The Energon Pub

Yup. Hotspot shoulders are technically "true" ratchets. Onslaught's functioned like but not an actual one.

And don't get me started with Onslaught's legs that break up in the old mold if pulled back the wrong way.

Stormrider wrote:I would like to see the line continue. And the dinobots would be a great addition. I also would like to see the cone heads. Are the dinobot molds really lost/broken? The molds didn't last past the G2 dinobots?

I think Takara made the wrong turn releasing too many large Encore bots in a row. There seems to be a surplus of Encore Fort Max at online retailers. I think fans couldn't afford all the big bots so quickly, which hurt the line.

Even back in the 80s, Fortmax was a risk to begin with. What's weird is that sometimes the collector market is weird too.

Some of our seibertron members have reported that the Skywarp/TT Encore didn't sell well. This probably killed the chances for a Ramjet and Thrust release (they were released as exclusives iirc just like IH and Ratchet, Hoist and TB)

But as in life, hope springs eternal, the recent release of Asian exclusive sets of Seeker Aces,Specialists etc would also hopefully rub off to the Encore line. If Tomy could do an Encore Metroflex what more the rest (still praying for Scorponok)

fenrir72 wrote:

Stormrider wrote:I would like to see the line continue. And the dinobots would be a great addition. I also would like to see the cone heads. Are the dinobot molds really lost/broken? The molds didn't last past the G2 dinobots?

I think Takara made the wrong turn releasing too many large Encore bots in a row. There seems to be a surplus of Encore Fort Max at online retailers. I think fans couldn't afford all the big bots so quickly, which hurt the line.

Even back in the 80s, Fortmax was a risk to begin with. What's weird is that sometimes the collector market is weird too.

Some of our seibertron members have reported that the Skywarp/TT Encore didn't sell well. This probably killed the chances for a Ramjet and Thrust release (they were released as exclusives iirc just like IH and Ratchet, Hoist and TB)

But as in life, hope springs eternal, the recent release of Asian exclusive sets of Seeker Aces,Specialists etc would also hopefully rub off to the Encore line. If Tomy could do an Encore Metroflex what more the rest (still praying for Scorponok)

True. I am sure that the timing of the movie also has an impact on the Encore releases.

Stormrider wrote:
I think Takara made the wrong turn releasing too many large Encore bots in a row. There seems to be a surplus of Encore Fort Max at online retailers. I think fans couldn't afford all the big bots so quickly, which hurt the line.

There was over a year in between the release of Encore 21/22 (Soundblaster/Twincast) and 23, Fort Max. Encore 20 came out 3 months before 21 and 22, and 19, a set of cassettes, came out two full years before 20. The release frequency has nothing to do with it sitting around. Even then, it's long sold out at Asian retailers like HLJ (where it sold out almost instantly). For all we know, BBTS/TF Source horribly over-ordered it.

Additionally, an extremely large percentage of people into collecting Transformers just simply will not spend more than $100 or so on any one release. The $120 range is all most people can stomach, and even then it's only reserved for things like the TRU releases of MP Optimus and Soundwave.

I just think Encore is plain over with, and as a last hurrah they put out Fort Max.

Don't say that scotty. Hope springs eternal. Encore should never die. At least not until Tomy re-releases Thrust, Ramjet and hopefully Scorponok. The 1st two options are quite doable because the Seeker mold are there, Scorponok a shot in the dark.

You are correct with regards to Fortmax. In Asia/Japan online stores, you are lucky to find one. It's in Western stores that overstocked on them. The price of the shipping is probably what keeps people from ordering them

^Oh, I want to be wrong! The line's lay dormant for years before only to come back out of nowhere, so yes, there's always hope.

ScottyP wrote:^Oh, I want to be wrong! The line's lay dormant for years before only to come back out of nowhere, so yes, there's always hope.

at this point i would assume the line is dead. but that doesnt mean reissues are dead. the tfc book styles ended, then a few years later we got encore. if encore is done, we'll get something else down the line.

It Is Him wrote:Also wasn't there a rumor of a dinobot gift set at one point?

It was supposed to be after Devastator, or along the same time frame. Slag was a dead mold though, and they didn't want to pull a God Neptune and release it with 1 member missing.

This has been discussed previously but

K.O manufacturers can do K.Os and yet the original designers/manufacturers can't restore the molds? And in this age of 3D scanning/printing etc, technology should have made this a reality already.

I remember a few years back (2009 me thinks)when there was a rumored Constructicon set release.........it later was proved to be a hoax then voila, it actually came to be reality.



I hope what Blurrz said come to reality (and Slag's mold is at this moment being restored)

Just making an inference, maybe why there's no Encore because Tomy's factories are so busy churning out MP WJ, BB,UM and Starsaber? Not to mention the AOE taking first priority?

fenrir72 wrote:Just making an inference, maybe why there's no Encore because Tomy's factories are so busy churning out MP WJ, BB,UM and Starsaber? Not to mention the AOE taking first priority?

It's definitely a possibility. I wish Takara gave the public more insight of what they have planned for the year like Hasbro. It always feels like a mystery with them.