The Energon Pub

I'm currently underwhelmed. But as always, I'm sure the color reveal will restore my faith & excitement.

thats pretty small lol... but its proper scale with the other bots. and him being that small doesnt nessesarily mean the bug mode will be out of scale with the other cars. it is MP engineering after all. maybe im dreaming, but im willing to hold out on vehicle comparison shots before i get all bent out of shape.

Amelie wrote:So... now it looks likely the alt-mode will be totally out of scale with the other MPs anyway - would the cartoon-accurate super-deformed look still be so bad anyway?

It's interesting seeing people being frustrated about the potentially out-of-scale alt mode, which thankfully they adhered to with the very undersized jet modes of the Decepticon jets and the absurdly oversized cassette deck mode for Soundwave.

I'll gladly take a cartoon accurately scaled Bumblebee with an "out-of-scale" alt mode than an absurdly tall Bumblebee with an in-scale VW Beetle alt mode.

It's a funny discussion when it comes to scale. I remember Beast Wars ep 1 when Cheetor talks to some native cheetahs, and they're like and run off.
Then the cheetahs act wierdly around Waspinator, and cheetor is like, its almost like that isn't a natural creature, and then realizes that means its a pred.

So, it seems that in some cases, TFs take the shape and form of something native to a planet that isn't quite the original size of the thing they're taking shape. Maybe some have mass shifting tech like Soundwave which pretty much means they can take the shape of almost anything they feel is a fit for themselves. But if BB didn't have mass shifting tech, maybe he has no choice but to be a smaller than reg sized VW bug, or, everyone else has no choice but to be oversized lambos and datsuns.

Yeah, maybe it's best to just stop trying to reason or maintain human scale to our figures and their alt modes while trying to also achieve their onscreen bot mode scale. With his size to MP prowl, BB should have then been an ATV or something.

shajaki wrote:thats pretty small lol... but its proper scale with the other bots. and him being that small doesnt nessesarily mean the bug mode will be out of scale with the other cars. it is MP engineering after all. maybe im dreaming, but im willing to hold out on vehicle comparison shots before i get all bent out of shape.

Some people are getting REALLY upset about it. I doubt those people will even end up buying BB anyway.

Sideshow Sideswipe wrote:Some people are getting REALLY upset about it. I doubt those people will even end up buying BB anyway.

Yeah they really are, to almost comical effect. And they really shouldnt be.

If its robot is in scale, the car is not, if the car is, the robot is REALLY not. You cant win, fanboys are gonna moan, i think most WILL buy the figure regardless, and this is all just killing the buzz of those of us who really like the whole thing.

At the end of the day, theres pictures from G1 showing that the bot mode here is roughly the correct scale. So the car mode is out of scale... deal with it fanboys, they cant please everybody and i doubt this was even remotely anticipated in the 80's!!!! Dont like the scale? though titty, this is what takara is doing. deal with it and move on angry fanboys!

Id love to meet the collector that keeps all their MP's in vehicle mode anyway. That seems like its missing the point of a masterpiece.

Tolerances worry me, this is a small figure, but im pretty certain the delay in the release from original reports is all part of the ongoing testing and QC on the design.

Fan butthurt is one of the most entertaining things...

Seibertron wrote:It's interesting seeing people being frustrated about the potentially out-of-scale alt mode, which thankfully they adhered to with the very undersized jet modes of the Decepticon jets and the absurdly oversized cassette deck mode for Soundwave.

I'll gladly take a cartoon accurately scaled Bumblebee with an "out-of-scale" alt mode than an absurdly tall Bumblebee with an in-scale VW Beetle alt mode.

I don't really have a problem at all with the scale of the car mode. It was totally out of whack on the show, too. Same with the Jets.

But I really do find the backpack off-putting. Unless they're going to make Goldbug - which I'd quite like.

Sabrblade wrote:

OptimalOptimus2 wrote:Huh, that's funny. This is the first time I've seen a Prowl toy bigger than Bumblebee. This should have happened already.

Which Prowl toys were smaller than their respect toyline-mated Bumblebees? Universe Prowl, for instance, was taller than Classics Bumblebee.

Besides almost accurate G1, I never compared my other Bumblebees with my Prowls because I thought it would look awkward if they were next to each other on my shelves. I saw the large comparison pictures above after I made my comment, so you caught me there!

Seibertron wrote:

Amelie wrote:So... now it looks likely the alt-mode will be totally out of scale with the other MPs anyway - would the cartoon-accurate super-deformed look still be so bad anyway?

It's interesting seeing people being frustrated about the potentially out-of-scale alt mode, which thankfully they adhered to with the very undersized jet modes of the Decepticon jets and the absurdly oversized cassette deck mode for Soundwave.

I'll gladly take a cartoon accurately scaled Bumblebee with an "out-of-scale" alt mode than an absurdly tall Bumblebee with an in-scale VW Beetle alt mode.

Bee is tiny in the cartoon so of course it makes sense, but one of the things that really impressed me about the new MPs is the realistic alt modes. I'm a car fan in addition to a TF fan. So it bugs me that I won't be able to display Bee with the others as a car and not have it look weird.

With the Seekers I think it didn't bother me as much because how often do we see realistic jets and (somewhat) everyday cars side by side? There's kind of a disconnect already, at least for me. With Soundwave there's just no way he could ever be a realistic scale (I suddenly regret selling WST SW lol), so that's out the window from the beginning.

And yes, I actually do display some of my MPs in vehicle mode, especially when I have more than one version of the same mold. And I just like to transform them from time to time to mix up my display a bit so it doesn't get boring. It might be fun to display all the Autobots in a convoy, for example.

But this certainly won't stop me from buying him, he looks like an awesome figure in nearly every way. I just wish he could be maybe 20% bigger.

I guess I just wanted MP Bee to be as big as his brothers. Was always tired of how tiny he was portrayed I guess. Too bad the spare tire on the back isn't G1 SCROUNGE !!!

MR Optimus Prime wrote:I guess I just wanted MP Bee to be as big as his brothers. Was always tired of how tiny he was portrayed I guess. Too bad the spare tire on the back isn't G1 SCROUNGE !!!

I still get sad when I think about poor scrounge.

This will be my first Takara MP (I have the TRU Optimus), so I am a bit wary of pre-ordering online. Where is everyone pre-ordering him from? The Amazon exclusive battle mask seems interesting to me, as long as it isn't exorbitantly more expensive than anywhere else. I don't care about the coin.

Grendelspyce wrote:This will be my first Takara MP (I have the TRU Optimus), so I am a bit wary of pre-ordering online. Where is everyone pre-ordering him from? The Amazon exclusive battle mask seems interesting to me, as long as it isn't exorbitantly more expensive than anywhere else. I don't care about the coin.

I ordered it from Big Bad Toy Store. $74.99 for the regular version and $79.99 for the coin and hopefully battle mask. The battle mask will come free with the coin set if they can get them. I recommend taking to risk and getting the coin.

I'm trying to switch my BBTS MP BB preorder from the cheaper one to the one with the battle mask. fingers crossed.

this is a lame attempt to use one of the variants of bumblebee's g1 faces and give the effect of change like movie bumblebee...lame in my opinion

I might have a bit of respect if it was a connected piece working like hotrod / rodimus's head

though id be interested as to what 3rd party designers will do with this feature.

VioMeTriX wrote:this is a lame attempt to use one of the variants of bumblebee's g1 faces and give the effect of change like movie bumblebee...lame in my opinion.

i dont see what this has to do with movie bee. G1 bee had two faces: masked toy, anime face.

shajaki wrote:

VioMeTriX wrote:this is a lame attempt to use one of the variants of bumblebee's g1 faces and give the effect of change like movie bumblebee...lame in my opinion.

i dont see what this has to do with movie bee. G1 bee had two faces: masked toy, fiction face.

Fixed that for ya.

Sabrblade wrote:

shajaki wrote:

VioMeTriX wrote:this is a lame attempt to use one of the variants of bumblebee's g1 faces and give the effect of change like movie bumblebee...lame in my opinion.

i dont see what this has to do with movie bee. G1 bee had two faces: masked toy, fiction face.

Fixed that for ya.

And then that 'happy' face was used for a japanese bumblebee minibot collection release.

Sideshow Sideswipe wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

shajaki wrote:

VioMeTriX wrote:this is a lame attempt to use one of the variants of bumblebee's g1 faces and give the effect of change like movie bumblebee...lame in my opinion.

i dont see what this has to do with movie bee. G1 bee had two faces: masked toy, fiction face.

Fixed that for ya.

And then that 'happy' face was used for a japanese bumblebee minibot collection release.

True, but it originally came from the fiction (i.e. - Marvel Comics and Sunbow cartoon, which wasn't an anime).

Sabrblade wrote:

Sideshow Sideswipe wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

shajaki wrote:

VioMeTriX wrote:this is a lame attempt to use one of the variants of bumblebee's g1 faces and give the effect of change like movie bumblebee...lame in my opinion.

i dont see what this has to do with movie bee. G1 bee had two faces: masked toy, fiction face.

Fixed that for ya.

And then that 'happy' face was used for a japanese bumblebee minibot collection release.

True, but it originally came from the fiction (i.e. - Marvel Comics and Sunbow cartoon, which wasn't an anime).

y'know what i mean. ive been programmed to think this way. its what takara tends to call their cartoon accurate figures.
-encore 20A (anime) devastator
-ehobby 08 anime bluestreak
-reissue D62 anime galvatron

Blame Japan for those names.

Sabrblade wrote:Blame Japan for those names.

i blame them for a lot of things

Transformers was an American cartoon made by Sunbow and Marvel. Takara uses the word anime because that's what they call their cartoons.

zodconvoy wrote:Transformers was an American cartoon made by Sunbow and Marvel. Takara uses the word anime because that's what they call their cartoons.

zodconvoy wrote:Transformers was an American cartoon made by Sunbow and Marvel. Takara uses the word anime because that's what they call their cartoons.

yeah.... i know. and this is a takara toy.