The Energon Pub

I never thought we'd get Rumble and Frenzy reissues. I thought the molds were lost or destroyed. If that isn't the case then why did it take so damn long? Alternity Bumblebee looks really neat too. I'm still a little bummed about him not getting an Alternator figure but this makes me happy. Pre-ordered BB and the cassettes already! I'd be down for the red BB too if he gets a new head. The Donald Duck looks fun too. Not my thing but fun.

Bumblebeast wrote:

Sid Burn wrote:This really sucks, where do these weird molds fit into a collection?

Anywhere ?

Let's say that "size" has never been an issue for Hasbro/Takara/Tomy. That's why you get peanut sized megatrons and armchair sized bumblebees.

but alternators was not like that, everything was to a specific scale, these are just odd little anomalies, and they cost the same as alts. These would have sold like mad if they were add ons to the alternators or binaltech line.

I just hate a missed opportunity to make a great line even greater.

Sid Burn wrote:

Bumblebeast wrote:

Sid Burn wrote:This really sucks, where do these weird molds fit into a collection?

Anywhere ?

Let's say that "size" has never been an issue for Hasbro/Takara/Tomy. That's why you get peanut sized megatrons and armchair sized bumblebees.

but alternators was not like that, everything was to a specific scale, these are just odd little anomalies, and they cost the same as alts. These would have sold like mad if they were add ons to the alternators or binaltech line.

I just hate a missed opportunity to make a great line even greater.

But the Bumblebee would fit with the alt line. he was always the small runt. but this line is amazing i have both megatron and convo/optimus. megatron is so bad ass i love it

Flux Convoy wrote:The Donald Duck looks fun too. Not my thing but fun.

I have a feeling that Donald Duck will end up in my wife's collection.

Yay! More Alternities!

The Cassettes are pretty tempting also.

Bee looks...intriguing...I must have this..

These are up at BBTS now too.

hehe, they've finally made some Alternity figs that are in scale with the original Alternators line.

Depending on comparison pics, I may still get the Bumblebee. He's not top priority for me right now. I keep hoping we see him as an MP but I'm not going to hold my breath for that.

I am in with all you who were saddened by the ending of the Alternator/BT line, and then excited/simultaneously let down with the "return" of them as Alternity figures. Why the scale jump, I'll never know. I'd prefer that they drop the diecast and keep the 1:24 scale than keep the diecast and scale to 1:32.

Bumblebee was my #1 "must have" Autobot not made in the BT/Alt line, and I still don't know why he wasn't made in some form or another at that scale. Apparently he can't be made as a VW Bug, but Donald Duck can. That's laughably silly. Unless an MP version is released (he's my only other must-have MP besides Soundwave), this is the closest I'll get to an "official" BT Bumblebee. He looks quite nice, I am not a huge fan of the shoulder design, but he looks better (from what I can see) than the Prime/Megatron designs.

Judging from this comparison pic of Prime:
http://gamu-toys.info/sonota/to/tfal01/tfal01.html

...Prime's not that much smaller than the BTs... If Bumblebee is the same size as the GTR (probably not) then he'll not be too out of scale. Unfortunately, I expect his car size to be much smaller than the GTR, unfortunately, as it's a sub-compact, meaning he'll be quite tiny. Smaller than a smart car.

I passed on Music Label Soundwave (who was a great sculpt, just 2/3-1/2 the size I want him to be) after seeing comparison pics. I may have to do the same for this.

It's a shame they changed the scale up, they're losing my business and quite a few others, more than likely. Just like Marvel Legends, which I dropped collecting due to the scale change, I won't be buying the new Alternity lineup, as far as I can tell.

Heck yeah, Donald Duck. Haven't picked up the Mickey Disney Label, but if I had to pick one, I would totally buy Donald over Mickey any day

Kibble wrote:

LiKwid wrote:So are the alternity fgures Die cast metal? I find it hard to swallow paying 50 bucks for a deluxe class size fig.. Does it comes with grilled cheese sammiches?

Some die-cast, but not enough to warrant the $50 tag. They are cool figs, though.

Strange choice of where the die-cast is. The Binaltechs have metal car bodies with plastic everwhere else. Alternity has plastic car parts - the metal is used for some of the internal frame.

mandingo_rex wrote:
Judging from this comparison pic of Prime:
http://gamu-toys.info/sonota/to/tfal01/tfal01.html

...Prime's not that much smaller than the BTs...

Look again. He's a delux

Eeeh, not interested in Disney Label stuff. :\

That said, alternity Bee looks pretty nice. I'm already planning to get Black Convoy, but I think I'll stick with hunting down the cheaper Henkei Bee for my G1 Autobot Ark roster.

lol I used to have a crush on a girl with a red suzuki swift.
And look there's the only disney tf i'm interested in, and he's epic win! Cassets are awesome!

Nemesis Destron wrote:Holy freakin' $#!t!!!!!! Finally they got it right by letting loose rumble and frenzy. Patients for all those who wait and the wait is over. And with what appears to be Overkill in the set and with the upcoming release of SDCC Soundwave on the horizon it's gonna be bitchin'...'nuff said!!!

Rumble and Frenzy are a huge release. This means all the first years Decepticons have finally been reissued. I'm getting multiples of these.

Delicon wrote:We'd like to thank Mike from Digital Toys for providing us with new pics of a few items just announced from Takara-Tomy.

Kicking things off is Alternity-03 which is Bumblebee with a Suzuki Sport vehicle mode. Supposedly it is being released in both "champion yellow" and "pearl red", although for now only the yellow picture is available. No official word on whether the "pearl red" will be renamed Cliffjumper as of yet.

Sweet! however, I am kinda wondering if the legs are too skinny for that round top of a belly they stuck him with..I hope that's not the final version of the Bumblebee figure..

Delicon wrote:Next up is Disney Label Donald Duck concept art. If this holds true, look for a VW Bug similar to G1 Bumblelbee.

OMG!! I can't believe it!! they are turning Donald Duck into a transformer, but also..the Love Bug, Herbie!! that is actually pretty cool...

Delicon wrote:Finally, last but not least we have the latest Encore cassette mission set. Judging by the picture, it looks like it will contain Frenzy, Rumble, Lazerbeak and Overkill.



All of these items are slated for either November or December releases but you may pre-order them all right now by clicking here!

We'd like to thank Digital Toys not only for these pictures but also for being a valued site sponsor of Seibertron.com! If you have never checked them out before, now is a great time to do so!

Nice! I've been hoping they would release Rumble for awhile now!!

I hope we see some pictures that make BB look better because I'm really not feeling this design. It doesn't look good for arm/shoulder articulation and the feet look really small. I'm sensing more balance problems ahead.

However, I'm not big on the Alternity line so unless Megatron is a complete home run for me, I'll be passing on the rest of them.

Jesus, I'm AFK for a few days and everything changes...

Alright, so...

Alternity Bumble? Looks terrible. As you may of noticed from my previous reviews I am a huge supporter of the Alternity line, but this figure looks we-eak. Convoy and Megatron have an incredible sense of power and motion to their robot modes, with smooth lines and a streamlined design. This Bumblebee just looks blocky and ridiculous. I'm glad we're getting a third mold but this seems like a waste. I hope this render is not the real deal.

Yeah, he looks real G1 accurate. But his G1 robot mode looked retarded, even for a two-inch tall 1984 toy.

Big Cassette Mission 3? Looks great. Everyone who lives owns a Laserbeak already (and this poor mold is strained enough), but the other three are good picks.

Donald-Robo? Nice. I like the Herbie thing, though I'm not sure about his snorkel. I hope he has lots of fun gimmicks like Mickey-Robo.

Anyway, I'll keep my eyes out for actual photos of these guys, though Real Devastator seems to be one jump ahead of me now!

Mykltron wrote:

mandingo_rex wrote:
Judging from this comparison pic of Prime:
http://gamu-toys.info/sonota/to/tfal01/tfal01.html

...Prime's not that much smaller than the BTs...

Look again. He's a delux

Sorry, no idea what that means.

I collected TFs 25 years ago as a kid, when there was no size class I was aware of, and I just got back into TFs with the MP and BT/Alt lines, and I don't think they used any size class I was aware of.

So I'm assuming this means BB will be even smaller scale than Prime? Does that mean he's not 1:32 scale even? I'm completely ignorant of the scale classes as the ones I've collected are all in roughly the same scale to each other.

mandingo_rex wrote:Bumblebee was my #1 "must have" Autobot not made in the BT/Alt line, and I still don't know why he wasn't made in some form or another at that scale. Apparently he can't be made as a VW Bug, but Donald Duck can. That's laughably silly.

VW along with the rest of the world trust Disney with their intellectual properties. It's not "laughably silly" to the hardcore Disney and Transformers fans that make up 90% of Japan. Remember, these figures aren't made for our market so our opinions about how stupid it may seem or how much money they will lose are irrelevant. Anything that they sell to the 3rd party market that in turn sell them to us is just gravy to them.

EDIT: after reading that I sound like a doucher. Not ment to be rude, just stating facts.

Down_Shift wrote:

mandingo_rex wrote:Bumblebee was my #1 "must have" Autobot not made in the BT/Alt line, and I still don't know why he wasn't made in some form or another at that scale. Apparently he can't be made as a VW Bug, but Donald Duck can. That's laughably silly.

VW along with the rest of the world trust Disney with their intellectual properties. It's not "laughably silly" to the hardcore Disney and Transformers fans that make up 90% of Japan. Remember, these figures aren't made for our market so our opinions about how stupid it may seem or how much money they will lose are irrelevant. Anything that they sell to the 3rd party market that in turn sell them to us is just gravy to them.

EDIT: after reading that I sound like a doucher. Not ment to be rude, just stating facts.

To me, and a lot of others, it's laughable that after years of being told VW won't allow Bumblebee to be made into a VW Bug, or Jazz into a Porsche, and now we get a VW Bug Transformer, and it's Donald Duck. And before people start jumping on the "Well, it was because they said they wouldn't allow their brand to be tied to war toys", the new Audi R8 in TF2 is marketed as a fighting, warring robot. Audi is owned by VW (I should know, I still owe 1/5 of my Audi to VW of America), as is Porsche, so there's absolutely no reason that we can't get a BB as a VW of any sorts. They shot themselves in the foot on that little excuse.

It's fine for all the Donald Duck and Disney fans out there, and double awesome for those who are Disney fans and Transformers fans, but I find it a little bit ironic that we finally get a Transformers VW Bug all these years, and it's not Bumblebee, but instead a cartoon duck. There's a whole lot of goofiness to that, if you ask me.

wow...this just makes me miss the Alt/BT line that much more!! the BTs were the same price for a larger diecast figure, and the Alts were half the price for a larger plastic figure. and they were pretty much in scale with masterpiece Prime. the Alt/BT line was a masterpiece line in my mind to a certain degree. although the alt forms weren't very G1 accurate (aside from maybe Hound) they were still a pretty good fill in for masterpiece figures. my Alt/BT line gets displayed with all my masterpiece figures and they look great together!! i wish Hasbro/Tak would just stop using licensed vehicles so they could bring down the licensing costs and make these figures 1/24th scale again at the same price points!!

mandingo_rex wrote:

Down_Shift wrote:

mandingo_rex wrote:Bumblebee was my #1 "must have" Autobot not made in the BT/Alt line, and I still don't know why he wasn't made in some form or another at that scale. Apparently he can't be made as a VW Bug, but Donald Duck can. That's laughably silly.

VW along with the rest of the world trust Disney with their intellectual properties. It's not "laughably silly" to the hardcore Disney and Transformers fans that make up 90% of Japan. Remember, these figures aren't made for our market so our opinions about how stupid it may seem or how much money they will lose are irrelevant. Anything that they sell to the 3rd party market that in turn sell them to us is just gravy to them.

EDIT: after reading that I sound like a doucher. Not ment to be rude, just stating facts.

mandingo_rex wrote:To me, and a lot of others, it's laughable that after years of being told VW won't allow Bumblebee to be made into a VW Bug, or Jazz into a Porsche, and now we get a VW Bug Transformer, and it's Donald Duck. And before people start jumping on the "Well, it was because they said they wouldn't allow their brand to be tied to war toys", the new Audi R8 in TF2 is marketed as a fighting, warring robot. Audi is owned by VW (I should know, I still owe 1/5 of my Audi to VW of America), as is Porsche, so there's absolutely no reason that we can't get a BB as a VW of any sorts. They shot themselves in the foot on that little excuse.

Not really, you see by VW making that statement their core "liberal" and Young market of "save the planet" or Hippies Generation, or Hippies children, now Yuppies.. will all feel better about the Car they drive..Not to be outdone though..VW allows their Audi in the Transformers movie..which is a subsidiary.. but is not a VW.. so by slight of hand they cash in, while still remaining socially conscious..

which if you ask me is just plain stupid.. seriously.. Our world has not become some happy utopia.. War is inevitable..Murder is within us all..if pushed.. even those with no spines.. or the Prius Driver's of the world..

Honestly, I never wanted to consider BB as a Passivist as he was in G-1.. I mean think about it.. cliffjumper was the unruly let's kick butt bot..Bumblebee was more of a passivist..

i think he's better as a Honda Sports Hatchback, or some other kind of vehicle.. like the camaro..at least he has guts..

To get a G-1 accurate BB... meh.. robot mode that would be cool.. but I was never a VW Bug fan..

mandingo_rex wrote:It's fine for all the Donald Duck and Disney fans out there, and double awesome for those who are Disney fans and Transformers fans, but I find it a little bit ironic that we finally get a Transformers VW Bug all these years, and it's not Bumblebee, but instead a cartoon duck. There's a whole lot of goofiness to that, if you ask me.

you gotta think about it like this..

It's a Donald Duck who transforms into a VW Herbie the Love Bug! "The Love Bug" he ain't gonna hurt nobody.. and Donald, well he'll just jump up and down and squawk..no one understands him.. but Donald don't use any guns.. so I suppose it's all good for Disney..

skywarp-2 wrote:

mandingo_rex wrote:

Down_Shift wrote:

mandingo_rex wrote:Bumblebee was my #1 "must have" Autobot not made in the BT/Alt line, and I still don't know why he wasn't made in some form or another at that scale. Apparently he can't be made as a VW Bug, but Donald Duck can. That's laughably silly.

VW along with the rest of the world trust Disney with their intellectual properties. It's not "laughably silly" to the hardcore Disney and Transformers fans that make up 90% of Japan. Remember, these figures aren't made for our market so our opinions about how stupid it may seem or how much money they will lose are irrelevant. Anything that they sell to the 3rd party market that in turn sell them to us is just gravy to them.

EDIT: after reading that I sound like a doucher. Not ment to be rude, just stating facts.

mandingo_rex wrote:To me, and a lot of others, it's laughable that after years of being told VW won't allow Bumblebee to be made into a VW Bug, or Jazz into a Porsche, and now we get a VW Bug Transformer, and it's Donald Duck. And before people start jumping on the "Well, it was because they said they wouldn't allow their brand to be tied to war toys", the new Audi R8 in TF2 is marketed as a fighting, warring robot. Audi is owned by VW (I should know, I still owe 1/5 of my Audi to VW of America), as is Porsche, so there's absolutely no reason that we can't get a BB as a VW of any sorts. They shot themselves in the foot on that little excuse.

Not really, you see by VW making that statement their core "liberal" and Young market of "save the planet" or Hippies Generation, or Hippies children, now Yuppies.. will all feel better about the Car they drive..Not to be outdone though..VW allows their Audi in the Transformers movie..which is a subsidiary.. but is not a VW.. so by slight of hand they cash in, while still remaining socially conscious..

which if you ask me is just plain stupid.. seriously.. Our world has not become some happy utopia.. War is inevitable..Murder is within us all..if pushed.. even those with no spines.. or the Prius Driver's of the world..

Honestly, I never wanted to consider BB as a Passivist as he was in G-1.. I mean think about it.. cliffjumper was the unruly let's kick butt bot..Bumblebee was more of a passivist..

i think he's better as a Honda Sports Hatchback, or some other kind of vehicle.. like the camaro..at least he has guts..

To get a G-1 accurate BB... meh.. robot mode that would be cool.. but I was never a VW Bug fan..

mandingo_rex wrote:It's fine for all the Donald Duck and Disney fans out there, and double awesome for those who are Disney fans and Transformers fans, but I find it a little bit ironic that we finally get a Transformers VW Bug all these years, and it's not Bumblebee, but instead a cartoon duck. There's a whole lot of goofiness to that, if you ask me.

you gotta think about it like this..

It's a Donald Duck who transforms into a VW Herbie the Love Bug! "The Love Bug" he ain't gonna hurt nobody.. and Donald, well he'll just jump up and down and squawk..no one understands him.. but Donald don't use any guns.. so I suppose it's all good for Disney..

Yes Donald can be a VW Beetle as he's not a war warmongering robot. And The Audi R8 was a Decepticon as that was the only way any car that's not GM would end up in the movie. But look at Sideways, he wasn't portrait as a warring robot, he didn't even kill anybody, even when he jumped through the building you could clearly see that nobody was hurt. He just ran away and got killed, plus his toy isn't a licensed toy.

VonSchlitzy wrote:wow...this just makes me miss the Alt/BT line that much more!! the BTs were the same price for a larger diecast figure, and the Alts were half the price for a larger plastic figure. and they were pretty much in scale with masterpiece Prime. the Alt/BT line was a masterpiece line in my mind to a certain degree. although the alt forms weren't very G1 accurate (aside from maybe Hound) they were still a pretty good fill in for masterpiece figures. my Alt/BT line gets displayed with all my masterpiece figures and they look great together!! i wish Hasbro/Tak would just stop using licensed vehicles so they could bring down the licensing costs and make these figures 1/24th scale again at the same price points!!

I don't think the licensing cost is the reason for their size... I thought I read here at some point Takara wanted the BT line to be 1/32 but Hasbro said to do them 1/24. Since this line doesn't look to be leaving Japan, I would assume Takara is able to do it to their preference this time around...despite the fact about 99% or better of those buying them I'm sure would prefer they be to 1/24 scale.

Anyhow, I think the $5 to $10 price difference for a BT would have sufficiently made up the difference in material had they just made them 1/24.