The Energon Pub

[Cobalt Prime]

This is a thread for the few, the proud, the ones who like me appreciate the dynamics of the Neo Shifters line, Megabloks' answer to Lego's Bionicles!

The heroic Paladin Shifters wage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Templar Shifters (yes, a TF reference there! ) and prevent them from converting their world's remaining water into Hydrax Energy.
I've been collecting these guys since the original 4 were released a few years back. My first was Magna Rex, sorta the "Optimus" of the story. The articulation, mask, and super bright LED behind the faceplate, not to mention the fact that they transform into spheres hooked my interest. The spheroid symbiote mini fig in the chest was a bonus. Also, Mega's basic disinterest in creating a more elaborate backstory for them aside from a few badly worded sentences has the advantage of allowing one to use their imagination in terms of character personalities and circumstances, something you don't get so much now as the story is already written for most toys, restricting play.

Building is sort of limited, I've discovered, though I may be spoiled from moccing with Bionicle parts where you have a jillion options. Once you get the figure assembled, the most you can really do is slightly modify it with extra parts. Building a completely different looking figure is sorta hard as certain connectors and general pieces would be needed to really accomplish it. But that's ok, I still like 'em for what they are, nicely poseable intimidating "10 robot action figures with missiles that actually launch across the room with some force (You'll put your eye out! You'll put your eye out!) There are a TON of shared parts between the units in each wave, but the use of color and the distinctly different masks makes up for that and makes each look unique.

I've run into some difficulty recently, though. The latest wave, consisting of 4 humanoid figures and 4 vehicles that was supposed to be out last May (according to Mega) still hasn't hit stores. At least in Michigan. Megabloks themselves have been showing them as out of stock since like, forever, and the stores they told me I could find them in ended up being dead (frustrating) leads. Mega has also been a bit evasive when directly asked if this wave has been cancelled or is it still current.

The new wave consists of:

Humanoid shaped:
#6376 Romarr-Xor
#6377 Guardax-Nor
#6375 Warzon-Bau
#6374 Randius-Ka

Vehicles for the Symbiote mini figs:
#6366 Hydro seeker
#6368 Rotor pod
#6369 Tremor Driller
#6367 Land Hover.

So far, only one figure from the wave has shown up in stores. Duplicon, a repaint of the Simia Rix set with some extra launchers and a spear thrown in. The others all have new mask designs from the tiny pics I've seen, and carry updated weapons like swords and electro-whips. I'm concerned that I might miss this wave, as stores like Meijer, Y'all-Mart, Target, and Kmart have clearanced the older waves and no longer show Neo Shifters on their fall reset plano-grams. Worse, a new series called Neo Machines is coming out soon, making me think that the production of the last wave was killed before enough product was made to make its way over to this remote speck on the map called Michigan!

Has anyone seen any of these new sets in their area?