The Energon Pub

Interesting interview. I do think the answer about the maw was gaslighting us, though. Sure, the inside of the small portion of Unicron might be grey, but that outer part is definitely yellow.

And the same is true of the soul patch they gave him originally. That one scene has a clean shaven Unicron, not a soul patch. And is, very much, not the look anyone went with post movie or in later scenes. It's disingenuous to say "oh, G1 Unicron's never had a very consistent look".

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Interesting interview. I do think the answer about the maw was gaslighting us, though. Sure, the inside of the small portion of Unicron might be grey, but that outer part is definitely yellow.

And the same is true of the soul patch they gave him originally. That one scene has a clean shaven Unicron, not a soul patch. And is, very much, not the look anyone went with post movie or in later scenes. It's disingenuous to say "oh, G1 Unicron's never had a very consistent look".

Consider it disingenuous if you like, but it's accurate. Gotta love old school animation variation.

First-Aid wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Interesting interview. I do think the answer about the maw was gaslighting us, though. Sure, the inside of the small portion of Unicron might be grey, but that outer part is definitely yellow.

And the same is true of the soul patch they gave him originally. That one scene has a clean shaven Unicron, not a soul patch. And is, very much, not the look anyone went with post movie or in later scenes. It's disingenuous to say "oh, G1 Unicron's never had a very consistent look".

Consider it disingenuous if you like, but it's accurate. Gotta love old school animation variation.

I think he meant that it's disingenuous that they used that as an excuse to be sloppy with the figure.

This does not look like this




And this is the interior shot. The exterior is this:



It's not grey. And I dislike that he's trying to say there's a large discrepancy with how Unicon looks in the movie. The one scene aside, there really isn't. They made a bad call at some point and should own up to it.

To their credit, they did add a corrected chin. But he never had a soul patch anywhere.

Sabrblade wrote:

If there was one site that should have an interview about Unicron.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:
To their credit, they did add a corrected chin. But he never had a soul patch anywhere.

His face is white, not silver. So that's another oopsie. Damn big one.

Rodimus Prime wrote:His face is white, not silver. So that's another oopsie. Damn big one.

I'm kind of ok with that since silver has a lower risk of yellowing than white does.

(And I'd rather mine not look like the colors of the old 1986 toy prototype. )

Sabrblade wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:His face is white, not silver. So that's another oopsie. Damn big one.

I'm kind of ok with that since silver has a lower risk of yellowing than white does.

(And I'd rather mine not look like the colors of the old 1986 toy prototype. )

Fair point, but the silver is so dark. Maybe it's the lighting in the photos and videos? It should have been lighter at least.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:His face is white, not silver. So that's another oopsie. Damn big one.

I'm kind of ok with that since silver has a lower risk of yellowing than white does.

(And I'd rather mine not look like the colors of the old 1986 toy prototype. )

Fair point, but the silver is so dark. Maybe it's the lighting in the photos and videos? It should have been lighter at least.

Agreed about the darkness of both the silver and the lighting.

The part on the maw is total gaslighting. We're complaining about the part that holds the teeth, the large, iconic focus point of the planet mode, which they made a huge deal about how accurate it would be.
So they address the small inner maw nobody cared about and then went on how there's precedent of that part nobody talked about being grey. And the interviewer supports that as if it's an amazing and surprising discovery.
What a shill, I used to have great respect for Unicron.com, but that just breaks it. The interview also makes my decision to never again support a Haslab project final.

Complete and utter bullshit. Seriously, they should have at least painted the ring when they're already too cheap to make it a seperate piece and cast it the correct colour.

It's great to know that they took my money, cheaped out on me and instead of apologizing, have a gaslight interview with a shill. Great customer relations Hasbro.

Sabrblade wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:His face is white, not silver. So that's another oopsie. Damn big one.

I'm kind of ok with that since silver has a lower risk of yellowing than white does.

(And I'd rather mine not look like the colors of the old 1986 toy prototype. )

It's the same shade of off-white the toon uses for parts that are silver or chrome on the toys so I'm not too bothered by the silver paint.

I don't mind the silver face. I mind him saying we just never noticed just how inconsistent his character model was.

I'd have appreciated it more if he just admitted the team put more emphasis on animation error head that it warranted. I'd have also appreciated a real explanation on the maw. His explanation covers the gears - assuming they wanted to paint the gears for some reason - but not the entire maw. Instead ... gaslighting.

Sabrblade wrote:I'm kind of ok with that since silver has a lower risk of yellowing than white does.

(And I'd rather mine not look like the colors of the old 1986 toy prototype. )

A white face wouldn't have yellowed since it's 100% painted. Plus, the old prototype has a yellow face. That said, I don't mind the silver face. but it's 100% a creative liberty on their part.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I don't mind the silver face. I mind him saying we just never noticed just how inconsistent his character model was.

I'd have appreciated it more if he just admitted the team put more emphasis on animation error head that it warranted. I'd have also appreciated a real explanation on the maw. His explanation covers the gears - assuming they wanted to paint the gears for some reason - but not the entire maw. Instead ... gaslighting.

A white face wouldn't have yellowed since it's 100% painted. Plus, the old prototype has a yellow face. That said, I don't mind the silver face. but it's 100% a creative liberty on their part.

Who dared to give these creative professionals making these creative products the authority to take creative liberties

AcademyofDrX wrote:Who dared to give these creative professionals making these creative products the authority to take creative liberties

That's not the point.
It was promised to be somehow a "Masterpiece" Unicron and people had to pay up to 1000$ upfront for a collectible that was just at prototype stage.
So I can wholeheartedly understand the anger and the disappointment when the promise have been broken.


No regrets cancelling my preorder.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I don't mind the silver face. I mind him saying we just never noticed just how inconsistent his character model was.

I'd have appreciated it more if he just admitted the team put more emphasis on animation error head that it warranted. I'd have also appreciated a real explanation on the maw. His explanation covers the gears - assuming they wanted to paint the gears for some reason - but not the entire maw. Instead ... gaslighting.

A white face wouldn't have yellowed since it's 100% painted. Plus, the old prototype has a yellow face. That said, I don't mind the silver face. but it's 100% a creative liberty on their part.

Who dared to give these creative professionals making these creative products the authority to take creative liberties

I didn't complain about the silver face.

I do complain about the dishonesty, however. And I think complaints about large deviations on the finished product are justified when something is fan-backed. Shipping wasn't free to Canada, so it's even more for people like me.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I don't mind the silver face. I mind him saying we just never noticed just how inconsistent his character model was.

I'd have appreciated it more if he just admitted the team put more emphasis on animation error head that it warranted. I'd have also appreciated a real explanation on the maw. His explanation covers the gears - assuming they wanted to paint the gears for some reason - but not the entire maw. Instead ... gaslighting.

A white face wouldn't have yellowed since it's 100% painted. Plus, the old prototype has a yellow face. That said, I don't mind the silver face. but it's 100% a creative liberty on their part.

Who dared to give these creative professionals making these creative products the authority to take creative liberties

I didn't complain about the silver face.

I do complain about the dishonesty, however. And I think complaints about large deviations on the finished product are justified when something is fan-backed. Shipping wasn't free to Canada, so it's even more for people like me.

Were there earlier pictures of the maw being grey or whatever?

I think the first picture of it was in someone's home alongside a prototype Unicron. At the time I took it to be another unfinished sample.

Wasn't his face always the same color as his chest?

Tuned Agent wrote:Wasn't his face always the same color as his chest?

Yes.

Even the prototype was painted silver.

Sabrblade wrote:

Tuned Agent wrote:Wasn't his face always the same color as his chest?

Yes.

Even the prototype was painted silver.

Still not screen accurate.

But your previous reasoning regarding yellowing still applies.

Honestly, this is why I'm glad we have people like fellow fan D.M. who's undertaken a project to create "The most accurately coloured G1 animation models online!"

In his words, these are the "Product of a long time sampling of Toei's cel-vinyl colours and of painstaking analysis of DVD screengrabs + available scans of animation cels!"

In particular, he nailed Unicron's movie coloring down to a T (click each for full size):

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Tuned Agent wrote:Wasn't his face always the same color as his chest?

Yes.

Even the prototype was painted silver.

Still not screen accurate.

But your previous reasoning regarding yellowing still applies.

Even if it's painted plastic?

We at Seibertron always aim to bring you the latest and most relevant news on all things Transformers. Occasionally, we do get opportunities to bring you content that's not exclusive to Seibertron, but is very newsworthy, and in this case, we feel is important for all Transformers fans to know. Kevin Lukis, the owner of fellow fan site Unicron.com, was granted an exclusive interview with Hasbro's Ben Montano, who's the Senior Director of Global Brand Marketing. Many thanks to Kevin for bringing this to our attention.

In this interview, Lukis and Montano discuss the biggest (and most expensive) Transformer ever made, the Chaos-Bringer himself, Unicron! They cover all things Unicron, including:

Why the changes to the color of the planet mode's maw was made.

Though he's the biggest Transformer ever made, he was, at one point, going to be even bigger.

He'd actually been planned for the Generations Selects line, which is reflected in his packaging.

When exactly he'll start shipping to U.S. backers.

Issues with distribution outside the U.S.

The unlikely chance of Unicron ever being reissued.

There are many other topics covered in the interview, which you can watch below.



So are you one of the lucky backers that will be getting your figure in the next few weeks? Just curious about what a senior Hasbro figure has to say about him? What did you think of the interview? Let us know below, and sound off in the Energon Pub forums!

(We would again like to thank Kevin Lukis of Unicron.com for the content).

I know this figure cost me a bit over $600, but it's honestly going to pay for itself.

The heat generated by people fussing about it will warm my house for years to come.

Counterpunch wrote:The heat generated by people fussing about it will warm my house for years to come.

This is why I like you.