The Energon Pub

News Credits: 60 · Wed Jul 09, 2014 4:53 am

Stormrider wrote:Double Dealer really deserves his own mold. Perhaps he'll get his own down the road.

I wonder why no 3rd party has attempted such? :-?

If they can modernize the original mold into a more poseable 'bot and design a Godmaster similar to P.E. "not Cerebros/Fortress" that would sure rock.

News Credits: 4 · Wed Jul 09, 2014 5:32 am

fenrir72 wrote:If they can modernize the original mold into a more poseable 'bot and design a Godmaster similar to P.E. "not Cerebros/Fortress that would sure rock.

I don't think it's possible for 3rd parties to replace the 1988 robot arms,legs and head with newer fully articulated ones. There's far too many pins joints that most fans don't know how to remove. Also the Waist piece and hips sockets are molded out of the same solid piece of plastic.

News Credits: 60 · Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:08 am

Don't underestimate technology tsu......MP series are an example on how blocky figs G1 get to be poseable like the anime

News Credits: 10 · Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:33 am

That's right. G1 was something akin to a SCUD Missile launcher with a big, oversize, awkward missile.

Especially in bird mode.

(Plus the double-entendres are just too easy...)

I'm kinda liking this to differentiate DD from Blitzwing. I like that mod that was done to turn plane mode into more of a bird. It'd be cool if someone did a bird head add on to make this transformation complete.

On the other hand, I don't like this enough to say I'll never cancel my preorder...

News Credits: 122 · Wed Jul 09, 2014 12:38 pm

Worse than the size, it does little to differentiate Doubledealer from Blitzwing (for me, at least).

I still might get it, just 'cuz Doubledealer needs some added firepower.

News Credits: 10 · Mon Aug 11, 2014 2:59 pm

Guess what just dropped into my POL. I have a whole bunch of pictures to take now with everything sitting in my POL at this time. C'mon Talon! This week, man! :DANCE:

News Credits: 2 · Fri Jan 02, 2015 12:23 pm

Happy New Year fans!!! So for a long time I've been looking for someone's review on this one. Cuz for a long time I've wanted this one. I have yet to find such a review so, has anyone gotten their hand on this upgrade? I'm interested in over-all opinion and if there are any QC issues of any kind.

I hope someone can comment on this really soon, thank you all in advance! :VEHI:

News Credits: 10 · Fri Jan 02, 2015 2:43 pm

Nemesis Destron wrote:Happy New Year fans!!! So for a long time I've been looking for someone's review on this one. Cuz for a long time I've wanted this one. I have yet to find such a review so, has anyone gotten their hand on this upgrade? I'm interested in over-all opinion and if there are any QC issues of any kind.

I hope someone can comment on this really soon, thank you all in advance!

I've got it. I'm still on vacation until Monday, so let me see if I can post some pics and a review for you.

News Credits: 122 · Fri Jan 02, 2015 2:49 pm

Agamemnon wrote:
Nemesis Destron wrote:Happy New Year fans!!! So for a long time I've been looking for someone's review on this one. Cuz for a long time I've wanted this one. I have yet to find such a review so, has anyone gotten their hand on this upgrade? I'm interested in over-all opinion and if there are any QC issues of any kind.

I hope someone can comment on this really soon, thank you all in advance!

I've got it. I'm still on vacation until Monday, so let me see if I can post some pics and a review for you.

I have this on preorder, and also looking forward to your thoughts, Aggie.

Also, nice new profile pic!

News Credits: 2 · Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:01 am

Agamemnon wrote:
Nemesis Destron wrote:Happy New Year fans!!! So for a long time I've been looking for someone's review on this one. Cuz for a long time I've wanted this one. I have yet to find such a review so, has anyone gotten their hand on this upgrade? I'm interested in over-all opinion and if there are any QC issues of any kind.

I hope someone can comment on this really soon, thank you all in advance!

I've got it. I'm still on vacation until Monday, so let me see if I can post some pics and a review for you.

That's awesome Agamemnon, I can't wait! :DANCE:

News Credits: 2 · Sat Jan 03, 2015 6:04 am

Agamemnon wrote:
Nemesis Destron wrote:Happy New Year fans!!! So for a long time I've been looking for someone's review on this one. Cuz for a long time I've wanted this one. I have yet to find such a review so, has anyone gotten their hand on this upgrade? I'm interested in over-all opinion and if there are any QC issues of any kind.

I hope someone can comment on this really soon, thank you all in advance!

I've got it. I'm still on vacation until Monday, so let me see if I can post some pics and a review for you.

That's awesome Agamemnon, I can't wait! :DANCE:

News Credits: 10 · Sat Jan 03, 2015 2:40 pm

Okay, this should be more photo-bomb than review. Photos first, then the 7/10 review.

Very G1 in the overall look of the shoulder missile and extra hand cannon. If you prefer to not have the almost goofy looking handgun it does store on the back of the missile on the shoulder.

Clean looking rear...

"If you have the credits, then indeed I am 'happy to see you.'" -In response to lewd comment about the size of DD's "missile"

"Pick your poison...slow and painful or all out annihilation! Or, if you have credits..."

Missile carrier concept on the tank barrel looks okay. There's enough fiddly bits on just the Hasbro part to tweak the look a lot.

"Why the obsession with my rear view? Yeah, yeah, you did give me the credits, so..."

If you prefer, you can hide the tank barrel entirely and go with a sort of radar dish feel. At the back, you can sort of see that one of the pegs fits nicely into a port on DD, securing the missile in either configuration.

"Han Solo called...he wants his round dish back for the new movie..."

Kinda sorta looks like a bird dropping a bomb a-la G1. Well, if the bird had a shark face and didn't look like a bird at all. And the bomb had this weird split personality. Oh, wait, is that what happened to his mini-con Powermasters?

Ahhh...that's better. Wait, more "big missile" comments? Sheesh!

"Where are my credits?"

"Again with the rear? I don't know that you gave me enough credits..."

"Sky-Byte wants a word with you..."

Okay, now to the good and the bad. I like the kit in that it really helps differentiate DD from Blitzwing. The G1 nods are nice. Some of the transformation parts are clever, especially how it can hide the tank barrel. It also comes with a nice shoulder fix that folds down to allow for transformation without removing the parts. And the shoulders are very, very tightly held in bot mode. However, those parts do hinder some of the pegging in alt mode, hence some of my slightly askew parts in some photos. This also leads me to the finicky transformation with the add-ons in place. It is possible to transform everything with only removing the hand weapons. But the tank barrel framework kept wanting to split apart with the missile falling out of the groove. And watch the snapping together of the pivot piece to get into robot mode. It caused stress breakage on one of the rectangular posts when I tried to pull it apart for the first time.

Aside from the fiddly nature of the transformations, I like the looks of all modes, provided there is a stand to put DD on in jet mode. It is possible to have the missile on the top, but I didn't like any of the looks in that configuration, hence no pics.

A last piece of information is that the rear of the missile is only held in with friction. It does have a tendency to fall out from time to time, especially when fiddling. I think I already added some superglue to the inside of the front of the missile to help increase the friction. (I did that fix a couple of months ago, so I don't remember exactly what I did.)

Look in Bot mode 9/10
Look in Tank mode 8/10 (a little busy looking)
Look in Jet mode 9/10 (except for bird droppy mode 6/10, and missile on top mode 3/10)
Playability 6/10 (Transformation's a little too fiddly now, and splitting framework bugs me. I will probably keep him in bot mode.)
Durability 6/10 (Bugs me that there was an issue with stress right away.)
Price/value 6/10 (A little pricey, currently, but I think I got mine for cheaper.)

All in all, I am happy with the kit. DD will sit nicely in my Classics/Generations shelves. As long as I don't touch him, the things that annoy me are not an issue. Now, if I can only decide whether to display him with his rear facing me...

I should have stopped before that last line... :oops: