The Energon Pub

I enjoyed my T30 Blitzwing... until he exploded. I liked the face gimmick and honestly wish they'd revisit it (though maybe rotating horizontally and better neck articulation).
Hopefully this time they get Blitzwing's sword right again... TR Blitzwing had the wimpiest sword, T30 was at least formidable.

There are times when I regret selling off my Titans Return Blitzwing, so I'd be down for a new Blitzwing. Studio Series 1986 would probably be the best place for him, because he had a memorable scene in the movie. The only thing is I ended up really hating Siege Astrotrain, I got major buyer's remorse from that absolute mess of a figure, so it would be nice if Astrotrain got an update to go along with the new Blitzwing, but I'm definitely not expecting one. Slightly off topic, but I would LOVE a Commander Class Astrotrain based on his awesome Cyberverse design.

Munkky wrote:There are times when I regret selling off my Titans Return Blitzwing, so I'd be down for a new Blitzwing. Studio Series 1986 would probably be the best place for him, because he had a memorable scene in the movie. The only thing is I ended up really hating Siege Astrotrain, I got major buyer's remorse from that absolute mess of a figure, so it would be nice if Astrotrain got an update to go along with the new Blitzwing, but I'm definitely not expecting one. Slightly off topic, but I would LOVE a Commander Class Astrotrain based on his awesome Cyberverse design.

Imagine, Studio Series' first Commander-class figure and it is an Astrotrain that can fit the Core-class Starscream inside

So I preordered 2 more Gnaws from Amazon... There's no shipping charge since I have Prime, and the cost was still $50 after tax...
Really any deluxe being > $20 is steep imo.

The other night when we went to Target to pick-up Origins Bee, we stopped over to the toy section (mainly because our 11 yr old was with us).
My wife, who knows basically nothing about TF, pulled an O.B. off of a peg, looked at it, saw the price, and literally said, "$23 for this littler figure?!??!!".
Her tone was a combination of surprise and annoyance.
As a mom she's bought plenty of toys and kid stuff; Beyblades, Tech Decks, board games, RC cars, Lego, video games, Pokemon cards, Nerf guns, etc... I really don't ever remember her saying anything about toy prices before this trip to Target. I mean, it goes without saying that Lego is expensive. Outside of that, this was surprising because she doesn't really care.

So no matter how these TF prices can be justified, as osupreme said in another thread, these prices are high enough now to where it's noticeable. And I'm assuming there are plenty of others out there like my wife who are surprised (and annoyed) that such small figures are so pricey.
And for me, it's more than noticeable... It's giving me an extra nudge to end my collecting of TF all-together.
I'm predicting this next year will be the last, unless any figure from my real "want list" is left.

Buy, buy, buy! No money down but supplies are limited!

Nice review, Chuck!

Definitely looking forward to this guy. Even though he's not a favorite, and wouldn't be on my "Really Want" list, he looks like an incredibly good figure.

I also 100% agree that SS86 is the line of the year for me. Easily.
I appreciated ER, and yeah a handful from Kingdom. Which by the way, I don't care what anyone says...
I'm not sure I could buy word from Hastak as more than a front;
Cyclonus and Galvatron both are more suited for the SS86 line. Other than Galvatron's battle damage, both are too clean in appearance, and too solid (lacking hollow parts) for me to believe anything else.
I'd say they're as deserving as Jazz, if not a bit more.
Not to mention, Cyclonus didn't even make an appearance in the show, but was in over half of the movie.

I'm very much looking forward to Wreck-gar and all of the other SS86 figures I have on preorder...
Which is the rest that we know of (or have images of), including 3 Gnaws, 2 Sweeps, and of course, Slag.
The only one I'm passing on is Blurr.

And while this line doesn't need to go on for years, I'm hoping before it ends we get Insecticons, Blitzwing, and Astrotrain at this level of all-around quality.

Sowndwave76 wrote:Nice review, Chuck!

Definitely looking forward to this guy. Even though he's not a favorite, and wouldn't be on my "Really Want" list, he looks like an incredibly good figure.

I also 100% agree that SS86 is the line of the year for me. Easily.
I appreciated ER, and yeah a handful from Kingdom. Which by the way, I don't care what anyone says...
I'm not sure I could buy word from Hastak as more than a front;
Cyclonus and Galvatron both are more suited for the SS86 line. Other than Galvatron's battle damage, both are too clean in appearance, and too solid (lacking hollow parts) for me to believe anything else.
I'd say they're as deserving as Jazz, if not a bit more.
Not to mention, Cyclonus didn't even make an appearance in the show, but was in over half of the movie.

I'm very much looking forward to Wreck-gar and all of the other SS86 figures I have on preorder...
Which is the rest that we know of (or have images of), including 3 Gnaws, 2 Sweeps, and of course, Slag.
The only one I'm passing on is Blurr.

And while this line doesn't need to go on for years, I'm hoping before it ends we get Insecticons, Blitzwing, and Astrotrain at this level of all-around quality.

If they never make another Wreck-Gar I think we're good.

Yeah we definitely need proper Blitzwing and Astrotrain from SS86. Insecticons I could take or leave. I'm actually very happy with the legends figures from Prime Wars.

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah we definitely need proper Blitzwing and Astrotrain from SS86. Insecticons I could take or leave. I'm actually very happy with the legends figures from Prime Wars.

I know there's a lot of criticism of his deco and even his engineering, but I think Siege Astrotrain is a perfectly acceptable G1/TF:TM representation. There are many figures I would want introduced or revisited ahead of him, including even the ever-present characters like Megatron or Bumblebee. Honestly, I think for the movie what we really need is a huge one so Starscream can abandon Megatron.

HasLab SS86 Astrotrain or bust.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:Yeah we definitely need proper Blitzwing and Astrotrain from SS86. Insecticons I could take or leave. I'm actually very happy with the legends figures from Prime Wars.

I know there's a lot of criticism of his deco and even his engineering, but I think Siege Astrotrain is a perfectly acceptable G1/TF:TM representation. There are many figures I would want introduced or revisited ahead of him, including even the ever-present characters like Megatron or Bumblebee. Honestly, I think for the movie what we really need is a huge one so Starscream can abandon Megatron.

HasLab SS86 Astrotrain or bust.

I know you were being sarcastic, but that actually would be pretty cool. He wouldn't be a figure, he'd have to be classed as a playset, so i don't know how the triplechanging gimmick would be incorporated, but I would get 1 anyway.

And yeah Siege Astrotrain is adequate enough, I hate how his back in shuttle mode looks incomplete and that he's only a voyager. He should be leader or commander sized. And lose the stupid caboose. It might be real world-accurate, but it's not TF:TM screen-accurate. Put the extra plastic toward making the figure better.

Ooh, Commander-class SS86 Astrotrain that fits the Core-class Starscream and Megatron to recreate that scene.

I mean ideally you should have a working interior with almost enough space to accommodate a combined Devastator, so I think you'd need to HasLab it up to do it right. And I wouldn't say this is offered sarcastically, just wishful thinking.

Siege Astrotrain (robot mode) is the right height according to the scale guide, so any future toys would have to adhere to that size (otherwise you'd have the regular folk complaining he wasn't to scale)

Quite funny really that IDW 2.0 increased his bot mode size to make sense of the alt modes

ZeroWolf wrote:Siege Astrotrain (robot mode) is the right height according to the scale guide, so any future toys would have to adhere to that size (otherwise you'd have the regular folk complaining he wasn't to scale)

Quite funny really that IDW 2.0 increased his bot mode size to make sense of the alt modes

Honestly I'm not sure if the people who care that much about scale are the "regular folk".
Astrotrain's also one of the triplechangers that's been larger in most versions beyond the first wave of G1 iirc (though I think that depends on the artist of each comic), the other being Broadside... who is still the worst alt-mode pair if we're being honest.
Astrotrain has the same problem as Tidal Wave, by all accounts he should massive (or at least larger than his comrades) but the cartoon threw that logic out the window. That's why PS2 Tidal Wave is the best version in my opinion.

I meant regular folk in the sense of those complaining about scale not that regular people would care

However the thing about size of the robot mode is a double edged sword as g1 Megatron and Soundwave would be absolutely tiny robot modes (why I'm glad they turned Megs into a tank really).

ZeroWolf wrote:However the thing about size of the robot mode is a double edged sword as g1 Megatron and Soundwave would be absolutely tiny robot modes (why I'm glad they turned Megs into a tank really).

Yeah Megs and Soundwave both benefit from "modern" new altmodes like a tank and blue van. Personally I hope all future G1 Soundwaves are the retro custom vans with wizard murals. It's so fitting for him to have an air-brush mural of him and his cassettes.

Nuclearxpotato wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:However the thing about size of the robot mode is a double edged sword as g1 Megatron and Soundwave would be absolutely tiny robot modes (why I'm glad they turned Megs into a tank really).

Yeah Megs and Soundwave both benefit from "modern" new altmodes like a tank and blue van. Personally I hope all future G1 Soundwaves are the retro custom vans with wizard murals. It's so fitting for him to have an air-brush mural of him and his cassettes.

Slightly off topic but I think it would be nice if they found a way to do that for SG Soundwave

Emerje wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Quite funny really that IDW 2.0 increased his bot mode size to make sense of the alt modes

Haven't read it, but I'm guessing they did the same thing Cyberverse did?



I like the idea of him being about the same size as Omega Supreme or a combiner.

Emerje

Pretty much, he towered over the other cons

Nuclearxpotato wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:However the thing about size of the robot mode is a double edged sword as g1 Megatron and Soundwave would be absolutely tiny robot modes (why I'm glad they turned Megs into a tank really).

Yeah Megs and Soundwave both benefit from "modern" new altmodes like a tank and blue van. Personally I hope all future G1 Soundwaves are the retro custom vans with wizard murals. It's so fitting for him to have an air-brush mural of him and his cassettes.

Yes, please! A van where the side door slides open to reveal a massive wall of speakers inside to allude to his sonic control and role as master of communications. In many ways, Animated Soundwave is best Soundwave.

aronjlove wrote:

Nuclearxpotato wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:However the thing about size of the robot mode is a double edged sword as g1 Megatron and Soundwave would be absolutely tiny robot modes (why I'm glad they turned Megs into a tank really).

Yeah Megs and Soundwave both benefit from "modern" new altmodes like a tank and blue van. Personally I hope all future G1 Soundwaves are the retro custom vans with wizard murals. It's so fitting for him to have an air-brush mural of him and his cassettes.

Yes, please! A van where the side door slides open to reveal a massive wall of speakers inside to allude to his sonic control and role as master of communications. In many ways, Animated Soundwave is best Soundwave.

The side door with speakers would be pretty cool, maybe laserbeak, Ravage, Frenzy, and them could transform into the speakers or something. I like the idea of future versions of Soundwave having a van/suv alt mode, some sort of communications van or radio van alt mode. This way he's more mobile and the alt mode allows him to stay beefy. Though part of what makes Soundwave cool is that he's one of the few objectformers, the van is cool. The drone alt mode is cool too, the robot mode just ends up being very different unfortunately

I like animated Soundwave's alt mode... that's about it haha. The backstory they gave him was interesting enough. And giving him electric guitars was admittedly cool. I guess I just wasn't a fan of how minor a role he played, the really weird triangle head, and the lack of a shoulder mounted weapon. Definitely something fresh and new, I just don't really see him as the best. But that's the beauty of how opinions work haha

Sowndwave76 wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I need to double check, but I think Voyager Class Swoop was next in line (I want to say ss86) with the other two being in the "legacy" line this way they should be out sooner, but this could have easily changed as things often do (like Kingdom Blaster now being in Wave 4 instead of the bonus wave 5)

This does make a lot of sense, although I get it's all still rumor... But after Grimlock and Slag, Swoop actually spoke and even transformed at least once more than the others in the film.

What is the rumor on how long SS86 is continuing?

It makes more sense that he came up in the rumor mill a million years ago as a Voyager. Honestly, I don't care how we get him (and the others) as long as we get them. Quickly.

Part of the reason I won't be surprised if Astrotrain makes it into this subline is because he could (and should) be a voyager class figure, with the option of bumping him up to leader (if they wanted to bump either of the larger Dinobots to another line).
He had one of the larger roles of any of the pre-movie Decepticons; While Skywarp was reformatted and other seekers were seen, Astrotrain was named in the movie a couple times, spoke, and even crowned Starscream at the coronation.

This same logic makes me think that Snarl will be the Dinobot that shows up in another line.
But I agree, Sol Magnus, I'm hoping we get the other 3 sooner than later.

Weirdness is afoot with Amazon for anyone who used the wish list trick to pre-order some of the SS86 figures. I just got a shipping delay notice on the Sweep that is pushing it back to February 3rd.