The Energon Pub

The Mt. St. Hilary playset could have gone great with the Action Masters when those happened. Of course, at that point the brand's clout with retailers was probably too low to get a big playset on the shelves, so... Sigh.

At the time the set was proposed, I suspect that Hasbro were reluctant to create the molds needed to put out something big in the line that wasn't itself a Transformer. Especially if it was big enough to give room for the likes of Optimus and the Dinobots to be playable.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:The Mt. St. Hilary playset could have gone great with the Action Masters when those happened. Of course, at that point the brand's clout with retailers was probably too low to get a big playset on the shelves, so... Sigh.

At the time the set was proposed, I suspect that Hasbro were reluctant to create the molds needed to put out something big in the line that wasn't itself a Transformer. Especially if it was big enough to give room for the likes of Optimus and the Dinobots to be playable.

Probably, though when I was a kid the carpet was part of the base, I doubt I would have cared if I couldn't fit everyone inside, didn't stop them from making City Bots. And yeah, not being able to actually transform probably didn't help, but at the same time they surely could have found an alternate use for it like Visionaries (which had their mountain playset cancelled just before production).

Emerje

I mentioned this in another thread, but I guess it really belongs in here. Armada Hotshot was supposed to get redecoed into G1 Smokescreen's colors in Universe, and it would have looked great. Hasbro then could have done Prowl and Bluestreak as well. I wonder if that mold is too far gone to be resurrected...

Wow, those concepts look pretty wild! Especially the family; you can even see the age difference in the chosen alt-modes, with the "parents" being old-timey cars and the "children" more modern, chibified vehicles.

And that Mt. Hillary playset looks super cool! Though I think it might've worked better for Cyberverse or Core rather than Action Masters, given the scale.
...Actually, come to think of it, have we ever seen a Cyberverse playset other than the DoTM Ark? That'd be the perfect line for them!

Regarding cancelled repaints, I'd also like to see the G2 decos of Swoop, Sludge and Grimlock. Especially Swoop and Sludge who never got a G2 release while Grimlock had three, but I really like that striped deco; I could see it reworked into a Collaborative Greymon (unlikely since Bandai owns Digimon, but hey, we've already got a LEGO Optimus Prime coming, apparently)




There's also this cancelled line called Generators centered around organic transforming aliens, which would honestly be pretty cool in concept and worldbuilding. Unfortunately, the only prototype...well...just look at it.


That's way too goofy for me and I'm the kind of guy who doesn't think Rock Lords is that ridiculous a concept.

MaximalNui wrote:Wow, those concepts look pretty wild! Especially the family; you can even see the age difference in the chosen alt-modes, with the "parents" being old-timey cars and the "children" more modern, chibified vehicles.

And that Mt. Hillary playset looks super cool! Though I think it might've worked better for Cyberverse or Core rather than Action Masters, given the scale.
...Actually, come to think of it, have we ever seen a Cyberverse playset other than the DoTM Ark? That'd be the perfect line for them!

Optimus Maximus.

As far as what G1 had for smaller figures, I think Action Masters would have suited it best. At 3.75" (if I have the info right) they were reasonably playset-friendly (which was part of the intent), and had articulation that most Micromasters of the day could only dream of.

I too want to see those G2 decos, especially Swoop and Sludge. I want to get duplicates of the G1s to paint into those, I want a KO Volcanicus (because the prices on legit PotP Dinobot limbs can go kiss the Unicron Singularity) to do up in G2 colors, and I would absolutely buy G2-deco releases of the Studio Series versions.

I think I'd judge the Primes Dinobots less harshly if they had G2 redecos. It wouldn't save the molds in my eyes, but they would be bringing something new to the table and I could appreciate that.

Although ... released blue Grimlock or unreleased yellow with tiger stripes? Blue is more well known I think, but the yellow just pops a bit more. Although it's repeating a trick they did with Onslaught.

As a novelty it would be cool if they released the Studio Dinobots in G2 style, but it's not something I'd buy.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I think I'd judge the Primes Dinobots less harshly if they had G2 redecos. It wouldn't save the molds in my eyes, but they would be bringing something new to the table and I could appreciate that.

They already bring something to the table: New toys of the full team, fairly G1-faithful but with better articulation, as well as a combined mode. And they're undoubtedly a factor in us getting the Studio Series Dinobots. For kitbashers, they also offer (among other things) a way to get articulated Diaclone Dinosaur Robos (just replace the pegs and Volcanicus' head with cockpits, and make adapters for the G1 weapons they can't already use).

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Although ... released blue Grimlock or unreleased yellow with tiger stripes? Blue is more well known I think, but the yellow just pops a bit more. Although it's repeating a trick they did with Onslaught.

I'd say blue. Partly because I like blue a fair bit.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:As a novelty it would be cool if they released the Studio Dinobots in G2 style, but it's not something I'd buy.

Well, I would. And if it doesn't happen officially...
I'm probably getting duplicates to do it myself.

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I think I'd judge the Primes Dinobots less harshly if they had G2 redecos. It wouldn't save the molds in my eyes, but they would be bringing something new to the table and I could appreciate that.

They already bring something to the table: New toys of the full team, fairly G1-faithful but with better articulation, as well as a combined mode. And they're undoubtedly a factor in us getting the Studio Series Dinobots. For kitbashers, they also offer (among other things) a way to get articulated Diaclone Dinosaur Robos (just replace the pegs and Volcanicus' head with cockpits, and make adapters for the G1 weapons they can't already use).

I'm not getting into this with you too much in this thread, but I will say that none of that is really new, with the notable exception of combining. The combining is new. Just doing "articulated G1, but in a disappointing way" doesn't cut it. A lot of toys are "articulated G1".

I seem to recall we were going to get a retool of Energon Strongarm into Brawn, complete with an energon fist weapon. That would have been amazing and I'm kinda sad it never happened.

So, I've been trying to find scans of the TransTech epilogue to see how their SG designs looked, and I found out Airazor at least is based on this piece of concept art no one really knows where it's from:

Don't know if it's just a futuristic jet, or if it's somehow supposed to be an elemental design like energy or crystal, but either way I love it!

Also found this early version of the Animorphs toys, based mostly on fold-out and rubber parts.

Not sure if it'd be better received than what we got, given how different it is from your typical Transformer, but it definitely wouldn't last as long; apparently the head of the prototype has completely degraded already. Wonder if they could do something similar with hard plastic for future "organic" Transformers (probably not, though, given the volume and physics).

I wonder if Hasbro would reconsider using this remold:

God, there are so many to name! Here's my top five: (in no particular order)


Transtech Starscream, for the originality and aesthetics of the design.

Classics Soundwave. We wouldn't have had to wait until 2010 for a decent Soundwave!

Dark of the Moon Blaster. Not going to lie, he wears the design way better than Soundwave ever could.



Animated's biggest missed opportunities- an inventive redesign of Powermaster Optimus, and the smoothest-looking triple changer I've ever seen in Marauder Megatron. Please, Hasbro, I'm begging you.

TulioDude wrote:I wonder if Hasbro would reconsider using this remold:

I think I remember hearing about this one. It was a cancelled BotCon concept, right? Which one was it?

Speaking of other cancelled BotCon designs:

Tigerhawk7109 wrote:God, there are so many to name! Here's my top five: (in no particular order)


Transtech Starscream, for the originality and aesthetics of the design.

Classics Soundwave. We wouldn't have had to wait until 2010 for a decent Soundwave!

Dark of the Moon Blaster. Not going to lie, he wears the design way better than Soundwave ever could.

Last, but most certainly not least:

Animated's biggest missed opportunities- an inventive redesign of Powermaster Optimus, and the smoothest-looking triple changer I've ever seen in Marauder Megatron. Please, Hasbro, I'm begging you.

I think anyone at this point agrees Animated S4 was a huge missed opportunity.

MaximalNui wrote:

TulioDude wrote:I wonder if Hasbro would reconsider using this remold:

I think I remember hearing about this one. It was a cancelled BotCon concept, right? Which one was it?

Not BotCon at all: that's the unused alternate head for FoC Grimlock. Most Deluxe to Leader Class toys have alternate tooling built in (so-called "pretools") ever since 2010, but not all saw use. There are several unused ones that we know of, like Armada Demolishor in the CW Onslaught tooling.

Ah, must've gotten confused. It's just the head looks a lot like Beast Megatron to me, so I thought it was one of FunPub's remolds to fit another character.

Anyway, speaking of Beast Wars, here's a couple more good concepts:
- This early version of Megatron, when they were still trying to figure out how the line would work, and looks like a bizzare cross of Pretenders and Brainmasters. Would be cool to have more Transformers with an alt-mode that turns into armor for a smaller bot, even outside the beast department.

- During Beast Wars Neo, there was supposed to be a "Unicron's subordinate" character - eventually replaced by the Blentrons - remolded from Retrax into a Transmetal 2/Cyborg Beast design, with the ball as an "attack sattelite mode". While the robot mode suffers from the same issues as Retrax design-wise, the sattelite and bug mode are top-notch and could really be a good inspiration for a future planet-mode Transformer.

Transtech Depthcharge will always get my vote. Just looks awesome and I still hope Hasbro gets to it one day.

As for this:



I see AOE Grimlock as an homage to that, whether intentional or not.

So, there's been a bit of a discussion in the Legacy forum about what the cancelled Energon Monsters would be like:

Sabrblade wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Confirmed by Mark Maher: The Energon Monsters were dropped at the last minute and replaced by Skullgrin and most likely Bomb-Burst.

ah! And I was still trying to figure out who the energon monsters were
Did we get any official confirmation of the old plan? I'm curious. I started guessing bomb burst before I saw your post.

Likely just more gimmick figures similar to the fossilizers, only as monster-like creatures made of energy instead of dinosaur skeletons. They most likely would have broken apart into energon weapons, since that is Legacy's main play pattern.

I just had a stupid idea: what if, weaponizer KREMZEEK?

Some have speculated that he could have been among them, yes. Possibly the only familiar character with the rest being all new, like with the Fossilizers.

Sabrblade wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:I just had a stupid idea: what if, weaponizer KREMZEEK?

That's not stupid. That's actually SICK!

I dunno what "altmode" it could have (maybe a lightning "spaceship" à la Bayverse). It could be made out of clear rubbery plastics like the blast effects and cover a figure as a mighty cool LIGHTING ARMOR.

I get the feeling that the monster forms would have been the altmodes (beast modes), meaning Kremzeek (if he was to have been one of them) would have probably been given a robot mode.

Personally, the whole "monster" angle makes me think of the Demons from the Marvel comics; they were precursor energy vampires, after all (...which now that I think about it sounds a bit like JoJo's Pillar Men...). Or the Energon Terrorcons, since Legacy was going to have a sequel series to WfC and Unicron seemed to have more direct involvement.