The Energon Pub

wow. I gotta say that's looking really good.

Depending on how it all turns out, I may end up replacing City Commander, but this new Magnus would have to be TOP quality for me to do that.

The proportions look off to me but I'm interested to see more. It's hard to tell much from these pictures.

i like everything but the head. its too Frankenstein's monster

Yeah, it has potential depending on how it actually turns out, but I'm kinda hoping it doesn't turn out to be a must have. I'm tired of these unnecessary figures there's already more than an adequate alternative of.

3rd Parties are starting to overstay their welcome... <- That should be my new sig.

Maybe it's ncie for those who don't have CC, but I already have mine + iGear's hammer set + PE's Ultimate Form. I'm good, really.

Mkall wrote:wow. I gotta say that's looking really good.

Depending on how it all turns out, I may end up replacing City Commander, but this new Magnus would have to be TOP quality for me to do that.

I just read through this thread and the KO vs 3rd party vs originals discussion.

Your response here sums up my feelings. I go with whoever makes the best rendition (in my opinion) of the Hasbro created characters. The "best rendition" means likeness to the character (including size scale) and quality of materials,paint, etc...

For example, Hasbro released a Classic Ultra Magnus, Fans Project made it better, now this new figure is coming around. Whether it will be better or not is yet to be seen, but if it is, well, bye-bye City Commander and hello new not-Ultra Magnus.

You might have heard of CHMS already and if you haven't, they are a somewhat well-spoken off manufacturer of KO toys. They are known for their quality, compared to other KO toys that is and for their tendency to KO Transformers Classics molds and repaint them in any colour their costumers want. Recently it was revealed that they wanted to re-shell some of the molds they KOed, but now it seems like they have found something new to do: fan made toys - 3rd party so to speak.
There have been 2 projects of theirs floating around our forums lately, and we've decided to cover them in one story.
The first was dug up by fellow news hound El Duque: Two silhouettes of a figure that somehow has an air of Optimus Prime of no specific incarnation about it.



Those images are from their weibo blog page, since that is not a public site they have likely been leaked. Reportedly the only description or explanation for this toy is that it's not Optimus Prime. This might mean that it's something that kinda looks like Optimus Prime but is not supposed to be him, or it's just a somewhat lazy way of naming a toy that is supposed to be Optimus Prime.

The next and far more interesting one was brought to us by our member Scaleface, design renders for a new Ultra Magnus set. A new G1 Ultra Magnus set with cab robot and trailer/armour.
And judging by it's engineering and design, it looks like CHMS has taken a few notes from FansProject's City Commander. The cab section is reportedly the size of the Classics Voyager Optimus Prime mold, and is looks like it combines elements from that with elements from the Masterpiece Optimus Prime design. The size and first batch of pictures come from KOToys, click the images to get to their original posting over at KOToys.








Then there is a second more detailed set of images on this over at ACToys.























Some of these images are screen-shots taken from a video showing off the set and it's transformation, you can watch this video by clicking here and entering "1986" into the password field covering the video.

No word on when any of these will come out but if there is any further development regarding these, we'll let you know.

Stay tuned to seibertron.com for all your Transformers related news!

That Ultra Magnus is amazing. I want it. I wonder if the fingers of the armour are articulated or not.

Man this can't come out soon enough.

Man that magnus figure looks amazing!!!!

Youtube upload, no password needed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXGs4ON9AQw

not gonna lie. that ultra magnus video made me nerdgasm.

I'm intrigued by the Prime unit and a little quizzical about the Magnus form. There is a lot going on in that transformation and it just seems like there's a lot that can go wrong without top notch production. Prove me wrong CHMS.

At first when I looked at it I thought, WOW, that outdoes city commander! Large by not having to work around Hasbro's own product. But the more I look at it, that weird shoulder configuration really bothers me.

In armoured form it looks ridiculous. I cannot 'not' see it now when I look at it. If the cab is a masterpiece-esque figure like Faith Leader, the Shoulder assembly should be able to telescope away from the body a little, surely enough to make room for the armour. That arms sticking out sideways look, giving him ridiculous wide shoulders just looks silly.

I would not be surprised if Igear come out with a Magnus repaint of Faith Leader and a trailer to match.

Also, I got one of CHMS's early mould seekers, it was super floppy in places, and dangerously tight in others, and it has two left rear stabilisers... I seriously don't trust their QC.

K.O, 3rd party, authentic. Who cares! Cool things are cool and this has potential. Wanted to read opinions on the toy because there have been times where I have changed my mind one way or another about a product based on information/observations others have about said product or QC issues with certain manufactures. 7 pages of of philosophical debate on TM ethics and I am ready for bed. Not intending to sound snotty but there has to be a thread on this subject somewhere thats 500 pages long.

Looks impressive. It's funny too, I JUST preordered a re-release City Commander set from BBTS and just today received a DIA Commander set for my Henkei Prime that I ordered from ebay (very awesome by the way ).

I have a question to the anti-KO folks:

What about G1 Shockwave? If I want a G1 Shockwave I have 2 options:

1. Purchase a disgustingly overpriced (and very likely yellowed/worn out) real G1 Shockwave from a seller on ebay, the sale of which provides exactly $0.00 in profits for Has/Tak
2. Purchase a KO Shockwave from CHMS or whoever makes it for a far less expensive price, and as above, Has/Tak gets exactly $0.00

Does it make any difference if a toy is not KO'ed until it is no longer available at retail? Assuming the KO is sold as a KO, so that it can't be passed off as the real thing to unsuspecting collectors, but that depends on seller honesty/integrity, it should be fine as I see it. They aren't competing with Has/Tak because Has/Tak got out of the G1 Shockwave business many years ago, and from all I've read, they never plan to return to it (because they can't as I recall, either due to legal issues, a lost mold, or both).

I understand from a collector's point of view why it could be bad; their previously rare and extremely sought after figure can now be purchased at a very cheap price (comparatively speaking) where they may have had to pay a lot or go through a lot of trouble to get their own.

That brings up one catch-22 that I see with some KO's, and that is when they make every mark on the toy (copyrights etc.) as well as the packaging itself identical to the original. Again, if the legit/original Has/Tak figure is no longer available at retail, it cannot possibly hurt Has/Tak in any way, but it has the potential to hurt a collector who paid a high price for what they thought was an original Has/Tak product from a dishonest seller who ILLEGALLY represented the figure as an original and not a KO. I have a big problem with that, because it is fraud and a total ripoff.

Other than that, I have no problem with KO's or third party products of any kind. I only have a problem with people being ripped off (and as I said, in this case Has/Tak don't count because they see no money from the purchases of vintage figures that they no longer produce because they saw that money LONG ago when the figure was purchased by the seller from retail).

Anyway, back on topic. I'm loving all the third party stuff we're starting to get now. It's awesome and is giving us a lot of options which should eventually lead to some of these third party companies getting bigger, allowing for falling prices and more variety (and hopefully faster production so we get new stuff quicker instead of waiting for many months or even years for them to complete a project they've announced/hinted at).

*yawns*
as usual, the bickering about 3rd partys and knockoffs.
*sighs*
anyway, these look quite cool
that little decepticon symbol is cute, i dont care much for the alternators-looking sillouhette, but the magnus looks epicty epic.
also, if you look on the linked video, the front of the cab of the base magnus figure had one hell of a tansformation, as does actually, the chest and head armour piece.

waiting eagerly for more news such as release date, price point, or, for that matter, prototypes.

That's insanely complicated for a voyager sized toy. I'm skeptical.

Did Hideaki Yoki design the first Masterpiece Prime? If not him, than whoever should be very proud at how much his work has been built upon The cab (atleast from the ankles up) is a MP 01 Prime.

This Magnus looks epic. I still like my City Commander better, only becuase it is G1 with personality, BUT this set might be hard to pass up. Could be my first double dipped/3rd party piece.

Does this have any relation to the fan support that surfaced for a customizer who's custom MP Magnus trailer design got caught in the 3rd party/KO vacuum?

Primus Yess! Let it be true!

A G1 voyager sized cartoon accurate Optimus Prime which looks like it's going to be produced in a good ammount. I hope the quality will be fair. And of course hope it will get the Optimus Prime deco with some diaclone trailer deco.

If I finally get my G1 cartoon accurate "toy" and into scale with other Hasbro lines version, this will be my first 3rd party purchase.

Fingers and eyes crossed.

Mykltron wrote:That's insanely complicated for a voyager sized toy. I'm skeptical.

I know right?
the whole headlight area/front whel thing hardly looks physically possible...
but still, even a simplified version would be epic.

From the video it's look like they maintained the original G1 design and gave the character a new transformation as well. Very nicely done.

even from a Non-magnus fan point of view this is still incredible, It's like the whole world has woken up after the masterpiece range were sold, realising the amount of adult collectors out there armed with a passion and a wallet, If I was a Magnus fan I'd be all over this, so far it doesn't even look like it has been 3D-printed, just floating around in Cyberspace. Get Your "Prints" Out for the boys!

Blackstreak wrote:From the video it's look like they maintained the original G1 design and gave the character a new transformation as well. Very nicely done.

From the video it's look like they are the second company to KO Masterpiece Prime!

The trailer rocks hard! seriously!

As far as the scale concerns: Hybrid Style Convoy had nearly the same transformation (with the headlight and wheels folding into the chest and what not) process in a scout/deluxe design. Granted they are notoriously weak, but double the size and the fact that this figure has been redone so many times (My Grandmother has a Masterpiece Prime minicon that will be up for preorder this month, release date 2013) I'm sure they can handle production.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

I do understand the facts that one of them is being passed off as an original in an attempt to get your money disingenuosly. However, I counter with the other one is using fanboyism against the collector to get your money disingenuously

I can agree with just about all of the rant except for this part. Can't see what's so disingenuous about the 3rd party products. The price may be overinflated, but nobody's forcing anyone to buy it.

Same as KO's, no one's forcing you to buy them. That's why I don't get why everyone gets worked up about KO's, but is ok with 3rd party stuff. I look at my CHMS Sunstorm and my Fansproject DIA Commander the same way, unofficial products. There's no difference. And Has/Tak isn't loosing money because of either, that's way they are allowed to exist. Do you think for one second if Has/Tak felt their property was in any harm of loosing money that they'd allow KO's and 3rd party stuff to be sold, I doubt it. They'd go all gangbusters and wipe them all out. That's why I find those who decry KO's while praising 3rd party products as hypocritical, to me they're the same thing.

Can anyone say Prime Repaint?

Seriously, does anyone here NOT want that cab in Prime colors?