The Energon Pub

Keep in mind that for the Fan Built Bot Poll the polls ran quite differently. Details are on TFWiki. Note that the first round ran over two weeks while the second only ran for one so Hasbro is doing things pretty differently this year and the same rules won't necessarily apply.

Emerje

So the poll was announced in April 2013 and closed in May 2013. Windblade's name and character design were first revealed in July 2013, but her toy design (in sketch form) wasn't first seen until January 2014. Her toy itself was first seen in February 2014.

Taking all these dates into account, the time between the reveal of her character design and the reveal of her toy design sketch was six months. If we add in the time from there to the reveal of her toy itself, that would give us seven months. But if we want to consider the original character design as part of the full developmental process, then the time from the poll's closing to the time of her character design reveal (2 months) added in gives us nine months. Throw in the time from the poll's announcement to its closing and we get ten months.

Therefore, the shortest possible amount of time it took for them to create Windblade's mold is a window of roughly six months, vs. the longest time being roughly ten months. If they already had Windblade's mold ready to go from the very start, then that means they were wasting their time sitting on their butts doing absolutely nothing with a perfectly ready-to-use mold for a solid ten months, which sounds completely foolish.

Ergo, it is exceedingly doubt that they would already have a lot of brand new combiner molds all already ready to go right now if they're just gonna sit on them and do nothing with them for months on end.

If these were being made form preexisting molds (like that poll Million Publishing had that Goshooter won) then that would be another story. But this poll is for making something brand new entirely, and would be a big waste of time and resources for Hasbro and Takara to make a ton of new molds when only a small amount of them would be guaranteed to get released.

A team of decepticon 18wheelers, with the team leader having a extra trailer kinda like pm primes apex armor trailer. That would be huge. Kinda like the stunticons, but on roids. On a side note Ive always wanted to see Soundwaves 5 original cassettes merge with him. Buzzsaw/Lazerbeak arms, Rumble/Frenzy legs, and Ravage as some type of addon for the main body. Just a thought.

DarkEnergon wrote:

LE0KING wrote:Or imagine if you will A DJD combiner...

YES! I can just see it on the shelves at Target now:

5 Combine into 1!
Sadistic Torture-Bots Maim and Punish Decepticon Traitors!

Kaon: Self-Powered Electric Chair
Helex: On-Demand Smelting Pool
Tesarus: Mobile Grinding Pit
Vos: Sniper Rifle (+ bonus face-impalement mask!)
Tarn: Attack Tank*
*Do not over-transform

Collect all five to combine into "MegaJustice" Titan Class Robot Punishment Officer, perfect for electrocuting, impaling, dismembering, and partially melting treasonous metrotitans and combiners!

10/10

Guys, what about combiner of ships? Think about it, we already have a jet combiner, car combiners, will it go to naval ships?

PUSH DA LIMITS!
Beast-Vehicle-Bot triplechangers that also transforms in a combiner limb!

Or something similar to the Multiforce from TF Victory!
...

Bah...for all this hype Hasbro probably already had a list of character traits like what they did with Windblade.

I'd want an autobot combiner, because the decepticons have the whole combiner thing covered pretty solidly.

I'm getting an X-Force feel from them. Autobot black ops team, they turn into speed/stealth based vehicles.

Torso is a Stealth Nuclear sub,
Left Leg an F-117 stealth jet,
Right Arm RAH-66 Comanche helicopter,
Left Arm Lamborghini Aventador,
Right Leg a Navy Sea Shadow,

All sharing that sharp angular, matte black visual theme.

Their purpose is to sneak in behind enemy lines, combine, and deliver the goods.

Autobot Fembot Kaiju combiner!

'Crippletron' from Family Guy, made up of people in wheelchairs.

But seriously, does the combiner have to be humanoid? If it was shaped like an animal, on four legs or more, it could go inside buildings, tunnels, etc. and do more damage there.

snavej wrote:But seriously, does the combiner have to be humanoid? If it was shaped like an animal, on four legs or more, it could go inside buildings, tunnels, etc. and do more damage there.

It is highly likely that it will be made to fit the design format of the Combiner Wars Combiners, which are humanoid.

Okay, that's an interesting point. If Hasbro is specifically calling for NEW characters, that's a game changer for our brainstorming.

I agree we need more femmebots in the batch. I'd love to see this repaint-bot be a Decepticon... and nicely colored to look like one awesome unified team/bot. (Seems like most of the G1 style combiners are a real rainbow of colors... except Devastator. Computron comes in second for having a nice unified scheme. That's what I'd like to see. A new character that looks great combined.)

Really, guessing it might come down to choosing the best molds out of the batch, then recoloring them... Or maybe one from each combiner for a really original set and diverse team?? One car, one jet, one...

Lets get creative here. HMMMM... I say lets get the Throttlebots as a Combiner team.

And then there's this: http://theaudioknightstheatre.com/2015/ ... -combiner/
http://theaudioknightstheatre.com/2015/01/fan-built-combiner/

Sadly I don't own a smartphone and cannot participate.

A '65 Mustang
A '67 Camaro
A '54 Chevy BelAir
A '69 Plymouth "Road Runner"
and a '41 Ford pick up for the body... and make it Kup as their team leader.

Battle hardened warriors from the early days of the war, these 5 are among the last "old timers" to escape from Cybertron and make their way to Earth. Hiding for decades in long forgotten barns and garages, these tough old bots finally heed the call one last time to return to battle. Convinced by Kup to join him in one last stand to end the war, they volunteer to be reconfigured with Combiner technology so that they can merge their vast knowledge, experience and enduring strength to put an end to the Decepticon reign of terror once and for all.

Now tell me that wouldn't just look insanely bad-ass, a combiner made out of some of the most iconic and beloved cars to ever hit the asphalt in this or any other country. It is WAY past time for Hasbro to show these vehicles some Transformer love.

I'm most people the only interesting NEW combiner should be female cons as they've most vehicle and beast combinations.

Trains, Planes, Automobiles, Wild Animals, Aquatic Animals, Construction vehicles, Insects, Military Vehicles, Space/futuristic vehicles, Dinosaurs, mythical creastures & made up monsters.

i'm voting for a new team of girl bots

HEY! What about — especially if there is n upcoming motorcycle — a whole combiner colored like Junkions!!!??? A car, plane, helicopter, motorcycle, truck, etc. Junkion Maximus!!!

So this is just a fun idea. Imagine an element based team.
A flamethrower tank for fire,
Some kind of VTOL for air,
A sub or boat for water,
A backhoe or drill for earth,
And a spaceship for aether.
they combine into The Avatron.

gothsaurus wrote:Okay, that's an interesting point. If Hasbro is specifically calling for NEW characters, that's a game changer for our brainstorming.

I agree we need more femmebots in the batch. I'd love to see this repaint-bot be a Decepticon... and nicely colored to look like one awesome unified team/bot. (Seems like most of the G1 style combiners are a real rainbow of colors... except Devastator. Computron comes in second for having a nice unified scheme. That's what I'd like to see. A new character that looks great combined.)

Really, guessing it might come down to choosing the best molds out of the batch, then recoloring them... Or maybe one from each combiner for a really original set and diverse team?? One car, one jet, one...

This poll's gonna produce all new molds, not redeco preexisting ones.

First question: Should it be an Autobot or a Decepticon? Well, if we look at the total number of Gestalts of each faction during the G1 run we get 11 Autobot Gestalts and 10 Decepticon ones, however, this includes the Japanese sub-franchises Operation combination, etc. If we are to look at the Western G1 combiners, we get three Autobots (Superion, Defensor, Computron), while the Decepticons have SEVEN (Devastator, Predaking, Menasor, Bruticus, Abominus, Piranacon, Monstructor). In other words, I think it should be an autobot combiner, to even out the odds a bit...

Next question, should the combiner be based on existing characters or something brand new? If brand new, I am all for a fembot combiner, again, to increase diversity.

If not something brand new, I however have a few suggestions:

Autobot Rex: Optimus for torso, four classic cars of choice for limbs. Observe, however, that these would retain their original transformation schemes and not be repaints of the stunticons who look very different. Same goes for Optimus, whose combiner head also would not simply look like... Optimus Prime. Given the recent release of Motormus Prime, I however find it unlikely.

Turbomaster: The Turbomasters, as combiners! Take CW Motormaster, give him a new head and that gorgeous, gaudy color scheme and we already have the PERFECT thunder Clash. The limb bots would have original molds, which could later be remade as limb bots for Motormus Prime: Flash-Prowl Scorch-Trailbreaker Hurricane-Mirage and Boss... Point Blank?

Throttlelord: Yes, Toyworld led the way, now let´s make it official! And Wideload could remain a dump truck.

Dino Kaiser: Same here. Finally, an official dinobot Gestalt. Like Beast, but with a better name, and a Gestalt head that does not look like Grimlock with fangs, but as one of a distinct character with its own distinct face (as would also be preferable for a combining Prime).

Ruination: A Voyager Impactor with Deluxe Class Whirl, Roadbuster, Top Spin and Twin Twist for limbs. Yes, we got one in FOC, but these would be G1-styled, and their own molds.

Glacialord: Yes! A CHUG rendition of Fansproject´s Glacialord! Theft of intellectual property? Really? Do you really think Fansproject would like to go there?

Raiden: A CHUG version, accompanied by an Encore release of the original G1 team, the first one in western markets!

If, however, we would like another Decepticon Gestalt after all, I have two suggestions:

Predator - The combined form of all the Predator planes! Archenemy of Turbomaster!

Insectron - I always found Bombshell, Shrapnel and Kickback being too few, let´s create two new members, say a praying mantis and a cicada, and have them combine! They could later be released repainted as their Deluxe Decepticon counterparts! Possibly we could have an additional legends-sized ladybug character which forms the chest of the combiner, Menasor-style! For the deluxe insecticon team this would obviously be the never-produced Beet Papil, and yes, we get some fembot factor, too!

What do you think?

TheTheoretician wrote:Next question, should the combiner be based on existing characters or something brand new?

It's going to be something brand new. That's the point of this poll.

LE0KING wrote:Would it be too much to ask for a Fembot combiner? That'd be pretty cool.

No, it wouldn't be cool. We have plenty of "fembots" at this point.

I vote for a dinobot combiner made from the original five dinobots. If anything so we can get some IDW dinobots.

shockblast2 wrote:I vote for a dinobot combiner made from the original five dinobots. If anything so we can get some IDW dinobots.

We won't get that. This poll is for brand new characters only.

Sabrblade wrote:We won't get that. This poll is for brand new characters only.

I was thinking about going back and counting the number of times you have said this, but doubt I have enough fingers and toes

Does no one read the threads before posting?