The Energon Pub

News Credits: 41 · by **Cobotron** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:26 pm

Kurona wrote:Again, I don't exactly get why people think this is gonna have a direct effect on the winning character's counterpart in IDW... Soundwave didn't become a Headmaster, Fort Max didn't become a titan; so many other examples...

Exactly K. It's been going on like this since the beginning, and as far as I can see it will continue this way.

News Credits: 56 · by **o.supreme** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:47 pm

Cobotron wrote:
Kurona wrote:Again, I don't exactly get why people think this is gonna have a direct effect on the winning character's counterpart in IDW... Soundwave didn't become a Headmaster, Fort Max didn't become a titan; so many other examples...
Exactly K. It's been going on like this since the beginning, and as far as I can see it will continue this way.

Just to clarify. I know many fans are speculating about this, but I do acknowledge that this vote will likely have little effect on the current IDW comic. I'm just merely stating that peoples opinion on who to vote for will be based on the personality traits of the characters they like, or dislike. The reasons why we identify with certain characters is how they are portrayed throughout the various mediums. When those mediums conflict, then it makes deciding more difficult based on the unknown. Of course if one is simply voting in hopes of getting a new toys of said characters, then I guess it matters less.

I guess an argument could be made that Hasbro isn't even considering the original Victory Anime Star Saber; which I think is a slap in the face btw... To use a characters name and likeness, then completely change them, but that's a whole other topic for another time. But then lets use Shockwave...

Traditionally across several animated series Shockwave has been usually portrayed as Loyal to Megatron, calculating, and logical.

In pretty much all comics (Marvel, DW, & IDW) Shockwave is a scientist, brilliant, and usually opposes Megatron, with his own ambittions (and happens to be dead currently in IDW but all that aside...) ... If I were a huge fan of Shockwave, I'd want to know before hand which one Hasbro would promote?

News Credits: 54 · by **Deadput** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 2:59 pm

Right if this vote has hardly anything to do with IDW then that means Megatron would still be evil in this vote if it'only toys we are talking about.

This fan vote is going to change the character forever going forward unless most people are really dissatisfied with the results and boycott it.

So I really don't want most of these characters being a Prime

Houndimus Prime is the best name anyways as opposed to say Ultra Prime, Star Prime, Arcee Prime (lol) or Megatron Prime (there is already a Megatronus Prime aka The Fallen).

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 3:07 pm

o.supreme wrote:Just to clarify. I know many fans are speculating about this, but I do acknowledge that this vote will likely have little effect on the current IDW comic. I'm just merely stating that peoples opinion on who to vote for will be based on the personality traits of the characters they like, or dislike. The reasons why we identify with certain characters is how they are portrayed throughout the various mediums. When those mediums conflict, then it makes deciding more difficult based on the unknown. Of course if one is simply voting in hopes of getting a new toys of said characters, then I guess it matters less.

I guess an argument could be made that Hasbro isn't even considering the original Victory Anime Star Saber; which I think is a slap in the face btw... To use a characters name and likeness, then completely change them, but that's a whole other topic for another time. But then lets use Shockwave...

Traditionally across several animated series Shockwave has been usually portrayed as Loyal to Megatron, calculating, and logical.

In pretty much all comics (Marvel, DW, & IDW) Shockwave is a scientist, brilliant, and usually opposes Megatron, with his own ambittions (and happens to be dead currently in IDW but all that aside...) ... If I were a huge fan of Shockwave, I'd want to know before hand which one Hasbro would promote?

I know, I was just replying to other people in the thread saying as such. What you're saying though is something I completely agree with.
If I had to take a guess, I'd say that it'd be similar to Aligned versions of characters since that's the route Hasbro seems to be going these days - generalised versions of the characters taking in traits from all versions of themselves; though most prominently their appearance and personality in whichever continuity and series they were most prominent and remembered in (in most cases, and especially in the case of this poll; original G1) with one-off major deviances from their general character archetypes for the most part excluded (for example, the Star Saber being considered here most likely has little to nothing in common with his IDW counterpart and is instead probably more like the usual heroic save-the-day character from Victory and Earth Wars).
This can really make things puzzling when one character has two different versions which are equally - or almost equally if not that - well-remembered or prominent. We can make a very good educated guess on what Hound, Ultra Magnus, Deathsaurus etc. will be like... but it's hard to discern which version of Shockwave we'll have, as you said. The loyalist from the cartoon and the logical schemer from most every comic are both what most people would see as the definitive personality of Shockwave. In that case I'd probably look to the Aligned version of the character for an idea of what he'd be like.

News Credits: 3 · by **DedicatedGhostArt** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 3:29 pm

Obviously I have no idea whether or not it'd effect IDW. It does seem likely however since it's a Prime we're talking about, and not just a new gimmick for a character or a more G1 version of a character that's different in IDW. Turning a pre-existing character into a Prime; in my opinion, WILL have an effect in the comics, especially since it's a fan vote, and the other fan votes we've had recently are Windblade and Victorion, and those are both very prominent IDW characters now. They normally are not doing fan votes just for a toy, but rather for a whole new character in Transformers fiction to affect future stories.

by **DeadCaL** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 4:00 pm

Is there any context to this vote?

News Credits: 65 · by **Wolfman Jake** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 4:01 pm

SillySpringer wrote:Obviously I have no idea whether or not it'd effect IDW. It does seem likely however since it's a Prime we're talking about, and not just a new gimmick for a character or a more G1 version of a character that's different in IDW. Turning a pre-existing character into a Prime; in my opinion, WILL have an effect in the comics, especially since it's a fan vote, and the other fan votes we've had recently are Windblade and Victorion, and those are both very prominent IDW characters now. They normally are not doing fan votes just for a toy, but rather for a whole new character in Transformers fiction to affect future stories.

That is an excellent point, Silly. We really don't know what will come of this new Prime going forward, but dismissing the potential for an appearance in the ongoing IDW comics is something we can't logically do based recent history with other fan votes and results in toys and accompanying media.

I'm super surprised, by the way, that Bumblebee isn't on this list. It feels like Hasbro has been grooming him for being the next Prime for YEARS now. Yes, I know he's currently dead right now in the IDW comics, but that's not something irreversible in the realm of comic book sci-fi and fantasy.

Speaking of strange omissions and even stranger inclusions, does anyone think this "list" we have so far is a red herring? It might just be for example purposes and not a real representation of what Hasbro is planning to do. Not to delve into conspiracy theories, but during the last few fan votes that resulted in new characters, some people have suspected that Hasbro cooked the voting in such a way that they would make their pre-determined choice win. Thoughts?

News Credits: 56 · by **o.supreme** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 4:14 pm

Wolfman Jake wrote:I'm super surprised, by the way, that Bumblebee isn't on this list. It feels like Hasbro has been grooming him for being the next Prime for YEARS now. Yes, I know he's currently dead right now in the IDW comics, but that's not something irreversible in the realm of comic book sci-fi and fantasy.

Speaking of strange omissions and even stranger inclusions, does anyone think this "list" we have so far is a red herring? It might just be for example purposes and not a real representation of what Hasbro is planning to do. Not to delve into conspiracy theories, but during the last few fan votes that resulted in new characters, some people have suspected that Hasbro cooked the voting in such a way that they would make their pre-determined choice win. Thoughts?

To be sure some of the selections seem random, even half-baked. Why Deathsaurus is described as "Unknown Evil" is anybody's guess. The "fan voting" that resulted in the creation of Windblade and Victiorion I cannot attest to because I did not participate, but I can say for a certainty, they did not come out the way I would have voted (though if choices were limited I would rather not participate than elect for something I really did not care for). To say Hasbro "rigged" the election might be going a bit far, but influenced, perhaps, HEAVILY influenced, I would not be surprised.

With last years fan vote for the next Titan, I think was pretty simple. I don't know what the % was in the end, but I don't think Hasbro would have put any of those three out there, if they didn't have a feasible design already in place. Same goes for this vote I would imagine.

Now while it is highly theorized that Omega Supreme & Scorponok will be the Titan Class figures for 2018 & 2019 (in no particular order...) a better question may be at some future convention to ask to see if Hasbro had any rough designs for the votes that resulted in Windblade & Victorion, had the outcome been different...

News Credits: 3 · by **DedicatedGhostArt** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 4:25 pm

Wolfman Jake wrote:
I'm super surprised, by the way, that Bumblebee isn't on this list. It feels like Hasbro has been grooming him for being the next Prime for YEARS now. Yes, I know he's currently dead right now in the IDW comics, but that's not something irreversible in the realm of comic book sci-fi and fantasy.

Speaking of strange omissions and even stranger inclusions, does anyone think this "list" we have so far is a red herring? It might just be for example purposes and not a real representation of what Hasbro is planning to do. Not to delve into conspiracy theories, but during the last few fan votes that resulted in new characters, some people have suspected that Hasbro cooked the voting in such a way that they would make their pre-determined choice win. Thoughts?

From this image, you can see the first round is the contenders selection. Then after that they unveil what characters win, and then the last vote is between the winning characters.

I remember before they said it was going to be a choice between three character categories. Order, Chaos, and I think Peace or something. I can imagine they'll also have a vehicle mode vote in the first round as well. So if we put this new description of the vote and the old description together, either they have already rigged the thing mostly, or I think we have many more choices than they are showing us. This means Bee could be on the list. Who knows though? I assume these characters already shown are just the main ones they wanted to tease, and not all. That's just my thoughts though.

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 5:12 pm

Wolfman Jake wrote:
SillySpringer wrote:Obviously I have no idea whether or not it'd effect IDW. It does seem likely however since it's a Prime we're talking about, and not just a new gimmick for a character or a more G1 version of a character that's different in IDW. Turning a pre-existing character into a Prime; in my opinion, WILL have an effect in the comics, especially since it's a fan vote, and the other fan votes we've had recently are Windblade and Victorion, and those are both very prominent IDW characters now. They normally are not doing fan votes just for a toy, but rather for a whole new character in Transformers fiction to affect future stories.

That is an excellent point, Silly. We really don't know what will come of this new Prime going forward, but dismissing the potential for an appearance in the ongoing IDW comics is something we can't logically do based recent history with other fan votes and results in toys and accompanying media.

I understand what's being said here, but the big difference is that Windblade and Victorion were completely new characters - this vote's a different situation, in that we're being asked to give a new status to a pre-existing character. I believe that whoever wins will be given more prominence in IDW, but that's about it - maybe even a one-issue thing like a spotlight. Especially given that we have precedence of IDW not lining up with Hasbro's plans for fan-built choices particularly; the characters and backstories of Windblade and Victorion were entirely up to the IDW writers rather than having to conform to anything Hasbro had said about these characters. This is especially evident if you look at other media like Robots in Disguise and Machinima's Combiner Wars.
I'm not acting as if the toyline or the vote will have no effect on the comics - at this point, that would be unrealistic. What I'm saying is that it will very, very likely not have as huge an effect as actually making a pre-existing character (or, uh, Primal) a Prime. Especially given the precedence of IDW doing pretty much whatever they want when Hasbro asks them to advertise the new toys.

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:34 pm

Ya know what I think?

They should have put Smokescreen on the list. That way, we could theoretically have voted for the Smokescreen Prime that Prime set up but never gave us. Yes, G1 v. Prime design very different, but characters can look very different once upgraded to a Prime

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Thu Jan 19, 2017 10:43 pm

Also, to throw it out there and I just thought of this, look at the 9 characters in the vote and look at the diversity:

Hound and Shockwave from "G1" seasons 1 and 2
Megatron the "Big Bad" in many stories
Ultra Magnus as the male "movie era" representative
Arcee as the "female/movie female" representative
Optimus Primal as "Beast Wars" along with Megatron if that is BW Megs
Star Saber and Deathsaurus as the "Japanese G1" characters
Thunderwing as the "Marvel G1/Rarely heard of guy" representative

In a way, this could be a stab at seeing what fans want too, compared between the various eras of the 80's through 90's and the different countries and comics showing them off

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Fri Jan 20, 2017 12:57 am

There really isn't anything specifically "BW Megs" about that Megatron head. The face itself is distinctly G1 Megatron's face as it has come to be popularly depicted. And the colors are certainly G1 Megatron's. None of Ol' Grapeface's iconic features (especially the one thing that earned him the "Grapeface" nickname) are to be found in that design, as the forehead crest itself (the sole element that there is to go by in the BW Megs supposition) is vaguely designed and not really reminiscent of any of those that BW Megs has worn.

News Credits: 65 · by **Wolfman Jake** » Fri Jan 20, 2017 3:22 am

Sabrblade wrote:There really isn't anything specifically "BW Megs" about that Megatron head. The face itself is distinctly G1 Megatron's face as it has come to be popularly depicted. And the colors are certainly G1 Megatron's. None of Ol' Grapeface's iconic features (especially the one thing that earned him the "Grapeface" nickname) are to be found in that design, as the forehead crest itself (the sole element that there is to go by in the BW Megs supposition) is vaguely designed and not really reminiscent of any of those that BW Megs has worn.

You know what I think may have happened? I think Hasbro has already tipped their hand on this whole thing. This head design for Megatron on the poster may be their idea for his new look should he become a Prime and undergo some basic reformatting for the role, a la Orion Pax and Hot Rod. IDW has been doing a great job with exploring "Autobot Megatron." It's been a popular enough idea that Hasbro saw fit to supply Combiner Wars Leader Megatron with both faction stickers so fans could make a Lost Light Autobot Megatron with the figure if they so chose. With Megatron's developing conscience, newfound sense of regret and shame, and overall empathy for others growing in IDW, while Optimus Prime is currently "annexing the Earth for its own protection," "Megatron Prime" would be an easy and logical next step to explore in the ongoing Transformers series. Yeah, there would be a lot of fan outrage if Optimus Prime turns total heel, but I could see something working out such that Optimus steps down (again), focusing on protecting the Earth, his surrogate new home world, while Megatron focuses on rebuilding Cybertron.

News Credits: 6 · by **Sarahthecutevixen** » Fri Jan 20, 2017 9:38 pm

I will vote for Arcee, any of you have an issue can kiss my thermal exhaust port for all I care, vote for something stupid like shockwave, He's dead in the comics,

News Credits: 4 · by **King Kuuga** » Sat Jan 21, 2017 2:30 am

If this affects the comics, any dead characters who end up winning will be brought back to life anyway, you do realize that?

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:25 am

King Kuuga wrote:If this affects the comics, any dead characters who end up winning will be brought back to life anyway, you do realize that?

Not necessarily - there's many ways round that, most prominently flashbacks. I don't think that's out of the question.

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:21 pm

On this glorious Sunday afternoon, we would like to pass on a reminder from Hasbro to all of you that the new 'Power of the Primes' fan vote for the next Prime opens tomorrow! The vote will determine who the next Prime of Cybertron will be, joining the ranks of Optimus, Rodimus, Alpha Trion, and more. You can begin voting tomorrow HERE. The 4 finalists will be announced this Friday, January 27, and the final round of voting will occur between February 1 and 4, with the winner being announced at New York Toy Fair later in the month.

Read up below to make sure you are ready for the vote, and join the discussion on who you are voting for in the forums below!

We're reaching out today with a reminder that your chance to decide which Transformers character will become the next leader of Cybertron is fast approaching! Starting on January 23rd, fans will be able to visit TRANSFORMERS.COM/vote to cast their vote to help determine which character will join the ranks of Optimus Prime, Rodimus Prime and other Cybertronian legends as the next Prime of Cybertron. The fan-voted Prime will be featured in the Transformers Generations toy line and brand’s Prime Wars Trilogy storytelling in 2018.

The first round of voting will begin on January 23rd, when fans can visit Transformers.com to choose between three groups of candidates – Honor, Chaos and Order.

· Honor: These legendary warriors will lead with honor and carry on the noble legacy of Optimus Prime.
· Chaos: These powerful warlords will stop at nothing to become supreme leader of Cybertron, even if it means creating a chaotic world where only the strongest survive.
· Order: These commanders vow to leave the Autobot and Decepticon factions in the past and unite Cybertron under a new order.

Four finalists will be chosen by the fans and revealed by Hasbro in late January. Fans can then have the final say by returning to Transformers.com to vote between February 1st and February 4th. The winning Prime will be officially unveiled during New York Toy Fair in February.

For additional information on the Power of the Primes fan vote, please visit TRANSFORMERS.COM/vote or the official TRANSFORMERS Facebook page, Facebook.com/Transformers.

News Credits: 3 · by **DedicatedGhostArt** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 3:23 pm

I'll vote for Honor. I hope Hound is part of that. I might vote for Star Saber though if he happens to be part of honor. Then again, the three categories probably don't matter with IDW. Star Saber could be the best Prime ever in Hasbro's fiction, and completely Stalin in IDW.

News Credits: 13 · by **steals_your_goats** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:06 pm

I'm voting chaos. Not to be "edgy" or anything but I think it would be different and refreshing to see a Warlord take up the mantle of prime. IDW gave us corrupt primes but one that's already evil would be interesting.

News Credits: 10 · by **sol magnus** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:10 pm

o.supreme wrote:
Sabrblade wrote:
o.supreme wrote:But a character whose dominant quality is Chaos cannot posses the Matrix of Leadership, therefore they cannot be leader, unless you start changing the rules, which then makes this whole exercise pointless and not worth my time.

that was furmans creation matrix NOT the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. Galvatron and Scourge both tried to use it, and it turned out very bad for them. heck even Ultra-Magnus wasn't worthy...that should say a lot in itself

Magnus not being able to use the Matrix wasn't about worthiness. He wasn't the chosen one and it wasn't the Autobots' "darkest hour" when he tried to use it...

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:54 pm

Plus, elements of both the cartoon's Matrix of Leadership and Marvel's Creation Matrix have bled into and merged with each other since then; and in part thanks to that the Matrix of Leadership has evolved to be and mean something different - albeit similar - to what it was in the 1986 movie.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:13 am

Voting is live if you haven't checked yet. You get three choices for each category and you get to vote for each one.

Honor - Hound, Ultra Magnus, Arcee
Chaos - "Unknown Evil" (Deathsaurus), Thunderwing, Optimus Primal
Order - Megatron, Shockwave, Star Saber

Doesn't it seem like Primal and Megatron should be flipped? Since when is Primal, the zen naturalist, a chaotic warlord?

Emerje