The Energon Pub

with the recent release its fairly clear that the transformers coming out are all based on idw's comic designs. as such the big question i have is will they use this chance to give us and overlord toy or any other non us character thats been left out till now?


seriously this is the moment we should be asking questions like this of hasbro don't you think?

Hasbro can only do so much at a time. Maybe there will be an official Overlord done at some point.

Problem is, that there are a lot of cool IDW designs that would look pretty cool in the larger size classes - Ultra Magnus, Overlord, Fort Max and Galvatron just naming the ones off the top of my head. I've come to believe more and more that much of Hasbro's earnings aren't from the first mold use, but rather the subsequent uses of the mold. For Springer they recoup the design-time, prototyping phase, and final mold construction. Sandstorm would be (comparatively at least) pure profit.

When we talk about characters like Overlord, Utra Magnus, etc... there just isn't much one can do to reuse the mold, and thus not much financial incentives for Hasbro to produce a figure.

Look at Metroplex. He's gotten two uses right out of the bat with SDCC and mass-release. I bet that's not an accident in timing.

With these larger, un-repaintable characters, it's probably best to hope for 3rd parties to fill that gap. It'll be much more expensive and it'll take a year and a half from announcement to production, but at least it'll get on your shelves.

repaints are ok but i don't like them just reusing the same mold over and over -i would like more retooling like the recent cybertronian stuff -also some bots are just too special to have anything but their own mold

plus if they really need to make it so the jet becomes megastorm and the tank becomes gigastorm and make them voyagers that way you combine and get one or you can use them for another jet and tank combo. they could give grand slam and raindancer an upgrade from tapes to full bots and their comb slamdancer would be awsome

your reading this hasbro

chaosmage42 wrote:repaints are ok but i don't like them just reusing the same mold over and over -i would like more retooling like the recent cybertronian stuff -also some bots are just too special to have anything but their own mold

Hasbro is a business. Transformers are toys, and with very few exceptions aimed at kids, not collectors. If they can't get their money's worth, it's not likely.

i know their aimed at kids but lets face it their just as much targeted at us most kids don't get that many toys from a line-when i was a kid i never got all of a toy line -parents always have some reason not to buy it -parents didn't like guns when i was a kid -or so they claimed -my little brother has a ton of toy guns-parents kinda like to make excuse not to spend money

Mkall wrote:Hasbro can only do so much at a time. Maybe there will be an official Overlord done at some point.

Problem is, that there are a lot of cool IDW designs that would look pretty cool in the larger size classes - Ultra Magnus, Overlord, Fort Max and Galvatron just naming the ones off the top of my head. I've come to believe more and more that much of Hasbro's earnings aren't from the first mold use, but rather the subsequent uses of the mold. For Springer they recoup the design-time, prototyping phase, and final mold construction. Sandstorm would be (comparatively at least) pure profit.

When we talk about characters like Overlord, Utra Magnus, etc... there just isn't much one can do to reuse the mold, and thus not much financial incentives for Hasbro to produce a figure.

Look at Metroplex. He's gotten two uses right out of the bat with SDCC and mass-release. I bet that's not an accident in timing.

With these larger, un-repaintable characters, it's probably best to hope for 3rd parties to fill that gap. It'll be much more expensive and it'll take a year and a half from announcement to production, but at least it'll get on your shelves.

I think you are onto something.

Yeah... Hasbro is really starting to avoid 'bigger' figures. While the recent release of Fort Max might indicate otherwise, I just feel that an Overlord, especially one that is oriented to homage his IDW self, is a bit of a hopeless wish. But, much like anything else these days.... you can enjoy a third party attempt at your favorite character; bts-nova-lord-not-overlord-t95431.php

don't agree that their unrepaintable. It would depend on thing but recently they have reworked models like cybertron jazz into side swipe -megatron into dread wing excetra also how many times did they use that silver bolt mold as other bots -im fairly sure with proper thinking and some enginering they could also if they make the bots combiners. ie a tank and a jet that both become a robot then they both combine to become a larger robot they could reuse the molds for other jets and tanks -just sub the combining parts with extra weapons ect. Or if their clever use them for characters like rain dance and grand slam who probably haven't been used in forever-or make up some new ones -there are options

Blurrz wrote:[color=teal]Yeah... Hasbro is really starting to avoid 'bigger' figures.

You think so? I don't get that sense at all. We have giant versions of BH OP and Predaking. We have a new Metroplex, the biggest TF ever made. MP Soundwave and Acid Storm could be considered "bigger" figures. They recently reissued Armada Omega Supreme. They recently released their first gestalt made of all Deluxe figures (FoC), which is pretty big combined, and have already repainted it in several color schemes.

I'd argue that the Beast Hunters Leader Class figures come with the territory. It's a cartoon and TF cartoons, for the most part, have received Leader Class figures. The Masterpieces are Takara territory and Hasbro is simply continuing the tradition of bringing these molds into their own territory. Energon Omega, as well as Optimus Prime being reissued are simply reuses of prior molds. And.... as much as I don't want to condemn the attempt at Bruticus, let's say things could have been alot better.

So really, out of everything, it is simply Bruticus and Fortress Maximus that are really outside of the usual. I don't think it warrants an Overlord, who is 1) Not a movie character 2) Not a cartoon character 3) Not a video game character. 4) Not Bumblebee or Optimus Prime

The sales of Fortress Maximus are going to determine the nature of Hasbro's figures, and I still believe we are leaning towards smaller figures for the most part. Then having larger figures show up as either major characters blown up bigger, or actually getting something that works at that scale.

I guess I should of just elaborated 'bigger figures' as 'bigger figures that are new molds for unique characters outside of Cartoons/Movies/VGs'

Blurrz wrote:The sales of Fortress Maximus are going to determine the nature of Hasbro's figures, and I still believe we are leaning towards smaller figures for the most part. Then having larger figures show up as either major characters blown up bigger, or actually getting something that works at that scale.

I assume you mean Metroplex instead of Fortress Maximus. In which case the smaller Generations figures are meant to be in scale with Metroplex's city mode, hence why this last few waves have been smaller than what we'd like to see. I hope it's a temporary thing, but we shall see.

Blurrz wrote:I'd argue that the Beast Hunters Leader Class figures come with the territory. It's a cartoon and TF cartoons, for the most part, have received Leader Class figures. The Masterpieces are Takara territory and Hasbro is simply continuing the tradition of bringing these molds into their own territory. Energon Omega, as well as Optimus Prime being reissued are simply reuses of prior molds. And.... as much as I don't want to condemn the attempt at Bruticus, let's say things could have been alot better.

So really, out of everything, it is simply Bruticus and Fortress Maximus that are really outside of the usual. I don't think it warrants an Overlord, who is 1) Not a movie character 2) Not a cartoon character 3) Not a video game character. 4) Not Bumblebee or Optimus Prime

The sales of Fortress Maximus are going to determine the nature of Hasbro's figures, and I still believe we are leaning towards smaller figures for the most part. Then having larger figures show up as either major characters blown up bigger, or actually getting something that works at that scale.

I guess I should of just elaborated 'bigger figures' as 'bigger figures that are new molds for unique characters outside of Cartoons/Movies/VGs'

I wonder if the margin for deluxes and other small figures has changed and comes into play which is driving smaller figures.

i think the problem with deluxes is that they were pricing thatm at 16 bucks for the longest time here. And thats at the walmarts and discount stores -think what it must be at places that really jack up the price. I think they need to lower the price back to 9.99 and go back to the scout and deluxe size pricing and stop it with the cyberverse and legends their terrible figure and are not very good looking.

Also i feel overlord is a possible as many of the figures we are getting are being done because of the idw spotlight comics if they did an overlord spot light you know we would be getting one. Also the comics were the main story back after the g1 series finished remember this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnL7oW--6O0

also overlord's third party character is being made is kinda cool and i may consider getting him depending on the price though the aircraft carrier thing is not something im fond of -i prefer just the jet and tank