The Energon Pub

[NuclearConvoy]

As is, though, I will just wait for the release of a Jet limb.

[snark]Because the lines using Strafe instead of Alpha Bravo will be MUCH sleeker[/snark]

Is that conjecture, or is there actual proof that we will get the Technobots?
And, if TRU-database fueled rumour holds to be true, Slingshot will see a release by Hasbro.

[Crosscheck]

Blades's CW figure might be one of the most retarded figures in the past few years. A rescue helicopter with f***ing missile launchers. I really hope a third party produces a pair of pontoons or landing struts. Seriously, he is better armed than the frickin' S.W.A.T. vehicle!

[ZeroWolf]

A bit expressive there aren't we? Blades actually works as he's the most battle ready of all the protectorbots loving a good scrap.

[Yotsuyasan]

Blades's CW figure might be one of the most ****** figures in the past few years. A rescue helicopter with f***ing missile launchers. I really hope a third party produces a pair of pontoons or landing struts. Seriously, he is better armed than the frickin' S.W.A.T. vehicle!

Who said they have to be weapons ordinance? Perhaps they are some sort of fire retárdánt missiles.

Edit: Seriously, censoring software? Censoring "retárdánt"? (Hence the accented letter a, to circumvent the system.) I can understand that without the "ant" at the end, it could be an offensive word. But with that suffix, I think it can only be used as a synonym for "suppressant."

Edit #2: It seems the censoring software only censors when looking at the post within the forum, and not when looking at forum posts at the bottom of a news article. And thus, I was (morbidly) amused to discover that in Crosscheck's post, where I had assumed that he had referred to Blades as a "crappy" figure (substituting in a certain word beginning with "s"), he had actually used a form of the same word I had issues with, only using it in the negative sense. As much as I dislike the word being used in that way, for some reason the fact that we both had forms of the same word censored (one of us, deservedly so) does tickle me slightly...

[Crosscheck]

Blades's CW figure might be one of the most ****** figures in the past few years. A rescue helicopter with f***ing missile launchers. I really hope a third party produces a pair of pontoons or landing struts. Seriously, he is better armed than the frickin' S.W.A.T. vehicle!

Who said they have to be weapons ordinance? Perhaps they are some sort of fire retárdánt missiles.

Which would make sense if he was a fire helicopter, but he is a rescue helicopter. Alpha Bravo makes sense to have missiles, since most of the Aerialbots are modeled after fighter jets. It just sucks that Streetwise and First Aid are significant departures from their parent molds, but they couldn't even bother to give Blades a little bit more appropriate arms.

[Mr O]

Blades's CW figure might be one of the most ****** figures in the past few years. A rescue helicopter with f***ing missile launchers. I really hope a third party produces a pair of pontoons or landing struts. Seriously, he is better armed than the frickin' S.W.A.T. vehicle!

Who said they have to be weapons ordinance? Perhaps they are some sort of fire retárdánt missiles.

Which would make sense if he was a fire helicopter, but he is a rescue helicopter. Alpha Bravo makes sense to have missiles, since most of the Aerialbots are modeled after fighter jets. It just sucks that Streetwise and First Aid are significant departures from their parent molds, but they couldn't even bother to give Blades a little bit more appropriate arms.

I always think of Blades as a heavily-armed rescue helicopter, that's what he is. It reflects the contrariety of the character nicely.

[Yotsuyasan]

Which would make sense if he was a fire helicopter, but he is a rescue helicopter. Alpha Bravo makes sense to have missiles, since most of the Aerialbots are modeled after fighter jets. It just sucks that Streetwise and First Aid are significant departures from their parent molds, but they couldn't even bother to give Blades a little bit more appropriate arms.

In-universe: Perhaps if he is rescuing someone from someplace where fire is an issue, he needs something to help combat the fire before he makes a safe extraction. Or perhaps he just wants to be ready for a multitude of emergency situations. If there was a particularly large fire somewhere, once humans were out of immediate danger, why not be ready to give Hotspot a hand in putting it out?

In the real world: Remolding him to have arms without the missiles would have left his hands rather obvious in his alt mode, without also doing some more extensive remolding to allow them to fold away somewhere. Not sure I see how they could have made it work, myself.

Personally, I'm fine with the design. I'm skipping Alpha Bravo (going for the Takara Superion, instead) and I also feel unlikely to go for the potentially forthcoming Combaticons (since I am happy with my Fansproject augmented Asian Exclusive Combaticons). So Blades will likely be my one shot at this mold. And the missiles don't bug me. Yes, it is Hasbro doing some obvious repaints, but I'd rather have obvious (but effective) repaints and get more characters in the Combiner Wars line then not have the repaints and then have Hasbro not have the budget to get us new versions of more of the G1 Combiners.

If you don't like 'em, well, alas it sucks to be you. Me, I look forward to welcoming Blades to my collection!

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Blades's CW figure might be one of the most ****** figures in the past few years. A rescue helicopter with f***ing missile launchers. I really hope a third party produces a pair of pontoons or landing struts. Seriously, he is better armed than the frickin' S.W.A.T. vehicle!

Who said they have to be weapons ordinance? Perhaps they are some sort of fire retárdánt missiles.

Which would make sense if he was a fire helicopter, but he is a rescue helicopter. Alpha Bravo makes sense to have missiles, since most of the Aerialbots are modeled after fighter jets. It just sucks that Streetwise and First Aid are significant departures from their parent molds, but they couldn't even bother to give Blades a little bit more appropriate arms.

Don't forget Blades is a reluctant rescuer: he prefers smashing Decepticons instead according to his G1 bio. He's the most battle-happy of the Protectobots next to Hot Spot.

[Sabrblade]

Blades's CW figure might be one of the most ****** figures in the past few years. A rescue helicopter with f***ing missile launchers. I really hope a third party produces a pair of pontoons or landing struts. Seriously, he is better armed than the frickin' S.W.A.T. vehicle!

Blades is the Wolverine/Punisher/Frank Miller Batman to the nth degree of the Protectobots. An absolute psychopathic jerk of a killer. It would be more weird for him to not be heavily armed with missiles than it would be for him to be without the missiles.

[Noideaforaname]

The G1 cartoon tells us fire retárdánt foam is a deadly weapon against Transformers, so Blades using missiles filled with that foam means he can be an effective rescue vehicle AND a psychotic 'Con-killer. Everybody wins! Except the Decepticons. And fires.

[william-james88]

Personally, I'm fine with the design. I'm skipping Alpha Bravo (going for the Takara Superion, instead) .

Blades will likely be my one shot at this mold. And the missiles don't bug me. Yes, it is Hasbro doing some obvious repaints, but I'd rather have obvious (but effective) repaints and get more characters in the Combiner Wars line then not have the repaints and then have Hasbro not have the budget to get us new versions of more of the G1 Combiners.

If you don't like 'em, well, alas it sucks to be you. Me, I look forward to welcoming Blades to my collection!

I am doing the same thing as you, and feel the same way.

[NuclearConvoy]

I just hope I'm not going to get shafted by skipping Alpha Bravo. ..

[william-james88]

I just hope I'm not going to get shafted by skipping Alpha Bravo. ..

You mean getting all the jets for superion and not getting alpha bravo, hoping that hasbro releases the Slingshot takara made? And that if they never do and alpha bravo is sold out, then you'd be stuck paying higher secondary market prices for a toy you didnt want initially just so you could have a complete superion of some kind?

In that case, I suggest from this point on to just buy the United Warriors release of the combiners coming out this year. You can join us all here at this thread to keep up with updates and where to buy them at the best prices. It actually turns out to even be cheaper than buying the hasbro versions at retail in canada since the deluxes have all increased in price this year. And the preorders for japan are 30% off with a great exchange rate. It will also be the best way for you to get the combiner wars toys that are faithful to G1 (deco and character wise) the fastest possible without waiting for Hasbro to maybe release the extra member.

In any case, you'll get a superior deco, the toy you want more without waiting for it, at the very same price you'd pay for a Hasbro toy here. And you'll be supporting the extra efforts and direction Takara is taking with these, voting with your wallet for what you want to see in this brand.

Also, to give you a heads up, for anybody outside the US (actually probably for US citizens too), it is always better to just buy directly from Japan.

BBTS gives you a preorder of Takara Superion for 170$ Cdn.

While this japanese site gives you a preorder of Takara Superion for 120$ Cdn. You save 50$!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Va'al]

An Alpha Bravo for every household, is what I say.

[NuclearConvoy]

I just hope I'm not going to get shafted by skipping Alpha Bravo. ..

You mean getting all the jets for superion and not getting alpha bravo, hoping that hasbro releases the Slingshot takara made? And that if they never do and alpha bravo is sold out, then you'd be stuck paying higher secondary market prices for a toy you didnt want initially just so you could have a complete superion of some kind?

In that case, I suggest from this point on to just buy the United Warriors release of the combiners coming out this year. You can join us all here at this thread to keep up with updates and where to buy them at the best prices. It actually turns out to even be cheaper than buying the hasbro versions at retail in canada since the deluxes have all increased in price this year. And the preorders for japan are 30% off with a great exchange rate. It will also be the best way for you to get the combiner wars toys that are faithful to G1 (deco and character wise) the fastest possible without waiting for Hasbro to maybe release the extra member.

In any case, you'll get a superior deco, the toy you want more without waiting for it, at the very same price you'd pay for a Hasbro toy here. And you'll be supporting the extra efforts and direction Takara is taking with these, voting with your wallet for what you want to see in this brand.

Also, to give you a heads up, for anybody outside the US (actually probably for US citizens too), it is always better to just buy directly from Japan.

BBTS gives you a preorder of Takara Superion for 170$ Cdn.

While this japanese site gives you a preorder of Takara Superion for 120$ Cdn. You save 50$!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I've already bought Silverbolt, Skydive and Dragstrip. .

[william-james88]

Also, to give you a heads up, for anybody outside the US (actually probably for US citizens too), it is always better to just buy directly from Japan.

BBTS gives you a preorder of Takara Superion for 170$ Cdn.

While this japanese site gives you a preorder of Takara Superion for 120$ Cdn. You save 50$!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I've already bought Silverbolt, Skydive and Dragstrip. .

You can always sell them on kijiji.ca at half of what you bought and recoup your losses through the discount offered on the preorder. Or on e-bay as a lot. I've done that before. And at least now you know where to get them.

[ZeroWolf]

I agree with vaal, alpha bravo is too awesome not to own even if you're going to takara. We need more new stuff, not just rehashing of the old

[NuclearConvoy]

I agree with vaal, alpha bravo is too awesome not to own even if you're going to takara. We need more new stuff, not just rehashing of the old

I'm all for new characters. I just think Alpha Bravo looks terrible as the one non jet piece of Superion. It looks poorly thought out.

[ZeroWolf]

Again though it's about what's on the shelf, the first wave was two jets, a helicopter and a racing car which is more diverse then three jets and a car. in case you were wondering wave two is two sports cars, a jet and a 4x4 with wave three being a helicopter, a 4x4, a police sports car and an armoured truck.There's more to designing these toys then just wanting to please/annoy g1 fans

[Yotsuyasan]

I agree with vaal, alpha bravo is too awesome not to own even if you're going to takara. We need more new stuff, not just rehashing of the old

I'll admit that I thought briefly about picking up Alpha Bravo... But in the end, I decided not to.

• He is not a character I have any sentimental attachment to. (Which doesn't always stop me. I did pick up Windblade, for example.)
• I'd like to not have any superfluous Combiner limb-bots. Keep them to groups of four, please!
• Thanks to the mold being reused for Blades, it isn't like I won't at least be able to enjoy another version of the same mold.

So really, Alpha Bravo just doesn't have a place in my collection. I have many more reasons not to own him then I do to own him.

Sorry, Va'al.

[Va'al]

Sorry, Va'al.

[Yotsuyasan]

Again though it's about what's on the shelf, the first wave was two jets, a helicopter and a racing car which is more diverse then three jets and a car. in case you were wondering wave two is two sports cars, a jet and a 4x4 with wave three being a helicopter, a 4x4, a police sports car and an armoured truck.There's more to designing these toys then just wanting to please/annoy g1 fans

I fully understand Hasbro wanting diverse vehicle assortments within each wave. But just to play devil's advocate for a moment, if that was the only consideration in the creation of Alpha Bravo (although obviously, it was not), then Hasbro could have just made each wave two Aerialbots and two Stunticons, instead of the three / one split that each of the first two waves does have. One wave could have been two jets, a racing car, and a sports car and the second wave could have been two jets, a 4x4, and a sports car.

But it is all a moot point, really. Don't see why we are still arguing it, other then the fact that people love arguing things on the internet. Like Alpha Bravo? Awesome! Go Hasbro. Long for nostalgia with Slingshot? Buy Takara, it is surprisingly not that much more in this case. (Only about $5 or $6 more per figure!) Want everybody? But the Takara set and also pick up a Hasbro Alpha Bravo. Want Slingshot but already bought some of the other Hasbro figures? There's a decent chance Hasbro will release a Slingshot, too.

This is literally a case where, as long as you don't miss the chance of buying the figures while they are still available, everybody wins!

[NuclearConvoy]

Again though it's about what's on the shelf, the first wave was two jets, a helicopter and a racing car which is more diverse then three jets and a car. in case you were wondering wave two is two sports cars, a jet and a 4x4 with wave three being a helicopter, a 4x4, a police sports car and an armoured truck.There's more to designing these toys then just wanting to please/annoy g1 fans

This changes nothing about how well thought out the final combiner form will look.

[Yotsuyasan]

Sorry, Va'al.

Aww... Sad Loki is sad!

Tell you what, if it is that important to you that there should be an Alpha Bravo in every home, let me know. I'll PM you my address and you can buy me one!

[Va'al]

...I may start a petition.