The Energon Pub

As a reminder:

Main retail line

Wave 1
Deluxe Solus Prime
Deluxe Air Raid
Deluxe Fireflight
Deluxe Animated Wasp
Voyager Prima
Voyager Armada Red Alert
Leader The Fallen
Leader G2 Grimlock

Wave 2
Deluxe Alchemist Prime
Deluxe Crasher PR
Deluxe Vortex
Deluxe Micronus
Voyager Rescue Bots Heatwave
Voyager RID2001 Sky-Byte
Leader Onyx Prime

Wave 3
Deluxe Venom
Deluxe Slingshot
Deluxe Skydive
Voyager Flatline
Voyager Alpha Trion


Exclusives

Amazon: Wreckers VS Mayhem-themed capsule
Spinister VS Topspin
Ironfist VS Carnivac

Walmart: Cybertron-themed capsule
Deluxe Sideways
Deluxe Excellion
Voyager Skywarp
2 Unknown Deluxes
1 Unknown Leader

Hasbro PulseCon
Hearts of Steel-themed exclusive

San Diego Comic Con
Skybound-themed Jetfire with Void Rivals

Razorbeast88 wrote:I wonder if Heatwave will be a remolded Bulkhead or his own mold

I think that despite being Rescue Bots he's going to have more in common with his Fun Publications namesake for future use so we can have Nexus Prime later.

And if the fallen will look like dreamwave version or aligned or some sort of combo

They were talking about the Dreamwave version at Pulse Con.

I'm also curious if flatline would be a remold of red alert

Could be, but could also be your Bulkhead repaint/retool if they base him on the Transformers Universe game version, he'd technically still be Prime universe, too.

And if onyx Prime would be a centaur or not

I'm hoping not, but only because I want him to be a pre-tool for Prime Predaking.

And im wondering if Alpha Trion would be off of the Scourge mold like before or off of the thundertron mold or something

It's not a package refresh so it's probably not based on Scourge. Kinda expecting him to be a Thundertron repaint, even if that makes more sense for that mold to be Alpha Trizer.

Emerje

#1 Signal Lancer fan wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Walmart: Cybertron-themed capsule
Deluxe Sideways
Deluxe Excellion
Voyager Skywarp
2 Unknown Deluxes
1 Unknown Leader

Even though it says Cybertron-themed capsule, I wonder if this will be Armada Sideways.

It's Cybertron Sideways. The original leak was explicit on that.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

#1 Signal Lancer fan wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:]It's Cybertron Sideways. The original leak was explicit on that.

Interesting. Given that, I'm guessing he'll be a remold of the Studio Series Scourge/Legacy Senator Ratbat mold, but he could also end up being based on a new mold from the Age of the Primes line.

Studio Series 86 Scourge is a Voyager, not a Deluxe. I can't really see which Deluxe can be used for him tho...

And bring on Ramjet!

Maybe he'll be like how Velocitron Override and Cosmos were and be a surprise new mold.

Sabrblade wrote:

#1 Signal Lancer fan wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Walmart: Cybertron-themed capsule
Deluxe Sideways
Deluxe Excellion
Voyager Skywarp
2 Unknown Deluxes
1 Unknown Leader

Even though it says Cybertron-themed capsule, I wonder if this will be Armada Sideways.

It's Cybertron Sideways. The original leak was explicit on that.

Personally expecting him to be a heavily retooled United Windblade.

We'll probably also see Deluxe First Aid from Cannonball here as one of the Deluxe mystery figures.

I would not complain if we got a heavily retooled (mostly just a reshell with a BFG) of Earthrise Arcee as Thunderblast.

That Leader really needs to be Galaxy Force Optimus Prime (Siege Galaxy Upgrade Prime in black and red).

I know Skywarp is going to be a United Starscream repaint, but I would love to see the Earthrise Seeker mold in bright purple and white (and gray and blue Thundercracker colors).

Emerje

Sowndwave76 wrote:Is it known if G2 Grimlock is a re-release of the yellow version that was exclusive to Walmart? I'm assuming it's not, but with so many re-releases (including a few which were originally exclusives), I wouldn't be shocked if it is.

The current running thought is that it will be a blue Grimlock.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:Star Convoy as a Titan? I don't get it.

Someone who knows Japanese G1 better than I do will surely correct me on part of this, but it's the scale issues posed by the Micromaster Hot Rod that came with the original. Micromasters were explained as being smaller than normal TFs in most media, albeit for different reasons on opposite sides of the Pacific. But that Hot Rod toy begged the question of whether Rod downsized, or Op came back really big, and he, Sky Garry and Grandus were serving as bases/transports for normal sized TFs, which the Micromasters were now representing, but with all toys now being smaller scale.

IDK which theory Battlstars Return of Convoy backs up because I haven't read the Manga yet, but it seems HasTak might have gone with the smaller-scale theory because they're running out of ideas for Titans, and this next Titan allows for G1 Star Convoy's play pattern with the majority of Generations scale toys, without revisiting Micromasters again so soon after Earthrise.

Just my hunch. Sky Garry was depicted as being that big in the BotCon Wreckers story where Daniel and Wheelie died, so there's at least one precedent for it in U.S. fiction off the top of my head.

Bumblevivisector wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:Star Convoy as a Titan? I don't get it.

Someone who knows Japanese G1 better than I do will surely correct me on part of this, but it's the scale issues posed by the Micromaster Hot Rod that came with the original. Micromasters were explained as being smaller than normal TFs in most media, albeit for different reasons on opposite sides of the Pacific. But that Hot Rod toy begged the question of whether Rod downsized, or Op came back really big, and he, Sky Garry and Grandus were serving as bases/transports for normal sized TFs, which the Micromasters were now representing, but with all toys now being smaller scale.

IDK which theory Battlstars Return of Convoy backs up because I haven't read the Manga yet, but it seems HasTak might have gone with the smaller-scale theory because they're running out of ideas for Titans, and this next Titan allows for G1 Star Convoy's play pattern with the majority of Generations scale toys, without revisiting Micromasters again so soon after Earthrise.

Just my hunch. Sky Garry was depicted as being that big in the BotCon Wreckers story where Daniel and Wheelie died, so there's at least one precedent for it in U.S. fiction off the top of my head.

Star Convoy is indeed supposed to be a big guy, but more specifically he's supposed to be around Combiner size, not Cityformer size. The height of Siege Jetfire would have been perfect for him.

Micromasters are indeed smaller-than-average Transformers, in nearly all of their fictional appearances on both sides of the Pacific. In Japan, they're even called "Micro Transformers", emphasizing their small stature. Hot Rod did downsize when he became one, too.

My only hope for this Star Convoy is that it's less of an actual Titan and more of a "Titan class in name only", as in a Commander class-sized figure but made with the budget of a Titan.

Sabrblade wrote:Micromasters are indeed smaller-than-average Transformers, in nearly all of their fictional appearances on both sides of the Pacific. In Japan, they're even called "Micro Transformers", emphasizing their small stature. Hot Rod did downsize when he became one, too.

Was he the only one to do that in Japanese continuity? I meant to emphasize that they had different origins in J vs. U.S. fiction, since I thought the idea was they fled Cybertron the same time as the guys who ended up on Planet Master, but retained their original transformations instead of adapting to combine with transtectors, whereas Marvel Micromasters all downsized, then Dreamwave sort of homaged the difference by having just a handful being downsized after the Ark and Nemesis disappeared before subsequently serving as templates for the dozens of new Micromasters brought to life.

Sabrblade wrote:My only hope for this Star Convoy is that it's less of an actual Titan and more of a "Titan class in name only", as in a Commander class-sized figure but made with the budget of a Titan.

Another possibility just dawned on me: maybe this listing's misleading and the "Titan" is SC + Sky Garry and Grandus, and their vehicle gestalt (Battlestar Attacker? Did it never have a name like Big Powered?) is Titan-size! That would be awesome, and possibly the only way the latter 2 ever get a proper update.

I still like the idea of a titan-class Star Convoy that treats G1 bulks like Micromasters though. Sure there was no other way to do the Micromasters, but it always bugged the slag outta' me that they had Earth-vehicle alts despite being so small that it wasn't an effective disguise. Yes, they all mass-shifted to full-grown vehicles in vintage G1 fiction, but that obviously did NOT translate at all to any play pattern involving their toys. I had most of the 1989 lineup back in the day, but once I got the stations and half the bases, as much fun as I could have with more elaborate smaller scale battles, I just never found myself working older TFs into them. It would do my heart good if this turns out to be an idea born of fans turned designers that were just as frustrated by that fiction/toy disconnect, and decided that Star Convoy would be cooler if he'd just been huge enough to dwarf other Transformers down to micro-scale.

But again, I'm actually hoping more for a new Battlestars giftset passed off a Titan now!

Bumblevivisector wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Micromasters are indeed smaller-than-average Transformers, in nearly all of their fictional appearances on both sides of the Pacific. In Japan, they're even called "Micro Transformers", emphasizing their small stature. Hot Rod did downsize when he became one, too.

Was he the only one to do that in Japanese continuity? I meant to emphasize that they had different origins in J vs. U.S. fiction, since I thought the idea was they fled Cybertron the same time as the guys who ended up on Planet Master, but retained their original transformations instead of adapting to combine with transtectors, whereas Marvel Micromasters all downsized, then Dreamwave sort of homaged the difference by having just a handful being downsized after the Ark and Nemesis disappeared before subsequently serving as templates for the dozens of new Micromasters brought to life.

It would seem Hot Rod was indeed the only one, yes. The rest, as you say, were naturally small.

Bumblevivisector wrote:and their vehicle gestalt (Battlestar Attacker? Did it never have a name like Big Powered?)

*wavy hand gesture* Kinda. "Battlestar Attack" seems to be more the name of the combined form's laserfire attack, but the form itself is kinda not a true combiner as much as it is just Star Convoy towing Grandus while Sky Garry rests on top, like Armada Optimus towing Overload with Jetfire sitting on top.

Bumblevivisector wrote:I still like the idea of a titan-class Star Convoy that treats G1 bulks like Micromasters though. Sure there was no other way to do the Micromasters, but it always bugged the slag outta' me that they had Earth-vehicle alts despite being so small that it wasn't an effective disguise. Yes, they all mass-shifted to full-grown vehicles in vintage G1 fiction, but that obviously did NOT translate at all to any play pattern involving their toys.

By that point in the toyline, "disguise" was no longer the point (and, well, the Transformers were kinda universal knowledge by then in both English and Japanese fiction, so they had no need to hide themselves anymore).