The Energon Pub

SpikeyTigertron wrote:Perhaps a silly question.... But Volcanicus' limbs are scramble right? I see the "standard" combiner ports, but curious how the various limb mobdes shake out. (does this mean Predaking is scramble too? Or will he have unique connectors like Devastator?)

The way they talked about it on the panel made it sound like they're supposed to be only one limb configuration - which might be better for the stability of three modes, after all, rather than four like CW limbs.

Sabrblade wrote:I am so glad to see that that Orion Pax was not given the kissy lips that he had in the cartoon.

So it's fine for Overlord to have big lips but not Orion Pax? For shame.

Kurona wrote:So Swoop has a blue chest on the show floor... but a red chest in the renders. Running change?



I personally love the look of both. I've always been a blue chest swoop person, but the red chest as shown in this render works beautifully and gels so well with his aesthetic.

A e s t h e t i c

OK, so thoughts wrapup time.

The Dinobots as a set look great. I hope they're using tampographs and not stickers, but that aside I like how they look. Slag especially looks great, though I could be biased as Triceratops is my favourite dinosaur. Slash has grown on me a lot, though the head is a tad generic.

Volcanicus on the other hand...hooo boy. The torso seems to rely on the spare hands to bulk out the midsection, which is not a good look at all. Speaking of the hands, they have two thumbs each, and for some reason the thumb is what has the 5mm port on it. Come on HasTak, the HFGs worked fine as hands, it was just the foot modes that sucked. It's like they reinvented the wheel and made it square.

As for Prime, he doesn't look good at all. The evolution gimmick seems kinda off to me- I'd have preferred the Deluxe figure just be Optimus Prime and the armoured mode be a "super mode" ala Armada or RID or whatever. Anyway, the Orion Pax robot mode is horribly hollow, the vehicle mode is a mess (the red top of Prime's robot chest on the front of the trailer is especially egregious) and that Optimus Prime is just argh. It looks like a mix between a badly done custom and a shoddy knockoff, and overall looks like a cheapo version of MP-10. The Matrix is a nice feature, I guess.

So yeah, overall I'm not greatly impressed.

the_neptrix wrote:Hmmm. I see a clear shell around the top of Slufge's head. I hope that means there's going to be a release with all of the glorious chrome. The originals also had gold chrome under some parts covered by a clear layer, right?

Hasbro's will just have the metallic paint, but I'm sure Takara Tomy's will have the gold and silver chrome in their eventual release.

Va'al wrote:

SpikeyTigertron wrote:Perhaps a silly question.... But Volcanicus' limbs are scramble right? I see the "standard" combiner ports, but curious how the various limb mobdes shake out. (does this mean Predaking is scramble too? Or will he have unique connectors like Devastator?)

The way they talked about it on the panel made it sound like they're supposed to be only one limb configuration - which might be better for the stability of three modes, after all, rather than four like CW limbs.

Observe! This:


Versus this:


Yep, they're scrambling!

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Va'al wrote:

SpikeyTigertron wrote:Perhaps a silly question.... But Volcanicus' limbs are scramble right? I see the "standard" combiner ports, but curious how the various limb mobdes shake out. (does this mean Predaking is scramble too? Or will he have unique connectors like Devastator?)

The way they talked about it on the panel made it sound like they're supposed to be only one limb configuration - which might be better for the stability of three modes, after all, rather than four like CW limbs.

Observe! This:


Versus this:


Yep, they're scrambling!

Emerje

Sir, you have saved my soul. Swoop shall form an arm for Sky Reign yet :')

Kurona wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Va'al wrote:

SpikeyTigertron wrote:Perhaps a silly question.... But Volcanicus' limbs are scramble right? I see the "standard" combiner ports, but curious how the various limb mobdes shake out. (does this mean Predaking is scramble too? Or will he have unique connectors like Devastator?)

The way they talked about it on the panel made it sound like they're supposed to be only one limb configuration - which might be better for the stability of three modes, after all, rather than four like CW limbs.

Observe! This:


Versus this:


Yep, they're scrambling!

Emerje

Sir, you have saved my soul. Swoop shall form an arm for Sky Reign yet :')

Huh!

I mean, art and prototype may just not be coherent, but that is definitely worth keeping as a possibility!

Who's going to do shiny and electroplated first... takara or SDCC/Hascon?

SpikeyTigertron wrote:Who's going to do shiny and electroplated first... takara or SDCC/Hascon?

putting my bet on takara.

Yeeeaaaaaah... I wouldn't put it out of the question for further images to change my mind yet, but so far I'm honestly not too impressed with Volcanion Volcarona Volcanicus either. Something about the proportions give the impression of Volcanodude being somewhat lanky and droopy; pretty much the antithesis to the vibe Dinobots usually give off, let alone a combiner made up of all of them. I mean, those shoulders - they look like they're gonna be the hell of Sky Reign and Menasor times 10; you can already see the joints sagging in the grayscale.

I'd go on about the hips too, but it looks like Grimlock's leg joints could be utilized to move the combined hips out and up to give them a more fitting breadth, sorta like the reverse of what most did with their copies of Motormaster/Menasor. I'm holding out hope yet that better-looking alternate configurations will come to light as we approach release, but even if that's not the case I still dig the aesthetic behind this guy (I'm one of those heretics who actually kinda appreciated some of the design concepts behind The Beast, even if they were executed awfully).

And of course, let's not forget that since it's the Dinobots, combining isn't even the main draw anyway! We're all gonna buy them anyway regardless what the combined form looks like. Worst-case scenario, if this does turn out to be the best Volcanada can look, it'll just be all the more reason for me to enjoy the Dinobots as their own separate (awesome!) figures.

Slash will stay a male bot for me. Irksome that they named him otherwise on this potp bio. Not really happy about the dinos combining it takes away from their original intention.

Yep they are clearly interchangeable as you can tell by Swoop and Snarl. (or whatever they call them these days).

Where are the Spare hands being stored on the body I can't spot them for sure is that them on the side of Grimmy's dino head in the combined mode.

Qwan wrote:

Yeeeaaaaaah... I wouldn't put it out of the question for further images to change my mind yet, but so far I'm honestly not too impressed with Volcanion Volcarona Volcanicus either. Something about the proportions give the impression of Volcanodude being somewhat lanky and droopy; pretty much the antithesis to the vibe Dinobots usually give off, let alone a combiner made up of all of them. I mean, those shoulders - they look like they're gonna be the hell of Sky Reign and Menasor times 10; you can already see the joints sagging in the grayscale.

I'd go on about the hips too, but it looks like Grimlock's leg joints could be utilized to move the combined hips out and up to give them a more fitting breadth, sorta like the reverse of what most did with their copies of Motormaster/Menasor. I'm holding out hope yet that better-looking alternate configurations will come to light as we approach release, but even if that's not the case I still dig the aesthetic behind this guy (I'm one of those heretics who actually kinda appreciated some of the design concepts behind The Beast, even if they were executed awfully).

And of course, let's not forget that since it's the Dinobots, combining isn't even the main draw anyway! We're all gonna buy them anyway regardless what the combined form looks like. Worst-case scenario, if this does turn out to be the best Volcanada can look, it'll just be all the more reason for me to enjoy the Dinobots as their own separate (awesome!) figures.

I kinda agree, I didn't want to bring it up to ruin the hype and because like you, I love the aesthetics behind it... but that grayscale of Volcanicon looks awful. Just... everything from the thin ankles to the shoulders to the tiny feet are so off.

RAR wrote:Yep they are clearly interchangeable as you can tell by Swoop and Snarl. (or whatever they call them these days).

Where are the Spare hands being stored on the body I can't spot them for sure is that them on the side of Grimmy's dino head in the combined mode.

Yep, that's the hands there! I'm kind of unsure whether I like the idea of using the extra hands to fill out the combined mode honestly: on the one hand it's a really clever use of spare parts, and it'll bulk up the torsos more than would perhaps be possible given just a Voyager robot; but on the other, it's using extra parts to fill out the torso (not just as an extra, it actually seems necessary to make the torso look any good, on this guy at least) where some extra creativity on the torso-designers' part would've been more appreciated instead.

Also, I guess those hands are actually the best indication of limb interchangeability now that I think of it. All other things aside (how could you advertise swappable limbs to kids if only half of them turn into the right kind of limb? What's Timmy gonna do if he ends up buying a torso and four legs?), the fact that each Deluxe comes with a hand tells me that at the very least every one of them can be an arm. It only stands to reason that each can also be a leg, in that case. Hooray, Scramble combining (all but) confirmed - now we can all rest just a little bit easier!

I'm liking Rodimus Prime more than the Optimus Prime.

Rysquad wrote:I'm liking Rodimus Prime more than the Optimus Prime.

Same, but will likely buy both

Rysquad wrote:I'm liking Rodimus Prime more than the Optimus Prime.

They're the two I want most beside Predaking they're phenomenal imo. Wondering what the further plans are for that optimus mould if they'll do ultra Magnus. Would be great to get star saber in this evolution line. Curious how they're going to do primal I'm not sure how you turn a gorilla to a bigger gorilla and then have two different robot modes. Can't really see how they'll do it.

The dinobots look amazing!

Look! just give us a dam Unicron already! I don't mean that Rodimus Unicronus

SpikeyTigertron wrote:Perhaps a silly question.... But Volcanicus' limbs are scramble right? I see the "standard" combiner ports, but curious how the various limb mobdes shake out. (does this mean Predaking is scramble too? Or will he have unique connectors like Devastator?)

Volcanicus is scramble for sure, from the simple fact that each deluxe comes with combiner fists and thus must at least become arms

Predaking however will not be scramble for the simple reason that he is of a different scale and thus will most probably need unique connectors like Devastator.

nycPrime wrote:

Rysquad wrote:I'm liking Rodimus Prime more than the Optimus Prime.

Same, but will likely buy both

I dont know what I will do. I want to experience that Optimus Prime but with the end result just being a G1 style leader Prime, its of no use to me. How many Leader Primes do I need. I have the MP, the PMOP and Magnus Prime. Unless I sell PMOP and get this one to go against Leader Megatron All I know is that I just have too many and did not need another one. Also, to all those who claim he looks like MP 10, from the fron in robot mode sure, I get that. But that is one uuugly cab mode and his robot back (on every surface) will be full of kibble. Plus he has a fake chest in robot mode, which really irks me.

william-james88 wrote:

SpikeyTigertron wrote:Perhaps a silly question.... But Volcanicus' limbs are scramble right? I see the "standard" combiner ports, but curious how the various limb mobdes shake out. (does this mean Predaking is scramble too? Or will he have unique connectors like Devastator?)

Volcanicus is scramble for sure, from the simple fact that each deluxe comes with combiner fists and thus must at least become arms

Predaking however will not be scramble for the simple reason that he is of a different scale and thus will most probably need unique connectors like Devastator.

He might be scramble to some extent. For instance, Divebomb might be able to become the right or left arm.

william-james88 wrote:

nycPrime wrote:

Rysquad wrote:I'm liking Rodimus Prime more than the Optimus Prime.

Same, but will likely buy both

I dont know what I will do. I want to experience that Optimus Prime but with the end result just being a G1 style leader Prime, its of no use to me. How many Leader Primes do I need. I have the MP, the PMOP and Magnus Prime. Unless I sell PMOP and get this one to go against Leader Megatron All I know is that I just have too many and did not need another one. Also, to all those who claim he looks like MP 10, from the fron in robot mode sure, I get that. But that is one uuugly cab mode and his robot back (on every surface) will be full of kibble. Plus he has a fake chest in robot mode, which really irks me.

Ha shortly after joining this forum, I remember seeing some folks talking about their display cases just for Optimus. Back then I thought that was the silliest thing; how many OPs do you need? Not that I have nearly enough for a display case full of OPs, but I have more than I ever imagined, and I'm still probably going to get this. Almost hoping Hasbro messes this figure up so I don't have to get it lol.

Va'al wrote:

SpikeyTigertron wrote:Perhaps a silly question.... But Volcanicus' limbs are scramble right? I see the "standard" combiner ports, but curious how the various limb mobdes shake out. (does this mean Predaking is scramble too? Or will he have unique connectors like Devastator?)

The way they talked about it on the panel made it sound like they're supposed to be only one limb configuration - which might be better for the stability of three modes, after all, rather than four like CW limbs.

The artwork clearly shows swoop as an arm yet in the grey prototype picture has him as a leg. So I think its scramble city. Engineering wise, scramble city would also be cheaper than each individual figure having its own unique connector port.

I continue to get the impression that the "Armour pieces" can be left on Grimlock either instead of or as well as the spare hands - and perhaps even all 4 hands and the armour can fit on the torso or limbs as armour decoration somewhere or other.

Then I would speculate that the weapon modes of the Prime-Masters "Pretenders" can be utilised as claws and feet instead - looking at Cloudburst that sure is a gun - but I can totally see it also being a foot too.

RAR wrote:I continue to get the impression that the "Armour pieces" can be left on Grimlock either instead of or as well as the spare hands - and perhaps even all 4 hands and the armour can fit on the torso or limbs as armour decoration somewhere or other.

Then I would speculate that the weapon modes of the Prime-Masters "Pretenders" can be utilised as claws and feet instead - looking at Cloudburst that sure is a gun - but I can totally see it also being a foot too.

The hands and feet are the armor pieces, there are not extra accessories. Also the prime master decoy armor are only slightly bigger than the actual prime masters making them way to small to be commoner extremities.