The Energon Pub

[Powered Convoy]

Also, if there was any doubt about the figure's exclusivity in Japan and the deco, this should squash it:

??????????????????????????3???????????????????????? | DENGEKI HOBBY WEB ????????

トランスフォーマーの合体戦士に焦点を当てた「ユナイトウォリアーズ」シリーズ第３弾は、サイバトロンのプロテクトボット合体戦士「ガーディアン」。5体のプロテクトボットたちのセットで、合体するとガーディアンが完成します。左足のプロテクトボット偵察員グルーブ（ポリスバイクに変形）は、国内オリジナルの完全新規アイテム！　タカラトミーの通販サイト「タカラトミーモール」（[url]http://takaratomymall.jp）にて限定販売されます。[/url]

※写真は海外版です。

※グルーブ以外は海外版のカラーリングです。国内版とは多少異なります。



【プロテクトボット合体戦士ガーディアン】

Focuses on the transformers Union Warrior series "unitwarriors" third's protectobots coalescence Warriors of Cybertron, and the guardian. And a set of five protectobots who completed the guardian. Protectobots crew left Groove (transformed into a police bike) is a domestic original full of new items! Will be sold exclusively at the Takara Tomy's mail order site Tomy(takaratomy) Mall (????????????????????????).

* Photo is the overseas edition.

* Non-Groove is the overseas edition coloring. Domestic version is slightly different.

Luckily it seems like Hasbro Asia is distributing it as well so BBTS and the like can get it for a reasonable price (only $25 more than Japanese asking price currently).

Randy

[Shuttershock]

Can't wait to see someone make a Groovatron with Hot Spot + 4 Deluxe Grooves + 1 Legends Groove

Behold, the mighty Groovatron!

[Rated X]

The reason slingshot was eliminated was because Hasbro saw an easy way to screw CHUG collectors and make a s**t load of money doing it. Hasbro even went as far as to tell IDW to write a story to justify alpha bravos existance. He is a blatant repaint of vortex using slingshots deco even on the head. Its a huge insult to G1 fans who collect CHUG.

Want us to call the wahmbulance for ya?
Need some some cream for that butt hurt?

Seriously ... this just cracked me up big time. The thought of a grown adult getting so upset over a plastic toy that he's spun a conspiracy theory involving an evil money sucking corporation is just **** hilarious.

And I suppose you believe in some kind of alternative theory that doesnt involve profit ? I would love to hear the Burn theory on why Alpha Bravo and friends exist. Im guessing you believe 100,000 kids held a mass rally outside of hasbro corporate offices to protest the release of slingshot, wildrider, and groove? After all by your logic, CHUG is only for kids and adults play no role in 1980s G1 homages. Any theory that doesent involve corporate greed is THE REAL conspiracy theory buddy. I wish the corporate world had as much integrity as this small group of tf fans is willing to believe it does. Sorry, im not among the faithful.

[Rated X]

The reason slingshot was eliminated was because Hasbro saw an easy way to screw CHUG collectors and make a s**t load of money doing it. Hasbro even went as far as to tell IDW to write a story to justify alpha bravos existance. He is a blatant repaint of vortex using slingshots deco even on the head. Its a huge insult to G1 fans who collect CHUG.

Want us to call the wahmbulance for ya?
Need some some cream for that butt hurt?

Seriously ... this just cracked me up big time. The thought of a grown adult getting so upset over a plastic toy that he's spun a conspiracy theory involving an evil money sucking corporation is just **** hilarious.

And I suppose you believe in some kind of alternative theory that doesnt involve profit ? I would love to hear the Burn theory on why Alpha Bravo and friends exist. Im guessing you believe 100,000 kids held a mass rally outside of hasbro corporate offices to protest the release of slingshot, wildrider, and groove? After all by your logic, CHUG is only for kids and adults play no role in 1980s G1 homages. Any theory that doesent involve corporate greed is THE REAL conspiracy theory buddy. I wish the corporate world had as much integrity as this small group of tf fans is willing to believe it does. Sorry, im not among the faithful.

Also Burn, while youe at it, do you care to explain why IDW drew the Alpha Bravo character as a vortex repaint long before anyone knew a toy would exist ?

I think you are in serious denial about alpha bravo. You really want to believe an IDW artist just came up with the character out of the blue and happened to make him look like vortex but painted like the combiner limb he was replacing ? Pure coincidence right ?

[megatronus]

It's no secret Hasbro and IDW collaborated to create a whole host of things, from post-FOC Generations to Combiner Wars.

But to say the sole purpose of new team characters like Alpha Bravo, Offroad, and Rook is to piss off all the Classics-Generations collectors? And for profit's-sake? That's just STUPID.

[Wolfman Jake]

Preordered! That didn't take long at all. Glad the Takara-Tomy Mall exclusivity wasn't a problem in the end. It just upped the price a smidge. Now, I still have to wonder why Takara is making Defensor an exclusive to their online store instead of a mass retail release like Superion and Menasor before?

[william-james88]

Preordered! That didn't take long at all. Glad the Takara-Tomy Mall exclusivity wasn't a problem in the end. It just upped the price a smidge. Now, I still have to wonder why Takara is making Defensor an exclusive to their online store instead of a mass retail release like Superion and Menasor before?

Yeah, you figure that has to suck for their regular distributors. That's like having 5 transformers (that arent just repaints) you could only buy from HTS.

[Genericon #378]

The reason slingshot was eliminated was because Hasbro saw an easy way to screw CHUG collectors and make a s**t load of money doing it. Hasbro even went as far as to tell IDW to write a story to justify alpha bravos existance. He is a blatant repaint of vortex using slingshots deco even on the head. Its a huge insult to G1 fans who collect CHUG.

Want us to call the wahmbulance for ya?
Need some some cream for that butt hurt?

Seriously ... this just cracked me up big time. The thought of a grown adult getting so upset over a plastic toy that he's spun a conspiracy theory involving an evil money sucking corporation is just **** hilarious.

And I suppose you believe in some kind of alternative theory that doesnt involve profit ? I would love to hear the Burn theory on why Alpha Bravo and friends exist. Im guessing you believe 100,000 kids held a mass rally outside of hasbro corporate offices to protest the release of slingshot, wildrider, and groove? After all by your logic, CHUG is only for kids and adults play no role in 1980s G1 homages. Any theory that doesent involve corporate greed is THE REAL conspiracy theory buddy. I wish the corporate world had as much integrity as this small group of tf fans is willing to believe it does. Sorry, im not among the faithful.

Also Burn, while youe at it, do you care to explain why IDW drew the Alpha Bravo character as a vortex repaint long before anyone knew a toy would exist ?

I think you are in serious denial about alpha bravo. You really want to believe an IDW artist just came up with the character out of the blue and happened to make him look like vortex but painted like the combiner limb he was replacing ? Pure coincidence right ?

You know what X? I've had it with your bullshit! **** you! You are completely overreacting and blowing it way out of proportion. I'm starting to think you have mental issues, X. Seriously, what's your problem with good ol' Alpha Bravo? And he's made to piss off collectors? Please! That has to be the stupidest theory I've ever heard!

[shajaki]

Alpha Bravo, Offroad, and Rook made purely for profit? Yup.

Made for evil intent or to piss off collectors? FFS. No dude. Get a handle on reality.

[King Kuuga]

And I suppose you believe in some kind of alternative theory that doesnt involve profit ? I would love to hear the Burn theory on why Alpha Bravo and friends exist. Im guessing you believe 100,000 kids held a mass rally outside of hasbro corporate offices to protest the release of slingshot, wildrider, and groove? After all by your logic, CHUG is only for kids and adults play no role in 1980s G1 homages. Any theory that doesent involve corporate greed is THE REAL conspiracy theory buddy. I wish the corporate world had as much integrity as this small group of tf fans is willing to believe it does. Sorry, im not among the faithful.

They exist to make money. We all agree on that. They don't exist just to piss off G1 diehards. They exist because Hasbro wanted to switch things up a bit on the combiners and be able to offer a more diverse selection of toys on shelves, as well as to facilitate mold reuse. So instead of 4 jets and 3 cars we got 3 jets, 2 cars, a helicopter, and a truck.

[Evil Eye]

Let me put it to you this way...

Hasbro makes these toys for kids right ? Do kids know fireflight any better than slingshot ? Do kids think air raid is cooler than slingshot ? Do kids demand skydive more than slingshot ?

The answer to all those questions is NO of course. These are 30 year old characters and kids have no attachment to any of them. Kids dont give a crap, only manchildren fans do.

Fixed that for you.

The reason slingshot was eliminated was because Hasbro saw an easy way to screw CHUG collectors and make a s**t load of money doing it. Hasbro even went as far as to tell IDW to write a story to justify alpha bravos existance. He is a blatant repaint of vortex using slingshots deco even on the head.

Oh good, you're in full conspiritard mode. Wonderful. Do you honestly think that Hasbro would actually go out of their way to make people like you upset? Give me a break.

Its a huge insult to G1 fans who collect CHUG. So is Rook.

Maybe you should start collecting Masterpieces instead, seeing as they're pretty much the only way you're ever going to get perfectly G1-accurate representations of these characters.

If they are going to start making up new characters to replace the originals, they might as well just forget the G1 homages and give us 5 new characters that form a new combiner. (Not repainted G1 homages like Victorion and an autobot cars combiner)

And you'd still be whining because "They're making all these stupid new characters instead of the classic characters!!!"

So yeah I hate the new characters. Theres plenty of room for them in RID. Hasbro needs to leave G1 the way it is.

What, you mean an abysmally animated poorly written mess?

You dont mess with a classic.

G1 is not a classic. It's a mildly entertaining but incredibly dated saturday morning cartoon with decent voice acting and...well, that's about it. The storyline was dreadful, the animation was appalling, and it's been surpassed by literally every Transformers cartoon that has come out since.

Alpha Bravo is not an aerialbot and rook is not a protectobot. Also offroad is not a stunticon.

They are now, cupcake.

Hopefully takara does offroad in his proper colors as Triggercon Ruckus, the character the mold was intended to be.

They most likely won't because seriously, who cares about Ruckus?

[Genericon #378]

Let me put it to you this way...

Hasbro makes these toys for kids right ? Do kids know fireflight any better than slingshot ? Do kids think air raid is cooler than slingshot ? Do kids demand skydive more than slingshot ?

The answer to all those questions is NO of course. These are 30 year old characters and kids have no attachment to any of them. Kids dont give a crap, only manchildren fans do.

Fixed that for you.

The reason slingshot was eliminated was because Hasbro saw an easy way to screw CHUG collectors and make a s**t load of money doing it. Hasbro even went as far as to tell IDW to write a story to justify alpha bravos existance. He is a blatant repaint of vortex using slingshots deco even on the head.

Oh good, you're in full conspiritard mode. Wonderful. Do you honestly think that Hasbro would actually go out of their way to make people like you upset? Give me a break.

Its a huge insult to G1 fans who collect CHUG. So is Rook.

Maybe you should start collecting Masterpieces instead, seeing as they're pretty much the only way you're ever going to get perfectly G1-accurate representations of these characters.

If they are going to start making up new characters to replace the originals, they might as well just forget the G1 homages and give us 5 new characters that form a new combiner. (Not repainted G1 homages like Victorion and an autobot cars combiner)

And you'd still be whining because "They're making all these stupid new characters instead of the classic characters!!!"

So yeah I hate the new characters. Theres plenty of room for them in RID. Hasbro needs to leave G1 the way it is.

What, you mean an abysmally animated poorly written mess?

You dont mess with a classic.

G1 is not a classic. It's a mildly entertaining but incredibly dated saturday morning cartoon with decent voice acting and...well, that's about it. The storyline was dreadful, the animation was appalling, and it's been surpassed by literally every Transformers cartoon that has come out since.

Alpha Bravo is not an aerialbot and rook is not a protectobot. Also offroad is not a stunticon.

They are now, cupcake.

Hopefully takara does offroad in his proper colors as Triggercon Ruckus, the character the mold was intended to be.

They most likely won't because seriously, who cares about Ruckus?

Me.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Hopefully takara does offroad in his proper colors as Triggercon Ruckus, the character the mold was intended to be.

They most likely won't because seriously, who cares about Ruckus?

Hasbro does more than TakaraTomy anyway. He was never released in Japan, nor was he featured in any Japanese fiction. That should say enough.
Yes, the same can be said for Runabout, even though Blackjack gets released as (a) Runabout in Adventure. But he has the earlier Galaxy Force/Cybertron release backing him up there

Back to Guardian, good to see a few more outlets showing up. But let me tell you, planning purchases has never been so hard (especially if you can't order online and are on a tight budget.)

[Gauntlet101010]

Yeesh, all this arguing. And we're getting the figure we want too. (Well many of us.) What would happen if nobody made Groove?

I feel like pointing out that Takara's making deluxe Groove, not Hasbro. So it'd be Takara who makes any money, not Hasbro. So, Hasbro screwing the fans over for more $$$ ,,, ? Even less realistic than face value.

As for why they made new guys on all the teams ... maybe they just felt like a change? Maybe it was a cost thing and they wanted to make the combiners all have unique mould limbs (as opposed to the Energon guys who only had 2 unique mould limbs), so they left the easy repaints out of the main set? I doubt they were there twirling their moustaches and trying to think of ways to screw over collectors.

Anyhow, very much preordered. I'll even get Hasbro's Groove just to stick on there.

[King Kuuga]

Can't wait to see someone make a Groovatron with Hot Spot + 4 Deluxe Grooves + 1 Legends Groove

Behold, the mighty Groovatron!

Now somebody add Legends Groove to the chest and it will be perfect.
EDIT: Wow I'm blind. Never mind.

[megatronus]

I love the outrage. I think X loves the outrage more. We've played right into his hands!

[william-james88]

We've played right into his hands!

[Bumblevivisector]

Let me put it to you this way...

Hasbro makes these toys for kids right ? Do kids know fireflight any better than slingshot ? Do kids think air raid is cooler than slingshot ? Do kids demand skydive more than slingshot ?

The answer to all those questions is NO of course. These are 30 year old characters and kids have no attachment to any of them. Kids dont give a crap, only manchildren fans do.

Fixed that for you.

The reason slingshot was eliminated was because Hasbro saw an easy way to screw CHUG collectors and make a s**t load of money doing it. Hasbro even went as far as to tell IDW to write a story to justify alpha bravos existance. He is a blatant repaint of vortex using slingshots deco even on the head.

Oh good, you're in full conspiritard mode. Wonderful. Do you honestly think that Hasbro would actually go out of their way to make people like you upset? Give me a break.

Its a huge insult to G1 fans who collect CHUG. So is Rook.

Maybe you should start collecting Masterpieces instead, seeing as they're pretty much the only way you're ever going to get perfectly G1-accurate representations of these characters.

If they are going to start making up new characters to replace the originals, they might as well just forget the G1 homages and give us 5 new characters that form a new combiner. (Not repainted G1 homages like Victorion and an autobot cars combiner)

And you'd still be whining because "They're making all these stupid new characters instead of the classic characters!!!"

So yeah I hate the new characters. Theres plenty of room for them in RID. Hasbro needs to leave G1 the way it is.

What, you mean an abysmally animated poorly written mess?

You dont mess with a classic.

G1 is not a classic. It's a mildly entertaining but incredibly dated saturday morning cartoon with decent voice acting and...well, that's about it. The storyline was dreadful, the animation was appalling, and it's been surpassed by literally every Transformers cartoon that has come out since.

Alpha Bravo is not an aerialbot and rook is not a protectobot. Also offroad is not a stunticon.

They are now, cupcake.

Hopefully takara does offroad in his proper colors as Triggercon Ruckus, the character the mold was intended to be.

They most likely won't because seriously, who cares about Ruckus?

Me.

I'll second and third that. 1988 was the greatest, most innovative year of the American G1 toyline. 95% of Offroad's awesomeness stems from him looking like Ruckus replaced his damaged armor plating with parts color-coded for Wildrider. We should be so lucky to not only have a Ruckus repaint, but different heads swapped onto First Aid and Firefly to give us CW Crankcase and Windsweeper.

Triggercons rule, and you have just invalidated every point you scored against X's knee-jerk new-limb-hate by dissing them, Delta.

[Evil Eye]

Honestly I'd never even heard about Ruckus until this thread.

I will admit that Ruckus is a pretty cool name though. For the record I wasn't "dissing" Ruckus as much as saying that he wasn't nearly mainstream enough for Takara to bother making him.

[Bumblevivisector]

Can't wait to see someone make a Groovatron with Hot Spot + 4 Deluxe Grooves + 1 Legends Groove

Behold, the mighty Groovatron!

Now somebody add Legends Groove to the chest and it will be perfect.
EDIT: Wow I'm blind. Never mind.

Then paint it all rusty orange and brown, and we'll have the sleek, sexy Junkion combiner I've been wanting!

Seeing as how they can reassemble themselves, Junk gestalts just make sense. And if it turns out to be unstable and constantly falls apart, Hasbro could claim it's an action feature! The repaint potential of Combiner wars will never end!

[Deadput]

Mister X let me purpose one certain road of events that could happen in a G1 comic/show/game.




What if say Superion lost lets say Slingshot when he is blown up in arm mode now Superion is lacking an arm or a leg.


That or Firefly is heavily injured and it will take months/years to repair him (doesn't have to be Slingshot with all the problems)



Whats the easiest solution to this predicament?




Back up members would be the only solution to the problem and this is what Alpha Bravo is he is a member who could help the Aerialbots stay in the fight even if a core member is down whether temporarily or permanently.




Neither Rook or Alpha are replacing them an Autobot is not replaceable but Alpha would be carrying Slingshot's legacy.



Plus Rook is replacing no one when Groove is a chestpiece.

[Bumblevivisector]

Honestly I'd never even heard about Ruckus until this thread.

Understandable. '88 was something of a 'lost year' for the franchise, what with the cartoon suddenly gone and the comics only working in half the toyline (mostly the better half, IMO) after the fact, sans proper introductions. That's also why I feel a need to spring to its defense at a breem's notice.

It's just that Offroad's head especially seems to actually be based on Ruckus's, so I'd be more surprised if this didn't at least lead to the Club repainting him into purple and manilla.

Although IDR him actually doing it in fiction, his TFU entry describes Ruckus using his nail studded tires to climb walls and come crashing down on Autobots, sending their wheels flying in four directions, which sounds very Stunticonish, though I'm not sure they've done in fiction either.

[Sabrblade]

Toy Fair 2015 notes on Offroad's origins as Ruckus:

John Warden confirmed that Combiner Wars Blackjack was originally designed as Runabout; that Offroad was originally designed as Ruckus, but they both couldn't get the name and decided it didn't make sense for Ruckus to be a Stunticon anyway; and that Rook was designed as an entirely original character, whose head is based on the crown of the actual rook/"castle" chess piece.

[Deadput]

Toy Fair 2015 notes on Offroad's origins as Ruckus:

John Warden confirmed that Combiner Wars Blackjack was originally designed as Runabout; that Offroad was originally designed as Ruckus, but they both couldn't get the name and decided it didn't make sense for Ruckus to be a Stunticon anyway; and that Rook was designed as an entirely original character, whose head is based on the crown of the actual rook/"castle" chess piece.

Well this Offroad situation is/was quite a






Ruckus

[Jelze Bunnycat]

So put short:

Alpha Bravo: Vortex reject
Offroad: redecoed Ruckus
Rook: completely original

So... does that mean Rook was supposed to get all the hate Alpha Bravo got?