The Energon Pub

Seibertron wrote:

Leader_Ultra_Magnus wrote:Ryan, can you please tell me where you acquired these beautiful figures, I need them.

Are you talking about Vehicon and High Octane Bumblebee? If so, I purchased a few cases from Entertainment Earth.

Vehicon and Junkheap mainly, Bumblebee would be a nice bonus.

This is a blast (hah!) from the past, as we bring you yet another, nay, three other updates to the Seibertron.com movieverse galleries - specifically, Transformers: Age of Extinction and the Takara Tomy counterpart, Movie Advance!

The images below will take you to the definitely not Tracks figure we just saw in our latest post, Generations Hot Shot - a redeco of main cast member with a cape/trenchcoat Crosshairs. And moving back to the green bots, we have the Hasbro and Takara versions of the deluxe stegosaurus Dinobot with translucent green ..bits - Snarl. See if you can spot all the differences in colour scheme by checking out the pics right here.

Takara Tomy: Movie Advanced Snarl


















Age of Extinction: Generations Snarl












Age of Extinction: Generations Hot Shot

You had ONE JOB Takara, color in the fake head. But did you? Noo, instead we paid an extra 20$ for a slightly shinier finish and no actual extra paint apps. What, me? Bitter?

I really like that Snarl figure. All that lime margarita (or urine champaign) clear plastic is intoxicating for me to look at when the light catches it right and highlights all the details.

Well, the Snarl's don't really look that much different. and Hot Shot looks alright, better than I thought he'd be

I've not seen Snarl for sale on the shelves here or else I might have bought him cos he looks cool (if a lil garish with all the green). Almost bought his power battlers figure cos we do have that here and it doesn't look bad compared to other power battlers at least.

Not Shot but Tracks looks decent. I like the Crosshairs mold (especially the trenchcoat)

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Well, the Snarl's don't really look that much different. and Hot Shot looks alright, better than I thought he'd be

There are at least four differences ...

* Additional metallic green paint apps
* Black shoulders
* Black crotch
* Black tail

I'm not a fan of the metallic paints on Takara's figures, but I do like the additional black/dark gray colors on Takara's Snarl.

In my headcanon, AOE Hot Shot acts just like the rambunctious teenager most Hot Shots tend to be portrayed as, but the difference here that he himself isn't a teenage youngster, but is instead an old guy who just never grew up.

Seibertron wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Well, the Snarl's don't really look that much different. and Hot Shot looks alright, better than I thought he'd be

There are at least four differences ...

* Additional metallic green paint apps
* Black shoulders
* Black crotch
* Black tail

I'm not a fan of the metallic paints on Takara's figures, but I do like the additional black/dark gray colors on Takara's Snarl.

I see those. didn't overly notice the black that much. those extra apps are there, they're just a little bit less obvious to me. now the Crosshairs differences are big, considering how underpainted he was, but this doesn't look really different either way

Sabrblade wrote:

megatronus wrote:I'm really not getting the folks saying Drift should have been a Generations Springer remold. Really? I can see a Classics or IDW-style Drift coming out of Springer... but AoE Drift? There's no way that mold could have captured the character. Or the cool (and licensed!) car mode.

Version 1.0:








Version 2.0:







Springer works for EVERYBODY!

That's cool, now why couldn't Takara or Hasbro give us this? at the time, i still long for a triple changing Drift figure

You may have spotted the recent Seibertron.com article on live-action Transformers movie toys that never made it or were never even planned at all (you can read it here and join in with your thoughts). To accompany that, we also have a new addition to the Transformers: Age of Extinction toy galleries, featuring not one but three versions of the character created to oppose Bumblebee: Stinger!

In his Takara Tomy Movie Advanced line AD32 body, using the same mold as Bumblebee, but with the new battlemask headsculpt; the slightly simpler Lost Age LA12 Stinger, with the quick transformation for younger fans, and a darker colour palette than our third gallery - the Hasbro one, in the One-Step changer sub-line, with plenty of comparison images to keep your Friday busy. Check them all out by clicking on any of the images below!

Takara Tomy: Movie Advanced Stinger (188 images) - Deluxe Class














Takara Tomy: Lost Age Stinger (93 images) - One-Step










Age of Extinction: Robots In Disguise One-Step Stinger (87 images) - One-Step

Wish I could have got the deluxe Stinger, or better yet one that actually looked like his alternate mode. But the one-step is still a decent figure

The Seibertron galleries are back in full swing and there is a lot of ground to cover. So not only do we have galleries of the newest toys but of toys that we never covered before such as these two from Takara's Movie Advanced line. This was the Takara movie line for Age of Extinction which had the more complex toys. While the Hasbro Age of Extinction line only had one mold that came from a previous line (voyager Drift), Takara rereleased plenty of molds under Movie Advanced such as AD12 Revenge Optimus Prime and AD08 Battle Blade Bumblebee, which we now have galleries for.

Both of these molds were first used in the Hunt for the Decepticon line with the Battle Blade motif, as Battle Blades Optimus Prime and Battle Blade Bumblebee. Since many fans previously had these toys already, along with the high cost of importing these, there was not an overwhelming demand for these in the west and thus there are very few images of these two Movie Advanced releases online, let alone images of them compared to the previous uses of their molds. But now we have rectified that. take a look and compare the differences.

Takara Tomy: Movie Advanced Revenge Optimus Prime (129 images) - Voyager Class












Takara Tomy: Movie Advanced Battle Blade Bumblebee (111 images) - Deluxe Class, Voyager Class

Honestly I've never really been a fan of this Bumblebee mold. His proportions (especially his neck) are kind of awkward and he's got gorilla arms, plus his face looks really angry and skull-like. I do wish I had one of the versions of that Optimus though, I like how he looks quite a bit.

Autobot Roadburn wrote:Honestly I've never really been a fan of this Bumblebee mold. His proportions (especially his neck) are kind of awkward and he's got gorilla arms, plus his face looks really angry and skull-like. I do wish I had one of the versions of that Optimus though, I like how he looks quite a bit.

I would agree. It's an OK mold, nothing spectacular. Way too long and spindly, plus the angry skull face that you mentioned was pretty off-putting to me as well. I'm always shocked to see fans referring to the Battle Blade Bumblebee figure as the "ultimate" deluxe class figure when it was always such a turn off to me.

I think the DOTM Deluxe Class Bumblebee would be the ultimate Deluxe Class Bumblebee ... if they could figure out how to give him the side door windows in vehicle mode and get rid of the spoiler. Basically, I'd like to see some minor modifications to that mold to make him be more in tune with his 2007 look. Close, but not "perfect".

Seibertron wrote:

Autobot Roadburn wrote:Honestly I've never really been a fan of this Bumblebee mold. His proportions (especially his neck) are kind of awkward and he's got gorilla arms, plus his face looks really angry and skull-like. I do wish I had one of the versions of that Optimus though, I like how he looks quite a bit.

I would agree. It's an OK mold, nothing spectacular. Way too long and spindly, plus the angry skull face that you mentioned was pretty off-putting to me as well. I'm always shocked to see fans referring to the Battle Blade Bumblebee figure as the "ultimate" deluxe class figure when it was always such a turn off to me.

I think the DOTM Deluxe Class Bumblebee would be the ultimate Deluxe Class Bumblebee ... if they could figure out how to give him the side door windows in vehicle mode and get rid of the spoiler. Basically, I'd like to see some minor modifications to that mold to make him be more in tune with his 2007 look. Close, but not "perfect".

I guess I always liked the original 2009 Camaro mold and its variants, it felt like it was a bit more compact and had less open space than the DotM version (mostly I didn't like how his back panels folded up). It definitely has its issues but I feel like it's a tiny bit more streamlined. Outside of that, yeah, the arms finally looked right and the head was mostly good outside of the eyes being a bit dark and sunken - I really liked the painted eyes on High Octane Bee, he actually has my favorite head sculpt besides the Masterpiece.

I'm looking forward to the new Last Knight Bee mold because he looks like he might be the new best deluxe - kibble folds up nicely, face looks great, wheels are in the proper spot and the little guy even has the extra wings like MPM-3! As long as he's actually able to be found somewhere (I still haven't seen a single wave 2 deluxe in my area) then he's going to be my go-to deluxe Bumblebee.

Seibertron wrote:I would agree. It's an OK mold, nothing spectacular. Way too long and spindly, plus the angry skull face that you mentioned was pretty off-putting to me as well. I'm always shocked to see fans referring to the Battle Blade Bumblebee figure as the "ultimate" deluxe class figure when it was always such a turn off to me.

I was gonna say you wont like my top 5 BB list then, but as it turns out that one isnt there. So you'l like it after all. But there are so many movie bees I think I will make a list just for movie bees too.

No demand for these repaints, yet finding these is extremely hard, let alone any version of Battle Blades Prime (not to mention any version loose on eBay somehow has a missing chest window). I knew I shouldn't have skipped out on him on the only time I saw him. If anyone's got a spare HFTD Battle Blades Prime, please send me a PM!

Quantum Surge wrote:No demand for these repaints, yet finding these is extremely hard, let alone any version of Battle Blades Prime (not to mention any version loose on eBay somehow has a missing chest window).!

I dont remember the forum discussions being very alive for these repaints. People were all over that soundwave, dispenser and wheeljack but not so much for these. Maybe Tomy predicted that and didnt make a huge amount and so the low demand was anticipated by them. Or maybe I dont know what I am talking about

I still think the 2007 Bee mold was the one that was most accurate. If it weren't for the arms, that mold would have been the ultimate representation of him in my mind

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I still think the 2007 Bee mold was the one that was most accurate. If it weren't for the arms

Or the head right?

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I still think the 2007 Bee mold was the one that was most accurate. If it weren't for the arms

Or the head right?

Eh, I have both that head and the facemask one. I like the face mask

Autobot Roadburn wrote:Honestly I've never really been a fan of this Bumblebee mold. His proportions (especially his neck) are kind of awkward and he's got gorilla arms, plus his face looks really angry and skull-like. I do wish I had one of the versions of that Optimus though, I like how he looks quite a bit.

It's ok figure it's closes figure we got back then that enables his arm canon still ok figure now I want jello

Not Just In Time

Seibertron.com is finally back on Real Gear time! For the first time since February 2007, we are adding new Real Gear Robots galleries. Say hello to Meantime and his redeco Midnighter XR-4.

Meantime came out in 2007 as a digital wristwatch Transformer. It is not a real watch, but the size is close to one. His face flips for either robot or watch mode, and pulling down his legs pops his head and shoulders into place. He even has a sculpted mini watch on his wrist for a fun extra touch.

Midnighter XR-4 followed in 2008 as a repaint from the final Real Gear wave. Same gimmicks, new colors, and the same quirky charm. Both toys stand as oddball pieces of the Transformers 2007 movie era, when Hasbro experimented with unusual ideas.

We know these are two galleries nobody was waiting on, but here they are anyway -- long overdue, fashionably late, and maybe just in time.

For more watch-themed fun, check out our review of the Infantry x Transformers Optimus Prime watch. And if you want to explore beyond Real Gear, our Movie Universe galleries cover the full Bayverse toy era.

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Transformers (2007) Meantime (95 images) - Real Gear












Transformers (2007) Midnighter XR-4 (81 images) - Real Gear

Meantime is one of my childhood figures! I remember getting him on Christmas Eve 2007. I remember liking how he was characterized as a prankster in spite of the potential of his powers. Back in those days, I didn't keep the bios, so this is the first time I've read it since then! Also back in those days, I was small enough to be able to comfortably wear him around my wrist.