The Energon Pub

News Credits: 3646 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 1:16 am

\/\/#@+ +#3 |=^(|< ...

News Credits: 20 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 1:27 am

"“Alone Together”. The story will focus on Rampage and Transmutate in a whole new way, in a VERY different universe."

....

wat

Thu Jan 30, 2014 2:02 am

Any chance the club might use Vector Prime? He was specifically designed to be "knightly".

News Credits: 18 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:04 am

Collector's Club: "In your face Roberts, we are going to show the Knights of Cybertron and you will be forced to use our mangled transformer designs instead of something original.

News Credits: 462 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 9:00 am

Seibertron wrote: \/\/#@+ +#3 |=^(|< ...

Why this reaction?

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:"“Alone Together”. The story will focus on Rampage and Transmutate in a whole new way, in a VERY different universe."

....

wat

You didn't think those toys were going to represent the old cartoon versions of the characters, did you?

See here for more about what world they come from - http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=95434

Nemesis Maximo wrote:Any chance the club might use Vector Prime? He was specifically designed to be "knightly".

He might be too old to use since, as of 2013, the Club stopped using Unicron Trilogy molds.

News Credits: 1 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:40 am

I can sooo see this mold in some way...

I've also seen digibashes of Silas Breakdown as Cannonball and it looks nice :grin:

News Credits: 1 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:48 am

RiddlerJ wrote:
Nemesis Maximo wrote:
rpetras wrote:Knights are NOT the natural enemy of the pirate, ninja are.

Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis? Didn't you ever make your Fisher Price Piratesvseige your Fisher Price Castle?

I remember those Fisher Price sets! I didn't have them but it did get me thinking about Pirate vs. Knight battles.

I think they also made some Cowboy figures too. I would think the Cowboy is the natural enemy of the Ninja.

Cowboys vs ninjas? That's just crazy talk! 8-}

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pirates-vs-ninjas

And my boys have quite a bit of Imaginext stuff, so yes, ninjas fight both pirates and knights, as well as dinosaurs, dragons, a big-ass troll & Batman quite a bit in our house.

But bringing the tugboat back to shore, this has the potential to be a cool set! I have skipped the last few botcon sets due to boring themes/characters, but I'm excited to see what is in this one.

I also expect something done with the Lockdown mold, and that works for me, I really like the mold, and the character. I'd kind of like to see the Generations Lockdown done in the Blazing Lockdown colors from the TFA set:

Thu Jan 30, 2014 10:56 am

I think eventually we are going to start seeing Michael bay movie molds at botcon. All those molds from the last 3 movies are in some warehouse in china taking up a lot of real estate. By the time the bay dvds can be found in the $4.99 dvd box at Walmart, somebodys gonna wanna cash in on those molds. A phone call will be made to the movie company and a deal will be hashed out. They like extra cash too. And funpub is the only entity in the world that would have a use for those molds. So of course hasbro will milk them for the only client that wants them.

Thu Jan 30, 2014 11:11 am

I'm hoping for a good selection of original Pirate and Knight characters.

We've had a few years where the bulk of the convention sets have been existing characters... and while I DO like getting a few of those peppered in (like a great Diaclone, G2, or SG scheme figure we can repurpose to a couple of dual-purpose places depending on what kind of fan we are... like red Tracks, G2 Thundercracker, etc.)…I'd look forward to getting one where at least half are original.

Thu Jan 30, 2014 11:17 am

And I think the movie molds are probably at the bottom of the list for the Botcon choices, though they have worked in a couple in a pinch.

The demographic at conventions consists of loyal, long-time and serious fans — instead of the newbie, kid demographic the movies captured. I think the Botcon crew knows they will get more satisfied customers milking the Classics style molds.

Plus the movie molds have been saturated and repainted on the shelves. I think those bases are pretty covered.

Thu Jan 30, 2014 11:45 am

gothsaurus wrote:And I think the movie molds are probably at the bottom of the list for the Botcon choices, though they have worked in a couple in a pinch.

The demographic at conventions consists of loyal, long-time and serious fans - instead of the newbie, kid demographic the movies captured. I think the Botcon crew knows they will get more satisfied customers milking the Classics style molds.

Plus the movie molds have been saturated and repainted on the shelves. I think those bases are pretty covered.

Almost half the molds from last BotCon were Movie-verse though, right? Obsidian was Powerdive I believe, and Thundercracker was made from the ROTF Dirge. And then the other ones who used that same mold.

News Credits: 462 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 12:10 pm

The thing about the Movieverse molds is that they can't use any from the 2007 movie line, any based on onscreen move characters, or any that were designed by Paramount (as those are partly owned by Paramount). Thus, they can only use Movieverse molds that were fully Hasbro-made.

These are the "Deluxe-and-up" ones they can use:

ROTF
Deluxe:
Breakaway/Thrust/DOTM DA12 Air Raid
Blazemaster/Evac/2010 Tailwhip
Dirge/2010 Jetblade/Timelines "Machine Wars" Skywarp/Timelines "Machine Wars" Thundercracker
Lockdown/2010 Axor/Timelines Circuit
Brawn/Reveal the Shield Fallback

Voyager:
Stratosphere (maybe)
Bludgeon/2010 Banzaitron/Timelines "Classics" Gigatron
Mindwipe/2010 Strafe/Tokyo Toy Show Dreadwing

2010
Deluxe:
Hailstorm/Mindset
Terradive/DOTM Space Case/Timelines Depth Charge
Tomahawk/DOTM Vortex/Generations GDO Springer/Timelines "Classics" Spinister

Voyager:
Sea Spray/Deep Dive/Timelines "Shattered Glass" Octopunch
Highbrow/Generations GDO Powerdive/Timelines "Machine Wars" Obsidian

DOTM
Deluxe:
Air Raid (maybe)

Voyager:
Skyhammer/Timelines "Machine Wars" Sandstorm

News Credits: 241 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 12:14 pm

Nemesis Maximo wrote:
gothsaurus wrote:And I think the movie molds are probably at the bottom of the list for the Botcon choices, though they have worked in a couple in a pinch.

The demographic at conventions consists of loyal, long-time and serious fans - instead of the newbie, kid demographic the movies captured. I think the Botcon crew knows they will get more satisfied customers milking the Classics style molds.

Plus the movie molds have been saturated and repainted on the shelves. I think those bases are pretty covered.

Almost half the molds from last BotCon were Movie-verse though, right? Obsidian was Powerdive I believe, and Thundercracker was made from the ROTF Dirge. And then the other ones who used that same mold.

The catch is that some of movie mold are directly based on Paramount designs, and others are in-house designs. Put bluntly, if a certain design was not featured in any of the movies, FunPub (and Hasbro for that matter) can freely use it. Examples have included:

RotF Bludgeon for Gigatron
HftD Sea Spray for SG Octopunch
HftD Tomahawk for Spinister
HftD Dirge for Skywarp & Thundercracker
HftD Highbrow for Obsidian
HftD Terradive for Starscream & Depth Charge
RotF Lockdown/HftD Axor for Circuit

Thu Jan 30, 2014 12:33 pm

By my count, I'm looking at 6 movie toys to 9 otherwise (Classics/Prime) featured last year. But I get your point. They did have three movie molds — Dirge, Highbrow and Terradive. That was a first.

While I liked the theme, I kinda cringed at the mixing of three toy lines. Styles are so different between the movie, prime, and classics toys. (I know they're at the mercy of what molds and characters are available.) But that said, in hindsight — and with the new head sculpts added — they pulled it off pretty well. It was a pretty unified looking set, and I think that the Prime mold (Megaplex) helped bridge the movie and classic aesthetic.

I thought Strika, Mirage and the Seeker Jets were the stars of the set though. There were some great homages — and I thought ALL of the new heads were knockouts. Glad to see there weren't any issues going from sketch to fruition. I'm also so glad they changed to a screen accurate color scheme on Obsidian. Huge props for listening to the fans on that, too.

It's hard creating a unified set/story, scrambling to find applicable molds, creating the perfect sculpts — and striving to please our very fickle, whiny, snarky fan base. I'd love to see the fans more educated on the difficulties behind the scenes (and how working with a large company ties your hands quite a lot) ... simply cut some slack to the Botcon crew. They do some deep research and throw a bone to a lot of factions... fans of Beast Wars, classics, G2, G1, UK, Diaclone, Action Masters, Beast Machine... and yes, even Machine Wars.

And let's face it. It's the only place we're going to see obscure homages and fan favorites come to light.

So my point. I'd love to see us all go into the convention season with an open mind. Let's see the bots first. Read the backstory. Celebrate 30 Years like it's a party... instead of a back alley skirmish.

News Credits: 462 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 12:45 pm

gothsaurus wrote:And let's face it. It's the only place we're going to see obscure homages and fan favorites come to light.

Regarding obscure homages, Hasbro did surprise us with the announced mass retail release of Generations Crosscut.

Regarding fan favorites, the Generations Thrilling 30 line is also helping in that regard with new BW, BM, and Armada-based figures.

News Credits: 656 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 1:42 pm

I'm gonna predict stuff way too early with no info known, or to base anything on.

Box set:
3 Pirates/2 Knights, probably 2 Voyagers/3 Deluxes again. Cannonball for sure, maybe a Brimstone update, everything else who knows. Would not be surprised to see the Vector Prime mold brought back despite what they've said before.

Bonus figure: Some Knight dude

Custom Class figure: Some Pirate Guy

Souvenir bags: One will have something to do with the theme and the other will be SG Beast Wars stuff (ugh)

Troop Builder: Who knows. Honestly don't know what they'll do here, and that's ok. Can we start the Reflector rumors again?

News Credits: 462 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 1:45 pm

ScottyP wrote:Souvenir bags: One will have something to do with the theme and the other will be SG Beast Wars stuff (ugh)

Only thing that comes to mind and makes sense for that idea would be Megatron from the BW 10th Anniversary/Cybertron Beast Planet Deluxe and Waspinator from the Generations Thrilling 30 Deluxe (though, that might be a bit too new for this year).

News Credits: 6188 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 1:49 pm

ScottyP wrote:I'm gonna predict stuff way too early with no info known, or to base anything on.

Box set:
3 Pirates/2 Knights, probably 2 Voyagers/3 Deluxes again. Cannonball for sure, maybe a Brimstone update, everything else who knows. Would not be surprised to see the Vector Prime mold brought back despite what they've said before.

Bonus figure: Some Knight dude

Custom Class figure: Some Pirate Guy

Souvenir bags: One will have something to do with the theme and the other will be SG Beast Wars stuff (ugh)

Troop Builder: Who knows. Honestly don't know what they'll do here, and that's ok. Can we start the Reflector rumors again?

I'm not sure why, but all of this made me chuckle incontrollably.

Thing is though, I'm stupidly intrigued by all this. I want to give Thundertron a crew other than Prime Deadend. They're lonely.

News Credits: 656 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 2:26 pm

Va'al wrote:
I'm not sure why, but all of this made me chuckle incontrollably.

Thing is though, I'm stupidly intrigued by all this. I want to give Thundertron a crew other than Prime Deadend. They're lonely.

Cybertron Cannonball, Cybertron Brimstone/Galaxy Force Terrashaver, and HftD Axor are all established as Star Seekers I think. Can get a head start!

News Credits: 6188 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 2:57 pm

ScottyP wrote:
Va'al wrote:
I'm not sure why, but all of this made me chuckle incontrollably.

Thing is though, I'm stupidly intrigued by all this. I want to give Thundertron a crew other than Prime Deadend. They're lonely.

Cybertron Cannonball, Cybertron Brimstone/Galaxy Force Terrashaver, and HftD Axor are all established as Star Seekers I think. Can get a head start!

No no no.

I like the newer aesthetics. Axor I'm not concerned about acquiring, as I already have that mold in Lockdown. And it's glorious.

I am very inclined to get Brimshaver - but I'll hold out until a potential repaint comes out of this set/thing. Though the waist puts me off.

Cannonball looks a bit.. underwhelming. Interesting transformation though.

News Credits: 15 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:47 pm

Va'al wrote:I am very inclined to get Brimshaver - but I'll hold out until a potential repaint comes out of this set/thing. Though the waist puts me off.

Cannonball looks a bit.. underwhelming. Interesting transformation though.

These two are great figures. You'll be kicking yourself.

But I personally hate the HFTD Lockdown mold.

News Credits: 6188 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:12 pm

PrymeStriker wrote:
Va'al wrote:I am very inclined to get Brimshaver - but I'll hold out until a potential repaint comes out of this set/thing. Though the waist puts me off.

Cannonball looks a bit.. underwhelming. Interesting transformation though.

These two are great figures. You'll be kicking yourself.

But I personally hate the HFTD Lockdown mold.

Then I think we'll really have to agree to disagree.

News Credits: 462 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:15 pm

ScottyP wrote:Cybertron Cannonball, Cybertron Brimstone/Galaxy Force Terrashaver, and HftD Axor are all established as Star Seekers I think. Can get a head start!

Not those particular versions. The Cannonball, Brimstone, and Axer who are Star Seekers are the Aligned Continuity ones, not the Cybertron and Movieverse ones.

But the Cannonball who will be a Star Seeker captain in this BotCon story will be a G1 Cannonball.

News Credits: 241 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:36 pm

Sabrblade wrote:
ScottyP wrote:Cybertron Cannonball, Cybertron Brimstone/Galaxy Force Terrashaver, and HftD Axor are all established as Star Seekers I think. Can get a head start!
Not those particular versions. The Cannonball, Brimstone, and Axer who are Star Seekers are the Aligned Continuity ones, not the Cybertron and Movieverse ones.

But the Cannonball who will be a Star Seeker captain in this BotCon story will be a G1 Cannonball.

A non-Wings version I presume? The Wings one was killed and his crew was called the Maraudicons.

News Credits: 462 · Thu Jan 30, 2014 5:06 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
ScottyP wrote:Cybertron Cannonball, Cybertron Brimstone/Galaxy Force Terrashaver, and HftD Axor are all established as Star Seekers I think. Can get a head start!
Not those particular versions. The Cannonball, Brimstone, and Axer who are Star Seekers are the Aligned Continuity ones, not the Cybertron and Movieverse ones.

But the Cannonball who will be a Star Seeker captain in this BotCon story will be a G1 Cannonball.

A non-Wings version I presume? The Wings one was killed and his crew was called the Maraudicons.

A Cannonball was killed. Note that Cybertron Cannonball is not one single person, but an idea. Like the Dread Pirate Roberts.

This Cannonball will not be the same person who died before, but is said to still be a Wings Uiverse version of the guy, suggesting a similar "Dread Pirate Roberts" concept like his Cybertron namesake.