The Energon Pub

News Credits: 10 · by **Agamemnon** » Mon Jun 19, 2017 11:23 am

BBTS has a preorder up for another MakeToys offering, Galaxy Meteor:

MakeToys MTRM-10 Galaxy Meteor $139.99

This looks like a highly detailed version of the old Cybertron toys. I can't tell the size. Perhaps this is supposed to be MP-ish. At any rate, I have most of the original Cybertron toys (using them as my pre-earth Seekers) and they are perfectly great toys. Are the after-market prices pretty high? This just seems very redundant....

But, I don't want to poo-poo anyone's desire for this. It does look great. I'm just not sure it is an improvement over the original toys...

News Credits: 293 · by **shajaki** » Mon Jun 19, 2017 1:06 pm

Agamemnon wrote:But, I don't want to poo-poo anyone's desire for this. It does look great. I'm just not sure it is an improvement over the original toys...

Sorry..... but I don't understand how anyone can look at this and not see this as a vast improvement over the original. Don't get me wrong, I love the original, but my god those arms were limited. And this is basically MP quality.

I'm so down for this

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Mon Jun 19, 2017 2:00 pm

Holy HECK is this beautiful! I love this design but a few things about the original let me down (rather short arms, really big wing kibble on said arms, proportions in general could do with a tad bit of work) and this fixes every single problem I had. This is a perfect representation of my first Starscream.

News Credits: 10 · by **Agamemnon** » Mon Jun 19, 2017 2:46 pm

Kurona wrote:Holy HECK is this beautiful! I love this design but a few things about the original let me down (rather short arms, really big wing kibble on said arms, proportions in general could do with a tad bit of work) and this fixes every single problem I had. This is a perfect representation of my first Starscream.

I am effing old... O_O

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Mon Jun 19, 2017 3:36 pm

Agamemnon wrote:
Kurona wrote:Holy HECK is this beautiful! I love this design but a few things about the original let me down (rather short arms, really big wing kibble on said arms, proportions in general could do with a tad bit of work) and this fixes every single problem I had. This is a perfect representation of my first Starscream.

I am effing old... O_O

I guess TECHNICALLY the first Starscream I ever saw was the Armada toy on the cross-sell of Optimus or Sideways' box or something, but Cybertron Starscream is the first one I saw in fiction. And I still feel he's one of the best - plus, just in general this design is incredible. If Starscream at some point decided to get a huge badass bruiser body in a last-ditch attempt to take on Megatron for Decepticon Leadership, THIS is the body he'd hop into. 100%.

News Credits: 12 · by **Evil Eye** » Tue Jun 20, 2017 9:36 am

Want want want want WANT

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Tue Jun 20, 2017 5:33 pm

mmmmmmm

News Credits: 293 · by **shajaki** » Wed Jun 21, 2017 12:00 pm

Y'know what I wish he had? Optional switch out blasters for the arm blades. The G1'er in me would rather have the blasters, and Supreme SS had one blade and one blaster.....

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Wed Jun 21, 2017 5:42 pm

shajaki wrote:Y'know what I wish he had? Optional switch out blasters for the arm blades. The G1'er in me would rather have the blasters, and Supreme SS had one blade and one blaster.....

Yeah, I'm the same - he had the blaster in the latter half of the show too once he got an upgrade and Leobreaker tore off the sword he used to have.

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Mon Aug 14, 2017 8:41 pm

Colour me the hell impressed. This looks amazing.

News Credits: 12 · by **Evil Eye** » Tue Aug 15, 2017 5:17 am

Handled him briefly at TFNation. He's incredible and I want him.

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Mon Aug 21, 2017 4:15 am

Well. This is depressing.

Maketoys statement says low pre-orders. Uuuuugh.

https://www.facebook.com/Maketoys/photo ... =3&theater

News Credits: 293 · by **shajaki** » Mon Aug 21, 2017 8:33 am

My 3P purchases are few and far between these days, and I was 100% down for this. That sucks.

News Credits: 12 · by **Evil Eye** » Mon Aug 21, 2017 10:50 am

I am so f*cking furious right now.

News Credits: 12 · by **Evil Eye** » Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:05 am

Starscream is unkillable it would seem...

News Credits: 1 · by **ExciKaiser** » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:01 am

I don't understand the goal. The original toy is very good. Well articulated, no kibble, it's one of the best toys from this period and he's still able to compete with nowadays generations line.

There's was no really urgent for a remake. I understand why they didn't got ton of preorders.
I love Unicron Trilogy, but I see absolutely no need for this.

They should have started with one of the numerous "broken" toys of the trilogy, those which really needed an update, not the only one which was quite perfect from the begining.

News Credits: 12 · by **Evil Eye** » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:43 am

ExciKaiser wrote:I don't understand the goal. The original toy is very good. Well articulated, no kibble, it's one of the best toys from this period and he's still able to compete with nowadays generations line.

There's was no really urgent for a remake. I understand why they didn't got ton of preorders.
I love Unicron Trilogy, but I see absolutely no need for this.

They should have started with one of the numerous "broken" toys of the trilogy, those which really needed an update, not the only one which was quite perfect from the begining.

The leg articulation is great but the arms suck. Very little outward motion, no bicep swivel, and blocky fists. And if you don't live in Japan the only version easily available is the oversized Supreme version (which isn't very good).

The original Voyager is cool and all, but it's outdated and not that poseable. Plus, this works in a CHUG display as Starscream's giant form from the second half of the series.

I will agree there's other UT figures I'd like MT to do, but this is still awesome.

News Credits: 191 · by **Kurona** » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:47 am

I'll also say that this is way better proportions. Even as a kid I always disliked how stumpy Cybertron Starscream's forearms looked -- in this they make much more sense and honestly much cooler.

News Credits: 293 · by **shajaki** » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:49 am

ExciKaiser wrote:I don't understand the goal. The original toy is very good. Well articulated, no kibble, it's one of the best toys from this period and he's still able to compete with nowadays generations line.

There's was no really urgent for a remake. I understand why they didn't got ton of preorders.
I love Unicron Trilogy, but I see absolutely no need for this.

They should have started with one of the numerous "broken" toys of the trilogy, those which really needed an update, not the only one which was quite perfect from the begining.

I responded to a like comment already...

shajaki wrote:Sorry..... but I don't understand how anyone can look at this and NOT see this as a vast improvement over the original. Don't get me wrong, I love the original, but my god those arms were limited. And this is basically MP quality.

And I'll expand on this:
Easily you can see that his sculpting us superb. He has more details, and there's more picked out with paint apps than the original. And his biggest plus is his posability. I love Energon SS, but lets not pretend that his posability was lacking, especially in the arms. The original was great, but far from perfect.

News Credits: 1 · by **ExciKaiser** » Tue Aug 22, 2017 12:30 pm

I'm not saying it doesn't looks fine or wathever.

It's a good update.
But is it an urgent update ? is it a 150$ needed update ?

I'm talking from business point of view.
I need to congratulate them to go on Unicron trilogy path, while all other 3P stick to G1 and copying themselves to the point we got 12 Devastators and 35 dinobots.

I like this choice, but it's a risky choice.
The problem is adding other risks to the first risk :
- remake of a toy which was already correctly propotinated and articulated
- not the most popular character.

It limits a lot the fanbase en the end. If you take the pyramid :
People who looks into 3P stuff.
People who looks into 3P stuff and wants Unicron trilogy toys.
People who looks into 3P stuff and wants Unicron trilogy toys and are waiting for a GF starscream remake (which means they were not satisfied Before the announcement

I'm not sure we ends with lot of people.

They could have narrowed the risk by choosing a more popular character, with a more broken original toy. Like let's say.. Energon or Armada SuperPrime Optimus.
Easier to sell, on my humble opinion. Armada Prime was even secod on the Takara masterpiece poll, just behind StarSaber.
And once people have a 3P Unicron Trilogy Prime on their shelves, it becomes easier to sell them a matching 150$ starcream, the same way some people buy all masterpiece release, even when they don't particulary like the character.

Maybe I'm completely wrong. But the low preorders seems to say that I'm probably not, or not so far of the reality.

You'll probably say "it's not pertinent either to have 65 G1 devastators", and you're probably right, the difference is I don't care :-D

So I don't know how they sell etc.. (does it sells well ?)
I'm not a G1 fan, so I'm not interest of most of the 3P market. But I'm a Unicron Trilogy fan, and I did pass on this one, so there's necessary a problem somewhere.

Unfortunately, now they may draw the conclusion there's absolutely no room for unicron 3P toys, just because of a first non-business-pertinent choice.

by **ZeldaTheSwordsman** » Sat Sep 02, 2017 7:09 pm

A shame this was canceled, I would have loved it. But I guess the First Church of 3rd Party are too G1-biased.

ExciKaiser wrote:- remake of a toy which was already correctly propotinated and articulated

I own the original, please excuse me while I laugh. :lol:

The original toy was a bit squat compared to the animation model. That's tolerable on its own due to a bit of artistic license with the CGI, but on top of that the arms are rather restricted in their movement especially compared to some of his dynamic arm movements in-show. There's no bicep swivels (Not exactly a unique problem, but still), no wrist swivels, and his bulky shoulders also limit the range of motion because of their proximity to his torso. And then there's the fact that his pectoral guns aren't articulated. They're just molded into the front piece of his torso. That was fixed on the Supreme class toy, but it's the ONLY thing that was fixed. The Voyager-class toy is cool and fun, but it sacrificed a lot to make room for a soundbox that wound up dropped late in development.

ExciKaiser wrote:- not the most popular character.

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:-?

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Whuh?

News Credits: 2 · by **SureShot18** » Thu Sep 21, 2017 9:59 am

It's back folks. :-D

Hi Supporters

It has been 5 years, Maketoys making toys for their fans, and as fans ourselves, it is the most wonderful job in the world. This is why we do our best with thanks, passion and a little bit of knowledge.

The world is changing and markets tend to change with it. These last few years we have done a lot to find way of balancing production costs and quantities to valued retail pricing. It has been difficult at times and certain projects will fail if we can not sell out of our stock. There are many reasons for failures such as same character clashing, and unpopular characters being less supported by the fandom.

Unfortunately, with Galaxy Meteor, the situation is simply that preorder numbers were just far too low. We are very proud of this figure and have been spending our best efforts on it and we believe it is one of the top 5 figures MakeToys has ever designed and produced. Due to these feelings, the project must go on. We had to cancel preorders and look for a better solution to find more support for this figure. We have been in touch with all our MakeToys Official retailers and explained the situation and have requested advice from them at the same time. They have all been overly supportive and understanding. It has been agreed upon that retailers will help with a cut in profits on this figure to ensure that they can carry it and we can deliver this great piece to our fans. We are all so grateful for this unprecedented situation and with a full heart we are happy to say that the figure can now be relisted by retailers at a lower MSRP of $99 USD. We do hope that the fans are more willing to commit at this more comfortable price.

We do have full plans to continue with the Galaxy Force series as we are all big fans of this series. Stay tuned to the TFCon Third Party Panel for some insight into what we are planning next.

We want to thank everyone who has shown us support through all of this, both our fans and our official retailers. Without all of you we would not be who we are today. Thank you with all our hearts.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1741693175849545&id=408149355870607&__tn__=%2As%2As-R
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/55080

News Credits: 12 · by **Evil Eye** » Thu Sep 21, 2017 10:16 am

SureShot18 wrote:It's back folks.
Hi Supporters

It has been 5 years, Maketoys making toys for their fans, and as fans ourselves, it is the most wonderful job in the world. This is why we do our best with thanks, passion and a little bit of knowledge.

The world is changing and markets tend to change with it. These last few years we have done a lot to find way of balancing production costs and quantities to valued retail pricing. It has been difficult at times and certain projects will fail if we can not sell out of our stock. There are many reasons for failures such as same character clashing, and unpopular characters being less supported by the fandom.

Unfortunately, with Galaxy Meteor, the situation is simply that preorder numbers were just far too low. We are very proud of this figure and have been spending our best efforts on it and we believe it is one of the top 5 figures MakeToys has ever designed and produced. Due to these feelings, the project must go on. We had to cancel preorders and look for a better solution to find more support for this figure. We have been in touch with all our MakeToys Official retailers and explained the situation and have requested advice from them at the same time. They have all been overly supportive and understanding. It has been agreed upon that retailers will help with a cut in profits on this figure to ensure that they can carry it and we can deliver this great piece to our fans. We are all so grateful for this unprecedented situation and with a full heart we are happy to say that the figure can now be relisted by retailers at a lower MSRP of $99 USD. We do hope that the fans are more willing to commit at this more comfortable price.

We do have full plans to continue with the Galaxy Force series as we are all big fans of this series. Stay tuned to the TFCon Third Party Panel for some insight into what we are planning next.

We want to thank everyone who has shown us support through all of this, both our fans and our official retailers. Without all of you we would not be who we are today. Thank you with all our hearts.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1741693175849545&id=408149355870607&__tn__=%2As%2As-R
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/55080

Well I know what I want for Chrimbo!