The Energon Pub

Yeah, me and other fans were teased at Botcon 2013 that 14's theme would be set 30 years after the G1 cartoon(or comics, I don't remember) so here's a topic where you can post story, character, and mold ideas on what you would like to see at Botcon 2014.

Anything after this post should be considered as random ideas and suggestions.

Well chew on this thought for exclusives:

ACTION MASTER ELITES!!!!

yeah I know what you're thinking; Action Masters?! you mean those transformers who couldn't transform? are you crazy?!

No, I don't mean Action Masters, I mean Action Master ELITES

You see, the elites were action masters who could actually transform(to some limited extent).

They were Omega Spreem, Windmill, Double Punch, and Turbo master.




Come on, you got to admit, nucleon transforming transformers sound pretty cool.

A mold idea for Omega S.P.R.E.E.M (Strike Prototype; Rapid Engagement & Elimination Module)

Dotm Shockwave

really think this mold fits for omega.

To be honest I have no idea what mold should be used for windmill and TurboMaster(no double punch because he was already an exclusive)

thanks for reading this and plz tell me what you think

The Collecter wrote:Yeah, me and other fans were teased at Botcon 2013 that 14's theme would be 30 years after the G1 cartoon(or comics, I don't remember) so here's a topic where you can post story, character, and mold ideas on what you would like to see.

Three possibilities for the cartoon:

A. Headmasters/Masterforce reboot for US audiences: http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Generation_1_cartoon_timeline_%28Japan%29

B. "Transformers the Next Generation"- a new G1 sequel series. Maybe with a new version of the G1 movie

C. G1 cartoon, the "Lost Years"- Basically, episodes focusing on the years between the end of season 2 and the cartoon movie. Would be nice to get some backstory on Kup, Magnus, Hot Rod, etc, and try to make up for their hurried intro after all the original Autobots died. Maybe, it is just me. Yes, I know the comic dealt with those years.

Wouldn't it be cool if botcon had a transformers jeopardy game as an event?

I wonder how the general population of the nebulans and human react to each other

The Generation 1 continuity is... complex to say the least. Even limiting oneself to the cartoons and comics the branches are endless. Take a look:

List of Major Generation 1 Continuities on TFWiki.

Who knows what the club has picked? Main US cartoon, Marvel US comics (which ended in the year 1991 in-story I believe), or Marvel UK comics?

Secondly the toys. There are limits to which molds the Club can use:

1) No Live Action Movie Designs
That's thanks to licensing issues with Paramount. That includes Shockwave. Designs that did not appear in the movie are fair game however.

2) No Unicron Trilogy molds or older
We blame this either on age or general mold degradation. So anything Classics and newer are good to go, except movie molds (see above)

3) No "current" toys
Now this is a bit debatable. If Hasbro is still busy with production using a mold, that mold is out of bounds. The newer the mold, the more careful planning it takes. Last year's Megaplex from Prime Dreadwing/Skyquake was a lucky shot, as the club admitted the mold became available late in planning.

"No repeats" is pretty much out the windows, though they are generally avoided. Classics Mirage and Starscream are a testament to that

The 2014 comic will be set in the Wings Universe since it'll take place after the Machine Wars "Termination" comic from this year. Not as a direct continuation, but in the same universe and will serve as a wrap up to the whole Wings Universe continuity.

That said, maybe it could be themed around the Great Upgrade. The last days of the Autobots and Decepticons before switching to the next generation of Cybertronians. I say this cuz there were hints in the "A Flash Forward" comics that Jhiaxus's cloning experiments lead to the development of the Maximals and Predacons in this Wings continuity.

d_sel1 wrote:C. G1 cartoon, the "Lost Years"- Basically, episodes focusing on the years between the end of season 2 and the cartoon movie. Would be nice to get some backstory on Kup, Magnus, Hot Rod, etc, and try to make up for their hurried intro after all the original Autobots died. Maybe, it is just me. Yes, I know the comic dealt with those years.

I have really been yearning for this for a while. Especially if they used at least a few of the surviving G1 voice actors beyond Cullen and Welker. Dan Gilvezan, Gregg Berger, Neil Ross, Paul Eiding and others are definitely still young enough to work regularly on a series and we're talking about some key characters there.

The Collecter wrote:Wouldn't it be cool if botcon had a transformers jeopardy game as an event?

This actually used to be a yearly event for 2-3 years. It was called "Battle of the Boards" or "Board Wars" and was hosted by Rik Alvarez (who sucked) for at least one of the years. In 2008, Vangelus brought a megaphone to the event - it was ugly.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Secondly the toys. There are limits to which molds the Club can use:

1) No Live Action Movie Designs
That's thanks to licensing issues with Paramount. That includes Shockwave. Designs that did not appear in the movie are fair game however.

2) No Unicron Trilogy molds or older
We blame this either on age or general mold degradation. So anything Classics and newer are good to go, except movie molds (see above)

3) No "current" toys
Now this is a bit debatable. If Hasbro is still busy with production using a mold, that mold is out of bounds. The newer the mold, the more careful planning it takes. Last year's Megaplex from Prime Dreadwing/Skyquake was a lucky shot, as the club admitted the mold became available late in planning.

"No repeats" is pretty much out the windows, though they are generally avoided. Classics Mirage and Starscream are a testament to that

While I believe that #1 and #3 are legit, I highly question #2. If DairyCon can rock G1 designs, and they can do all these reissues in the Encore line, obviously there's a lot more useable stuff than they would like you to believe. I'm sure a couple molds are trashed but I've always thought this was FunPub's way of just trying to either go in a different direction from G1 molds or just to be cheaper.

Finally, since my post is already too long, I won't directly quote Sabrblade but yeah, that would really suck if they did that!

d_sel1 wrote:C. G1 cartoon, the "Lost Years"- Basically, episodes focusing on the years between the end of season 2 and the cartoon movie. Would be nice to get some backstory on Kup, Magnus, Hot Rod, etc, and try to make up for their hurried intro after all the original Autobots died. Maybe, it is just me. Yes, I know the comic dealt with those years.

Wait, which comic?

Delicon wrote:While I believe that #1 and #3 are legit, I highly question #2. If DairyCon can rock G1 designs, and they can do all these reissues in the Encore line, obviously there's a lot more useable stuff than they would like you to believe. I'm sure a couple molds are trashed but I've always thought this was FunPub's way of just trying to either go in a different direction from G1 molds or just to be cheaper.

Well, here's the original message I got from Greg "M Sipher" Sepelak when I asked about which molds the Club wouldn't be able to use for BotCon 2013:

M Sipher wrote:I've been part of the group who's worked on the box sets and countless proposals thereof for several years now. I know from first-hand experience trying to put the sets together in the first place which groups are avoided, so we don't waste time pitching stuff that has a microscopic chance of happening.

On-screen movie stuff and a good chunk of non-screen Movie stuff is off-limits thanks to licensing concerns. UT molds are pretty much written off as unusable due to age and overuse (take a look at the Movie Breakaway made from Cybertron Hot Shot. That toy is ROUGH).

Believe me, nobody at FP is particularly keen on having LESS mold options, but that's the reality.


M "And You Can Never Tell When Any Individual Mold Might Suddenly Be Off The Table For Whatever Reason" Sipher

Delicon wrote:Finally, since my post is already too long, I won't directly quote Sabrblade but yeah, that would really suck if they did that!

How come? It's not like the Wings Universe fiction affects the established Beast Era fiction (different continuities and all).

double post

I know what they say, but particularly when it comes to G1, it's obvious there is some level of fibbing going on there.

As far as why that theme would suck, look at the fan response to those sets based on that universe you just mentioned. 2009 and 2013 were the 2 worst selling sets after 2005. I think sometimes they try to get too complicated with these ideas. They worry too much about creating this grand story when in reality the average fan wants something more basic. The 2006 set was a hit because it was basic - they took a storyline that was very familiar and briefly expanded upon it. The toys were all main characters from TF lore with a cool alt mode twist. The 2007 set worked because it gave them characters everyone knew and couldn't buy at the time. 2008 worked because it was a simple "what if" with the evil Autobots and heroic Decepticons. Even though some collectors didn't like animated, 2011 was popular with a lot of people (fastest sell out ever in terms of days) because again, it was simple - let's make a whole team of G1 Deceps that would display well with a lot of the G1 homages that were already part of the Animated line.

2009 actually could have been a far better set if they stuck with what they said they were going for a G1 Elite guard - had they thrown in some other true G1 characters and chose a little better for the mold and color choices for Kup, Scourge and the Sweeps.

Delicon wrote:As far as why that theme would suck, look at the fan response to those sets based on that universe you just mentioned. 2009 and 2013 were the 2 worst selling sets after 2005.

But what about 2010? That was also in the Wings Universe.

Delicon wrote:2008 worked because it was a simple "what if" with the evil Autobots and heroic Decepticons.

But that also grew into its own beast like Wings Universe has.

The Classicsverse did as well, but it got destroyed.

There's also the TransTech universe fiction that hasn't even had any Club/convention toys, yet those stories were well received.

Whatever they do, it's going to be something to bring the Wings Universe to its concluding end, and has got to be something that can used for said ending. The end of the Autobot/Decepticon era could pull that off.

Sabrblade wrote:

Delicon wrote:As far as why that theme would suck, look at the fan response to those sets based on that universe you just mentioned. 2009 and 2013 were the 2 worst selling sets after 2005.

But what about 2010? That was also in the Wings Universe.

Delicon wrote:2008 worked because it was a simple "what if" with the evil Autobots and heroic Decepticons.

But that also grew into its own beast like Wings Universe has.

The Classicsverse did as well, but it got destroyed.

There's also the TransTech universe fiction that hasn't even had any Club/convention toys, yet those stories were well received.

Whatever they do, it's going to be something to bring the Wings Universe to its concluding end, and has got to be something that can used for said ending. The end of the Autobot/Decepticon era could pull that off.

2010 was a good but not great set. To most collectors, the fiction didn't matter. It was all about the style and the neon and such which made it feel G2. I think not having Sideswipe and Ramjet as part of the regular set brought it down a small notch. Yes, I am aware of why Ramjet didn't make the cut but they could have replaced him with another main character in G2 deco.

Well, whatever the 2014 theme is, it has to be something that would work for an ending to what is essentially the G1 cartoon world but with some differences to the actual cartoon itself.