The Energon Pub

Let me preface this post with "I hate Human Alliance". I do. I really do. The Bumblebees, the Skids, the Jazzes, etc. I tried to like them, but quickly lost interest. Same thing happened with Alternators, though I'd say Alternators were far more ambitious. They kept the accuracy as best as possible and still made a great looking figure. (I liked Alternators better than Human Alliance, but I'm drifting, my bad.)

With that mindset, I thought "Ugh. $10.00 basics? Those look like crap."

Bought none of them, let them collect dust on the pegs and shelves. (Shelves for the overstock.)

Then...I saw Tailpipe & Pinpointer with Sergeant Noble. I had mentioned this guy in another thread and I still wasn't convinced at that point. Even then, I said it was a good deal because you were getting three toys for the price of one.

I had some extra money burning a hole in my pocket and saw him on the peg and said "Aw, what the hell, let's give it a whirl."

CRAP IN A HAT AWESOME.

Pinpointer's a Targetmaster that looks cool and triple changes! A robot, a handgun and a vehicle mounted weapon. And rather posable too!

Tailpipe turned out to be far better than I expected as well. His bike mode's a little off kilter due to the construction of the wheel assembly, but it still looks good. The weapon mode is a tad goofy with the spinning wheels of doom, but still neat.

Sergeant Noble...mini figure, with loads of articulation.

All for $10.00! Then I saw Whirl with Major Sparkplug. I figured it's $10.00 and it's the last one, might as well grab it while I can. Glad I did. Doggone it, little bugger's fun to tinker with. The weapon mode is really neat and mounts nicely on Sentinel Prime's forearm. (Though I do worry about his copper colored plastic, the guy's made of nothing but that. )

And of course, this lead me to buy another... Backfire with Spike Witwicky. Two out of three ain't bad, but this guy is pretty much a stinker. His vehicle mode rocks. His weapon mode rocks. Robot mode...not so much. No, not so much. He immediately froze me in my tracks, because I was interested in buying Icepick and Sergeant Chaos. He didn't look much better (actually, not as good, if I'm going to be honest) than Backfire. So, I put my foot down and stopped buying them, for the time being.

Yet, the two I do enjoy...I'm addicted to. And I could see many more grabbing my attention. That Drag Strip looking guy? No. The red hover cycle guy? Yes. I came to the realization that I only like the Human Alliance basics that become weapons for other figures. The other figures become a mech suit, or a missile bank or something along those lines, but the ones I bought really do much much more.

I'm finding a slight urge to buy Thunderhead and Major Tungsten. I keep telling myself no, but he's enticing. These little buggers, especially Tailpipe and Pinpointer, are just a lot of fun and the bigger robots look friggin' ridiculous decked out in these things. Ridiculously AWESOME.

So, those of you who've bought into these Basics... Any recommendations? Any I should avoid? What do you like? What are you hoping for in the future?

And to those of you on the fence about these, I can understand, but if you get one and just one... make it Tailpipe and Pinpointer. Tremendously awesome set. A triple changing duo? Yeah, that's badass.

Thunderhead is the worst of the lot. He should be the last one you buy. Icepick is much better, I would get him. Sandstorm is pretty decent, but you may or may not want to wait for the lunar rover repaint. I don't have Drag Strip so I don't have an opinion there.

LOST Cybertronian wrote:Thunderhead is the worst of the lot. He should be the last one you buy. Icepick is much better, I would get him. Sandstorm is pretty decent, but you may or may not want to wait for the lunar rover repaint. I don't have leadfoot so I don't have an opinion there.

Really? Thunderhead's that bad? I wondered. The mech suit did look rather ridiculous. I'll scratch him off the list then. Sandstorm is the one that turns into the missile thing, right? Leadfoot's off the list because I'll be going Deluxe for him.

Autobot032 wrote:

LOST Cybertronian wrote:Really? Thunderhead's that bad? I wondered. The mech suit did look rather ridiculous. I'll scratch him off the list then. Sandstorm is the one that turns into the missile thing, right? Leadfoot's off the list because I'll be going Deluxe for him.

Yup Thunderhead is that bad. Not even that green repaint that is coming can save him. Sandstorm is the one that turns into that missle thing but robot mode and vehicle mode are very nice. I typed Leadfoot when I meant to say Drag Strip. However I have not found Drag Strip at retail yet.

If you spread Backfire's leg wheels out and open, BOOM, Leg articulation.
As for his stubby little arms? This is how I cope.
The whole arm is just the shoulder on down to the elbow.
The machine guns form the rest of the arm. Lots of poseability and Possibilty ther. Hope that helps you like Backfire even more!
Whirl Kicks ass, just SO MUCH ASS KICK THERE!
Thunderhead....I want him, I don't care what the others say, he looks awesome, and you really can't dissagree that he comes with one of the coolest looking human figures too... His mech mode looks boss, and his "Tank mode can be folded down to look more "Tanky"
I want tailpipe and pinpointer, I really do.
Icepick turns into a chainsaw....want!
All and All, these H.A Basics are the Highlight of the DOTM Line!

The only two that really interested me were Icepick and Pinpointer but when I get them I found them rather uninteresting. I've hardly touched them.

I love them mostly for their weapon modes. I have 2 each of Backfire and Whirl, they make terrific weapons. Icepick to a lesser degree, just one of him, but I'll get another sometime. Tailpipe is the weakest weapon mode IMO, lots of bulk for just 2 spinning blades. Love that he comes w/ an extra robot/weapon guy tho, great value.

Sandstorm can be twisted into a weapon of sorts, but he is so fantastic as a robot- great articulation. Repaints please. Ueah, these are great toys, very versatile and a great price.

Autobot032 wrote:Let me preface this post with "I hate Human Alliance". I do. I really do. The Bumblebees, the Skids, the Jazzes, etc.

Jazz thinks your a Decepticon Punk!


Anyway, back on topic, yes, I'm not a big fan of HA either. Really, I only got them for the humans (I should really plan a strategy to buy the humans off of eBay...)

I don't like HA Backfire very much. He is crap in a hat...JUST crap in a hat

Gyrotron wrote:I don't like HA Backfire very much. He is crap in a hat...JUST crap in a hat

Backfire makes a great fusion cannon for Megatron. Megz mechtech weapon simply isn't good enough. Just wish there was a Con version of Backfire.

DISCHARGE wrote:

Gyrotron wrote:I don't like HA Backfire very much. He is crap in a hat...JUST crap in a hat

Backfire makes a great fusion cannon for Megatron. Megz mechtech weapon simply isn't good enough. Just wish there was a Con version of Backfire.

There's an all black version available at K-Mart in a Bumblebee/Sam/repaint guy 3-pack. Get some reprolabels and voila, Decepticon Human Alliance fusion cannon bot.

I still haven't picked up any of the basic HA figures, the price always drove me away on them. HA Roadbuster was my first HA figure that I picked up and now I kind of regret not picking up any of the ROTF HA figures, once again that $29.99 price tag drove me off.

With the TRU buy 1 get 1 50% off sale I might pick up some of the basic suggestions on here and give them a try.

Air Commander Starscream wrote:I still haven't picked up any of the basic HA figures, the price always drove me away on them. HA Roadbuster was my first HA figure that I picked up and now I kind of regret not picking up any of the ROTF HA figures, once again that $29.99 price tag drove me off.

With the TRU buy 1 get 1 50% off sale I might pick up some of the basic suggestions on here and give them a try.

Definitely should get Tailpipe and Pinpointer. As it was said, the weapon mode isn't exactly the best, but it works. Pinpointer works with both Tailpipe and all figures that have a 5mm hand hole.

Gyrotron wrote:I don't like HA Backfire very much. He is crap in a hat...JUST crap in a hat

He comes with a hat? I'd buy him for the hat.

I like Backfire cause he is different from his HFTD mode breaking up the 4 bikes sharing the same alt mode/robot mode from the ROTF/HFTD line. I can pose him and he now is different then the other 3 from that line (Knockout, Reverb, and Trenchmouth)

It's nice to step away from the crowd and get a new mold.

I have all of the ha basics up to dragstrip's wave, and this is how I'd rank them:
6. Sandstorm, IMO he sucks little to none wheel clearance.
5. Thunderhead, only reason it is ahead of Sandstorm is because theads weapon is more practical than a huge misle that can't be held. Also thead looks good in his mech suit fighting the deluxe laserbeack. End rant.
4. Whirl ski feet bug me.
3. Backfire, he's a bfg!
2. Pinpionter, as you said three toys for the price of one.
1. Icepick, great vehicle mode. weapon is not the worst. Robot mode gives of a fembot vibe when in his bio he is a dude. Still looks great.

Just an opinion, but I picked up Dragstrip today and he is horrible.
Feels like cheap plastic, especially the legs/front end. He doesn't hold together very well in either mode. His shield mode isn't very shieldy looking either. I was deceived by this Decepticon.
Master Disaster is pretty cool though.

DISCHARGE wrote:Just an opinion, but I picked up Dragstrip today and he is horrible.
Feels like cheap plastic, especially the legs/front end. He doesn't hold together very well in either mode. His shield mode isn't very shieldy looking either. I was deceived by this Decepticon.
Master Disaster is pretty cool though.

did you find this at retail?

t$money$49 wrote:

DISCHARGE wrote:Just an opinion, but I picked up Dragstrip today and he is horrible.
Feels like cheap plastic, especially the legs/front end. He doesn't hold together very well in either mode. His shield mode isn't very shieldy looking either. I was deceived by this Decepticon.
Master Disaster is pretty cool though.

did you find this at retail?

Yeah, I found it in Aledo,IL Walmart. Only one though, I left the Sandstorm repaint although his human partner looks cool with the green helmet.

DISCHARGE wrote:

t$money$49 wrote:

DISCHARGE wrote:Just an opinion, but I picked up Dragstrip today and he is horrible.
Feels like cheap plastic, especially the legs/front end. He doesn't hold together very well in either mode. His shield mode isn't very shieldy looking either. I was deceived by this Decepticon.
Master Disaster is pretty cool though.

did you find this at retail?

Yeah, I found it in Aledo,IL Walmart. Only one though, I left the Sandstorm repaint although his human partner looks cool with the green helmet.

Sweet I'm happy to hear that it is starting to get released.

I like a few of them. Still waiting on the Tailpipe/Pinpointer and Whirl wave. We only ever got Wave 1 here.

DISCHARGE wrote:

Gyrotron wrote:I don't like HA Backfire very much. He is crap in a hat...JUST crap in a hat

Backfire makes a great fusion cannon for Megatron. Megz mechtech weapon simply isn't good enough. Just wish there was a Con version of Backfire.

CRAP, why did you have to mention that? Now I'm kind of interested... Actually, no...too grey and I wouldn't want to buy that 2-pack.

They should make a Human Alliance Figure named Backlash and he would be a jet that turns into the star saber and reads this forum and wonders were all this backlash comes from.
INCEPTION

Personally, I think Thunderhead is an excellent figure. I've actually been making combinations between him and Backfire. Maybe I'll get some pics up later

just finished wave 1 with the $5 coupons
waiting on wave3 around here