The Energon Pub

News Credits: 2 · by **Banjo-Tron** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 9:11 am

considering cancelling my pre-order based on how poorly these will scale with my other gestalts

Is that other Predaking still around or did it get canned?

News Credits: 33 · by **Genocide G2.0** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 9:55 am

FP stuntions are too small now these are too big :roll:

. I can't say this scale bugs me one little bit for one i'm getting a chunk of a figure for my money, two predaking should tower other combiners and thirdly classic galvatron's size wont be an issue anymore with this beast around

News Credits: 1 · by **Gauntlet101010** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 10:07 am

I actually like that these guys are really large. Label Soundwave, the Seeker mould, FP's Stunticons and the Energon/FP Bruticus limbs are all very small guys. The Decepticons NEED some muscle!

News Credits: 10 · by **Agamemnon** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 10:31 am

Banjo-Tron wrote:considering cancelling my pre-order based on how poorly these will scale with my other gestalts Is that other Predaking still around or did it get canned?

As far as I know, Unique Toys is still producing their War Lord.

BBTS listing

One thing that I am impressed with is how close in scale Leo Dux is with the limbs. I may not have room to display this in combined mode, but they should look awesome as bots together on the shelf.

News Credits: 2 · by **paul053** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 10:45 am

Predaking is supposedly to be huge, isn't he? If you like this famous image, he is so, so much bigger than Superion which this MMC Feral Rex is almost at the right size. I'm still getting these. Don't want to spend more money to buy smaller figures now. And actually I'm just looking at my Classcis Prime and Cybertron Vector Prime. Vector Prime is that much taller than Optimus Prime. So each of these Ferocicons are pretty much the size of Vector Prime, I can take that.

News Credits: 1 · by **Gauntlet101010** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 10:53 am

They also seem to be the same size as Hegemon.

News Credits: 402 · by **Mkall** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 11:24 am

Holy sweet Primus that's big. However they'll compact in combined mode so I suspect he'll stand about as tall as Hercules.

News Credits: 119 · by **daimchoc** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 2:19 pm

FYI:

griffith76 wrote:
Bovis and Fortis

They share the basic body and these two are pretty much ready. What I changed are mostly engineering stuff that non of you will be interested to hear like standard screw sizes, pin size etc.
The major flaws with this design were the lack of locking of beast limbs in robot and alternate mode and the front legs of the beast were left hanging downwards in leg mode. I made some modifications to ensure that there is no loose kibble and any mode.

Talon

We literally got trashed for the design of the wings in Actoys based on the sihoulette and we decided that we need better ones. The new set of wings are pretty much the same length but based very closely to IDW's art and of course the feathers are made articulated for a more dramatic effect.
The body proportions were changed slightly coz we feel that him and Tigris were too wide in arm mode. With the change in body proportions his indian headdress had to go and I opted for a dancougar look with a young handsome face as the older look did not suit the leaner body at all.
We decided that the simple flip down foot was too simple and the lower leg was too hollow so we filled that up and gave him new feet. And talons that are more complex and articulated.

Tigris

He had the same base body proportions as Talon but made much worse with the beast hind legs sticking out sideways in arm mode. He was made leaner as well and I redesigned him arms to have shoulders to resemble G1 more.
I modified the beast legs to make them look closer to how a real tiger should but they had to be a bit skinner to keep the arm mode compact.
Gave him a longer tail that points down instead of up and a neck for beast mode that he's missing. I also added a hunch to the tiger's look coz crouching tigers
He's actually my personal favorite and I think he looks really dynamic in botmode and fun to play fiddle around with.

Leo

The orignal finalized Leo from Cassy was good in robot mode and a nice beast mode (apart from the arm joints looking a little unorthodox). We would have kept it if not for three very fatal flaws. Lets just call him V2 I don't know if Cassy considers the earlier larger mock up to be V1 or are there more versions inbetween.

1. V2 Leo is 9" tall. Its somewhat still acceptable but we really don't want a leader size figure if possible at all.

2. We understand that Cassy had originally wanted him to be even bigger and because we asked him to shrink it down to a reasonable size to scale with his team members, the combined mode suffered and we got what you guys would call the FOC Bruticus Syndrome. It didn't help with the bot's arms/beast front legs merely hang around loosely as back kibble.

3. Lastly, the leg transformation is basically too G1. The beast legs were still acceptable and they look pretty good in bot mode with the fake knee joint in his thigh... until the knee is bent. Anyone who knows how the G1 toy works will get the idea.

So basically with all these taken into consideration the only way to fix things was to redesign Leo from scratch. I loved the body so I kept it but chopped part of the sides off to and design new arms that fold into a block that can add actual mass to the combined torso. Boss hated the heads so we got new ones. The design of the legs was one of the biggest challenge for me since G1 obviously doesnt work here and giving him beast legs like what we had for Tigris made the thighs look terrible. I came up with a new design where we still got some decent rear legs albeit a bit skinny, becomes almost unnoticeable from the front when kept in for torso mode. I'm proud of those legs
Lastly was the biggest challenge of all. Rex has no ass. I spent 2 days designing a collapsible one for him but the kibble was too huge even when folded so back to the drawing board. Finally managed to come up with a design thats simple enough and actually looks somewhat decent to be a friggin shield coz like I explained before, the shield option is a must. So the rest is history and it became the hip that a lot of folks wished it was 10% smaller.

Oh and theres the hugeass-sword and the arm cannon. The sword was a reconfiguration of what Cassy has already done but I felt that his original design looked more like a club so I played around with the blades and managed to form something that pays some homage to his G1 sword. It was initially smaller but bossman says its too puny so it became the monster we're gonna have now. Downside to it is that it takes 2 blades for each member to form it. Theres still some hidden secrets to that thing that we won't be revealing.

Cassy gave us G1 guns scaled up. They are huge and don't go anywhere in almost any modes apart from being held in the hands of the robots. Cassy originally intended to use the sword handle as the arm cannon but we thought that's a little too cheap and it means we can't have both the sword and gun at the same time. I thought since we made that sword we might as well do it for the cannon as well. So I borrowed some gun models from what I did for the other toy company I worked for and made sure no one can tell where they came from after I'm done with them.

Thats about the gist of what happened between the receiving of the finalized models from Cassy and my contribution to the overall design.

News Credits: 4 · by **King Kuuga** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 3:52 pm

Razorclaw's buttplate better detach and become a shield. That thing's massive.

Really cool insights, it's nice that they give us these.

News Credits: 119 · by **daimchoc** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 8:01 pm

That Bot wrote:Razorclaw's buttplate better detach and become a shield. That thing's massive.

Really cool insights, it's nice that they give us these.

The skirt armor is going to be a shield for Leo.

News Credits: 104 · by **Cyber Bishop** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 8:51 pm

daimchoc wrote:c/o griffith76

Sumbitch that thing is going to be HUGE when combined...

News Credits: 4 · by **King Kuuga** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 9:06 pm

daimchoc wrote:
That Bot wrote:Razorclaw's buttplate better detach and become a shield. That thing's massive.

Really cool insights, it's nice that they give us these.

The skirt armor is going to be a shield for Leo.

Oh, it was confirmed, I see. The way I initially read it, it looked like they were only considering using it that way.

News Credits: 119 · by **daimchoc** » Thu Apr 11, 2013 10:53 pm

That Bot wrote:
daimchoc wrote:
That Bot wrote:Razorclaw's buttplate better detach and become a shield. That thing's massive.

Really cool insights, it's nice that they give us these.

The skirt armor is going to be a shield for Leo.

Oh, it was confirmed, I see. The way I initially read it, it looked like they were only considering using it that way.

As per the post:

Lastly was the biggest challenge of all. Rex has no ass. I spent 2 days designing a collapsible one for him but the kibble was too huge even when folded so back to the drawing board. Finally managed to come up with a design thats simple enough and actually looks somewhat decent to be a friggin shield coz like I explained before, the shield option is a must. So the rest is history and it became the hip that a lot of folks wished it was 10% smaller.

News Credits: 4 · by **King Kuuga** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 1:26 am

Daimchoc. I get it. You don't have to show me the fine print again after I say that I recognized my own mistake.

News Credits: 119 · by **daimchoc** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 6:05 am

c/o CenoKibble - quite possible release order.

From my point of view, we have the best designer in the industry on this project with Cassy, and with Griffith we have the best design engineer as well. I'm gonna take my work hat of for a second and be a fan, but I CANNOT wait to have these guys in my hands. I've been a huge fan of griffith's work since before I was involved in the 3P industry, and I have had the pleasure of working side by side with Cassy on projects and - although he is too busy to come on here at the moment - rest assured, he is working on some more very awesome toys for you guys.

As for release schedules. It has changed to meet the demands of the fans, but it looks to be: Bovis, Talon, Leo Dux, Fortis, Tigris. At least, that is the order of the comics at the moment.

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 6:51 am

Wait, comics?

What comics?!

News Credits: 10 · by **Arctorro** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 7:49 am

Va'al wrote:Wait, comics?

What comics?!

That's what I'd like to know :shock:

News Credits: 14 · by **robotmel** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 8:35 am

Arctorro wrote:
Va'al wrote:Wait, comics?

What comics?!

That's what I'd like to know

Maybe MMC will be throwing in a mini-comic as per FansProject?

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 8:46 am

robotmel wrote:
Arctorro wrote:
Va'al wrote:Wait, comics?

What comics?!

That's what I'd like to know

Maybe MMC will be throwing in a mini-comic as per FansProject?

Don't you all dare make have to actually purchase this set.

News Credits: 14 · by **robotmel** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 9:18 am

Va'al wrote:Don't you all dare make have to actually purchase this set.

I know what you mean, these guys are looking better and better upon every photo released. Those proto photos (try saying that after too many rum & cokes

) look especially nice!

I still feel a little sorry for Unique Toys and still hope they do ok through this. Worst case, UT could always sell copies of their molds to CHMS! :-?

News Credits: 10 · by **Arctorro** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 9:47 am

robotmel wrote:
Va'al wrote:Don't you all dare make have to actually purchase this set.

I know what you mean, these guys are looking better and better upon every photo released. Those proto photos (try saying that after too many rum & cokes ) look especially nice!

I still feel a little sorry for Unique Toys and still hope they do ok through this. Worst case, UT could always sell copies of their molds to CHMS!

I'm already committed to this set and a series of comics would just be the icing on the cake

News Credits: 6188 · by **Va'al** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 10:40 am

Arctorro wrote:I'm already committed to this set and a series of comics would just be the icing on the cake

It's just too much to justify spending on.

Yes, it's gorgeous.

But it's big, made of plastic, useless and will make me lose every financial argument ever with my girlfriend.

News Credits: 1 · by **rpetras** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 11:31 am

Va'al wrote:
Arctorro wrote:I'm already committed to this set and a series of comics would just be the icing on the cake

It's just too much to justify spending on.

Yes, it's gorgeous.

But it's big, made of plastic, useless and will make me lose every financial argument ever with my girlfriend.

I note you said "girlfriend", which means you still have time to correct that problem

by **necr0blivion** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 12:33 pm

robotmel wrote:I still feel a little sorry for Unique Toys and still hope they do ok through this. Worst case, UT could always sell copies of their molds to CHMS!

I don't feel sorry for UT. I've seen quite a few posters state they are behind that project. MMC announced their project as early as July 2012 (TFCon), I don't remember even hearing about UT before that time. Also, the MMC designs just look better to me(and seemingly will be larger figures, so more bang for your buck).

What I do like about UT is that there has been talk about one of the designers (the head?) taking a more proactive role in quality management of the figures before leaving the factory. Also, it seems there's been further tweaking to the mold (POSSIBLY based on forum comments) to fix the cannon positioning for the gestalt mode. I feel bad for those who have already purchased WarHawk and are disappointed with him. I also wonder if any second runs of that figure will have better quality control or if the market is simply stuck with what's available now.

This is such an interesting development, having multiple companies/groups working on the same figure/set. There's a lot of taking sides and unnecessary vitriol on these forums, but if UT takes the appropriate steps I think they'll come out selling enough figures to make it worth the effort. As it stands, we might get the first two figures of War Lord before we even get the first Feral Rex member. Depending on release dates (and priorities of other purchasing needs), it might be reasonable to pick up one figure from each company on alternating months. But my plan is to stick w/MMC and keep a watch on UT's project, maybe picking up War Lord once all figures are completed. Again, it just depends on purchasing priorities at the time and the feedback on actual in-hand product from UT.

This, from a guy that has both Hercules and Giant (both yellow and green) in his collection. Seriously, just give us good product at (somewhat) justifiable rates. The great thing about MMC vs UT is that the $100 price point was killed off, whether temporarily or permanently. The new prices are more amicable.

So, back to Feral Rex - those prototypes are looking good!

News Credits: 4 · by **King Kuuga** » Fri Apr 12, 2013 2:26 pm

I assumed they'd be releasing Divebomb first, since it was the first figure we saw and the first preorder we got. Ah well.

MMC made a post on Facebook announcing that Hexatron will be delayed due to an error in one of the molds.

We expect the delivery date will be postponed to end of May. (not too bad heh?)

Assuming they still plan to keep their Predaking releases after Sixshot, this will have an effect on us, we might not see the first Predaking figure until June at the earliest.

For anybody interested in reading more, here's the link.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... 6339973092