The Energon Pub

Cobotron wrote:But I can't help thinking he could look more evil. Ever since I did this bash, I kinda wish he looked like this.

Man, that looks good.

Cobotron wrote:I know 9 out of 10 Hellscreams would agree.

Unfortunately, your information is incorrect. 1548.7475026740 out of 10 Hellscreams would agree. Any Hellscreams that would refuse to conform to this way of thinking have a 96.5823918472% chance to be from a negative polarity universe.

You are correct there N. You get an A+ on the quiz. You home schoolers are a sharp bunch!

P.S. That bash was done at the request of Screamer himself.

Cobotron wrote::lol:
You are correct there N. You get an A+ on the quiz. You home schoolers are a sharp bunch!

There are some of us like that, and then some that are (imagine Foghorn Leghorn's voice saying this) about as sharp as a bowling ball.

Cobotron wrote:P.S. That bash was done at the request of Screamer himself.

Imagine his reaction if Hasbro revealed a Flaming Megatronus (example name) done in the style of the WW version.

Hey Cobs! Finally made it!! Nice haul! Glad you like him!!

And N beat me to the punch. If any less than 4000% of Hellscreams didn't approve, then we would have issues.

Hey Cobo. I just thought of something and think this is a good place to discuss it. You had made a comment in the likes of not wanting this hobby to become a chore and keepig up with the Jones'. Thats suer important and I think we all feel that. I kinda felt it with the MP line. I didnt think I would collect it, but since there werent that many new molds coming out and i liked the product I thought I could give it a shot. But then characters would be announced that i couldnt care less for (like Tracks) and I wondered if I should get him and i didnt, but then the reviews came in saying it was pretty good and it was one of the only molds I hadnt played with and I took the chance with roadrage and... got realyl dissapointed. And then I read more about it and people shared my dissapointment. So its as if not only might we buy these toys to keep up with others and say weave them too, but also to confirm that we are indeed dissapointed with them as well. Thats insane. But I see it happen.

So yeah, thats a rut I dont want to be in. But there is a way we all can avoid that and that it by having personality in our collections. By finding what we know makes us happy and sticking to it (nothing wrong with deviating from it to exprience new stuff too), our collection or collecting style gets a personality and it no longer matters if we keep up or not. For example, Cary like the RID Minicons. There is a dude on this site who has a huge boner for Legion class. I am all about the deals and the thrift shop(if that thing aint discounted, it aint bought). Hellscream is anti establishment, D-Max is always happy and you Cobo just love that bling and clear plastic.

And I find that awesome. I am sure everyone has their own quirks but I realize that these quirks is what helps us free ourselves from the idea that our collection must be a certain way.

So be quirky, stick to what you love and people will get why we dont need to have the latest toy of anykind in our collection.

Cobs, that bash is top notch. Could you do me a favor though? Get a job at Hasbro and get that thing made foreals?

And WJ, I hear ya bud.
You all might remember how I "used" to collect comics. It started with Spider-Man and then I got sucked into every other title with the events. And I'm a completionist and guys, you seriously wouldn't believe how difficult it is to keep up with the variants. I eventually got burnt out because it was not only a second job, but at the end of the day I couldn't even appreciate the collection. Why? Because after they're bought and sealed, they get grammatically stored in boxes. And there's nothing exciting about a collection of white boxes. I still love the stories and art, but the collecting? Bleh.

And you guys might think I collect everything Transformers, but I actually don't. I'm skipping the Hasbro versions of RID for the most part, not grabbing anything besides the Warrior class (sorry guys, those minicons don't do it for me), and I've skipped entire lines before like ROTF, DOTM, Animated, and Prime. For TF's, I do collect a lot, but not all

william-james88 wrote:
So yeah, thats a rut I dont want to be in. But there is a way we all can avoid that and that it by having personality in our collections. By finding what we know makes us happy and sticking to it (nothing wrong with deviating from it to exprience new stuff too), our collection or collecting style gets a personality and it no longer matters if we keep up or not. For example, Cary like the RID Minicons. There is a dude on this site who has a huge boner for Legion class. I am all about the deals and the thrift shop(if that thing aint discounted, it aint bought). Hellscream is anti establishment, D-Max is always happy and you Cobo just love that bling and clear plastic.

Well said Will. I collect the guys that stand out or have a really cool feature. That's why I collected all the combiners. And Disclaimer: I'm not always happy. The completionist in me wanted Airachnid and she sucked, so that may be the one bad spot. but to me, the Lost Light crew is my priority. Other cool characters that come along are bonuses

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:

william-james88 wrote:
So yeah, thats a rut I dont want to be in. But there is a way we all can avoid that and that it by having personality in our collections. By finding what we know makes us happy and sticking to it (nothing wrong with deviating from it to exprience new stuff too), our collection or collecting style gets a personality and it no longer matters if we keep up or not. For example, Cary like the RID Minicons. There is a dude on this site who has a huge boner for Legion class. I am all about the deals and the thrift shop(if that thing aint discounted, it aint bought). Hellscream is anti establishment, D-Max is always happy and you Cobo just love that bling and clear plastic.

Well said Will. I collect the guys that stand out or have a really cool feature. That's why I collected all the combiners. And Disclaimer: I'm not always happy. The completionist in me wanted Airachnid and she sucked, so that may be the one bad spot. but to me, the Lost Light crew is my priority. Other cool characters that come along are bonuses

I wanted Airachnid too and I did get her, but for free (when buying other stuff) so I didnt mind. But there was no peer pressure to get her, unlike the Sky Reign wave.

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:

william-james88 wrote:
So yeah, thats a rut I dont want to be in. But there is a way we all can avoid that and that it by having personality in our collections. By finding what we know makes us happy and sticking to it (nothing wrong with deviating from it to exprience new stuff too), our collection or collecting style gets a personality and it no longer matters if we keep up or not. For example, Cary like the RID Minicons. There is a dude on this site who has a huge boner for Legion class. I am all about the deals and the thrift shop(if that thing aint discounted, it aint bought). Hellscream is anti establishment, D-Max is always happy and you Cobo just love that bling and clear plastic.

Well said Will. I collect the guys that stand out or have a really cool feature. That's why I collected all the combiners. And Disclaimer: I'm not always happy. The completionist in me wanted Airachnid and she sucked, so that may be the one bad spot. but to me, the Lost Light crew is my priority. Other cool characters that come along are bonuses

I wanted Airachnid too and I did get her, but for free (when buying other stuff) so I didnt mind. But there was no peer pressure to get her, unlike the Sky Reign wave.

In my case, I found her at Ollies for $4, so it was a good deal. But the Sky Reign wave was really cool and I did like it. Gave me my Lost Light combiner, so it made me happy

@Will: I'm picking up what you're putting down.

It's easy to get caught up in the "gotta get 'em all" mentality. We're all such enablers. Once I got out of the fog of CW and took a look back I realized I needed to take a step back from acquasition for a while. Slow down and get a bit more picky if you will. But I think you hit the nail on the head with collecting figures that fit out personality better, I just never formed those words for myself.

I'm back to being more selective, trying to get my favorite version of a mold and stopping there and more importantly buying figures that I find interesting and/or unique.

BotCon was a real test of control and I came out with a haul I'm very happy with. It fit in my new collecting plan for this year very well. I've got a few molds I had either never gotten to or had decided to dismiss.

Once we figure out each other likes and dislikes in comparison to our own; we can give and receive better recommendations. This hobby has become a lot more fun and a larger part of my life since I started making robuddies

@everyone

carytheone wrote:Once we figure out each other likes and dislikes in comparison to our own; we can give and receive better recommendations. This hobby has become a lot more fun and a larger part of my life since I started making robuddies

@everyone

That is a perfect new layer to the disussion and something I always pointed out: I preffer biased reviews. Just telling me what the points of articulation are or what paint is used doesnt help. What I like to know is what you like in a TF. Like someone who collects fembots might love Thunderblast but I need to know about that bias, or else that recomendation doesnt mean as much. Or I can tell everyone that Leader Movie Starscream is one of the best toys ever but I must also say taht I dont mind movie designs if the toy is well done.

Hence why I find one person's opinion more informative than a summary of many people. There was a question for the 30th aniversary as to which TF figure was the best of all time. But instead of of just reading everyone`s opinion (and why) they just looked at the toy that appeared on most people's list, which was Voyagr Springer, and he was on people's list probably due to recency bias. Few said he was the best but because everyone liked him, he became the number 1 transformer on that list and I find that diminishes the impact or the passion behind a recomendation.

Yup group thought does no one any favors.

Same reason I like top list like yours from just one person. Just like when I frequented game sights more often. I found the reviewers that had very similar taste as my own. With the exception of a few games I knew if they liked it I probably would too. I've kinda lost tracking some of some of my preferred reviewers and I hardly visit my old haunts anymore. But those reasons are best held for a different thread.

When we did our year end wrap-ups I made sure to not read anyone's until I wrote mine so their words wouldn't influence me. I do the same thing when I need an article.

Agree with all statements.

This discussion has made me realize how much extra stuff I've purchased to purchase and I'd like to refocus on my true goal: G1S1 and TF:TM best versions. There's some outliers in there too, characters I really like from Headmasters, or the G1 comic, or even just different versions OF a character I like (my various Optimi, Galvatron's, Shockwave's, Megatron's, Rodimi, etc etc).

I think for me, the problem is that there are SO many versions it is hard to tell which one is the best for me until I have it, which can get expensive (Animated Magnus comes to mind). A lot more product out there than there used to be. Cool and insane.

Ramble ramble ramble..

itscramtastic wrote:I think for me, the problem is that there are SO many versions it is hard to tell which one is the best for me until I have it, which can get expensive (Animated Magnus comes to mind). A lot more product out there than there used to be. Cool and insane.

I totally get that, especially when I want to make decent character lists. Characters like Grimlock and Shockwave are easy (Ironhide was a breeze). But BB?! I swear you guys will never see a top 10 BB toy list written from me. It also doesnt help that there are just 2-3 BB molds that are really good.

And just curious guys, with all the new MPs we have been getting are they the defacto best version fo the character? For Ironhide (and eventually Ratchet), its a yes. But for Shockwave and Hotrod, is it a given? And as far as the seekers go, I dont think the latest MP mold is the best version of these characters either (and I know a few of you agree with me on this).

william-james88 wrote:

itscramtastic wrote:I think for me, the problem is that there are SO many versions it is hard to tell which one is the best for me until I have it, which can get expensive (Animated Magnus comes to mind). A lot more product out there than there used to be. Cool and insane.

I totally get that, especially when I want to make decent character lists. Characters like Grimlock and Shockwave are easy (Ironhide was a breeze). But BB?! I swear you guys will never see a top 10 BB toy list written from me. It also doesnt help that there are just 2-3 BB molds that are really good.

And just curious guys, with all the new MPs we have been getting are they the defacto best version fo the character? For Ironhide (and eventually Ratchet), its a yes. But for Shockwave and Hotrod, is it a given? And as far as the seekers go, I dont think the latest MP mold is the best version of these characters either (and I know a few of you agree with me on this).

MPs being the definitive of the G1, yes. For most cases, they end up being the best overall to me. At least in the "official product" realm. I still think I need DX9 Carry and Tyrant for my definitive Rodimus and Galvatron (at least out of what's currently available).

Sorry guys. Busy morning here. It's absolutely perfect weather today, and just had to get the girls out in it. But this is a great convo here. I need to talk this out.

It's funny Will that you would deem D-Max "always happy", as I thought I was Mr. Overly Positive. Of course until D came around. Stay that way D. It's often a refreshing break after reading through the bitching and moaning.

It's true. I do like everything and put way less emphasis on any one element of these toys. I can always find enough positives to out way any negatives. For example, I've made the choice to accept Hasbro's lack luster presentation of the RID Warriors compared to Takara's. I still think they are fun toys, and lately I've proven to myself that I am competent enough with a brush to "fix" things if I see fit. In the long run it adds value to the toy if I put a little effort into it. Then I end up with a custom job, and I can say, "Hey! I did this". I would love to commit to just going for the Takara versions. The Takara versions I do have are awesome. It's just if I go that route it leaves no budget for the Legions and other fun stuff that this line has to offer. I'll just have to take a trip to Edmonton for a play date with Jak, and all his Takara pretties.

So on to the notion of "Keeping up with the Jones's". For me I think this came into play the most with Masterpiece. What I got really addicted to was this great phenomenon of them being considerably cheaper to order direct from Japan. Which is the truth, and still awesome, but I felt like I had to jump on pre-orders right away.
Nothing beats those first few releases after the MP-10 re-scaling. But I am becoming disenchanted with the line, and disappointed with Takara. I'm also learning that it's ok to wait it out. Their drive to take cartoon accurate absolutely literally is not my thing. I'll use Shockwave as an example. Great figure. No complaints at all as far as play value, construction, etc., but I think we all know that they or Hasbro will release a darker version eventually. I don't hate his current color, but I would really prefer him to be a darker purple. Magnus is another good example. I love that guy. He was my top pick for last 2015's year in review, but to be honest, I would rather have the Delta Magnus (or Powered Convoy, as I like to call him) deco in my collection. So again proof that with a little more patience, I could have been even happier than before.
Really, Masterpiece is a stretch outside of my normal realm of collecting. I've always been a toy collector, not a collectibles collector. MPs are high end collectibles not really toys. My goal is to slow down on the MPs so I can focus more on the toys. Of course Takara had to go and tease Inferno.

Everyone seems disappointed in me that I'm not after MP Primal, but I see the toy I already have as a toy masterpiece. A masterpiece of it's time. Sure things have evolved, and technology and techniques have improved. The same could be said for art. There are photo realist painters out there that make the Mona Lisa look like a preschoolers work, but no one would deny that the Mona Lisa is a masterpiece, created by a master of his time. So, that is one MP I will skip for now. If I feel the need to aquire him down the road, I'm sure I will have no problem.

Focus is a thing wee all talk about. After getting swept up in the fun of talking and sharing with all you in the forums, and going a little overboard. I am just at the point where I know I need to pull back. I'm in the process of adjusting my lens to really focus.

Good talk everybody!

Of course, before I hit submit, I checked and the convo has evolved, but I'll plop this post down anyway.

Cobotron wrote:
It's funny Will that you would deem D-Max "always happy", as I thought I was Mr. Overly Positive. Of course until D came around. Stay that way D. It's often a refreshing break after reading through the bitching and moaning.

Oh believe me Cobs, I have no interest in becoming as cynical as MTMTE Ratchet But really though the toys do make me happy. I get the ones I really want and let the rest slide by, but still enjoy having the option. I am a completionist at heart, but often times I am ok with getting everything because they all bring something special to the table. Sometimes you just have to look at it like that

Cobotron wrote:Nothing beats those first few releases after the MP-10 re-scaling. But I am becoming disenchanted with the line, and disappointed with Takara.

Your not the only one, did you read Seibertron's awesome post on MP Ramjet, its everything I have been saying all along:

Seibertron wrote:Is there an alternate transformation for Ramjet's backside in robot mode? What a mess! The head is half assed as well with the faux nosecone instead of the real one. I would have much preferred they do something with the real nosecone, along the lines of what fans did with the original Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge. Cartoon accuracy be damned! It's an OK concept, but when it gets in the way of functionality, common sense should kick in and do what's best for the toy. Especially when they do a faux nosecone for the head just so we can end up with a nosecone that sticks out between his legs. I don't remember that in the cartoon! If the length of the head and nosecone was too long, all they needed to do was something clever to collapse it instead of rotating the cockpit. Too many disappointments with Masterpiece toys over the past year!

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:

Cobotron wrote:
It's funny Will that you would deem D-Max "always happy", as I thought I was Mr. Overly Positive. Of course until D came around. Stay that way D. It's often a refreshing break after reading through the bitching and moaning.

Oh believe me Cobs, I have no interest in becoming as cynical as MTMTE Ratchet But really though the toys do make me happy. I get the ones I really want and let the rest slide by, but still enjoy having the option. I am a completionist at heart, but often times I am ok with getting everything because they all bring something special to the table. Sometimes you just have to look at it like that.

That's pretty much how I feel, except that I tend to focus on one line at a time.

shajaki wrote:Cobs, that bash is top notch. Could you do me a favor though? Get a job at Hasbro and get that thing made foreals?

Thanks Jak! And believe me, it would be adream come true to work for Hasbro, but that ship has saled... off the edge of this flat earth.

Am I a dick for gaining so much pleasure from Seibertron's disdain for the MP's toon accurate mumbo jumbo?
Not that Seibs is the end all be all of the collectordom, but I guess his opinions help justify my own.

There is a convo going on in the TR thread about how the leaked info is kind of raining on the parade, and I completely agree. But I AM REALLY excited for the line to drop. CW pushed a lot of buttons, but TR pushes more. The play options of TR is so up my ally. Little guys to populate an environment with there neat little vehicles and giant robos. Man! That is what I am talking about. Plus I have been wanting a reduex of the "Masters" concept for years.

Point being, I need to pull back on all the satellite purchases and focus on these main line toys. TOYS! I say. Toys!

Cobotron wrote:Am I a dick for gaining so much pleasure from Seibertron's disdain for the MP's toon accurate mumbo jumbo?

If you are then I am an even bigger blacker dick

His opinion is not more important than others but it is something I really respect since he is one of the biggest fans arond. Eough to have dedicated his life and livelihood to ofering us this place to hang out. So I do hope that he at least is abl to enjoy the toys his news staff newses and that he takes pics of. Shockwave mut have pissed him off big time. That garage door for his trigger is open differently on different pics. Dont know if he was concentarting more on the lighting and didnt notice or because he had the lighting to take care of each time, he thought that was priority over that hatch being open. I do have problems with that hatch not locking, you have to always get it down again whenever you manipulate him.

Seib's opinion on this matter holds weight because he IS a cartoon fan. Where as I am toys first, toon dead last. So if even a hardcore toon fan can see the faults in Takara's crusade, that says something.

and...
@Jak - I just realized as our resident MP guru ( i like to think of you as such ), I don't want you to think I mean you when I say "the Jones's". That goes for you too guru Megatronus. If you're lurking out there.

Autobot N wrote:

Cobotron wrote:But I can't help thinking he could look more evil. Ever since I did this bash, I kinda wish he looked like this.

Man, that looks good.

Cobotron wrote:I know 9 out of 10 Hellscreams would agree.

Unfortunately, your information is incorrect. 1548.7475026740 out of 10 Hellscreams would agree. Any Hellscreams that would refuse to conform to this way of thinking have a 96.5823918472% chance to be from a negative polarity universe.

Well, as that bash was my idea...

Hellscream9999 wrote:Well, as that bash was my idea...

It was indeed. As I noted earlier.

Not ALL your idea's are bad.

Cobotron wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:Well, as that bash was my idea...

It was indeed. As I noted earlier.

Not ALL your idea's are bad.

I have no bad idea's, only those that others don't wish to accept


(still waiting on that manterror bash)