The Energon Pub

Wow, interesting rants... I thought I read somewhere that the team working on the Headmasters is completely different than the rest of FP's line.

Add to that that I have no idea how many people are working on these things. Has/Tak has the advantage of a large pool of engineers, probably a lot of prototype making equipment that smaller third party companies would love to have access to, and an overall revenue stream in what, the Hundred millions? Billions? I think MMC and FP do a bang up job. What they could do is something like they did for Chromedome and just announce the product a mere week or so before release. That'd certainly keep the fanbase happier, eh?

On the other hand, and I don't think I am alone on this, half of my enjoyment of these products is watching the development and early release reviews. Then there's the anticipation, which is sometimes better than the product itself.

Finally, companies like FP and MMC have been around long enough to have well established patterns of operation. We may not like it. We may have preferences for another way. But this is how they have done it, and it appears to be a success. MMC's Predaking is getting rave reviews. (Sure a few flaws and negatives, but overwhelmingly positive.) This headmaster line from FP is getting overwhelmingly positive comments too, with the exception that it is taking too long.

Indeed, if I had a choice, I would prefer to wait to get a great product than have something rushed out and crappy. I also love hearing about development, so the long waits from announcement to release are filled with interesting news and tidbits. (Plus my wallet gets a chance to plan ahead a little.)

In a perfect world, we'd get products fast, of high quality, and very cheap. For me, I'll get what I can take and ship my POL when Smart Robin get in!

Tsutsukakushi wrote:At this pace MMC will release the Carnifex Overlord on the summer of 2015.

That prediction just makes me... sad. The promo shots for Carnifex Overlord look awesome, and god knows I'm not buying the BTS Overlord. Sigh.

Autobot032 wrote:A little over a year for Megatron to have his Optimus. And both are HIGH quality figures. Perfect? No. High quality? Absolutely, yes. And both are engineered on FP's level. They really are, especially Orion. He's Masterpiece complexity on a Voyager scale. And his plastic is rock solid.

I will (respectfully) dispute TW quality here. I had 3 Hegemon figures at different points, all of which were of poor plastic quality and had joints that wore within just a few days of posing. I sold each so I could replace it with another, thinking it must have just been the individual figure I had received - but I gave up after 3. And it's a shame, since TW's Hegemon was, hands down, the best Megatron EVER. But I can't deal with poor quality on expensive 3rd Party product.

I do recognize that what qualifies for "poor quality" is a subjective metric, up to the individual - Hegemon just did not meet MY particular standards.

The comments on Orion have been interesting. From all the reviews I've seen, he's pretty solid, but there appears to be a near-consensus that if TW had spent some more time on it, the toy would be THE Optimus in many collections. To be fair, Orion doesn't appeal to me, but if the quasi-complaints I keep hearing had been fixed, chances are, I'd be hooked on him.

Though I tend to come out on the side of quality, and not speed, I do have to say that waiting for Feral Rex and Intimidator has been taxing. BUT, I can handle what MMC is doing. They communicate with the fans, are very good about replying to concerns, and keep the fandom in the loop. Fansproject, on the other hand, is radio silence. For me, the whole "not knowing" thing is a much bigger problem than waiting.

As much as I love FansProject's stuff, I do find it very frustrating having to wait so long for them. I'm still pinning for SteelCore's trailer and the Warbug retools.

Most disappointing is the clear lack of the faceplate that was rumoured to be coming with Smart Robin.

Get on it Dr. Wu.

MMC made a big mistake last year. Hexatron was delayed by a year so MMC could release those Knight Morpher jets. All because Igear had huge success with the PP03 Jets. MMC wanted to cash in on the seeker market before it dropped.

megatronus wrote:

Autobot032 wrote:A little over a year for Megatron to have his Optimus. And both are HIGH quality figures. Perfect? No. High quality? Absolutely, yes. And both are engineered on FP's level. They really are, especially Orion. He's Masterpiece complexity on a Voyager scale. And his plastic is rock solid.

I will (respectfully) dispute TW quality here. I had 3 Hegemon figures at different points, all of which were of poor plastic quality and had joints that wore within just a few days of posing. I sold each so I could replace it with another, thinking it must have just been the individual figure I had received - but I gave up after 3. And it's a shame, since TW's Hegemon was, hands down, the best Megatron EVER. But I can't deal with poor quality on expensive 3rd Party product.

It's a shame about your Hegemon experiences. I decided to get one of the final run versions and, apart from slightly loose ankle joints, he is rather good. Not as good as what has followed, but still solid.

megatronus wrote:Though I tend to come out on the side of quality, and not speed, I do have to say that waiting for Feral Rex and Intimidator has been taxing. BUT, I can handle what MMC is doing. They communicate with the fans, are very good about replying to concerns, and keep the fandom in the loop. Fansproject, on the other hand, is radio silence. For me, the whole "not knowing" thing is a much bigger problem than waiting.

I agree with this completely. The way FP operate is a complete joke, while MMC are fantastic and even though they take a while, they are good at keeping us informed and interested.

At least we know Smart Robin is close to release

Tsutsukakushi wrote:MMC made a big mistake last year. Hexatron was delayed by a year so MMC could release those Knight Morpher jets. All because Igear had huge success with the PP03 Jets. MMC wanted to cash in on the seeker market before it dropped.

Do you have inside info on that? I never heard anything like this. Instead all I heard about was MMC tweaking the Hexatron mold so that QA issues were resolved and I ended up with an awesome figure worth every cent I paid for it.

Given what 3rd party companies have to work with, and in particular the quality products that MMC and FP have put out, I feel that some of you are being overly critical... O_o

Smart Robin - looking good but why the grumpy face? Colors look good. My only wish was a detachable faceplate.

I don't know why the BTS Overlord gets so many negative comments. The $250 price is a steal for the size of this toy. The designs are very nice & creative. The toy is rumored to be bigger than Supreme Starscream. Last I checked,3rd party combiners that are the same size cost over $420.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:I don't know why the BTS Overlord gets so many negative comments. The $250 price is a steal for the size of this toy. The designs are very nice & creative. The toy is rumored to be bigger than Supreme Starscream. Last I checked,3rd party combiners that are the same size cost over $420.

Nova Lord seems too simplistic for its size, and BTS has a bad track record.

So... that's pretty much all I have to say about that.

Stormrider wrote:Smart Robin - looking good but why the grumpy face? Colors look good. My only wish was a detachable faceplate.

An optional faceplate would have made me preorder this guy. I don't know why they didn't include it, specially after the character getting new popularity (with the faceplate) thanks to the MTMTE comics.

megatronus wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:I don't know why the BTS Overlord gets so many negative comments. The $250 price is a steal for the size of this toy. The designs are very nice & creative. The toy is rumored to be bigger than Supreme Starscream. Last I checked,3rd party combiners that are the same size cost over $420.

Nova Lord seems too simplistic for its size, and BTS has a bad track record.

So... that's pretty much all I have to say about that.

I am not seeing overly Simplistic in design or Transformations for Nova Lord. The Nova Lord jet can transform into a aircraft carrier & then form the top half of the robot mode. The tank can combine with the aircraft carrier to form a jet. The Tank can also form the lower half of the robot mode.

Other 3rd party companies released inferior products before they released superior product. This is all a learning curve for them. From all the pics I've seen,This Nova Lord appears to be a good track record toy for BTS.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

megatronus wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:I don't know why the BTS Overlord gets so many negative comments. The $250 price is a steal for the size of this toy. The designs are very nice & creative. The toy is rumored to be bigger than Supreme Starscream. Last I checked,3rd party combiners that are the same size cost over $420.

Nova Lord seems too simplistic for its size, and BTS has a bad track record.

So... that's pretty much all I have to say about that.

I am not seeing overly Simplistic in design or Transformations for Nova Lord. The Nova Lord jet can transform into a aircraft carrier & then form the top half of the robot mode. The tank can combine with the aircraft carrier to form a jet. The Tank can also form the lower half of the robot mode.

Other 3rd party companies released inferior products before they released superior product. This is all a learning curve for them. From all the pics I've seen,This Nova Lord appears to be a good track record toy for BTS.

That may be true. But given the track record of QA issues, plus this is a lot of money to risk on a company without the best track record, many of us will take a wait and see approach.

Smart Robin, on the other hand, comes from a company with a very decent QA record, where the complaints really are only in the aesthetic area or in the lack of communication of updates on their products. (There are a few functional issues, like transforming the car legs in the Stunticons.) However, the Headmasters have been better than I ever expected, in my opinion. They have more playability than some other 3P products (including FP's own Stunticons).

I am still holding out hope for a faceplate. Did we hear a rumor from someone in the know, or was it just speculation in the fandom.

(P.S. Yes, this was a shameless attempt to steer the conversation back to Smart Robin. We do have a thread out there for BTS Overlord. )

Okay, my two bits? With the exception of Defender's knees, I've never had a problem with FP's quality control. And even those knees are still holding up well. Maybe I've been lucky. i don't know. But I haven't had a problem with their stuff. And I do play with their product, too.

Yeah, they could do well to scale back on the number of releases. But I have not regretted a single FP purchase. And I can't say that about every other third-party company.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:Okay, my two bits? With the exception of Defender's knees, I've never had a problem with FP's quality control. And even those knees are still holding up well. Maybe I've been lucky. i don't know. But I haven't had a problem with their stuff. And I do play with their product, too.

Agreed. My only FP product is still the City Commander armor (was it their first product ever?) and I couldn't be happier with it. But a few friends of mine have been buying all their products to date and they're quite satisfied.

I just want a mouthplate for this not-Brainstorm!!!

I think there was a Cliffjumper Bazooka first. I missed on that. (It was too expensive, and the 3rd Party bug hadn't infected me yet. City Commander was the beginning of the end for much of my disposable income.)

There was a Cliffjumper upgrade set first, yes. I didn't get it, either. And they've stated they're not re-releasing it. I guess it was kinda rough.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:There was a Cliffjumper upgrade set first, yes. I didn't get it, either. And they've stated they're not re-releasing it. I guess it was kinda rough.

I think people flocked to the Beelzeboss kit instead.

Also, there are a lot of nice CJ stand-ins at this point, including the GDO Cliff, which I now use as Classics (I have the Beelzeboss kits for Classics 'Bee & United 'Bee-now-Goldbug, so the Prime mold is a nice change of pace).

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:There was a Cliffjumper upgrade set first, yes. I didn't get it, either. And they've stated they're not re-releasing it. I guess it was kinda rough.

It was FP's first release, and it was a limited run and released somewhere between 2008 - 2009. Check out some pics here:

http://www.fansproject.com/?page_id=14

It looks like it included a bazooka, pistol, and front bumper upgrade. As Megatronus points out, there's also a release by Beelzeboss (which I do own) that provided a new head, bazooka, and pistol (but in grey compared to FP's black. That came out in the past 2 years and was more widely released.

Back on topic, it looks like we'll have Smart Robin in by year's end. Cool, I wanna play with some more Headmasters!

That face def. captures his persona from the headmaster show!

Here's how you solve this faceplate dilemma, the quick cast plastic resin material is what like 10-15 bucks? Get some of that and make a few faceplates until you've got one you like, get some paint and you're in business. I'd rather do that myself than pay for an update. Unless the good Dr.W(or anyone else) can/would do the fix for around the same price.

Ginrai Minor wrote:That face def. captures his persona from the headmaster show!

Here's how you solve this faceplate dilemma, the quick cast plastic resin material is what like 10-15 bucks? Get some of that and make a few faceplates until you've got one you like, get some paint and you're in business. I'd rather do that myself than pay for an update. Unless the good Dr.W(or anyone else) can/would do the fix for around the same price.

How about just using the Headmaster that came with the 1987 Brainstorm toy. I think these all fit & are all a similar scale.

Just got the TFsource notification that this guy's in stock! Woot!

megatronus wrote:Just got the TFsource notification that this guy's in stock! Woot!

That's good news...now how about BBTS ? I want to ship my POL but still waiting for Sharkies and Trace. I gave up on FP Motormaster. We havent even see the box yet. Im calling next year on that one...

Woot! Good news indeed! If I remember correctly, I believe BBTS usually gets things in stock a week or two later. *crosses fingers*

My Brainstorm is processing now. Early Christmas for me considering what I've got in my POL!

Just got my notice that Smart Robin has been processed. I'm actually glad I asked for my POL to ship out 2 days ago, because I hopefully beat the rush that will ensue now that SR is in (also had an idea MMC's Fortis would hit, but that's ok).

So, I probably won't have SR in-hand until late Dec/early Jan, but I look forward to hearing feedback from you all in the meantime.