The Energon Pub

The "IP debate" exists in the minds of fanboys, not with Hasbro.

Scaleface wrote: Coming completely out of left field, another Decepticon Pretender is getting a nod in the upcoming Play With This Too Kickstarter campaign. Starter Friday morning

What exactly does the kick starter include? Speculating just the Six inch action figures and no Three inch robots.

Won't be buying but I'm looking forward to the Reveal of the Kickstarter. Just to see the prices, What's included and the fans reactions all over the internet. Should be a entertaining day courtesy of PWTT.

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:Maybe they can do the Road Warriors or the Undertaker from this mold. They might as well. Why stop now, milk that cow till the last drop. Also if the armor comes off they can do John Cena and Brock Lesnar.

If you don't even know if the armor comes off, you have not been following these toys, which really diminishes the legitimacy of your criticism. You seem to know nothing about the figures you attack so regularly.

I didnt know if the armor was molded on or not. I look at the images and glance through the endless barrage of repaints and retools. But I dont read every single word. And I shouldnt have to read every single word to have an opinion.

Scaleface wrote:The "IP debate" exists in the minds of fanboys, not with Hasbro.

The term "fanboy" itself is debatable as it was created by fans. But KO toys didnt shut down because of a lack of business. Chimungmung didnt stop selling KO's by choice. Hasbro got on their ass.

Rated X wrote:

Scaleface wrote:The "IP debate" exists in the minds of fanboys, not with Hasbro.

The term "fanboy" itself is debatable as it was created by fans. But KO toys didnt shut down because of a lack of business. Chimungmung didnt stop selling KO's by choice. Hasbro got on their ass.

Chimunmgmung still sells 3P toys, so by your logic Hasbro must not care about them.

i think these are great concepts that combine a transformers concept and figures (the originals transformed and articulated about as much as these do so no real loss or gain there) with a great motuc/glyos- like action figure concept with supurb sculpts. pretenders are a difficult thing to bring to the modern market. you could choose to make the shells more articulated or the bot. the odd choice will lose out so these at least found a cool way to still use the bots as weapons and backpacks. as a transformers collector of 22 years I approve and am all in but just hope the prices aren't too high lol.

Rated X wrote:I didnt know if the armor was molded on or not. I look at the images and glance through the endless barrage of repaints and retools. But I dont read every single word. And I shouldnt have to read every single word to have an opinion.

Still, even knowing what you are talking about helps.

How many action figure Kickstarters have you participated in?

NOS wrote:

megatronus wrote:Haters gotta hate, I guess.

So you don't like He-Man? Don't buy those homages. You don't like PWTT's take on Pretenders? Don't buy those either.

But c'mon... the mix and match functionality doesn't mean that's the main purpose or value of the line.

Then allow me to end all future harsh and critical posts I may have for PWTT in this final summary.

PWTT are using their reputation as former Hasbro employees to garner interest in a product they aren't willing to personally fund themselves to join the 3rd party game because they want a piece of the pie.

In fact, they aren't taking any risks at all. Not even bothering to venture out and make a unique or innovative figure and instead are using a standard, rehashed recipe of ball jointed, repainted, slightly modified plastic chunks with vulgar names like SKULL-FCKR to push out 100 near identical figure concepts in under 2 months.

They aren't even trying to cater to one particular group of fans showing they have no dedication or passion toward anything but making a buck off people who are already funding the product they are coming up with.

Lastly, these are not transformers. Nothing about it transforms. The drones? Non-articulated, parts-forming chunks. I've seen better transformers pop out of Pizza Hut quarter-capsule machines.

PWTT are a lazy, unoriginal, sad little group of tropes who are too cowardly to stand on their own two feet and try to give collectors what they might actually want. Instead choosing to half-ass an entire venture based on the premise that someone, somewhere, will look at these concept images and fund a product they don't even fully support themselves beyond a flittered daydream.

There. I have it out of my system now. I shall refrain from further posts and gripes in any PWTT threads.

Well then... that was overly negative, and made lots of unsubstantiated assumptions. Good times.

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:I didnt know if the armor was molded on or not. I look at the images and glance through the endless barrage of repaints and retools. But I dont read every single word. And I shouldnt have to read every single word to have an opinion.

Still, even knowing what you are talking about helps.

How many action figure Kickstarters have you participated in?

So now I need to participate in kickstarters in order to have the right to an opinion ?

You know how I feel about kickstarters. To me, it's a way to dump the production costs on the fans while the investors sit on their ass taking no financial risks. Then if it doesnt get the proper funding, they can point the finger at the fans and say "It's your fault it didnt happen". But thats just my personal opinion.

megatronus wrote:

NOS wrote:There. I have it out of my system now. I shall refrain from further posts and gripes in any PWTT threads.

Well then... that was overly negative, and made lots of unsubstantiated assumptions. Good times.

Yeah, I don't see why people have so much vitriol towards these figures. If they feel misled or used because of the homages, I guess that would be one thing. But these threads are clearly labeled as "Play With This Too" X. If you're not a fan, just skip over these threads. No one is forcing you to use up any of your time to read, and definitely not forcing you to buy. Hell, these aren't even holding back the production of any 3rd party products you're waiting on.

However, these do have root in Transformers history. There is merit, and these are not licensed products by Hasbro/Takara. So I feel these do belong in this forum. It won't sit well with many of your (as evidenced), but then again not all 3Ps can be universally accepted either.

TL;DR - if you see a thread that starts off with "Play With This Too" or "PWTT" in the title and you're not interested, just skip it. Go contribute to a post about a figure you're actually excited about.

Rated X wrote:

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:I didnt know if the armor was molded on or not. I look at the images and glance through the endless barrage of repaints and retools. But I dont read every single word. And I shouldnt have to read every single word to have an opinion.

Still, even knowing what you are talking about helps.

How many action figure Kickstarters have you participated in?

So now I need to participate in kickstarters in order to have the right to an opinion ?

You know how I feel about kickstarters. To me, it's a way to dump the production costs on the fans while the investors sit on their ass taking no financial risks. Then if it doesnt get the proper funding, they can point the finger at the fans and say "It's your fault it didnt happen". But thats just my personal opinion.

I think it's more that you're being called out for your opinions. Which I don't think you should be worried about, because you have some strong values. However, doesn't it make SOME sense to know the subject matter before making a worthwhile comment? You definitely don't need to read every single word from the posts or do your own background research, but your off the cuff remarks are absolutely tired and ill-informed. You're not a fan of these things, cool. I'm not going to judge you on that, and I don't think most others would either. But you and some others continue to plague similar threads with the same negative comments and it's just played and non-constructive. Meanwhile, there are a few threads where your learned opinions about characters and designs absolutely make for intriguing and debating discourse. It's a shame you waste your energy beating the same dead horse. But that's just my opinion.

Regarding King Adder, it's nice that there's a new piece in the whole scheme of things (a tail), but not really digging the vibe of this guy. I'm more into the Pretender Starscream and Grimlock homages. I'm very interested to see how all of these characters and pieces get unlocked in the Kickstarter.

Wow, lots of hate and accusations thrown about, here are my two cents:

This Kickstarter campaign serves two purposes:

1 Collect money to fund the actual manufacturing of these figures, which also shows them if there is interest in their product, so they don't bankrupt themselves by producing something nobody will buy

2 Advertise and promote their product

All the action figure kickstarters I've seen till now all state that the main use behind a kickstarter is that they promote their figures and see if it's worth investing their time and money into the project at hand.
Even companies that could easily just invest their own money into producing a run of figures without help, do kickstarters simply to make sure that there is enough interest there.


This guys here aren't really what I would call a 3rd Party, they are a toy designer collective that used to work at one of the biggest toy manufacturers, and now want to design their own personal projects. They just homage already existing lines, lines they may have actually worked on in the past, or just grew up with.

The current output of mostly Pretenders homages is likely due to the positive feedback and huge interest from the TF fandom.

Yes, the concept of figures with intergangeable parts isn't new, and Hasbro's Hero Mashers isn't the first toy line to do it too. If anything the first would be Sliders from Lego, the precursor of Bionicle, the whole concept.

There is a very successful joint system that is used by a lot of the art and designer toys makers, the Glyos system. It's designed to not only give good articulation, but to also swap parts around, similar to Revoltech. That system and most of the lines that use it are super popular and pretty successful, and people do use it to mix and match figures from different makes. So it's no wonder why they decided to go a similar route.

They did do their own system though, one based more on contemporary action figures, so that the heads could be used on most other action figures of the same size.


But I agree, there are tooooooo many threads at the moment, the kickstarter stuff should be left in one thread, because frankly this is getting ridicules and annoying. Every time I visit the board, there are two more PWTT threads. The figures are stretch-goals and as such should stay in the main kickstarter thread. And on top of that, that thread shouldn't be in the 3rd Party and KO section.

Rated X wrote:

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:I didnt know if the armor was molded on or not. I look at the images and glance through the endless barrage of repaints and retools. But I dont read every single word. And I shouldnt have to read every single word to have an opinion.

Still, even knowing what you are talking about helps.

How many action figure Kickstarters have you participated in?

So now I need to participate in kickstarters in order to have the right to an opinion ?

I asked a question, So you dislike Kickstarter made products. Well, these are not the toys for you. Repeating it multiple times in every thread about a kicksiarter funded toy is getting very spam-like and boring.

Since no thread for this TF homage figure exists, I thought I'd start one.

Designed by former Transformer head Aaron Archer for Play With This Too is his first 6 inch action figure, the Ancient Astronaut. This character is part of his contribution to Play With This Too team, and comes with a number of accessories that can be assembled in different ways. He is described by the team as a Proemthus style engineer character who was infected by a alien. Yes, he also looks a little bit like Octopunch.

This may be part of the Play With This Too Kickstarter that will begin on the 27th.

WikiAlpha page: http://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/Ancient_Astronaut

Dead Metal wrote:But I agree, there are tooooooo many threads at the moment, the kickstarter stuff should be left in one thread, because frankly this is getting ridicules and annoying. Every time I visit the board, there are two more PWTT threads. The figures are stretch-goals and as such should stay in the main kickstarter thread. And on top of that, that thread shouldn't be in the 3rd Party and KO section.

Couldn't agree more...

nick1524 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:But I agree, there are tooooooo many threads at the moment, the kickstarter stuff should be left in one thread, because frankly this is getting ridicules and annoying. Every time I visit the board, there are two more PWTT threads. The figures are stretch-goals and as such should stay in the main kickstarter thread. And on top of that, that thread shouldn't be in the 3rd Party and KO section.

Couldn't agree more...

Yeah somebody just merge the damn threads already. Wasnt preventing stuff like this the reason "thread merging" was invented in the first place ?

I also agree PWTT is not technically a 3rd party because they are producing an original product with no Hasbro IP conflict. These threads belong in the "non TF" forums.

So Im starting a petition to get the PWTT threads merged. To sign the petition, just quote this comment and say "Please merge all PWTT threads".

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:I didnt know if the armor was molded on or not. I look at the images and glance through the endless barrage of repaints and retools. But I dont read every single word. And I shouldnt have to read every single word to have an opinion.

Still, even knowing what you are talking about helps.

How many action figure Kickstarters have you participated in?

So now I need to participate in kickstarters in order to have the right to an opinion ?

I asked a question, So you dislike Kickstarter made products. Well, these are not the toys for you. Repeating it multiple times in every thread about a kicksiarter funded toy is getting very spam-like and boring.

I went back through 5 pages of 3rd party threads and counted 11 PWTT threads. Creating a new thread evertime PWTT posts a new drawing is getting very spam like and boring.

yup merge the PWTT threads pretty please....also upon reflection the 3rd party section isn't the best place for this imo...but if no one else minds F it.

Rated X wrote:

nick1524 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:But I agree, there are tooooooo many threads at the moment, the kickstarter stuff should be left in one thread, because frankly this is getting ridicules and annoying. Every time I visit the board, there are two more PWTT threads. The figures are stretch-goals and as such should stay in the main kickstarter thread. And on top of that, that thread shouldn't be in the 3rd Party and KO section.

Couldn't agree more...

Yeah somebody just merge the damn threads already. Wasnt preventing stuff like this the reason "thread merging" was invented in the first place ?

I also agree PWTT is not technically a 3rd party because they are producing an original product with no Hasbro IP conflict. These threads belong in the "non TF" forums.

So Im starting a petition to get the PWTT threads merged. To sign the petition, just quote this comment and say "Please merge all PWTT threads".

Ginrai Minor wrote:yup merge the PWTT threads pretty please....also upon reflection the 3rd party section isn't the best place for this imo...but if no one else minds F it.

And the complaining about these PWTToo threads is getting equally as spamming... From the PLAY WITH THIS TOO BONEYARD (NOT PRETENDER GRIMLOCK) thread:

Burn wrote:Threads won't be getting merged. Get over it.

Discuss the figure or leave the thread ... or continue to **** and moan and get a warning. Whatever works for you.

And the complaining about these PWTToo threads is getting equally as spamming... From the PLAY WITH THIS TOO BONEYARD (NOT PRETENDER GRIMLOCK) thread:

Burn wrote:Threads won't be getting merged. Get over it.

Discuss the figure or leave the thread ... or continue to **** and moan and get a warning. Whatever works for you.

idk the thread merge had been ruled in on at that point my bad. I stand by my previous statement...

Ginrai Minor wrote: if no one else minds F it.

Rated X wrote:

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:I didnt know if the armor was molded on or not. I look at the images and glance through the endless barrage of repaints and retools. But I dont read every single word. And I shouldnt have to read every single word to have an opinion.

Still, even knowing what you are talking about helps.

How many action figure Kickstarters have you participated in?

So now I need to participate in kickstarters in order to have the right to an opinion ?

I asked a question, So you dislike Kickstarter made products. Well, these are not the toys for you. Repeating it multiple times in every thread about a kicksiarter funded toy is getting very spam-like and boring.

I went back through 5 pages of 3rd party threads and counted 11 PWTT threads. Creating a new thread evertime PWTT posts a new drawing is getting very spam like and boring.

I'm beginning to agree. Perhaps you should just make a Megathread for all of this Scaleface.

Agamemnon wrote:

Rated X wrote:

nick1524 wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:But I agree, there are tooooooo many threads at the moment, the kickstarter stuff should be left in one thread, because frankly this is getting ridicules and annoying. Every time I visit the board, there are two more PWTT threads. The figures are stretch-goals and as such should stay in the main kickstarter thread. And on top of that, that thread shouldn't be in the 3rd Party and KO section.

Couldn't agree more...

Yeah somebody just merge the damn threads already. Wasnt preventing stuff like this the reason "thread merging" was invented in the first place ?

I also agree PWTT is not technically a 3rd party because they are producing an original product with no Hasbro IP conflict. These threads belong in the "non TF" forums.

So Im starting a petition to get the PWTT threads merged. To sign the petition, just quote this comment and say "Please merge all PWTT threads".

Ginrai Minor wrote:yup merge the PWTT threads pretty please....also upon reflection the 3rd party section isn't the best place for this imo...but if no one else minds F it.

And the complaining about these PWTToo threads is getting equally as spamming... From the PLAY WITH THIS TOO BONEYARD (NOT PRETENDER GRIMLOCK) thread:

Burn wrote:Threads won't be getting merged. Get over it.

Discuss the figure or leave the thread ... or continue to **** and moan and get a warning. Whatever works for you.

Hmmmm....

I was under the assumption this is Ryans site and he calls the shots. Ryan seems to advocate thread merging for a reason we never understood until PWTT showed up. If its good enough for Hasbro then its good enough for PWTT. I say bring it to the table and let the boss decide...

I'm currently using PCC Undertow with the MakeToys Mobine add-on that fits the color scheme as my Octopunch stand-in. But I might be interested in this as a replacement. It's growing on me...

Liking the new sculpts, but if I may suggest something, perhaps some new armour sculpts on the Desolataur/Bloodbath based bodies (King Adder etc) would break up the monotony a little bit? As much as I love that spiked armour, some different designs would be extra cool. Also, perhaps some extra armour sets later down the line (like the Head Shots, but with armour instead)?