The Energon Pub

ScottyP wrote:Any Beast Wars mega-fans just totally stoked by this set? I like Beast Wars, but don't love it so much as to pore over all the content like I know some do. Curious what the take on these is from that perspective.

Ravage looks ugly. The Transmetal repaint is a far superior looking figure, and probably would cost about the same amount. But that is the definitive BW Ravage. It's awesome. This one, the alt mode does suit him, but the body is far too angular and blocky for that head.


Tarantulas looks decent, but the alt mode doesn't make sense. We've got a bike Tarantulas from a Junkion, which is a far better looking pre-earth Tarantulas. Oh how I want one of those. This one looks ok, it just doesn't scream Tarantulas. He was always about stealth, speed and agility, even pre-transmetal. This one is too bulky.


Ram Horn and Cicadacon look insanely awesome! I seriously want those two. I think they look perfect for what we got, and I'm glad they used the red and white. Maybe it's not an animation error, maybe their bodies actually glow red to show they are in session, as they only lit up when they activated their lights to show they were present. I've not seen anybody come out with that solution before.


Sea Clamp? Not as stoked as the other two when I first saw him, but he's growing on me. Though I would have preferred he was a deluxe so all council member were the same size. But yeah, I'd like to get the council. Not the other two though.


But given the choice, I'd much rather the 2006 set.

The decision to make a Beast Wars Anniversary set came, well, years ago. However, since there is a very limited catalog of beast molds accessible (unless you go back to the original 20 year old molds... which does have some appeal, don't get me wrong) and since there was no knowledge of what Hasbro or Takara Tomy might do (again, we're talking a couple years ago) the focus has pretty much always been on making vehicular forms for the BW cast.

As far as how the Beast Wars Combiner Wars came about, I can't get too much into that. However I will say that Hasbro were very much excited by the concept of Fun Pub using current molds and branding to make the toy line and exclusives more cohesive.

So then with Combiner Wars in mind, Tripredacus seemed the most compelling choice for Beast Wars. Two Deluxe beasts and a Mega beast forming one of the first combiners since G1 getting turned into two Deluxe vehicles and a Voyager. And then to finish off the team of 5, Ravage and Tarantulas fit that theme quite well as being agents of the Council in the show.

The decision of show versus toys... well the Tripredacus toys already exist. And quite honestly they still hold up quite well 20 years later. The show models, however, have never had any sort of physical representation, so it became incredibly tempting to give them one finally. (Not to mention the show models where non-beasts, so that was an interesting point as well.)

Lastly, having seen and held the 3D printed heads, and seeing all of the design work and digital sculpts that led up to them, I think they fit the bodies much better than the mock-ups make it seem. I think that once samples start rolling in, some minds might be changed.

ScottyP wrote:I thought I might like this. I don't. Nothing I've seen about these toys makes me really care about them. Ramhorn looks neat. The other four just exist.

Any Beast Wars mega-fans just totally stoked by this set? I like Beast Wars, but don't love it so much as to pore over all the content like I know some do. Curious what the take on these is from that perspective.

YoungPrime wrote:1 little, 2 little, 3 little repaints....

Posts like this add nothing of value to the discussion. Broadly speaking, this is what TFCC and Botcon toys have been, are, and will continue to be.

Actually, posts like this add something of value to the discussion. Its called humor. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out this set sucks so bad its going to be the butt of all jokes. A little humor should be welcomed, not shunned.

I knew funpub was going to do something for the beast wars fans this year, but this particular concept was poorly executed. Im usually a big fan of obscure characters, but in this case I feel funpub dug too deep into the bottom of the barrel. There are plenty of more mainstream beast wars characters (mostly predacons) that still need a pre earth mode. Unfortunately combiner wars cars and jets make lousy cybertronian alt modes. They should have used some TF prime molds instead. Everything doesnt have to be a combiner. Funpub is already doing a combiner for the 4.0 subscription service. This combiner is overkill. The choices of combining molds available simply dont work for this theme. Making the set a combiner actually did more harm than good. They should have just brought back unicron trilogy molds. They work perfect for this theme and allow newer collecters to obtain different molds on their shelves instead of the same CW molds in 5 different colors.

Rated X wrote:Actually, posts like this add something of value to the discussion. Its called humor. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out this set sucks so bad its going to be the butt of all jokes. A little humor should be welcomed, not shunned.

You know what? Fair point. I didn't read it as humor, since this type of comment gets made over and over on the internet regarding Club/Botcon toys. That said, again, you make a fair observation and even if I found the comment to be a broken record, taking out my annoyance on the person playing it instead of the record itself wasn't a nice thing to do. My apologies to YoungPrime, that was a terse thing to say to their post.

TF_JW wrote:And then to finish off the team of 5, Ravage and Tarantulas fit that theme quite well as being agents of the Council in the show.

The decision of show versus toys... well the Tripredacus toys already exist. And quite honestly they still hold up quite well 20 years later. The show models, however, have never had any sort of physical representation, so it became incredibly tempting to give them one finally. (Not to mention the show models where non-beasts, so that was an interesting point as well.)

Two things here that bug me a little.

I understand the concept, really I do. However, with the three Tripredacus bots all having a uniform color scheme, why have the other two combiner members not hold to it, or find characters that could? Alternately, black is pretty universal, so why not do Tarantulas in, say, Fox Kids toy colors so that the combiner had two black limbs? I'm obviously armchair quarterbacking a decision making process that's already occurred, with some honest ignorance of say, sales data (or other factors) that may have driven things. I point this out just so this can, I hope, have a tone of critique and not pure negativity.

Additionally, if you had the concept in mind for awhile to do show accurate Tripredacus at some point, how much was the question of "with Hasbro wanting us to use Combiner Wars molds, is that still the right thing to do?" brought up? Was Magnaboss a pitch at some point (if you can answer that)? Not that this would necessarily be a better character for the molds available, just curious about other options being explored if the CW thing was a true roadbump.

Any chance of souvenirs being teased or revealed ahead of time? I need some hype or encouragement on this set, and looking around online (including on social media), I think fans that aren't really big Beast Wars fans need this too. I can't recall a set with a reaction like this. It's not so much bad, it's that there's so much complete apathy. I want to be excited for 2016's toys, but nothing here's really jumping out to me yet. In short, if I'm not excited yet, will anything coming down the pike get me excited?

Finally, if you can speak to it, with what looks like no equivalent of something like Scorponok or Oilmaster, any cost savings going to be achieved on this boxed set compared to recent years? Seems like a run on this would be close to the limited run Takara's (presumably) putting on something like their Takara Tomy Mall exclusives, so perhaps a price point close to that if one were to go non-attendee? Non-attendee brought up here since attending packages are assumed to have more than just toys factored into the package cost.

ScottyP wrote: I can't recall a set with a reaction like this. It's not so much bad, it's that there's so much complete apathy. I want to be excited for 2016's toys, but nothing here's really jumping out to me yet.

That surprises me. I felt last year's Most Wanted had far more apathy. At least people are talking about this set, and the fact that it's made of characters 2 different generations of fans know makes it go a long way. These are actually show characters for once. There wasnt as much negativity with last years set but there wasnt as much passion either. It just felt like a unified theme for unified theme's sake (not that creating fiction to sell a toy is any new to this brand). At least this has a theme this year with characters in renditions we never had before (unlike say, a second attempt at shattered glass stepper, or another DOTM voyager megatron). While I do agree on the negativity felt here and elsewhere I think it's more because people actually care to express their opinion this time and the club is reaching new fans who are not used to the club's offerings, which is indicative of how popular Beast Wars and Combiner Wars is.

ScottyP wrote:

TF_JW wrote:And then to finish off the team of 5, Ravage and Tarantulas fit that theme quite well as being agents of the Council in the show.

The decision of show versus toys... well the Tripredacus toys already exist. And quite honestly they still hold up quite well 20 years later. The show models, however, have never had any sort of physical representation, so it became incredibly tempting to give them one finally. (Not to mention the show models where non-beasts, so that was an interesting point as well.)

Two things here that bug me a little.

I understand the concept, really I do. However, with the three Tripredacus bots all having a uniform color scheme, why have the other two combiner members not hold to it, or find characters that could? Alternately, black is pretty universal, so why not do Tarantulas in, say, Fox Kids toy colors so that the combiner had two black limbs? I'm obviously armchair quarterbacking a decision making process that's already occurred, with some honest ignorance of say, sales data (or other factors) that may have driven things. I point this out just so this can, I hope, have a tone of critique and not pure negativity.

Additionally, if you had the concept in mind for awhile to do show accurate Tripredacus at some point, how much was the question of "with Hasbro wanting us to use Combiner Wars molds, is that still the right thing to do?" brought up? Was Magnaboss a pitch at some point (if you can answer that)? Not that this would necessarily be a better character for the molds available, just curious about other options being explored if the CW thing was a true roadbump.

Any chance of souvenirs being teased or revealed ahead of time? I need some hype or encouragement on this set, and looking around online (including on social media), I think fans that aren't really big Beast Wars fans need this too. I can't recall a set with a reaction like this. It's not so much bad, it's that there's so much complete apathy. I want to be excited for 2016's toys, but nothing here's really jumping out to me yet. In short, if I'm not excited yet, will anything coming down the pike get me excited?

Finally, if you can speak to it, with what looks like no equivalent of something like Scorponok or Oilmaster, any cost savings going to be achieved on this boxed set compared to recent years? Seems like a run on this would be close to the limited run Takara's (presumably) putting on something like their Takara Tomy Mall exclusives, so perhaps a price point close to that if one were to go non-attendee? Non-attendee brought up here since attending packages are assumed to have more than just toys factored into the package cost.

This. I would love to just get them all, in a bag for, say ~$200 - without having to pay the club to buy stuff from it.

As much as I like this set, the cost always kills it for me, just the nature of the beast I suppose

william-james88 wrote:The club is reaching new fans who are not used to the club's offerings, which is indicative of how popular Beast Wars and Combiner Wars is.

Hmm, maybe hasbro should take a cue from this

My only real issue with the set is the disconnect between the colors of the three unified color-scheme bots and what the show was actually doing with its lighting effects.

Those bots in the show, under the overhead white light are shown as being gray or silver. They are only colored red after the desk lights are turned on.

I feel personally that those character's color schemes, as shown by the toys, are making a disconnected leap from the limits of lighting in an early CGI show to real toy models.

Those characters were not red. Even the IDW comics took note of that.

I am curious as to why they were not represented more faithfully with perhaps secondary colors that would have matched their toy color schemes as opposed to this swath of red that falls across them.

Was it a production issue?

Did someone on the staff really believe that they were red in color?

Am I completely off base here?

The Tripredacus Council are red, silver, and black while Ravage is black, silver, and red. So I don't think he stands out as much as some are expecting. And Predacus will pull some of Tarantulas' colors into the combined mode.

I'm not sure I would agree with the Combiner Wars molds being called a "roadbump". They affected the course of the design and concept process, sure, but their hurdle isn't any higher than any other repaints really.

For the rest of your post, all I can say about the souvenirs right now is that I'm quite excited about them. And that it's too early to talk costs just yet.

So when is it going to be revealed which universe this set takes place in?

TF_JW wrote:The Tripredacus Council are red, silver, and black while Ravage is black, silver, and red. So I don't think he stands out as much as some are expecting. And Predacus will pull some of Tarantulas' colors into the combined mode.

I'm not sure I would agree with the Combiner Wars molds being called a "roadbump". They affected the course of the design and concept process, sure, but their hurdle isn't any higher than any other repaints really.

For the rest of your post, all I can say about the souvenirs right now is that I'm quite excited about them. And that it's too early to talk costs just yet.

Thanks for the reply, I got a little more long-winded there than intended!

TF_JW wrote:The Tripredacus Council are red, silver, and black while Ravage is black, silver, and red. So I don't think he stands out as much as some are expecting. And Predacus will pull some of Tarantulas' colors into the combined mode.

I'm not sure I would agree with the Combiner Wars molds being called a "roadbump". They affected the course of the design and concept process, sure, but their hurdle isn't any higher than any other repaints really.

For the rest of your post, all I can say about the souvenirs right now is that I'm quite excited about them. And that it's too early to talk costs just yet.

Are you going to do a 'botcon' rattrap out of groove

Then it could be botcon: botcon rattrap

Though, Fractyl out of... Airraid would be pretty cool

Responding to multiple posts, here.

Insurgent wrote:Tarantulas looks decent, but the alt mode doesn't make sense.

Did all of the 2006 altmode choices make sense? Optimus Primal as a racecar? Dinobot as a construction shovel? Rattrap as a racing cycle? Megatron as a big beefy missile carrier? (that one they even had to explain away as being a suit he wore over his real body)

The Rook mold's altmode is bulbous like Tarantulas's spider mode, and like how a bug (insect or arachnid) has more that four legs, so too does this altmode have more than four wheels.

But I agree with the notion of the robot mode making him look too blocky.

Rated X wrote:Im usually a big fan of obscure characters, but in this case I feel funpub dug too deep into the bottom of the barrel.

They chose characters from the show who all played some role in what was arguably the best and most memorable season finale of the whole show, three of whom whose original toys happened to be a combiner.

Rated X wrote:There are plenty of more mainstream beast wars characters (mostly predacons) that still need a pre earth mode.

Most of whom already have pre-Earth toys, and the rest of which don't need pre-Earth toys since the likes of Blackarachnia, Inferno, Silverbolt, Quickstrike, and Transmetal 2 Dinobot were all born on Earth. Tigatron and Airazor had their Earthen births retconned and many fans disliked that.

Rated X wrote:Unfortunately combiner wars cars and jets make lousy cybertronian alt modes. They should have used some TF prime molds instead. Everything doesnt have to be a combiner. Funpub is already doing a combiner for the 4.0 subscription service. This combiner is overkill. The choices of combining molds available simply dont work for this theme. Making the set a combiner actually did more harm than good. They should have just brought back unicron trilogy molds. They work perfect for this theme and allow newer collecters to obtain different molds on their shelves instead of the same CW molds in 5 different colors.

1. Three of these guys already were a Combiner back in the day.

2. See TF_JW's post that came right before yours about the use of CW molds.

Counterpunch wrote:My only real issue with the set is the disconnect between the colors of the three unified color-scheme bots

TF_JW's post that came after yours should help to alleviate these concerns.

Counterpunch wrote:and what the show was actually doing with its lighting effects.

Those bots in the show, under the overhead white light are shown as being gray or silver. They are only colored red after the desk lights are turned on.

I feel personally that those character's color schemes, as shown by the toys, are making a disconnected leap from the limits of lighting in an early CGI show to real toy models.

Those characters were not red. Even the IDW comics took note of that.

As per my earlier discussion with Doctor McGrath, solid gray toys are plain-looking, colorless, and dull. Regardless of the original intent of the scene, their bodies physically glowed red when the meeting began. Under the bright white light, their bodies were still red. Red is more exciting than colorless gray.

And IDW's BW comics are best left forgotten.

Bed Bugs wrote:So when is it going to be revealed which universe this set takes place in?

Most likely when the information brochure goes up, as it usually contains a brief summary of the convention comic's story, and short bios for the characters the toys represent.

Hellscream9999 wrote:Are you going to do a 'botcon' rattrap out of groove

Then it could be botcon: botcon rattrap

They already gave us a BotCon Rattrap.

Sure, they's giving us another Tarantulas, but the backlash to that redundancy furthers my point.

Sabrblade wrote:

Insurgent wrote:Tarantulas looks decent, but the alt mode doesn't make sense.

Did all of the 2006 altmode choices make sense? Optimus Primal as a racecar? Dinobot as a construction shovel? Rattrap as a racing cycle? Megatron as a big beefy missile carrier?

Actually rattrap as a motorcycle makes plenty of sense with his character. Just because he was a demo. specialist doesn't mean that he was a truck or something; Plus, something tells me it wasn't necessarily an 'above-board' reputation entirely.

Plus, I was making a joke, due to groove looking and transforming like cybertron ransack - that they could make a rattrap that references botcon rattrap

Sabrblade wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:My only real issue with the set is the disconnect between the colors of the three unified color-scheme bots

Counterpunch wrote:TF_JW's post that came after yours should help to alleviate these concerns.

Counterpunch wrote:and what the show was actually doing with its lighting effects.

Those bots in the show, under the overhead white light are shown as being gray or silver. They are only colored red after the desk lights are turned on.

I feel personally that those character's color schemes, as shown by the toys, are making a disconnected leap from the limits of lighting in an early CGI show to real toy models.

Those characters were not red. Even the IDW comics took note of that.

1. As per my earlier discussion with Doctor McGrath, solid gray toys are plain-looking, colorless, and dull. Regardless of the original intent of the scene, their bodies physically glowed red when the meeting began. Under the bright white light, their bodies were still red. Red is more exciting than colorless gray.

2. And IDW's BW comics are best left forgotten.

I've separated your points out to discuss this easier...

1. Your point about gray toys is weak and lacks any imagination. The toys could have had a mix of flat and metallic paints, accents in their original toy colors, or any variety of visual tricks to spruce them up and make them more visually dynamic. They could have been gray/silver with red accents and still represented the show better. Further, as someone who typically argues for media supremacy in terms of what is canon and accurate, you're taking a surprisingly apologetic stance on something that should be relatively clear based upon what was shown, the limits of CGI at the time, and frankly, how lighting works at all. I've always admired your ability to keep media portrayals foremost and how consistent you've been in those views. I'm not sure why this issue is different for you.

2. This point has absolutely zero merit and is again, not the kind of rebuttal I would expect from someone so knowledgeable of shows and comics. Regardless of how you feel about the writing or story of those comics, they accurately depict both what was shown and intended from the television show.

You're slippin' homie.

If the Club representatives want to simply say, "This was the creative choice of the team. We recognize it isn't entirely true to the show, but these are the reasons we went this path..."

Then fine, we can agree to disagree on how it should have been.

If it's kind of "We misinterpreted how the lighting affected the characters and we're kind of stuck on this path now..." (note, I very much doubt that was what happened but I'd like it said outright), then that's less satisfactory.

Sabrblade wrote:Responding to multiple posts, here.

Insurgent wrote:Tarantulas looks decent, but the alt mode doesn't make sense.

Did all of the 2006 altmode choices make sense? Optimus Primal as a racecar? Dinobot as a construction shovel? Rattrap as a racing cycle? Megatron as a big beefy missile carrier? (that one they even had to explain away as being a suit he wore over his real body)

The Rook mold's altmode is bulbous like Tarantulas's spider mode, and like how a bug (insect or arachnid) has more that four legs, so too does this altmode have more than four wheels.

But I agree with the notion of the robot mode making him look too blocky.

I disagree with that mould for Dinobot as well. But the rest of the set, yes. Primal = big, beefy, powerful and quick. His jetpack gave him the speed in robot mode. If it was a race car like Mirage, then no. But Crumplezone does present Primal's characteristics well enough. Rattrap as a cycle? Yes. Like Tarantulas, he was a speedy/agile based fighter so a bike makes sense for him. Cheetor as a dragster car? Yes. It's a fast vehicle with exhausts like Hot Rod. And we saw when he got his jets, he didn't know how to fly, so his cybertronian mode was clearly land based. Megatron as a missile truck? Yes, that suits him. Power. Destruction. Intimidation. That sounds like Megatron to me. The only one from that boxset that doesn't fit is the Dinobot one, and I've always said so. They explained Megatron as being a suit because we saw his cybertronian body in the show and it was a scrawny looking thing, due to cgi limitations meaning they didn't spend much time designing a proper body for a cameo shot.

Counterpunch wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Counterpunch wrote:My only real issue with the set is the disconnect between the colors of the three unified color-scheme bots

Counterpunch wrote:TF_JW's post that came after yours should help to alleviate these concerns.

Counterpunch wrote:and what the show was actually doing with its lighting effects.

Those bots in the show, under the overhead white light are shown as being gray or silver. They are only colored red after the desk lights are turned on.

I feel personally that those character's color schemes, as shown by the toys, are making a disconnected leap from the limits of lighting in an early CGI show to real toy models.

Those characters were not red. Even the IDW comics took note of that.

1. As per my earlier discussion with Doctor McGrath, solid gray toys are plain-looking, colorless, and dull. Regardless of the original intent of the scene, their bodies physically glowed red when the meeting began. Under the bright white light, their bodies were still red. Red is more exciting than colorless gray.

2. And IDW's BW comics are best left forgotten.

I've separated your points out to discuss this easier...

1. Your point about gray toys is weak and lacks any imagination. The toys could have had a mix of flat and metallic paints, accents in their original toy colors, or any variety of visual tricks to spruce them up and make them more visually dynamic. They could have been gray/silver with red accents and still represented the show better. Further, as someone who typically argues for media supremacy in terms of what is canon and accurate, you're taking a surprisingly apologetic stance on something that should be relatively clear based upon what was shown, the limits of CGI at the time, and frankly, how lighting works at all. I've always admired your ability to keep media portrayals foremost and how consistent you've been in those views. I'm not sure why this issue is different for you.

Technically, it wasn't pushing limits, but deadlines, they had intended to model them after the toys, but deadlines forced them to re-design them - and quite hastily I believe.

The Tripredacus council have red heads with primarily silver bodies with red limbs or other parts. There's no trick with the lighting in that particular scene. They have red heads before the light shines on them and after. The light is a white light overhead, not a red light. The red lights on the table glow a bit, but that's not what makes part of their bodies have red. It's as clear as day if you watch the actual video regardless if the characters are in the shadows or in the light.

Counterpunch wrote:If the Club representatives want to simply say, "This was the creative choice of the team. We recognize it isn't entirely true to the show, but these are the reasons we went this path..."

Then fine, we can agree to disagree on how it should have been.

If it's kind of "We misinterpreted how the lighting affected the characters and we're kind of stuck on this path now..." (note, I very much doubt that was what happened but I'd like it said outright), then that's less satisfactory.

This is what the club said:

TF_JW wrote:The decision of show versus toys... well the Tripredacus toys already exist. And quite honestly they still hold up quite well 20 years later. The show models, however, have never had any sort of physical representation, so it became incredibly tempting to give them one finally. (Not to mention the show models where non-beasts, so that was an interesting point as well.)

It seems that there is no mistake to them, these toys represent their interpretations of the actual show models. Which would be the first part of your statement.

Also, if the red was only due to the lighting, then they would be all hues of red with no grey, but that isnt the case.

The Club got the red and gray/silver color schemes correct for these characters. Just watched the scene again and noticed that once the red lights are on and the overhead light isn't shining on that particular character, that character is all red, but when the lights aren't on them at the very beginning of the scene, you can see that they have reddish heads and silver bodies.

I'm actually really amazed at the complexity of the lighting in that scene from a cartoon that is almost 20 years old. Kudos to Mainframe!

Seibertron wrote:The Club got the red and gray/silver color schemes correct for these characters. Just watched the scene again and noticed that once the red lights are on and the overhead light isn't shining on that particular character, that character is all red, but when the lights aren't on them at the very beginning of the scene, you can see that they have reddish heads and silver bodies.

I'm actually really amazed at the complexity of the lighting in that scene from a cartoon that is almost 20 years old. Kudos to Mainframe!

Yup, totally right, its a white light above and it shows that they are red and grey, which is exactly what the Fun Pup did. I guess they are even bigger fans than us, trying to get every bit right given the molds they could work with.

The lighting after the little red disc lights are ignited makes it fairly clear that they are red and silver. The red reflects brighter on them where the red lamps shine on them, but as has been pointed out they are red where the white lamp shines on them too.

My personal interpretation of the scene is that the trick of the light/light source cheat is actually the part where they appear solid gray. More than likely the animators wanted to make their reveal a little more dramatic and therefore cut the saturation to nil so that the characters could blend in with the shadows more. This is done quite a lot in live-action filming when a scene is shot in the day time but then edited to look like night time - the saturation is cut and a blue filter applied.

Then when the lamps are activated we get bright red characters against a blue backdrop. Very contrast-y, very dramatic.

william-james88 wrote:

Seibertron wrote:The Club got the red and gray/silver color schemes correct for these characters. Just watched the scene again and noticed that once the red lights are on and the overhead light isn't shining on that particular character, that character is all red, but when the lights aren't on them at the very beginning of the scene, you can see that they have reddish heads and silver bodies.

I'm actually really amazed at the complexity of the lighting in that scene from a cartoon that is almost 20 years old. Kudos to Mainframe!

Yup, totally right, its a white light above and it shows that they are red and grey, which is exactly what the Fun Pup did. I guess they are even bigger fans than us, trying to get every bit right given the molds they could work with.

https://youtu.be/mipExpTLt5M?t=1m10s

White light hits them, they are gray/silver. The red comes from the three lights on the table.

Red light from the table comes up, they take on a red color on everything affected (and probably a little more by virtue of the CGI limitation) by the light on the table, illuminating upward.

To further my argument, if they were partly red, when the team arises for the first time and is mostly gray, the tables lamps, which are red and off at the moment, are shown in their true color. If the team had red on them it would have shown at that point too. It didn't. The red only appears after the table lights are on.

I've said my piece on the matter. All I can do is show how this can happen with photography and various light arrangements, but that's for another day.

Thanks to the Club rep for making a statement on the matter even though I disagree with the assessment.

Even for dramatic "in-the-shadows" effect, their heads look pretty red prior to the lights shining on them.

Counterpunch wrote:White light hits them, they are gray/silver. The red comes from the three lights on the table.

Red light from the table comes up, they take on a red color on everything affected (and probably a little more by virtue of the CGI limitation) by the light on the table, illuminating upward.

Normally I agree with most of what you say, but not on this point. It's clear from watching that video that they are red with silver bodies and red highlights prior to the light going on and after. What you're commenting on is dramatic effect. All you have to do is look at their silver bodies, that aren't colored in red when the lights go on, to realize that the effect you are talking about is inaccurate otherwise they'd be red entirely if it was from the red lights.