The Energon Pub

[Nemesis Primal]

Honestly, I'm baffled this is still a debate. Has everyone forgotten the last Targetmaster partners from Legacy? Especially the Double Targetmasters? Commander Deathsaurus and his Breast Chest Animals wouldn't be nearly as good as the current version!

I don't think anyone's trying to debate that a mainline Deathsaurus would be a better figure than the Haslab, merely stating the fact that some of us would prefer an $80-90 figure with less stuff (and/or an $80-90 figure and $10-20 on separate minions) over having to drop $180 on one figure/set.

Also I would say 1/2 of the Targetmaster characters in Legacy thus far look fine, and the good one is the one that is a Double, so I don't think that would compromise Deathsaurus that much.

I was actually talking about their partners. I mean, compare them with the Battlemasters back in Siege and Earthrise. Or hell, all the way back to Legends, Thrilling 30 or even Universe Cyclonus!

Ah, I see, I misread that part. Yeah, this is why I'm totally fine with the strategy of pack-partners-separately like in Siege and the upcoming Frenzy, since they seemingly don't have the budget for packing them together within the retail price points. It leads to less compromise on the individual bots.

[Emerje]

So can anyone on here comment, how was hasbro with replacement parts for breakages with unicron? I remember Thew broke his unicron live on camera, and comments were telling him to contact hasbro. I only ask, as I now have the funds (theoretically) to get a second deathsaurus as back up in case anything happens with the first...

I believe with Unicron and probably other HasLabs they produced extra parts for replacements, but I wouldn't count on that past the first month after release.

Emerje

[-Kanrabat-]

Personally I think DS'll only hit tier 1 if he gets funded. I'm not gonna be shocked if he funds, but I don't see him getting enough for the second tier (as much as I hope he hits it)

Ye of little faith.

Considering the previous two HASLAB Transformers History, Deathy will be fully funded beyond all the tiers.

[-Kanrabat-]

Honestly, I'm baffled this is still a debate. Has everyone forgotten the last Targetmaster partners from Legacy? Especially the Double Targetmasters? Commander Deathsaurus and his Breast Chest Animals wouldn't be nearly as good as the current version!

I don't think anyone's trying to debate that a mainline Deathsaurus would be a better figure than the Haslab, merely stating the fact that some of us would prefer an $80-90 figure with less stuff (and/or an $80-90 figure and $10-20 on separate minions) over having to drop $180 on one figure/set.

Also I would say 1/2 of the Targetmaster characters in Legacy thus far look fine, and the good one is the one that is a Double, so I don't think that would compromise Deathsaurus that much.

I was actually talking about their partners. I mean, compare them with the Battlemasters back in Siege and Earthrise. Or hell, all the way back to Legends, Thrilling 30 or even Universe Cyclonus!

Ah, I see, I misread that part. Yeah, this is why I'm totally fine with the strategy of pack-partners-separately like in Siege and the upcoming Frenzy, since they seemingly don't have the budget for packing them together within the retail price points. It leads to less compromise on the individual bots.

I can understand the sentiment, but hunting separate bots can be a nightmare. Especially when limited quantities and/or bad distribution gets involved.

Having to pay 50$CAN plus shipping for that Select box of cassettes just so that my ER Doubledealer can have his minions was a hard pill to swallow. I would rather had paid a bit more for leader DD than having to buy the minions from a damn scalper.

[Coptur]

I think of all the Haslabs that both went into production and had bonus tiers, the GIJoe Skystriker is the only one to actually fund, but not pass all it's tiers, so far.

Heroquest didn't reach the last two stretch goals but they included them anyway.

[Sentinel_Primal]

Personally I think DS'll only hit tier 1 if he gets funded. I'm not gonna be shocked if he funds, but I don't see him getting enough for the second tier (as much as I hope he hits it)

Ye of little faith.

Considering the previous two HASLAB Transformers History, Deathy will be fully funded beyond all the tiers.

True, but Unicron didn't have any tiers and has a wider appeal, and Victory Saber is a good guy that people have been wanting for years. Deathsaurus is also a wanted character, but I don't know if he has the same appeal for the price point that the entire package of Victory Saber had

[-Kanrabat-]

Personally I think DS'll only hit tier 1 if he gets funded. I'm not gonna be shocked if he funds, but I don't see him getting enough for the second tier (as much as I hope he hits it)

Ye of little faith.

Considering the previous two HASLAB Transformers History, Deathy will be fully funded beyond all the tiers.

True, but Unicron didn't have any tiers and has a wider appeal, and Victory Saber is a good guy that people have been wanting for years. Deathsaurus is also a wanted character, but I don't know if he has the same appeal for the price point that the entire package of Victory Saber had

Unicron's target number was quite high and it was the most expensive TF ever. As for Deathsaurus, he's VS main rival. So any VS Dan will want him as well.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Personally I think DS'll only hit tier 1 if he gets funded. I'm not gonna be shocked if he funds, but I don't see him getting enough for the second tier (as much as I hope he hits it)

Ye of little faith.

Considering the previous two HASLAB Transformers History, Deathy will be fully funded beyond all the tiers.

True, but Unicron didn't have any tiers and has a wider appeal, and Victory Saber is a good guy that people have been wanting for years. Deathsaurus is also a wanted character, but I don't know if he has the same appeal for the price point that the entire package of Victory Saber had

Considering Unicron was 3 times the price of Deathsaurus and needed an extension to make it, I think Deathsaurus will compare more to Victory Saber

[Emerje]

Personally I think DS'll only hit tier 1 if he gets funded. I'm not gonna be shocked if he funds, but I don't see him getting enough for the second tier (as much as I hope he hits it)

Ye of little faith.

Considering the previous two HASLAB Transformers History, Deathy will be fully funded beyond all the tiers.

True, but Unicron didn't have any tiers and has a wider appeal, and Victory Saber is a good guy that people have been wanting for years. Deathsaurus is also a wanted character, but I don't know if he has the same appeal for the price point that the entire package of Victory Saber had

Unicron didn't have tiers, but they did add things that weren't part of the original pitch as they went. The tiny slug figures of Hot Rod and Galvatron, the Autobot shuttle, the stand for those piece plus one of the removable head, the new chin and updated hand articulation were all added later similar to how tier are unlocked.

Unicron's target number was quite high and it was the most expensive TF ever.

Unicron's target goal was only 8K to Victory Saber and Deathsaurus' 11K.

Emerje

[-Kanrabat-]

Unicron's target goal was only 8K to Victory Saber and Deathsaurus' 11K.

Emerje

Proportion-wise, that target was stratospheric. 8K for a 600 mother effing dollars toy versus 11K for a 180$ toy? To be truly equivalent to Unicron, VS should have had a target number of at least 22K backers for it's minimum.

Hell, VS didn't need any time extension plus it blew all the tiers pass 26K backers.
I don't think Deathsaurus will beat VS's record, especially with their shipping policy changes, but I'm sure it will blow pass the 17K backers easily regardless.

[Emerje]

The prices are based on what it would cost to to get the minimum number into production, it isn't right to compare them like that. 22K probably would have brought the price down, but probably would have raised the tiers proportionally as well and I just don't see them selling 40K to hit tier 3.

Unicron got the time extension because they started it before working out all of their plans. They had considered sales outside of the US, they hadn't worked out sales with Takara Tomy yet, and quickly realized they weren't doing all the things fans were expecting for the price.

Emerje

[-Kanrabat-]

Unicron got the time extension because they started it before working out all of their plans. They had considered sales outside of the US, they hadn't worked out sales with Takara Tomy yet, and quickly realized they weren't doing all the things fans were expecting for the price.

Emerje

TlDr; They planned Unicron poorly.

At least they knocked it out of the park for VS and I think Deathsaurus will be the same.

Deathy is no Reva Lightsaber after all.

[Immortal Starscream]

fun with color! I had 30 minutes to blow and was bored af, so I did this. I know its pointless, since we will have color images soon enough from hasbro, but eh what the hell.

[King Kuuga]

The thing I don't get about Haslab Victory Saber and Deathsaurus is why they're launching with uncolored images.

Every other Haslab brand has had, at the very least, color CG renders of the vision of the project, if not a hand-painted prototype. Even Unicron did this. But VS and now DS are launching and going a couple weeks with just the grayscale renders and prototypes. They could get more backers off the bat with color samples I think. Is it some deliberate strategy by the TF team that the other brands haven't caught on to? Obviously when they release the color images they'll incentivize more backers. Or are Transformers just THAT much more complex to develop than the other products? I know they're generally more complicated than a similarly sized action figure, that's not news to me, but something like Sentinel or Galactus seems like it'd be on par with VS and DS in parts count and level of detail. A good amount of conceptualizing has to go into these figures before the campaign begins, so even if they don't have the exact color layout finalized, they have a good idea of the transformation and what bits end up where so they can get both modes in the right overall color scheme. It seems less enticing that I'm being asked to fund what looks like an imcomplete product. (I know they're all incomplete products but this is about optics)

[william-james88]

The thing I don't get about Haslab Victory Saber and Deathsaurus is why they're launching with uncolored images.

Every other Haslab brand has had, at the very least, color CG renders of the vision of the project, if not a hand-painted prototype. Even Unicron did this. But VS and now DS are launching and going a couple weeks with just the grayscale renders and prototypes. They could get more backers off the bat with color samples I think. Is it some deliberate strategy by the TF team that the other brands haven't caught on to? Obviously when they release the color images they'll incentivize more backers. Or are Transformers just THAT much more complex to develop than the other products? I know they're generally more complicated than a similarly sized action figure, that's not news to me, but something like Sentinel or Galactus seems like it'd be on par with VS and DS in parts count and level of detail. A good amount of conceptualizing has to go into these figures before the campaign begins, so even if they don't have the exact color layout finalized, they have a good idea of the transformation and what bits end up where so they can get both modes in the right overall color scheme. It seems less enticing that I'm being asked to fund what looks like an imcomplete product. (I know they're all incomplete products but this is about optics)

That's because Transformers go through a different process than other action figures and are designed by a foreign team.

[Emerje]

The thing I don't get about Haslab Victory Saber and Deathsaurus is why they're launching with uncolored images.

Every other Haslab brand has had, at the very least, color CG renders of the vision of the project, if not a hand-painted prototype. Even Unicron did this. But VS and now DS are launching and going a couple weeks with just the grayscale renders and prototypes. They could get more backers off the bat with color samples I think. Is it some deliberate strategy by the TF team that the other brands haven't caught on to? Obviously when they release the color images they'll incentivize more backers. Or are Transformers just THAT much more complex to develop than the other products? I know they're generally more complicated than a similarly sized action figure, that's not news to me, but something like Sentinel or Galactus seems like it'd be on par with VS and DS in parts count and level of detail. A good amount of conceptualizing has to go into these figures before the campaign begins, so even if they don't have the exact color layout finalized, they have a good idea of the transformation and what bits end up where so they can get both modes in the right overall color scheme. It seems less enticing that I'm being asked to fund what looks like an imcomplete product. (I know they're all incomplete products but this is about optics)

I think they do it to keep things interesting. Aside from tiers the others didn't really have much to update with. The Transformers team's tactic is to generate buzz through showing progression. Once the CAD build is done it doesn't take much effort to color it, it was probably ready when announced even though the CAD model itself probably wasn't the final version. My prediction is next up they'll show us the colored CAD model, then the 3D printed gray model and finally the hand painted model in the last week. If it's really what they're doing then it's probably not a bad strategy, since it keeps things fresh week after week.

Emerje

[Jelze Bunnycat]

The thing I don't get about Haslab Victory Saber and Deathsaurus is why they're launching with uncolored images.

Every other Haslab brand has had, at the very least, color CG renders of the vision of the project, if not a hand-painted prototype. Even Unicron did this. But VS and now DS are launching and going a couple weeks with just the grayscale renders and prototypes. They could get more backers off the bat with color samples I think. Is it some deliberate strategy by the TF team that the other brands haven't caught on to? Obviously when they release the color images they'll incentivize more backers. Or are Transformers just THAT much more complex to develop than the other products? I know they're generally more complicated than a similarly sized action figure, that's not news to me, but something like Sentinel or Galactus seems like it'd be on par with VS and DS in parts count and level of detail. A good amount of conceptualizing has to go into these figures before the campaign begins, so even if they don't have the exact color layout finalized, they have a good idea of the transformation and what bits end up where so they can get both modes in the right overall color scheme. It seems less enticing that I'm being asked to fund what looks like an imcomplete product. (I know they're all incomplete products but this is about optics)

Possibly because the mold layout has not been done yet, or rather, they haven't figured out which parts go into what (color) mold. There is a general idea for the larger parts I assume, but minor parts like joints and inner workings require more thorough planning, and can change on a whim. Transformers have a lot more moving parts compared to other action figures; not just limbs and head, but the inner mechanisms as well.

[King Kuuga]

Possibly because the mold layout has not been done yet, or rather, they haven't figured out which parts go into what (color) mold. There is a general idea for the larger parts I assume, but minor parts like joints and inner workings require more thorough planning, and can change on a whim. Transformers have a lot more moving parts compared to other action figures; not just limbs and head, but the inner mechanisms as well.

I understaqnd that. I don't expect the colors to be locked in at this stage. They showcase them before the colors are locked in. But they did it with Unicron, giving us what I believe was a hand-painted prototype, and some stuff wound up changed on the final mold. I assume similar alterations have happened with stuff like the sail barge, sentinel, etc. They include asterisks with all the renders and test shots saying the colors and design aren't final so I'm failing to see the issue.

[Seibertron]

Possibly because the mold layout has not been done yet, or rather, they haven't figured out which parts go into what (color) mold. There is a general idea for the larger parts I assume, but minor parts like joints and inner workings require more thorough planning, and can change on a whim. Transformers have a lot more moving parts compared to other action figures; not just limbs and head, but the inner mechanisms as well.

I understaqnd that. I don't expect the colors to be locked in at this stage. They showcase them before the colors are locked in. But they did it with Unicron, giving us what I believe was a hand-painted prototype, and some stuff wound up changed on the final mold. I assume similar alterations have happened with stuff like the sail barge, sentinel, etc. They include asterisks with all the renders and test shots saying the colors and design aren't final so I'm failing to see the issue.

There was also a lot of negative feedback when things changed on Unicron. I'm assuming what they're doing is to avoid that problem again as much as possible.

Considering that we've got a month to go, all shall be revealed soon I would think.

[o.supreme]

Well it's been a slow crawl the last week going from 5500 to just now 6K. However the good news is, this has been all direct orders through Pulse as far as we know. The big spikes from TT and other online retailers haven't begun to be added yet. I can't wait until we see the first big jump. Hopefully soon.

[M. Spector]

I have every confidence that DS will get fully funded, and as far as the tier thing goes, it's all kinda balogna. All that stuff will be included regardless

My big question is, do I go in on this or get a 3P one? Because he certainly has had no shortage of fairly solid looking figures made the last couple years. For additional information I'm a total normie when it comes to Victory, Star Saber, and Deathsaurus So it's all about the cool factor for me

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I have every confidence that DS will get fully funded, and as far as the tier thing goes, it's all kinda balogna. All that stuff will be included regardless

My big question is, do I go in on this or get a 3P one? Because he certainly has had no shortage of fairly solid looking figures made the last couple years. For additional information I'm a total normie when it comes to Victory, Star Saber, and Deathsaurus So it's all about the cool factor for me

Get this one, you get a throne, that is the tipping point!

[Seibertron]

Just ordered Deathsaurus #2!!

[Sowndwave76]

I am 99% sure I’m going to back this project.
I’m looking to sell-off some figures to cover it.
As long as I can get about 2/3 of the cost covered (which shouldn’t be an issue), I’m definitely in.

[Emerje]

On a recent Geek. Dad. Life. stream he was showing a chart that graphed the progress of Victory Saber, Unicron and Deathsaurus and currently DS is staying right in step with Victory Saber. In my faulty memory VS was doing a lot better at this point, but seeing it plotted out the two are perfectly matched up. I don't know where he gets his graphs, he says he didn't make them, so here's a snip I made from the stream.

Click it to make it better, the important parts are the solid orange line (VS) and the dark blue line with the dots over it (that's DS). I'm going to guess that the two sharp jumps for VS were from updates (colored models, tier updates), the small uptick in the middle is probably a retailer placing a batch of orders. Of course that big jump at the end was the world wide addition of orders from major and minor retailers and last minute customer orders.

Totally confident in this reaching both tiers, but still not expecting much more past that.

Emerje