The Energon Pub

10 of the Best Transformers released during 2017. It was a very hard list to select because it was such a strong year. Entries come from Robots in Disguise, The Last Knight and Titans Return. While it covers up to the end of Power of the Primes wave 1, nothing from that group stood out enough to quite make it this time, but a couple were very close. Also, there is no third party, only official product and no masterpiece because that automatically gives a bit of an unfair advantage. Entries are based on personal taste and experience with the molds, and are most related to those toys that I just plain had the most fun with! Naturally, some are definitely open to debate, largely because there was a lot of QC variation but these ones totally stood out for me personally.

The 10 worst Transformers list was extremely difficult to compile since it was such a strong year for all lines. In truth, none of the toys herein are particularly bad but they do fall a little short from being completely stellar. They are drawn from official product only and include the Last Knight line, Titans Return and Power of the Primes. Also ,no Masterpiece were included as that is a little bit of an unfair advantage.

Va'al wrote:I know I've read this all over and multiple times, and copy-pasted it a lot too..

..but why is Cogman that great a figure?

Thank you Alex for giving me a chance to praise this toy again. The easiest way to say it would be that its a movie toy with generations playability, and both these different styles (of look and play) are done beter here than in their respective lines.

So, compare Cogman to any other movie car bot like Barricade for instance, or any Bumblebee toy. Not only must he look good in car mode and bot mode but his car mode must seat a titan master. Not just one but 2, meaning double the playability (in alt mode) of any Titans Return toy, which usually only accomodate 1 in the main vehicle. That creates a big problem for a movie toy because as you can tell from the films, the robot modes have very little alt mode integration. So designers usually stuff all the arms and legs under the car roof which acts as a shell. But in Cogman's case, they cant since you need to clear room for 2 titan masters to sit (that also gives you a more realistic car interior that we only had with Human Alliance figures so far). And yet you get to the robot mode and sure enough, he has totally new detail only found in robot mode, same as any Barricade or BB toy, proving they found a way around that obstacle. Also, unlike Barricade, BB, Drift or any other movie car bot, the backpack is minimal with the car kibble tightly compressed in the back (similar to the likes of MPM 3 Bumblebee).

So pretty much you get a beautiful real life car mode (with a whole interior section) and a cool looking bot mode which shows minimal pieces of the car and yet the bot mode is still very sleek, even sleeker than any other car bot in the line. The two modes could not be more distinctive from one to the other and yet there is less visible kibble in either mode than in any other toy. Yet the transformation is not complicated and quite intuitive. This true example of morphing from a totally different looking mode ot the next shows how talented the designers have gotten.

Let me know if that clears things up.

Deadput wrote:I don't even know where to find Cogman either.

Your lucky to be in Canada, he was offered to us at 2 places. EBGames Canada had him and he has been appearing at Walmart as well. Whats too bad is that for the US this toy has still not seen a retail release.

I, ironically, just finished shooting my review of Cogman, who I scored from Wal-Mart because none of the 5 EB games around here ever got him and I must admit, he is pretty stellar. So much detail picked out in a gunmetal grey wash and gold highlights, even his wheels have silver paint, 2 titan masters fit in him comfortably, great articulation, overall, though he lacks a waist admittedly, the sword integrates as a tailpipe and the transformation is smooth, although my chest piece likes to pop off the friction hinge, but I think that is just my copy of the mold. In hand, it is hard not to like him. Also, since his shoulder pads swing out, I feel like his bones could have remolding to create a stand out g1 Crosshairs.

2017 was an interesting year. I have to say, overall Titans Return was an infinitely more satisfying toyline for me than Combiner Wars. More variety in engineering, less of a "Gotta get them all" element, a (mostly) better implemented gimmick, and some really cool character choices.

My top 5 toys (official) I got this year (not necessarily made this year though):

5: Pretty much every Titans Return toy this year was excellent, but on top has to be Topspin. Inspired transformation, great poseability, and looks awesome in both modes. As a friend of mine said, who would expect the Jumpstarters to be some of the best toys of the year? Triggerhappy came very close, it has to be said.
4: UW Nosecone. Technically I got him in 2016 but thanks to the replacement shenanigans with my faulty one I ended up "properly" experiencing him in 2017. Computron I found to be a little disappointing in some ways, but Nosecone is the gift that keeps on giving. I just can't put him down. The tightnesses are a bit off here and there, but mostly? He's superb.
3: UW Megaempress. It's the stupidest concept for a toy ever and I love her. She absolutely owns the mold, and she positively oozes personality. The whole set is great but she definitely comes out as the highlight.
2: BW Rampage. He's been a holy grail for almost a decade now, and I'm so glad I got him. He's such a characterful toy. He looks absolutely gorgeous in every mode, he poses pretty well and he's built wonderfully. Plus he's one of my favourite characters from one of my favourite shows.
1: ROTF Mindwipe. Not only is he an absolutely stellar toy, but the fact WJ88 straight up gifted him to me just warms my heart. What an awesome dude. I still need to find some way to repay you, mate.

Other highlights-

TFNation was amazing. I got to meet Hal Rayle, our very own Hinomars (I'm still jealous of your drawing skills, even if I mistook your Daniel for Kei from Dirty Pair... ), Simon Furman, Thew and Venus Terzo, I bought some awesome stuff and generally had a great time. If I can I'll definitely attend again this year.

I managed to nab some neat third party stuff- Maketoys Green Giant (who IMO makes a better CW Devastator than CW Devastator) and Maketoys Despotron (who is absolutely amazing). Both wonderful purchases.

I bought my mum a Transformers Christmas present in the form of Henkei Ghost Starscream- she absolutely loves it too!

The one Transformer related negative this year was The Last Knight. Good lord, what a mess. A shame as I've enjoyed every other Transformers movie, but this was just awful.

Overall though? Excellent year. I may even extend the 2017 goodness a bit, I've seen TR Sky Shadow in my local Entertainer and if I can nab him he will be mine! MINE!

Black Hat wrote:1: ROTF Mindwipe. Not only is he an absolutely stellar toy, but the fact WJ88 straight up gifted him to me just warms my heart. What an awesome dude. I still need to find some way to repay you, mate.

No problem, I love it when I can let another fan experience a toy I absolutely adore!

A good look back at 2017. Guess I'll add in my own 3 cents. I'll pretty much only talk about figures, a media was a one go for me. I didn't play the mobile game, or watch any of the series. I did watch the movie but it was one hell of a dumpster fire. So any way....

I have no favorite TLK figure. Maybe wave 3 bumblebee, but I only got him today so he doesn't count. Distribution on this line was the worst I've ever seen in my many years of Fandom. It was well into September before any local stores got anything past wave 1. I had to order Hot Rod online, and he sucked too boot. The whole line just gets a massive fail from me.

Titans Return was much better. Distribution made it to wave 3 before breaking down. The line wide gimmick caused much less interference than cW did. As usual, the Takara versions were stunning. When Iveta as first announced, I thought I'd skip the whole line, but ended up with quite announced few.

RiD didn't do much for me. I bought a whole stinking bunch for my two boys though. Got lots of enjoyment this year playing with them.

PotP snuck in at the 11th hour. As usual, the legends were stellar.

Masterpiece/3rd party is, a always, simply the best. No "mainline childrens toy" could ever hope to compare. The rising prices of this year did hurt a bit, and had me seriously thinking about the future of my collecting habits. So beautiful though.....

Anyway, on to my top ten list of figures.

A short-but-sweet top ten 2017 transformers figures list from me:

10) LG EX God Ginrai. While he is a bit of a floppy boy combined, this figure is plain beautiful.

9) MP Cheetor. Another gorgeous addition. Looks like the catbot stepped right out of the screen

8 ) Maketoys Contactshot. While a bit on the large side, he has tremendous play value. Looks so much like the original toy it hurts.

7) Badcube Huff. The little truck that could.

6) TR Kup (Takara version). Such a great update to a cranky old bastard.

5) Fanstoys Koot. He comes with a cigar. Seriously, you have to love that.

4) PotP Swoop. The super awesome figure you never saw coming out of left field.

3) Maketoys Downbeat. Takara will have a really hard time topping this guy, if they ever get to a MP Jazz.

2) MP Megatron. I absolutely hated everything I saw about this figure.... right up until I got him in hand. The look, the feel, the transformation, everything about this guy screams perfection. He is what Masterpiece is supposed to be.

1) MP Sunstreaker. The hail Mary in the final second. This guy is a good figure to show off every thing Takara has learned since masterpiece line began.


As for best comic moment, for me, it was the return to the Lost Light, in Lost Light. Even though I'm not happy with the story direction, it was great to get back on track.


As far as what I'm looking forward to in 2018? As always, more Masterpiece reveals. Also, the leader class Blackout from the studio series. Been waiting ten **** years for this toy.

I like the variety of stuff you guys picked! Good work!

Couldn't wait for Legends Bumblebee, Perceptor and Slugslinger anymore. They were released during the last few days of December but are still in transit. They probably wouldn't have made this year's Top Five cut anyway.


So.. my Top Five Transformers of 2017 --



MP-36 Megatron
MP-35 Grapple
MP-39 Sunstreaker
MP-11 Starscream (2017 reissue)
LG50 Sixshot

The facial expressions really take the figures to another level. They should have re-issued Starscream with more faces.



After the best, here are...



LG48 Brawn
LG52 Misfire
LG49 Triggerhappy
LG51 Doublecross
LG44 Sharkticon

All really good, too.

This was awesome, it's giving me a little more inside of what I've missed. For the moment I'm going to have to go hunt a few things down. Good job guys, and thanks.