The Energon Pub

[dedcat]

here is a tip - apply for a red card first and save yourself $6 shipping.

[chuckdawg1999]

Didn't notice the sword is a g1 accessory! That's such a wonderfully strange touch.

They seem to doing stuff like that a lot recently. The two that come to mind immediately include Platinum Edition Predaking coming with the Star Saber that came with Beast Hunters Commander-class Optimus Prime, and the upcoming Age of Extinction Evolutions Grimlock set that gives the "classic" Grimlock a red version of Generation One Razorclaw's sword.

Didnt know a out that one either. A red Razorclaw sword almost makes me want that set. Almost.

I've heard that there will be a set of G1 Predacons' swords available for the BotCon set this year.

[Sabrblade]

I want the grimlock, but that prime...

It's at least the best looking of all the Silver Knight Optimus Prime toys since it's both a decent mold and actually silver instead of that ugly dull gray that the rest of the Silver Knight OPs are.

[Zeedust]

Thry also have a few other Taget-exclusive items up, the Construct-Bots Grimlock/Optimus two-pack, the gray Smash and Change Prime, and the non-transforming Silver Knight Optimus Prime. In case anyone cares about any of those.

[Megatron Wolf]

wow $30 i would've thought it be higher than that, but i have no reason to get this i have both molds & neither are good enough to buy again. Only way id pick this up is if it were on clearance for a really good price.

[Fires_Of_Inferno]

Looks even better out of the box!

http://www.seibertron.com/energonpub/viewtopic.php?f=234&t=100323

[Doubledealer93]

I kinda want these.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

I'll be looking into getting both the Grimlock & Prime set, you can't really beat the DotM Deluxe mold, as well as the Kre-O Grimlock for the Grimlock Kreon alone. Just need a spare black Soundwave helmet

[william-james88]

I'll be looking into getting both the Grimlock & Prime set, you can't really beat the DotM Deluxe mold, as well as the Kre-O Grimlock for the Grimlock Kreon alone. Just need a spare black Soundwave helmet

I dont have the DOTM Deluxe Prime mold yet, what makes it so unbeatable?

[Jelze Bunnycat]

I'll be looking into getting both the Grimlock & Prime set, you can't really beat the DotM Deluxe mold, as well as the Kre-O Grimlock for the Grimlock Kreon alone. Just need a spare black Soundwave helmet

I dont have the DOTM Deluxe Prime mold yet, what makes it so unbeatable?

I consider it a different take on Movie Prime. Sure, he has the hood for a backpack and the vehicle mode is nothing to write home about, but the transformation is adequate given the limitations of working with Deluxe Scale (can't really replicate the Leader's transformation without panels getting to thin, can you) and his articulation doesn't suffer at all, except for the feet, and the robot mode is clean looking. It's worth checking out, just because it's not more ambitious than it should be.

[Noideaforaname]

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Even better, the Kre-O Grimlock set is $25.

[OptimalOptimus2]

I can't believe I'm saying this but, this is the best looking Optimus Prime toy in my life. I don't care if it's a repaint. Sorry Galaxy Force Optimus Prime.

[Bumblevivisector]

Didn't notice the sword is a g1 accessory! That's such a wonderfully strange touch.

They seem to doing stuff like that a lot recently. The two that come to mind immediately include Platinum Edition Predaking coming with the Star Saber that came with Beast Hunters Commander-class Optimus Prime, and the upcoming Age of Extinction Evolutions Grimlock set that gives the "classic" Grimlock a red version of Generation One Razorclaw's sword.

"Upcoming"? I just saw a big pile of that 2-pack in the Westland MI TRU yesterday! Is it really not out anywhere else yet?

I couldn't afford him after the MP Grimlock I got Friday, so I had to pass on the Evolutions Strafe too, and Stroop sold out almost as fast since the regular Generations toy hasn't shown up yet AFAIK.

[leokearon]

The prime/Grimlock two pack looks great. I hoping Tesco will done some Target Exclusives like they did with the Predacon Rising exclusives, though with the insane price they are currently charging for AOE toys, it probably won't be worth it.

[Mindmaster]

"Upcoming"? I just saw a big pile of that 2-pack in the Westland MI TRU yesterday! Is it really not out anywhere else yet?

Apparently not, it seems. We haven't received any reports until you piped up.

[chuckdawg1999]

"Upcoming"? I just saw a big pile of that 2-pack in the Westland MI TRU yesterday! Is it really not out anywhere else yet?

Apparently not, it seems. We haven't received any reports until you piped up.

This is the one with Energon Grimlock right?

[Sabrblade]

Just got back from TRU and they had the Evolution 2-Packs for both Grimlock and Strafe.

Upon closer examination of the Grimlock one, turns out the AOE Voyager Grimlock in that set has quite a lot of deco differences from the regular single-packed version. A black face and a lot more black and silver details on the torso, for instance.

[chuckdawg1999]

I'll be looking into getting both the Grimlock & Prime set, you can't really beat the DotM Deluxe mold, as well as the Kre-O Grimlock for the Grimlock Kreon alone. Just need a spare black Soundwave helmet

I dont have the DOTM Deluxe Prime mold yet, what makes it so unbeatable?

I consider it a different take on Movie Prime. Sure, he has the hood for a backpack and the vehicle mode is nothing to write home about, but the transformation is adequate given the limitations of working with Deluxe Scale (can't really replicate the Leader's transformation without panels getting to thin, can you) and his articulation doesn't suffer at all, except for the feet, and the robot mode is clean looking. It's worth checking out, just because it's not more ambitious than it should be.

I thought it was nice because at the time Smaller scale Optimus Prime's were few and far between. The transformation was a pleasure too and you don't really notice the cab on back since it thickens the bot out a bit.

[Zeedust]

Didn't notice the sword is a g1 accessory! That's such a wonderfully strange touch.

They seem to doing stuff like that a lot recently. The two that come to mind immediately include Platinum Edition Predaking coming with the Star Saber that came with Beast Hunters Commander-class Optimus Prime, and the upcoming Age of Extinction Evolutions Grimlock set that gives the "classic" Grimlock a red version of Generation One Razorclaw's sword.

Didnt know a out that one either. A red Razorclaw sword almost makes me want that set. Almost.

Took a bit for the realization to hit, but that would also mean they fixed the hands on the Energon Grimlock mold so he can actually hold stuff, wouldn't it? Because if so, that would make me happy.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

"Upcoming"? I just saw a big pile of that 2-pack in the Westland MI TRU yesterday! Is it really not out anywhere else yet?

Apparently not, it seems. We haven't received any reports until you piped up.

This is the one with Energon Grimlock right?

Sure is. To avoid further confusion:

Toys "R" Us
Evolution 2-pack Grimlock: Energon Grimlock and AoE Voyager Grimlock

Target
Grimlock & Silver Knight Optimus Prime: Generations Grimlock & DotM Deluxe Optimus Prime

Walmart
Grimlock & Optimus Prime: Energon Cruellock repaint and RotF Legends Optimus Prime

Platinum Edition
Optimus Prime & Grimlock: Evasion Mode Optimus Prime and AoE Voyager Grimlock

Too many Prime and Grim pairings!

[Zeedust]

"Upcoming"? I just saw a big pile of that 2-pack in the Westland MI TRU yesterday! Is it really not out anywhere else yet?

Apparently not, it seems. We haven't received any reports until you piped up.

This is the one with Energon Grimlock right?

Sure is. To avoid further confusion:

Toys "R" Us
Evolution 2-pack Grimlock: Energon Grimlock and AoE Voyager Grimlock

Target
Grimlock & Silver Knight Optimus Prime: Generations Grimlock & DotM Deluxe Optimus Prime

Walmart
Grimlock & Optimus Prime: Energon Cruellock repaint and RotF Legends Optimus Prime

Platinum Edition
Optimus Prime & Grimlock: Evasion Mode Optimus Prime and AoE Voyager Grimlock

Too many Prime and Grim pairings!

There's also the OTHER Target exclusive Prime and Grimlock two-pack: Construct-Bots.

If anyone other than me cares about those.

[Zobovor]

Zobovor, you seemed to clip out certain bullet points from my post while neglecting the others that I believe would have answered your questions before you asked them.

For the sake of brevity, I only quoted the parts of your post that I wanted to address directly. I apologize if I seemed needlessly selective.

It's a non-issue not because it doesn't exist, but because it doesn't affect the manufacture of toys in the catastrophic way many fans believe it does.

I'm going to conditionally agree with that. I think it's also possible that, with the advent of innovations like gated molds, pre-planned alternate heads, etc. it's quite possible that Hasbro is now creating multiple molds deliberately for toys they know will enjoy multiple production runs. You just know that when they created Classics Starscream in 2006, they knew they would eventually turn him into Skywarp and Thundercracker, and perhaps Ramjet, Thrust, and Dirge as well. We got "regular" Decepticon jets after we got our first "conehead" jet, and there's no evidence that they were just retooling the mold every single time (like they did when they turned Cliffjumper into Hubcap and then back to Cliffjumper, or when they turned Hot Rod into a Targetmaster and then back again). There had to have been multiple molds from the onset.

For instance, Sunstreaker was never remolded or redecoed at all, so maybe the original molds are so scare, they've been misplaced over time. On the other hand, you have molds that never say die, like G1 Optimus and Soundwave, which have each gone through several revisions, but nonetheless, endure.

Sunstreaker existed in both a red Diaclone color scheme as well as a Prowl-like police car deco, so by the time we got him for G1 it was actually the third use of the mold. (He got at least one more production run after that as part of the Classics assortment for the European market.) Takara has specifically identified Sunstreaker's mold as one that was either lost, or too damaged to repair, which is why he's never gotten an official G1 reissue. It's obviously possible to reverse-engineer an old Sunstreaker toy to create new molds (that's how Zhong Jin produced their unofficial Chinese knockoff), but for whatever reason, Takara's not willing to do it. Maybe because he's not iconic or doesn't have enough redeco potential.

Incidentally, Takara did have to recreate the molds for all of Optimus Prime's die-cast parts before they came up with the first G1 reissue. It follows logically that if they can do this for a toy's feet and chest, they can do it for the entire toy. It frustrates me that the G1 reissues seem to be dead in the water.

Even if reverse engineering a mold takes money, it must still not be that prohibitive of a cost that knock-off/bootlegs can't turn a tidy profit. If it didn't, no one would bother.

They probably figure that after the initial tooling costs, they have to sell x amount of units to break even. It's got to be really difficult to determine what the demand will be for a specific toy, though. (I'm really surprised they've ventured into fringe toys like Grand Slam and Raindance. I wouldn't have thought there would be a market for them at all.)

So, you can see how eyes can roll when another retool or repaint of a popular mold comes along and people panic that it will flop around like a rag doll and fit together like a Sweedish CD rack, just because they've seen that mold before.

I totally agree that revisiting an old mold does not automatically equal a floppy toy. What I was mainly addressing, honestly, was what you and others seemed to be saying, which I essentially took as, "There's no such thing as mold fatigue! Can't we put that rumor to rest?"

Thanks for the interesting discussion. In practice, tend to stay away from the numerous message boards because my past experience has been that they seem predominantly inhabited by children. No offense meant towards anyone; that's just been my impression. It's nice to know there are folks here who can carry on a stimulating conversation!


Zob

[Wolfman Jake]

Thanks for the interesting discussion. In practice, tend to stay away from the numerous message boards because my past experience has been that they seem predominantly inhabited by children. No offense meant towards anyone; that's just been my impression. It's nice to know there are folks here who can carry on a stimulating conversation!


Zob

You're quite welcome!

Yes, a lot of internet forums are less than civil (and even here there are occasional issues) but stick around, and you'll find a great group of enthusiastic Transformers fans with whom to share your hobby.

[william-james88]

You're quite welcome!

Yes, a lot of internet forums are less than civil (and even here there are occasional issues) but stick around, and you'll find a great group of enthusiastic Transformers fans with whom to share your hobby.

I am quite impressed with this forum as well. There are times when I see some people trying to start a small fire but it is quickly extinguished by very calm fans before anything happens. Also, it seems any frustration we have is at the distribution system and the comapnies themselves and thus we take it out on them instead of eachother It's a good thing Hasbro's camera man isn't reading these posts and if he is, he is doing a very good job at not taking things personally

[Peridot]

You're quite welcome!

Yes, a lot of internet forums are less than civil (and even here there are occasional issues) but stick around, and you'll find a great group of enthusiastic Transformers fans with whom to share your hobby.

I am quite impressed with this forum as well. There are times when I see some people trying to start a small fire but it is quickly extinguished by very calm fans before anything happens. Also, it seems any frustration we have is at the distribution system and the comapnies themselves and thus we take it out on them instead of eachother It's a good thing Hasbro's camera man isn't reading these posts and if he is, he is doing a very good job at not taking things personally

I'm calling it now. The next time we get a figure with posable fingers, the people who do the stock photos will make it give us the finger.