The Energon Pub

News Credits: 101 · Tue Sep 16, 2025 5:01 pm

I.ll wait for clearer official images before passing any judgements.

News Credits: 1 · Tue Sep 16, 2025 5:46 pm

chuckdawg1999 wrote:The tapes look to be all in one. That would be nice.

I just see a peg between Ravage's missiles (and tail). And I don't see how LazerSaw's guns can fold into his body. Not in tape mode (there should be a shadow or something). So I think they're sort of partsformery.

Kind of acceptable for LazerSaw, but I kinda hate it when there's a tail as part of the package.

News Credits: 22 · Tue Sep 16, 2025 10:10 pm

Gauntlet0000 wrote:If they make Soundblaster I wonder who'll be packed with him. ANOTHER Ratbat and Ravage? At last, an official Autoscout? No. No, never that one.

We really need an official Enemy. And Ratbat is coming with Perceptor, so my bet would be Wingthing with Soundblaster.

News Credits: 149 · Wed Sep 17, 2025 4:57 am

Looks good. The only thing about Soundwave that irks me is the prongs on his concussion blaster are horizontal, rather than vertical, but I can deal with that. Ravage looks bloody awful though!

~ Grim

Wed Sep 17, 2025 12:39 pm

I like Soundwave so far, it does have that smoother surface G1 aesthetic.

As for the tapes, while Ravage looks improved upon from the Legacy mold I'm still not quite sure about it since I don't have it in hand and you can only tell so much from one image. Currently using the MP Ravage as a stand in so I really don't think anything will match that one.

Laserbeak's mold on the other hand doesn't look like the wings are accurate, I don't remember them boing pointy and straight out from the sides. They have always been more angular. So I'd like to see more in depth images before I preorder, but I'd ultimately be ordering it purely for Soundwave anyway.

Honestly I was hoping for totally different tapes being that Buzzsaw was technically released not long ago leaving only Laserbeak, but now it's a totally new mold. lol
I guess it's fine being that both Rumble and Frenzy got one so now they're all on new molds basically. But really those core 4-5 have gotten kind of old/stale at this point and I've been looking forward to some of the alt decos of the more obscure characters.
I'm now wondering if or how they'll address updated version of Eject and Rewind being that their current mold is out of date next to Rumble/Frenzy, we kind of do need a new mold for those two now but I don't have it in me to buy yet another Blaster just for a tape update.

News Credits: 14 · Wed Sep 17, 2025 1:19 pm

O.k, so new Leader class is $60 bucks. Oof.

Anyway, Pre-orders available at your favorite online outlet.

Amazon:
Leader Soundwave: https://amzn.to/46a6THx
Leader Nemesis: https://amzn.to/4mrQrHn
Voyager TFONE Alpha Trion: https://amzn.to/4nFDJGa
Deluxe TFONE Airachnid: https://amzn.to/3VZZl3T
Deluxe TLK Barricade: https://amzn.to/4n7Feg7

Will have to bite the bullet and get Soundwave, since I don't have any of the siege retools sooo....

Barricade looks pretty good. Also pre-ordering.

Amazon Gift cards for the win here. covered both pre-orders.

Wed Sep 17, 2025 1:44 pm

Ha, funny that right in the middle of trying to add Soundwave to me cart on Pulse it was hit with an error, then went sold out. So had to venture over to Amazon to preorder. Once again Pulse Premium doesn't seem to be doing jack crap for me especially since i can't even place orders unless I use their PayPal method...

As for TF:One Alpha Trion being $43 that's a big nope! I'm sorry but that figure doesn't not look like $40 worth of sculpting, TBH it looks very much like one of those kid toy version you'd see for $20 line and I'm not digging the color scheme at all, I thought the CGI model looked very different and I remember when watching the movie thinking I'd like an action figure of this character. Frankly at $43 I'm probably done with Voyagers anyway because to me they always felt like an overpriced DLX.

News Credits: 462 · Wed Sep 17, 2025 2:10 pm

All Voyagers are getting bumped up to $42.99 in price.

News Credits: 42 · Wed Sep 17, 2025 2:47 pm

Sabrblade wrote:All Voyagers are getting bumped up to $42.99 in price.

With $59.99 leaders and 27.99 deluxes, yeah, it may be time to get out of collecting once I have all 13 primes from AotP and the rest of Bruticus. I have good enough versions of everyone I want/need from G1 aside from the rare bot that hasn't had a toy yet. the TF One bots have been meh at best so far and I'm already skipping most of them. Bayverse SS may tempt me for the 2-3 characters per year that they do now. 2026 is looking to be the year I really scale back on pre-ordering and rely on luck and clearance for anyone I don't already have a good enough version. Definitely no more collecting the entire line, just not worth it anymore.

News Credits: 14 · Wed Sep 17, 2025 2:53 pm

Sabrblade wrote:All Voyagers are getting bumped up to $42.99 in price.

I can see Thundercracker / New Seeker Mold being worth that, but Alpha Trion sadly, is not.

News Credits: 1 · Wed Sep 17, 2025 3:57 pm

Ended up preordering Soundwave. I really like how he ended up, even if I dislike the journey of how we got there.

Seekers are still a maybe venturing on no. I have to put away most of my collection for a long while and they're six friggin' guys, ultimately. I'll stare hard at them and see if I can spot any yellowing on the mains.

News Credits: 19 · Wed Sep 17, 2025 5:57 pm

Soundwaves tapes still look so bad they might as well not have bothered. Leader price means I'd never consider him in the first place but yowch, I'll be more interested in a missing link version down the line (though probably double yowch on the price).

News Credits: 332 · Wed Sep 17, 2025 7:18 pm

Rumble and Frenzy look like they come from a different line. Classic Ravage is still the standard.

News Credits: 1 · Wed Sep 17, 2025 9:27 pm

G1 Ravage is the GOAT. Flat? Sure, but he has maximum poseability and the most convincing tape mode. Even the head goes up and down giving more posing options. No other Ravage does this, not even the MP.

To get better I have to go 3P. And that's cheating. Plus mine has a loose pin joint on a leg making me sad.

Wed Sep 17, 2025 11:30 pm

This. Looks. Awful.

There is zero chance I am paying $60 for what looks like a Temu KO.

Thu Sep 18, 2025 12:05 am

adamage1 wrote:This. Looks. Awful.

There is zero chance I am paying $60 for what looks like a Temu KO.

Geez, that's an oversized box to charge leader price.

News Credits: 332 · Thu Sep 18, 2025 12:37 am

Apparently the official pics make the blue look brighter than it is.

News Credits: 19 · Thu Sep 18, 2025 3:58 am

i liked the brighter blues, not so much the missing pannel in the official pics though...Hasbro never dissapoints there.

Seems to be following ss86s megatron, with a whole lot oextra oxygen and box space for your buck. Was'nt hasbro meant to be reducing packaging and waste for eco friendly reasons....looks like we set a bigger price so we need a bigger box applies more than anything else.

News Credits: 101 · Thu Sep 18, 2025 4:36 am

I bought the "leader" Legacy Soundwave last year. So this SS86 seems a bit redundant. And in overall looks, there's not much difference between them. It is not a Siege VS SS86 Megatron situation. So, I'll wait for a sale. And if I miss out, so be it.

Thu Sep 18, 2025 11:49 am

After getting Megs the other day and seeing how big the packaging was I was taken aback, I mean there's absolutely no reason to it needed to be as large with so much space inside being empty. I can understand it from a retail counter perspective wanting your $60 item look "bigger" than your $30 and $40 item to consumers and making it look as if it has $20-30 extra in value. But all it does to consume extra space on the counters which affects how much products store an place on them.

With these new prices I'm glad that I'm out after only needing a couple more. Had they stayed the same I would have considered getting Bruticus who I've been on the fence about. I am glad that I was able to get all of Superion before the increase though as that was my most anted Combiner next to Devestator.

Thu Sep 18, 2025 1:41 pm

To be clear, for me, the box size is a non-issue. They need window space for the figure and cassette bots in order for them all to be visible, plus room for the figure and line information as well as the box art. I have zero issues with the box.

My issue is with this very cheap looking, almost-detailless-surface-design, Playskool-esque release for which they are asking $60. All 3 cassette bots look awful, like they couldn't be bothered to even attempt to make them resemble their character models, and Soundwave is so plain and featureless that it feels like it belongs in the $5 grab bin.

News Credits: 462 · Thu Sep 18, 2025 2:18 pm

The reason the Leader class boxes are so big is because they need to accommodate other Leader class toys that are so much bigger than the Voyager-height Leaders like 86 Megatron and 86 Soundwave.

To name a few, ROTB Optimus Primal and Apelinq, all five of the 86 Dinobots, and the rereleased ROTF Overload are all massive compared to the height of Megatron and Soundwave. The box sizes are all set standards across each size class.

News Credits: 42 · Thu Sep 18, 2025 6:18 pm

So I'm thinking that SS86 Soundwave will be a pass for me. I think poor Laserbeak and Buzzsaw are what sealed it. They are just really bad, bad enough to outweigh the improvements to Soundwave himself. Both the bird and cassette modes are trash. The guns don't even come close to making up for it. Ravage is kind of a push, with jaguar mode only slightly better to me than the Siege mold, but with parts forming required which basically cancels out the improvements and a bad cassette mode to boot. Maybe if the stars align and I can get him from Target during a sale I'll consider him, but due to the popularity of the character, I'm not counting on it.

News Credits: 101 · Thu Sep 18, 2025 6:41 pm

-Kanrabat- wrote:I bought the "leader" Legacy Soundwave last year. So this SS86 seems a bit redundant. And in overall looks, there's not much difference between them. It is not a Siege VS SS86 Megatron situation. So, I'll wait for a sale. And if I miss out, so be it.

Of course, this here dumbass had to pre-order it as soon as the listing was up at Amazon.ca. :HEADHURTS:

News Credits: 12 · Fri Sep 19, 2025 12:05 am

Laserbeak and Buzzaw definitely look worse everywhere except the wings. Cassette modes suck but I've never cared about that as long as they fit in his chest

Ravage is way better than Siege version which still isn't saying much lol but I'll take it

I think Soundwave looks great. I know the lack of detailing makes him look cheap to some, but I like the cartoon accuracy and the simplicity. It looks like a figure straight out of the cartoon and I love it. Easy purchase for me but Soundwave is easily my favorite decepticon and I didn't get legacy release since I already had Netflix version.