The Energon Pub

by **icenemesis** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:26 pm

Out of curiosity what toy do you think has the best design and transformation. No bashing on movie, animated or unicron trilogy please.

News Credits: 5 · by **zodconvoy** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:49 pm

MP Optimus Prime.

News Credits: 1 · by **Skywarp64** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 12:57 pm

It's really impossible to give a right answer to this thread. The best toy out of 1,000's is purely a matter of opinion, to the point that nearly nobody agrees with one another on this topic. There's no single best, because the answer is too subjectible to the asker's opinion. The best toy ever is the one you personally like best.

by **icenemesis** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:04 pm

i am sort of looking for opinions.

by **shadowynne** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:36 pm

wow yeah big question. too many to chose from really.

i guess you need to work out what you mean by best.

for me i would say to be the best TF it would have to fit several criteria

bot mode free of alt mode kibble
alt mode free of bot kibble
a good representation of the character
an interesting or innotive transformation
good articulation in bot mode.

the masterpeice and universe classics seekers are pretty good and alternity optimus and megs are both good designs but all of the above have their shortcomings.

i myself think sidearm sideswipe from the HFTD line is pretty sweet as sidswipe is an awesome bot design he has integrated weapons, very little kibble and decent posability.

alot of the animated line have fantastic design and engineering. animated Blurr is worthy of note as he has an interesting transformation and has a great design.

i have always habored a love for good old G1 kickback, he has great articulation for G1 as well as being a cool figure all around.

there are many many others

as far what TF is the best though? man i wouldnt know where to start!

News Credits: 1 · by **Jesterhead** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 2:29 pm

Alternity Megs, and Alternity Convoy for me.

Nicely detailed car interiors, rubber tires, opening hood, opening doors, 1/32 scale, reflective mirrors, engine details, nicely hidden weapons, nice use of diecast parts, accurate real-world alt-modes, great transformation (love the shrinking chest gimmick), and epic time traveling fluff to back it all up!

The only downside imo, is the little bit of extra backpack kibble.

News Credits: 217 · by **Diem** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 2:38 pm

Jesterhead wrote:Alternity Megs, and Alternity Convoy for me.

Nicely detailed car interiors, rubber tires, opening hood, opening doors, 1/32 scale, reflective mirrors, engine details, nicely hidden weapons, nice use of diecast parts, accurate real-world alt-modes, great transformation (love the shrinking chest gimmick), and epic time traveling fluff to back it all up!

The only downside imo, is the little bit of extra backpack kibble.

I agree with this so hard.

News Credits: 3 · by **Kibble** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 2:45 pm

icenemesis wrote:Out of curiosity what toy do you think has the best design and transformation. No bashing on movie, animated or unicron trilogy please.

Can we still bash Beast Wars?

by **DJLazer** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:55 pm

To me its g1 soundwave.All colors are great and transformation is quick. Thats how i like it.

by **Valandar** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:14 pm

From a sheer engineering standpoint, RotF Leader Optimus Prime is one of the most amazing figures out there. They managed to almost exactly reproduce his on-screen counterpart, still make it transform, and have excellent articulation, at the expense of just a bit of back kibble that doesn't really get in the way. Considering that the toy designers had pretty much nothing to do with the overall concept and were trying to replicate something with tens of thousands of moving parts, that's pretty darn astounding.

I was also remarkably impressed with the Animated line. They successfully replicated the extremely stylized look of the show while still being able to transform AND still having solid vehicle modes.

And the entire Classics / Universe / Generations / Reveal the Shield classic line can't be beat. They managed to make characters with their classic (or updated in some cases) alt modes, and well proportioned, articulated robot modes inspired by basically animators "cheating" to make some of the most popular (among collectors at least) figures in many years.

Website · by **RK_Striker_JK_5** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:55 pm

MP Prime. Still at or damned near the top in almost all categories. And unlike ROTF Prime's transformation, it isn't frustrating and/or damned near impossible without getting stress marks on pieces.

News Credits: 1452 · by **Blurrz** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:59 pm

Armada Unicron.

by **OptiMagnus** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 11:02 pm

From an engineering and detail perspective, I'd say ROTF leader class Optimus Prime. Any incarnation of the mold really...even the battle damaged one (the only one I have so far). I mean, it's just amazing how close his robot mode is to the actual CGI design. And then the vehicle mode is just as good as the robot mode (once you manage to get him into vehicle mode from the 100 steps it takes). The truck isn't extremely obvious at first glance that it's a Transformer, I mean, theare aren't gaping holes or robot parts sticking out of the back.
Unless you hate the movies with a passion, you really can't go wrong with him.

News Credits: 1 · by **SKYWARPED_128** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:40 am

ROTF Leader OP all the way. Like others have already mentioned, he's a magnificently complex fig, and one of the very few Bayverse TF's to successfully pull off an accurate bot to alt mode.

The fact that even Dreamworks had to cheat and use what they called "smoke and mirrors" for the CGI models, is evidence of just how tough it was to successfully make a physical representation of the character that looks accurate in both modes.

A side effect of all this mechanical accuracy becomes his one and only flaw: he takes a whole lot of effort to transform. No wonder Hasbro had to dumb down his transformation in DOTM; no kid could possibly transform OP on his own without help from another adult. In fact, Dad might end up having to do the whole transformation for his kid, especially where the two chest tabs are concerned.

Like Slip?Stream on Facebook · by **Slip?Stream** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 3:20 am

best TOY in terms of design?

Car Robots JRX / RID RailRacer

News Credits: 7 · by **alldarker** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 4:00 am

Valandar wrote:And the entire Classics / Universe / Generations / Reveal the Shield classic line can't be beat. They managed to make characters with their classic (or updated in some cases) alt modes, and well proportioned, articulated robot modes inspired by basically animators "cheating" to make some of the most popular (among collectors at least) figures in many years.

I have to agree that what Hasbro / Takara are producing with the whole of the Classics to RtS are the best Transformers toys we've ever seen. Low(ish) priced, highly detailed TF's on a deluxe scale with great looks in both modes, but with especial and obvious love for the G1 comics and cartoon. Like Valander, I am simply amazed by the way the designers have used the animation models (which really were 'cheated' and unrealistic re-imaginations of the original G1 bricks toys) as the base for creating REAL, pose-able toys. Who'd ever have imagined, back in the '80's, that one day people would be able to recreate the amazing G1 box art pictures or the heroic poses from the cartoon, with actual physical toys!

This of course also applies to the live action movie Transformers toys, with RotF Optimus as the 'prime' example of taking screen imaginations to a relatively small scale toy and recreating it almost perfectly. Same goes for a lot of the other movie line toys, of course: I don't own RotF OP myself but I do enjoy the intricacies of Ice Cream Mudflap and Skids, Bumblebee and Sideswipe.

Most of all, I guess every TF toy line has its own stars. Some have been targeted more at display value, some have been targeted more at play. For me personally however, my best TF toy will probably always be G1 Scorponok.

by **alternator77** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:20 pm

by size class
supreme-unicron
leader-rotf prime
voyager-op/magnus/nemesis classics
deluxe-tie hftd terradive/animated blurr
scout-breacher
honorable mention
mp-5
alternity seekers(who am i kidding i love'em all)

out of all of them top spot would have to be mp-5
very little kibble and imo a flawless robot,alt mode and a very complex transformation

by **swampflight** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:35 pm

My vote is going to R.I.D.Scourge(Black Convoy).It's a Leader-Class figure with a basic transformation on the cab/robot,a tanker attachment that open up to become a battle platform or base,along with the standard weapons it comes with an energy sword,and when in vehicle mode,there is almost no visible kibble.

News Credits: 1 · by **adamassc** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 2:10 pm

Slip►Stream wrote:best TOY in terms of design?

Car Robots JRX / RID RailRacer

THIS.

Seriously, the bullet train alt modes show no sign of bot, the robots show that they turn into trains without wearing said trains as kibble, and there isn't much evidence that these three combine into an awesome posable super robot.

RiD Ultra Magnus/Car Robots God Magnus is an impressive toy as well.

by **swampflight** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 3:11 pm

adamassc wrote:
Slip►Stream wrote:best TOY in terms of design?

Car Robots JRX / RID RailRacer

THIS.

Seriously, the bullet train alt modes show no sign of bot, the robots show that they turn into trains without wearing said trains as kibble, and there isn't much evidence that these three combine into an awesome posable super robot.

RiD Ultra Magnus/Car Robots God Magnus is an impressive toy as well.

I like the RID Ultra Magnus myself but I think it could have been engineered better in the legs because they just end up looking like a folded-up trailer and are too large for the whole robot.

Website · by **RK_Striker_JK_5** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 5:56 pm

The biggest problem with RID Magnus is his legs are a bit too long, but he can combine well with Prime and his trailer can be configured in multiple ways.

And ROTF Prime's ultra-hard and frustrating transformation puts it below MP Prime, who looks like he stepped off the TV screen and isn't frustrating to transform.

News Credits: 35 · by **Goldbug794** » Tue Feb 22, 2011 7:49 pm

Don't know if I can choose 1. But I'm a big fan of the classics line at the moment. All the classics figures I have have great articulation, they look fantastic in both modes, and a couple ingenius ideas on how to get things in (bumblebee's jetpack turns into a jet ski on a trailer, GENIUS, but I do wish his feet weren't so klunky).

by **Trigaba** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 4:35 pm

Animated Prowl

Motorcycle mode is almost completely free of kibble from every angle, only the fingertips are visible from the rear, that's it. Robot mode is also extremely free of kibble, where the usual motorcycle bots have nose blocks that become hunchback growths or wheels that become extra appendages, all of those elements have been integrated cleanly and beautifully into robot mode. The only thing that can even be construed as kibble are the back fins, and even those flow nicely.

This flows right into the posability, this being one of the most posable bots ever made. Not only is he all ball joints, but the side effect of the wheel integration is that his knees are double-jointed, making him one of the few transformers that can crouch.

With perks like show accuracy and little extras like his ninja star hubcaps, I would qualify Animated Prowl as not just the best motorcycle tranformer ever designed, but one of the best transformer designs ever.

(Yes, MP Prime is a much more engenious design and transformation, but this is one of the few bots whose posability rivals MP Prime.)

News Credits: 7 · by **TulioDude** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 5:34 pm

Leader Class Optimus :michaelbay:

alldarker wrote:This of course also applies to the live action movie Transformers toys, with RotF Optimus as the 'prime' example of taking screen imaginations to a relatively small scale toy and recreating it almost perfectly. Same goes for a lot of the other movie line toys, of course: I don't own RotF OP myself but I do enjoy the intricacies of Ice Cream Mudflap and Skids, Bumblebee and Sideswipe.

This.These guy get overlooked too much.
ROTF Optimus is only scary the first time,once you get the hang of it,is alot easier.

News Credits: 100 · by **-Kanrabat-** » Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:00 pm

icenemesis wrote:Out of curiosity what toy do you think has the best design and transformation. No bashing on movie, animated or unicron trilogy please.

I just HATE when people ask what is the "best" something. There's too many variables to consider, most of them being personal tastes.