The Energon Pub

[D-Maximal_Primal]

transformation is actual torture,

I see you haven't experienced Studio 01 Cell. I have both and while HasLab Unicron's transformation is still a workout, compared to Cell's nightmarish transformation, it's a walk in the park.

I got the Studio 01 Primus and it's the only figure I 100% regret purchasing. The transformation is shamefully fiddly.

Oof, I haven't gotten that figure due to how much I dislike transforming Cell, but if the two are comparable, I feel for ya, man.

I haven't had any interest in the studio primus or unicron, I've heard those complaints myself, no interest.

live action bots being complex is one thing, I expect and enjoy that part of them. More cartoon-esque figures, it doesn't hit the same.

Either way, someday, I would not mind another chance at Unicron. Like one of you said earlier in the thread, the MTO $200 Sentinel packs compared to the $350 Haslab would be a nice comparison.

[Emerje]

From today's live stream, we're getting a Revenge of the Fallen Decepticon 3 pack of The Fallen, Megatron and Soundwave. Megatron is particularly interesting, he has purple highlights reminiscent of Megatron: Dark Energon Edition or Nightmare Megatron.

Preorders open today.

Emerje

[-Kanrabat-]

Those big boxes of reissues are not a big deal for those who already have everything, but they are great for any new fans, or those who missed out on the original releases.

[EvasionModeBumblebee]

From today's live stream, we're getting a Revenge of the Fallen Decepticon 3 pack of The Fallen, Megatron and Soundwave. Megatron is particularly interesting, he has purple highlights reminiscent of Megatron: Dark Energon Edition or Nightmare Megatron.

Preorders open today.

Screenshot 2025-06-10 121532.jpg

Emerje

The Megatron doesn’t have purple markings, it’s a reissue of ROTF Battle Damaged Megatron. Only change appears to be that it’s missing the gunmetal smears on the head sculpt.

EDIT: Oh, I see what it was! The purple on Mark's shirt in that pic does make it look like he has some purple deco. Renders of the set do show it's just a slightly altered battle damaged Megs though

I don’t have that Battle Damaged Megatron yet, I think I’d pick the set up for him if it goes on sale since I already have Fallen and Soundwave.

[Emerje]

From today's live stream, we're getting a Revenge of the Fallen Decepticon 3 pack of The Fallen, Megatron and Soundwave. Megatron is particularly interesting, he has purple highlights reminiscent of Megatron: Dark Energon Edition or Nightmare Megatron.

Preorders open today.

Screenshot 2025-06-10 121532.jpg

Emerje

The Megatron doesn’t have purple markings, it’s a reissue of ROTF Battle Damaged Megatron. Only change appears to be that it’s missing the gunmetal smears on the head sculpt.

EDIT: Oh, I see what it was! The purple on Mark's shirt in that pic does make it look like he has some purple deco. Renders of the set do show it's just a slightly altered battle damaged Megs though

I don’t have that Battle Damaged Megatron yet, I think I’d pick the set up for him if it goes on sale since I already have Fallen and Soundwave.

I've got that figure, I don't remember it being that reflective. On the video it looks like a lot of purple! Welp, I've got all three figures so I can that's an easy skip.

Emerje

[TF-fan kev777]

I was thinking that with Soundwave getting a new SS"86" toy next year, he will probably be packed with Laserbeak, then that leaves only Ravage & Eject. Since they are not doing individual Core Class releases anymore, I could see them maybe bundling these 2 together as a "deluxe" release (To re enact these scene where Eject rolls up on poor Ravage and shoots the kitty). Normally I'd say they would be packaged with another toy (i.e Percepter with Ramhorn and Ratbat) but Blaster already came with Rewind, and there's not any other bots in the scenes with them. I thought gang molding might be an issue as well, but as we've seen, we already got a SS Ratbat without Ravage from the previous Siege mold (unless they DID Manufacture Ravage at the same time and are just holding him back for another release)

The Siege sets were Ratbat/Rumble and Laserbeak/Ravage for the gang molding. Frumble already got a new SS86 mold since then, so they can apparently do only 1 of the 2 from the Siege gang molds.

[-Kanrabat-]

I got the TF1 Megs and that made me to finally get the TF1 Optimus as well.

Optimus is much, much better than anticipated despite the so-so reviews. The only thing I don't like about it is the partsforming "laser guns bumper" for the vehicle mode. But appart that, the transformation is smooth and even the obvious hands that grab the legs "handles" for the vehicle mode somehow "disappear."

As for Megs, I find hilarious that he have long, looooooong legs like Sailor Moon. I mean, damn, girl! I must hunt another one to customise into a R63 of himself.
He look nice in both modes and the transformation is easy. My only gripe is that he should have been a voyager. That Megs is way too small.

Now, I'll have to hunt down TF1 Bee and Elita-1 as well. As for TF1 Sentinel Prime, only if he's on sale though.

[-Kanrabat-]

I was really not expecting Bumblebee from the Bee movie to have a redo in SS. But here we are, he's a brand new mold, completely redone. And man, what an improvement! The new one is bigger, feels less flimsy and hollow, no awkward partsforming, and the fiddliness dialed down to a minimum.

Of course, there's no escaping the backpack and door-wings, but the rest looks so good that I forgive it.

Also, TF-1 Bee is pretty nice, but that final panel massage at the end of his transformation is a bit annoying.

[william-james88]

Transformers fan Sylvain found some pretty cool stuff at their local Walmart in Quebec. They found Studio Series voyager class WFC Thundercracker and SS86 Mixmaster. They posted on this members only Facebook group.

[Sabrblade]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16tS6WkzRE/?

This link leads to the About page for a Facebook group rather than to any post content.

[-Kanrabat-]

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16tS6WkzRE/?

This link leads to the About page for a Facebook group rather than to any post content.

An oopsie news post?

[D-Maximal_Primal]

The stream today both made me feel good and also made me just sigh in ambivalence.

KSI Widow looks so good, and I am so excited for her.

One Starscream is good looking, glad to get him as well.

I really hope we get Marvel Megatron from that mold, would be nice.

I continue to be disappointed that the CW Thundercracker was the oddball with my favorite blue, and all the others are just too bright for me to like.

Glad we got to see early samples of Airachnid and Trion, I am looking forward to both.

Mudflap and Skids are still on the table, I really hope to see them soon.

The idea of 84-85 bots that weren't in the 86 movie is absurd and I hate it so much. That is scraping rather than finally finishing a 2nd movie's cast. Would be nice if we could at least complete another couple of live action casts before we start doing this nonsense.

[adamage1]

The idea of 84-85 bots that weren't in the 86 movie is absurd and I hate it so much. That is scraping rather than finally finishing a 2nd movie's cast. Would be nice if we could at least complete another couple of live action casts before we start doing this nonsense.

I literally could not care any less about more Bayverse bots, and I would love to see more 84–85 bots in modern form. A proper Sunstreaker with spoiler, a Windcharger scaled with the other new minibots (who technically was in the film), a Seaspray also in scale, etc. In fact, it would be great to get a break from the Bayverse and Beast Wars bots for a few years.

[Glyph]

There's a practical aspect to it too - the G1 cartoon is still their biggest draw, a bunch of popular (and very marketable) characters never made it into the movie, and there's nowhere else in the range for non-Masterpiece cartoon-styled figures to go. The ostensibly movie-specific SS line has already been expanded to cover games and concept art; it seems reasonable to include more characters from the exact same cartoon series even if they didn't make it into that series's between-seasons movie outing.

I'm quite sure they knew the poll was going to result in a whole lot of people jumping up and yelling "Yes! MOOOOORE!" or they wouldn't have asked.

[Mr.MicroMaster]

Mixmaster and Scavenger look great very excited to complete Devastator as the other four should be on my way soon. Megatron's bot mode looks fantastic, but I find his tank mode to look a little generic. That being said I am still looking forward to him. I haven't gotten any of the TFOne figures, but Airachnid looks very good can't wait to see more of her.

[Sabrblade]

Notes from today's stream:

Nate and Evan abstain from using the word "gun" in reference to SS86 Megatron, opting to use the word "blaster" instead.

The figure does have butterfly joint shoulder articulation.

The tank mold is based on a real-life tank prototype from the '80s that never got produced. It was called something like the "Armored Blaster System", which Evan felt was perfect for Megatron considering he used to be turn into a "blaster".

SS86 Grimlock is a straight rerelease of the same Leader class figure from 2021, giving people who missed out on him the first time a second chance to get him. He comes with the same accessories as before. Nothing else new about him.

Voyager WFC Thundercracker has yellowish eyes because in the WFC video game, all three Seekers actually have slightly different colored eyes from each other, compared to the promo art where all three just have red eyes, so they wanted to be faithful to the in-game eye colors.

SS86 Mixmaster is a Voyager instead of a Deluxe because he is one of Devastator's feet, so they had to build in ratchets into his robot mode waist so that he could have an ankle tilt for stability in order to support the weight of the combiner when he becomes Devastator's foot.

There are no plans for a Devastator giftset for either 2026 or 2027 right now. They encourage us to buy the Constructicons this year rather than later. They are already knee-deep in 2027 planning and are intentionally not planning a box set so that they can move on to other Combiners they have to get to.

SS TF One Elita One comes with the mining jetpack seen in the movie, which is also compatible with the other SS TF One Optimus, Megatron, and Bumblebee figures.

SS TF One Starscream is the first of more TF One Seekers to come. The will not just be doing pure redecos, they will make sure that the sculpts match what we see in the film.

KSI Widow is based on the McLaren MP4-12C that appears among the many KSI drones in Age of Extinction, but whose robot mode was never actually shown onscreen. They had concept art for something called "Widowmaker", whose altmode ended becoming Stinger's altmode in the film. But they really liked the Widowmaker concept art and wanted to bring it into the toyline, so they simply color-graded her red to orange to make her match the McLaren. And now she's KSI Widow.

They wanted to give more female Decepticon representation to the Bay movies (besides Alice). Though, Evan admits that she's more KSI than Decepticon since it was kind of a gray area in that movie.

First look at 2026 Studio Series product:

TF One Airachnid is a Deluxe, but very "significant", like a "Deluxe Plus". She has ball-joint articulated spider legs, and butterfly-jointed arms because of how she transforms. Lots of articulation.

TF One Alpha Trion is a Voyager. He does have the sculpted battle damage, the rust and grime that he has when they find him in the movie. That was one of the flourishes that they wanted to bring into this line, to separate it from the "kid line" version that was a clean Alpha Trion. They did use the movie CAD for this figure.

Evan jokes that a new Rail Racer would have each of his three components be a Titan since they are "monstrous".

Evan and Nate explain that Skids and Mudflap are more of an eventuality, but right now not so much. The two are brought up every once in a while to see how everyone is feeling, and it's just like "No, not yet." They'll never say never on this, they think they'll get there eventually, just not right now. This is different from the discussion on Megatron's "blaster vs. tank" mode since that is a legal thing. There's no gray area there, they just can't do it. But with Skids and Mudflap it's more of an "emotional" thing. They know there are strong opinions about them, like "Just finish the collection!" and "No, not now!" But for now, there are no plans. That is not a "never", they are fully aware that those are two gaping holes in the collection, it's hopefully a potentiality but they'll see. Every year they try to gauge the interest across the design team, so it's an eventuality. It will happen, eventually. They hope.

Evan is very coy about the possibility of Monstructor.: "I think fans realize that the pieces are out there. We've used those molds a couple of times, but maybe he's coming and maybe I promise you he won't be dinosaurs." Stay tuned on Monstructor "potentially coming".

Fan poll question: "Do you want to see toys of characters from Season 1 and 2 of the G1 cartoon, that did not appear in the 86 movie, in the Studio Series 86 segment?" They've had this conversation many times, as there are also different versions of the script and storyboards that show different characters in scenes that got cut. And it always turned out be "What is okay to show in Studio Series and label it 'Studio Series'?" So, what do the fans prefer? It's a simple "Yes" or "No".

People have quoted Evan being "slightly wrong" about "We'll be done with 86 in 2026." There will be more, there's always more. Evan can mine deeper, can go deeper. There is no bottom. "This one animation cel, this one interview from back in 1986 where someone said, 'I recorded lines but I got cut,' this one animation error, etc."

Images below are from the video above as well as Hasbro Pulse and Notrab

[D-Maximal_Primal]

The idea of 84-85 bots that weren't in the 86 movie is absurd and I hate it so much. That is scraping rather than finally finishing a 2nd movie's cast. Would be nice if we could at least complete another couple of live action casts before we start doing this nonsense.

I literally could not care any less about more Bayverse bots, and I would love to see more 84–85 bots in modern form. A proper Sunstreaker with spoiler, a Windcharger scaled with the other new minibots (who technically was in the film), a Seaspray also in scale, etc. In fact, it would be great to get a break from the Bayverse and Beast Wars bots for a few years.

You could care less, some of us not so much. Some of us also could care less to see more 84-86 after WFC and SS86.

Also: This year, we are only getting 6 live action bots total, and only 4 are technically bayverse. 2 of the 6 got their first toy, and 2 their 2nd. In 2024, including core, we only got 10 live action bots; exactly ONE was bayverse and it was a core, and SEVEN were concept made up figures. And in 2023, it was RotB heavy, with again exactly 1 bayverse core.

So, please excuse me if im a bit starved for my favorites, in the line they started.

I mean come on, it's going to now be at least NINE CONTINUOUS YEARS of the line since the first live action Dinobot got released before a 2nd comes.

[DeathReviews]

Wow. First Vortex, now Mixmaster? What's with Canada getting all this early access?

[chuckdawg1999]

Wow. First Vortex, now Mixmaster? What's with Canada getting all this early access?

Unless something has changed, they still haven't gotten AOTP wave 01 yet. So there's a trade off.

[TK415]

What did Evan mean by the molds are out there?

[Sabrblade]

What did Evan mean by the molds are out there?

[Till-all-R1]

As a primarily G1 collector I'm not exactly enthused about SS84 because I'm not much into reissues of stuff I already have, and that's totally what I expect them to be. Basically ER/WFC/Siege and Kingdom repacked into SS line. Oh sure they'll repaint them to look more G1 animation accurate such as Huffer which only cost $16 back then but now $25.. But I've got zero interest in that. I would have preferred an SS87 line where we could get a mix of old and new bots skewed more towards unmade characters. I especially want a new Octane, Astrotrain and a few interesting looking Cybertronians. That said, if they made new versions of Firestar, Flareup, Chromia and Moonracer from the Autobot resistance episode I'd buy them. Otherwise I cannot think of anyone that hasn't been made from Season 1 & 2. Though we do still need the minibots, but according to rumors and listings those are coming at some point

I get that these tend to perform well but oversaturation can be a thing and I don't think they do the line any favors by doing this, especially with so much other content to be mined it only builds tension among the fandom when you ignore a segment. it also feels very stale to see the same characters and designs over and over. Though TBH, I'm surprised that G1 still has such a strong hold on the collecting community as we are aging out or have almost everything already. Maybe Hasbro feels they only have another twenty years to keep going to that well before moving on? I'd be curious what the landscape would look like then when all us G1ers are gone, or most of them.
They also tackled Beat Wars pretty well the last few years.

[adamage1]

I get that these tend to perform well but oversaturation can be a thing and I don't think they do the line any favors by doing this, especially with so much other content to be mined it only builds tension among the fandom when you ignore a segment. it also feels very stale to see the same characters and designs over and over. Though TBH, I'm surprised that G1 still has such a strong hold on the collecting community as we are aging out or have almost everything already. Maybe Hasbro feels they only have another twenty years to keep going to that well before moving on? I'd be curious what the landscape would look like then when all us G1ers are gone, or most of them.
They also tackled Beat Wars pretty well the last few years.

G1 is the primary reason there is a fandom. And it has taken Hasbro sometimes 35+ years to finally release figures that are (mostly) character model-accurate, in-scale, and fun to transform, e.g. SS86 Optimus, SS86 Megatron, SS86 Constructicons/Devastator, Legacy Gears, Earthrise Wheeljack, Kingdom Cyclonus, etc. Those characters had almost nothing but trash, figures that looked almost nothing like their models, or nothing at all as figures in the mainline for literally decades (I am not counting 80s figures as most of them had only a passing resemblance to the character models and very limited articulation). These last 10 years have been amazing for a longtime fan like me.

I would actually love to see a new Transformers show that ISN’T Beast Wars or doesn’t use the awful Animated/Cyberverse design style; perhaps a full series arc on old Cybertron—in the vein of Knights of the Old Republic—using a modernized G1 animation design with a whole new cast of characters that also touches on the future characters we come to know. Do it with love and care, with proper voice actors, unlike the awful Machinima series. And yes, I am aware that TF One is similar, but that is a one-off movie, and it relies more on CG renders than the hand-drawn animation style. Think more along the lines of what X-Men ’97 is doing.

[Till-all-R1]

These last 10 years have been amazing for a longtime fan like me.

I agree, I actually just got back into TF recently(2020) because of the "improvements". I had watched it on and off though the iterations and never liked any of the toys until I saw the ER figures. I wasn't trying to poo poo on any of that, but just stating that it could lead to even more resentment from fans of the other content who feel it's unfairly balanced. I couldn't care less about anything made after G1 because try as I ight the shows just come off way to childish to cringe in a lot of cases. Some shows were better than others but not enough to endear me to care a about getting said characters. Not the G1 was highbrow/intellectual but it didn't come across like they were speaking down to you like kid kid shows do now.

I would actually love to see a new Transformers show that ISN’T Beast Wars or doesn’t use the awful Animated/Cyberverse design style; perhaps a full series arc on old Cybertron—in the vein of Knights of the Old Republic—using a modernized G1 animation design with a whole new cast of characters that also touches on the future characters we come to know. Do it with love and care, with proper voice actors, unlike the awful Machinima series. And yes, I am aware that TF One is similar, but that is a one-off movie, and it relies more on CG renders than the hand-drawn animation style. Think more along the lines of what X-Men ’97 is doing.

Same here, I have never cared for most of the new age animation. Almost as if they're trying to mimic eastern anime but far worse. I'm not exactly a fan of that style either and can only tolerate specific Japanese animation style and tone. I actually thought TF One was okay on several aspects but lacked agency with character portrayals. Animation was fine but I'd have dialed it back a bit. It was far better than the live action movies as far as I'm concerned, but that's not exactly a high bar. Possibly on par with Bumblebee. As much as I'd like to see new characters I think it's written that Prime, Bee etc. have to be in any content made as name recognition. ha
I also wouldn't mind a quasi sequel to the 86 movie, I know that it was pretty much covered in the old show after the movie but they could probably come up with a story to get UM, Rodimus Kup etc on the big screen. Though ideally I'd love to see those character appear in live action.

[Emerje]

What did Evan mean by the molds are out there?

Is that what he meant because that would mean even further retooling to get them away from being dinosaurs. At which point I'd wonder why they didn't just make new molds.



I'm hoping he was talking about this:

A plan was made at some point to use these molds as Monstructor, but that would require replacing Grimlock. No telling just how far they got with this.

Emerje