The Energon Pub

He's up at TakaraTomy Mall. 75,600 yen, which I was expecting he'd be 75,000.

https://takaratomymall.jp/shop/g/g80000 ... mm190726tf

Powered Convoy wrote:He's up at TakaraTomy Mall. 75,600 yen, which I was expecting he'd be 75,000.

https://takaratomymall.jp/shop/g/g80000 ... mm190726tf

Heck yea! From what it looks like, it seems that they are indeed being included in the crowdfunding effort despite (and very much please correct me if I'm wrong) what was indicated on the Twincast. Which again, if it is counting towards our goal, how do we suspect the HasLab site get updated?

Thanks for the link, Randy! It does look like their sales are connected to Hasbro's. It says they're accepting orders as part of the 8,000 unit worldwide goal. It has most of the same requirements about being charged at the time of order, no cancellations unless Hasbro doesn't make their goal and then the contract will be terminated and the money will be refunded. They've also added stipulations about not being able to use store points or receiving points, or use of coupon codes, payment by credit card only (TTM usually allows COD and payments at convenient stores), and no adding other things to the order making me think payment is going directly to Hasbro.

unicron1200 wrote:So I just got done listening to the newest Twincast Podcast, and was interested in what Scotty P and Megatronus were saying about it (it was also refreshing to hear people so enthusiastic about Unicron). Something interesting that they brought up about the abs, and something I agree would be cool, is potentially making them a translucent red or having some clear plastic in front of them to make it seem like they were glowing in a way reminiscent of the transformation scene from the movie

At least at one point they agreed that this was a good idea, they probably changed it when they decided against electronics.




Emerje

Add RobotKingdom to the list of online retailers doing Unicron preorders for the international markets.

Or at least, they did preorders. They've already closed their preorders in less than a day. That was brief.

http://www.robotkingdom.com/e6830.html

Hopefully there will be some definitive news soon, or way to quantify if all these 3rd party retailers offering pre-orders will factor into the overall 8000 count needed. Bottom line is....

Currently, if it does not get to 2000 backers (2004 to be precise) before midnight EDT (within the next 13 hours and 25 minuets), it will be behind pace to make 8000. I'm thinking at 2000 (which is 25% of the goal), the first update will come out, perhaps offering something to sweeten the deal.

RobotKingdom's Unicron preorders are open again, with free shipping to Hong Kong buyers.

Like BBTS, they have a down payment required.

http://www.robotkingdom.com/e6830.html

So far, with the interviews with the brand team and the information we have gotten, only Pulse orders count towards the number. the TTMall numbers don't count, and that order will still only happen if Pulse successfully reaches 8,000 backers.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:So far, with the interviews with the brand team and the information we have gotten, only Pulse orders count towards the number. the TTMall numbers don't count, and that order will still only happen if Pulse successfully reaches 8,000 backers.

So on this, I reached out to customer support on BBTS. From what the kind woman said, she indicated that more than likely they were counting preorders considering how closely the Product Team of BBTS and HasLab are working in terms of Unicron. There wasn’t more she was able to say as she didn’t have all the information, but based on that I feel like we can be more confident with preordering through them.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:So far, with the interviews with the brand team and the information we have gotten, only Pulse orders count towards the number. the TTMall numbers don't count, and that order will still only happen if Pulse successfully reaches 8,000 backers.

I interpreted quite the opposite. The toy only comes from 1 place, nomatter who sells it, so its only logical that all orders, nomatter where they originate, go to that one place.

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:So far, with the interviews with the brand team and the information we have gotten, only Pulse orders count towards the number. the TTMall numbers don't count, and that order will still only happen if Pulse successfully reaches 8,000 backers.

I interpreted quite the opposite. The toy only comes from 1 place, nomatter who sells it, so its only logical that all orders, nomatter where they originate, go to that one place.

Will, you are baffling me. You told me late last week i think it was that what I just said was the absolute truth, and that's been the truth that I've been hearing from the brand team in the interviews that were done with them

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:So far, with the interviews with the brand team and the information we have gotten, only Pulse orders count towards the number. the TTMall numbers don't count, and that order will still only happen if Pulse successfully reaches 8,000 backers.

I interpreted quite the opposite. The toy only comes from 1 place, nomatter who sells it, so its only logical that all orders, nomatter where they originate, go to that one place.

Will, you are baffling me. You told me late last week i think it was that what I just said was the absolute truth, and that's been the truth that I've been hearing from the brand team in the interviews that were done with them

I dont recall. I instead remember saying the opposite in our internal discussion. Maybe thete was misinterpretation and I was not clear.

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:So far, with the interviews with the brand team and the information we have gotten, only Pulse orders count towards the number. the TTMall numbers don't count, and that order will still only happen if Pulse successfully reaches 8,000 backers.

I interpreted quite the opposite. The toy only comes from 1 place, nomatter who sells it, so its only logical that all orders, nomatter where they originate, go to that one place.

Will, you are baffling me. You told me late last week i think it was that what I just said was the absolute truth, and that's been the truth that I've been hearing from the brand team in the interviews that were done with them

I dont recall. I instead remember saying the opposite in our internal discussion. Maybe thete was misinterpretation and I was not clear.

I had sent this to news on Wednesday, with the interpretation from Twitter that TTM would count towards the 8000 crowdfunding goal. I was told that this was not the case and that takara would offer the figure only if Pulse successfully funded the project. And it was supposedly newsed as such.

We really need someone who is fluent in both Japanese and English

So, that makes Hasbro Pulse, BBTS, TFSource, TakaraTomy Mall, and RobotKingdom all of the known options so far.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:So far, with the interviews with the brand team and the information we have gotten, only Pulse orders count towards the number. the TTMall numbers don't count, and that order will still only happen if Pulse successfully reaches 8,000 backers.

I interpreted quite the opposite. The toy only comes from 1 place, nomatter who sells it, so its only logical that all orders, nomatter where they originate, go to that one place.

Will, you are baffling me. You told me late last week i think it was that what I just said was the absolute truth, and that's been the truth that I've been hearing from the brand team in the interviews that were done with them

I dont recall. I instead remember saying the opposite in our internal discussion. Maybe thete was misinterpretation and I was not clear.

I had sent this to news on Wednesday, with the interpretation from Twitter that TTM would count towards the 8000 crowdfunding goal. I was told that this was not the case and that takara would offer the figure only if Pulse successfully funded the project. And it was supposedly newsed as such.

We really need someone who is fluent in both Japanese and English

That was before when we had little info to go on and Japanese fans were just as confused as the rest of us. Since then TTM started taking orders and confirmed that it's a world wide crowdfunding effort to reach 8,000.

What's interesting about the Robotkingdown pre-order is that they seem to be offering it at cost with free HK shipping which is very strange.

Robotkingdom wrote:(Total around HKD4599.9/USD584.9 requesting deposit only, FREE shipping to ALL local Hong Kong Order, any foreign orders need shipping quotations)

They don't appear to be the local source for the crowdfund so how can they get away with a total cost that's only $10 more than Hasbro Pulse? Even TTM is asking about $700 USD.

Emerje

D-Maximal_Primal wrote: takara would offer the figure only if Pulse successfully funded the project. And it was supposedly newsed as such.

We really need someone who is fluent in both Japanese and English

I can still see truth in that statement while not seeing it as being dismissive of the other orders counting.
I think this is a case of us misinterpreting eachother.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Also, I too, would want a Derp-G1-Unicron. I'd love such a thing to be real. Unfortunately, such a thing would also require a backers campaign.

Why would you think that? Why would Hasbro, a multi-million valued toy maker, the number one in the world in 2019, need backers to put a prototype toy from 1986 into production? It's not like it would take a more than five minutes for modern designers and their equipment to knock up an archaic G1 figure.

Bottom line, they were fools to not release him back in the day, no matter the cost... Where was the logic in making a kids film to sell toys and not selling a toy of the star?

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Also, I too, would want a Derp-G1-Unicron. I'd love such a thing to be real. Unfortunately, such a thing would also require a backers campaign.

Why would you think that? Why would Hasbro, a multi-million valued toy maker, the number one in the world in 2019, need backers to put a prototype toy from 1986 into production? It's not like it would take a more than five minutes for modern designers and their equipment to knock up an archaic G1 figure.

Bottom line, they were fools to not release him back in the day, no matter the cost... Where was the logic in making a kids film to sell toys and not selling a toy of the star?

The star turned into a ball. And not a ball that could even be played with like a ball.

Sabrblade wrote:The star turned into a ball. And not a ball that could even be played with like a ball.

A ball with horns
Meanwhile, Ultra Magnus turned from a car carrying truck to a brick. It was the 80's. It didn't really matter as much back then, as kids had "imagination", to fill in the blanks.

They could probably make 100 G1 Unicrons today, in a couple of hours, just from offcuts of SIEGE figures

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:The star turned into a ball. And not a ball that could even be played with like a ball.

A ball with horns
Meanwhile, Ultra Magnus turned from a car carrying truck to a brick. It was the 80's. It didn't really matter as much back then, as kids had "imagination", to fill in the blanks.

They could probably make 100 G1 Unicrons today, in a couple of hours, just from offcuts of SIEGE figures

Of course they could. Because of there now being a big enough collector market of nerds weird enough to want such a thing. The 80's didn't have that. Unicron's altmode simply wasn't feasibly marketable enough back then.

Plus that figure looks bad... It makes Energon Prime look thin. Now the Neo Unicron...

Still, I hope this unicron succeeds, would love to see what else they would do, using this method ensures everything sells with no unsold returns.

Sabrblade wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:The star turned into a ball. And not a ball that could even be played with like a ball.

A ball with horns
Meanwhile, Ultra Magnus turned from a car carrying truck to a brick. It was the 80's. It didn't really matter as much back then, as kids had "imagination", to fill in the blanks.

They could probably make 100 G1 Unicrons today, in a couple of hours, just from offcuts of SIEGE figures

Of course they could. Because of there now being a big enough collector market of nerds weird enough to want such a thing. The 80's didn't have that.

You didn't need a collectors market back then. Your target audience was the kids and just looking at the number of toys sold for TMNT, for example, they made a lot more money/sales through kids than collectors.
Collectors are still a niche sub-group, after all.

Sabrblade wrote: Unicron's altmode simply wasn't feasibly marketable enough back then.

You need to appreciate the 80's was a different time. With enough of a marketing push anything sold. As I said, the fact that Unicron was the star of the first Transformers feature length Movie, would have sold his toy before people even physically played with it.

ZeroWolf wrote:Plus that figure looks bad... It makes Energon Prime look thin. Now the Neo Unicron.

Compare it to the rest of the 86 line, To the Gestalts, Metroplex or Trypticon. The fact it actually had independent limbs, makes it the best looking figure of its size, the G1 line ever produced...

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:You didn't need a collectors market back then. Your target audience was the kids and just looking at the number of toys sold for TMNT, for example, they made a lot more money/sales through kids than collectors.

And all of those toys could do stuff or be easily handled by kids. Unicron's original toy would have been this big, heavy plastic ball that had no play features in planet mode.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:



You need to appreciate the 80's was a different time. With enough of a marketing push anything sold. As I said, the fact that Unicron was the star of the first Transformers feature length Movie, would have sold his toy before people even physically played with it.

All of those toys you pictured were small and thus easy for kids to handle and play with. Unicron's planet mode would have been much bigger and heavier for kids to manipulate. They'd have a much easier time running around with (but not bouncing) a basketball or a soccer ball, and an even more fun time actually bouncing said basketball or soccer ball.

Conversely, the Armada Unicron toy's planet mode had more playability not just because of all of its fun gimmick features (mostly related to Mini-Con interactivity) but because it was just the right size: Small enough and light enough to be easily handled by kids (much small than the huge G1 toy prototype's planet mode) while simultaneously big enough and massive enough to still be imposing.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The fact it actually had independent limbs, makes it the best looking figure of its size, the G1 line ever produced...

That's not really fair to say since, had it been made, it would have been the only toy of its size. The thing was between Scorponok and Fort Max, height-wise.