The Energon Pub

Two words dude: Omega Sentinel.

Counterpunch wrote:Liking Ironhide is one thing. That's a matter of taste. He's a good solid toy and some people don't like the design.

But liking Energon Jetfire? Get serious. Do you own him? He's one of the worst turds in recent years. He has so many issues and problems that go beyond aesthetics (and that's not to mention the aesthetics...).

Jetfire's head is too small. For his robot mode it is out of proportion. For any combined mode he looks like a retard with his tiny head.

He's actually pretty bad in pants mode as well. The hinges on his ankles can not support combined weight at all.

He has Mickey Mouse hands, for no apparent reason.

He's bad.... and I wish he weren't.

(I think of him as Scattorshot anyway. It's a better homage like that.)

Oh man, I have to answer this!!!


Well I do confess I really like the redeco version better, and his small head, and Mickey mouse hands just remind me of a VF-1 from Robotech, so you won't get me to budge there..
As far as proportions go, this series throughout had issues in that department, Rodimus has the same issues as well.. but overall, I don't think Jetfire was a "Turd".. I consider Armada Jetfire a Turd!! he's like a basic Bird faced Transformers Gobot transformer, and if you look at alot of Armada Figures, they are completely basic and non articulated.... He is a definite improvement over the Armada Jetfire, and as such places him here in the Energon thread as a decent toy.. not the best, but he isn't as bad as Armada Jetfire..

See:








Still Overcast is a nice figure.. what a difference colors make..





and as far as combiners go, it really is dependent on who you combine them with.. some look like Poo, and some look great.. it's the fun part of the series to come up with a combo that suits your interests and design aesthetics..









I still am not fond of Armada.. the regression to more simplified transformers to make them easier to transform and thus fun seems like its ludicrous!!! the whole point of Transformers is the Transformation!!! that's what made them different from other toys,and to dumb that aspect down was just lazy.. a more detailed and intricate transformation was the beauty of the toyline, to see which if you or your friends could transform them the fastest and not break em in the process!! I still have no love for Armada.. and that Jet fire face is horrid!! I'm glad the Botcon people could atleast do something with that Mold..

Yeah, I know, Armada Jetfire has a tendency to sort of fall apart when changing modes. I gave mine away for some reason.

As for Armada being bad, I have to disagree on the fact that Armada finally gave us a transforming Unicron and a not half-bad looking prime (With the somestack guns on his wrists!). Not to mention one of my good ol' standbys: Tidal wave! Sure, his legs bend in the wrong place, but so do Soundwave's.

Skywarp-2 wrote:Well I do confess I really like the redeco version better, and his small head, and Mickey mouse hands just remind me of a VF-1 from Robotech, so you won't get me to budge there..

First, I agree, Overcast is a definate improvement. The Re-Deco helps a lot.

But as to the other stuff you said, I don't really understand. VF-1 has white hands, not bloated cartoony ones and I never thought of them having particularly small heads.

I'll agree that Armada Jetfire's head is not inline with the theme of the character. It is definately too 'anime'.

However, you're getting caught up in some contradictions.

You sight Armada as having poor articulation as an overall line. While it is true that it is one of the less articulated lines, mainly due to gimmicks, there are a good number of very posable figures that makes your large scale generalization inaccurate.

Hoist, Bendy Prime, Unicron, Wheeljack, and Jetfire. I don't know how you can say that Jetfire is inarticulate in one breath, but praise Energon Wing Saber in another despite his complete lack of articulation.

See, what you might not remember is how many people were complaining about the weakness of ball joins at the time. Part of the reason Armada has so many fixed joints is in response to this.

Kohdok wrote:Yeah, I know, Armada Jetfire has a tendency to sort of fall apart when changing modes. I gave mine away for some reason.

As for Armada being bad, I have to disagree on the fact that Armada finally gave us a transforming Unicron and a not half-bad looking prime (With the somestack guns on his wrists!). Not to mention one of my good ol' standbys: Tidal wave! Sure, his legs bend in the wrong place, but so do Soundwave's.

Well I'm not saying the idea of Armada was bad, its just the way in which they under developed the Toys into non articulated 5 year old friendly toys..had they kept with the Robots in Disguise model for articulation it would have in the long run been a better held toy series, IMO..Still I won't begrudge someone for liking Armada, and I liked the concept, I just really would have liked a retooled Megatron and Optimus prime with more articulation, including bendable knees/articulated Super Pants!!They would have to release a bazillion color variants to get their mileage from that toy considering how much he stunk with that awful trailer gimmick!! I don't hate Armada, I'm just disappointed in it, and as such I have no love for it right now..

But back on the subject of Energon..I really liked alot of the figures, and their combiner qualities, ofcourse I still say my favorite basic characters are ShadowHawk and Command Ravage...and forgive me for this, but... I love the Gundam aspect of Shadowhawk's legs/Feet!!!

Counterpunch wrote:

Skywarp-2 wrote:Well I do confess I really like the redeco version better, and his small head, and Mickey mouse hands just remind me of a VF-1 from Robotech, so you won't get me to budge there..

First, I agree, Overcast is a definate improvement. The Re-Deco helps a lot.

But as to the other stuff you said, I don't really understand. VF-1 has white hands, not bloated cartoony ones and I never thought of them having particularly small heads.

Trust me they did have big hands until the recent Yamato Molds and the Toynami Masterpieces..

Counterpunch wrote:I'll agree that Armada Jetfire's head is not inline with the theme of the character. It is definately too 'anime'.

Anime?? he looks like a robotic big Bird....

Counterpunch wrote:However, you're getting caught up in some contradictions.

You sight Armada as having poor articulation as an overall line. While it is true that it is one of the less articulated lines, mainly due to gimmicks, there are a good number of very posable figures that makes your large scale generalization inaccurate.

Hoist, Bendy Prime, Unicron, Wheeljack, and Jetfire. I don't know how you can say that Jetfire is inarticulate in one breath, but praise Energon Wing Saber in another despite his complete lack of articulation.

Ok there isn't a contradiction when "Most" of the line is poorly articulated..those few you mention may be exceptions, but "overall" the lineup was lacking..and as far as WingSaber goes, yes he's a homage to Starsaber, and has no articulation but the fact that he can make prime look good while combined just affords me placing him in this thread..but as a figure by himself, he's horrible in articulation and basically a "mild Brickformer"..

Counterpunch wrote:See, what you might not remember is how many people were complaining about the weakness of ball joins at the time. Part of the reason Armada has so many fixed joints is in response to this.

Yes I remember, but would it have killed them to place a few fixed joints in the feet to move side to side for posing, or a swivel thigh for leg positioning, or a swivel bicep for arm positioning?? how about a ball joint simply for the head??

I see where your coming from, and for the most part you make a good argument in favor of their reasons for the designs, but in the end those toys were still lacking..


But you said it yourself, Armada Suffered from Lack of articulation due to design gimmicks..

In my view Energon suffered from proportional issues and minor articulation from Combiner Gimmicks..

"Overall", Cybertron series seems to be the happy medium for most fans who want good proportions, articulation, and combiners and gimmicks..

Still this is a Love thread for Energon, so to each their own...But I still say Prime and saber combo has a great look..

here's something for the older fans..

The trailer and combiner combos of that Prime don't necessarily remind me of Power Rangers, but back in the late 80s it was Dynaman!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY0OdOr5z4M

I for one Love brickformers. They're awesome to look at in my opinion, but when you start trying to move them around.. they start losing points. but still awesome to look at :)

And i do believe energon had its fair share of TF Gems. sure, some of them were terrible. but the good ones more than made up for it i feel. I have both the quick strike and bulkhead tf's as at that time, tf helicopters were few and far inbetween. At least that i know of.

But still, i'd say that some of my favorites from the line would have to by sharkticon, omega sentinel (he was sooo incredibly hard to find if any of you remember what it was like searching for him), quick strike, Shockblast! and last but maybe most favorite of all, Energon Mirage. beautiful.

i liked putting energon mirage, armada tidal wave, the armada minicon boats, and from cybertron, the giant planet minicon boat, and thunderblast together to make a "fleet" of sorts :)

hey ryan, could we see a pic of all of these together by chance? :>

DeathAura wrote:I for one Love brickformers. They're awesome to look at in my opinion, but when you start trying to move them around.. they start losing points. but still awesome to look at :)

And i do believe energon had its fair share of TF Gems. sure, some of them were terrible. but the good ones more than made up for it i feel. I have both the quick strike and bulkhead tf's as at that time, tf helicopters were few and far inbetween. At least that i know of.

But still, i'd say that some of my favorites from the line would have to by sharkticon, omega sentinel (he was sooo incredibly hard to find if any of you remember what it was like searching for him), quick strike, Shockblast! and last but maybe most favorite of all, Energon Mirage. beautiful.

i liked putting energon mirage, armada tidal wave, the armada minicon boats, and from cybertron, the giant planet minicon boat, and thunderblast together to make a "fleet" of sorts :)

hey ryan, could we see a pic of all of these together by chance? :>

That's a great idea.. you should submit it in the sticky at the top of the Toys thread section..

Ok, and by popular demand.. OMEGA SENTINEL!!!

And I do prefer the Omega Sentinel color scheme to that of the Omega Supreme colors..

One of the other reasons that Armada wasn't very articulated was due to the minicon gimmicks. You do need to have some space to fit all of those buttons, springs, batteries, wires, and electronics and in some cases it is going to affect the articulation. I also read an article on another site (I'll see if I can dig it up) where they discussed the design process. The line gimmick had the highest priority, followed by the alt mode, then the robot mode, then articulation. If they need to cut costs, that is the first to go. I also feel that creating all of those Minicons also cut into the budget of the larger figures thereby reducing some of the articulation on some figures.

Plus I am surprised noone has mentioned one of the coolest Energon figures, Landmine:

Ok, so with pleading from some of my friends on here I am adding additional pictures of some Honerable mentions from this series..

First Up is the Quite cool and fan favorite..Landmine!!!


They really should make this truck for real, i bet it would help with all those I.E.D.'s in Iraq..


His back seperates from the main truck and gives him an almost Prime Quality..Nice!!!


A real working Wench!! And we all know how hard that is to find... , Just kidding ladies..



Great bot mode..

Weapons Platform..

Combine the trailer to the bot and you have a perfect nemesis for Scorponok!!

For some reason this reminds me of the construction EXO suit that was in the movie "Aliens" RIPLEY Look Out!!!!


Sick him!!!

Money Shot!!!


He did have a repaint, though I much prefer the clay-orange colors to the white and dark purple or blue..
this one is called Landquake:








Now we move on to a Bot that has captured my imagination quite a bit, though not the best rendition of Grimlock, his combined form with Swoop is quite fantastic!! the concept of combiner Dinos is something I have always wanted to see, and in this domestic release we finally got it!! Magmatron eat you heart out!!

Energon Grimlock: Though not as great as the G-1 version, he's still a nice figure none the less..



A Repaint of him and his partner Swoop would be a nice thing though, something that would compliment each other in combined form too, say for the upcoming universe line up??? It fits the classics concepts..are you Listening Hasbro??




Swoop: now I was a little disappointed in the Swoop altmode, but his bot form makes up for it, and his combined form makes up for it in Spades!!! keep reading you'll see...





Money Shot!!!

Hey look his head is posable!!! Nice touch...



Now on to the final combined form, which makes owning these two figures a must!!!

Mega Dinobot!!!

A fan boy dream come true!!


Wings up, combat mode..


Money Shot!!!


Wings Down, Aerial Assualt Mode...


Speaking of Aerial Assualts.... I thought we could atleast mention this guy.. to me he's screaming Starscream/Jetfire/aerial bot combo...

StormJet:





Ready to superlink!!!



Superion Maximus:
The Autobots had quite a few Aerial commanders in this series..









As you can see, you can position the combiners in any format you may wish..

I prefer this design, its more linear..

Here is a scale picture for all you scale-size freaks out there..


Overall, this series had great possibilities and combiners.. the name Energon given by Hasbro was cool, it describes the goal of the series, though Superlink is an apt name, considering thats what the majority of the bots do..


I hope I have entertained and gave a good idea of what is the better figures from this line for those who are looking to recap on this series..ofcourse my highlights are just my opinions as to which ones I would buy, but overall its your choice as to what you prefer from a transformers franchise series..keep collecting and I'll see you in the Suburbs of seibertron!!

Thanks for the effort skywarp. I'm starting to be really impressed with Energon although there are some figures that are far better than others.

I agree Raymond101, and though there are some that are crummy, there are way more that are fantastic, and in repaints they just blow others away!!

So it's been awhile since I came back to this thread to add additional "must haves" to the collected articles..and fan feedback and reviews..but I have to get this guy out and on the books so to speak.. Heck I haven't had any time to even begin the Cybertron/Galaxy force thread, but that's okay, that series has sooo many good bots, its gonna take just as long as the Armada and Energon threads combined to even come close to an ultimate Buyers guide.. let along discussions of the finer points of that series..

More on Energon Creullock:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruellock

Cruellock:

What an awesome name.. to me it envokes a Nemesis Prime quality to the Name Grimlock.. I would love to see that become a major trend in future transformers series..Nemesis Prime, Scourge teamed up with Cruellock Versus Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, and Grimlock !! Nice counterparts!! Cruellock should have been a character all his own in Energon, like he was in the comics!! NUFF SAID!!

Anyways, One of the most powerful and cunning of the Terrorcons, Cruellock is strong, fast and deadly in combat. In raptor mode he has an incredible leaping ability.




In robot mode he wields an energon blade.

What a Kickass Dinobot guy!!



Three variations of this mold exist. The original Cruellock, and recolors called Doomlock (Hasbro exclusive) and Dinobot Magma Type (Takara exclusive).



My personal Favorite is the Takara Exclusive Magma Type!!! I love that Bot.. I can't wait to get my grubby little fingers on him!!




I love the Red on Black.. I just imagine him guarding a special item in the caverns under a Volcano..what a sweet robot!!





the clear Yellowish Plastic claws give the illusion of his hands being lit up with burning energy, that if a Bot gets close enough he'll rip through them at a 1000 degrees centigrade!! Nice!!!

To me this Red/Black vwersion is the Ultimate Nemesis Grimlock!! he certainly needs his own following!!


Cheers!!!

While we are on the topic of basics, don't overlook these gems:

Skyblast
This figure is a cool little dude. It was too bad he didn't get a repaint in this series but Target is releasing two repaints of him as Skyblast & Airraid in the TF Movie line up. The sculpt on this figure looks great with lots of homages to G1 Skyfire in the head sculpt paint scheme and alt mode. His Energon weapons are really creative and seem more "powerful" than the rest of the Omnicons and Terrorcons. Only downsides of this figure are lack of knee joints and free rotating head (sort of an early automorph gimmick; rotate chest/wings and nosecone—head rotate).






Kickback
This figure has it all. Excellent alt mode sculpt, a menacing looking bot mode that looks like it is ready to unleash some heavy ordinance your way if you piss him off, and is very well articulated and designed so that the gimmick doesn't get in the way. While Blight is a repaint, Kickback's paint scheme looks better IMO.