The Energon Pub

From NOS:
"The point I'm trying to make is what we see in the cartoon/comic is done to impress or simply to make the fiction work."

OMG this is just what I was thinking without having the words to express it! GET OUTTA MAH HEAD CHARLES!

I think the best solution being, the Gestalts shouldn't be "size compared" versus G1 cartoon, or comic, or even in relation to each other...but by relation of their alt modes.

For example...Herc was done so well because their alt modes, as construction vehicles, matched up more or less okay with, say, Henkei Prime and such (not so much with Weapon/Medical specalist but I am willing to forgive them because they ROCK). Bruticus Maximus, however, was a total fail (although made alot cooler thanks to FP) because the alt modes were so scrimpy (Swindle's alt mode hummer versus, say, Jazz for instance)...and the tiny little excuse for a helicopter or shuttle that was Blast Off and Vortex.

That being said, if someone made a Menasor based on car alts about the size of, say, classics Sunstreaker, he would make an excellent sized Gestalt. As far as Uranus goes, I always thought I would be happy with an Aerialbots team that was roughly on par with the classic seeker molds (although they themselves should have been a tad larger, comparatively)...and it looks like TFC might be holding to that.

I think collectively we should stop nitpicking all of the 3P'ers, since they have put out some wonderfully awesome combiner teams as a whole, even giving us multiple brands from which to choose the same teams from (Herc vs. Giant). The REAL problem, of course, lies in the fact that a lot of our favorite TF's have never been scaled well to begin with. Most of the Autobots I have collected so far seem pretty close (comparing guys like OP, Sunstreaker, Tracks, Weapons and Medical Specialist), with only a few notable exceptions (such as the Seeker molds or the Superion/Bruticus Maximus teams being either somewhat or just plain way too small, individually).

As a matter of fact, now that I think about it...I see some anti-Decepticon conspiracy going on here! Seekers, Combaticons, and even our options for, say, Reflector were woefully small...whats with all the D-con hate?

DJrasmo wrote:I think the best solution being, the Gestalts shouldn't be "size compared" versus G1 cartoon, or comic, or even in relation to each other...but by relation of their alt modes.

I understand what you're saying, but then Bruticus would have a right arm larger than the rest of him put together. I guess he should get himself a girlfriend! But Fansproject's idea of making Blast Off a drone as opposed to a passenger shuttle was a good move.

DJrasmo wrote:As a matter of fact, now that I think about it...I see some anti-Decepticon conspiracy going on here! Seekers, Combaticons, and even our options for, say, Reflector were woefully small...whats with all the D-con hate?

Decepticons struggled to shift in some markets historically, so maybe Hasbro erred on the side of caution with smaller figures. It's probably why poor Universe Galvatron would struggle to take on bumblebee

To add to the discussion, what do you guys think about "the 6th member"? A lot of fans seem to be up in arms simply at the notion of an additional member, this is how I feel.

As of posting this, TFC has a Superion and MMC has a Predaking designed and in some form of pre/production. Each group has announced an additional member to these traditionally 5 member teams. I plan on transforming both groups back and forth several times but ultimately I plan on keeping them in combined mode. If for some odd reason I decided to display them in individual robot mode the 6th member would be put safely away. I can't believe how much people are freaking out over this issue, as if these 3rd party companies took a dump on their childhoods. If your reasoning is that you feel you are being forced to pay for 20% more, let me tell you, you aren't. These additional figures exist so that the core team will look exactly how they are supposed to. Without these extras, all the pieces needed for combination then have to be integrated into the actual figures. That takes away from the look of the robot and likely the vehicle mode as well. And you would still be paying just as much only this way it's 20% more on top of the current retail price for each figure individually.

The 6th member isn't going to have a name in my collection. It won't in yours either. First of all, none of these figures are going to have G1 names on the boxes so why would you attach one to it?

I think the most ridiculous thing about the issue is that we have yet to see how the figure even looks on the Gestalt. It's not like the companies would add a figure to make it look less G1 and in fact, MMC has stated theirs is to make it look better (and as I speculate, more G1[like TFC's Rage set])

And besides, you don't have to buy it anyway! And if you think that one company making a Gestalt will stop the others from making their own better version, you're wrong. The other companies would look at our feedback and put it into their own version. Win win guys.

JRF7 says relax.

Hmmm that '6th member' thing is a right old hornet's nest. I can understand people wanting to have new versions of the original characters, and having an extra robot just hanging around with the old G1 crew will really bother some (One of the reasons I think Drift polarises opinion is that he's a johnny-come-lately). It also depends how integral to the combiner that 6th member is.

In Superion's case, it sounds like the 6th member will form the chest armour, which to me says that he will be significantly smaller and may not have a robot mode at all? In which case he would be more of a 'scouting drone' than anything to get too worked up about.

In Predaking's case, who knows? The pictures we have seen clearly show 5 members, and I cannot see any additional kibble in the combined mode that suggests a 6th member. Unless there is something on the back to make Divebomb's wingspan wider? I'm probably more bothered about a 6th member for Predaking than Superion. MMC will have to select another animal to go alongside the traditional 5 which seems 'wrong' - unless the 6th member is a kibble combiner.

I agree that 100% of fans will display these guys combined, so these are the most important modes to get right. I don't begrudge a 6th member if it gives 3rd parties more room to make this happen.

I think a lot of us (myself included) became very nervous when Superion was announced to be a 6-bot combiner.

That made everyone think that all 6 would be integral to the body of the combined mode, in the same way Devastator is constructed.

For a lot of us, that is just plain wrong.

These are traditionally 5 man teams and when you are shelling out three, four or six hundred bucks for something, you expect a level of perfection.

Now, as far a Superion, we have some clarification that the 6th member will be the chest shield.
While we still don't know what this will look like for sure, in the traditional bot the chest shield was a separate piece anyway, so for now it seems like this "figure" can be entirely ignored if you want.

Personally, I'm not a fan of parts-forming for my TFs, but I understand there are physical limitations, especially for the gestalt teams, where things like hands and feet are near impossible to truly integrate.

In that case, adding a parts-former for the kibble when the team is separated into individuals seems like a decent compromise. You retain the aesthetics & transformations of the core members, but you have something you can do with the leftovers from transformation other than putting them in a ziplock.

rpetras wrote:when you are shelling out three, four or six hundred bucks for something, you expect a level of perfection.

This. You wanna give it to me for retail prices, fine, take your liberties with it. You want to charge me $500+ for it, though, do the damn thing right.