The Energon Pub

[TF-fan kev777]

If there is enough demand, I would expect him to potentially be re-released some time in 2021 like Omega Supreme was this year.

[Starseeker]

Battlecharged and ready!

[william-james88]

Anyone know if Scorponok is due for a restock? I can't find him anywhere in stock for a decent price.

We don't know.

[Gauntlet101010]

Got Ratchet and Lifeline again.

I'm actually happier with Lifeline than I am Arcee. Maybe I like the color blue more than pink. But I think it owes more to her status as a small army builder. I have the club's figure, but this adds and doesn't replace it. To me it's fine that they're a bit different as long as they share the same look.

It almost makes me want to track down another Paradon medic figure. The 3rd Party figure Delicate Warrior had a recolor like that.

Almost. But not really. There's other things I want.

Ratchet is more successful than Ironhide. Mainly because his shoulders are white so they blend in vehicle mode better. Still in need of new feet, though.

[Wolfman Jake]

Got Ratchet and Lifeline again.

I'm actually happier with Lifeline than I am Arcee. Maybe I like the color blue more than pink. But I think it owes more to her status as a small army builder. I have the club's figure, but this adds and doesn't replace it. To me it's fine that they're a bit different as long as they share the same look.

It almost makes me want to track down another Paradon medic figure. The 3rd Party figure Delicate Warrior had a recolor like that.

Almost. But not really. There's other things I want.

Congrats! I'm glad you were able to get a non-defective set this time.

I know what you mean about army building the Paradron Medic too. That's what I decided to do, and why I had extra Ratchet figures to offer. The TFCC Lifeline figure is the leader of that "nursing" unit, and the Lifeline figures from the Galactic Odyssey collection are her generic "troops."

[Emerje]

I always see the Titans later on. I passed on Scorpy when I first saw him knowing I'd see him again. Just like every other titan.

Problem is there's usually a heavy restock every year in time for Black Friday, it even happened with Omega Supreme last year when it looked like he was becoming scarce. That didn't happen this year, very few stores, if any, got a substantial restock past their first supply. Stock could be, perhaps even is likely, held up in shipping thanks to COVID, but I doubt they're doing a second run any time soon, that would have to wait for after they've finished making enough Arks for Kingdom.

Emerje

[Gauntlet101010]

I always see the Titans later on. I passed on Scorpy when I first saw him knowing I'd see him again. Just like every other titan.

Problem is there's usually a heavy restock every year in time for Black Friday, it even happened with Omega Supreme last year when it looked like he was becoming scarce. That didn't happen this year, very few stores, if any, got a substantial restock past their first supply. Stock could be, perhaps even is likely, held up in shipping thanks to COVID, but I doubt they're doing a second run any time soon, that would have to wait for after they've finished making enough Arks for Kingdom.

Emerje

I live in Canada and I've only seen Scorpy in ONE place near me. Haven't seen a Quintesson. Just saw Waves 2 and 3 of ER this month. Things get here slooooooowwwwwwwwwly.

I panicked when Hotlink became scarce elsewhere only to see him shelfwarm. Ditto Skywarp and Thundercracker. Netflix Soundwave is the only one I think I may miss in-person because of extremely high demand.

So I tend to think there'll be more made available somewhere at some time.

I'll wait to hit that panic button until it's well past Scorpy's time.

[william-james88]

WilliamJames, what do you think of Earthrise Arcee, now that you bought one on deep discount?

Thanks for asking but I have yet to open it. Still unsure. My first handling of the mold might be Elita 1.

Ok so I handled Elita 1 today and Well... this is the worst deluxe mold I handled within both generations trilogies so far. And no contest on that. The concept of it sucks but what I hate most is that it's not even a clean or intuitive transformation, even with instructions. It's just fit the **** in so that it looks ok in vehicle mode.

And Elita is worse than Arcee since her shoulders make it that articulation is hindered. On a TF toy where the robot mode is valued above all else (and even then I think that mini back pack looks wrong on arcee), making an amateurish mistake like that is inexcusable.

Worst toy of the year. (That's gonna be a category on this year's end of year list)

In any case, I wish you all the best Jake! Have yourself a merry little christmas and make the yuletide gay.

[Wolfman Jake]

Ok so I handled Elita 1 today and Well... this is the worst deluxe mold I handled within both generations trilogies so far. And no contest on that. The concept of it sucks but what I hate most is that it's not even a clean or intuitive transformation, even with instructions. It's just fit the **** in so that it looks ok in vehicle mode.

And Elita is worse than Arcee since her shoulders make it that articulation is hindered. On a TF toy where the robot mode is valued above all else (and even then I think that mini back pack looks wrong on arcee), making an amateurish mistake like that is inexcusable.

Worst toy of the year. (That's gonna be a category on this year's end of year list)

In any case, I wish you all the best Jake! Have yourself a merry little christmas and make the yuletide gay.

Earthrise Arcee is definitely the worst Generations mold of the year. I don't collect any of the other lines right now, but I wouldn't be surprised if Earthrise Arcee is the worst Transformer of 2020, period. What's sad is that I have ALL THREE releases of this mold so far: Earthrise Arcee, Netflix Elita One, and the Galactic Odyssey Paradron Medics. Even when there are no QC issues mucking things up (like with my Earthrise Arcee), the mold is just a fail. The plastic of the alt mode feels very thin. The tolerances are terrible. Pieces get in each others' way all the time. Nothing snaps in very securely. Getting the entire robot sufficiently smooshed up into the car shell is almost impossible if you want the car to actually roll on its wheels. It's difficult to get the figure to stand and not fall over at the ankles, even with the backpack removed. There is almost NOTHING about the new Earthrise Arcee figure that is superior to the Thrilling 30 mold. I think they should just reissue the Thrilling 30 mold of Arcee for a Studio Series release or something with a premium, screen accurate paint job (like the Takara Tomy Legends version).

[ZeroWolf]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

[Wolfman Jake]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

That's the million dollar question. I read recently on these boards that Hasbro and Takara Tomy might have tried to use some of the "Arcee Prime" engineering that was developed should she have won the Power of the Primes fan poll for the next Prime. That's just an anecdote without proper citation, though.

The real head scratcher now is why they would bother to re-release Earthrise Arcee in Kingdom. If they wanted to reissue another Deluxe sized character to fill out the Kingdom line, why not include something like Red Alert with English tampographs instead of Cybertronian ones for "FD" and "Fire Chief" on his alt mode. They wouldn't even have to alter the plastic colors or paint mask, except for the tampographs. Doesn't sound complicated to me, and it would pretty much fix the ONLY thing that makes it harder for Siege Red Alert to pass as having an "Earth Mode" than the likes of Sideswipe or Tigertrack, who don't really need a remold or repaint to look at home on the shelf with the rest of the War for Cybertron Earthrise cast in either robot or vehicle mode.

[ShadowBlaze]

I know the Earthrise Arcee mold is objectively a bad Transformer toy, but darn it if it hasn't grown on me. I don't like the parts-forming employed in this line, and I was really disappointed that HasTak cheaped out and didn't paint her backside. By the time the first reviews were slipping out, I was prepared to be utterly disappointed with her.

And then I got her in-hand.

Maybe I can be more forgiving because mine didn't have any QC issues. I hate transformations that involve a lot of limb origami, but it only took me a couple of tries to figure out precisely how everything needed to be placed for her conversion. Even with the stiff ankle-rockers, I found her relatively easy to pose and balance...thanks to those hideous but highly functional heels. Even the giant backpack doesn't bother me as much as I expected, since keeping the back half of the car attached obscures the weird silhouette created by the folding front fenders. In terms of engineering, it's a huge step back from Thrilling 30...and yet I feel like the result is a better proportioned robot. She doesn't top Titans Return Arcee for me, but I do prefer her to Cyberverse, and I think she does a better job than Thrilling 30 at conveying feminine robot as opposed to human female cosplaying as robot.

I also have Lifeline and Elita-1. In terms of paint and colour layout, I think Elita-1 looks the nicest, but I agree that the clearance issue created by her unique shoulder pieces makes her the most problematic of the three to transform. Still, I don't dislike her, and I prefer this to her obscenely stickered and bulked up POTP toy.

Strangely, I think my least-favourite Earthrise purchase is Fasttrack. I don't like the way his guns are designed to attach or how that limits placement options in robot mode. Of course Black Roritchi has the same issue, but at least his colours are a bit more interesting.

[Gauntlet101010]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

I think they tried to do a robot mode 1st thing where they really nail the robot mode by making her a shellformer.

Of course that was foiled by the absence of paint. If she had a real premium paint job I could appreciate the effort more.

I can't say why they didn't just reissue the old one. Maybe they wanted to tie it into the gimmick more? Or maybe it's a movie anniversary thing where they decided to go all-out and give new molds for everyone.

[LinaNui]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

That's the million dollar question. I read recently on these boards that Hasbro and Takara Tomy might have tried to use some of the "Arcee Prime" engineering that was developed should she have won the Power of the Primes fan poll for the next Prime. That's just an anecdote without proper citation, though.

The real head scratcher now is why they would bother to re-release Earthrise Arcee in Kingdom. If they wanted to reissue another Deluxe sized character to fill out the Kingdom line, why not include something like Red Alert with English tampographs instead of Cybertronian ones for "FD" and "Fire Chief" on his alt mode. They wouldn't even have to alter the plastic colors or paint mask, except for the tampographs. Doesn't sound complicated to me, and it would pretty much fix the ONLY thing that makes it harder for Siege Red Alert to pass as having an "Earth Mode" than the likes of Sideswipe or Tigertrack, who don't really need a remold or repaint to look at home on the shelf with the rest of the War for Cybertron Earthrise cast in either robot or vehicle mode.

I think the reason that Arcee is getting a release is so that she is on shelves when the rest of the 86 movie figures are so that it is easier to complete the cast. I have no proof but it does make sense.

[ZeroWolf]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

That's the million dollar question. I read recently on these boards that Hasbro and Takara Tomy might have tried to use some of the "Arcee Prime" engineering that was developed should she have won the Power of the Primes fan poll for the next Prime. That's just an anecdote without proper citation, though.

The real head scratcher now is why they would bother to re-release Earthrise Arcee in Kingdom. If they wanted to reissue another Deluxe sized character to fill out the Kingdom line, why not include something like Red Alert with English tampographs instead of Cybertronian ones for "FD" and "Fire Chief" on his alt mode. They wouldn't even have to alter the plastic colors or paint mask, except for the tampographs. Doesn't sound complicated to me, and it would pretty much fix the ONLY thing that makes it harder for Siege Red Alert to pass as having an "Earth Mode" than the likes of Sideswipe or Tigertrack, who don't really need a remold or repaint to look at home on the shelf with the rest of the War for Cybertron Earthrise cast in either robot or vehicle mode.

I think the reason that Arcee is getting a release is so that she is on shelves when the rest of the 86 movie figures are so that it is easier to complete the cast. I have no proof but it does make sense.

That's a good theory, the idea i was working with was that Hasbro might have thought she would be hard to get (scalpers etc) so by re-releasing, it gives fans plenty of chances to get her.

[Emerje]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

That's the million dollar question. I read recently on these boards that Hasbro and Takara Tomy might have tried to use some of the "Arcee Prime" engineering that was developed should she have won the Power of the Primes fan poll for the next Prime. That's just an anecdote without proper citation, though.

The real head scratcher now is why they would bother to re-release Earthrise Arcee in Kingdom. If they wanted to reissue another Deluxe sized character to fill out the Kingdom line, why not include something like Red Alert with English tampographs instead of Cybertronian ones for "FD" and "Fire Chief" on his alt mode. They wouldn't even have to alter the plastic colors or paint mask, except for the tampographs. Doesn't sound complicated to me, and it would pretty much fix the ONLY thing that makes it harder for Siege Red Alert to pass as having an "Earth Mode" than the likes of Sideswipe or Tigertrack, who don't really need a remold or repaint to look at home on the shelf with the rest of the War for Cybertron Earthrise cast in either robot or vehicle mode.

I think the reason that Arcee is getting a release is so that she is on shelves when the rest of the 86 movie figures are so that it is easier to complete the cast. I have no proof but it does make sense.

That's a good theory, the idea i was working with was that Hasbro might have thought she would be hard to get (scalpers etc) so by re-releasing, it gives fans plenty of chances to get her.

Little did they know she'd be almost completely unavailable to most of the world. Sure would like to know where Walmart's and Target's supply of waves 2 and 3 ended up because they sure didn't make it into many stores. My local stores only got Battle Masters and Micromasters wave 1 (Target only, and only at launch with no restock), Deluxe wave 1, Voyagers wave 1 and 2, and Leader waves 1 and 2 (there was no 3). Target also got Sky Lynx, but not Scorponok and no ER exclusives. It's a good thing I bought almost everything online. The idea that Arcee was reissued to go with the movie figures from SS86 is pretty plausible, especially when you notice Leader Galvatron is going to be released around the same time as the reissued Voyager Starscream which can't be a coincidence.

Emerje

[TF-fan kev777]

So what are we up to the 5th delay on Thrust now?

[D-Maximal_Primal]

So what are we up to the 5th delay on Thrust now?

I think 3rd, it was December 1-8, then the 15th, then the 28th, and now 1-5-2021 I think

[Gauntlet101010]

I think most of my local stores are just holding on to old stock until after Christmas.

While I found waves 2-3 of ER, there's been no evidence of the voyagers and the Toys R Us just hasn't gotten him. Meanwhile they have a whole shelf full of Magnii and tons of wave 1 Siege.

I saw one Netflix Prime recently at my local Walmart. But no Neflix deluxes. Tons of Siege Barricades and Sixguns, though.

Maybe it's the same elsewhere. Just holding on to old stock until after Boxing Day.

[william-james88]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

That's the million dollar question. I read recently on these boards that Hasbro and Takara Tomy might have tried to use some of the "Arcee Prime" engineering that was developed should she have won the Power of the Primes fan poll for the next Prime. That's just an anecdote without proper citation, though.

The real head scratcher now is why they would bother to re-release Earthrise Arcee in Kingdom. If they wanted to reissue another Deluxe sized character to fill out the Kingdom line, why not include something like Red Alert with English tampographs instead of Cybertronian ones for "FD" and "Fire Chief" on his alt mode. They wouldn't even have to alter the plastic colors or paint mask, except for the tampographs. Doesn't sound complicated to me, and it would pretty much fix the ONLY thing that makes it harder for Siege Red Alert to pass as having an "Earth Mode" than the likes of Sideswipe or Tigertrack, who don't really need a remold or repaint to look at home on the shelf with the rest of the War for Cybertron Earthrise cast in either robot or vehicle mode.

I think the reason that Arcee is getting a release is so that she is on shelves when the rest of the 86 movie figures are so that it is easier to complete the cast. I have no proof but it does make sense.

That's a good theory, the idea i was working with was that Hasbro might have thought she would be hard to get (scalpers etc) so by re-releasing, it gives fans plenty of chances to get her.

Little did they know she'd be almost completely unavailable to most of the world.

I think it's the exact opposite. Hasbro has 0 control on distribution beyond Hasbro Pulse. So, since all previous Gen arcees were either exclusive or hard to obtain at wide retail (even though t30 Arcee was available for years on BBTS at retail price), they wanted this one to e as available as possible, to the point of reissuing her in the next year. Plus it would tie into all the movie characters coming out in 2021, so 2 bird with 1 stone, ensuring that whoever wants her gets her eventually.

[o.supreme]

even though T30 Arcee was available for years on BBTS at retail price

You can STILL get T30 Arcee for less than retail, if you want to buy a whole wave case that is

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/ ... tails/7164

On her own she is $25, which is probably what normal deluxe price will be in a couple years anyway...

[Emerje]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

That's the million dollar question. I read recently on these boards that Hasbro and Takara Tomy might have tried to use some of the "Arcee Prime" engineering that was developed should she have won the Power of the Primes fan poll for the next Prime. That's just an anecdote without proper citation, though.

The real head scratcher now is why they would bother to re-release Earthrise Arcee in Kingdom. If they wanted to reissue another Deluxe sized character to fill out the Kingdom line, why not include something like Red Alert with English tampographs instead of Cybertronian ones for "FD" and "Fire Chief" on his alt mode. They wouldn't even have to alter the plastic colors or paint mask, except for the tampographs. Doesn't sound complicated to me, and it would pretty much fix the ONLY thing that makes it harder for Siege Red Alert to pass as having an "Earth Mode" than the likes of Sideswipe or Tigertrack, who don't really need a remold or repaint to look at home on the shelf with the rest of the War for Cybertron Earthrise cast in either robot or vehicle mode.

I think the reason that Arcee is getting a release is so that she is on shelves when the rest of the 86 movie figures are so that it is easier to complete the cast. I have no proof but it does make sense.

That's a good theory, the idea i was working with was that Hasbro might have thought she would be hard to get (scalpers etc) so by re-releasing, it gives fans plenty of chances to get her.

Little did they know she'd be almost completely unavailable to most of the world.

I think it's the exact opposite. Hasbro has 0 control on distribution beyond Hasbro Pulse. So, since all previous Gen arcees were either exclusive or hard to obtain at wide retail (even though t30 Arcee was available for years on BBTS at retail price), they wanted this one to e as available as possible, to the point of reissuing her in the next year. Plus it would tie into all the movie characters coming out in 2021, so 2 bird with 1 stone, ensuring that whoever wants her gets her eventually.

How is that the exact opposite? You just reiterated the same point that LinaNui, ZeroWolf and myself made. The Kingdom reissue makes sense both from movie tie-in standpoint and an availability standpoint.

And when I was talking about supply I was talking about distribution out of store warehouses, not from Hasbro. It's no surprise that normal logistics didn't stand up to the wave of issues brought on in 2020, but Hasbro continued to make figures even if it meant cancelling plans for wave 4, and stores continued to order them to stock shelves. But for whatever reason a lot of stuff simply didn't make it into stores this year, but that product has to be somewhere. Whether stores simply couldn't get it out of their warehouses in time or they canceled their orders with Hasbro because they knew the next big thing was coming, those figures have to be sitting somewhere.

One thing I miss from the Unicron Trilogy days is when they had too many figures they would start selling 2-packs at a discount price at Christmas to clear stock. I'm sure we're going to see a lot of Earthrise stuff ending up at Ollie's next year.

Emerje

[william-james88]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

That's the million dollar question. I read recently on these boards that Hasbro and Takara Tomy might have tried to use some of the "Arcee Prime" engineering that was developed should she have won the Power of the Primes fan poll for the next Prime. That's just an anecdote without proper citation, though.

The real head scratcher now is why they would bother to re-release Earthrise Arcee in Kingdom. If they wanted to reissue another Deluxe sized character to fill out the Kingdom line, why not include something like Red Alert with English tampographs instead of Cybertronian ones for "FD" and "Fire Chief" on his alt mode. They wouldn't even have to alter the plastic colors or paint mask, except for the tampographs. Doesn't sound complicated to me, and it would pretty much fix the ONLY thing that makes it harder for Siege Red Alert to pass as having an "Earth Mode" than the likes of Sideswipe or Tigertrack, who don't really need a remold or repaint to look at home on the shelf with the rest of the War for Cybertron Earthrise cast in either robot or vehicle mode.

I think the reason that Arcee is getting a release is so that she is on shelves when the rest of the 86 movie figures are so that it is easier to complete the cast. I have no proof but it does make sense.

That's a good theory, the idea i was working with was that Hasbro might have thought she would be hard to get (scalpers etc) so by re-releasing, it gives fans plenty of chances to get her.

Little did they know she'd be almost completely unavailable to most of the world.

I think it's the exact opposite. Hasbro has 0 control on distribution beyond Hasbro Pulse. So, since all previous Gen arcees were either exclusive or hard to obtain at wide retail (even though t30 Arcee was available for years on BBTS at retail price), they wanted this one to e as available as possible, to the point of reissuing her in the next year. Plus it would tie into all the movie characters coming out in 2021, so 2 bird with 1 stone, ensuring that whoever wants her gets her eventually.

How is that the exact opposite?

Because you said: Little did they know she'd be almost completely unavailable to most of the world.

And I am saying, no they knew full well this could be the case.

[Emerje]

I wonder why the ball was dropped so hard with her Its not like they haven't done a good Arcee at the scale before.

That's the million dollar question. I read recently on these boards that Hasbro and Takara Tomy might have tried to use some of the "Arcee Prime" engineering that was developed should she have won the Power of the Primes fan poll for the next Prime. That's just an anecdote without proper citation, though.

The real head scratcher now is why they would bother to re-release Earthrise Arcee in Kingdom. If they wanted to reissue another Deluxe sized character to fill out the Kingdom line, why not include something like Red Alert with English tampographs instead of Cybertronian ones for "FD" and "Fire Chief" on his alt mode. They wouldn't even have to alter the plastic colors or paint mask, except for the tampographs. Doesn't sound complicated to me, and it would pretty much fix the ONLY thing that makes it harder for Siege Red Alert to pass as having an "Earth Mode" than the likes of Sideswipe or Tigertrack, who don't really need a remold or repaint to look at home on the shelf with the rest of the War for Cybertron Earthrise cast in either robot or vehicle mode.

I think the reason that Arcee is getting a release is so that she is on shelves when the rest of the 86 movie figures are so that it is easier to complete the cast. I have no proof but it does make sense.

That's a good theory, the idea i was working with was that Hasbro might have thought she would be hard to get (scalpers etc) so by re-releasing, it gives fans plenty of chances to get her.

Little did they know she'd be almost completely unavailable to most of the world.

I think it's the exact opposite. Hasbro has 0 control on distribution beyond Hasbro Pulse. So, since all previous Gen arcees were either exclusive or hard to obtain at wide retail (even though t30 Arcee was available for years on BBTS at retail price), they wanted this one to e as available as possible, to the point of reissuing her in the next year. Plus it would tie into all the movie characters coming out in 2021, so 2 bird with 1 stone, ensuring that whoever wants her gets her eventually.

How is that the exact opposite?

Because you said: Little did they know she'd be almost completely unavailable to most of the world.

And I am saying, no they knew full well this could be the case.

I wasn't saying that to disagree with ZeroWolf, I was saying it was for a different reason (few stores stocking her) than what they thought (high demand) but with the same end result.

Emerje

[Emerje]

Finally, just noticed this:

The delay is finally over! Now my only Earthrise concern is getting my hands on Thrust.

Emerje