The Energon Pub

Couple things before I get to Swoop.

I am extremely disappointed in a 3rd G1 SS commander slot, I hate that live action commanders have to wait until as least 2026.

For those who want an animation accurate Devastator, or the best individual bots, go SS. Otherwise, CW/UW is the best for combined mode / scale. It is why I will pass on the new Devastator until they do a G2 redeco. I said it then and I will say it now: Titan scales best for the combined mode, 12" for the individuals.

Pretty confident that Primus is not next years titan either. I have heard rumors that next year's Generations mainline titan will be a guy who has never gotten a toy before.

As for movie titans, I would truly only accept SS titans as long as we get a DotM Driller, I don't care if they do G1 titans in SS, so long as the Driller gets a toy. And if possible, I really would not mind a live action Ark, DotM Con ship, or Lockdown bounty ship in the same manner as the Ark and Nemesis.

Moving on, i did get Swoop. He is pretty nice. and he nicely completes my pattern of loving the odd numbered release dinobots and hating the even number releases. Swoop is really good, and probably my 2nd favorite after Grimlock. I really hope we get a red release now for my Beast Wars shelf.

Personally I'm hoping the "combiner accessories" aren't too egregious, as in, they're built in well enough and/or are convincing enough for individual bot use (I liked CW's approach, especially since it gave Scrapper's OG toy's "flight mode")
I know having a skeleton like Menasor would probably ease engineering concerns with the individual bots as well as hew closer to the cartoon look...
But I still would find that rather lame personally...

Probably just bias since I think Devy's cartoon model looks terrible and very poorly defined, but even then I feel like that takes away the magic of it being a combiner. I mean heck, the fact Menasor can more or less be "formed" and played with only using Motormaster just felt really lame personally. Made me appreciate the CW one even more.
I still hope the individual bots get the most focus in any capacity however, my biggest gripe with CW Devy (and by extension, PotP Predaking) was the focus being devoted to size and therefore the individual bots felt realllllllly underbaked and almost too simplistic just for the engineering to work with that budget.

SpaceEagle wrote:
Probably just bias since I think Devy's cartoon model looks terrible and very poorly defined

THIS THIS THIS THIS A MILLION TIMES OVER THIS! Dev was a terrifically lame combiner in animation. I will NEVER understand this driving need to be animation accurate when it whitewashes so many little details seen on the individual bots. He's just....BLAND.

First-Aid wrote:

SpaceEagle wrote:
Probably just bias since I think Devy's cartoon model looks terrible and very poorly defined

THIS THIS THIS THIS A MILLION TIMES OVER THIS! Dev was a terrifically lame combiner in animation. I will NEVER understand this driving need to be animation accurate when it whitewashes so many little details seen on the individual bots. He's just....BLAND.

I will admit I'm biased against 'toon accuracy in general, but I also understand the desire for something to match the robot they saw on the screen.
That being said, I'm sure that they're gonna give him extra detail because they also know all the kids out there will be really confused when their big christmas present is lacking in detail compared to all the other bots their parents got 'em lol

Yeah, the cartoon model was bland, but keep in mind, this is Studio Srries 86 and Devastator in the film was more detailed and menacing. I am expecting/hoping he looks closer to the movie.

Would be funny if they gave a unique backdrop that had a cut section so Devy can be tearing through the roof lol

Having seen the transformation of Prime I'm never buying another Masterpiece unless it's a character I really, really want. I also mourn that I won't be able to buy it at a Toys R US, where my first Prime came from.

This new Optimus Prime's trailer is reinforcing my need for human characters at a Titanmaster scale and engineering.

Wanted to share my thoughts on a couple newer figures recently delivered.

Starting with SS86 Springer...
While I am happy overall with this version, I'm going to explain my slight frustration with this figure. Which is what we get for this price of almost $60. I understand the extras may get this release to leader class price point. However, I'll always prefer a figure's budget be solely devoted to the figure in any way possible before getting any extra accessories outside of the character's main weapon(s).
Here's what I was envisioning for this figure-- when it was revealed that this was an "upscaling" of the Siege mold, I was hoping that any parts from that would literally be the same but larger. Springer should be as large as Optimus Prime. Now, if this wasn't going to be possible, I would've liked this new Springer to have been at least closer to what we're seeing from SS86 Prime in terms of height.
I do get that making all of the parts larger, even the unchanged Siege parts, is probably like making a new mold. But the design and engineering were already there... If this couldn't be a brand new mold, I wish it could have been larger.

I do completely appreciate the retooling/new parts, and know it's a legitimate improvement in terms of appearance. And for this release specifically, that's far and away the more important aspect for me. The new parts are a solid improvement. Of course, a face and head sculpt that captures the character well is huge. It's still kind of crazy to me that SS86 Kup and Blurr didn't have better faces... Anyway, Hastak nailed this aspect for this Springer. And the last improvement worth mentioning are the colors. I'm sure some don't care about this, but for me, this really does make a very substantial difference.
Sidenote; assuming SS86 Galvatron is a straight repaint, if the Red-violet of the Kingdom/Legacy version is replaced by the accurate tone of Blue-violet, then I'll get this repaint no question. As much as I like that mold, it never seemed right to me in that raspberry color. All this to say, I really appreciate that Hastak put so much effort into adjusting the colors for this new Springer.
I'm really happy with this figure, and I'm going to be even happier about this purchase once I sell my Siege version.


Next, I just want to briefly praise SS86 Bumblebee. Now, my critique is probably slightly influenced by the fact that this is the first earth mode G1 version I've had of this character since Classics. And after not being able to get the NF version, of course I wanted this figure to be great. However, I'm good at being objective, on top of the fact that Bee has never been one of my favorite characters.
This is a fantastic little figure. I'm very happy to have this in my collection, and this is one that I'd highly recommend.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Tyrannacon wrote:I was hoping SDCC would have revealed more about SS86 Megatron, but the weekend is still young so hopefully something happens...

SS86 Megs is Wave 3 of next year, we aren't hearing about him in an official capacity until next April/May.

For some reason I thought he was coming earlier than that, but that would explain why there wasn't anything.

Emerje wrote:

Tyrannacon wrote:I was hoping SDCC would have revealed more about SS86 Megatron, but the weekend is still young so hopefully something happens...

I'm honestly surprised they said anything at all about the Constructicons, especially the Commander Class considering it's only been a few weeks since they officially announced Prime! That's just crazy!

Emerje

Yeah, that's exactly why I thought SS86 Megatron would've been previewed or talked about a bit. Oh well.

Tyrannacon wrote:

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Tyrannacon wrote:I was hoping SDCC would have revealed more about SS86 Megatron, but the weekend is still young so hopefully something happens...

SS86 Megs is Wave 3 of next year, we aren't hearing about him in an official capacity until next April/May.

For some reason I thought he was coming earlier than that, but that would explain why there wasn't anything.

Emerje wrote:

Tyrannacon wrote:I was hoping SDCC would have revealed more about SS86 Megatron, but the weekend is still young so hopefully something happens...

I'm honestly surprised they said anything at all about the Constructicons, especially the Commander Class considering it's only been a few weeks since they officially announced Prime! That's just crazy!

Emerje

Yeah, that's exactly why I thought SS86 Megatron would've been previewed or talked about a bit. Oh well.

Obviously this could be wrong, but I seem to remember SS86 Galvatron is wave 1 (which has been confirmed) & SS86 Megatron is wave 2…
Personally I was hoping Megs would be wave 2 so we could have him before the Constructicons were released. And of course it would be nice in general to get him sooner.

Sowndwave76 wrote:

Tyrannacon wrote:

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Tyrannacon wrote:I was hoping SDCC would have revealed more about SS86 Megatron, but the weekend is still young so hopefully something happens...

SS86 Megs is Wave 3 of next year, we aren't hearing about him in an official capacity until next April/May.

For some reason I thought he was coming earlier than that, but that would explain why there wasn't anything.

Emerje wrote:

Tyrannacon wrote:I was hoping SDCC would have revealed more about SS86 Megatron, but the weekend is still young so hopefully something happens...

I'm honestly surprised they said anything at all about the Constructicons, especially the Commander Class considering it's only been a few weeks since they officially announced Prime! That's just crazy!

Emerje

Yeah, that's exactly why I thought SS86 Megatron would've been previewed or talked about a bit. Oh well.

Obviously this could be wrong, but I seem to remember SS86 Galvatron is wave 1 (which has been confirmed) & SS86 Megatron is wave 2…
Personally I was hoping Megs would be wave 2 so we could have him before the Constructicons were released. And of course it would be nice in general to get him sooner.

Last wave breakdowns we got said 86 Galvatron and RotB Apelinq Wave 1, AoE Optimus and DotM Shockwave repack Wave 2, 86 Megatron Wave 3, and 86 Grimlock repack Wave 4. Obviously this still has time to end up potentially changing between now and then (see: the 2 different listings we've had now for Legacy Sureshot that seem to have not panned out), that's just what we have currently to go off of.

The wave breakdown in question: https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... oys/48114/

Yeah, I either am remembering wrong, or saw something that had Megatron listed incorrectly.

I'm looking forward to getting official word from Hastak about the Constructicons. I asked about the info in the image below (posted on Instagram), and supposedly this was shown at SDCC... Weird that there's a typo, but this also contradicts a couple of the leaked listings by saying they're all voyager class. I'm taking the "figures released separately" bullet point to just mean that this isn't a 6-in-1 gift set; the CC two pack has been confirmed.

Sowndwave76 wrote:Yeah, I either am remembering wrong, or saw something that had Megatron listed incorrectly.

I'm looking forward to getting official word from Hastak about the Constructicons. I asked about the info in the image below (posted on Instagram), and supposedly this was shown at SDCC... Weird that there's a typo, but this also contradicts a couple of the leaked listings by saying they're all voyager class. I'm taking the "figures released separately" bullet point to just mean that this isn't a 6-in-1 gift set; the CC two pack has been confirmed.

TFormers made that graphic and admitted they were paraphrasing from the SDCC panel and got some stuff wrong like the part about them all being Voyagers when everyone else heard the same thing that was leaked.

Emerje

So in other words, they just made stuff up

86 Devy has got to be hell mode difficulty for the TF team. If you're really going for "86" style Devastator, that's the biggest and meanest possible choice. You just made pretty darn large Dinobots that probably have 0 chance of correctly scaling to it unless you make it very close to, maybe slightly larger than CW size, but can that fit into today's budgets? How will this new team possibly satisfy when they have the challenge of turning from robots to construction vehicles to a combiner to increased share prices?

Quick edit - just rewatched the Dinobots v Devastator scene and the scaling is all over the place, ofc. I think my preferred one would be "Mixmaster is almost Grimlock sized" but expecting "Slag is just barely up to the knees"

ScottyP wrote:So in other words, they just made stuff up

86 Devy has got to be hell mode difficulty for the TF team. If you're really going for "86" style Devastator, that's the biggest and meanest possible choice. You just made pretty darn large Dinobots that probably have 0 chance of correctly scaling to it unless you make it very close to, maybe slightly larger than CW size, but can that fit into today's budgets? How will this new team possibly satisfy when they have the challenge of turning from robots to construction vehicles to a combiner to increased share prices?

Quick edit - just rewatched the Dinobots v Devastator scene and the scaling is all over the place, ofc. I think my preferred one would be "Mixmaster is almost Grimlock sized" but expecting "Slag is just barely up to the knees"

Lol, that last paragraph is why I never get the obsession with precise scale, specially when it comes to G1 toys. The show and comics themselves didn't have any scale beyond "this guy is USUALLY bigger than this other guy, and how much taller he is will change scene to scene". I get there's charts and stuff, but evidently those were barely followed in practice.

I am most curious to see what they do with the individuals, as CW will probably remain the clear best combiner mode in terms of scale at least, which for combiners matters a lot to me.

But like I said before: with the new combiners, I am awaiting repaints, preferably G2, for each. my CW will be good for the main events.

A G2 orange Devastator would be cool to have.

SGM

The upcoming Studio Series 86 Optimus Prime being a whole new Optimus mold, brings him much taller than pre existing CHUG Optimus toys. And this made fans wonder if it meant we’d get a new mold for Rodimus Prime as well.
The answer is no, there won’t be a new mold. IF we ever get a SS86 Rodimus Prime, it would be a redeco of the previous commander toy, or a slight retool of that toy.
This was confirmed by Evan Brooks, one of Hasbro’s designers for the Studio Series line. He also stated that once the SS86 subline/collection is complete, they could fill that void with a comic inspired subline. This was a response to a question asked by TFW’s IronWaveJRG.

Of course none of this confirms that we are getting an SS86 Rodimus or comic inspired toys soon, this is just to set expectations as to what you won’t be getting in case some thought a fully new Optimus meant a fully new Rodimus.

Not surprised nor disappointed for the "possible" SS86 Rodimus Prime. The existing Commander figure is already pretty hard to beat, yet it shelfwarmed quite a bit in many areas & online. So I don't think there's much of a case for Hasbro to do a redeco/retool, much less for a new mold.

My major problem with it is really only some tabbing and weapon storage issues with the trailer, I doubt those issues justify for shelling out another Commander-class money for a replacement. But a trailer-less Voyager/Leader retool for a proper Rodimus Unicronus? Absolutely!

So in other words, stick with the already fine Kingdom one? Sounds good to me

SGMLordMirage wrote:A G2 orange Devastator would be cool to have.

SGM

People were expecting all sorts of repaints of the CW release that never came.

I've said this many times. We all knew the Kingdom toys that came out in 2021 that were based on characters from TF:TM were "SS86" in spirit, but just couldn't fit in the line that year for the films 35th anniversary. I didn't imagine back then though, Hasbro would try to re-insert them all into the SS86 line proper, but indeed it appears they are (Some getting new toys like Optimus, some getting retools like Springer, and some just getting a new paint deco like Blaster). I would be shocked if the CC for SS86 in 2026 wasn't a slight redeco of Kingdom RP for the films 40th anniversary. If they play things out right, they may be able to get most of the characters that appeared in TF:TM don't by the end of 2026, and so the SS86 subline would be essentially "finished".

Unfortunately this new Devastator is not going to scale well with the Dinobots. But for me, if this set is overall better in terms of individual figures, & a really solid combined form, then I’ll be good.

I’m not sure about a reissue or retooled RP…. I won’t get it no matter what, especially if it’s $90-$100.
No way no day.

I’ve brought it up before, but I really don’t know what the plan is to “celebrate” the 40th anniversary of the ’86 movie…. I won’t throw-out my speculations again in this post. But there isn’t much of anything left to make/release.
I really would have thought Megatron, Devy, & even the CC Optimus would’ve been held back for ‘26…
I’m fully prepared for a half-a$$ed group of reissues/repaints…. And from there, it will just depend on these “movie appearances” as to whether or not I bite.
Kup, Cliffjumper, Arcee, Ironhide, Blaster, & Springer all made the cut for me. I’m assuming Galvatron will as well.
Not sure I’d go for repainted Insecticons or not…. The Legacy versions are pretty solid.

I’ve already started thinking that next year will really be my last for collecting…. I’ll keep an eye on what’s happening for ‘26, but I’m not expecting much. Although it’ll be interesting to see if Hastak continues with combiners.

Rtron wrote:
Lol, that last paragraph is why I never get the obsession with precise scale, specially when it comes to G1 toys. The show and comics themselves didn't have any scale beyond "this guy is USUALLY bigger than this other guy, and how much taller he is will change scene to scene". I get there's charts and stuff, but evidently those were barely followed in practice.

Yeah scale can be fun, but vibes > scale probably matters more once we start getting into extremes like Combiners.