The Energon Pub

Scaleface wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Sure fans wanted Pretenders updates toys but I don't think fans wanted it done this PWTT way. Think this is the worse way possible to create them.

Examples of good pretenders updates toys are MMC'S Felis sabre, HasTak's evolved Voyager Bludgeon, Evolved Deluxe Thunderwing. Those Universe Animal Minicons that had some Animal Pretenders characters toys.

Do not "pretend" to speak for all fans.

Bludgeon, Thunderwing and Felisaber are not "evolved Pretenders" they are "removed Pretenders". I would say that simply making the inner robots into backpack is way closer to the Pretender concept than getting rid of the Pretender option.

Look at things like GDO Megatron, who is a recolor and new head on Bludgeon. Do people say it's "Pretender Megatron"? NO. It's just Megatron as a Transformer. ROTF Bludgeon is not a pretender.

Speaking of which though, I wonder if PWTT do make a Bludgeon, if we could get a green version with a Megatron head, or a Bludgeon, or a Banzaitron who were true Pretenders from this.

"Removed pretenders" ?

If anything Hasbro removed the silly gimmick that dealt the final blow to US G1 toy sales in the late 80s.

Play with this too didnt create pretenders. They created detachable companions that accompany their masters of the universe styled figures. They completly disregarded the concept of the robots being the main character and turned the shells into the main characters.

Granted the pretender concept was intended for child playability. Every attempt to give it a fiction including marvel comics has been silly. Hasbro did the characters justice by removing the concept altogether while maintaining key aesthetics.

Thundertron is the only TF Leoric so far and I'm sticking to that!

If BMOG prices are anything to go by, these PWTT toys are going to be insanely high priced.

Can't wait to see the insane price PWTT will charge for the mass release figures. I'm guessing around $80 or higher than $50.

Think this whole project-toy line from PWTT, Screams create a low quality product and charge fans a fortune for it. So we can pay all those top EX-Hasbro employees their insanely high salaries.

Rated X wrote:Granted the pretender concept was intended for child playability. Every attempt to give it a fiction including marvel comics has been silly. Hasbro did the characters justice by removing the concept altogether while maintaining key aesthetics.

For Masterforce the Pretenders morphed into their shells, and they were all the same character. So I don't really see how there is any holy word from on high that Pretenders must be portrayed in fiction only in the way the Marvel Comics portrayed them.

I recall on CHUG Thunderwing, they even included the small "drone", that was the actual inner robot on the G1 toy, it didn't transform, and it is now considered a drone, and it didn't go inside Thunderwing any more.... BASICALLY JUST WHAT PWTToo DOES, except PWTToo drones transform!





Hey look, a Tech Drone, that doesn't even transform! Pathetic.

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:Granted the pretender concept was intended for child playability. Every attempt to give it a fiction including marvel comics has been silly. Hasbro did the characters justice by removing the concept altogether while maintaining key aesthetics.

For Masterforce the Pretenders morphed into their shells, and they were all the same character. So I don't really see how there is any holy word from on high that Pretenders must be portrayed in fiction only in the way the Marvel Comics portrayed them.

I recall on CHUG Thunderwing, they even included the small "drone", that was the actual inner robot on the G1 toy, it didn't transform, and it is now considered a drone, and it didn't go inside Thunderwing any more.... BASICALLY JUST WHAT PWTToo DOES, except PWTToo drones transform!





Hey look, a Tech Drone, that doesn't even transform! Pathetic.

Hey look, BMOG PWTT Tech drones inner pretender robots with less articulation than the 1988-1989 inner pretender robots.

Think that HasTak's Generations Deluxe Thunderwing and Voyager Bludgeon are galaxies better than what PWTT has created. It's what fans liked and still want more of.

Think it's a bad move PWTT trying to compete with MOTU, WWE, Super hero's, Spawn and so on with their similar PWTT products. Don't think many of these fans would be willing to pay those insane high 3rd party prices, when they can pay retail prices instead. That's the reason no one has attempted it before, because it's a losing battle.

Think the worse offense this PWTT company has said is that they are a legit company, trying to create unique products. They are not, they are a 3rd party company, that are stealing likeness designs from other companies.

To the best of my knowledge PWTT has not done anything like a legal liscensed company does. like Hasbro or mattel. PWTT probably hasn't filed for any liscenses or registered their company to make it legal. Guessing PWTT hasn't bothered to patent or liscense any of it's products because they know they can't because most of their designs have the likeness of real companies stolen from Hasbro, Mattel and so on. PWTT probably won't bother as they figure they can save loads of money not doing so.

Scaleface wrote:

Rated X wrote:Granted the pretender concept was intended for child playability. Every attempt to give it a fiction including marvel comics has been silly. Hasbro did the characters justice by removing the concept altogether while maintaining key aesthetics.

For Masterforce the Pretenders morphed into their shells, and they were all the same character. So I don't really see how there is any holy word from on high that Pretenders must be portrayed in fiction only in the way the Marvel Comics portrayed them.

I recall on CHUG Thunderwing, they even included the small "drone", that was the actual inner robot on the G1 toy, it didn't transform, and it is now considered a drone, and it didn't go inside Thunderwing any more.... BASICALLY JUST WHAT PWTToo DOES, except PWTToo drones transform!





Hey look, a Tech Drone, that doesn't even transform! Pathetic.

While the PWTT concept might be more accurate to the later pretenders, it disregards the concept behind the original pretenders. PWTT has made their skullgrin homage the posterboy for their new line. Skullgrin was an original pretender with an empty shell he fit inside.

Im not trying to defend the original hasbro concept either. No matter how you slice it, pretenders was a concept that failed. It failed in the fiction. It failed in the toys. The only bigger failure was action masters. Hasbro is finally giving the characters justice. They got rid of the pretender shells and gave the action masters alt modes. PWTT is taking things a step backwards.

Rated X wrote:While the PWTT concept might be more accurate to the later pretenders, it disregards the concept behind the original pretenders. PWTT has made their skullgrin homage the posterboy for their new line. Skullgrin was an original pretender with an empty shell he fit inside.

Im not trying to defend the original hasbro concept either. No matter how you slice it, pretenders was a concept that failed. It failed in the fiction. It failed in the toys. The only bigger failure was action masters. Hasbro is finally giving the characters justice. They got rid of the pretender shells and gave the action masters alt modes. PWTT is taking things a step backwards.

It seems like you're not railing against PWTT per se, but rather the Pretender concept, which you think is stupid, or failed, or whatever.

Why not wait for the Kickstarter, and then you'll see how stupid it really is (or isn't).

megatronus wrote:

Rated X wrote:While the PWTT concept might be more accurate to the later pretenders, it disregards the concept behind the original pretenders. PWTT has made their skullgrin homage the posterboy for their new line. Skullgrin was an original pretender with an empty shell he fit inside.

Im not trying to defend the original hasbro concept either. No matter how you slice it, pretenders was a concept that failed. It failed in the fiction. It failed in the toys. The only bigger failure was action masters. Hasbro is finally giving the characters justice. They got rid of the pretender shells and gave the action masters alt modes. PWTT is taking things a step backwards.

It seems like you're not railing against PWTT per se, but rather the Pretender concept, which you think is stupid, or failed, or whatever.

Why not wait for the Kickstarter, and then you'll see how stupid it really is (or isn't).

Well its well documented how I feel about kickstarters so even if I like it, I wont be buying unless retailers get in on the sales. Im not a huge fan of non robot action figures to begin with, so making the robot the afterthought and the shell the main figure doesnt help sell me on it. We shall see how they come out. But it seems like theyre too busy making more and more concept art when they should be busy producing the first figure. If it takes them months to make a sword imagine the whole figure ?

Very torn on this...I would love to add the masterfore pretenders to my japanese shelf, but so far that's it. Maybe if the robot heads and AM style robots look good I might treat them as pre-transforming cybertronians. Now if PWTT made those generic green drones from "the key to vector sigma" episode at the right price, I would snag a few.

PWTT is brave for this "concept" but I hope it's no whammy( ) for them.

megatronus wrote:

Rated X wrote:While the PWTT concept might be more accurate to the later pretenders, it disregards the concept behind the original pretenders. PWTT has made their skullgrin homage the posterboy for their new line. Skullgrin was an original pretender with an empty shell he fit inside.

Im not trying to defend the original hasbro concept either. No matter how you slice it, pretenders was a concept that failed. It failed in the fiction. It failed in the toys. The only bigger failure was action masters. Hasbro is finally giving the characters justice. They got rid of the pretender shells and gave the action masters alt modes. PWTT is taking things a step backwards.

It seems like you're not railing against PWTT per se, but rather the Pretender concept, which you think is stupid, or failed, or whatever.

Why not wait for the Kickstarter, and then you'll see how stupid it really is (or isn't).

Really does seem you don't like Pretenders, except removing the Pretender gimmick. At this point you know EXACTLY what PWTToo is doing. You don't like it. You are just repeating yourself. They are not changing for you. I don't collect MP toys, I don't spend pages and pages in them saying they should be more CHUG like.

https://www.facebook.com/PWTToo/photos/a.292919947560869.1073741828.264887950364069/327236837462513/?type=1&theater

I guess we've talked a lot about this character... Here is a tease of The Mighty Muscules Son of Testosterous.

According to Play With This Too's Rik Alvarez Mighty Muscules has a sash across his chest, handlebar mustache and wears a helmet. His personality is inspired by Hulk Hogan and he wants to join the Protectors. He has a daughter named Thunderous, who is the same figure with a new head. His favorite wrestling move was a strangle hold.

Mighty Muscules is intended to interact with the Head Shots Vol. 5 set. The heads represent his battle helmets. The Bruiser helmet is from the battle of Muscules vs. the Jerks of Regulon 7. The Secton helmet is from the battle of Muscules vs. the Guys at the Laundry Mart. The Tark helmet is from the battle of Muscules vs. the Dudes From That Planet.

From the looks of things it's the same base model as Desolataur (presumbly with a human head, hands and feet) and it's his shoulder piece.

This piece will be a Kickstarter exclusive, so if you want it you have to participate in the Kickstarter in February.

For comparison with G1 Stranglehold:

Counterpunch wrote:

Delta Magnus wrote:Let's not kid ourselves though, pretty much nothing is Transformers enough for the Transformers fandom. There's a reason there's so many pages on TFWiki making fun of the fandom and its impossibility to satisfy (see: Trukk not Munky, Ruined FOREVER, GEEWUN etc...). I agree it was a bad move to aim towards the Transformers fandom- because regardless of how amazing their work is, people will whine and complain and moan because it doesn't fit their personal view of what Transformers should be. It doesn't help that the fandom has a chronic allergy to anything even remotely original.

I don't think I was unreasonable.

It's gotten to the point that we can't be critical of anything without someone shouting "ruined forever" and "geewun" before the thought is even considered and that's total bullshit.

Indeed, you can't if your only criticisms are "NOT GEEWUN ENOUGH!" which isn't a legitimate criticism of an objective flaw- merely a statement of your personal taste. To be honest there's no point in criticizing them until they're actually out and we know if the build quality/paint apps etc are any good.

"Here's 3rd party Pretenders!"

::point out that they really aren't Pretenders in the G1 style they are emulating::

They were never proclaiming them to be "3rd party pretenders"- they said from the get-go they were action figures with transforming partners homaging the Pretenders.

"You don't like anything original. Not everything has to be geewun!"

::points out that these are supposed to be G1::

Except they aren't. As mentioned before, they're homages to the Pretender shell designs with transforming mini-figures- they were never meant to be "true G1".

"YOU'RE WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE HOBBY!!!"

:: ::

Careful, that strawman is setting off my hayfever.

Oh, my...I loook forward to this.

(I must be honest though, the G1 shell reminds me more of Freddy Mercury than Hulk Hogan...)

Delta Magnus wrote:Oh, my...I loook forward to this.

(I must be honest though, the G1 shell reminds me more of Freddy Mercury than Hulk Hogan...)

See, this is where you are wrong. Burt Reynolds! It's definitely Burt.

Stranglehold P.I.

Scaleface wrote: He has a daughter named Thunderous, who is the same figure with a new head.

Just a new head? Anything else, like a sports bra? different dressing outfit?

If it's just a new head, then that's just all types or wrong.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

Scaleface wrote: He has a daughter named Thunderous, who is the same figure with a new head.

Just a new head? Anything else, like a sports bra? different dressing outfit?

If it's just a new head, then that's just all types or wrong.

We can hope they meant some new armor too.

Anyone else notice that the colors on the Jetstrike body and the Kickstarter exclusive version of Madwing match? You can make Pretender Slipstream!

It...sort of works!

Another teaser went up last night, and we should get the reveal today!

We have a promo poster!

edit and erase.

Heh, I see what they did there.

Tech Drone - D-throne will be available with Bloodbath.

The orange parts are BMOG pieces. They fit perfectly on the 5mm pegs.

Here is D-throne by himself. Still need to tighten up the model a little bit.

For scale reference, here is D-throne standing next to a Stormtrooper.

Tech Dones can also come apart and become weapons for the 6in characters.

D-throne in vehicle mode - tough to see the details on this sample and without paint.

This looks pretty neat. I'm planning to get at least Bloodbath or Bitemark with the Skull-FCKR head.