The Energon Pub

Is it just me, or are transformations that involve ripping off a chunk of the vehicle mode as a half-assed "shield" getting way too damn common?

The Lonely Cracker wrote:Is it just me, or are transformations that involve ripping off a chunk of the vehicle mode as a half-assed "shield" getting way too damn common?

That kind of Transformation irked me since G1 Blurr.

Sure, it's a shortcut for a clean altmode, but if you lose the part, you're screwed.

...I thought we'd previously established that the ER Datsun mold had zero parts in common with the SIEGE one. Shouldn't Prowl be getting compared to ER Smokescreen and not the SIEGE mold?

The Lonely Cracker wrote:Is it just me, or are transformations that involve ripping off a chunk of the vehicle mode as a half-assed "shield" getting way too damn common?

A bit. In Ironhide's case it's because it was the only way to give the SIEGE mold an Earth car roof while A. keeping the legs as oblong blocks and B. keeping it a Deluxe (the full-fledged G1 battle sled would have made him a Voyager from the sheer mass; I would have happily paid for that though, I really want that, and so I am disappointed it's not what we got). Ironhide at least has precedent for a removable platform even if a roof shield/gun turret is a shadow of the G1 toy's component, and at least in his case the length and width of the roof (plus the relative flatness) does enough to make it not look stupid as a shield.
...You know what Ironhide's roof shield reminds me of, actually, from the proportions?
That.

With Bumblebee and Cliffjumper it was probably to make the altmode re-shell easier, although it is a bit annoying. Still, at least you can put it on the back without it being overly bulky in their case.
The ER Arcee mold... yech. In that case it's pretty blatantly done as part of making the mold a shellformer so they could give us a rather "meh" Elita.

@Kanrabat At least Blurr's prow/shield looks like a shield (*gives ER Arcee the hairy eyeball*). The Titans Return mold improved things by making removing it optional. Plus it has an extra use there.
G1 Blurr's shield honestly isn't too far from the "chunk of the altmode detaching to be a gun or a sword or whatever" that dominated design from Beast Wars through the Unicron Trilogy, and wasn't uncommon in Classics through Animated.

Fans first? Not if you live outside the US it seems.

Courtesy of OzFormers.

QUINTESSON PIT OF JUDGEMENT 5-Pack - could be here at EB Games and Mr Toys, but still need to secure stock (to be confirmed later)
-
WFC-GS19 - Rotorstorm - will be at EB Gamese in OCTOBER (and NZ)
-
WFC-GS11 DECEPTICON EXHAUST - not expected here (source it online if possible)
WFC-GS12 GREASEPIT - will be at EB Games in SEPTEMBER (and NZ)
WFC-GS13 HUBCAP - will be at EB Games in SEPTEMBER (and NZ)
-
E7460 - WFC-E27 Seeker Elite 2-pack (Ramjet & Dirge) - not expected here
E7461 - WFC-E31 Autobot Alliance 2-pack (Ironhide & Prowl) - not expected here
(the 2-packs are both Amazon exclusives in the US, so hopefully they show up as import listings on Amazon Australia like Alternate Universe (dead) Optimus did this week)
-
Netflix wave 2 - not expected here (the Netflix toyline is doing too well, making it difficult to get stock for Australia)

So basically if it's not coming to Australia, it'll be through EB Games/Zing which is about double the normal retail price.

Guess I'm done collecting then.

william-james88 wrote:

This comparison isn't very helpful since the render of ER Prime used here is inaccurate. The actual toy has the silver stripe on the side of its alt-mode and light blue eyes, just like the new toy. This comparison also misses out on the actual big difference between the two toys, the grey inner legs on ER Prime.

Burn wrote:Fans first? Not if you live outside the US it seems.

Courtesy of OzFormers.

QUINTESSON PIT OF JUDGEMENT 5-Pack - could be here at EB Games and Mr Toys, but still need to secure stock (to be confirmed later)
-
WFC-GS19 - Rotorstorm - will be at EB Gamese in OCTOBER (and NZ)
-
WFC-GS11 DECEPTICON EXHAUST - not expected here (source it online if possible)
WFC-GS12 GREASEPIT - will be at EB Games in SEPTEMBER (and NZ)
WFC-GS13 HUBCAP - will be at EB Games in SEPTEMBER (and NZ)
-
E7460 - WFC-E27 Seeker Elite 2-pack (Ramjet & Dirge) - not expected here
E7461 - WFC-E31 Autobot Alliance 2-pack (Ironhide & Prowl) - not expected here
(the 2-packs are both Amazon exclusives in the US, so hopefully they show up as import listings on Amazon Australia like Alternate Universe (dead) Optimus did this week)
-
Netflix wave 2 - not expected here (the Netflix toyline is doing too well, making it difficult to get stock for Australia)

So basically if it's not coming to Australia, it'll be through EB Games/Zing which is about double the normal retail price.

Guess I'm done collecting then.

Are you able to purchase from Amazon Japan?

william-james88 wrote:Are you able to purchase from Amazon Japan?

Probably not. Still comes down to the issue of price. Why pay $80AU+ for a figure that the same size class retails for $49AU? It's not worth it.

Omegatron. wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

This comparison isn't very helpful since the render of ER Prime used here is inaccurate. The actual toy has the silver stripe on the side of its alt-mode and light blue eyes, just like the new toy. This comparison also misses out on the actual big difference between the two toys, the grey inner legs on ER Prime.

Not to mention the render of Netflix Prime has the silver stipes on the sides of the truck mode, but not on his arms, and his thighs are red in truck mode. It's almost like they tried to make both modes look as good as possible regardless of whether they were consistent with each other or representative of the final toy.

So basically, who knows what his deco will be.

Of course, if they would stop reinventing the slagging wheel with Optimus' transformation...

william-james88 wrote:

That really stinks. I was actually hoping it would be Siege Prime since I don't have that version yet. Since I already have ER prime, I guess I'm reduced to trying to get the BMs seperately online, or just getting the whole thing and trying to sell Optimus by himself.

Gotta say, I'm increasingly feeling like a sucker for buying any Siege toys.

Burn wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Are you able to purchase from Amazon Japan?

Probably not. Still comes down to the issue of price. Why pay $80AU+ for a figure that the same size class retails for $49AU? It's not worth it.

Sorry about that, man

TheForgottenTaxi wrote:Gotta say, I'm increasingly feeling like a sucker for buying any Siege toys.

You and me both.

william-james88 wrote:

Nemesis Primal wrote:

william-james88 wrote:2 thrust will be an exclusive of some sort, he isn't part of the main voyager assortment.

Since when? I thought he was the Wave 4 Voyager.

I wrote above the proof to him being an exclusive single release so I now wonder, where did you see that it would be part of wave 4?

...having seen your proof and looked back, I realize there never was any explicit proof of Thrust being the Wave 4 Voyager, a lot of people here just assumed he would be since he was the only ER/WFC figure in that listings leak to not explicitly be an exclusive (or in Exhaust and Greasepit's case, be proven later to be an exclusive, since they were missing the Selects denomination at first), and the fact that Coneheads require their own retooling made it seem likely at least one of them would be a retail figure to get that version of the mold on the shelves. I thought that the Seeker prefix on the name was to solve trademark issues, but didn't notice that it was printed that way on the tag and therefore wasn't part of the retail assortment.

I guess this means we're fully back to square one of having absolutely no idea who's in Wave 4 then!

Tuned Agent wrote:Not to mention the render of Netflix Prime has the silver stipes on the sides of the truck mode, but not on his arms, and his thighs are red in truck mode. It's almost like they tried to make both modes look as good as possible regardless of whether they were consistent with each other or representative of the final toy.

So basically, who knows what his deco will be.

This has kinda been a reoccuring issue with the renders in this trilogy overall so far, so I basically only trust the renders for Bumblebee and Soundwave. Other examples of the inconsistent/untrustworthy renders include:
-Siege Hound's windshield being green
-Siege Sixgun's head turning white in alt mode, along with other parts being presented as white that were later red
-Siege Red Alert's renders having the wrong head and better different colored arms (and this new Red Alert's render is even that same incorrect render but with extra battle damage, so it's ALSO wrong)
-Siege Spinister's guns changing color in alt mode
-ER Starscream growing a second pair of null rays from somewhere in alt mode
-ER Ramjet and Dirge already showing different coloration to their renders the day they were revealed

TheForgottenTaxi wrote:Gotta say, I'm increasingly feeling like a sucker for buying any Siege toys.

I don't think you're a sucker. Sideswipe, Hound, Chromia, and Mirage aren't getting remakes, the Weaponizers from SIEGE aren't getting remakes, the Battlemasters aren't getting remakes, Spinister and Impactor aren't getting remakes, Springer and Apeface aren't getting remakes, the SIEGE Seekers model the decidedly-different Cybertronian altmode (and you're especially not a sucker for getting Redwing or the Rainmakers if you got them), Skyfire (if you got him) isn't getting shoved into other parts of WFC, SIEGE didn't have Coneheads or Bumblebee, SIEGE Megatron is better than ER IMO, SIEGE Ratchet and Ironhide give decent Cybertronian van modes that can pass as sorta-Earthly if you squint (plus they're more cartoon-accurate in robot mode because of the rectangular windshields) and for my money the earth mode by itself is not enough in their case... SIEGE Prowl and Optimus, there's less of a difference.. but they're as good as we could get for Cybertronian modes with the cartoon-accuracy stipulation, and I think SIEGE Optimus' axe is more interesting than Trailerless ER Optimus' Battlemaster redecoes (and if you want an Energon axe, the weapons pack that comes with the Centurion has a more cartoon accurate one). Yes, there's some stuff getting redone, but there's also plenty of SIEGE stuff that stands and a lot of new stuff in ER.

Soundwave... Call me crazy, but I kinda prefer SIEGE to the retool version. The mold is somewhat "meh" to me in either form because it can only hold the Micromaster "cassettes" and those are undersize and IMO kinda junky (even with their greater articulation), so I can't treat them as powerup bodies like I can the TR Spy Tablet versions. I'm one of the few who likes the SIEGE version's "flying barge" altmode, and so that's kinda the one saving grace of the mold for me (although frankly if I never get either version of him, I'm not gonna lose sleep over it).
If this new tape deck Soundwave had been a new, slightly bigger mold instead of a retool, I'd be all over it, but as it is... eh. And since he means we probably won't see another Voyager tape deck Soundwave for a while... I think I'll just source some parts and kitbash my G1 Soundwave (who scales nicely with Generations figs and can use proper-size cassettes) to have modern-standard articulation. Sigh.
I totally understand if you nevertheless regret buying SIEGE Soundwave after this, though. Hopefully you only paid store price for him and not eBay scalper price.

Will, I ask again: Why is Prowl being compared to the SIEGE version? The comparison is about retools, and I seem to recall it being determined that the ER Datsun mold shared no parts with SIEGE. Shouldn't Prowl be being compared to ER Smokescreen, the figure he's actually a retool of?

william-james88 wrote:

TheForgottenTaxi wrote:Gotta say, I'm increasingly feeling like a sucker for buying any Siege toys.

You and me both.

... I just realized that every one of my Siege toys except for Spinister has already gotten remade. I'll be right there with you guys if the new Ratchet gets a Marvel-accurate helmet deco.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Tuned Agent wrote:Not to mention the render of Netflix Prime has the silver stipes on the sides of the truck mode, but not on his arms, and his thighs are red in truck mode. It's almost like they tried to make both modes look as good as possible regardless of whether they were consistent with each other or representative of the final toy.

So basically, who knows what his deco will be.

This has kinda been a reoccuring issue with the renders in this trilogy overall so far, so I basically only trust the renders for Bumblebee and Soundwave. Other examples of the inconsistent/untrustworthy renders include:
-Siege Hound's windshield being green
-Siege Sixgun's head turning white in alt mode, along with other parts being presented as white that were later red
-Siege Red Alert's renders having the wrong head and better different colored arms (and this new Red Alert's render is even that same incorrect render but with extra battle damage, so it's ALSO wrong)
-Siege Spinister's guns changing color in alt mode
-ER Starscream growing a second pair of null rays from somewhere in alt mode
-ER Ramjet and Dirge already showing different coloration to their renders the day they were revealed

It makes me wonder why they even bother with the CG renders. They must cost something to make, and they almost always look worse than official product images.

Tuned Agent wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

TheForgottenTaxi wrote:Gotta say, I'm increasingly feeling like a sucker for buying any Siege toys.

You and me both.

... I just realized that every one of my Siege toys except for Spinister has already gotten remade. I'll be right there with you guys if the new Ratchet gets a Marvel-accurate helmet deco.

So, you didn't get Hound, Springer, Apeface, Sideswipe, Impactor, Mirage, Chromia, the Rainmakers, Skyfire, Omega Supreme, or any of the Weaponizers or Battlemasters?

Tuned Agent wrote:It makes me wonder why they even bother with the CG renders. They must cost something to make, and they almost always look worse than official product images.

They probably cost less than running off physical copies, and they're probably made using the same CAD assets used in the manufacturing process

TheForgottenTaxi wrote:Gotta say, I'm increasingly feeling like a sucker for buying any Siege toys.

I'd agree if my goal was to only have a "mini MP" of ONE of each specific characters. But I kinda love having both the cybertronian and Earth modes of the same character side by side.

Especially for the seekers. So much so that for the first time in over 10 years of collecting, I will have the Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker trio... and TWICE on top of that. Siege AND Earthrise. I just have to wait for my ER 2-pack to arrive.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Will, I ask again: Why is Prowl being compared to the SIEGE version?

I dont know, why not ask the people who did this?


https://www.facebook.com/19759046038048 ... 811077239/

SIEGE figures remade in ER/the Netflix line
* Starscream (only half-counts IMO, because of how blatantly different the Cybertronian mode is)
* Skywarp (ditto)
* Thundercracker (ditto)
* Semi truck Optimus (mind you, his remake was at a higher price point because of the trailer; and the trailerless Netflix version is still pricier because of the Battlemasters)
* Ratchet(?)
* Ironhide
* Megatron
* Prowl
* Smokescreen (although his SIEGE version was hard to get anyway)
* Bluestreak(?)
* Soundwave

SIEGE figures not remade:
* Sideswipe
* Mirage
* Hound
* Impactor
* Refraktor
* Brunt
* Cog
* Six-gun
* Springer
* Apeface
* Spinister
* Redwing
* Acid Storm
* Ion Storm
* Nova Storm
* Chromia
* Firedrive
* Blowpipe
* Aimless (more's the pity)
* "Caliburst" (same)
* Pteraxadon
* Smashdown (shared figure)
* Rung (shared figure)
* Lionizer
* Skyfire
* Omega Supreme
* Shockwave
* Ultra Magnus
* Astrotrain (shared figure)
* Galaxy Upgrade Optimus

Can't believe Zelda forgot Refraktor!
Well, he have been remade once and repainted once in Siege so that's 3 versions in Siege already.
All freaking worth it. Especially the special 3 pack.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Can't believe Zelda forgot Refraktor!
Well, he have been remade once and repainted once in Siege so that's 3 versions in Siege already.
All freaking worth it. Especially the special 3 pack.

Well, I don't count new-character redecoes or special editions of the same base toy as remakes.

Thanks for reminding me about Refraktor tho. He has been added to the list.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Can't believe Zelda forgot Refraktor!
Well, he have been remade once and repainted once in Siege so that's 3 versions in Siege already.
All freaking worth it. Especially the special 3 pack.

Well, I don't count new-character redecoes or special editions of the same base toy as remakes.

Thanks for reminding me about Refraktor tho. He has been added to the list.

Netfix repaint don't really count, but you can consider the 3 pack to be a remake, with those remolding and extra accessories.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Tuned Agent wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

TheForgottenTaxi wrote:Gotta say, I'm increasingly feeling like a sucker for buying any Siege toys.

You and me both.

... I just realized that every one of my Siege toys except for Spinister has already gotten remade. I'll be right there with you guys if the new Ratchet gets a Marvel-accurate helmet deco.

So, you didn't get Hound, Springer, Apeface, Sideswipe, Impactor, Mirage, Chromia, the Rainmakers, Skyfire, Omega Supreme, or any of the Weaponizers or Battlemasters?

No, though there are a couple figures I would still like to get that haven't been remade.

Also, I think you forgot the cassettes on the list.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Tuned Agent wrote:It makes me wonder why they even bother with the CG renders. They must cost something to make, and they almost always look worse than official product images.

They probably cost less than running off physical copies, and they're probably made using the same CAD assets used in the manufacturing process

That's a good point about the CAD assets, but I'm not sure it would really be cheaper. They still have to make production samples for testing and stuff, so theoretically they could just make an extra for photos.

william-james88 wrote:

TheForgottenTaxi wrote:Gotta say, I'm increasingly feeling like a sucker for buying any Siege toys.

You and me both.

Is it because you believe the Earthrise versions are better, or the Netflix decos are better? By coincidence, none of the Siege toys I purchased have been redecoed for Netflix yet, exception the BM's, which are for the most part copies anyway. That is the one way Hasbro is suckering me.

o.supreme wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

TheForgottenTaxi wrote:Gotta say, I'm increasingly feeling like a sucker for buying any Siege toys.

You and me both.

Is it because you believe the Earthrise versions are better, or the Netflix decos are better? By coincidence, none of the Siege toys I purchased have been redecoed for Netflix yet, exception the BM's, which are for the most part copies anyway. That is the one way Hasbro is suckering me.

Just more to my taste for some like Soundwave and the datsuns. If everything was known in advance I'd only buy those and not the siege versions as well. That soundwave pisses me off most though since those renders reaks of them designing the tapedeck first and then putting something out before the main mold use. We used to see it with redecos in TR but at least those were passed off as different characters.