The Energon Pub

So is this going to be the only fan first Friday or will there be a couple more reveals planned before SDCC online?

If nothing else, this year has been quite challenging for creative solutions to cons and reveals. I wonder how many physical events will even resume next year?

I'd be surprised if any take place this year

ZeroWolf wrote: Also, nice Diabolical Tutor avatar

I see you're a man of culture as well.

ZeroWolf wrote:So is this going to be the only fan first Friday or will there be a couple more reveals planned before SDCC online?

I wanna say they talked about there being more of these during the stream for this one? I could be misremembering out of hope for more though.

I would at least hope for more reveals before SDCC online, considering how late that is and that we know Exhaust and Greasepit are ready to go.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:If nothing else, this year has been quite challenging for creative solutions to cons and reveals. I wonder how many physical events will even resume next year?

Convention-wise, RoboCon is still happening (and I'm still attending) this year, but I'm not expecting any kind of interesting news from that con like there was in its first two years. I'm just going there to hang out, have fun, and shop in the dealer room.

Though, I do kinda regret missing out on signing up for this year's Custom class combiner limb SG Megatron, but I'll live.

As for next year, BotCon is still set to resume, but COVID-19 has prevented BC Productions from physically scouting out potential venues.

Apologies for earlier. I should have just put him on my Foes List to avoid seeing the rants...

ZeroWolf wrote:For roller to have been included with Prime, something else would have had to been reduced or left out completely. Not to mention the logistics of arranging things on the sprues so they're the right colours, and if you want them painted? Well there's the paint app budget to think of. This is the reality of corporation's and toy design and engineering. So many different considerations to take into account.

Yeeep. And like I said, CHUG has always had harsher limits than show-supported media. Especially with Deluxes.

You know what clinches this weapon pack as a developed-after-the-fact supplement rather than "maliciously withheld accessories" for me? One of the weapons is Optimus' rifle. Which is not an omitted accessory, now, is it?

Also, if Hasbro was trying to deliberately bilk us they'd have A. been selling weapon packs since 2006 and B. not been giving us so many per pack.

ZeroWolf wrote:So is this going to be the only fan first Friday or will there be a couple more reveals planned before SDCC online?

I would imagine at least one, though maybe not on a Friday.

Anyway, I've been busy and haven't been able to give my impressions on the reveals last Friday.

Tigertracks - Love it, though I wish they could have cleaned up the alt mode, but I guess that black patch under the window is unavoidable in the mold.

Rotorstorm - Barely passable. The way the chest is painted helps a lot. Really needed a new head, did they not gangmold a second head for this mold, and if they did then why wasn't that character used for Selects?

Centurion Drone - Surprised this didn't happen sooner being such an obvious repaint, but it's been worth the wait! And no matter what people think about the weapon pack we're getting way more than we usually get from Hasbro for $10. That radar dish may be for Trailbreaker, but I'll be sticking it with Stalker or MW Soundwave if/when they happen. Also the Energon cubes having handles is nice, but why do they have effect parts nubs on the end?

OK, time for a quick wish list for a second weapon pack: Second missile launcher and wrench for Wheeljack, guns for Sideswipe and all of his repaints, piledrivers and guns for Frenzy and Rumble, engines for the backs of Knok and Skar, radar backpacks for Ratbat and Wingthing, radar dish for Ironworks, tail fin/back cover for Astrotrain, Starscream's crown and cape, ALL of Scorponok's missing base parts and a clear face shield. A sticker sheet for the back of ER Smokescreen's car mode would be nice, too.

Emerje

Hmm. That's probably a bit much for just one pack, especially the Scorponok parts.

Also, Red Alert has a gun What Red Alert needs is a launcher.

People are hoping that the actual production version of Rotorstorm will have the proper head.

If Hasbro do a weapon/parts pack for Scorponok I'm paying for a third party pack option instead, they should have included it with him in the first place.

That recent studio series third party upgrade with bits for sentinel etc was pretty reasonably priced and included stuff for a lot of bots, not up on the names of all the 3p upgrades seeing as there is so many of them (and so many base hasbro/takara figures that are in need of them )

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:
You know what clinches this weapon pack as a developed-after-the-fact supplement rather than "maliciously withheld accessories" for me? One of the weapons is Optimus' rifle. Which is not an omitted accessory, now, is it?

Also, if Hasbro was trying to deliberately bilk us they'd have A. been selling weapon packs since 2006 and B. not been giving us so many per pack.

100% disagree here. First, ER Optimus already came with his regular gun. A gun that can "transform" to store on the back of the cab. The gun included in the pack is simply a bigger and "more accurate" version. I'm just a bit annoyed that Roller wasn't included from the start.

Still, I'm absolutely ecstatic about that weapon pack because:
1 - For once, Hasbro is releasing a weapon pack after YEARS of being asked to do so by the fans.
2 - All those weapons would cost double or triple the price if going with the Shapeway route or 3P Upgrades Kits. Even for this here Canadian.

Fans would still while and complain no matter what Hasbro/Takara will release, even if the toy was made by GOD himself. I can appreciate the effort and I think it's the perfect Select addition. I'm just a bit bummed it's a HP exclusive because the US-CAN exchange rate suck and HP, contrary to Amazon.JP, charge very expensive shipping.

blackeyedprime wrote:If Hasbro do a weapon/parts pack for Scorponok I'm paying for a third party pack option instead, they should have included it with him in the first place.

Look, even Titans have budget limits. Considering how much mass his body used, Scorponok's frankly lucky to have come with as much as he did.

Also, I wouldn't hold your breath on a 3P pack option for him materializing. The 3P companies only did so much for Fort Max before slacking off almost entirely when it came to Titans, to the point that HasTak beat them to making Cog. And I have yet to see a 3P pack of Trypticon's base mode bits.
As things stand, I'd frankly be surprised if 3P even made Scorponok's rifle - let alone the base mode parts.

blackeyedprime wrote:That recent studio series third party upgrade with bits for sentinel etc was pretty reasonably priced and included stuff for a lot of bots, not up on the names of all the 3p upgrades seeing as there is so many of them (and so many base hasbro/takara figures that are in need of them )

Not all of them are real upgrades though, especially outside of Studio Series. A lot of the ones for SIEGE, for instance, are filler plugs or just "random extra weapons we pulled out of our exhaust ports" *glares pointedly at the Springer kit*

On that note, I'd love to see another weapon pack announced that included a transforming rotor sword for Springer.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:You know what clinches this weapon pack as a developed-after-the-fact supplement rather than "maliciously withheld accessories" for me? One of the weapons is Optimus' rifle. Which is not an omitted accessory, now, is it?

Also, if Hasbro was trying to deliberately bilk us they'd have A. been selling weapon packs since 2006 and B. not been giving us so many per pack.

100% disagree here. First, ER Optimus already came with his regular gun. A gun that can "transform" to store on the back of the cab.

...How the smeg is that disagreeing with me? I was pointing to Optimus' gun specifically because both ER and SIEGE Optimus already come with Optimus' regular gun.

-Kanrabat- wrote:The gun included in the pack is simply a bigger and "more accurate" version.

That's kinda my point - It's a revised version of an accessory the figure already came with. For me, that clinches the pack as parts developed after the fact in response to consumer feedback.

-Kanrabat- wrote:I'm just a bit annoyed that Roller wasn't included from the start.

Budget limits. And at the time of developing the figure, they may not have considered Roller worth the bother.
Mind you, if they'd saved money by not overly complicating Optimus' transformation...

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Also, if Hasbro was trying to deliberately bilk us they'd have A. been selling weapon packs since 2006 and B. not been giving us so many per pack.

Also, how were you 100% disagreeing with me when you didn't seem to address this part at all?

So glad I dont want the reissue G1 Blaster, £45 at ID toys

Paid a lot less for a Blaster with tapes, perceptor and cartoon slides. hopefully who ever is unlucky enough to want it buys them so that the next G1 reissue is something special (probably just Twincast ).

What I meant was that they didn't had to include that Optimus gun but they did. I have no problem dealing with an "after the fact" if it mean I can avoid going to Shapeways. Speaking of which, the 80$CAN I paid would have been double or triple that if I had to go the Shapeways route for each component. And I would not have a Botcon like repaint as a "bonus".

As for that tiny Roller blowing up the Leader budget, it make me realise how high the price of the latest G1 Optimus reissue would have been if the trailer and all it's accessories would have been included.

That was quick, charles.

bacem wrote:That was quick, charles.

Shouldn't this go on the Selects thread, since Exhaust wasn't in the Fan First Friday?

Nemesis Primal wrote:

bacem wrote:That was quick, charles.

Shouldn't this go on the Selects thread, since Exhaust wasn't in the Fan First Friday?

Oh sorry. I did not really know which is which. I just assumed all selects that we know of recently would belong here.

Mixed bag this Random drone grey guy with the weapon pack.

I love weapon packs, completing bots. However the Select (exclusive step n1) and than that shop only (exclusive step n2) and sold out before it was put online. Nah, that sucks.

Living in Holland, our little import shops get like 2 maybe 3 times an exclusive (like Ratchet) and then go to ebay and pay 3 times for it + 60 usd shipping.

Incoming rant:
Why the f*ck are all US ebayers using the f*cking Ebay Global Shipping Program??? It's horribly overpriced, doesn't allow combined shipping and is sh*t slow. As good as every single United States person who sells TF's on Ebay uses that crap program. You go to the post office, is it so hard to say "This address on the box" instead of "Ship this to Ebay"?
You're at the post office for Satan's sake. I, and every single person not living in God's brave new world is sick and tired of ebay's global shipping program and fewer and fewer US ebayers are using NORMAL shipping. I get the track/tracke insurance part, but normal Priority also has that as well. Pitney f*cking Bowes also needs to make money of this, as well as Ebay, as well as the shipping company. It's getting near impossible for a NON US person to get certain Transformers nowadays. I know it's popular to think the US and Japan, and China are the only 3 countries on the planet but gawd damn.........

end of rant.

Ontopic:
I would love it if they release this again with a Full Tilt grey version, or any Titans & up guy who has no repaints and paint it grey. Call it a Cylon, add the weapon pack and call it a day.

@Noctorro yeagh Ebay global shipping program is a big put off. Keep checking Indemand toys (based in UK) they do flat rate shipping to some European countries at £12 for Netherlands, cheaper than paying postage and customs from the U.S, at least for the moment. Hopefully they will get a restock of Centurion if they are the only retailers of it here.

Big question will be how many people have genuinely wanted it off in demand toys and how many have bought it just to flip it on eBay at an inflated cost?

ZeroWolf wrote:Big question will be how many people have genuinely wanted it off in demand toys and how many have bought it just to flip it on eBay at an inflated cost?

I guess we will find out when people start to recieve it with a crazy amount of ebay listings (just like home bargains chaos on velocitron set ). I only picked up one due to being short of cash, would have liked two and probably would hvae sold some of the duplicate weapon bits off.

Kapow desont seem of taken note of pimp destro being an exclusive (no limits on order) so hopefully any would be scalpers on him get bloated with them.

I had planned to get one yesterday, but I'm playing the waiting for the Restock card. I kicked myself for missing the Chaos on Velocitron set, only ever saw it once and didn't have the cash.

for anyone in Europe that was interested in the regal cobra commander, he has finally got a pre-order at indemand, 1 per household, £27.

https://www.indemandtoys.co.uk/product/ ... -customer/

I like the light blue better, but not £6-7 better over the standard release which has the nicer looking colored accessories imho.

Thanks to a heads up from Seibertronian Nemesis Primal, we've been alerted to a post on the official Transformers Facebook page regarding the upcoming Fan First Friday event. This coming Friday, July 17th at 6:30am PST/9:30am EST/2:30pm BST/11:30pm AUS, Hasbro will have a lot of new stuff revealed on Pulse. Check out the announcement below and click on the image to be taken to Hasbro's page, which states that more than TEN new figures are to be revealed.




Since SDCC won't be happening in person this year, it's a pretty safe guess that at least one figure will be one intended for that convention. So what do you think these reveals are going to be? Speculate away below!

Hoping for some Studio Series reveals, although I’m keeping my expectations low after last time. The last one was at least fun to watch, though!