The Energon Pub

News Credits: 3 · Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:59 pm

Sabrblade wrote:Honestly, people, aside from a more lavenderish color, what more were you expecting?

Something more worth the money.
They're scraping the bottom of the barrel so far.
Sure, Cannonball is better than this guy, but still.

News Credits: 251 · Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:01 pm

Flashwave wrote:...I'd rather have more Decepticon personalities than a dozen Starscreams, wouldn't you?

Yeah, I mean, having several different versions of Starscream is bananas, right?

*nervously whistles and sweats*

:-s

News Credits: 462 · Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:01 pm

Manterax Prime wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:Honestly, people, aside from a more lavenderish color, what more were you expecting?

Something more worth the money.
They're scraping the bottom of the barrel so far.
Sure, Cannonball is better than this guy, but still.

Believe it or not, people have been wanting toys of these guys for years. Just like how they've wanted Straxus and Jhiaxus, and now it's finally happening for a lot more of these as well.

News Credits: 25 · Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:15 pm

Sabrblade wrote:
Manterax Prime wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:Honestly, people, aside from a more lavenderish color, what more were you expecting?

Something more worth the money.
They're scraping the bottom of the barrel so far.
Sure, Cannonball is better than this guy, but still.
Believe it or not, people have been wanting toys of these guys for years. Just like how they've wanted Straxus and Jhiaxus, and now it's finally happening for a lot more of these as well.

To Be fair Straxus and Jhiaxus were plot critical characters of many a comic story arch, and had actual character, thus actually being important to the transformers mythos. X's roster is composed of many of the named minor Decepticon characters from the original Marvel Comics run for the purposes of fanwank.

News Credits: 3 · Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:22 pm

Funny thing is, he's died in both comic continuities.
He died by Blaster's hand in the Marvel comics and was executed by Impactor in the IDWverse, so, yeah, very minor 'con.

News Credits: 462 · Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:30 pm

And that somehow disqualifies him from being reinvented from a nobody into a somebody?

How is breathing new life into a brand new character made entirely from scratch any different from breathing new life into an existent-yet-untapped character who's been waiting to be used?

News Credits: 461 · Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:36 pm

Manterax Prime wrote:Funny thing is, he's died in both comic continuities.
He died by Blaster's hand in the Marvel comics and was executed by Impactor in the IDWverse, so, yeah, very minor 'con.

Ahhh What? no spoiler warnings?!! lol seriously though
don't want this. more money saved.

News Credits: 25 · Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:58 pm

Sabrblade wrote:And that somehow disqualifies him from being reinvented from a nobody into a somebody?

How is breathing new life into a brand new character made entirely from scratch any different from breathing new life into an existent-yet-untapped character who's been waiting to be used?

It's simple, not every one knows about, or alternatively cares to much about the significance, or lack of there fore of an extra from way back in the day being re purposed. A new character is just that, new, you saw the reaction towards windblade. How big was the fan reaction, beside people with knowledge like your own, was there toward squadron X?

Tue Mar 11, 2014 12:06 am

Meh. I don't really care for the mold. It works good enough as Cuyclonus, but it's not really poseable from the waist up.

At least they could change the head. That would at make it some other dude besides Shattered Glass Cyclonus.

News Credits: 1 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 12:21 am

SW's SilverHammer wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:And that somehow disqualifies him from being reinvented from a nobody into a somebody?

How is breathing new life into a brand new character made entirely from scratch any different from breathing new life into an existent-yet-untapped character who's been waiting to be used?

It's simple, not every one knows about, or alternatively cares to much about the significance, or lack of there fore of an extra from way back in the day being re purposed. A new character is just that, new, you saw the reaction towards windblade. How big was the fan reaction, beside people with knowledge like your own, was there toward squadron X?

I'm completely lost as to what your point is here. The reaction towards Windblade was polarized at best, largely negative from what I saw. Reactions to heretofore fiction-only characters finally getting toys is usually positive; so positive that it jumpstarted the whole 3rd party market.

I'm not as obsessive as Saberblade, but I spent a good chunk of the '90s with no way to indulge in Transformers other than the Marvel books I'd found, and wished that its toyless characters would someday get their due justice in physical form.

What you're actually saying is that you don't care about the character. Fair enough, but when you expand that to an assumption that no one cares about them enough to warrant their ever getting a toy, that attitude leads down a slippery slope to GEEWUN, no matter what era of TFs you prefer. Myself, I'd seriously buy several Botcon sets of the Classics Starscream mold repainted into every last in-fiction background seeker, with new names and personalities made up as they went along.

That said, before he was fudged together with that guy Rodimus Prime killed in the UK book, Ferak was a blue attack-saucer, so I'd honestly be happier if he was a repaint of our latest Cosmos. The robot mode works, though.

News Credits: 25 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 1:01 am

Bumblevivisector wrote:
I'm not as obsessive as Saberblade, but I spent a good chunk of the '90s with no way to indulge in Transformers other than the Marvel books I'd found, and wished that its toyless characters would someday get their due justice in physical form.

What you're actually saying is that you don't care about the character. Fair enough, but when you expand that to an assumption that no one cares about them enough to warrant their ever getting a toy, that attitude leads down a slippery slope to GEEWUN, no matter what era of TFs you prefer. Myself, I'd seriously buy several Botcon sets of the Classics Starscream mold repainted into every last in-fiction background color scheme, with new names and personalities made up as they went along.

That said, before he was fudged together with that guy Rodimus Prime killed in the UK book, Ferak was a blue attack-saucer, so I'd honestly be happier if he was a repaint of our latest Cosmos. The robot mode works, though.

Alright, my point is this: (and you are right) I don't think Ferak is an Identifiable enough as a character to warrant a toy, much less an exclusive; he's generic, so generic he's made of two, the saucer and that guy rodimus killed. Now some generics might be cool, I like Macabre and I like Crosscut because of their goofy looks, and I think they warrant toys as they're distinctive enough. I do agree with you some obscure characters should see the light of day,i'd love a G1 octus, it's just that some characters are a little to obscure, and only a few people really know about them, or just aren't that special, ferak is a little bit of both in my opinion.

Also I think they should use Cosmos for Crosscut, I would say there's a better mold choice for ferak, but cyclonus has the robot mode silhouette, minus the little horns of course.

Tue Mar 11, 2014 1:26 am

i think this is a digibash, like cannonball. i'll hold my judgement until real pics show up

News Credits: 402 · Updated Oct 21, 2022

SW's SilverHammer wrote:
Alright, my point is this: (and you are right) I don't think Ferak is an Identifiable enough as a character to warrant a toy, much less an exclusive; he's generic, so generic he's made of two, the saucer and that guy rodimus killed. Now some generics might be cool, I like Macabre and I like Crosscut because of their goofy looks, and I think they warrant toys as they're distinctive enough. I do agree with you some obscure characters should see the light of day,i'd love a G1 octus, it's just that some characters are a little to obscure, and only a few people really know about them, or just aren't that special, ferak is a little bit of both in my opinion.

But that's what makes him perfect for this type of set. It's a character that will only excite the type of collector that BotCon attracts - people who are so immersed in the lore that can get legitimately excited about this stuff. you're not and that's ok.

If the rest of the set plays to this pattern, it will be perfect. These are figures that can stand among a Classics collection, yet aren't necessary to complete it.

I really can't wait to see what's next. I'm hoping for Devcon to appear as a Knight.

Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:10 am

This really reminds me of the oversized white g1 cyclonus I got a few years ago. Think there's a pic on the toy hell website.

Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:10 am

This really reminds me of the oversized white g1 cyclonus I got a few years ago. Think there's a pic on the toy hell website.

News Credits: 22 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 3:20 am

Sabrblade wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:I really hope they have at least 1 G1 mold in there...
What do you mean by this?

OK, I phrased it wrong. I would like them to use a mold based on a G1 character. I understand that that's what Ferak is, based on Cyclonus, right?

Tue Mar 11, 2014 7:42 am

This is silly. Hasbro can take any old mold, change the dye color of the resin, give it some random name, call it an "exclusive", and fleece $40-80 from someone for a figure that was $10 at retail and probably about $2 at cost.

Of course, they are not holding a gun to your head either.

News Credits: 1 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 9:25 am

This does nothing for me.

The botcon set is now 1 and 1. >:oP

News Credits: 656 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:29 am

Cool mold, comes with a Minicon, but character I totally don't care about. Kinda feels like Flak and Landshark out of the '09 set.

News Credits: 1 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 10:30 am

I probably would have picked Generations Scourge rather than Cyclonus. Even Generations ATB Megs/Dreadwing. Wings may be oriented upside down, but either looks closer to Ferak's Seeker design. Just a retooled head and...viola.

News Credits: 3646 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:15 am

Mkall wrote:But that's what makes him perfect for this type of set. It's a character that will only excite the type of collector that BotCon attracts - people who are so immersed in the lore that can get legitimately excited about this stuff. you're not and that's ok.

If the rest of the set plays to this pattern, it will be perfect. These are figures that can stand among a Classics collection, yet aren't necessary to complete it.

I really can't wait to see what's next. I'm hoping for Devcon to appear as a Knight.

We are different types of collectors then because this isn't what I want as a collector, nor as someone who wants to see BotCon succeed. It's the 30th anniversary of Transformers and the 20th of BotCon ... this set should have knocked it out of the park. An extremely nice premium edition set of Transformers Prime characters or something way more mainstream would be far more appropriate for an anniversary year set. Again, doing an Encore/TRU Stunticons set and BotCon/e-Hobby G2 Stunticons exclusive set would have been a really nice way to do something to honor both the 30th anniversary and the 20th (though if Hasbro and Takara wasn't onboard then I don't know what you can do about that).

This set is shaping up to be another thumbs down from the theme to the first two reveals. Surely someone could have come up with something better than a KO looking Cyclonus based off some extremely obscure red shirt character that I had never heard of before despite having read the very comics in which he made appearances.

There's such a rich history of stories that could be expanded upon that I just don't get sets like these. I think I've officially given up hope for decent BotCon sets. It's been 7 years since there was a set that I was really excited about. I feel like they need some fresh ideas or some new people to really think outside of the box of what they're doing.

News Credits: 462 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:17 am

shockblast2 wrote:This is silly. Hasbro can take any old mold, change the dye color of the resin, give it some random name, call it an "exclusive", and fleece $40-80 from someone for a figure that was $10 at retail and probably about $2 at cost.

Of course, they are not holding a gun to your head either.

And this is different from every other BotCon/Club exclusive to before now how?

If this is just a general complaint about BotCon exclusives as a whole, you're about 20 too late.

ScottyP wrote:Cool mold, comes with a Minicon, but character I totally don't care about. Kinda feels like Flak and Landshark out of the '09 set.

This difference this time being, unlike Landshark, they used an existing character to make this instead of making up a whole new one.

News Credits: 3646 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:24 am

Sabrblade wrote:
ScottyP wrote:Cool mold, comes with a Minicon, but character I totally don't care about. Kinda feels like Flak and Landshark out of the '09 set.
This difference this time being, unlike Landshark, they used an existing character to make this instead of making up a whole new one.

Yah, it exists, but it's so obscure that I doubt many people care. Plus the poor color scheme doesn't help much. It looks like a KO.

News Credits: 241 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:28 am

Seibertron wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
ScottyP wrote:Cool mold, comes with a Minicon, but character I totally don't care about. Kinda feels like Flak and Landshark out of the '09 set.
This difference this time being, unlike Landshark, they used an existing character to make this instead of making up a whole new one.

Yah, it exists, but it's so obscure that I doubt many people care. Plus the poor color scheme doesn't help much. It looks like a KO.

I'll reserve judgement until we get actual in-hand samples instead of these photoshopped images. I showed him to my wife and she did say he looked a bit bland, so there's that. Every basket has to have a rotten apple to make the others look better I guess

News Credits: 462 · Tue Mar 11, 2014 11:36 am

You'd be surprised, Ryan. I've spoken with a good number of people outside of this board who have been dying to have Squadron X toys ever since "Last Stand of the Wreckers" came out.

Granted, I'm not as fully enthused about that prospect as they seemed to be (having not read LSOTW until many years after it came out), but I do see the intrigue.