The Energon Pub

RhA wrote:

LegendaryAntiHero wrote:I'm glad Hasbro is repainting this. I always keep forgetting to pick up the original

Does the same for me, but are you picking up this one or the original?

I chose to get the original the moment I saw what price this was going for. The original is cheaper than this new guy discounted.

Robogeek1973 wrote:The punching gimmick ruins this figure for me as it basically makes his arm useless with posing.


It does look pretty neat though.

He also makes a fun grunt sound when he punches.

I would say that while most of his many many gimmicks are unintrusive, that unposeable arm is the exception.

Sabrblade wrote:

budmaloney wrote:You have Wreckers, Lightning Strike Coalition, Minicons, Omni-bots, Unicron people, Predacons, Maximals, and now apparently Monkey bots.

Still to this day I have no idea who the omni-bots were and it was handled so badly.

How does that have anything to do with this thread?

Pretty relevant. Monkey-faced faction symbold is kinda like a new faction of it's own.

Sabrblade wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if this were the only BW 20th thing we'd get from Hasbro, given how next year is also the 30th anniversary of the 1986 G1 movie, which I'd sooner expect to see Hasbro want to commemorate instead.

Sad, but true. And them using a toy made for Beast Machines (and actually released in RiD1) to represent Beast Wars just makes me feel like they don't rea;;y care. I'm glad it still has its electronics, and I'm one of the few who doesn't hat the colors, but at that price, I can't see myself going for it.

What happened between Platinum Magnus and now that caused the prices to skyrocket?

Nemesis Primal wrote:What happened between Platinum Magnus and now that caused the prices to skyrocket?

blacklai@TFND.net has posted a plethora of pics of the recently revealed Year of the Monkey Platinum Edition Optimus Primal. One might even call it a shrewdness of pics to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Beast Wars. Also included are many videos detailing the sounds this toy makes. Some of the sounds and Garry Chalk phrases have been changed. Many of the images are mirrored below. Check out our gallery of the original Air Attack Optimus Primal for comparison.

A few things to note:

1. Those pictures are mistransformed. He is mistransformed in the package since his chest should be the one you see in Gorilla mode. That is why the maximal sign is inverted. I dont know why they didnt see that, I mean the proper chest is right there on the cove of the BOX!

2. It's reall sad how unpaited he is compared to the original. Look at his gorilla head, or his thighs or even hose hands across his elbows, its all unpainted.

3. The box art is different than what we originally saw since it now has a silver outline over the figure while this original picture didnt:



I am incredibly happy I chose to get the original release instead. His sounds are also way mre kickass with Gary Chalk's actual voice being used (first time a figure ever had the voice of the actual voice actor).

That thing is so under-painted, as to be insulting

Glad to see they kept the electronics, and am not surprised they jacked up the price even more than others; at least mp soundwave was like $60-80 so $120 was not a huge increase; but $100+ for this thing? not happening, not ever happening

Hellscream9999 wrote:That thing is so under-painted, as to be insulting

Glad to see they kept the electronics, and am not surprised they jacked up the price even more than others; at least mp soundwave was like $60-80 so $120 was not a huge increase; but $100+ for this thing? not happening, not ever happening

I am totally there with you.

However, there are a few things you and others should know since the distinction presented in all the comments I read is not clear.

Firstly, Soundwave was a much better deal than that. Because you are comparing prices for an MP which was not released with all his casettes with an MP that was. If you bought all the cassettes Takara issued in individual 2 packs, it would have cost more than Hasbro Soundwave.

Now, the deal with these Zodiac releases. There is no point in comparing since these are not the same kinds of releases (you can only compare the prices to previous zodiac releases inorder to make sense of it all). The Chinese new year releases, unlike the other platinums, are made for wide distribution in the asian markets, and are sold as exclusives here (sometimes online shared or with tru). I dont get why everyone understands why their Hasbro Asia Thundercrackers cost 200$ but are boggled with these prices. It is the very same kind of "exclusive".

They arent looking at how much toy you are getting. They just see a big figure, a special edition paintjob and voila: 150$ collectable for the asian market.

Probably already been noted, but he kinda looks like a Beast Machines version of Primal Prime. Not a negative, mind you, just an observation.

william-james88 wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:That thing is so under-painted, as to be insulting

Glad to see they kept the electronics, and am not surprised they jacked up the price even more than others; at least mp soundwave was like $60-80 so $120 was not a huge increase; but $100+ for this thing? not happening, not ever happening

I am totally there with you.

However, there are a few things you and others should know since the distinction presented in all the comments I read is not clear.

Firstly, Soundwave was a much better deal than that. Because you are comparing prices for an MP which was not released with all his casettes with an MP that was. If you bought all the cassettes Takara issued in individual 2 packs, it would have cost more than Hasbro Soundwave.

Now, the deal with these Zodiac releases. There is no point in comparing since these are not the same kinds of releases (you can only compare the prices to previous zodiac releases inorder to make sense of it all). The Chinese new year releases, unlike the other platinums, are made for wide distribution in the asian markets, and are sold as exclusives here (sometimes online shared or with tru). I dont get why everyone understands why their Hasbro Asia Thundercrackers cost 200$ but are boggled with these prices. It is the very same kind of "exclusive".

They arent looking at how much toy you are getting. They just see a big figure, a special edition paintjob and voila: 150$ collectable for the asian market.

I get all that, but 'special edition paint job' that is just barely painted, still knida insulting I mean he looks cool, has the gimmicks, and was actually a decent figure with a fun and interesting - yet delightfully simple - transformation. I still despise the arm gimmick, but I probably wouldn't have said no if he had a more equitable price. Now omega supreme was a special case with all the remolding and the actually great paint scheme, but these just seem like hasbro trying to see how little paint they can apply and get away with, I see it in cw and rid too - screw it all

Hellscream9999 wrote:
I get all that, but 'special edition paint job' that is just barely painted, still knida insulting I mean he looks cool, has the gimmicks, and was actually a decent figure with a fun and interesting - yet delightfully simple - transformation. I still despise the arm gimmick, but I probably wouldn't have said no if he had a more equitable price. Now omega supreme was a special case with all the remolding and the actually great paint scheme, but these just seem like hasbro trying to see how little paint they can apply and get away with, I see it in cw and rid too - screw it all

I couldnt agree more. And I love the way you eloquently describe his transformation, I will probably be using that in my lists.

First Transformer ever to come with his own soundtrack?

Whenever Transformers toys have sound bites that are just them saying their own name, all I can think of is Matt Damon from Team America. Yes, I know you are Optimus Primal, thanks for letting me know I guess.

Heckfire wrote:Probably already been noted, but he kinda looks like a Beast Machines version of Primal Prime. Not a negative, mind you, just an observation.

I know what you mean here, really I do, but I still have to be a smart alec and point this out :

Transformers Beast Machines Primal Prime Gallery

Sabrblade wrote:That is a great bio. Despite any misgivings we might have towards this figure and its possibly being the only representation we might get from Hasbro to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Beast Wars, I am glad to see that this bio is courteous enough to acknowledge Primal's significance as a memorable, well-made, beloved, and accomplished character.

Yep, it's very on point. While there's a lot of noise about changes in the brand resulting from corporate/budgeting decisions (see: this thread), you can tell the actual people behind this stuff really do care about the brand and are doing what they can to celebrate its history in these special releases.

I wonder why they changed the electronics, did they lose the original recording? Do they have to pay Garry Chalk again? I really wish I could know what leads to changes like these.

Sabrblade wrote:

MaverickPrime wrote:I wonder why they changed the electronics, did they lose the original recording? Do they have to pay Garry Chalk again? I really wish I could know what leads to changes like these.

Different release = different electronics. It's to offer something new rather than recycling what's old and been done. How often do the same electronic phrases of one toy get carried over to its redeco later on nowadays?

Theres also the factor that this toy is aimed at asian audiences and thus has a far more international appeal, meaning that speaking in english might not be the best bet.

Sabrblade wrote:How often do the same electronic phrases of one toy get carried over to its redeco later on nowadays?

We haven't been getting a whole lot of toys with sound lately in general, so that may not be a fair question.

This is one of those figures I'd buy in a heartbeat at regular retail price, but not at special-edition-import price.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:How often do the same electronic phrases of one toy get carried over to its redeco later on nowadays?

We haven't been getting a whole lot of toys with sound lately in general, so that may not be a fair question.

Well, we will see when the redeco of TAV 21 Optimus Prime comes out. Pretty sure the sounds will be different.

Aside from him the only other I can think of would be the dozens of rereleases of ROTF Optimus Prime. Do they all just say his name or do some say more than that?

Also, I am wondering if the MP Movie Starscream said different stuff from the original HFTD deco?

I realize that in the end, there havent been too many talking Transformers toys.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:How often do the same electronic phrases of one toy get carried over to its redeco later on nowadays?

We haven't been getting a whole lot of toys with sound lately in general, so that may not be a fair question.

From the top of my head, here are the toys that had sounds or phrases changed between redecos:

- Armada Megatron into Galvatron
- RotF Leader Optimus Prime into 2010 Leader Battle Blade Optimus Prime

There may be more.

Sabrblade wrote:ROTF Leader Megatron's "I. Am. MEGATRON!" phrase got changed into Shadow Command Megatron's "There is no command but MINE!" phrase.

Yeah but like only 5-10 people ever heard him say it