The Energon Pub

I thought Ironhide was tough to transform, but NOooo, I actually spent more time on the mid-section on BO than IH. I knew the head chest spring piece wasn't meant to have playroom, but took me like 10 mins to snap it in the proper position. On top of that, the rotator blade weapon kept getting in the way, so removing it during transformation was wat i should've done da 1st place. Boy, could've save me some hassle. But in d end, it was worth it all.


Seibertron rocks dat hard.

yeah!!! blackout is awesome!!! just watch out for the pegs for the arms, i think u can ripp em apart really easy, luckly mines are good, for now...

I also took awhile to get used to his transforming scheme. But as of now all my movieline is in altmode anyway, and he doesn't look too bad.

awesome fig, once you figure out the chest part!

SUPREME CLASS! SUPREME CLASS! SUPREME CLASS!!!

Voyager is pretty cool though, I'm happy with mine.

I have Blackout too. He's pretty good. Poor Scorponok is trapped at the end though.

Silver Galvatron wrote:I thought Ironhide was tough to transform, but NOooo, I actually spent more time on the mid-section on BO than IH. I knew the head chest spring piece wasn't meant to have playroom, but took me like 10 mins to snap it in the proper position. On top of that, the rotator blade weapon kept getting in the way, so removing it during transformation was wat i should've done da 1st place. Boy, could've save me some hassle. But in d end, it was worth it all.


Seibertron rocks dat hard.

You know, most teens and adults are having a really hard time transforming the movie line. How the hell is a 5-10 year old going to have any fun with these? There just seems to be so little actual playability with them

Back in the day when I was all G1 (a kid in the 80’s-I didn’t do the 90s and early 2000s lines), they were just so damn easy to go from alt to robot and back. Now I know that they didn’t have the detail or the articulation and they came from less complex character designs but this is out of control. When we sit around and have to spend 10 minutes on one portion of the transformation or have to post something for help on something falling off or not transforming, something’s more than a little wrong. This is like an entire line of Masterpiece figures without the great detail.

DevastaTTor wrote:You know, most teens and adults are having a really hard time transforming the movie line. How the hell is a 5-10 year old going to have any fun with these? There just seems to be so little actual playability with them

Back in the day when I was all G1 (a kid in the 80’s-I didn’t do the 90s and early 2000s lines), they were just so damn easy to go from alt to robot and back. Now I know that they didn’t have the detail or the articulation and they came from less complex character designs but this is out of control. When we sit around and have to spend 10 minutes on one portion of the transformation or have to post something for help on something falling off or not transforming, something’s more than a little wrong. This is like an entire line of Masterpiece figures without the great detail.

You know that was exactly what was going to say.. Blackout sounds like a pretty terrible childrens toy. I'm sure he's a boon for adult collectors but seeing as the movie was aimed at the young, lazy and/or metally challanged you would have though they pitch the toys at the same demographic.

Yours AK

Is that a compliment to the movie toyline, then?

Raymond101 wrote:Is that a compliment to the movie toyline, then?

Yes and no. It's nice that they are well engineered complex figures, as an adult collector I can certainly appreciate them in that way. However they represent underdeveloped characters from a movie aimed at kids and leave you brain at the door thrill seekers, hardly the sort of people who would appreciate intricately designed well articulated action figures. Adversely the collectors market may find the characterisation and plot of the movie too low-brow to attract their attention to the toy. It's just a total mismatch in merchandising in my opinion. Bit what the hell do I know, you guys seem to be lapping them up.

Yours AK

Fair deal. But I'm not 'lapping them up' - I don't think you're being very fair to a lot of people who bought and love movie Prime, while at the same time hating a lot of the figures from the movie line. See, I consider myself pretty lucky to be collecting movie figures, although I'd be the first person to complain about the playability of these figures. I love Leader Prime and Megs, Megs I love even more for the sole reason I took the time to repaint him and customize him. I got Ratchet, Ironhide, Concept bumbles and Arcee because not only I liked their figures, I like the Autobots in the movie too.

Conversely, I have an axe to grind with the Decepticons. I HATE the movie drones. What craptastic failure. I have yet to find a good reason to buy Leader Brawl, the only 2 deluxes I have are Wreckage and Bonecrusher. Blackout I regret getting except for the alt mode.

Even though I have only recently returned from a decade-long hiatus, I am not indiscriminate in choosing my figures - and to some extent, my favourites are not because they come from the line itself, it's because I had uses for them, like customizing or emotional attachment. Overall I really think the movie line was not epic enough, many poor choices for size classes and figure molds were made, and I'm sure a lot of people who have movie toys feel the same way. Doesn't mean we're masochists though.

Raymond101 wrote:Fair deal. But I'm not 'lapping them up' - I don't think you're being very fair to a lot of people who bought and love movie Prime, while at the same time hating a lot of the figures from the movie line. See, I consider myself pretty lucky to be collecting movie figures, although I'd be the first person to complain about the playability of these figures. I love Leader Prime and Megs, Megs I love even more for the sole reason I took the time to repaint him and customize him. I got Ratchet, Ironhide, Concept bumbles and Arcee because not only I liked their figures, I like the Autobots in the movie too.

Conversely, I have an axe to grind with the Decepticons. I have yet to find a good reason to buy Leader Brawl, the only 2 deluxes I have are Wreckage and Bonecrusher. Blackout I regret getting except for the alt mode.

So I am not indiscriminate in choosing my figures. It's only been this year since I started collecting Transformers again, but I remember that was my same mentality in Beast Wars era.

I guess I really look at it just from the fun factor. I just can't see myself as a kid having the appreciation or the patience for this kind of design. Now that I have a young son, I would love for him to get into and enjoy some of the things I did/do but I'd feel bad giving him these toys when the design is just too overly complicated and frustrating. I sure hope that Hasbro gets back to basics for the Animated line lest they loose their younger audience/the future of Transformers collecting.

Fair enough. I hope you dont think I was 'tarring everyone with the same brush' with the 'lapping them up' comment. I just meant I can't personally see how the figures and the movie compliment each other, but clearly some people do.

I agree with DevastaTTor that main line figures really should have the emphasis on fun and playability as their target audience are kids. That doesn't mean they have to be badly designed or overly simplistic just that they appeal to kids and fulfil their expectations of them as toys. Intricate transformations, high detail and articulation are very welcome in collectors lines like Binaltech, Titanium, and Masterpeice but fro a main line playability should be the main focus.

Yours AK

I agree, in many ways the toy line does NOT compliment the movie. Ratchet, Prime and Megs are all too bulky (when did Megs have wings??), and this is a very common complaint, although I enjoy the bulk on Prime and Megs.

Bizarrely, a lot of the good figures aren't even featured in the movie. I don't think there's much to complain about Dropkick, Longarm, Arcee and Wreckage. If you look at it like this, the only good deluxe in-movie figures are THREE!!! (Concept Bumbles, Barricade, Bonecrusher, and some would dispute me on BC anyway).

Also famous in-movie figures suffer from significant faults, like Starscream, Blackout and '73 Bumblebee.

DevastaTTor wrote:

I guess I really look at it just from the fun factor. I just can't see myself as a kid having the appreciation or the patience for this kind of design. Now that I have a young son, I would love for him to get into and enjoy some of the things I did/do but I'd feel bad giving him these toys when the design is just too overly complicated and frustrating. I sure hope that Hasbro gets back to basics for the Animated line lest they loose their younger audience/the future of Transformers collecting.

If you look at it from the fun factor only, movie line = failure. No way around it imo. Conversely the Unicron trilogy would have been A+. The complaints seemed largely to centre around the show rather than the figures. I wouldn't complain since 1. I haven't seen the shows and 2. I'm Asian, so I would probably like the style of the show anyway.

This movie era seems to have been popular while controversial, and the toyline itself has been spectacularly successful while at the same time being controversial and quite obvious with some flaws. But hey, I've had my fix of display pieces via the figures I previously mentioned. I am especially proud of customized Leader Megs. I am all ready for the Animated series to come now, although I do regret not getting into Unicron series during my hiatus. I never even thought I'd get back into Transformers back then.

Raymond101 wrote:

DevastaTTor wrote:

I guess I really look at it just from the fun factor. I just can't see myself as a kid having the appreciation or the patience for this kind of design. Now that I have a young son, I would love for him to get into and enjoy some of the things I did/do but I'd feel bad giving him these toys when the design is just too overly complicated and frustrating. I sure hope that Hasbro gets back to basics for the Animated line lest they loose their younger audience/the future of Transformers collecting.

If you look at it from the fun factor only, movie line = failure. No way around it imo. Conversely the Unicron trilogy would have been A+. The complaints seemed largely to centre around the show rather than the figures. I wouldn't complain since 1. I haven't seen the shows and 2. I'm Asian, so I would probably like the style of the show anyway.

This movie era seems to have been popular while controversial, and the toyline itself has been spectacularly successful while at the same time being controversial and quite obvious with some flaws. But hey, I've had my fix of display pieces via the figures I previously mentioned. I am especially proud of customized Leader Megs. I am all ready for the Animated series to come now, although I do regret not getting into Unicron series during my hiatus. I never even thought I'd get back into Transformers back then.

Couldn't agree more. My complaint is mainly focused on the movie line. Most of the recent lines, Armada, Energon, Cybertron (U.T.), seem to focus mainly on G1-inspired figures that aren't overly complex (there are exceptions to the rule). They follow the general playability pattern established by lines before them. As for the movie line, since they’re really to delicate and intricate to keep transforming over and over, you guys have inspired me to experiment to start repainting them-if they're more or less display figures with little usability, I might as well try and make them look better.

I wouldn't say all the movie figures are only good as display pieces. There are many i would happily transform anytime.

My skill at customizing is beginner level. But thanks to a bit of effort, Ratchet looks like he's got a face and a lot more character rather than a monolime block. Leader Prime is shiny. And Megatron is now worthy of the name. Basically the figure can't really get worse, it can only get better.

Raymond101 wrote:Basically the figure can't really get worse, it can only get better.

That would give even the most inexperienced kitbashers and customizers hope!

Yeah man, and I didn't even take the figures apart, and they still look great!