The Energon Pub

Was just wondering, for fun, what peoples opinions are. Have you ever had a character that was so cool, yet so let down by their figure? or vice versa, a character you hated or even just a minor player that was made into an amazing toy.

For me it would be 'Universe' Hot Shot. Im not a massive fan of the character, although i liked him in TF Cybertron (and yes i know that wasnt really Hot Shot at all), but he had a look that i loved and the toy was so botched.

BW Dinobot. Maybe awful is a bit much, but he's not as good as he should have been given the character BW Blackarachia(s) too.

And of course, Universe/Classics Galvatron, as discussed in many other threads.

Can't think of any toys that I liked way better than the media representations of their characters, but I'm sure there will be some.

edit: I did like a few of the non-show BW toys a lot more than the ones featured in the cartoon. The squid one, and the original shark guy for starters.

Megatron has been in that great character, awful figure category a lot. All of the movie figures have some major flaw: too much kibble, ice panels for some reason, or a lack of an elbow. The animated Megatrons were a letdown, especially the voyager. MP Megatron has so many fragile delicate pieces that the only way to avoid breaking it is to leave it in the box.

Cybertron Hardtop is one of my favorite figures, and I know nothing about the character. I guess that puts him in the minor player awesome toy category, at least from my perspective.

Stumpybot wrote:Have you ever had a character that was so cool, yet so let down by their figure?

G1 Megatron.

I mean, really... Isn't he the standard by which other answers to this question should be judged? He's the friggin' Decepticon leader. Looked really cool on the show. And then the toy's robot mode is just a goofy looking badly proportioned mess.

G1 Megatron is probably the standard. But, you know, when I finally got him I was quite impressed by the gun mode.

Titanium Soundwave. Maybe it's cheating a bit since it's hardly his signature toy, but ... come on. The guy transforms into a rectangle! How could they ever have screwed him up?

Galvatron... Megatron has an excuse as being a microman toy, but Galvatron isn't even close to his animation model!

Also, 3" Titanium Galvatron. Yep, even a non-transforming figures robot mode can be screwed up.

funklizard wrote:

Stumpybot wrote:Have you ever had a character that was so cool, yet so let down by their figure?

G1 Megatron.

I mean, really... Isn't he the standard by which other answers to this question should be judged? He's the friggin' Decepticon leader. Looked really cool on the show. And then the toy's robot mode is just a goofy looking badly proportioned mess.

Yeah, I can't top that one. Even as a kid I thought his toy looked like crap.

I wish I had one though...

C'mon guys, be fair. Megatron has probably the best alt mode of any G1 figure ever. Of course liberties had to be taken on his robot mode. I mean, his alt mode is perfect! Sure, his robot mode doesn't look much like his cartoon model, but the cartoon model is impossible to turn into a proper gun that looks as awesome as G1's gun mode.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:The animated Megatrons were a letdown, especially the voyager.

In my opinion, Animated Leader Class Megatron is one of the best figures in the Animated line, even with Animated being my favorite line. Voyager is a bit eh though...

For me it'd have to be Animated Sentinel Prime and Lugnut. It was very unfortunate for them to be put in far too small size classes and it has very negative effects on the figures. Particularly Lugnut. Voyager Bulkhead was just horrible, but Leader Class Bulkhead was an awesome saving throw.

Energon Is My Drug wrote:

funklizard wrote:

Stumpybot wrote:Have you ever had a character that was so cool, yet so let down by their figure?

G1 Megatron.

I mean, really... Isn't he the standard by which other answers to this question should be judged? He's the friggin' Decepticon leader. Looked really cool on the show. And then the toy's robot mode is just a goofy looking badly proportioned mess.

Yeah, I can't top that one. Even as a kid I thought his toy looked like crap.

I wish I had one though...

My feelings on this guy are why I never got him as a kid. It'd be kinda nice to have one now for the nostalgia factor; but I did get MP-05 for that.

G1 has no shortage of runners-up in this category, though:

• Ironhide/Ratchet: Both cool characters; the toys were kind of an embarrassment.
• Motormaster: A brick that transforms into…another brick. And he can combine with some cars to make…Another brick with some cars stuck to it!

One always had to be at least somewhat forgiving with the G1 designs. Collecting these as a child, my minimum threshold for desirability was whether the robot could be made to look good on the box art. Back then, the primary box art always took some liberties as far as articulation was concerned; but the proportions of various parts were generally faithful to the actual toy. If the toy couldn't be made to look good in this rendering, it was probably pretty hopeless. I remember both Megatron and Motormaster falling well short here.

Starscream GaGa wrote:C'mon guys, be fair. Megatron has probably the best alt mode of any G1 figure ever. Of course liberties had to be taken on his robot mode. I mean, his alt mode is perfect! Sure, his robot mode doesn't look much like his cartoon model, but the cartoon model is impossible to turn into a proper gun that looks as awesome as G1's gun mode.

Evil_the_Nub wrote:The animated Megatrons were a letdown, especially the voyager.

In my opinion, Animated Leader Class Megatron is one of the best figures in the Animated line, even with Animated being my favorite line. Voyager is a bit eh though...

He's not terrible, but the overly simple transformation and relative small size for a leader class don't live up to what may be the best incarnation of Megatron.

Tons of Movie characters would apply to this, due to having figures that are just way too small to look at all decent with most other figures from the line. Some of them would include Blackout/Grindor, The Fallen, and Bonecrusher. I'd also add Megatron in, since all of his figures have either been not very good or out of scale.

Stumpybot wrote:For me it would be 'Universe' Hot Shot. Im not a massive fan of the character, although i liked him in TF Cybertron (and yes i know that wasnt really Hot Shot at all), but he had a look that i loved and the toy was so botched.

That's not really a fair comparison seeing as Universe Hotshot was modeled after Armada Hotshot. Which had neither a good character in the show nor a good figure in the line to start off.

The update improved many things but when you start with something like this:



Its hard to get something better.

I agree Megatron gets the short end of the stick mostly. Animated saw a very menacing well portrayed character, but the toys ended up disappointing. Deluxe and Voyager had lots of issues, key of which was that they really looked like nothing at all in their alternate modes, and their fusion cannon placements were really bad.


However I think R.I.D Skybyte still is the big winner in that department. His character was pretty good, he was funny, he was cool, he was mostly played for jokes, but it worked. The toy is frustrating in its transformation, and at least on mine will not hold together in shark mode at all. His legs just don't stay up, so he looks like his jaw is unhinged.

Blaster. The Universe Voyager toy is just NOT Blaster, even with Renderform's magic!

Titanium Soundwave. Ye gods...

Most G1 figures should be given a bit of a pass. It was the best that could be done at the time.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:Titanium Soundwave. Ye gods...

Most G1 figures should be given a bit of a pass. It was the best that could be done at the time.

Plus, they were never meant as alien robots, but rather piloted mechs in most cases, and were years older than the Transformers concept. That explains Ironhide and Ratchet's heads actually being chairs.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:Titanium Soundwave. Ye gods...

Most G1 figures should be given a bit of a pass. It was the best that could be done at the time.

Plus, they were never meant as alien robots, but rather piloted mechs in most cases, and were years older than the Transformers concept. That explains Ironhide and Ratchet's heads actually being chairs.

Exactly.[/Raiden] It would've cost way too much money methinks to do any remolding of them. There's the old-school charm going which I actually like, for the most part.

I have to agree with G1 Ratchet/Ironhide. Some transformers don't have proper arms, legs or sometimes even feet/hands. But those guys didn't have HEADS!

But...since someone beat me to the punch with those guys, I'll say Classics Devastator. First of all, I HATE the Energon Constructicon Maximus mold...especially that hideous head. I just don't get why Hasbro would paint that hideous thing green and purple and release it alongside Classics Optimus Prime (one of the greatest Prime molds EVAR) and think it's doing such a great character justice. Don't get me wrong, I still bought it, lol, but I waited for it to go on clearance!

Powermaster Optimus Prime. He's my favorite incarnation of Optimus in any of the comics, and I even liked the character of Super Ginrai in Masterforce. But the toy is just basically a brick with arms. I mean, the legs are way too thick, have no knees, and even though the reissue's arms have an elbow, the original doesn't. And when he turns into truck mode the main body just doesn't even look like a trailer The smaller component is good as a tractor, but in robot mode his legs are 1 piece. I understand that the main focus was to make him able to combine, and he's considered a G1 character more or less, but still. So disappointing.

g1 rodimus prime is terrible. I love hot rod/roddy's humor and rodimus's truck winnebago thing mode but hate the robot mode. also ratchet and ratchet and don't forget g1 cyclonus.

Springer was the first toy to come to mind. I really loved him growing up but the toy left a lot to be desired.

Ruthless Cynic wrote:Springer was the first toy to come to mind. I really loved him growing up but the toy left a lot to be desired.

Ouch.

Springer was my favorite triple changer. There really wasn't a single triple changer that didn't have some significant goofiness in all three forms; but I thought Springer's design handled this the best because his alternate forms were fictitious. Sure, the differences in his two alternate forms weren't exactly “ambitious”; but I don't think that the attempts at more distinctive alternate modes in other triple changers actually paid off in the form of convincing models.

I think my biggest gripe about G1 Springer was his poorly executed feet.

On that note, I finally got Warbot Defender. Clearly there are some other folks out there with a soft spot for this character; and it's good to see him (finally) done a great deal of justice. It's a shame Hasbro hasn't delivered a proper Springer toy since his original release. The Cybertron Evac repaint probably came closest; but still fell quite short.

Energon Bulkhead was a pretty amazing toy, and did Springer justice. As far as triple changers go, I think Apeface was one of the best.

For me i would say - the entire Beast Machines line. I loved the show I thought it was great follow up to the Beast Wars but the toy line sucked! Optimus Primal – the deluxe one terrible. Then Tankor (I actually like the toy but looks nothing like the show) Rattrap – wtf? Obsidian and Strika, those would have rocked if they had looked right. And they botched Silverbolt all around. And when did Nightscream get bigger then Tankor? Terrible line that had such great potential.

Godginrai/Powermaster Optimus Prime is a mix lot. If you noticed how he first appeared in the Hasbro catalog, he looked more proportional. He had actual feet( he look a lot like the box picture) not like the finished product that was angled. The head too wasn't over sized. What more with Godbomber. Initial pictures of him gave it a kind of helmeted bald look and the extension that would make up Godginrai's super mode look more proportioned(and bigger)

ALEXD3498 wrote:g1 rodimus prime is terrible. I love hot rod/roddy's humor and rodimus's truck winnebago thing mode but hate the robot mode. also ratchet and ratchet and don't forget g1 cyclonus.

I meant to say ratchet and ironhide not ratchet and ratchet