The Energon Pub

william-james88 wrote:

Shockwave7 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Hey guys, why are we calling those official stock pics photoshopped? the uncanny symmetry and blinding digital colouring indicates much more that these are digital 2D/3D renderings instead. I believe most of those are, like Skylynx and Smokescreen, ect.

I use photoshopped for lack of a better term to convey 'artificial' You're probably right. Many of these pics look unnaturally clean, and seem a lot like 3D renderings from some Autocad program or whatever they use to do their mock-ups. But it doesn't account for that weird thingy they put behind their official pic of Bruticus' head. There's something back there that looks like they didn't do a proper clipping path....

Thanks to your pictures above I just caught that, thanks, thats a good eye you have. Where do those different images come from, I thought there was only one official pic?

I 'fixed' the official picture myself in photoshop and reposted it without the weird junk behind Bruticus' head. How did I notice it? I've been a Bruticus fan/owner since G1 and knew well what his head looked like. And the official pic seemed wrong right off the bat. When I took a closer look, sure enough, it looked like they left something behind that wasn't supposed to be there...

Will they fix the official pic? Hope so - but then again, they still have official pics of Hot Spot with his Defensor head poking out from the ladder basket...

Sabrblade wrote:Regarding Blast Off's new altmode, remember these bad boys?



Oh yeah, he's going back to his original roots.

Looks like Lugnut was in G1 after all!

Shockwave7 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Hey guys, why are we calling those official stock pics photoshopped? the uncanny symmetry and blinding digital colouring indicates much more that these are digital 2D/3D renderings instead. I believe most of those are, like Skylynx and Smokescreen, ect.

I use photoshopped for lack of a better term to convey 'artificial' You're probably right. Many of these pics look unnaturally clean, and seem a lot like 3D renderings from some Autocad program or whatever they use to do their mock-ups. But it doesn't account for that weird thingy they put behind their official pic of Bruticus' head. There's something back there that looks like they didn't do a proper clipping path....

I honestly think that they are the 3d renders painted in photoshop, or the texture maps that are being planned for the figure and that this is what Hasbro looks at to see whether a pallet makes sense; maybe they don't have production runs of the figures for official photos (make sense), if we assume that the figures on display are hand painted prototypes, this lends more strength to this argument. I agree, they are noticeably different to the official photos of previous years, I think this may be the answer; or it could be that this is the direction that they want to go in from now on.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:Until we start seeing Beast Wars characters come out witht the ability to combine, I'd prefer to think of Skylynx as follows:

Some of us (myself exluded) really dig the character of Skylynx. So Hasbro wants to throw us a bone. So maybe he should've been a leader class to properly represent who he is/what he does, but to Hasbro, while he may be a very unique character, his "robot" mode isn't distinct enough from his alt-mode to justify that size and price, especially when he needs to appeal to kids as well as us adult collectors.

Another thing: who could they repaint/remold a leader class Skylynx into? So far, 2/3 of the leader figures have had two different toolings. And whereas with Ultra Magnus, even if they don't retool him, the demand is there from the fans, the size is right, AND he has recognizeability to the younger generation of fans, through TF Animated and TF Prime; that's not necessarily the case with Skylynx.

So Hasbro tries to meet the middle ground: giving fans of the character a great looking representation in a Voyager figure, that can HEY also combine. Plus, they have a little more room to possibly retool the figure into someone else, say Hun-gurr or or possibly even the other half of Skylynx (whatever they called it).

Is this making sense?

Burn wrote:Thing is though, with A/E/C the gimmicks were implemented into what were essentially new characters.

What we have with Combiner Wars is 30+ year old characters suddenly being shoe-horned into a gimmick they had no part of back in the day.

I know I sound like 1984forever, but I just don't think it's necessary. Especially when we have a number of characters who have already been given a modern update, and a character like Sky Lynx who has had his original gimmick replaced with one that we already have plenty of.

All I'm saying is that Hasbro seems to have decided that every Deluxe and Voyager in this line is going to have the gimmick, so whoever they put into those size classes can be expected to have the gimmick, regardless of who the characters are and if they were combiners before now or not. That's all I'm saying that seems to be the case.

I'll concede that the character factor didn't apply to the UT toys and their gimmicks, but my point still stands about all non-Mini-Con toys containing at least one of the gimmicks from those lines.

And if we ever do see something like a CW Terrorsaur or CW Blackarachnia, if they're Deluxes or Voyagers, I'll expect to see them having the CW combiner gimmick.

Honestly, I think the combiner gimmick has run it's course, and will end with Bruticus and and Sky Reign. From there, based off of the "Titan Wars" moniker, we'll be focusing on larger characters with ties to the "masters system" as i call it. Headmasters, power masters, target masters, et cetera; and those will probably be shown at SDCC. However judging by the black and white "Titan Wars" backdrop, just because of the nature of the gimicks, headmasters, and even double headmasters, those figures will probably be voyager+ giving Hasbro a larger budget to play with the gimmick and refine it so we don't have a repeat of Brainstorm's tolerance issues. From there, I think that hasbro will probably have summer 2016 to 17 deluxes will either have some play with headmasters in some way, either being smaller headmasters themselves like the headmasters Junior, or be part of a a separate part of the system, such as Target masters. However the "Titan Wars" seems more restrictive to larger figures so I doubt they'll be integrated with larger figure or be headmaster junior style figures. So I think that while there may be some deluxed gimmick-ed figures like a target master, or maybe another cerebros like character, the main focus of the voyager+ figures is the "titan wars" and the deluxe will be more standard style, pre combiner wars, generations figures.

Too much awesome.

Onslaught is just too sexy.

Combiners were my favorite thing about G1.
And we get all the first five!
Even moar!

Only nitpick, there have to be nitpicks right?

I really wish First Aid was a real van. Then they could've
made a better Ironhide/First Aid.

And I wish Blastoff had Vortex or First Aid's head.

Other than that, I'm getting about 90% of these guys.

Also really dig the new Optimus Prime head, will there
be a blue version of that?

What's all this talk about Titan Wars & Head Masters?

Combiner Wars is already a huge line! I love the simpler
transformations and the spamming of characters. I totally
don't mind mold brothers, recolours and retools.
If it's economical for Hasbro, we, the fans, have more
choice.

Honestly, I kind of wish SkyLynx had been really reinvented to be the crown jewel of the Combiner Wars line. Sold as two Voyager class characters - one Lynx/Robot and one Shuttle/Robot that could combine into a Leader-class sized Dragon thing, or each combine with any of the Combiner Wars deluxes. Something with a double combination gimmick would have been a nice zenith for the line. And that's what I expected when we saw those line-art pictures of the shuttle-former.

Still glad to eventually have him, though. The fact that he doesn't split doesn't bother me overly much, and apart from that, he's a pretty straightforward update of a toy I remember holding in my hands and having to put back on the shelf. And I like the suggestion that he could be retooled into Hungrr.

I do hope that the modern combination system persists into the future in moderation. That is to say, once Combiner Wars is 'over' I hope that we'll still get maybe one new Combiner a year, using the same system. Two maybe. With 16 deluxes in a year, I don't think it'd be so bad for a quarter of them to be part of a combiner team.

As far as shoehorning older characters into the combiner gimmick, I see Hasbro's dilemma - I think there's a pressure to make sure certain characters get released with certain frequencies - e.g., Prowl is never off shelves for more than a couple of years - but really the Classics/Generations molds have just knocked some of the characters out of the park. If I were given the directive,'put a new deluxe Mirage on the shelf' but was looking at the previous Generations Mirage, I'd be rather vexed. I don't think I could improve on the previous release because it was so good, so I'd be trying to come up with some novel twist with the newest iteration (and preferably not something spring-loaded).

Complaining about a character in Combiner Wars adhering to the combiner gimmick seems a bit silly. I understand the mixed reactions to making Sky Lynx a combiner at all, but it was a given that if he was going to be a voyager class in Combiner Wars, he would be able to combine, because that's the entire point of CW. So the real question is, why did they choose to release him during Combiner Wars and not afterwards, when they could possibly have made him separable into Sky and Lynx and not had to engineer in a torso mode for him? That, we don't know, but clearly, they don't mind updating G1 characters with gimmicks they didn't have in G1. Combiners from characters who are not traditionally combiners, G1 versions of other universe characters, etc. I, for one, think Sky Reign looks awesome. My only complaint (and I may have voiced this on a previous page, or it may have just been in a chat with a friend) is that the second round of '84 Autobot combiners are taking away a slot from a team that needs an update. We're still missing the Terrorcons, Seacons, and Technobots of the original scramble city teams, and there's the possibility that Predaking could be turned into a Scramble City combiner as well. Combiner Wars only goes through the end of 2016, so at least one team is probably getting shafted in favor of these new autobot combiners. I would rather get one of those combiners and have Sky Lynx as a single torso, a la Cyclonus.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:Honestly, I think the combiner gimmick has run it's course, and will end with Bruticus and and Sky Reign.

Sorry then, because Scattershot was already found listed in the database along with the toys that were revealed last week-end : http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/combiner-wars-scattershot-onslaught-and-shockwave-figures-revealed-in-store-database/32193/

He is the next combiner after Sky Reign. And dont forget that Victorion (6 female combiner) is also coming out next year. That's already 4 more combiners, plus the one coming from TFSS.

It's weird, on one hand it feels like we're getting TOO MANY Combiners because we've gotten two full extra teams and another two torso-bots of characters that never combined before*, not to mention just plain old mold redundancy. On the other hand there's still a lot of Combiners that we'd like to see updated.

As someone with no real interest in the gimmick, I'm apprehensive about having a whole other year of it all.


*and despite all that we haven't even gotten a proper Masquerade team

Noideaforaname wrote:
*and despite all that we haven't even gotten a proper Masquerade team

But technically wouldnt the masquerade team simply look like CW Menasor?

That Bot wrote:So the real question is, why did they choose to release him during Combiner Wars and not afterwards, when they could possibly have made him separable into Sky and Lynx and not had to engineer in a torso mode for him? That, we don't know, but clearly, they don't mind updating G1 characters with gimmicks they didn't have in G1.

My only guess is that maybe someone on the Hasbro team really wanted to bring back Sky Lynx and did not want to wait until Combiner Wars was over, and so felt that making him into a combiner torso would be an innovative way to bring him back.

Besides, they did tease that the lynx head for Sky Reign could conceivably be used for a "secret fourth mode", one emulating his lynx mode.

They also thought more people may be inclined to buy him if he had a purpose.

Sabrblade wrote:

That Bot wrote:So the real question is, why did they choose to release him during Combiner Wars and not afterwards, when they could possibly have made him separable into Sky and Lynx and not had to engineer in a torso mode for him? That, we don't know, but clearly, they don't mind updating G1 characters with gimmicks they didn't have in G1.

My only guess is that maybe someone on the Hasbro team really wanted to bring back Sky Lynx and did not want to wait until Combiner Wars was over, and so felt that making him into a combiner torso would be an innovative way to bring him back.

Besides, they did tease that the lynx head for Sky Reign could conceivably be used for a "secret fourth mode", one emulating his lynx mode.

Source ?

ZeroWolf wrote:They also thought more people may be inclined to buy him if he had a purpose.

But then why make a big Tank Megatron in G1 colours? I dont see the purpose that has in any collection due to his size and alt mode. And its not like they made him and Magnus combiners.

william-james88 wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:They also thought more people may be inclined to buy him if he had a purpose.

But then why make a big Tank Megatron in G1 colours? I dont see the purpose that has in any collection due to his size and alt mode. And its not like they made him and Magnus combiners.

The Leader Class Combiner Wars figures really feel like they are the result of a production delay leading to a rebranding. On the other hand, maybe they felt there needed to be a Megatron on the shelf, and he's absent in the kids cartoons right now, so it would have to be in Combiner Wars, and if it was in Combiner Wars, he needed to be big enough to look like a challenge for a Combiner, because, y'know, he's Megatron. The fact that he's not a Voyager class combiner himself is surprising, but I'm not complaining - I needed a Megatron other than Cybertron Galvatron that could stand next to MP Soundwave and not look goofy.

Although, now that I've gone and brought it up, it would have been cool if Megatron had been the one who could become "Galvatronus", rather than Cyclonus.

It would of been better if we had galvatron who turned into galvatronus personally but the cw leader class figures are the odd ones out in the scheme of things

Caelus wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:They also thought more people may be inclined to buy him if he had a purpose.

But then why make a big Tank Megatron in G1 colours? I dont see the purpose that has in any collection due to his size and alt mode. And its not like they made him and Magnus combiners.

The Leader Class Combiner Wars figures really feel like they are the result of a production delay leading to a rebranding. On the other hand, maybe they felt there needed to be a Megatron on the shelf, and he's absent in the kids cartoons right now, so it would have to be in Combiner Wars, and if it was in Combiner Wars, he needed to be big enough to look like a challenge for a Combiner, because, y'know, he's Megatron. The fact that he's not a Voyager class combiner himself is surprising, but I'm not complaining - I needed a Megatron other than Cybertron Galvatron that could stand next to MP Soundwave and not look goofy.

Although, now that I've gone and brought it up, it would have been cool if Megatron had been the one who could become "Galvatronus", rather than Cyclonus.

I like that idea, it definitely works for the metamorphosis idea. Also, it would have given us an updated voyager Megatron which everyone is still asking for with the classics version being 10 years old now.

william-james88 wrote:

SW's SilverHammer wrote:Honestly, I think the combiner gimmick has run it's course, and will end with Bruticus and and Sky Reign.

Sorry then, because Scattershot was already found listed in the database along with the toys that were revealed last week-end : http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/combiner-wars-scattershot-onslaught-and-shockwave-figures-revealed-in-store-database/32193/

He is the next combiner after Sky Reign. And dont forget that Victorion (6 female combiner) is also coming out next year. That's already 4 more combiners, plus the one coming from TFSS.

I, for one, hope they also do Abominus, Predaking and Computron. They might be able to get away with remolds/repaints for the Technobots - but with Abominus and Predaking they're pretty much gonna have to make new molds for each team member. I'd love to see a 2016 Blot...

Shockwave7 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

SW's SilverHammer wrote:Honestly, I think the combiner gimmick has run it's course, and will end with Bruticus and and Sky Reign.

Sorry then, because Scattershot was already found listed in the database along with the toys that were revealed last week-end : http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/combiner-wars-scattershot-onslaught-and-shockwave-figures-revealed-in-store-database/32193/

He is the next combiner after Sky Reign. And dont forget that Victorion (6 female combiner) is also coming out next year. That's already 4 more combiners, plus the one coming from TFSS.

I, for one, hope they also do Abominus, Predaking and Computron. They might be able to get away with remolds/repaints for the Technobots - but with Abominus and Predaking they're pretty much gonna have to make new molds for each team member. I'd love to see a 2016 Blot...

Me too

I'd say 2016 Blot would look a lot like 2014 Blot...

Problem is I can't see the terror cons been done as their molds won't be easily shared. Plus Predaking would most likely be titan class to illustrate his status among combiners

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

That Bot wrote:So the real question is, why did they choose to release him during Combiner Wars and not afterwards, when they could possibly have made him separable into Sky and Lynx and not had to engineer in a torso mode for him? That, we don't know, but clearly, they don't mind updating G1 characters with gimmicks they didn't have in G1.

My only guess is that maybe someone on the Hasbro team really wanted to bring back Sky Lynx and did not want to wait until Combiner Wars was over, and so felt that making him into a combiner torso would be an innovative way to bring him back.

Besides, they did tease that the lynx head for Sky Reign could conceivably be used for a "secret fourth mode", one emulating his lynx mode.

Source ?

Source for what?

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

That Bot wrote:So the real question is, why did they choose to release him during Combiner Wars and not afterwards, when they could possibly have made him separable into Sky and Lynx and not had to engineer in a torso mode for him? That, we don't know, but clearly, they don't mind updating G1 characters with gimmicks they didn't have in G1.

My only guess is that maybe someone on the Hasbro team really wanted to bring back Sky Lynx and did not want to wait until Combiner Wars was over, and so felt that making him into a combiner torso would be an innovative way to bring him back.

Besides, they did tease that the lynx head for Sky Reign could conceivably be used for a "secret fourth mode", one emulating his lynx mode.

Source ?

Source for what?

Of the tease at the 4th mode.

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

That Bot wrote:So the real question is, why did they choose to release him during Combiner Wars and not afterwards, when they could possibly have made him separable into Sky and Lynx and not had to engineer in a torso mode for him? That, we don't know, but clearly, they don't mind updating G1 characters with gimmicks they didn't have in G1.

My only guess is that maybe someone on the Hasbro team really wanted to bring back Sky Lynx and did not want to wait until Combiner Wars was over, and so felt that making him into a combiner torso would be an innovative way to bring him back.

Besides, they did tease that the lynx head for Sky Reign could conceivably be used for a "secret fourth mode", one emulating his lynx mode.

Source ?

Source for what?

Of the tease at the 4th mode.

They said it at the panel. I was there taking notes.

Sabrblade wrote:They said it at the panel. I was there taking notes.

Awesome! Any other tidbit you'd like to share that doesnt seem to have made the rounds? Did anyone ask about Deluxe Groove?