The Energon Pub

This is going to be hard. Previous years we had stand outs like Springer, Jetfire, Metroplex etc

Now, we have:

Megatron the tank

CW figures

TR figures

Not to mention the Masterpieces like Ironhide to name a few.

Well, anything non masterpiece is automatically eliminated, so I'm going with MP Ironhide. Optimus Primal may give him a run for his money though.

As a newly self-nominated MP elitist, I'm going to have to second Ironhidensh. MP Ironhide is a perfect figure through and through. And his amount of accessories is wonderful as well.

As for non MP I'd go with TR Blurr and/or Wheelie personally.

Is TR Blurr really that good? I've been contemplating picking him up.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Is TR Blurr really that good? I've been contemplating picking him up.

Yeah, he is. He is one of the extremely few non MP figures I'm keeping. If you have the extra cash, go for the takara version with better paint, but Hasbro's is just fine.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Is TR Blurr really that good? I've been contemplating picking him up.

Yeah definitely, from the alt mode to the facial sculpt it's pretty darn great. But like Ironhidensh said the paint is superior on the Takara version.

fenrir72 wrote:This is going to be hard. Previous years we had stand outs like Springer, Jetfire, Metroplex etc

Now, we have:

Megatron the tank

CW figures

TR figures

Not to mention the Masterpieces like Ironhide to name a few.

Megatron the Tank came out at the begining of 2015 so dont know why he is mentionned here.

But I am glad you mention Jetfire, I feel he is quite underrated and I dont think anyone ever thought of him as the best of his year (2014) but I am very happy you think so

As for 2016, the best figures are Legends Blurr, Adventure Thunderhoof and Fracture as well as MP Ironhide for the MP category. I dont know if any MP will beat him, we'll see when Primal comes out. But for now, he is the best MP. If I had to only pick one toy though, it would be Legends Blurr. It accomplishes so much for that price point and it just looks gorgeous!

Rodimus Prime wrote:Is TR Blurr really that good? I've been contemplating picking him up.

Yup! X 100 .....the Takara version because I'm biased.

william-james88 wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:This is going to be hard. Previous years we had stand outs like Springer, Jetfire, Metroplex etc

Now, we have:

Megatron the tank

CW figures

TR figures

Not to mention the Masterpieces like Ironhide to name a few.

Megatron the Tank came out at the begining of 2015 so dont know why he is mentionned here.

But I am glad you mention Jetfire, I feel he is quite underrated and I dont think anyone ever thought of him as the best of his year (2014) but I am very happy you think so

As for 2016, the best figures are Legends Blurr, Adventure Thunderhoof and Fracture as well as MP Ironhide for the MP category. I dont know if any MP will beat him, we'll see when Primal comes out. But for now, he is the best MP. If I had to only pick one toy though, it would be Legends Blurr. It accomplishes so much for that price point and it just looks gorgeous!

Jetfire....hollowed forearms and thighs . Loved it so much I have both Hb and Takara versions of him.

As for Megs the tank, referenced on the JP version, though that maybe at the tail end of 2015ish. Still a great fig..........rubber treads bro!

fenrir72 wrote:Jetfire....hollowed forearms and thighs . Loved it so much I have both Hb and Takara versions of him.

As for Megs the tank, referenced on the JP version, though that maybe at the tail end of 2015ish. Still a great fig..........rubber treads bro!

You know Fenrir, I really love your enthusiasm. These figures are fun!

Does anyone here think Primal will beat Ironhide as best MP of 2016? And is anyone else sad that Shockwave, as well done as he is, isnt really on anyone's mind for that title?

william-james88 wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:Jetfire....hollowed forearms and thighs . Loved it so much I have both Hb and Takara versions of him.

As for Megs the tank, referenced on the JP version, though that maybe at the tail end of 2015ish. Still a great fig..........rubber treads bro!

You know Fenrir, I really love your enthusiasm. These figures are fun!

Does anyone here think Primal will beat Ironhide as best MP of 2016? And is anyone else sad that Shockwave, as well done as he is, isnt really on anyone's mind for that title?

So much awesome coming one after the other......

MP UM, even the Legends is great. Shockwave got rid of the kibble and more or less a near flawless analog from the show . Then the marvel of engineering mechanical "Twinkie" aka the IH/Ratchet mold (speaking of which, no one has answered my question about the 2nd re-issue of IH. Are his shoulders now "corrected"? Or is it really meant to be "mis assembled".

Fortress (the head component) and even Computicon ( great use of a base mold). Legends Blurr.....

A great letdown was the Tracks/Roadrage mold. Tried to cram that hoodie launcher but forgot the neck lock? Maybe too ambitious for the mold.

Hotrodimus too. For that scale, they got a near perfect analog of Hotrodimus to the show too.

fenrir72 wrote:Hotrodimus too. For that scale, they got a near perfect analog of Hotrodimus to the show too.

Yeah and I actually tend to use him even more for my classics collection as Rodimus Prime. It works really well with that scale.

And that Tracks mold is bad, I have roadrage ad I am just not a fan. I cant believe that all those early video reviews failed to emphasise the negatives. The good thing though is that he came out in 2015 so the 2016 MP line isnt tarnished by his existence (however Ramjet had some major problems too, but we dont hear him mentionned much).

I actually like the tracks mold.

william-james88 wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:Hotrodimus too. For that scale, they got a near perfect analog of Hotrodimus to the show too.

Yeah and I actually tend to use him even more for my classics collection as Rodimus Prime. It works really well with that scale.

And that Tracks mold is bad, I have roadrage ad I am just not a fan. I cant believe that all those early video reviews failed to emphasise the negatives. The good thing though is that he came out in 2015 so the 2016 MP line isnt tarnished by his existence (however Ramjet had some major problems too, but we dont hear him mentionned much).

MP Seekers less mentioned because not only expensive but so b***h hard to get one. Getting it via RK is much too expensive for an already expensive fig.

I love the Tracks mold but I ain't lyin' about it's missteps. The designers shouldn't have tried to cram that hoodie launcher into the figure. Water under the bridge............

Does MP Inferno drop this year? Some might put him on the list.

Ironhidensh wrote:Does MP Inferno drop this year? Some might put him on the list.

Oh Snap, he comes out at the end of next month!

What's wrong with the Tracks mold? Admittedly Road Rage is my only MP so maybe she's a massive drop in quality in comparison to the others or something; but in a vacuum I've had no problems with her. She's great.

Kurona wrote:What's wrong with the Tracks mold? Admittedly Road Rage is my only MP so maybe she's a massive drop in quality in comparison to the others or something; but in a vacuum I've had no problems with her. She's great.

Well if you want to know what I find wrong with her, I will not refuse to answer

This is the one toy I am probably most dissapointed with, when comparing to how much money I spent. Granted, I didnt spend too much, but I still spent enough to have hoped for more.

Simply, I dont like the sacrifices and shortcuts made for show accuracy. The legs are a good example. Sicne Takara felt the legs didnt have the right robot mode detail, they just added an extra panel to go over them. And that really feels off for me. Its just an extra panel, not linked to any car part, just laid over and not in a uniform way. I would have much preferred that detail to already be on the leg or to be the flip side of a leg panel, like they did with Ironhide. But here, its just an extra piece and it just doesnt feel like that is at all how any transformer would transform in the fiction, you know? It just doesnt mak the toy feel like that part is made up of the car or its innards and the panel ends up feeling extraneous when transforming. Its like its trying to fool us that there is more going on with the leg transformation which is actually very basic for an MP (compared to Bumblebee for instance).

So thats a good summary of how I feel the entire figure is handled.

As far as engineering, I despise the technique of having the back attach to the front through some tabs. That practically never works. It was a disaster with RID Sideswipe and it really isnt that much better here. It works super well with Hot Rodimus ecause they have the smart idea of having the back grip through the sides of the shoulders, which is a less obvious place to handle when posing. But with Tracks/roadrage, the back and front keep unclipping.

And abot the back, oh boy is that gap dreadful. I was not prepared. I was told there was a gap and i saw it in videos, but that wasnt enough to show me how much space there is between the two. The bot ends up looking like he is scatered metal just floating around. Because sadly, no matter wha the interpretation of that back is, the figure looks off. If you say its just a backpack, fine, but then the whole profile is out of wack with the torso being far more front than the legs. If its actually an extension of his torso, then fine, but that means he is mostly made up of air in between.

And I really hate how the wings dont have the proper amount of articulation for you to pose them correctly in robot mode. Their movement becomes really restricted.

And then you get the cherry on top with the Roadrage mold where the head doesnt lock (it does on Tracks).

So there you go, all the reasons I really do not like this toy.

(Keeping an eye on this thread for the Year in Review editorial. )

Dr Va'al wrote:(Keeping an eye on this thread for the Year in Review editorial. )

Categories I would recomend:

Best Titans Return/Legends figure

Best Combiner Wars/Unite Warriors figure

Best MP figure

Best RID/TAV figure

I did buy an MP Road Rage this year - I wasn't a huge fan of her though - I like the original toy more.. perhaps if they ever do Crosscut I'll appreciate her more.

I've not bothered to buy Ironhide as I didn't like his waist area one bit.

Don't fall off your chairs in shock but I've actually had the most "fun" with the RID Decepticons in 2016 though I find I tend to play with Cerebros all the time too. I like him so much I'm considering buying another one just to get his repaints/variations as well - then I can have 3 headless Fort Maxs.

I just got Blaster & Skylynx they are both quite good fun - though I'd be reluctant to over mark Sky Lynx due to niggly little issues - He still bags of fun - likewise the CW Combaticons.

It's hard to say what my favourite 1st party toy is in 2016 so far - as I had so much trouble finding anything in stores to buy so I tended to give up and buy third party stuff instead. If I had a favourite toy that wasn't official that would be the Overscale KO of Toyworld's Shine bug - I love that thing.

I've also got a few bits and pieces of extreme daftness in 2016 that I have much affection for as "Bootsale buys" including this enormous green V-tech T-Rex that you can talk too and it talks back at you and it transforms into a crane and moves around on it's own both rolling a walking- it's like Trypticon and Hook had a baby and it's as big as Titan class - I can't help but love that thing as it was only £7 - and the yellow mammoth V-tech I got for £4.00 is also a delight too.
I guess it was jst nice to find something fun that was a bargain - and transformed that wasn't a Transformer.

RAR wrote:Don't fall off your chairs in shock but I've actually had the most "fun" with the RID Decepticons in 2016

Me too, those toys were just so original.

TR/TL Blaster and Broadcast. Despite some issue with the head popping out (mine stop doing so as the plastic clamp has adjusted already to the head/joint) is one very simple but smart use of a gimmick (helmet folding up then keeping the head in place.) I wonder if the same principle is used on TR Optimus' helmet too?

Too bad Hb/Takara could not do the same to Galvatron what was done to Blaster/Broadcast.

william-james88 wrote:

RAR wrote:Don't fall off your chairs in shock but I've actually had the most "fun" with the RID Decepticons in 2016

Me too, those toys were just so original.

From a TF fan who despises the chin look of TFA and RID, I give it grudging admiration that they, the toys look nearly 100% identical to the show. Especially the Takara ones.

That part alone is a big Thundercats Hoooooo! for me.

fenrir72 wrote: I wonder if the same principle is used on TR Optimus' helmet too?

it is but its even better with optimus because you dont even need to remove the titan master, you can keep him inside the helmet at all times even during transformation from one mode to the next