The Energon Pub

Waiting for wave 3 to show up in Australia. I want that Deep Cover

Nuclearxpotato wrote:And I hate to be the boy that cries Mold degradation (people claim that far too much), but Shitstorm is the eighth or so usage of the mold over the course of two years.

I don't think that is likely the case here. Sure it is the 8th use of the mold, but that was just average mold usage during Combiner Wars where just about every mold (except shuttle blast off) was used at least 6-8 times.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Nuclearxpotato wrote:And I hate to be the boy that cries Mold degradation (people claim that far too much), but Shitstorm is the eighth or so usage of the mold over the course of two years.

I don't think that is likely the case here. Sure it is the 8th use of the mold, but that was just average mold usage during Combiner Wars where just about every mold (except shuttle blast off) was used at least 6-8 times.

True, but I was thinking more about how the complexity and size of the Siegekers would change their mold's stability over time. Also most CW molds just swapped out parts for a secondary retool mold so that may have lightened the load a bit. I honestly think it's likely that Hasbro just used a slightly cheaper plastic on this release due some budget balancing for the figure.


While we're on the topic of CW, am I the only one who has grown to really dislike CW as more time has passed? I think the budget cuts that happened between it and T30 really shows in the complexity of the figures (which was slowly adjusted over the rest of the Prime Wars). Like compare CW Breakdown to TR Hot Rod or PotP Blot / Rippersnapper. It wasn't until PotP that HasTak really found their footing again after the budget issues.
Personally the only part I really like about CW was the new characters to the roster. I really enjoy Offroad and hope he isn't just forgotten in media.

Nuclearxpotato wrote:While we're on the topic of CW, am I the only one who has grown to really dislike CW as more time has passed?

Combiner Wars is still my favorite line. I just bought a bunch of the Chinese KO's & I'm working on 4 custom combiners. Someday I hope to get the Botcon & Club exclusives that I missed. I can't get enough of CW.

I like combiner wars too. The toys are simpler but that's part of the fun of combiners, you want to be able to get them into the right mode for combining.

william-james88 wrote:I like combiner wars too. The toys are simpler but that's part of the fun of combiners, you want to be able to get them into the right mode for combining.

I think I just got the worst taste of CW with bad midwestern distribution. I only ever got Breakdown, Offroad, Alpha Bravo, Blackjack, Bombshell, and Chopshop. I imagine Dead End was the far superior car mold (I think TR Chromedome shares engineering?) and probably would've changed my impression.

Nuclearxpotato wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I like combiner wars too. The toys are simpler but that's part of the fun of combiners, you want to be able to get them into the right mode for combining.

I think I just got the worst taste of CW with bad midwestern distribution. I only ever got Breakdown, Offroad, Alpha Bravo, Blackjack, Bombshell, and Chopshop. I imagine Dead End was the far superior car mold (I think TR Chromedome shares engineering?) and probably would've changed my impression.

Yes, he was the superior car mold.

If only they would have improved the damn ratchets of the combiner hips by now. My only CW combiners that do not feel like rag dolls are my Bruticus, modded with an upgrade kit that include heavy duty springs for the hips, and my K-O undersized Devastator who keep his pose EVEN WHEN SHAKEN.

I still love my Defensor, Abominus, Computron, and God Neptune.
I even bought all the original G1 versions of these to go along the modern ones, along the BWn God Neptune and G2 Devastator.

If the rumored Menasor 2.0 is true, then I'll get that one and his G1 self as well.

Something else to keep in mind about the simplicity of the CW figures, part of the cost for developing CW in the first place went to developing the combiner pegs. That meant less money to go to the rest of the figures and likely drove the need to redeco and retool everything to the extreme.

Contrast that with the PotP combiner limbs that were all a bit more complex, because they already had the pegs developed under CW, with only minor changes made for PotP.

And John Warden pitched combiner wars as a line that was going to maximise retools/redecos so there wasn't a budget cut, it was always going to be like that.

ZeroWolf wrote:And John Warden pitched combiner wars as a line that was going to maximise retools/redecos so there wasn't a budget cut, it was always going to be like that.

I should've said "increased production cost", 2014-2015 is right when TF figures got more expensive for Hasbro to produce. That's when the Price hikes became more common and older molds were no longer viable for rereleases. I think the best example of this would be the DotM toyline compared to the AoE toyline. Figures in T30 were already slightly simplified (especially Scoop and Starscream) with CW furthering down that path.

Nuclearxpotato wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Nuclearxpotato wrote:And I hate to be the boy that cries Mold degradation (people claim that far too much), but Shitstorm is the eighth or so usage of the mold over the course of two years.

I don't think that is likely the case here. Sure it is the 8th use of the mold, but that was just average mold usage during Combiner Wars where just about every mold (except shuttle blast off) was used at least 6-8 times.

True, but I was thinking more about how the complexity and size of the Siegekers would change their mold's stability over time. Also, most CW molds just swapped out parts for a secondary retool mold so that may have lightened the load a bit. I honestly think it's likely that Hasbro just used a slightly cheaper plastic on this release due to some budget-balancing for the figure.


While we're on the topic of CW, am I the only one who has grown to really dislike CW as more time has passed? I think the budget cuts that happened between it and T30 really show in the complexity of the figures (which was slowly adjusted over the rest of the Prime Wars). Like, compare CW Breakdown to TR Hot Rod or PotP Blot / Rippersnapper. It wasn't until PotP that HasTak really found their footing again after the budget issues.
Personally, the only part I really like about CW was the new characters on the roster. I really enjoy Offroad and hope he isn't just forgotten in media.

You're not the only one. Very quickly I realized that there was no way for the joints to hold anything, and the ratchets in the torso hips didn't have enough "Clicks" so all the Gestalts leaned forward when the arms were raised. Don't get me started on the constant repaints with new heads, or jet Blast-Off.

Nemesis prime spoiler pack is back in stock on BBTS for $59.99 USD

Couldn't resist myself, not too invested in the character but love the weapons, makes for a vader-type transformer and I can have him and Sky Byte as my RID guys

Razorbeast88 wrote:Nemesis prime spoiler pack is back in stock on BBTS for $59.99 USD

Thanks for the heads up!
I snagged one for myself.

triKlops wrote:

Razorbeast88 wrote:Nemesis prime spoiler pack is back in stock on BBTS for $59.99 USD

Thanks for the heads up!
I snagged one for myself.

My pleasure! Makes it all worth it

Any news on the Sparkless Seeker? How are you going to get it? Did you pre-order from Walmart? Waiting to see if they show up in stores? Buying off ebay?

My Walmart got a case of Wave 3 deluxes yesterday but still no sign of the voyagers. I missed Soundwave because I only saw it 1 time but didn't have the money. Now it looks like I might miss this one too.

Why does Walmart's site say it ships on August 3rd when the deluxe have already been out for a month?

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:Any news on the Sparkless Seeker? How are you going to get it? Did you pre-order from Walmart? Waiting to see if they show up in stores? Buying off ebay?

I don't know for how long you've been collecting toys, but there's one constant that remains unbroken for years. Brick and mortar stores do what they want, how they want. Those stores and the online ones are also at the mercy of the supplier. One thing may shelfwarm in a store while that same thing never went to many other stores. It's unchanging like sunrise.

So, for things that you really want, pre-order them on a reliable site. For others, you'll have to rely on luck.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:Any news on the Sparkless Seeker? How are you going to get it? Did you pre-order from Walmart? Waiting to see if they show up in stores? Buying off ebay?

I don't know for how long you've been collecting toys, but there's one constant that remains unbroken for years. Brick and mortar stores do what they want, how they want. Those stores and the online ones are also at the mercy of the supplier. One thing may shelfwarm in a store while that same thing never went to many other stores. It's unchanging like sunrise.

So, for things that you really want, pre-order them on a reliable site. For others, you'll have to rely on luck.

If you are in the US, your best bet would be pre-ordering from Walmart as your backup plan and hitting the stores once they first start showing up as your primary plan.

-Kanrabat- wrote:
So, for things that you really want, pre-order them on a reliable site. For others, you'll have to rely on luck.

It's a Walmart exclusive & the Walmart site is not reliable. That's why I'm asking what everybody else is doing.

I pre-ordered wave 1 Mirage from the site but found him in stores first. Then I read about all the problems other people had with their pre-orders being canceled, never shipped or the wrong item being shipped.

So I'm trying to figure out what to do about this guy. Since the deluxes are already in American stores & the voyagers have been out in Canada for a while, it feels like waiting is a mistake. Shouldn't these things have already shown up in American stores by now?

TF-fan kev777 wrote:If you are in the US, your best bet would be pre-ordering from Walmart as your backup plan and hitting the stores once they first start showing up as your primary plan.

With my luck with pre-orders I might as well just go straight to ebay.

I have a really bad feeling about this one particular item. And my gut feelings are usually spot-on. It's Walmart after all.

The Walmart online store? Unreliable?
Ha!
It went smoothly for many Siege Omega Supreme on sale last year.
And then for Gigawatt, the toy that's everywhere like PLAGUE RATS, my preorder was herpederp cancelled.

So the Walmart online store work like a slot machine.

Like they said, preorder online AND hunt in the physical stores. Better safe than sorry and as far as Walmart is concerned, the only viable strategy.

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:Any news on the Sparkless Seeker? How are you going to get it? Did you pre-order from Walmart? Waiting to see if they show up in stores? Buying off ebay?

My Walmart got a case of Wave 3 deluxes yesterday but still no sign of the voyagers. I missed Soundwave because I only saw it 1 time but didn't have the money. Now it looks like I might miss this one too.

Why does Walmart's site say it ships on August 3rd when the deluxe have already been out for a month?

Not released in the US yet

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:Any news on the Sparkless Seeker? How are you going to get it? Did you pre-order from Walmart? Waiting to see if they show up in stores? Buying off ebay?

Yes I pre-orderd from Walmart, because unfortunately they were sold out on Pulse before I could order. Pretty much everywhere else has got him already, including our neighbors to the north, but we have to wait until August, for *whatever* reason...

Yes I've had issues with walmart pre-orders before, but it is just a hopeful backup plan. Of all the Netflix Voyagers, only Soundwave was impossible for me to find in store, fortunately I didn't want one. I imagine Sparkless Seeker, like Bitstream should be fairly easy to find due to its lack of notoriety. However if you are one of those people that never saw any previous Netflix Voyagers in store, then you can try to pre-order from walmart.com, or try a scalper on eBay, it's up to you.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:Any news on the Sparkless Seeker? How are you going to get it? Did you pre-order from Walmart? Waiting to see if they show up in stores? Buying off ebay?

I don't know for how long you've been collecting toys, but there's one constant that remains unbroken for years. Brick and mortar stores do what they want, how they want. Those stores and the online ones are also at the mercy of the supplier. One thing may shelfwarm in a store while that same thing never went to many other stores. It's unchanging like sunrise.

So, for things that you really want, pre-order them on a reliable site. For others, you'll have to rely on luck.

If you are in the US, your best bet would be pre-ordering from Walmart as your backup plan and hitting the stores once they first start showing up as your primary plan.

This is my plan, pre-order on Walmart.com and cancel them if I find them in stores first. I don't expect these two to be that hard to find and I've found the previous four in stores without issue.

Emerje

I finally have SHITSTORM with his partners Birbdroppin and Snot!
They rock those colors!




Look pretty nice next to his brother.



This mold may already show it's age because the wing tips just son't stay tabbed completely under the nosecone. Regardless, the spaceshit still look amazing.



Glad to have him!

-Kanrabat- wrote:I finally have SHITSTORM with his partners Birbdroppin and Snot!
They rock those colors!




Look pretty nice next to his brother.



This mold may already show it's age because the wing tips just son't stay tabbed completely under the nosecone. Regardless, the spaceshit still look amazing.



Glad to have him!

Nice. I don't transform mine much, so I'm not too worried about degredation.