The Energon Pub

I'd still love a real SERPEN O.R. I liked what they did with him in that old comic. Totally unlikely, but still.

I'd also love to see Cobra Commander riding Starscream. Don't see how that's possible. But still.

But I gotta say ... the 89 Batmobile and the Enterprise, people! Get on those licenses!

Nemesis Primal wrote:According to one of the credible leakers (JTPrime17) last night:
-It is a GI Joe set
-It is the first of 2 sets
-Unless plans have changed, it is going to include a pre-existing TF character
-$90 is indeed the price
-It'll be revealed during the next upcoming GI Joe reveals

Maybe this would be a way to put out "Earthrise" Hound?

Thanks to our usual reliable insider that prefers to go unnamed we've got some possible insight on the next Collaborative set that was recently listed at Gamestop. It appears we're finally getting not one but two long awaited crossover sets with G.I. Joe!

-It is a GI Joe set
-It is the first of 2 sets
-Unless plans have changed, it is going to include a pre-existing TF character
-$90 is indeed the price
-It'll be revealed during the next upcoming GI Joe reveals

Sounds like we wont be waiting long for our first look! Details like if they'll be compatible with Joe figures or release timeframe haven't been given yet, but we should have all of that info in due time if it everything pans out.

Excited to finally get our first full fledged TRANSFORMING crossover between two of Hasbro's most iconic franchises without being hidden behind unrelated series? Let us know in the Energon Pub Forums!

So I have to wonder about something. $90 is a lot for a two figure set when Hasbro doesn't have to pay for a license fee this time around. So that makes me wonder if maybe maybe this time around the set isn't two Transformers, but a Transformer and one of the new 3 3/4" Joe figures that can ride inside it? So instead of including a tiny Joe to scale with Transformers, what if it's a big transformer that's to scale with G.I. Joe? That price is basically Commander Class Plus and there's a lot they could do with that. I doubt we'll see another Jetfire, but something smaller like a single passenger Dragonfly that turns into Whirl and comes with Wild Bill would be pretty cool and totally possible being such a skinny chopper that would work perfectly with lanky Whirl. The wording "pre-existing TF character" and not "pre-existing TF toy" means to me that it's going to include a familiar character rather than a new one like Ectotron or Gigawatt, not that it's going to repack an existing toy. I'm also going to guess one good set and one evil set.

Very excited about the prospects here. I doubt they can really disappoint me no matter what direction they take, this is something I've been waiting for since the first Marvel crossover.

Emerje

While it would be awesome if it did include a Joe, I'm not seeing anything about it being a two-pack, just the first of two sets. Or am I reading too quickly again?

Emerje wrote:So I have to wonder about something. $90 is a lot for a two figure set when Hasbro doesn't have to pay for a license fee this time around. So that makes me wonder if maybe maybe this time around the set isn't two Transformers, but a Transformer and one of the new 3 3/4" Joe figures that can ride inside it? So instead of including a tiny Joe to scale with Transformers, what if it's a big transformer that's to scale with G.I. Joe? That price is basically Commander Class Plus and there's a lot they could do with that. I doubt we'll see another Jetfire, but something smaller like a single passenger Dragonfly that turns into Whirl and comes with Wild Bill would be pretty cool and totally possible being such a skinny chopper that would work perfectly with lanky Whirl. The wording "pre-existing TF character" and not "pre-existing TF toy" means to me that it's going to include a familiar character rather than a new one like Ectotron or Gigawatt, not that it's going to repack an existing toy. I'm also going to guess one good set and one evil set.

Very excited about the prospects here. I doubt they can really disappoint me no matter what direction they take, this is something I've been waiting for since the first Marvel crossover.

Emerje

It's a decent theory, and provides a target for speculation, but I don't know how likely it is. At that price point it would need to be at least a Leader size, and a cockpit or other space to include a 3.75" figure would limit mold reuse beyond the collaboration. I would really like to see this, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

As an alternative possibility, it could be a retool of one of the recent bikes like Wreck-Gar or Arcee and include a 6" Classified figure, or even two. There's been a lot of merch recently with Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow on bikes. You'd need two Joe's to get to the $90 price point.

Less interestingly, it could also be something like the X-Men collaboration and just include microfigures that don't interact with the set at all. Hopefully we'll find out soon. (Edit: the leaker and this post say it'll be at the next event, Friday's livestream. That doesn't give us much time, we need to speculate faster.)

Perhaps a voyager and a deluxe. Or maybe two voyagers. I bet they keep the price point at $90 and simply rake in extra profits. They probably justify the price based on it being an exclusive.

My guess: Earthrise Starscream repainted as the Skystriker

What did they do in the comics?

I think the R.H.I.N.O. as Battletrap would make a lot of sense. It separates into an attack helicopter and 4 wheeled vehicle, it makes sense thematically and the colour scheme even works.

Maybe we could see a retool/repaint of the Top Gun Maverick... and nothing else.

Never underestimate the markup of these X-Over toys.

Overcracker wrote:If it is the R.H.I.N.O. A retool of TR Skyshadow / Overlord is a slam dunk. And you have cockpits built in for a titan master sized Cobra figure to ride in.

Makes too much sense.

Based on the price and design I considered TR Overlord too, but instead of the Rhino, I would do it as a more traditional tank and the Night Raven jet, with the character changed to Megatron. The main problem I had with it is that while the Joes had the Mauler, I couldn't find a Cobra version of a classic tank.

Overcracker wrote:The robot does not really need to be a transformers character as seen on previous x-overs.

In this case, it does according to the leaker, who has been pretty solid on the info given in the past.

"-Unless plans have changed, it is going to include a pre-existing TF character"

That still leaves things pretty wide open, but I would bet on the bot mode being someone from the franchise.

What would suck would be just re-releases of some of the Human Alliance figures with just the mini-figs retooled to be various Joes or Cobras. Wait, that actually might not be too bad...

TK415 wrote:My guess: Earthrise Starscream repainted as the Skystriker

What did they do in the comics?

Which ones? There were several crossovers in comics by different publishers. The original Marvel run of both franchises had a 4-issue crossover miniseries, plus a comic where Cobra found and rebuilt Megatron into his G2 body; Dreamwave had a crossover set in WWII (and therefore the most unlikely to use as a reference); Devil's Due Publishing had Cobra find the dormant Transformers, refit them into typical GI Joe/Cobra vehicles and remotely control them - until they inevitably awaken and break free - and also created Serpent O.R., while GI Joe mostly used mechs; and the IDW crossover series by Tom Scioli which...I can hardly understand what's going on there, honestly.

So, from my guess, the pre-existing character will be either G2 Megatron, Serpent O.R., or one of the many Transformers already based on GI Joe vehicles (Snow Cat, Skyhammer, Viper...). Though it could also be another, more well-known character adapted to a GI Joe vehicle, like the Devil's Due Publishing comics or the Earth Wars event.

MeGrimlock78 wrote:While it would be awesome if it did include a Joe, I'm not seeing anything about it being a two-pack, just the first of two sets. Or am I reading too quickly again?

Do you normally call one figure a set? You said it yourself, the leak specifically says the one listed at Gamestop is a set and there will be two sets. We should be getting at least two figures in each set, what kind of figures they are is anyone's guess.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Excited to finally get our first full fledged TRANSFORMING crossover between two of Hasbro's most iconic franchises without being hidden behind unrelated series?

nah I'm good.

Emerje wrote:

MeGrimlock78 wrote:While it would be awesome if it did include a Joe, I'm not seeing anything about it being a two-pack, just the first of two sets. Or am I reading too quickly again?

Do you normally call one figure a set? You said it yourself, the leak specifically says the one listed at Gamestop is a set and there will be two sets. We should be getting at least two figures in each set, what kind of figures they are is anyone's guess.

Emerje

Point taken.

On to predictions. It would make sense to have the Joe set first, but given the codename, perhaps a Cobra Trooper or B.A.T. themed set? I could see a B.A.T. being a good choice for a transforming robot, though it has been done before.

That pic of the vehicle seems to me very similar to siege ironhide/ratchet. Also, the hole on the very front of the vehicle reminds me of a combiner hand/foot port. Or could it be a hole to combine two vehicles like the micomaster set Countdown and... sorry can't remember the other vehicle...they were both blue decepticon missile carrier vehicles i think.

SciFi80sGameFan wrote:That pic of the vehicle seems to me very similar to siege ironhide/ratchet. Also, the hole on the very front of the vehicle reminds me of a combiner hand/foot port. Or could it be a hole to combine two vehicles like the micomaster set Countdown and... sorry can't remember the other vehicle...they were both blue decepticon missile carrier vehicles i think.

The figure in the picture is Energon Snowcat from 2004. I tried using something fairly recent that most of us would recognize to prevent confusion, but I guess there was bound to be people who weren't familiar with it. Maybe I should have used another picture of original Wild Weasel riding on CW Viper.

Emerje

Evidently the Gamestop listing has now updated to say "Hiss Tank Megatron & Baroness set", so I guess that solves that.

Nemesis Primal wrote:Evidently the Gamestop listing has now updated to say "Hiss Tank Megatron & Baroness set", so I guess that solves that.

Oh?

Looking forward the actual reveal.

If it's yet another Siege repaint with just your standard action figure thrown in, it will be a hard pass. But if there's some original molds here...

Megatron, eh? Hm. I have Genesis Megatron leading the (few) bad guys I have on my Crossover shelf ... I guess he can be Megaplex or something.

Where will that leave Prime (if Megatron is a Hiss tank I mean)? Because the other one is obviously going to be Prime.

There was a good chance that the next collaborative project, codenamed Trooper, was going to be GI Joe based. And now we have further proof. We have a web link for a Gamestop product called Transformers x GI Joe Collaborative Hiss Tank Megatron & Baroness set. The link is currently inactive. It will probably be active tomorrow to coincide with the GI Joe event happening at 11. You can get more info on that here.

The scale is said to be 3.75 inch, making that $90 quite expensive. But remember, Hasbro never made the GI Joe brand more affordable than figures which they have to pay a license for, hence why the 6 inch marvel legends are the same price point as 6 inch GI Joe classified figures.

Below is an image of what the HISS tank looks like for those unaware. We will post what this product actually looks like when it is revealed.

I'm surprised they went with Megatron instead of Soundwave, but Megs is probably a much safer bet for profitability.
Either way I'm very keen to see how it looks!