The Energon Pub

Thanks to Takara Tomy designer Hisashi Yuki we have our first in-hand image of their soon to be released Transformers Go! Samurai Combiner team: Kenzan, Jinbu, and Ganou. The team can combine in three different configurations, each taking turns as the hear and shoulders portion of the combined robot. Image mirrored below.

mmmm... look at the legs on those... oh yeah...

rockman_fan wrote:mmmm... look at the legs on those... oh yeah...

Energon Prowl will not be happy with that...

Shortcomings aside, my love for combiners and Brave obligates me to get them if I can.

wish these would stop looking so good. really liking fireman sam and the bananaplane.

Look like Transformers got Katokied.

Though they are also Obari-ish so take your pic. This isn't for everyone. I personally love Katoki and Obari.

burning_sirius wrote:Look like Transformers got Katokied.

Though they are also Obari-ish so take your pic. This isn't for everyone. I personally love Katoki and Obari.

Hajime Katoki and Masami Obari?

I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

megatronus wrote:I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

these brand new figures don't have anything to do with the 25year old Headmasters cartoon though?

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Hajime Katoki and Masami Obari?

Yes, remember Obari did most of the animation for Braves in the first place. Obari also did Call of the Primatives.

I just said Katoki because of the long legs.

craggy wrote:

megatronus wrote:I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

these brand new figures don't have anything to do with the 25year old Headmasters cartoon though?

Plus, Headmasters uses mainly Hasbro figures. Now, Victory is mostly Takara-only figures. Those combiners resemble the mecha from the Brave/Yuusha series, GoKenzan specifically resembles God Max from Yuusha Exkizer/Brave Exkaiser.

Surely there are six possible combinations? For each head/shoulders bot, the other two can become either a torso or legs, meaning there are two combinations for every main head-bot? Either that or they only combine in the three orientations due to where the connector ports line up etc

Fingers crossed for a Western release!



It's not happening.

NovaSentinel wrote:Surely there are six possible combinations? For each head/shoulders bot, the other two can become either a torso or legs, meaning there are two combinations for every main head-bot? Either that or they only combine in the three orientations due to where the connector ports line up etc

Only three combos, sorry. On first sight they're indeed like Albegas or Voltron II, but their method of combination is closer to Aquarion.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

craggy wrote:

megatronus wrote:I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

these brand new figures don't have anything to do with the 25year old Headmasters cartoon though?

Plus, Headmasters uses mainly Hasbro figures. Now, Victory is mostly Takara-only figures. Those combiners resemble the mecha from the Brave/Yuusha series, GoKenzan specifically resembles God Max from Yuusha Exkizer/Brave Exkaiser.

That's sort of what I'm saying, no?

These new figs appear to be homaging the older G1 continuity Japanese-only figures' aesthetics. These don't have anything to do with those cartoons, but the design elements are there. Which is why they seem 'meh' to me.

megatronus wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

craggy wrote:

megatronus wrote:I'm not really digging these. I'm only now making my way through the Japanese Headmasters series - maybe I'll have a better appreciation of these figures once I get through the whole run. But for now, these are just blah.

these brand new figures don't have anything to do with the 25year old Headmasters cartoon though?

Plus, Headmasters uses mainly Hasbro figures. Now, Victory is mostly Takara-only figures. Those combiners resemble the mecha from the Brave/Yuusha series, GoKenzan specifically resembles God Max from Yuusha Exkizer/Brave Exkaiser.

That's sort of what I'm saying, no?

These new figs appear to be homaging the older G1 continuity Japanese-only figures' aesthetics. These don't have anything to do with those cartoons, but the design elements are there. Which is why they seem 'meh' to me.

yeah. I totally didn't get that from the post.

I don't have any attachment to the Brave series, or any of that malarkey. Even TFs, I'm not bothered by the look of the old toys, because they're bricky rubbish for the most part. I grew up on G1, but I only buy new stuff with improved transformations and articulation. These guys look cool and appear to have plenty of poseability. That's what appeals to me. Still not keen on the plane being yellow, or the prices.

Very tempted by the animal ones though I could see myself sticking some Predacon stickers on them if I were to get them. Would love to hear news of a US release, but it seems highly unlikely. Right now, best I can hope for is that they go on sale at one of the online retailers.

The more I see of the Swordbots, the more I like what I see.

Now let's see some more of the Swordbot Shinobi Team.

I'm not digging the ludicrously long legs and torsos that are wider than they are tall. It's not so bad on the red fellow, and blue's OK, but the yellow bot suffers a lot from it. Still, it's similar to the Energon combiners, and given what they have to accomplish I can forgive it. Love it or hate it, you have to respect it as fantastic toy engineering.

Also, these guys have such a gloriously Japanese super robot/Tokusatsu feel to them that I can't hate them. I want to buy them and make a stop-motion video of them combining, complete with ridiculously manly and over-the-top Japanese narration. "DAI-SAMURAI-ROBOTU-DAN....GATTAI!!!!!"

They are definitely an acquired taste but I'm passing up on these.

I am digging Skyfire, Prowl, and Inferno as a combining team.
"Friends forever will be together, We're on top because we play
to win."

Towline wrote:I am digging Skyfire, Prowl, and Inferno as a combining team.
"Friends forever will be together, We're on top because we play
to win."

hmmm, they actually have a lot in common with the Magnaboss guys.

craggy wrote:

Towline wrote:I am digging Skyfire, Prowl, and Inferno as a combining team.
"Friends forever will be together, We're on top because we play
to win."

hmmm, they actually have a lot in common with the Magnaboss guys.

Which is why I refer to them as Prowl, Silverbolt and Ironhide respectively and call their combined mode Magnaboss.
The ninja team I refer to as Leobreaker, Airazor and Sky-byte and their combined mode has been dubbed Tripredacus.

Manterax Prime wrote:

craggy wrote:

Towline wrote:I am digging Skyfire, Prowl, and Inferno as a combining team.
"Friends forever will be together, We're on top because we play
to win."

hmmm, they actually have a lot in common with the Magnaboss guys.

Which is why I refer to them as Prowl, Silverbolt and Ironhide respectively and call their combined mode Magnaboss.
The ninja team I refer to as Leobreaker, Airazor and Sky-byte and their combined mode has been dubbed Tripredacus.

Your Tripredacus is made of an Autobot, a Maximal, and a Predacon from the wrong continuity, nice. In all seriousness, I do like the Predacon combiner much better than the Autobot one. They had to make sacrifices to the beast modes, but...it's kind of endearing in a weird way.

RAcast wrote:In all seriousness, I do like the Predacon combiner much better than the Autobot one. They had to make sacrifices to the beast modes, but...it's kind of endearing in a weird way.

What Predacon combiner? Abominus? (Or should I say Gorādora)

The lion, bird, and shark are Autobots.

Sabrblade wrote:

RAcast wrote:In all seriousness, I do like the Predacon combiner much better than the Autobot one. They had to make sacrifices to the beast modes, but...it's kind of endearing in a weird way.

What Predacon combiner? Abominus? (Or should I say Gorādora)

The lion, bird, and shark are Autobots.

...Huh, so they are. My bad.

Something about the aesthetics of the combiners don't sit right with me.

I can't place what exactly causes that feeling, but I'm not feeling Transfomers with these guys.

Maybe it's the head? Or maybe just the proportions and kibble on the guys.

Honestly I'm feeling Gao Gai Gar or Megazords with these guys.

gavinfuzzy wrote:Something about the aesthetics of the combiners don't sit right with me.

I can't place what exactly causes that feeling, but I'm not feeling Transfomers with these guys.

Maybe it's the head? Or maybe just the proportions and kibble on the guys.

Honestly I'm feeling Gao Gai Gar or Megazords with these guys.

Well the Brave/GaoGaiGar/Sentai feel is clearly what they were going for with the aesthetic, so you're not wrong. It took me a bit of staring to get acclamated to the designs, and I'm still not a fan of the Samurai team, but I really like the Ninja team for their unabashed awkwardness if nothing else.