The Energon Pub

Since the Explorer is apparently supposed to be Muldoon and his shotgun, has anyone tried to replicate the "Clever Girl" scene with a few Kingdom Dinobots?

Overcracker wrote:Since the Explorer is apparently supposed to be Muldoon and his shotgun, has anyone tried to replicate the "Clever Girl" scene with a few Kingdom Dinobots?

They did it with T-Rexes. LOL

sol magnus wrote:

Overcracker wrote:Since the Explorer is apparently supposed to be Muldoon and his shotgun, has anyone tried to replicate the "Clever Girl" scene with a few Kingdom Dinobots?

They did it with T-Rexes. LOL

That was more than aftermath. Just the raptor head poking out of the leaves is more what I was thinking.

Overcracker wrote:

sol magnus wrote:

Overcracker wrote:Since the Explorer is apparently supposed to be Muldoon and his shotgun, has anyone tried to replicate the "Clever Girl" scene with a few Kingdom Dinobots?

They did it with T-Rexes. LOL

That was more than aftermath. Just the raptor head poking out of the leaves is more what I was thinking.

Ah. Well I can't do it. I sent mine back.

sol magnus wrote:

Overcracker wrote:

sol magnus wrote:

Overcracker wrote:Since the Explorer is apparently supposed to be Muldoon and his shotgun, has anyone tried to replicate the "Clever Girl" scene with a few Kingdom Dinobots?

They did it with T-Rexes. LOL

That was more than aftermath. Just the raptor head poking out of the leaves is more what I was thinking.

Ah. Well I can't do it. I sent mine back.

LOL, no worries. I'm considering picking the set up myself. Maybe if I find a good deal on Black Friday.

Also, is Muldoon a completely new mold? Or is it a retool of someone?

So far it's a new mold, and given some of the short cuts used its probably going to stay that way. It used shared engineering mind from some of the Jazz molds

ZeroWolf wrote:So far it's a new mold, and given some of the short cuts used its probably going to stay that way. It used shared engineering mind from some of the Jazz molds

Thanks. Interesting. And also strange. Maverick was a new mold, but Ecto 1 and the Delorean were retools. X-Panse somewhere in the middle with a mostly new mold sharing just a panel from SS Jetfire. And this gets a new mold with a repaint with a new head.

Seems like no real pattern for the X-overs.

Anyway, waiting for the 1983 Pontiac Trans Am and the 69' Dodge Charger, 74' Lamborghini ohh and a Bell 222 Chopper too.

ZeroWolf wrote:A thought, could the extra cost be something to do with the extra paint apps and the double whammy of licencing?

That excuses the price, but it doesn't excuse it from being a subpar Deluxe. It just doesn't stack up to any Generations figure from the last 5 years (Tracks included) be it Prime Wars, WFC or Studio Series. Gotta go back to Combiner Wars to find something this poorly executed and at least those had waist pivots.

Emerje

Here's something funny: someone on Amazon.ca is reselling the set for $300 CAD.

MeGrimlock78 wrote:Here's something funny: someone on Amazon.ca is reselling the set for $300 CAD.

Those doesn't really count.
3P sellers asking outrageous prices on Amazon and Walmart online are pretty commonplace.

Oh no, I get that...I just found it hilarious that just after some unflattering reviews come out, this pops up. Someone regretting their purchase maybe, not just a reseller?

MeGrimlock78 wrote:Oh no, I get that...I just found it hilarious that just after some unflattering reviews come out, this pops up. Someone regretting their purchase maybe, not just a reseller?

A typical run-of-the-mill reseller. No more, no less. Selling on Amazon is not as easy as selling on eBay.

Finally had time to open up my set and I'm pleasantly not as disappointed as most others seem to be. I do still think the price is too high for what you end up getting, but understand that a reasonable amount of cost went into double licensing and quite a bit of paint detail above a regular release.

Rexy is awesome and as expected already having BW Megs and T-Wrecks. As for JP93, I'm pretty happy with him. He ends up making a pretty tall deluxe which I like for my crossover shelf, and I really don't find the mold as the giant step backwards that some do.

Honestly, he is pretty much on par with SS86 Jazz from a design/complexity standpoint with the big exceptions of no waist swivel and ball joint elbows. The lack of either of them is a shame and really wouldn't have added too much to the parts count and assembly process overall, but my no means ruin the figure for me. Hell ball joints are back in Kingdom anyway and I'd much rather deal with an elbow ball joint than an ankle (Airrazor/Tracks).

I think many also overlook just how much detail went into the paint alone on JP93. I count at least 7 paint colors to pull off all the details and some pretty nice blending work on the logos.

All in all it does still feel overpriced similar to the Pulse-con Ravage set, but I'm still happy with it.

I think people are really underestimating how much licensing the IP on these X-over toys costs. Transformers don't normally have that cost added in because Hasbro owns the IP. Even considering Hasbro already has the Jurassic Park license, I imagine a cross promotional product had to be negotiated separately, and Hasbro had to fork over a larger cut than normal. They may also be contractually unable to recycle the Ford Explorer mold (which might require licenses from both Universal and Ford), making JP-93 a dead end investment for Hasbro.

Dr. Caelus wrote:Even considering Hasbro already has the Jurassic Park license

They lost it to Mattel years ago. So JP93 is double licensed, as someone said.

william-james88 wrote:

Dr. Caelus wrote:Even considering Hasbro already has the Jurassic Park license

They lost it to Mattel years ago. So JP93 is double licensed, as someone said.

Ah, I thought they got the license back. My bad.

I'd still like to get the set if I ever got the money, even with JP93's issues. I've always loved the JP Ford Explorers, and he does an excellent job capturing the vehicle. "Unnecessarily clear panel" my aft, the roof had to be clear. Transformers also needs more 4-doors, so he's welcome on that score too.

Agree with the person who said we've been spoiled by waist swivels; they've always been a luxury.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Agree with the person who said we've been spoiled by waist swivels; they've always been a luxury.

Only if you're comparing to G1. Waist swivels have been a common thing since the Beast era.

william-james88 wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Agree with the person who said we've been spoiled by waist swivels; they've always been a luxury.

Only if you're comparing to G1. Waist swivels have been a common thing since the Beast era.

Only really where the transformation demanded it, and even then the swivel was sometimes obstructed (e.g., OG Cheetor/Tigatron).

R.I D.'s new molds had a few dedicated waist-swivels, and Armada really didn't, so I'd say they didn't become close to 'common' until Energon, maybe.

Dr. Caelus wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Agree with the person who said we've been spoiled by waist swivels; they've always been a luxury.

Only if you're comparing to G1. Waist swivels have been a common thing since the Beast era.

Only really where the transformation demanded it, and even then the swivel was sometimes obstructed (e.g., OG Cheetor/Tigatron).

R.I D.'s new molds had a few dedicated waist-swivels, and Armada really didn't, so I'd say they didn't become close to 'common' until Energon, maybe.

Aaron Archer stated that Armada purposefully took a steo back in articulation to support the gimmicks. So even they knew what they were doing there was going against established norms in the evolution of action figure engineering. Put in another context, Armada is the retarded brother in the transformers family, I wouldn't use comparisons to Armada to say a lack of waist swivel in this premium package toy is ok.
And by comparison we have people thinking $80 is too much for Rodimus Prime's MP level engineering, feels like the world is a bit upside down at times.

TLDR: I would not call a waist swivel a luxury.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:"Unnecessarily clear panel" my aft, the roof had to be clear.

The roof does, but the panel is painted red save for a tiny bit at the end. They could have used black plastic instead since the clear plastic is so darkly tinted and it sits directly on top of an opaque section making it impossible to see through anyway.

Agree with the person who said we've been spoiled by waist swivels; they've always been a luxury.

A staple bit of articulation for the last 10 years is a luxury? Are you serious? Is this what we're settling for these days? Even if it is a "luxury", it's a luxury figure! It's $40 worth of figure! They already cut corners by choosing the cheapest kind of arm articulation, it's not like we're asking for wrist swivels and opening hands.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:"Unnecessarily clear panel" my aft, the roof had to be clear.

The roof does, but the panel is painted red save for a tiny bit at the end. They could have used black plastic instead since the clear plastic is so darkly tinted and it sits directly on top of an opaque section making it impossible to see through anyway.

Agree with the person who said we've been spoiled by waist swivels; they've always been a luxury.

A staple bit of articulation for the last 10 years is a luxury? Are you serious? Is this what we're settling for these days? Even if it is a "luxury", it's a luxury figure! It's $40 worth of figure! They already cut corners by choosing the cheapest kind of arm articulation, it's not like we're asking for wrist swivels and opening hands.

Emerje

""""""""""""""""""""luxury""""""""""""""""""""" figure.

I'll add those huge holes in the thighs and arms big enough to freeze ice cubes in certainly scream "luxury".

I find JP-93 insulting for the asking price.

As has been said though we have a double whammy of a licensing cost. Honestly, the set would have been better served as two releases...but I'm guessing it wasn't in the budget.

ZeroWolf wrote:As has been said though we have a double whammy of a licensing cost. Honestly, the set would have been better served as two releases...but I'm guessing it wasn't in the budget.

Yes, but that only accounts for the $17 markup (which still seems like a lot), it doesn't account for it being a sub-par deluxe. It simply doesn't hold up to the engineering of modern Deluxe figures in WFC and SS or even the engineering of other crossover figures, most of which benefited from being built on existing Generations figures.

Emerje

ZeroWolf wrote:As has been said though we have a double whammy of a licensing cost. Honestly, the set would have been better served as two releases...but I'm guessing it wasn't in the budget.

Or just release JP93 by itself. Yeah, fans would still pay for the licensing, but it wouldn't cost as much. This on the assumption that those of us who got the set were looking forward to the car more than the T-Rex. And the T-Rex ended up turning out better?