The Energon Pub

william-james88 wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Wow, it appears sold out. Guess more than enough people don't mind the price.

It might not be perfect, but people have wanted a GiJoe TF since the 80s. People will get it for that reason alone. I know that's my main motivation. I love this collab line because of the combos we're getting, and that trumps the figures being somewhat compromised.

The figure would actually have to be pretty awful for me to pass or a straight up repaint. The only one I've taken a pass on is Afterlife Ectotron. Yes, even Maverick wasn't terrible enough for me to say no to.

I thought the titanium Megatron was also a GI Joe TF. Maybe I am misinterpreting what I read.

What I mean is a TF that can actually interact with GI Joes of that scale. I never thought we'd get one. I always thought the Joe scale would be too much for a transforming toy to work with; that a GI Joe would have to be, at best, Human Alliance scale; an afterthought basically. But here we are, a proper GiJoe figure interacting with a proper Transformer with both being iconic representations of each franchise.

So, yeah, even if it isn't the best Transformer toy I'm into what it is and what it's doing. It's like that for some toys. For me.

Oh hell yeah! I’m all over this.

william-james88 wrote:I thought the titanium Megatron was also a GI Joe TF. Maybe I am misinterpreting what I read.

Yes, but only in the sense that the package blurb said he was. He isn't based on an existing Joe/Cobra vehicle, doesn't appear in any other media in this form, in the comic the figure is believed to be based on he turned into a gun, and there aren't any Joe/Cobra symbols on him or the package. They could literally take any random figure, say Legacy Bulkhead, mention G.I.Joe on the package and it would be an instant crossover figure.

Emerje

There's a few GiJoe crossover toys, but it's always been one way. A TF what has GiJoe flavour, like the Serpent O.R. repaint of Gen Scourge. Or a GiJoe vehicle that has TF flavour, like the Shockwave Hiss tank. There has never been a toy that fits both.

Granted the scale still makes this more of a Joe figure than a TF one, but I'll still take it. The more I think on it the more I like it, even if the figure itself is kind of B-.

This one gave me pause when it was revealed. I wanted to like the idea, and I did preorder it in case it grew on me, but then I did ultimately cancel. This just doesn't look that good. I know that TF/GI Joe fans were really excited for this, but the execution might actually be the worst of the crossover figures.

I think the main issue is it is G1 Megatron, design/color/etc, wearing a HISS Tank. If Megatron has been black, it would have worked a bit better, like integrate the tank into him, not wear it like that. the grey Megatron color combined with the black HISS make it very obvious it's a shell. If they had just designed a good Megatron that wasn't slavish to G1, this could have been better.

Like I said, I like the concept, it would be neat to have 3.75" figures scale with TFs, but this did not work.

For those that don't know, it's not a question of if but when the O-ring on these new Retro Joes will break. I guess they realized from the Walmart line that the tooling for the modern Joe figures is compromised, the only way I can explain in my head why those figures were breaking.

I wonder if it's possible for all that kibble on his back to fold down? They don't show it as possible, but I noticed the box art shows him with it folded down and the guns pointed up instead of pointed over his shoulders.



I also wonder how easy it is to remove. It comes detached in the box so I wonder just how permanent that becomes.



Also these look like pretty late stage samples with molded plastics and even tied into the box, it's strange that they're still nearly a year from release.

Emerje

That year later release date is just an overly conservative estimate. The year on the box says this is made for the anniversary taking place in 2022.

Emerje wrote:I wonder if it's possible for all that kibble on his back to fold down? They don't show it as possible, but I noticed the box art shows him with it folded down and the guns pointed up instead of pointed over his shoulders.

I can overlook the colours, I can ignore the pointless (to me) Baroness figure ... but if that backpack can't fold down, then that's a massive fail in my eyes.

I wonder how hard it would be for them to scale the engineering down to Joe size and slap some B.A.T. heads on ...

william-james88 wrote:That year later release date is just an overly conservative estimate. The year on the box says this is made for the anniversary taking place in 2022.

Makes you wonder just how much of this was all planned and how much was in response to fan reactions to other things. Like if HasLab Skystriker failed would they have just shelved the hole thing or would they have changed this two pack to a retro 4" figures instead, or even if this is a last ditch effort to make the 3 3/4" figures more appealing. No doubt they've been working on this stuff for a few years, but we've seen Hasbro tighten up windows in response to retailers and fans (we've seen a lot of that during Prime Wars and WFC), no doubt thanks to everything being digitally sculpted now. Very curious where all of this ends up and if it'll be successful.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:That year later release date is just an overly conservative estimate. The year on the box says this is made for the anniversary taking place in 2022.

Makes you wonder just how much of this was all planned and how much was in response to fan reactions to other things. Like if HasLab Skystriker failed would they have just shelved the hole thing or would they have changed this two pack to a retro 4" figures instead, or even if this is a last ditch effort to make the 3 3/4" figures more appealing. No doubt they've been working on this stuff for a few years, but we've seen Hasbro tighten up windows in response to retailers and fans (we've seen a lot of that during Prime Wars and WFC), no doubt thanks to everything being digitally sculpted now. Very curious where all of this ends up and if it'll be successful.

Emerje

I might be missing your point, but I think it's clear with the shift in the retro line from modern to vintage design styles that Classified is the figure priority. That scale will never work for the majority of vehicles, so 3 3/4" scale continues to have value for that, and the figure design itself is less important. If vehicles and playsets and the like don't do well, or if retro O-ring isn't profitable, then I assume they'll just fully switch over from 3 3/4" to 6".

I held off on the modern retro figures because I had a handful of 25th anniversary toys that I sold off, and Joe was never a collecting focus. Now I want the early cast to go with these two-packs, and eBay is insane.

Edit: I'm kinda all over the place, this is what I'm trying to say:

6" Classified: modern figures with sculpting, deco, etc., probably current focus for Hasbro
3 3/4" Retro (modern): dead, replaced with Hiya license, I guess
3 3/4" vehicles: may or may not continue to get attention, but Sky Striker and Megatron are positive indicators
3 3/4" Retro (vintage): good companion for vehicles, may continue to work as collector product, but if vehicles soft or O-ring doesn't perform, could be replaced by ReAction license.

And to your point, I don't know how vehicle performance and O-ring performance might be linked, but I think you're probably right that they could be. I don't know how the timing factors in, and I think we would have seen this toy even if the Sky Striker wasn't funded.

This is a bit off-topic and I don't want to derail, but I've been looking at recent Hasbro actions for Star Wars in relation to GI Joe. There have been a number of 3 3/4" vehicles and playsets even in recent years under TVC, but much less in the 6" Black Series. Major examples of the latter are speeder bikes and a snowspeeder. The most significant large scale Black Series product would have been the Rancor, but that's not being produced. My assumption is that the impact will include fewer oversized 6" products and that will remain a figure line, while 3 3/4" TVC will be used for bigger products. My notes about the Joe line above align with that.

I dabble in non-TF toy lines, and even though Star Wars is one of my favorites, I mostly avoid Hasbro figures in favor of Lego. But that space is really interesting to me, especially for Joes, as my brother and I collected them when we were kids.

Remembers the day when 12" action man had vehicles...it's do able for 6" for sure even if Hasbro only have a thing for bikes at the moment.

I'm wondering if last years GI joe /TF rumor was this Megatron or if some one saw Maverick way back then and got confused.

blackeyedprime wrote:Remembers the day when 12" action man had vehicles...it's do able for 6" for sure even if Hasbro only have a thing for bikes at the moment.

I'm wondering if last years GI joe /TF rumor was this Megatron or if some one saw Maverick way back then and got confused.

The McFarlane DC line has vehicles for 7 inch figures just to further showvthat it can be a reality.

-Kanrabat- wrote:
USS Flagg properly scaled for the 6" Joes. No HASLAB. Regular release. Available in brick and mortar stores, not just online.

Do it!

I'd buy that (and sleep on it, there would be no room for a bed and that would only be after a house extension for good measure...but only if it really floats)

Hasbro just revealed the latest in their new series of GI Joe Transformers collaborative projects. The preoder for it will be up at 1pm on Pulse.

GIJoe let's roll out! For #YoJoeJune, we're bringing you the next G.I. Joe x Transformers Mash-up! GIJoe and the Autobots are teaming up to stop Cobra and the Decepticons! Stalker teams up with #Bumblebee, disguised as an A.W.E. Striker, to scout out the Cobra-Decepticon strongholds. The Bumblebee A.W.E. Striker and Lonzo "Stalker" Wilkinson O-Ring figures feature accurate scale and deco to the original G.I. Joe toys from the 1980's!

I much prefer the Vamp design to the Striker, but this is one of the most iconic Joe vehicles, so I shouldn't be surprised. I'm disappointed, but not to the extent that I won't get it.