. Also, I don't have enough Decepticons yet to really narrow things down as much. Decepticons are definitely outnumbered, especially considering that they're supposed to have Autobots on the ropes. Division: Ground, Air, and Space are attached to the outside of the ring on top, leaving a gap in the middle for most Unit symbols to emerge. However, Water Division is inside the ring, forcing the Unit to the outside. This suggests that either there's an alternate version of each Unit to go on the outside, or that any Water Division characters are limited to just the Unit(s) designed to go on the outside, and those Units are inaccessible to non-Water. It's possible that the Water Command was an unused early design and the final one will be attached to the outer part of the ring after all. Ground: A city skyline. Obvious ground pounders like Decepticon Impactor or Brunt have this, but oddly the "spaceship" Soundwave and Refraktor are Ground Division too. (Confirmed by the Siege webpage.) Water: Angular waves inside the ring. No one has this yet. (Confirmed by Pulse article, but this may be a not-to-be-used early design.) Air: Wings attached to the upper left and upper right of the ring. (Confirmed by Pulse article and Siege webpage.) Space: Stylized rockets in orbit around the ring, looking somewhat like a cartoon Beryllium atom with four "electrons" on two rings. Shockwave is the only one so far with this one, going by process of elimination. The Siege webpage says Astrotrain is also Space Command. Unit: Most of them are inside the ring, but at least Medic is outside the upper half of the ring. Maybe. Infantry: A sword with its pommel embedded in the ring and the blade stabbing up through the gape in the top of the ring. (Confirmed by Pulse article and Siege webpage.) Intelligence: A hexagonal maze pattern. This is on Soundwave, Ravage, and Laserbeak, but not Soundblaster. "Espionage" on the Siege webpage. Medic: A sort of tiara on the ring, with a cross shape at the top. (Confirmed by Pulse article, but since this goes with Water it might also be an unused early design. Final design unknown.) [Final design might be a cross with a negative space line across the horizontal bar that blips up in the center like an EKG trace.] Engineer: A trio of gears meshing inside the ring. Shockwave has this one, and Engineer fits him better than the other uncertain Units. Special Ops: A sort of intertwined set of diagonal spines, similar to the Autobot Special Ops but more twisted. The lone use of this on the Siege webpage claims it to be Special Ops. Artillery: A big ol' missile in the middle of the ring, emerging from the gap in the ring. Caliburst, Blowpipe, Brunt, Cratermaker and Fireline have this symbol, so it's probably Artillery. Brunt has this on the Siege webpage, but it's called Weapons rather than Artillery. Recon: Unknown. There are no Recon Decepticons so far. Transport: A sort of cargo jet seen from above, used on Astrotrain on the Siege webpage. Rank: These are more visually inspired by Earth military chevrons or stripes. They're more complex and spikier than chevrons, but they stack downward from the bottom of the ring like down-pointing chevrons. Note, several of the rank symbols are obscured by other design elements on the Siege webpage, so it's not possible to be sure if they match the toy packaging. Private: A single chevron. Called Raider on the Siege webpage. Sergeant: Two chevrons. (Confirmed by Pulse article and Siege webpage.) Captain: Three chevrons, with the bottom one connected to the middle one and split in the middle to include an irregular six-pointed star (one big point down, five smaller ones in a half-starburst. (Confirmed by Pulse article and most uses on the Siege webpage.) Major: Roughly four chevrons, but the second and fourth from the top are connected into a sort of weird M shape similar to the Mini-Con symbol. The third chevron down has a spike coming out the bottom. Soundwave, Shockwave, and Starscream have this. Oddly, Soundblaster is a Sergeant, suggesting that Siege considers him a separate person, not a rebuild of Soundwave. Starscream is demoted to Captain on the Siege webpage, with Captain's stripes. General: Lots of lines, almost like a lion's mane pattern around a small diamond, with a downward spike and some pointy bits out to the sides too. Only found on Megatron. Dave Van Domelen, wishes they'd just put up an official key, or even a "make your own" web app gimmick. Even if the webpage didn't have numerous errors, it doesn't show enough things to be sure.