The Energon Pub

Meh, my wallet is virtually a vegetable when it comes to money, so I'm going for Hasbro's Roadbuster. It'll make a nice companion piece next to Whirl.

shajaki wrote:

paul053 wrote:I have no confidence at FP's product that much now.

why is that? not trying to spark a debate (im not a FP fanboy or anything). but ive found them to have some great products. and they only really suffer from what almost all 3rd party figures suffer from: theyre not playthings. if that makes any sense... in my opinion pretty much all 3rd party figures have the same sort of "fragility" and dont have the same durability as a has/tak product. but they usually have intuitive designs and are amazing display pieces.

Admittedly yes, most 3P stuff isn't nearly as durable as HasTak's, but FPs crap breaks just by looking at it funny. They might as well be relabeled as a knock off company.

If people want the FP version, just wait for the Hasbro version to get released and then buy this one for less than retail prices secondhand or on clearance...

shajaki wrote:

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:Roadbuster isn't important enough to me to warrant shelling out the 90 bucks for Revolver. Sorry, FP.

i dont have any real connection to roadbuster either. never owned the G1 toy, or watched/read about him in any fiction. i think i simply stumbled upon him on one of my jaunts through the tfu alpha index and was like "now that guy looks bad ass!". i just really liked the look of him and since then kept my eye out for new versions. and i recently decided specifically what my TF collection would entail, and he's part of it. like i already said, whatever the best representation of any given character exists, will end up on my shelf.

paul053 wrote:I have no confidence at FP's product that much now.

why is that? not trying to spark a debate (im not a FP fanboy or anything). but ive found them to have some great products. and they only really suffer from what almost all 3rd party figures suffer from: theyre not playthings. if that makes any sense... in my opinion pretty much all 3rd party figures have the same sort of "fragility" and dont have the same durability as a has/tak product. but they usually have intuitive designs and are amazing display pieces.

I'm sort of with paul053 here. FP's Motormaster is a mess. Overly complicated with numerous shaky joints that I have no confidence of. FansProject has definitely fallen a notch or two in my book.

Counterpunch wrote:I'm sort of with paul053 here. FP's Motormaster is a mess. Overly complicated with numerous shaky joints that I have no confidence of. FansProject has definitely fallen a notch or two in my book.

i will admit diesel is overly complicated. even though the panels hanging off his back are annoying, i wouldnt call him a mess. he has all the average problems a combining centerpiece has. to be honest, i got him from truck to base robot to combined mode without instructions. just dont ask me to transform him back lol.

i can only go on my personal experiences. the only fansproject figures are the stunticons, bruticus upgrades, and warbot defender. as far as quality goes, mine are all solid. the only bad one is defender which suffers from design flaws and not construction or materials. and his flaws are magnified exponentially by generations springer.

so yeah... all i can say is i have no problems with fansproject. when i thihk "problematic 3rd party" i think toyworld. and not even toyworld in general, just hard bone. which i still really like actually.

Shadowstream wrote:Admittedly yes, most 3P stuff isn't nearly as durable as HasTak's, but FPs crap breaks just by looking at it funny. They might as well be relabeled as a knock off company.

KO company may be a little harsh but for all the raving FP gets online I've experienced more QC issues with their stuff than any other 3rd Party Product I've bought. Even the much maligned TFC Toys has given me less trouble.

Peter Bazooka wrote:

Shadowstream wrote:Admittedly yes, most 3P stuff isn't nearly as durable as HasTak's, but FPs crap breaks just by looking at it funny. They might as well be relabeled as a knock off company.

KO company may be a little harsh but for all the raving FP gets online I've experienced more QC issues with their stuff than any other 3rd Party Product I've bought. Even the much maligned TFC Toys has given me less trouble.

As have I, thus exactly why I think Knock Off quality is an apt description, because this-

FPs crap breaks just by looking at it funny

-is NOT an exaggeration...

Everything man made eventually breaks. Same with 1st party to 3rd party. FP really has made a name for themselves but still being man made, its expected to have imperfections.

The engineering on Diesel itself is quite an effort given how constricted the base/original source material it came from.

I agree with what you're saying.

Just don't take any notice of the hasbro colour scheme - they use hand painted figures for the official images. The release will not look like that.

fenrir72 wrote:Everything man made eventually breaks. Same with 1st party to 3rd party. FP really has made a name for themselves but still being man made, its expected to have imperfections.

The engineering on Diesel itself is quite an effort given how constricted the base/original source material it came from.

here here. im trying to stay objective, but some people are talking like fansproject killed their family or something. i dont want to reiterate much, but i have more than a handful of FP products and havent had a problem. and the most problematic 3P figure i have is hard bone. and hes not so much that i cant deal with it, i actually really like him still.

Mykltron wrote:I agree with what you're saying.

Just don't take any notice of the hasbro colour scheme - they use hand painted figures for the official images. The release will not look like that.

yeah. "official" images are nice, but the overly nicely photoshoppy kinda nice. nothing beats in hand.

ive been buying every generations figure released in the past few years, but i think im totally going to pass on hasbros roadbuster in favor of takaras. i just cant handle stickers, especially poorly executed ones. ive seen a few reviews, and those stickers dont even fit where theyre supposed to go! not to mention theres a million of them. however, IF hasbro had tampered just one autobot symbol, id have probably bought him.

and i might also pass on takaras RB in favor of revolver. i still want to experience the RB mold, so i might get cloud ironhide.

i thought id revive this old thread for some new input, since RB is in many peoples hands now. is he worth the gamble?

Just opened RB today, and I like him.

Many of the reasons mentioned, wheels on the arms, thin legs, pretty lightweight, are negatives to be sure, but the FP version has design elements I dislike too, like the treads.

I like applying stickers so, for me, that was a plus.
The configurable weapons are fun, but a couple of them are hollow on one side, so that kind of sucks, but still, it adds to the play value.

IMO this is just like Defender vs Generations Springer, I prefer the FP version, but the Hasbro version is just fine for the cost savings.

I'd rather have Roadbuster and $65 to spend on something else.

rpetras wrote:Just opened RB today, and I like him.

Many of the reasons mentioned, wheels on the arms, thin legs, pretty lightweight, are negatives to be sure, but the FP version has design elements I dislike too, like the treads.

I like applying stickers so, for me, that was a plus.
The configurable weapons are fun, but a couple of them are hollow on one side, so that kind of sucks, but still, it adds to the play value.

IMO this is just like Defender vs Generations Springer, I prefer the FP version, but the Hasbro version is just fine for the cost savings.

and see, the treads and cost are the only negatives i have with revolver. but the aesthetics of generations RB just dont appeal to me, and i feel he wasnt executed properly. and hollow guns? that bites. but hey, that opinion could turn around if i ever got him in hand. i still think ill pass on hasbros, simply for the sticker issue.

shajaki wrote:

rpetras wrote:Just opened RB today, and I like him.

Many of the reasons mentioned, wheels on the arms, thin legs, pretty lightweight, are negatives to be sure, but the FP version has design elements I dislike too, like the treads.

I like applying stickers so, for me, that was a plus.
The configurable weapons are fun, but a couple of them are hollow on one side, so that kind of sucks, but still, it adds to the play value.

IMO this is just like Defender vs Generations Springer, I prefer the FP version, but the Hasbro version is just fine for the cost savings.

and see, the treads and cost are the only negatives i have with revolver. but the aesthetics of generations RB just dont appeal to me, and i feel he wasnt executed properly. and hollow guns? that bites. but hey, that opinion could turn around if i ever got him in hand. i still think ill pass on hasbros, simply for the sticker issue.

Hollow guns have been a Hasbro staple since Hardhead and Powermaster Optimus Prime. Aside from the cost difference, the tank threads on Revolver are non functional............no wheels under them......wtf?

Despite my previous comments, I ended up with both.

Fansproject Roadbuster is the superior product. There's no way around it.

Is he worth the extra cost? Probably not, but it's true never the less.

fenrir72 wrote:Hollow guns have been a Hasbro staple since Hardhead and Powermaster Optimus Prime. Aside from the cost difference, the tank threads on Revolver are non functional............no wheels under them......wtf?

very true, but those guns were at least hollow on both sides, thus being symmetrical. and the tank treads on revolver are a serious "WTF", but he wont be played with and only posed in bot mode. so i can live with it.

like counterpunch, ill probably end up with both (just not hasbros).

shajaki wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:Hollow guns have been a Hasbro staple since Hardhead and Powermaster Optimus Prime. Aside from the cost difference, the tank threads on Revolver are non functional............no wheels under them......wtf?

very true, but those guns were at least hollow on both sides, thus being symmetrical. and the tank treads on revolver are a serious "WTF", but he wont be played with and only posed in bot mode. so i can live with it.

like counterpunch, ill probably end up with both (just not hasbros).

The 1987 Hardhead's diamond shooting guns are hollow in one side. And yup, I'll also be getting Tomy's RB. Hoping that a Revolver will be on the cheap.

GuyIncognito wrote:When you factor in price, it's no contest; Generations wins. The FansProject one isn't superior enough to justify the HUGE price difference. $90 vs $20.

well its actually more like $300 plus now since you need the other two figures to complete the closed roof look and weapons. but your point still stands $300 vs $20

the generations version is fantastic to me.

Well, while on a trip to Walmart today, I took my usual, disappointing, "They don't have anything new!" trip down the toy aisle, and was rather startled to find that for once, that was rather a misnomer! There was something new on the shelf! (A few things, actually, but only one that specifically interested me.) So, I plunked down the $20.00 for it (and some other money for a few groceries), and I was soon on my way back home.

I got him open, played with him a bit, applied his stickers, played with him a bit more...

Well, I don't have any practical experience with Fansproject Revolver, so I can't do a direct comparison... But I am quite happy with Hasbro's effort. It looks good, it is fun to play with, and it costs a regular retail price rather then third party prices. No regrets from me!

The only minor issue I had was that the post on the missile firing gun seemed a bit small, as it was loose in any of Roadbuster's holes. A bit of clear nail polish seems to have fixed that, though, and he's all better! (Anyone else come across that, or was it just a peculiarity of mine?)

Man, he comes with a lot of guns...

Anyway, he looks good with Whirl. I figured this was important:

alternator77 wrote:

GuyIncognito wrote:When you factor in price, it's no contest; Generations wins. The FansProject one isn't superior enough to justify the HUGE price difference. $90 vs $20.

well its actually more like $300 plus now since you need the other two figures to complete the closed roof look and weapons. but your point still stands $300 vs $20.

but see, we're trying to factor in everything, not just price. and i doubt theres many people out there buying those other two green revolvers (whatever the names are) to give him a roof and other add-ons...

shajaki wrote:but see, we're trying to factor in everything, not just price. and i doubt theres many people out there buying those other two green revolvers (whatever the names are) to give him a roof and other add-ons...

Well, factoring in everything... I wouldn't want those two green Revolvers, and I think the Fansproject figure looks a bit incomplete without the added on parts.

Hasbro's, in my opinion (which I recognize not everyone may share) looks complete out of the box.

So then... well, I suppose we do end up coming back to the price.

Option One: $20.00 for a complete Hasbro figure.

Option Two: $90.00 for an incomplete looking Fansproject figure.

Option Three: $300.00 for the above figure completed, plus two superfluous figures I don't have need for.

Option Four: Seems there is a KO version of the extra armor bits in the works. No idea if it will actually make it to market, or how much it will be... but I think $60.00 is a safe, low ball guess at price. So let's estimate this at (with the core figure) $150.00. But there are a lot of unknowns with this... And also, for me personally, even though it looks like they've made a few changes/improvements, it's still a knock off... Although I can almost understand this one, as it sucks being forced to buy two superfluous figures just to get some armor bits...

Anyway, Option One looks pretty darn good to me! (Hence why I bought the Hasbro version! ) I have a great figure, and it saved me $70.00 - $280.00 compared to what I see as lesser alternatives, anyway!

everything you said above: great argument.

for me though, 90 bucks for a great figure isnt a big deal. and i honestly didnt even consider getting the greenvolvers just for more revolver parts as i didnt think he needed them. but a KO set? id probably grab it.

price isnt my issue, i have issues with hastaks mold... i can see now that im clearly biased. sorry folks

Yotsuyasan wrote:

shajaki wrote:but see, we're trying to factor in everything, not just price. and i doubt theres many people out there buying those other two green revolvers (whatever the names are) to give him a roof and other add-ons...

Well, factoring in everything... I wouldn't want those two green Revolvers, and I think the Fansproject figure looks a bit incomplete without the added on parts.

Hasbro's, in my opinion (which I recognize not everyone may share) looks complete out of the box.

So then... well, I suppose we do end up coming back to the price.

Option One: $20.00 for a complete Hasbro figure.

Option Two: $90.00 for an incomplete looking Fansproject figure.

Option Three: $300.00 for the above figure completed, plus two superfluous figures I don't have need for.

Option Four: Seems there is a KO version of the extra armor bits in the works. No idea if it will actually make it to market, or how much it will be... but I think $60.00 is a safe, low ball guess at price. So let's estimate this at (with the core figure) $150.00. But there are a lot of unknowns with this... And also, for me personally, even though it looks like they've made a few changes/improvements, it's still a knock off... Although I can almost understand this one, as it sucks being forced to buy two superfluous figures just to get some armor bits...

Anyway, Option One looks pretty darn good to me! (Hence why I bought the Hasbro version! ) I have a great figure, and it saved me $70.00 - $280.00 compared to what I see as lesser alternatives, anyway!

There is another option that might beat them all :

Takara Roadbuster complete from the factoryfor less than retail Hasbro Roadbuster

damn! ive seen lena list those, but its labelled improperly as "generations" instead of takaras "legends". i may have to watch those...

theres also been some more developements since the last time this thread surfaced. like the revolver upgrade being a real thing:
preorder at BBTS for $54.99