The Energon Pub

[El Duque]

We have new official images of the Transformers: Age of Extinction Platinum Edition Silver Knight Optimus Prime. He's a redeco of the previously released Amazon exclusive First Edition Optimus Prime, check out the new images mirrored below courtesy of the Transformers Columbia Facebook page:

[HiddenElephant]

Slog is my most wanted Dinobot of this year, even surpassing the Grimlock voyager version that I already got. I dunno why, but I really like the way that Slog is done. He probably should be bigger, fitting his alt-mode, but I guess we'll just settle for a titanic robot using the Pillars of Halaak as weapons.

[Sabrblade]

Age Of Extinction is the first Transformers film to feature the Dinobots and when it was first announced that they'd be making an appearance, many fans were optimistic about their big screen debut. When we heard that there would be seven, total, those same fans became really excited, only to have our hopes dashed because Snarl and Slog never made it to the film.

Nor did Slash, either.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Age Of Extinction is the first Transformers film to feature the Dinobots and when it was first announced that they'd be making an appearance, many fans were optimistic about their big screen debut. When we heard that there would be seven, total, those same fans became really excited, only to have our hopes dashed because Snarl and Slog never made it to the film.

Nor did Slash, either.

Slash's Raptor form did make it into concept as a small army, probably playing on the idea that Raptors hunted in packs.

[swagitron]

Hmm... Not as cool as I thought it would be

[Siger]

Slog looks pretty good but needs more paint. Hopefully that will come in the platinum edition 5 pack. That Silver Knight Optimus is still garbagio even though the chrome makes it look a little better than in the unchromed pic.

Nothing to get excited about here, just looking forward to the next Generations releases.

[welcometothedarksyde]

I don't believe that silver knight Optimus will look that good. No one get their hopes up

[Peridot]

At least the price tag for that Silver Knight Optimus is slightly more justified, as it's pretty much the same paint mask. There's no way that Hasbro could sell the unchromed mess we've seen previously for $60.

[Megatron Wolf]

for every thing i like about it there are two things i hate, could've been a great figure but once again cheap ass hasbro drops the ball.

[Seibertron]

FYI ... I have a script running that is resyncing the bbcode for the some of the posts from earlier this week that was preventing tags like the spoiler tag from working properly. Sorry for the inconvenience everyone!

[GuyIncognito]

That image is more heavily photoshopped than a Vogue cover.

[Fifo]

I love the figure, but like Slug, the weapons are dreadful and will be removed permanently and put away in a box somewhere.

[MGrotusque]

What an abhorrent abomination. Totally disappointed in this one. Especially that head sculpt in bot mode, brutal.
I was hoping for a decent Sludge from Hasbro. On the bright side there are other sources that possibly may provide me with an acceptable Sludge i like.

[Seibertron]

Who said that AOE is doing poorly? It's making money hand over fist. The only problems with the toys, at least from what I can see, is that stores bought a ton of those simplified figures and aren't carrying the Generations figures as much.

I know. I went to a Walmart in Maplewood, MO and it only has a few Transformers: Age of Extinction toys and no other Transformers toys. No Rescue Bots, Generations, Kre-Os, Construct-bots, just a few AOE toys. Shame.

Is it because they're selling or low stock?

I'm assuming it means those products are selling. Collectors are a fun bunch when it comes to this stuff. If stores are low on products, fans blame the stores saying they're not stocking stuff (god forbid if it's actually selling faster than we're used to). If stores are heavy on products, fans flame the stores saying that too much product was ordered (god forbid that stores actually try to maintain inventory levels so their shelves aren't empty). Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[Killerewok]

I will say my Walmart in town is loaded with those little 1-Step changers (hundreds of them, in 3 different spots). I stop in there everyday, and there is always the same few Generations Slugs (cut horns) and a Bumblebee on the shelf.The Dino-Sparkers have been full since the day they came out, and have never moved. Generations are selling, but they aren't ordering nearly as much as they used to. There isn't even enough space in the 2-3 foot area in the isle for all the different things that are out. They got 1 case of Whirl/Rhinox/Dealer and I found Whirl on an endcap, since there is no (non-movie)Generations Voyager spot on the shelf for him to go. They get maybe 1 case of Generations stuff at a time, and very infrequently.
I really do not think this is a case of "they are getting more every day and selling them out", they just don't get them. At the very least not enough to keep shelves full. None of my area stores even got that big Wave One end cap display at all.

[Evil Eye]

Amen to that, Seibertron. I'd rather a store was overloaded with TFs than practically barren- more toys for me!

What I don't like is when the stores are filled with loads of a single toy (as is happening with Airachnid in my local store) or they only stock the crappy stuff and get none of the gold in. Of course with Toys'R'Us having an exclusivity deal on the non-crap AOE toys in the UK...Sigh. I do wish there were laws in place to prevent big chains having exclusive rights to products, but with the firm grip Walmart and TRU have on both Hasbro's and the government's testicles that's not gonna happen.

So yeah. This all sucks, because I really want Scorn! The guy's awesome even if he is much too small. In fact, I'll be perfectly honest, I'd like to see Scorn given the Lugnut treatment- given a redesign and added to the official G1 Dinobot roster. Robot spinosaurus = awesome, regardless of continuity.

As for the new products...

Snarl looks a bit iffy TBH. Not terrible, but he looks a little bare-bones. It's the arms that are the problems- the weird angle they're fixed at is just yeurch. Especially considering the hollow forearms could have just let them fold into the cavity and hide better in Stegosaurus mode. The rest of him is great though.

Bumblebee is...ugh. The base mold itself isn't too bad (I'm fairly tolerant of shellforming provided it's done well, ala RID Side Burn) but I honestly don't see why they bothered with the shuriken thingies. He never used them in the movie, and surely it would make more sense to nix them from the mold and use the extra budget for something that would make sense, like his hand cannon?

Hot Shot looks OK but I like the mold better as Crosshairs (especially with the extra paint apps of the Takara version).

Slog...Looks gorgeous. That is the best brachiosaurus mode I've seen on a transformer, third or first party. Aside from the fact that proportionally it looks like an actual brachiosaurus as opposed to a "brontosaurus", the thing's a slaggin' walking fortress. Just look at all those spikes! The weapons are a little dumb but I reckon with repainting they'd look good. The only thing I can say about the mold I don't like is his lack of a wrist swivel and subsequent "monkey arms", meaning he can't hold his weapons well. Still, does a 'bot as big as Slog/Sludge need weapons to kick manifolds? (Although for what it's worth, with a bit of modification I reckon those sword/lance/drill things would make great shoulder cannons. Because there is nothing so awesome as a robotic brachiosaurus with heavy artillery).

Silver Knight Optimus Prime is a million times better than I thought he would be...but he still looks like crap, and in any case the FE mold is objectively terrible from what I heard, especially compared to the second version. Also, there's the fact he never actually uses that huge energy shield in the movie, using the smaller cannon version instead. He also still suffers from severe chrome-a-lack (at least on the parts that actually need chrome).

And goddamnit Hasbro, if you're gonna photoshop your stock photos then at least do it well.

[steviebops]

Why is it covered in buttplugs?

[william-james88]

I see a few comments referring to the oversimplification of the figures in the line. I just wanted to comment that I do not agree with that. When it comes to the deluxe dinobots, they have as much if not more complexity than any of the animal transformers released in North America.

While there are figures that are purposefully simplified, I do not feel the straight up "generations" figures are less complex than what has come before especially when comparing ot the likes of the Beast Machines Optimus/Cheetor, BW TM2 Cheetor and even most of the first wave Beast Wars figures like Optimus Primal and Rhinox.

[OptimalOptimus2]

Who said that AOE is doing poorly? It's making money hand over fist. The only problems with the toys, at least from what I can see, is that stores bought a ton of those simplified figures and aren't carrying the Generations figures as much.

I know. I went to a Walmart in Maplewood, MO and it only has a few Transformers: Age of Extinction toys and no other Transformers toys. No Rescue Bots, Generations, Kre-Os, Construct-bots, just a few AOE toys. Shame.

Is it because they're selling or low stock?

I'm assuming it means those products are selling. Collectors are a fun bunch when it comes to this stuff. If stores are low on products, fans blame the stores saying they're not stocking stuff (god forbid if it's actually selling faster than we're used to). If stores are heavy on products, fans flame the stores saying that too much product was ordered (god forbid that stores actually try to maintain inventory levels so their shelves aren't empty). Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The toys were on a tiny shelf, dedicating that shelf to only AOE toys. There were only Wave 1 Deluxe (excluding Drift), One-Step, Flip'n'Change, Voyager, Leader and Power Attackers toys. I looked around and girl toys were dominating the shelves, no other Transformers. I doubt if they had any Transformers toys at all before the AOE toyline was released.

[Lucky Logician]

Why does that OP have blue shins? There is literally no blue anywhere else on the figure. Why not just make it that black color like his shoulders and forearms?

[TimothyR]

don't get me wrong.. i LOVE this site.. but isn't a bit annoying that ALL of the new toys news is posted in the same thread?.. i mean, you either get a bunch of people talking about different things.. or you only get a little bit to talk about a certain thing. it's just a but annoying and odd.

like i said, i LOVE this site.. i just don't understand the reason to do it this way.

[Rated X]

I cant wait for slog to come out. But I will wait for retail. Im not gonna pay 75 bucks from bbts with a drift I dont need. I understand that bbts needs to make theyre money because they are going to get stuck with alot of grimlocks and primes when that wave comes out. But thats not my problem. Im confident ill find slog in Walmart by the end of August.

On a separate note, I would love to see "thread merging" abolished. Its so freaking annoying to see conversations about 10 different topics mixed together just because they are loosly related to Michael Bay.

[GuyIncognito]

I also hate the thread-merging BS. Maybe we should start a petition thread or something.

[Peridot]

Indeed. It's somewhat annoying having to scroll through 2 pages of comments on a news article to reply to a comment for a previous article. Then again, without these merged threads, I'd probably have a million different threads opened in different tabs, all of which basically discuss the same topic.

[Rated X]

I also hate the thread-merging BS. Maybe we should start a petition thread or something.

Thats an awesome idea. Where would we post it to ensure people see it ?