The Energon Pub

Moosey wrote:I found the takara animated voyager skywarp on a whim, I can get where you're coming from, but as a figure I do really enjoy skywarp.

I own the Hasbro Skywarp and he's a decent representation of the character (Still has the fingers that fall off, the back panels, the poor hips), and hey, his colors are great. However it's really the Starscream that gets me. This thread was for characters that have disappointing toys, and TF Animated Starscream's toy doesn't evoke the mighty Starscream in my view. A specific nitpick on Skywarp is that his face really doesn't evoke the character

G1 Rodimus Prime.

Yeah, I'm probably 1 of 6 or 7 people in the world who thinks of him as "great" but even if he hadn't been a leader, his G1 toy is just laughable. No articulation whatsoever besides the shoulders. That's all it takes to transform him. Flip the chest over, pull out the arms, flip out the feet. Done. Leg articulation? None. Elbows? In vehicle mode, he's the 3rd member of my "Brick Trinity" along with Powermaster Prime and G2 Megatron. Basically an oversized legends figure.

Rodimus Prime wrote:G1 Rodimus Prime.

Yeah, I'm probably 1 of 6 or 7 people in the world who thinks of him as "great" but even if he hadn't been a leader, his G1 toy is just laughable. No articulation whatsoever besides the shoulders. That's all it takes to transform him. Flip the chest over, pull out the arms, flip out the feet. Done. Leg articulation? None. Elbows? In vehicle mode, he's the 3rd member of my "Brick Trinity" along with Powermaster Prime and G2 Megatron. Basically an oversized legends figure.

Hotrod or Rodimus Prime in general. I had tears of joy when Classics/Henkei Rodimus came out, then again when Titanium Rodimus came out, and one more time when MP Hotrod came out. And the sad part is (while I still love them) they have their flaws, some major.

Roddy needs some love.

shajaki wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:
Roddy needs some love.

and the upcoming Legends figure just doesn't cut it.... I'd really like a tall deluxe or voyager class version based on his MTMTE design - he could pull a ROTF Lockdown and go from a decent deluxe sized vehicle (fitting with the scale of other Autobot cars) into quite a tall robot, or be similar to Gen Springer, voyager sized bot folding up into a not-that-much-bigger-than-a-deluxe vehicle....

As for my nominations for this thread:

Universe Tankor/Octane - sure they kept the triple changer aspect, but none of the modes are all that great. Very little articulation in bot mode, plane mode has a laughable tail end/undercarriage and tanker mode is a little "wtf." Probably due to the constraints of the size class, a voyager class version could probably have done a better job here.

FOC Bruticus. As much as I like the asymmetrical design of 5 bots into one - different hands/feet for each bot, the execution was seriously flawed. Hardly represents the in-game brute that got me buying TFs again - especially now compared to the CW range.

Gen. Bumblebee - Way too bright. Decent mould for the time, but the plastic felt cheap and soft, subsequent releases like Goldfire and Takara Gold Bumblebee are a much better representation of the character in this mould.

Gen. Stealh Bomber Megatron: Needed to be bigger, that's really the only flaw. He's small for a deluxe figure - doesn't even reach Leader class Megatron's crotch.

Gen. Trail(breaker)cutter/Hoist: Again, too small, otherwise OK figures. Could have done with a little bit more differentiation in bot mode other than a new head/paintjob - Hoist needs his wings.

Gen. Legends Warpath - this one is more of a why? and wtf? entry here. Deluxe Warpath is one of my favourite figures on my shelf, and sure he was a minibot originally, and we're getting all the minibots again in the Generations line, but come on. Where's the chest canon? Where's the hatch to head transformation? Sure he's a deep red, sure he's a tank, sure that head looks like Warpath. But to me it just isn't. Don't get me wrong, its a good mould, it's just not good for Warpath.

and for my last one.

RTS Cyclonus as IDW Cyclonus - this one's a little more personal. As great as the mould is, it's got a few flaws, articulation around the arms is a little weird and limiting, especially when given a sword, alt mode is decent, but gappy at the rear - my main issue here however, is that it doesn't represent the comic from of Cyclonus very well. I just need a head sculpt that looks closer to the comic series, and the CW figure is an even further departure from that.

triKlops wrote:The interesting thing about Scalpel, if i can remember my facts correctly, was that he was designed by Yuki from MP fame.
So it had a good engineer behind it, it was just the translation to a completed product that was lacking.
Don't get me wrong though, I still have mine and like him; he just didn't make the process from concept to final product as well as he should have.

I think it's the legs that get me. Yes, I guess they are technically accurate to the concept art, but they are hard to balance on, and the ball joints aren't very good.

LegendaryAntiHero wrote:You have got to be insane. Samurai Prowl is one of the best figures we ever got

Eh, each there own. I think he could have been improved if his backpack wasn't one big attached piece is all .

welcometothedarksyde wrote:This is a personal one, Animated Starscream.


Transformers Animated Starscream Gallery

For what is in my opinion among the best animated (pun intended) portrayals of Starscream ever, his toy doesn't look anything like him. Besides the cringy transformation that makes me feel like I'm going to strip his gears any minute, and the relatively undynamic articulation that he has, he also has a huge panel behind his head. Considering that they were going to reuse this mold for alot of repaints, I wished that they had put more effort into making sure he was a little more accurate.
Now this is a problem specific to Starscream and not just the seekers, his colors are totally off. Rather than being a slightly blueish gray with purple, he's a powder blue with red. Not even the Takara release fixed this unfortunately. To summarize, they even taunt you on the box with how inaccurate he is.


Transformers Animated Starscream Gallery

I forgot about him. I(like Moosey) have the Skywarp version, and yeah not horrible, but just kinda meh.

Activators is the way to go for a fun version of the character:



It even has show accurate null ray cannons, and has some very nice articulation for it's size. Ball jointy goodness.