The Energon Pub

seeing the video review, I really like the alt mode. I like the bot mode, but not that much, and he really is a bit too big. If he was only 3.275inches shorter and had a silver Matrix on a chain that Magnus never had in any fiction, I'd definitely be sold.

I do like that it's an all in one transformation. The change from vehicle to bot is fine. A few tricky/fiddly bits, but not overly complex. I don't need or want another white Optimus Prime really, but if there is one and it worked like this, it wouldn't put me up nor down.

The Minimus Ambus shapeways figure is pretty cool. I'm going to completely misconstrue Peaugh's inclusion of it in the review and assume that it was somehow taken into consideration when KFC were designing this toy, rather than realising that it's simply coincidental that its size and Stack's engineering allow for some cool cross-play.

I don't have any other thoughts, but I might post more ramblings about the ones listed above, over and over again, as if I'm having a conversation with myself, okay?

craggy wrote:I don't have any other thoughts, but I might post more ramblings about the ones listed above, over and over again, as if I'm having a conversation with myself, okay?

my my... what or who could you be referencing?

As much as I love a good Magnus, this thing is just way too big and I'm not really that impressed with the head sculpt either. So as far as Ultra Magnus goes, I guess it's over to you Has/Tak.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

Blurrz wrote: Man, I love the ignore option.

Thanks for the idea & advivce. I have just added X back in my ignore list. I won't be replying to him anymore.

Dont you just love the way he announces to the whole world who he want's to block ? He once announced he was blocking me before and then unblocked me for whatever reason. Thats seriously so imature. I would think who you block should remain youre personal business. Personaly, I never used the ignore list and never will.

more reviews



Size comparison with MP 01 in there somewhere

My favorite pic from Sidecutter:

That pic was great! What an example of the scaling issues in the animation!

I have to admit that this looks really, really good. It's a lot of bot for the money. I am encouraged by the molding of the parts at a different factory from previous KFC releases. Maybe that will make all the QC difference in the world. Is it perfect? No. But it is more than decent.

The size is the main turn-off for me. I just can't deal with it right now...

he looks good with MP01. just not sure i need him though. that scale of MP's is dead... i dont really need to add to it..

Looking at the transformation closely, theres no way you can properly scale this mold with any size class of figures in both modes. Trying to match the cab with a cab from another line automatically guarantees you a huge out of scale robot mode. Im willing to bet the cab is alot smaller than MP-01 which is why they scale together so well in robot mode. If this mold was ever to be shrunk to classics scale, the cab should be made about the same size as FP Motermaster to keep the robot mode in scale with other voyager Primes.

Rated X wrote:Looking at the transformation closely, theres no way you can properly scale this mold with any size class of figures in both modes. Trying to match the cab with a cab from another line automatically guarantees you a huge out of scale robot mode. Im willing to bet the cab is alot smaller than MP-01 which is why they scale together so well in robot mode. If this mold was ever to be shrunk to classics scale, the cab should be made about the same size as FP Motermaster to keep the robot mode in scale with other voyager Primes.

Yep, I completely agree with you here. I think that is one reason it is going to be hard to replace my FP City Commander. That armor made white Prime a great Classics size.

mooncake623 wrote:more reviews



Size comparison with MP 01 in there somewhere

Thanks for another video. This toy is awesome. Can't wait to get it.

The nutcracker jaw some here noticed. A few days ago I noticed it looks similar to the 2009 TFA Leader scale Ultra Magnus jaw. I am not bothered by it like some are. I suspect a more beautiful secondary head will be created.

The guy doing this review further comfirmed that the plastic is stronger than KFC's previous toys plastic. He also said QC issues are better as it's made in a different factory. The Guy speculated MP-22 is going to be a similar scale to KFC UM,Like I speculated.

I will be putting this KFC UM toy on the same shelf with MP-01,MP-05 & MP-22.

REMINATOR wrote:My favorite pic from Sidecutter:

What episode is this pic from?

I don't mind the scale of this KFC UM toy. As scale was all over the place in the 1980's TF toy line,cartoon & comic.

Even in the Classics,Generations,MP TF & TFCC toy lines. Toy scales are all over the place. Some have incorrect & some have correct scaled toys.

shajaki wrote:he looks good with MP01. just not sure i need him though. that scale of MP's is dead... i dont really need to add to it..

I don't think this bigger MP scale is dead. Since we still don't know how big the MP-22 super robot mode scale will be.

2015 MP Starsaber could wind up being 9.5 inches or 12-13 inches tall in robot mode.

MP Victoryleo will probably be the next new mold Takara creates after Starsaber. As they are a pair. Even if MP Starsaber is 9.5 inches tall in super robot mode. The combined form of MP Victorysaber will be around 12-13 inches tall.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

shajaki wrote:he looks good with MP01. just not sure i need him though. that scale of MP's is dead... i dont really need to add to it..

I don't think this bigger MP scale is dead. Since we still don't know how big the MP-22 super robot mode scale will be.

2015 MP Starsaber could wind up being 9.5 inches or 12-13 inches tall in robot mode.

MP Victoryleo will probably be the next new mold Takara creates after Starsaber. As they are a pair. Even if MP Starsaber is 9.5 inches tall in super robot mode. The combined form of MP Victorysaber will be around 12-13 inches tall.

No, it's dead.

At this point, I really don't think it's a matter of opinion, or up for debate.

As far as Victory Leo... let's see what they do with Star Saber before we even begin to speculate on that. That said, I almost entirely forgot about Star Saber! Excited to see prototype pics.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:I don't think this bigger MP scale is dead. Since we still don't know how big the MP-22 super robot mode scale will be.

yeah... it really is.

will magnus be bigger than MP10? absolutely.
possibly a little to big? perhaps.
big enough to be in scale with MP01? no... man! just no.

it would defeat the purpose of the entire (current) MP line. and lets not speculate about future MP's we havent even past sketches for.

megatronus wrote: No, it's dead. At this point, I really don't think it's a matter of opinion, or up for debate.

Says who? Fans?

If MP-22 UM,MP Starsaber & MP Victorysaber are 12-13+ inches Tall in super robot modes then the bigger MP-01 toy scale is back.

No toy scale is ever dead. As HasTak goes up & down in scales for the TF toy lines. Even Classics generations has gone up,down & now back up in toy scales. Titan Metroplex,Leader Sacale Jetfire & Leader Scale Megatron will higher this toy line scale.

I don't think HasTak is fixated on maintaining a newer scale for a toy line like Some fans think they are.

A lot of factors will make HasTak change TF toys scales Drastically. not care about mainting a fixated scale. like the economy being bad in 2009-2011 that forced HasTak to scale down the toys for Generations. Hasbro getting a new crew of workers. Economy doing better in 2013-2014 that gave hasbro the confidence to to increase the toy scales in Generations. Retailers feedback on what they want.

With all that I said above. HasTak is not going to lose their pants just to please the fans. HasTak needs to make money & will do whatever it takes to do so.

Since the average TF toy or toy line takes 18+ months to create from step one to the last step. HasTak while they are on step Zero need to look ahead & study estimated calculated data 18+ months to see what the markets buyers & retailers can handle. everything then gets adjusted to maximize the most profits.

shajaki wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:I don't think this bigger MP scale is dead. Since we still don't know how big the MP-22 super robot mode scale will be.

yeah... it really is.

will magnus be bigger than MP10? absolutely.
possibly a little to big? perhaps.
big enough to be in scale with MP01? no... man! just no.

it would defeat the purpose of the entire (current) MP line. and lets not speculate about future MP's we havent even past sketches for.

I seriously doubt all that car carrier armor thrown on top of a 9.5 inch MP-10 mold is barely going to add a inch or head taller. At minimal it will add 2.5 to 3 inches in height.

Does anyone even realize that the MP-22 Car carrier trailer will be the size of MP-10's trailer. Now imagine that MP-10 Trailer broken up in robot armor parts that need to get dressed on top of the MP-10 robot mode.

If Hasbro finds it hard to convince USA TRU to carry all of the smaller Voyager scale MP TF Cars-bots. Then Hasbro will ask Takara to create more Eight inch,Leader scale or bigger scale MP TF toys.

If the first batch of Hasbro MP TF Voyager Cars-bots sell badly & hardly anyone buys them. Then TRU will not carry future waves & give their feedback to Hasbro on what they think it's buyers want. This TRU feedback will make Hasbro ask Takara to create MP TF scaled toys that TRU in the USA thinks it buyers will buy more.

No,Takara can't afford to not have Hasbro sell these MP TF toys. Takara needs Hasbro,As Hasbro has more retailers worldwide than Takara does. Takara's TF toy line volume & profits is a fraction of what Hasbro's is. The TF toy creation process needs to make it's money back & get some profit. This can only happen with Hasbro's help.

Even when Hasbro does store exclusives for TF toys or toy lines. The volume & profits is still higher than Takara's. Because Hasbro offers their exclusives to more countries & sites than Takara.

With the country of Japan being smaller than Texas & Bandai dominating retailers & buyers in Japan. I suspect Takara makes the bulk of its sales from online specialty import sites worldwide. This is simply no where near Hasbro worldwide retailers,online sites & individual buyers.

MP-01 scale is dead. Takara quickly realized the size was a hard sell for obvious reasons.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:If Hasbro finds it hard to convince USA TRU to carry all of the smaller Voyager scale MP TF Cars-bots. Then Hasbro will ask Takara to create more Eight inch,Leader scale or bigger scale MP TF toys.

I do not believe that Hasbro has as much influence with Takara as you hope. Yes Hasbro own the Brand, but they license it to Takara to do with what they please in Japan in exchange for using Takara's manufacturing facilities and designers when needed; or something to that effect. As the MP molds are created and (most likely) owned by Takara, Hasbro might have to license their use for introduction into North America, as well as deal with whatever vehicle company licenses need to be dealt with as I'm sure US is at least a slightly different ballgame for that stuff that Japan. If the individual, non-leader or less popular characters don't sell well, then Hasbro just won't explore that avenue.

If the first batch of Hasbro MP TF Voyager Cars-bots sell badly & hardly anyone buys them. Then TRU will not carry future waves & give their feedback to Hasbro on what they think it's buyers want. This TRU feedback will make Hasbro ask Takara to create MP TF scaled toys that TRU in the USA thinks it buyers will buy more.

Not how that works. Hasbro pitches an opportunity to TRU or any other interested retailers to sell these as an "exclusive" item. They will point to sales in other markets, past sales with similar products and incorporate a whole bunch of marketing buzzwords. In the end it's up to TRU to seal the deal and stock the items. If things go well (and let's face it, they probably would as scalpers would snatch them up quickly giving the illusion of popularity), then TRU will be open to future things. If not, they will tell Hasbro, "thanks but these aren't selling. We have no interest in this type of line any more." That'll be the end of it. TRU only cares about what's selling and what isn't. It's not their job to say "Hey, try improving this..." That's what Hasbro's customer service/marketting team is for.

No,Takara can't afford to not have Hasbro sell these MP TF toys. Takara needs Hasbro,As Hasbro has more retailers worldwide than Takara does. Takara's TF toy line volume & profits is a fraction of what Hasbro's is. The TF toy creation process needs to make it's money back & get some profit. This can only happen with Hasbro's help.

Nope. MPs are made by Takara for Japan (*and the various specialty retailers in other lands). That's all they base their cost/product analysis on. If Hasbro wants to use a mold, then that's more money to them. In Japab it's Takara and ONLY Takara. Hasbro plays no role in that aspect.

Even when Hasbro does store exclusives for TF toys or toy lines. The volume & profits is still higher than Takara's. Because Hasbro offers their exclusives to more countries & sites than Takara.

That is true, but irrelevant.

With the country of Japan being smaller than Texas & Bandai dominating retailers & buyers in Japan. I suspect Takara makes the bulk of its sales from online specialty import sites worldwide. This is simply no where near Hasbro worldwide retailers,online sites & individual buyers.

Honestly, you may be right with this too, but I cannot say for sure as I have no numbers to debate it.

The idea of Sentient Robots in Japan (i.e. Transformers) is see as childish, and I mean very young childish; like 4-7 or something like that. That's why a lot of the TF shows in Japan feature anime kids who are probably younger than those portrayed in US-centric shows - to relate to the very young. However with the kids of the 80's grown up now with disposable income, Japan has a much higher nostalgic collectors market than Hasbro can hope to capture. It's this reason (among many, many others) that Hasbro lets Takara do what they do there. Takara is well verse in the market and knows precisely what should work with that market. That they're appealing to international collectors too is a bonus because it allows Hasbro to focus primarily on their target demographics while occasionally throwing us collectors a bone to chew on.

Your assumption that Takara need Hasbro's money to keep the MP line alive shows that you're spouting stuff like a know-it-all who needs to pay more attention to this type of stuff to understand how things work. I'm sure there's all sorts of other strings attached, but when Hasbro saw the Japan market, they picked up the phone and said "Hello Takara, you formed this toyline and have one of the preeminent designers on staff (I think he's still there too). Let's pool oour design and manufacturing abilities and you can do whatever you like with Transformers in Japan."

Mkall wrote: Yes Hasbro own the Brand, but they license it to Takara to do with what they please in Japan

You got it all backwards. Hasbro is the one that pays liscense fees to Takara on the Transformers brand.

Hasbro doesn't allow Takara to sell Transformers toys in Japan. Takara can do as they please. Takara is the Mafia mob boss here with the TF Brand not Hasbro. The so called parnership gives takara the upper hand & puts more prohibitions on Hasbro.

You need to understand that if it wasn't for Hasbro being on board with the TF toy brand. Takara would have cancelled the TF brand a long time ago. Due to Takara losing money on the TF brand. Takara merged with Tomy to avoid going bankrupt years ago. The TF Toy market gets less & less in Japan due to bandia. Takara might be the best at making the Transformers toys. But Takara is the worse at marketiting the TF toys to retailers.

In the past few years,Takara has allowed Hasbro to gain more say so on the brand. Because Hasbro is the best at what they do. Hasbro is a wiz at marketiting the TF toy brand. The live action movies that sold the most TF toys worldwide was Hasbro's marketiting idea. Takara allows Hasbro more say so in creating newer cartoons with newer toys. Because Takara knows Hasbro can market things better. When Hasbro makes loads of money,Takara makes loads of money.

Alternity was a failure in profits for Takara. Because Hasbro didn't climb on board,market it & sell it to all of it's world wide retailers. If Hasbro refused to sell anymore MP TF toys to it's worldwide retailers,Takara would be forced to cancel the MP TF toy line. Because Takara barely makes makes enough profit to make the creation & productions cost worth it. If the MP TF toys are not selling that great to Hasbro's retailers than Takara Will listen to Hasbro & adjust things to make the MP TF toys sell to Hasbro's retailers. Hasbro will give ideas & retailers feedback & Takara will listen. Because the more Hasbro sells,The more money Takara Make. The more Hastak covers the cost of creation & production fees.

there be nae words

My interest is once again heightened in this. The main selling point for me was how it would scale with MP-01, and I think it scales well. Now I'm imagining Daca's Jetfire next to them, and it looks pretty damn good. Then add the DinoRobots, and that's a pretty good line-up in the "now-dead" MP scale. The official scale may be smaller, but these figures, barring any QC problems, are pretty awesome. Of course, I've seen only Snarl so far, so it also depends on what the other DinoRobots look like.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:
With the country of Japan being smaller than Texas & Bandai dominating retailers & buyers in Japan. I suspect Takara makes the bulk of its sales from online specialty import sites worldwide. This is simply no where near Hasbro worldwide retailers,online sites & individual buyers.

Are you serious? the population of Japan is 126 Million the population of Texas is 26 Million. Unless you're talking about land size? But what does that have to do with anything? ahh whatever I'm done.

This is in-stock in ActionRobo

http://www.actionrobo.com/index/index.php?route=product/category&path=63_93

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

Mkall wrote: Yes Hasbro own the Brand, but they license it to Takara to do with what they please in Japan

You got it all backwards. Hasbro is the one that pays liscense fees to Takara on the Transformers brand.

Hasbro doesn't allow Takara to sell Transformers toys in Japan. Takara can do as they please. Takara is the Mafia mob boss here with the TF Brand not Hasbro. The so called parnership gives takara the upper hand & puts more prohibitions on Hasbro.

You need to understand that if it wasn't for Hasbro being on board with the TF toy brand. Takara would have cancelled the TF brand a long time ago. Due to Takara losing money on the TF brand. Takara merged with Tomy to avoid going bankrupt years ago. The TF Toy market gets less & less in Japan due to bandia. Takara might be the best at making the Transformers toys. But Takara is the worse at marketiting the TF toys to retailers.

In the past few years,Takara has allowed Hasbro to gain more say so on the brand. Because Hasbro is the best at what they do. Hasbro is a wiz at marketiting the TF toy brand. The live action movies that sold the most TF toys worldwide was Hasbro's marketiting idea. Takara allows Hasbro more say so in creating newer cartoons with newer toys. Because Takara knows Hasbro can market things better. When Hasbro makes loads of money,Takara makes loads of money.

Alternity was a failure in profits for Takara. Because Hasbro didn't climb on board,market it & sell it to all of it's world wide retailers. If Hasbro refused to sell anymore MP TF toys to it's worldwide retailers,Takara would be forced to cancel the MP TF toy line. Because Takara barely makes makes enough profit to make the creation & productions cost worth it. If the MP TF toys are not selling that great to Hasbro's retailers than Takara Will listen to Hasbro & adjust things to make the MP TF toys sell to Hasbro's retailers. Hasbro will give ideas & retailers feedback & Takara will listen. Because the more Hasbro sells,The more money Takara Make. The more Hastak covers the cost of creation & production fees.

Brother, I don't know where you get your info (btw, are your statements speculation or from reputable sources?) but Transformers IS and always will be a Hasbro property. Hasbro doesn't pay Tomy to use the name Transformers because Hasbro created the name. Specifically the son of Joe Bacal (Hasbro advertising/merchandising geniuses of the 80's)

Unlike in the 80s when Diaclone figs were re purposed into the G1 crew,subsequent releases have become a team effort. It is Tomy who is paying Hasbro to use the TF brand.