The Energon Pub

Mon Dec 24, 2012 8:15 am

i will be saving a lot of money on this line.

News Credits: 5 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 8:36 am

Well were to start, that Wheeljack is just boss looking. Something about that bot mode that makes him look killer (love those fangs on his head sculpt).

Soundwave looks good but they should have used a different color for the yellow or just made it duller. And its not often we get the string tied to missle thing.

Lazerback is just made of all those things I love about Beast Wars.

Bumblebee looks good. Although the paint swirl would have looked alot better if it was on the whole figure. Ill call it bumbleeflauge. :MAXIMAL:

Mon Dec 24, 2012 9:29 am

Reminds me of a boss from one of the Metroid games, for some reason.

Mon Dec 24, 2012 9:39 am

Bee's Eyes make him look like he has been on something :lol:

GET READY FOR ANOTHER SHELF WARMER!!! :sad:

News Credits: 1 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 9:55 am

President-prime wrote:They actually look good in there pictures. Saw it outside the stores. Packaging for these beast hunter toys are bad. Kind of like a rescue bits packaging. Very cutish cartoonie (in a bad way). The ugly design packaging plus the cheap plastic is a no for me. Maybe the bigger transformers are ok.

Not necessarily. While personal tastes will vary, the pics of voyager BH Optimus does show him with inexplicably cartoonish proportions despite the Mad Max spikes and styling.

He's also got some rather conspicuous waist kibble from the front wheels of his alt mode.

News Credits: 251 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 10:06 am

Am I the only one that is somewhat disturbed by Bumblebee's stoner eyes? :-s

Even though I'm not getting any of them, I don't like the way Soundwave's arms have to be angled in robot mode.

Mon Dec 24, 2012 10:13 am

Ick.

Wake me up when Prime Beast Hunters and Arms Micron crap are over.

One's hideous and the other is stuff only justifiable if they came in a 25cent UFO catcher / gumball machine.

News Credits: 15 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 11:04 am

Bumblebee - Still a little underwhelming, but I simply MUST HAVE HIS HAWKBOW!

Soundwave - Oh, god. That deco is disgusting. But, I'll have to buy him for Ravage.

Lazerback - Badass.

Wheeljack - Badass to infinity. :KREMZEEK:

Mon Dec 24, 2012 11:25 am

Well, it appears my interest in Transformers Prime will be coming to an end. The rehashed figures ("new, with extraneous flair!") are a sloppy way to market old product and look contrived to boot, especially with the garish color schemes. I was never a fan of Beast Wars figures and their poor transformation designs (simplistic, lots of kibble), so Laserback doesn't appeal to me, either.
I thought the Transformers Prime designs to date were-- for the most part-- an impressive display of toy engineering with a thoughtful nod to G1. This Beast Hunters direction looks like a very lazy way to ride the success of the series. I'm sure it will find fans, but I'm disappointed.

EE

Mon Dec 24, 2012 12:07 pm

Man, I don't know. I was at least thinking of grabbing the PRedacons from the new line, but Laserback isn't really looking too great in these pictures. After spending the weekend tracking down Prime figures at the cheap shops I must say there is very little reason to spend $17 on any of these deluxes, so Beast Hunters just might end up being a Ross/TJ Maxx hunt for me. You can see that Laserback has the hollow back and everything, and I'm sure retail prices aren't going to come down in the next few weeks. Who knows, maybe more photos will change my mind.

News Credits: 656 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 12:14 pm

I picked these guys up yesterday at TRU. Enjoy most of them quite a bit. Here's some quick thoughts:

- Lazerback - get this! Much more than an RiD Bruticus homage, really feels like a new thing. Nice aesthetic and hopefully all the Predacons will be the same quality.

- Bumblebee and Wheeljack - lumping these together because my thoughts on them are similar. If you already don't like either mold, these may change your mind, but probably not. Bee is a little scary, tbh, which is a cool change.

- Soundwave - bleh. Ravage is not worth the admission price. Universe 1.0 Soundwave color scheme on this mold is just kinda ugly. And weapons with strings? Thanks, but no thanks. He's the stinker in the wave.

Something else cool I noticed is that the character bio is no longer on the card, but in the instructions as one part of a 4 part "story" off to the side. The instructions themselves are not full color, but do have a differently colored background on each one, for instance, the background of Soundwave's instructions is purple, with the black/white pictures tiled over said background.

News Credits: 11 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 1:29 pm

I'll be honest, Bee and Wheeljack look pretty badass. Especially Wheeljack with those wings. But seeing as I have good enough (and not ridiculously spiky) versions of them already, I'll easily pass. However, I could see a pretty good Rodimus out of this Wheeljack mold, with a new head of course. Listening, Hasbro?

Soundwave looks hideous, and Lazerback looks pretty bad. And what is up with the gross swirly plastic on most of them? This isn't 1993...

Savings, hurray!

News Credits: 462 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 1:31 pm

TOO MUCH AWESOMENESS TO TAKE IN!!!!!!!

:KREMZEEK:

News Credits: 251 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 1:41 pm

kirbenvost wrote:I'll be honest, Bee and Wheeljack look pretty badass. Especially Wheeljack with those wings. But seeing as I have good enough (and not ridiculously spiky) versions of them already, I'll easily pass. However, I could see a pretty good Rodimus out of this Wheeljack mold, with a new head of course. Listening, Hasbro?

Wheeljack is the only one out of these molds that look decent.

Soundwave looks hideous, and Lazerback looks pretty bad. And what is up with the gross swirly plastic on most of them? This isn't 1993...

Swirly plastic = GPS = those figures are SCREWED.

Savings, hurray!

Indeed, savings galore! Said savings will be well-used for Generations figures. :grin:

Mon Dec 24, 2012 2:45 pm

Mindmaster wrote:
kirbenvost wrote:I'll be honest, Bee and Wheeljack look pretty badass. Especially Wheeljack with those wings. But seeing as I have good enough (and not ridiculously spiky) versions of them already, I'll easily pass. However, I could see a pretty good Rodimus out of this Wheeljack mold, with a new head of course. Listening, Hasbro?

Wheeljack is the only one out of these molds that look decent.

Yeah, they should have stopped right at him. Having him get beastified would have been a cool story and solidified his standing as the cool, rogue character even more.

But it's easier just to add spikes and silly weaponry the likes of 1990s GI Joes than to actually do some real work and continue to make your core characters actually look as good as their show counterparts.

This whole thing is all about laziness.

News Credits: 241 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 2:56 pm

Mindmaster wrote:
Soundwave looks hideous, and Lazerback looks pretty bad. And what is up with the gross swirly plastic on most of them? This isn't 1993...

Swirly plastic = GPS = those figures are SCREWED.

I don't see any swirls in the plastic itself. If you're referring to Bumblebee's roof and Wheeljack's hood: spray paint patterns.

News Credits: 251 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 2:59 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Mindmaster wrote:
Soundwave looks hideous, and Lazerback looks pretty bad. And what is up with the gross swirly plastic on most of them? This isn't 1993...

Swirly plastic = GPS = those figures are SCREWED.

I don't see any swirls in the plastic itself. If you're referring to Bumblebee's roof and Wheeljack's hood: spray paint patterns.

...Then I RETRACT!

News Credits: 11 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 4:37 pm

Looks like molded swirly-colored plastic to me. But it's not metallic, so GPS shouldn't be a problem. GPS is caused by the metallic flecks in the plastic.

News Credits: 3 · Mon Dec 24, 2012 7:53 pm

Those are colour swirled plastic, not spray. The dead giveaway is inside BB's roof, if it were sprayed they wouldn't have bothered doing the interior.

Mega Bloks has been doing similar things with their Halo sets for quite a while ("Camouflauge" plastic I believe they called it) and personally I hate it. It makes everything so inconsistent and slapped together looking, especially when you're only applying it to a few parts on the overall figure (BB's Roof, Soundwave's arms and feet, Wheeljack's hood). Granted these things look inconsistently slapped together anyway, with new X-TREME bits on pre-existing molds.

Whether or not this dye-swirled plastic will be a precursor to GPS is anyone's guess, but even metallic flake plastics these days seem to be handled differently enough to make them last... So for anyone looking to get these I'd hazard a guess they'll be safe in the years to come. For me, however, these are a definite pass, and I'm gonna be extra sad if this is how they begin appearing in the show.

Tue Dec 25, 2012 11:37 am

Good lord those things look horrid! :SICK:

They're like out of some bad 90's comic!

News Credits: 241 · Tue Dec 25, 2012 11:51 am

Samsonator wrote:Those are colour swirled plastic, not spray. The dead giveaway is inside BB's roof, if it were sprayed they wouldn't have bothered doing the interior.

Mega Bloks has been doing similar things with their Halo sets for quite a while ("Camouflauge" plastic I believe they called it) and personally I hate it.

Huh, never heard of such a development. Interesting. :-?

OK, then I retract, but my GPS statement still stands.

News Credits: 36 · Wed Dec 26, 2012 9:06 am

At the risk of dismissing these out of hand, I'll be very interested to see TT's take on it....

News Credits: 2 · Wed Dec 26, 2012 11:14 am

Looks like another money saving year for me. My wife will be VERY happy about it.

Wed Dec 26, 2012 1:39 pm

El Duque wrote:I can't believe I'm saying this, but that Cenobite Bumblebee is kind of doing it for me.

"What is your pleasure?"....... I get that vibe from most of this wave, myself. Repaint BB black, stick a couple of pins on his head, a splash of blood, and a Lament Configuration in his hand, he might just pull it off......

I'm only gonna grab Soundwave.

News Credits: 1 · Fri Dec 28, 2012 7:12 am

xyl360 wrote:
CBratetron wrote:I'm sure the swirls on his roof is just improperly mixed plastic.

It's clear plastic painted that way. It's meant to look burned/damaged just like Wheeljack's hood with its gray/charred look. I wish they'd done that over their entire alt modes or not at all. Having just certain parts looking like that looks way off.

Agreed. Wheeljack's isn't too bad as it looks like he's driven through an explosion, in which case most of the charring would be on the bonnet. But Bumblebee's doesn't make any sense solely on the roof.

Simple beast transformation be damned! I like Lazerback. I WILL get him. I'll probably get them all regardless of whether or not they get the same treatment in the show. As someone else said though, I'll probably wait to see what Takara's planning on doing with this series of figures.