The Energon Pub

News Credits: 191 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 12:47 pm

Ah, but see; those I could actually understand. Whether it's an obscure version of Optimus Prime or not; it's still an Optimus Prime toy and easily recognisable as him, so instant seller. Lione and Shuffler are incredibly obscure, no doubt about that; but they're small pocket money toys so you don't exactly need a lot of star power behind them.

But as the price point increases, you need more justification to buy the product. And one of the best ways is to attach a popular name like Megatron, Starscream or Soundwave to it. So that's why I could understand this applying to a Leader and not a Legends or Titan Master... except, again, friggin' Sky Shadow

News Credits: 19 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 2:27 pm

Va'al wrote:You saw the coverage of the Transformers brand panel at Hascon, now you can check in for yourselves with more artwork, more comments, more points raised by the speakers and audience in the recording of the whole thing on on the Seibertron.com YouTube channel! Check out the clip embedded below, featuring Dinobots (including Slash and the combined Volcanicus), Allspark Tech, a new Optimus Prime and insight from both Takara and Hasbro designers.

seeing as

were there, I'm surprised that no one asked them why their Trypticon is no different to the :HASBRO:

version

News Credits: 293 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:54 pm

Big juicy gallery of Hascon Arcee

News Credits: 102 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 5:41 pm

Stuartmaximus wrote:
Va'al wrote:You saw the coverage of the Transformers brand panel at Hascon, now you can check in for yourselves with more artwork, more comments, more points raised by the speakers and audience in the recording of the whole thing on on the Seibertron.com YouTube channel! Check out the clip embedded below, featuring Dinobots (including Slash and the combined Volcanicus), Allspark Tech, a new Optimus Prime and insight from both Takara and Hasbro designers.

seeing as were there, I'm surprised that no one asked them why their Trypticon is no different to the version

I know I'm not Takara, but if I had to guess, it's probably because it didn't need to be. I agree that it seems like a bad business-move to release the exact same thing at a higher price, but what could we possibly (reasonably) have asked for that Hasbro didn't already do? In this particular instance, I think it's more a case of Hasbro being really incredibly on the ball rather than Takara falling off of it.

News Credits: 191 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 6:03 pm

People were trying to use the glossy wall's reflection to sneak a peak at the back of Starscream's box, so Hasbro later put a sheet of paper behind the box to stop that.

News Credits: 4877 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 7:06 pm

One really cool bonus of having a Transformers convention right near Hasbro's head office is that Hasbro can treat fans to lots of behind the scenes tidbits we wouldn't have elsewhere. In this particular case, Hasbro stocked Hascon full of Transformers grey models (finished prototypes) of various Transformers toys across many different lines. Plus, there were even some unreleased figures present like a movie Blaster from Dark of the Moon deluxe Soundwave as well as Prime Scraplets.

We have a whole gallery dedicated to these and you can click here or on any image below to get to it.

News Credits: 3 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 7:18 pm

I'm assuming the yellow/grey plastic on Max is to show which parts are borrowed from metroplex? (It's normally either that or different materials eg softer plastic, which I don't believe max has). That's actually really neat to see!

Also, why is that scraplet alarmingly adorable

Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:10 pm

Inferno as a redeco of Soundwave looks amazing, I really wish they released that.

News Credits: 462 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:15 pm

ArmadaPrime wrote:I'm assuming the yellow/grey plastic on Max is to show which parts are borrowed from metroplex? (It's normally either that or different materials eg softer plastic, which I don't believe max has). That's actually really neat to see!

Yeah, it looks like all the cream parts are those that were carried over from Metroplex, with the gray parts being new.

News Credits: 4 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:16 pm

Don't really like the DOTM Blaster. If anything, I'd imagine a Movieverse Blaster being designed more like Movie 1 Stockade. Like the Scraplets set, but it's interesting to see WFC Bumblebee and FE Bumblebee in the same set (I know Hasbro made the Aligned continuity have both the games and the show together, but besides Arms Micron Shockwave (reuse of FOC Shockwave), we never got any two packs like this that acknowledge the connection between WFC/FOC and Prime.

News Credits: 462 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:21 pm

Sunburnninja wrote:Inferno as a redeco of Soundwave looks amazing, I really wish they released that.

That's Blaster.

Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:25 pm

A live action film series Blaster.. WHY DIDN'T WE GET THIS!? :-(

News Credits: 4877 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:53 pm

Qwan wrote:I know I'm not Takara, but if I had to guess, it's probably because it didn't need to be. I agree that it seems like a bad business-move to release the exact same thing at a higher price, but what could we possibly (reasonably) have asked for that Hasbro didn't already do?

Paint on the Titan Master for one.

Plus a darker grey plastic to be more show accurate.

Plus, he wasnt released at a higher price. Isnt Trypticon $299 AUD where you are? Thats 26080 Yen and he's currently being sold for 15682 Yen at Japanese retail so about $179 AUD. Its Hasbro (well more like your local TRU) who is selling the same thing at a higher price.

Anyways, its all different markets, Hasbro and Takara arent competing for our dollars, and on average both Legends Trypticon and Titans Return Trypticon sold for the same amount in their respective markets.

Kurona wrote:People were trying to use the glossy wall's reflection to sneak a peak at the back of Starscream's box, so Hasbro later put a sheet of paper behind the box to stop that.

I dont know why, the back of POTP Voyagers dont have cross sells of different classes and dont show the combined mode. They only show the official images we already saw plus the power masters you can plug into them.

Sabrblade wrote:
ArmadaPrime wrote:I'm assuming the yellow/grey plastic on Max is to show which parts are borrowed from metroplex? (It's normally either that or different materials eg softer plastic, which I don't believe max has). That's actually really neat to see!
Yeah, it looks like all the cream parts are those that were carried over from Metroplex, with the gray parts being new.

Man, that made me realize that Fort Max reuses the Metroplex runways. I dont own Metroplex so I never connected that aspect. Man, now I am pissed again that it couldnt be ramps like in G1 to both increase playability and cover those damn fists :BANG_HEAD:

News Credits: 241 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 9:06 pm

Pretty interesting gallery to say the least.

- Indeed, the yellow parts on the Fortress Maximus prototype are repurposed from Metroplex. Quite a lot actually, I'd say between 30% and 40%.
- the TR Megatron is a hybrid, as it uses the Blitzwing chest and not the Megatron one. Oops?
- DotM Skywarp, Blaster, G2-colored Space Case... Battle Damaged WfC and Prime FE Bumblebee with Scraplets. So much lost potential :-(

News Credits: 4877 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 9:17 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:- DotM Skywarp

But we did get that one.

News Credits: 241 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 9:22 pm

william-james88 wrote:
JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:- DotM Skywarp

But we did get that one.

Via TakaraTomy, but not via Hasbro. Note how there are some deco differences between the two:

Transformers Dark of the Moon Skywarp Gallery

News Credits: 102 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 9:48 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Pretty interesting gallery to say the least.
[...]
- the TR Megatron is a hybrid, as it uses the Blitzwing chest and not the Megatron one. Oops?

And Blitzwing's tank barrel too. In fact it looks like this might just be Blitzwing with Megatron's head, possibly from the earlier stages of secondary-use planning. (Though without colors, where does the point of differentiation lie between Blitz and Megs anyway?)

william-james88 wrote:
Qwan wrote:I know I'm not Takara, but if I had to guess, it's probably because it didn't need to be. I agree that it seems like a bad business-move to release the exact same thing at a higher price, but what could we possibly (reasonably) have asked for that Hasbro didn't already do?

Paint on the Titan Master for one.

Plus a darker grey plastic to be more show accurate.

Fair points, though I'm inclined to agree with the idea I've seen floating around that perhaps the darker shade of grey is being reserved for a hypothetical Gigastorm (some sort of exclusive, probably, if it does happen by some small chance). Painted Titan Master though, I'll admit I totally forgot about that one. Points conceded.

william-james88 wrote:Plus, he wasnt released at a higher price. Isnt Trypticon $299 AUD where you are? Thats 26080 Yen and he's currently being sold for 15682 Yen at Japanese retail so about $179 AUD. Its Hasbro (well more like your local TRU) who is selling the same thing at a higher price.

Anyways, its all different markets, Hasbro and Takara arent competing for our dollars, and on average both Legends Trypticon and Titans Return Trypticon sold for the same amount in their respective markets.

Yeah, you're right! I guess I confused import costs with actual cost of the item; I tend to forget sometimes that Takara is first and foremost a toy company for Japan, rather than a collectables service that operates out of Japan for us Westerners to get our fancy toys. :lol:

News Credits: 4877 · Sun Sep 10, 2017 10:48 pm

Qwan wrote: I tend to forget sometimes that Takara is first and foremost a toy company for Japan, rather than a collectables service that operates out of Japan for us Westerners to get our fancy toys.

happens to the best of us ;)^

I mean I totally get where you are coming from when people weigh pros and cons and take the complete cost into account, makes sense. But here we were talking about business decisions, and Takara sees 0 extra profit from the extra fee importers add to those product to recoup their costs.

News Credits: 22 · Mon Sep 11, 2017 12:39 am

So no Predaking at all? Hasbro is saving him for a later reveal? And we only saw 2 Terrorcons.

News Credits: 9 · Mon Sep 11, 2017 1:21 am

Rodimus Prime wrote:So no Predaking at all? Hasbro is saving him for a later reveal? And we only saw 2 Terrorcons.

Toy Fair 2018, right?

Mon Sep 11, 2017 5:51 am

No captions.

Context is king.

News Credits: 191 · Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:08 am

As the buzz from the reveals at Hascon 2017 this weekend winds down, it might be easy to forget that the brand new convention had an exclusive Transformers figure and an early access Transformers figure - Power Bank Optimus Prime and Titans Return Arcee respectively! While many have gotten their hands on the two by now, they will be sold online as of September 20th. Click here for Arcee ($24.99), click here for Power Bank Optimus Prime ($49.99), and click the image below to go to the entire Hascon Exclusives shop before telling us what you think in the forums!

Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:13 am

Not "available UNTIL 9/20" -- they're "available STARTING 9/20".

News Credits: 6188 · Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:16 am

mblase75 wrote:Not "available UNTIL 9/20" -- they're "available STARTING 9/20".

It's already been edited, don't worry.

News Credits: 4877 · Mon Sep 11, 2017 8:24 am

Rysquad wrote:
Rodimus Prime wrote:So no Predaking at all? Hasbro is saving him for a later reveal? And we only saw 2 Terrorcons.

Toy Fair 2018, right?

NYCC October 5 – 8, 2017