The Energon Pub

DecepticonFinishline wrote:Simplified Deluxes?! Are you just... I... *&#$@ing seriously?! *^%$%^ing stupid ass ^&%*&.

Just... I ....

No.

Just no.

There's a reason I collect (mostly) classics-verse style figures. G1 characters with ELBOWS and KNEES!!!

Save this ^$%^# for #$^#%^ing Power Rangers!

I don't know what you just said but I like the cut of your jib.

Well, I like Prowl. Curious about the new Predaking.

But I say hell no to these new "simplified deluxes". Didn't we already get simplified deluxes last year when Hasbro skimped on the plastic?

Unless those Terrorcons form Abominus there is no reason to get them over their Cyberverse counterparts. They won't even fit in with the other deluxe Predacons, who look like, you know, actual deluxe figures.

I'm not even mad, those hideous upscale Legend "Deluxes" are going to save me a lot of money.

Thank you Hasbro for allowing my wallet to be a little heavier this year.

Will those simplified deluxes be the new standard, or an alternative akin to FABs?
Either way I find the idea stupid as hell.

How dare these basterds make these  deluxes little more than over expensive happy meal toys. This is why i hate coporations, its not a matter of if they have enough money, its that little difference between what there really are capable of and what they want to over price or under achive to meet their over the top quotas. If they truly wanted too they could have made a brilliant star wars  black series without chessy repaints of more rebel pilots (BLAGHH), iron man 3 figures woth joints and a proper mandarin, and beast hunters 2014 toy line with proper sculpting and articulation. the reason why they cant is one of a number of possibilitues or a combination of them all. One thought is that some new cheap jew deicded that they where spending too much in quality sculpts and decided to release nothing more than static pieces of **** with the rationaly that brain dead kids would have an eaisier time playing with them. Or maybe they are telling the truth that kids enjoy them better, then what kind of reterded rednecks are they getting in there focus groups. Example( durka dur i like nas car and merica and my 69 percent iq has a hard time trying to operate a something with more than say five points of articulation that isnt a semi automatic, JESUSSSS). If so we shouldn't be one the receiving end while they waste all their resources focusing on these degenerates who if they are so stupid and pathetic don't deserve toys. I hope hasbro learns their lesson soon, or they will be among the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

My guess is that these unscaled cyberverse figures are the successors to the FAB's. Those would often go for the same price as a deluxe yet they were simplified. I don't think that will replace the current deluxe range as this is not evident for generations. Plus it's bad business.

Rot Gut, now that's a name that lets people know you are disgusting.

Prowl=

When I read "simplified deluxes" I was confused because the RID deluxes were already simplified. Then when I saw them I thought, the simplified Deluxes/ Voyagers are going to cost the same as the deluxes/voyagers from a few years ago. Sadly I'm correct.
It does seem like a bad idea from several angles. Firstly using the names Voyager and Deluxe is sure to confuse the hell out of parents. Secondly they look like knockoffs which might turn costumers off. Hell if I saw a Fansproject toy next to one of these, I'd be questioning which is the knockoff. Thirdly these obviously look like the Cyberverse toys but upscaled, they didn't seem to change much engineering and the sculpting looks near identical. Is there some other incentive to buy them other than they're bigger? Better sculpting, paint, or even some gimmicks would make these things stand apart from their smaller counterparts. But as it stands, they're just officially licensed knockoffs

The big difference, besides the small engineering changes for the larger size, is the more elaborate paint patterns. Compare the Twinstrike pictured here to legion Twinstrike, you can see he's got a bit fancier deco. Same colors, but the arrangement has dips and two-tones instead of just a solid color painted on a part.

i hate these over simplified cyberverse guys as much as anyone esle but this is probably the chance to get a more size accurate insecticon??

That Bot wrote:

Evil_the_Nub wrote:Do we know how much these oversized cyberverse figures are going to cost? I'f they're cheaper than most deluxes and voyagers I can maybe get on board with them. If not it's kind of a slap in the face to charge full price for an oversized version of the cheap alternative.

The labels in front of them say the upscaled deluxes have an MSRP of $12.99 and the voyagers $19.99.

Yeeeeeah... so same prices as before, as anyone could predict. Hasbro doesn't typically lower prices when lowering production costs (i.e. pass savings to consumer).

I'm looking forward to seeing these things shelf-warm. I'm thinking TJ Marshaxx will get these by the boatload in a few weeks. And as so many have said elsewhere, it gives my wallet a breather.

Doubledealer93 wrote:i hate these over simplified cyberverse guys as much as anyone esle but this is probably the chance to get a more size accurate insecticon??

Unlikely:
1) Hasbro purposefully made the Insecticon a Commander class, and must have (by now) some idea about how fans want a Voyager class - maybe it has something to do with the cost of making him a Voyager and pricing him @ $20. Come to think of it, if they can upscale a Commander Prime to Voyager Prime, I don't really see why they couldn't do that with the Insecticon...

2) As someone else mentioned in another thread, this set is only meant to fill the interim between Prime and the new Bay movie next summer. These come out in January, and it's probably the last we'll see of them for a while, as the next TF's on store shelves (after these) will most likely be the new Bay-verse figures.

Unless they sell really well, or Hasbro decides it's worth the trouble to keep upscaling Legions. I'd seriously be down for a bigger insecticon, though.

still having a really hard time figuring out why they've upscaled the Cyberverse stuff. Or rather, these particular Cyberverse bots. There's already a Beast Hunter Voyager Predaking and Optimus Prime...if they want new toys of these dudes on shelves, why not just repaint the existing toys? I'd be sorta interested in a show-accurate Predaking deco. Similarly with the show-character Deluxes, although maybe the BB mold has disintegrated now after being used so much?

I still don't know how I feel about upscaled Legion class figures. On one hand the Predacons look great even despite the lack of some articulation and the rest will be great too. On the other hand, most Decepticon and Autobot Legions are just crap toys and upscaling them will just show that more. The Commander class figures should do well enough and I don't really have any objections other than that green on Optimus. The Voyagers green looked good but that is just hideous. It looks like he's slowly evolving into Toxitron.

I think my problem is how most people just bought about three of each of that BB and SS mold. That BB was just released a short while back then again with the Autobot Driller playset and then again in black and maybe even again as a Target exclusive. That SS had a similar fate as it just recently came out then got repainted with the jet playset then again for prowl again for Streak and again for Target I think. What I'm saying is these molds were just overused as it was and now they're upscaling them and expecting people to buy another version of them. Even dumb parents should see that they just bought three to four version of each of them and probably ignore them. Hell, my mom would too and she's been buying Transformers since they first came out.

My other problem is that they picked two particularly weak Legions to upscale and showcase first. I think if they had used Cliffjumper, Jet Vehisteve or Arcee then people wouldn't have minded so much. And as someone else said in a previous comment, these might be the more child friendly alternative like the Fast Action Battlers or the Activators were in past lines. However, if those weapons on these upscaled Legions are standard 5mm then the weaker molds might be worth picking up at discount just for the weapons.

craggy wrote:still having a really hard time figuring out why they've upscaled the Cyberverse stuff. Or rather, these particular Cyberverse bots. There's already a Beast Hunter Voyager Predaking and Optimus Prime...if they want new toys of these dudes on shelves, why not just repaint the existing toys? I'd be sorta interested in a show-accurate Predaking deco. Similarly with the show-character Deluxes, although maybe the BB mold has disintegrated now after being used so much?

I think Hasbro's goal is to make the transformations simpler. They've talked about it at convention panels (I believe), so they either heard some complaints or did their own market research. On top of that, the simpler design of the legions are probably a whole lot cheaper to assemble in China! I'm not sure if their future marketing will confirm this or not, as the toys may not even be clearly marked as EASY... but that's about the only reasoning I can come up with making yet another Predaking and Beast Hunter Optimus...

I don't like the simplified Deluxes. They just look cheap to me.

none of those characters they're releasing in scaled-up deluxe form, who've previously had figures, appear to have that much more of a complicated transformation.

i remember something last year about making the transformations simpler. I thought that was a the Prime RID/Beast Hunters style. every one I've seen is far less complex than some of the more difficult movie or Generations deluxes. I think they've gone too far. I really hope it is just them being stupid and cheap, but I worry it might be that a lot of people a few years back complained about the complexity of some movie TFs and they're still reading through those reports now and thinking people are talking about the new Prime stuff being too simple, when it's not. A lot of them are simple, but in most cases I don't mind too much because the transforms are effective and the end result is still fairly articulated figure.

the audacity of hasbro to upsize the legion and commander molds into deluxe and voyager sizes... they look like china town knock offs... who are they trying to fool? maybe if we complain enough they will cancel them, just like xbox one did with the whole drm debacle. sigh* a boy can dream.

T-Macksimus wrote:

Metrosuplex wrote:

Mindmaster wrote:The rest of them... urgh, Hasbro's pulling a Microsoft and shooting themselves in the foot with those simplified Deluxes and Voyagers.

This is actually a natural move on Hasbro's part. Have you seen the Iron Man 3 figures? They're simplified - no elbow or knee joints.

I look at it as Hasbro reducing production costs in order to keep the toy prices where they are and/or lowering costs overall to improve corporate profitability.

When you think about it, this simplification of Deluxes (from Legions) is the optimal solution (versus replacing TF's with Kreon's or Bot-shot non-transforming figures).

Furthermore, I'd be interested to see how the intended audience (children) react to these new deluxes. For some reason, I predict a positive reaction - when I was a kid, posability wasn't the priority (and just look at the G1 figures' posability!).

If you're from the same age range as me then posability wasn't an issue because we had 5 points of articulation on our classic Star Wars figures and we were happy as pigs in slop! We didn't know any better. The pinnacle of posability was the original 12" 1960's G.I. Joe figures and those were a rarity by the time our generation started messing with TF's and while Micro-Man figures were great for flexibility, they were not very common in all areas and they were rather fragile and certainly not suitable for any kid under 10 years of age if you wanted them to last more than 30 seconds.
While I admire your optimism and can certainly see a certain logic behind Hasbro's move, I think they are not properly gauging the reaction of the kids. Their strategy is only going to win over the 7 and under crowd. Any kid older than that is going to say "Screw this!" and lose interest in the first minute. It's still the ADD generation, the generation that HAS to have something "over the top" to hold their attention for more than 5 minutes and doesn't give 2 shits that mom and dad can't afford it. Whatever Habro's reason for making this move, I'm not buying that it's for any desire to get back to basics or that it is strictly a cost issue either and I certainly don't harbor any illusions that they are going to drop their prices back to what they were a few years ago. No, we are going to get less product...again... and get the price raised on us... again!

I have to agree with what you said that 30 years ago, "we didn't know any better." But it's 30 years later and we sure as hell do know better now and those simplified deluxes are not better. Especially since the retail price is going to be the same as deluxes that have more articulation. Perhaps at $9.99. As for simpler transformation, isn't that why the Transformers Rescue Bots line was introduced?

We, the hardcore fans, the ones that fork over huge amounts of money at Botcon and SDCC and the like are the ones that Hasbro/Takara need to remember. We have been waiting for 30 years for Springer, Blitzwing, and Sandstorm to finally be Triplechangers again and with more articulation. We want more articulation of our old favorites for the money. Otherwise they might as well re-issue more re-issues.

And we love our combiners! Hasbro/Takara finally listened to us hardcore, diehard fans and made a combiner. Unfortunately they didn't listen very well and thus made our beloved Terrorcons in Cyberverse size. Then they heard us again, "How cool would these new Terror/Predacons be if they were deluxe size." And unfortunately once again, Hasbro/Takara didn't listen very well and decided to just upscale the same Cyberverse figures into Deluxe size without all that great articulation. Are we going to have to wait another 30 years for Hasbro/Takara to finally get this right? I really hope not. Thank goodness for 3rd Party companies, right?

But honestly, I will probably buy the Terror/Predacons of the simplified Deluxe line, despite the much needed multiple points of articulation. It'll be cool to have an Abominous in Deluxe size, even with the lack of multiple points of articulation. And yes, I do believe all five of these guys can join together just like their Cyberverse Legion counterparts, once the other three are released in simplified Deluxe size. However, I do foresee the simplified deluxe of Bumblebee (ugh, another one) and Smokescreen being peg warmers. Thus, in time, the pegs will be full of them only, keeping the stores from ordering the next waves that will most likely contain the remaining Terror/Predacons needed to combine to form Abominous. In which case I say, thank goodness for www.hasbrotoyshop.com.

wolverinetodd wrote:And we love our combiners! Hasbro/Takara finally listened to us hardcore, diehard fans and made a combiner. Unfortunately they didn't listen very well and thus made our beloved Terrorcons in Cyberverse size.

The limbs on the original Abominus were the same size as modern Legions. It's just Hun-Gurrr that was bigger.

The only one here I'm remotely interested in is deluxe Prowl, and frankly I'd rather he was predominantly black. And a .

The rest of them, in my opinion, are utter garbage. No way in hell am I paying deluxe and voyager class prices for oversized Cyberverse figures. No way. No how. There's retro, then there's actively taking a step backwards.

Happy 30th Transformers.

wolverinetodd wrote:Are we going to have to wait another 30 years for Hasbro/Takara to finally get this right? I really hope not. Thank goodness for 3rd Party companies, right?

But honestly, I will probably buy the Terror/Predacons of the simplified Deluxe line, despite the much needed multiple points of articulation. It'll be cool to have an Abominous in Deluxe size, even with the lack of multiple points of articulation. And yes, I do believe all five of these guys can join together just like their Cyberverse Legion counterparts, once the other three are released in simplified Deluxe size. However, I do foresee the simplified deluxe of Bumblebee (ugh, another one) and Smokescreen being peg warmers. Thus, in time, the pegs will be full of them only, keeping the stores from ordering the next waves that will most likely contain the remaining Terror/Predacons needed to combine to form Abominous. In which case I say, thank goodness for http://www.hasbrotoyshop.com.

3rd Party TF's are prohibitively expensive, IMO. $120 for Predaking vs. $400-500+ for the 3rd Party (superior) version. Ehhh, I'm not having trouble picking the former.

There are no plans (that we're aware of) to release the other 3 Abominus figures, so it's a toss up if they see the light of day as upscaled deluxes. Others have also pointed out that the combining pegs are missing in the pictures we've seen, so they may not even combine (lending to the theory that the other 3 will NOT be sold as deluxes).

philtron3030 wrote:the audacity of hasbro to upsize the legion and commander molds into deluxe and voyager sizes... they look like china town knock offs... who are they trying to fool? maybe if we complain enough they will cancel them, just like xbox one did with the whole drm debacle. sigh* a boy can dream.

I'm starting to think these upscaled Legions are a test-run. If they sell moderately well, Hasbro will go full throttle. But based on the reactions here, I know the collectors won't be buying! So it's all on the parents and kids - if they buy, the TF brand is heading in a very sad direction...

That Bot wrote:

wolverinetodd wrote:And we love our combiners! Hasbro/Takara finally listened to us hardcore, diehard fans and made a combiner. Unfortunately they didn't listen very well and thus made our beloved Terrorcons in Cyberverse size.

The limbs on the original Abominus were the same size as modern Legions. It's just Hun-Gurrr that was bigger.

I still say they're smaller. The only way to really tell is to take out a scale and do a comparison. The G1 figs look fatter and bulkier, even if the new figs are elongated and tall.

PrymeStriker wrote:So, Prowl does have a retooled head.

Brilliant.

I couldn't agree more! I was thinking of passing on Prowl 'cause I figured he'd be hard to find... but now I have to at least try to get him. Looks fantastic in robot mode, although I wish his legs were properly transformed. Not a huge fan of the lack of paint apps on the vehicle, but it's hard to judge by the one angle. A set or Reprolabels will do very well for the car, but regardless I MUST have!

You mean someone at the panel asked that, and that was the answer?

Well, that settles that. If I see the Terrorpreds for $10 or less I might get them, otherwise no.

Point stands, no deluxe Abominus, as predicted.