The Energon Pub

Im skipping this year. I didnt like the pasadena vibe back in 2011. Ill attempt to buy a non attendee set but im not gonna kill myself staying glued to a computer screen. If I cant get one, ill just get it on ebay and help some poor scalper pay his monthly electric bill. And I dont see nothing nerdy about the shirt. Its black and has a nice throwback G1 style drawing. Just rock some black sweatpants and a fresh pair of Nikes and that shirt can go anywhere. A shirt doesnt make someone look nerd. Not having swag is what makes someone look nerd.

Sabrblade wrote:Registered! Primus Package + assemble custom class figure.


This toy is just "Ginrai". The old "Fire Guts" toy deco is being used as his standard form deco this time. While he can likely still power up for his attacks, he'll be an orange & red bot on fire this time instead of a red & blue one on fire. There is no need to refer to his non-powered form by his attack powered form name this time.

Sorry Sabr but I'm calling foul on this. All we know so far is that canon-wise the toy is just called Ginrai, which isn't especially meaningful (unless we're all calling Tracks "Turbo Tracks" nowadays). Until the comic comes out I don't think we can call it; but I see it going one of three ways:

A) This character's origin is unrelated to Masterforce and he has always been orange - sure, he's plain Ginrai

B) This character is Masterforce Ginrai or has an analogous origin, and is now permanently or temporarily orange - then he's bloody Fire Guts Ginrai.

C) This character's origin is unrelated to Masterforce but the orange represents a powered up form - then unless they name him something different he's still bloody Fire Guts Ginrai.

While I appreciate that the letter of the law here is that his name is just Ginrai the spirit of law shows that he is deliberately designed to be intentionally evocative of a specific incarnation of the character Ginrai.

This all said I look forward to arguing with you in person! See you there man.

It's the Wings Universe, so the Japanese cartoons don't exist in this continuity. He's even given an original character bio in the BotCon brochure:

AUTOBOT KNIGHT GINRAI – He is the gruff, pragmatic and downright paranoid military leader of the Autobots/Maximals. An old-school warrior “Bot of Action”, Ginrai has earned the rank of Knight Commander. A veteran of the old conflicts, he’s not entirely comfortable with the peace, constantly waiting for the “other shoe to drop”.

So Option B is out.

I'm leaning towards Option A since we see him seemingly casually orange here:



No glowing aura effect or anything to signify a powered up form.

Not like he's seen here, which is him powered up:



So we have two pics in which he is orange, one of him not glowing/fired up, and the other of him glowing/fired up. Suggesting that he's orange no matter what.


Though, let's not kid ourselves here, since he obviously wasn't orange when using his attack in Masterforce, either. He was just engulfed in orange flames without an actual color change to his body.

Diem wrote:This all said I look forward to arguing with you in person! See you there man.

LOL, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, too. This is gonna be an awesome BotCon.

Rated X wrote:Im skipping this year. I didnt like the pasadena vibe back in 2011. Ill attempt to buy a non attendee set but im not gonna kill myself staying glued to a computer screen. If I cant get one, ill just get it on ebay and help some poor scalper pay his monthly electric bill. And I dont see nothing nerdy about the shirt. Its black and has a nice throwback G1 style drawing. Just rock some black sweatpants and a fresh pair of Nikes and that shirt can go anywhere. A shirt doesnt make someone look nerd. Not having swag is what makes someone look nerd.

Haha. yea I'm going to do the same. Ebay if i cant get it on the site.

What I like about this set is that how much Ferak looks like my KO oversized white Cyclonus. Always nice when a repaint is an actual new character.

Love the new head on Scorponok. I'd love to see it on my old G1 Scorpy.

Windsweeper wrote:What I like about this set is that how much Ferak looks like my KO oversized white Cyclonus. Always nice when a repaint is an actual new character.

Technically, he's no more new a character than Devcon. He was in the Marvel G1 comics issue "The Smelting Pool!" and reappeared in the IDW comic mini-series "Last Stand of the Wreckers".

ScottyP wrote:Yeah, bagged sets are sold out apparently. Crazy quick!

wait what? the loose sets are sold out? arent those for the non attendees, which can register for another week?

shajaki wrote:

ScottyP wrote:Yeah, bagged sets are sold out apparently. Crazy quick!

wait what? the loose sets are sold out? arent those for the non attendees, which can register for another week?

No those are extra sets that you can buy and resell. Non-attendees gets a box set too. the bag sets is $100 cheaper.

Bagsets are also so you can open the figs while keeping your box MiB.

mooncake623 wrote:

shajaki wrote:

ScottyP wrote:Yeah, bagged sets are sold out apparently. Crazy quick!

wait what? the loose sets are sold out? arent those for the non attendees, which can register for another week?

No those are extra sets that you can buy and resell. Non-attendees gets a box set too. the bag sets is $100 cheaper.

*phew*
still debating if im going to sign up and buy it from the source, or just get it from ebay.

shajaki wrote:

mooncake623 wrote:

shajaki wrote:

ScottyP wrote:Yeah, bagged sets are sold out apparently. Crazy quick!

wait what? the loose sets are sold out? arent those for the non attendees, which can register for another week?

No those are extra sets that you can buy and resell. Non-attendees gets a box set too. the bag sets is $100 cheaper.

*phew*
still debating if im going to sign up and buy it from the source, or just get it from ebay.

And buy from scalpers? No way, my advice is to wait a few years for the prices to drop, or to look for members who are splitting up their sets and selling at cost.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

shajaki wrote:

mooncake623 wrote:

shajaki wrote:

ScottyP wrote:Yeah, bagged sets are sold out apparently. Crazy quick!

wait what? the loose sets are sold out? arent those for the non attendees, which can register for another week?

No those are extra sets that you can buy and resell. Non-attendees gets a box set too. the bag sets is $100 cheaper.

*phew*
still debating if im going to sign up and buy it from the source, or just get it from ebay.

And buy from scalpers? No way, my advice is to wait a few years for the prices to drop, or to look for members who are splitting up their sets and selling at cost.

this is one of those sets i fear wont drop... like the beast wars figures.

the attendee sets up right now, how many boxed sets can you buy? anyone out there wanna buy a second... for me?

Just to show off a little more, the official BotCon 2014 Facebook page has uploaded an image of the exclusive box set from this year's Pirates vs Knights theme. Not only do we get another look at the brilliant Robby Musso artwork, we also have a group shot of all the figures included! Check out below Devcon, Ferak, Scorponok with Olin Zarak, Fire Guts Ginrai and Cannonball, and of course, the box.

Va'al wrote:Check out below Devcon, Ferak, Scorponok with Olin Zarak, Fire Guts Ginrai and Cannonball, and of course, the box.

I'll call it what I want to call it. I care not for your fiction.

I look at this set and I see noting but awesome homages across the 30 years. I cannot wait to see the attendee exclusives.

Rated X wrote: Just rock some black sweatpants and a fresh pair of Nikes and that shirt can go anywhere. A shirt doesnt make someone look nerd. Not having swag is what makes someone look nerd.

If you say so dude.

Diem wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Registered! Primus Package + assemble custom class figure.


This toy is just "Ginrai". The old "Fire Guts" toy deco is being used as his standard form deco this time. While he can likely still power up for his attacks, he'll be an orange & red bot on fire this time instead of a red & blue one on fire. There is no need to refer to his non-powered form by his attack powered form name this time.

Sorry Sabr but I'm calling foul on this. All we know so far is that canon-wise the toy is just called Ginrai, which isn't especially meaningful (unless we're all calling Tracks "Turbo Tracks" nowadays). Until the comic comes out I don't think we can call it; but I see it going one of three ways:

A) This character's origin is unrelated to Masterforce and he has always been orange - sure, he's plain Ginrai

B) This character is Masterforce Ginrai or has an analogous origin, and is now permanently or temporarily orange - then he's bloody Fire Guts Ginrai.

C) This character's origin is unrelated to Masterforce but the orange represents a powered up form - then unless they name him something different he's still bloody Fire Guts Ginrai.

While I appreciate that the letter of the law here is that his name is just Ginrai the spirit of law shows that he is deliberately designed to be intentionally evocative of a specific incarnation of the character Ginrai.

This all said I look forward to arguing with you in person! See you there man.

Plus Fire Guts is just way cooler than plain old Ginrai. Just let it happen Sabrblade. Don't get too worked up about it man.

It's not about the fiction, it's about the integrity of toy publicity.

It's like when people refer toys of Strika and Tankor as "Stryka" and "Tankorr", and consider those the official names.

Journalistic honesty/authenticity and that stuff.

MGrotusque wrote:

Rated X wrote: Just rock some black sweatpants and a fresh pair of Nikes and that shirt can go anywhere. A shirt doesnt make someone look nerd. Not having swag is what makes someone look nerd.

If you say so dude.

Ive worn transformer shirts to bars and strip clubs and met girls. Its called self confidence. Guess not being a nerd also helps too.

Sabrblade wrote:It's not about the fiction, it's about the integrity of toy publicity.

It's like when people refer toys of Strika and Tankor as "Stryka" and "Tankorr", and consider those the official names.

Journalistic honesty/authenticity and that stuff.

In all honesty, the site hardly ever gives the proper trademarked names of the figures, only the boxset. And judging from the faint names on the side, it looks like we're going the 2006 route:

"Pirate Cannonball"
"Pirate Ferak"
"Pirate Scorponok"
"Knight Devcon"
"Knight Ginrai"

Rated X wrote:

MGrotusque wrote:

Rated X wrote: Just rock some black sweatpants and a fresh pair of Nikes and that shirt can go anywhere. A shirt doesnt make someone look nerd. Not having swag is what makes someone look nerd.

If you say so dude.

Ive worn transformer shirts to bars and strip clubs and met girls. Its called self confidence. Guess not being a nerd also helps too.

Girls at strip clubs don't care what you look like as long as you give them money. Besides, you're a nerd. You have hundreds of posts on a message board about cartoon robots, and could probably name everyone that was released 1984. Own it. It's cool. I'm a nerd, too, and it's okay. You can do it with whatever swag is, but you are still a nerd and that's not a bad thing.

It Is Him wrote:

Rated X wrote:

MGrotusque wrote:

Rated X wrote: Just rock some black sweatpants and a fresh pair of Nikes and that shirt can go anywhere. A shirt doesnt make someone look nerd. Not having swag is what makes someone look nerd.

If you say so dude.

Ive worn transformer shirts to bars and strip clubs and met girls. Its called self confidence. Guess not being a nerd also helps too.

Girls at strip clubs don't care what you look like as long as you give them money. Besides, you're a nerd. You have hundreds of posts on a message board about cartoon robots, and could probably name everyone that was released 1984. Own it. It's cool. I'm a nerd, too, and it's okay. You can do it with whatever swag is, but you are still a nerd and that's not a bad thing.

"I've worn a T-shirt I purchased without irony at a convention about children's toys that are transforming alien robots and met girls. It helps that I'm not a nerd."

Just kidding Rated. But your swag must be stronger than mine. I could maybe pull in a logo shirt, possibly the BotCon 2011 shirt but not this nerdy beauty. Unless the girl was nerdy or a nerd-lover too, but that's not really the point.

It Is Him wrote:Besides, you're a nerd. You have hundreds of posts on a message board about cartoon robots, and could probably name everyone that was released 1984. Own it. It's cool. I'm a nerd, too, and it's okay. You can do it with whatever swag is, but you are still a nerd and that's not a bad thing.

Preach it, brother!

Which ones are Knights and which are Pirates?

Looks like only Scorpinok is a Con though