The Energon Pub

Optimum Supreme wrote:

That Bot wrote:The first rule of Transformers is you hide your head in your alt mode, no matter how realistic or unrealistic said alt mode is.

The second rule of Transformers is the first rule does not apply to Sky Lynx, heh.



Anyway, I don't have Overload, but I do have the Ultra Magnus redeco, and I think he looks pretty good being towed behind Optimus and carrying Jetfire.


Honestly, I'd put some of the RID15 minicons on this list. Drift's guys turn into... what... chunky frisbees? Huh?

He definitely looks good with something covering him, but thats kind of saying a TF looks good if you dont see it. A bunch of people got Overload as kids but not Jetfire and were stuck with the mess I describe. What I mean to say is that he doesnt work on his own and yet was sold on his own. And thus, is judged accordingly.

The minicons turn into pods and torpedos and looks like that.

Ok, so this saturday we look at cybertronian modes that were well done and I have split that into 2 lists: land vehicles and air vehicles.
Which one would you guys and gals like to see and discuss first?

Let's take land first!

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Let's take land first!

Alright man! That's the bigger list of the two. I couldnt narrow it down so I ended up making it a top 10

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Let's take land first!

Alright man! That's the bigger list of the two. I couldnt narrow it down so I ended up making it a top 10

Good place to start then!

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Let's take land first!

Alright man! That's the bigger list of the two. I couldnt narrow it down so I ended up making it a top 10

Defenitely. Spaceships are a bit too common. Let give ROTF Megatron a place to shine!

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Let's take land first!

Alright man! That's the bigger list of the two. I couldnt narrow it down so I ended up making it a top 10

Definitely. Spaceships are a bit too common. Let give ROTF Megatron a place to shine!

Don't count your chickens!

william-james88 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Let's take land first!

Alright man! That's the bigger list of the two. I couldnt narrow it down so I ended up making it a top 10

Definitely. Spaceships are a bit too common. Let give ROTF Megatron a place to shine!

Don't count your chickens!

Admit that you want a bite of that delicious moldy burger.

Optimum Supreme wrote:

That Bot wrote:The first rule of Transformers is you hide your head in your alt mode, no matter how realistic or unrealistic said alt mode is.

The second rule of Transformers is the first rule does not apply to Sky Lynx, heh.

If your head is literally a part of your alt mode that's different. Damn Sky Lynx making things complicated with his magnificence.

william-james88 wrote:He definitely looks good with something covering him, but thats kind of saying a TF looks good if you dont see it. A bunch of people got Overload as kids but not Jetfire and were stuck with the mess I describe. What I mean to say is that he doesnt work on his own and yet was sold on his own. And thus, is judged accordingly.

Overload looks fine on his own. He's a little cab hauling a big trailer with guns on it, and he clearly has room to carry something.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Let's take land first!

Alright man! That's the bigger list of the two. I couldnt narrow it down so I ended up making it a top 10

Definitely. Spaceships are a bit too common. Let give ROTF Megatron a place to shine!

Don't count your chickens!

Admit that you want a bite of that delicious moldy burger.

mmm, a delicious pretty patty

That Bot wrote:

Optimum Supreme wrote:

That Bot wrote:The first rule of Transformers is you hide your head in your alt mode, no matter how realistic or unrealistic said alt mode is.

The second rule of Transformers is the first rule does not apply to Sky Lynx, heh.

If your head is literally a part of your alt mode that's different. Damn Sky Lynx making things complicated with his magnificence.

Yeah, I'm reminded of rotf mindwipe's partner, he had half his head showing in vehicle mode - it just didn't look like a bot head, but it still counts.

william-james88 wrote:He definitely looks good with something covering him, but thats kind of saying a TF looks good if you dont see it. A bunch of people got Overload as kids but not Jetfire and were stuck with the mess I describe. What I mean to say is that he doesnt work on his own and yet was sold on his own. And thus, is judged accordingly.

Overload looks fine on his own. He's a little cab hauling a big trailer with guns on it, and he clearly has room to carry something.

I'm inclined to agree, I always thought it was an exaggerated car carrier (this being on the heels of rid magnus - and indeed him being magnus in the TT version - led me to think it was a car carrier done up in the exaggerated/stylized aesthetic of the line) he even has the ramps for loading cars...

In fairness to 2007 Leader-class Megatron, he at least has definitive wings and a tailfin section. He was severely impacted by both the toy designers still getting the hang of the movie aesthetic and by the mandate that he have electronics (meaning they couldn't tuck anything into his chest, for instance, and that his legs couldn't form the tail section like I believe they do in the movie. They're certainly not curled up under the wings on the CGI model).

The Fallen's however is lazy crap through and through (and this is coming from someone who is of the opinion that applying the "robots in disguise" tagline to Cybertronian modes other than Soundwave's lamppost form always feels forced) but then he doesn't actually turn into anything in the movie - Hasbro just had to give him one for the toy because they can't sell a main-imprint Transformer that doesn't transform.

Pardon the thread necromancy, but I just realized we let an entire "indistinguishable alt modes" thread go by without mentioning the utterly baffling third modes a number of Beast Wars Neo figures have.



Seriously, what even is this?

Oh yeah, I rememberthose! As if the disigners asked themselves "Can we squeeze in a 3rd mode in this?" Then they added a hidden gun and improvised a misstransformation, and screamed DONE!

My hope is that these lists keep getting looked at either by new collectors or new people who come to the site and that the discussion lives on, so thanks for commenting and bringing this list back!

Yeah, its totally true that those 3rd modes look like nothing but we see that quite a bit in other lines too. Like ROTF Mixmaster's battle mode and Generations Straxus' too. But I see them more as battle modes than full fledged alt modes. They arent supposed to be disguises or a vehicle of some kind. They already have a better alt mode, so I give them all a pass. What I dont give a pass is when there is only one main alt mode and it looks just like the bot rearranged in a silly pose, like those battle modes. Now that blows hard. Imagine if that Girrafe Battle mode was his actual alt mode and there was only that and his robot mode? That's how I see the Fallen.

william-james88 wrote:My hope is that these lists keep getting looked at either by new collectors or new people who come to the site and that the discussion lives on, so thanks for commenting and bringing this list back!

Yeah, its totally true that those 3rd modes look like nothing but we see that quite a bit in other lines too. Like ROTF Mixmaster's battle mode and Generations Straxus' too. But I see them more as battle modes than full fledged alt modes. They arent supposed to be disguises or a vehicle of some kind. They already have a better alt mode, so I give them all a pass. What I dont give a pass is when there is only one main alt mode and it looks just like the bot rearranged in a silly pose, like those battle modes. Now that blows hard. Imagine if that Girrafe Battle mode was his actual alt mode and there was only that and his robot mode? That's how I see the Fallen.

It happens in other lines too, but I bring up Neo because it has the largest concentration of those.

As for The Fallen, is he really that much worse than, for example, RotF Ravage? Transformers who were only designed with one mode in mind tend to run into the same problem during attempts to get a transforming figure out of them that stays accurate to the design. (Animated Arcee seems like she may have been an exception, if tfwiki.net is to be believed. Although if so, it probably helped that her design was a homage to G1 Arcee, who was designed with two modes.)

I think I found a new worst, though:

YAY A COMBINER THAT CAN TRANSFORM

Zeedust wrote:As for The Fallen, is he really that much worse than, for example, RotF Ravage?

Its not that much worse, but it is a tad bit worse. At least Ravage does have an altmode it tries to convey (yet fails). His mode where he is all tucked in reffers to what we see in the film where Soundwave shoots a missile own to earth which deploys into ravage. I thought the effort to bring that to toy form was enough to make it better than the fallen.

Ah third modes that really shouldn't exist. Those are hilarious!

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Ah third modes that really shouldn't exist. Those are hilarious!

With just a little creativity, ANY transformers can have a "base mode" with random misstransformations.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Ah third modes that really shouldn't exist. Those are hilarious!

With just a little creativity, ANY transformers can have a "base mode" with random misstransformations.

They can, it's just even more funny when they are official though

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

D-Maximus_Primal wrote:Ah third modes that really shouldn't exist. Those are hilarious!

With just a little creativity, ANY transformers can have a "base mode" with random misstransformations.

They can, it's just even more funny when they are official though

HasTak must have some a TITANIC ASS to pull so much "3rd" or "4th" modes out of it.

Frustrating inclusion of Overload, since his alt mode is specifically a trailer to carry a shuttle.

His little semi CAN pull it, but it's not really the primary configuration.

Overload in trailer mode DOES look like a giant parade float made out of scrap metal. I still love that bot regardless.