The Energon Pub

Hmmm, either I need to start doing drugs again or someone at Hasbro needs to stop.
Only picture I have in my head is Wheelie rolling on the ground, laughing and then pointing and saying
"Sucks to be you guys!"

I'm sure the kids will love it. I showed my youngest son the initial pictures of this figure and when he stopped laughing and caught his breath he said he just had to have it when it comes out. So I guess it works for the target group. My first thought when I saw the vehicle mode was that it looked like the cartoony toy cars you get at Chevron stations.
Now that Megatron Wolf has brought up the Micromaster concept, it does have a little bit of appeal. I had not originally thought of that aspect for these guys but I like looking at their combination more that way than I do thinking of them as Powerlinking.
Still have others I would rather get first but if they are still floating around later, and I'm sure they will be, may pick one up for myself just for laughs.

Probably won't get it.
Looks cool, though.

How big are they?
They're like scout size.

I must be the only one who thinks it is utterly hilarious that Mudflap is the back (a$$) end of the ice cream truck. That is a very subtle, and funny joke right there.

St. Even wrote:I must be the only one who thinks it is utterly hilarious that Mudflap is the back (a$$) end of the ice cream truck. That is a very subtle, and funny joke right there.

Couldn't tell in robot mode. Both their faces look like...you get the idea.

JesWal wrote:Bay also does not design the robots. That's Hasbro.

Now see, while I immediately agree (my feelings for the guy aside) that Bay does get blamed for a lot of little things that aren't his department so to speak, this is one item where you're wrong. Does he decide every single little detail about the final designs? Probably not, but his hand is heavy in the decision, don't think otherwise. The movie designs are his own, just ask. Others have, and he's said so in interviews and board messages. In some of his own word this is his superhero movie, the designs are of what he was trying to do, and he's always adamant to tell others he makes his own films & no one tells him what to do. Hasbro gave him uprecidented control over Transformer design in the first film, and now the second. Jared Wade, Transformer design director for Hasbro who's worked close with the Bay camp for the act of getting film designs to the toys (NOT the other way around), has given interviews talking of the challenges of finding creative ways to actually make the movie designs translate into toys, pushing the envelope of the craft. They work mostly on whatever designs the studio says they're going with, and while this time around they were knee deep from the get-go, the last time due to early designs and later/last minute additions, is - for one of Jared's personal examples - the reason the first film's Optimus looked the way he did. You can quote him as saying while he doesn't think there's anything wrong with the toy they didn't have finalized designs when they made him and didn't even know about the sword until production was done, which is why he came with a gun, then later a sword on the Premium item. It's also why this time around Optimus (among others) more accurately represent their screen counterparts. The first time around ILM could barely get their input across. In fact a Q & A done at a convention shortly before the first film premiered in theaters, done by one of the big names at DM.net though I don't recall which, reports the guys at ILM flipped out on the designs when first presented, simply HATED them, much like a good deal of traditional TF fans did when designs started to hit the web years ago. I mean fit throwing, walk outs, denouncing work on the film. So the designs? Not ILM's. It was Bay who had to convince them of what he was trying to do with his designs. It's solely because of Bay, for example, that Movie Optimus has a face. Don't get me wrong on this (any of this), I dig the face (and still wonder why Hasbro won't produce a removable faceplate already!), but it's all Michael Bay there. In that same prior mentioned ILM interview it was reported that everyone, from the writers to ILM, wanted to keep the faceplate on Prime. Yet even when the animators purposely kept it on during preliminary renders in hopes of swaying Bay's decision, it was reiterated by Mikey that this was his film and he had final say. And here we have the results. And when Michael was once asked if there was any concern that Bay was also serving Hasbro, in regards to ensuring that Mikey was true to things like the original toys and characters? Bay's answer? "Well, I said 'Listen, if I do this, I'm going to redesign these things. You might not like everything, but I'm going to do it my way or I'm not going to do it.'" He even reported that they had huge issues with LAM Starscream, yet his take came out on top. If that doesn't speak volumes over his control in that department, I sure as **** don't know what does.

This is quite true. Those who whined so heavily about Prime NOT being a flat nose...that was ALL Bay and he's damn proud of it.
He hovers over the CGI guys' shoulders like an anxious parent on a kids first prom night. So yeah, he's got his hands, nose AND both feet in the design aspects.
I just like to blame Hasbro for everything since I figure that Bay has enough "haters" out there that he doesn't need one more and most of the issues I have are dealt with on Hasbros end anyway, but I'm slowly starting to back off. Besides, I like most of the stuff Bay does and I like the approach he's taking with the Movie versions on a general level even if some of the individual designs appear to have been conjured during a drunken stupor.

i think they should have made the alt mode for this figure a voyager size. that way in robot mode the twins would fit the same size scale as their deluxe counterparts. also a slightly larger version would have possibly offered a better transformation and a better looking figure(with maybe less kibble). just my thoughts.

Ok.. I have been avoiding some spoilers so are the twins the ice cream trucks first then become 2 separate vehicles later?

Cyber Bishop wrote:Ok.. I have been avoiding some spoilers so are the twins the ice cream trucks first then become 2 separate vehicles later?

That's what we've been hearing.

The robot modes are ugly, but I can't help buy like this idea. A definate buy for me!

Covenant wrote:

JesWal wrote:Bay also does not design the robots. That's Hasbro.

Now see, while I immediately agree (my feelings for the guy aside) that Bay does get blamed for a lot of little things that aren't his department so to speak, this is one item where you're wrong. Does he decide every single little detail about the final designs? Probably not, but his hand is heavy in the decision, don't think otherwise. The movie designs are his own, just ask. Others have, and he's said so in interviews and board messages. In some of his own word this is his superhero movie, the designs are of what he was trying to do, and he's always adamant to tell others he makes his own films & no one tells him what to do. Hasbro gave him uprecidented control over Transformer design in the first film, and now the second. Jared Wade, Transformer design director for Hasbro who's worked close with the Bay camp for the act of getting film designs to the toys (NOT the other way around), has given interviews talking of the challenges of finding creative ways to actually make the movie designs translate into toys, pushing the envelope of the craft. They work mostly on whatever designs the studio says they're going with, and while this time around they were knee deep from the get-go, the last time due to early designs and later/last minute additions, is - for one of Jared's personal examples - the reason the first film's Optimus looked the way he did. You can quote him as saying while he doesn't think there's anything wrong with the toy they didn't have finalized designs when they made him and didn't even know about the sword until production was done, which is why he came with a gun, then later a sword on the Premium item. It's also why this time around Optimus (among others) more accurately represent their screen counterparts. The first time around ILM could barely get their input across. In fact a Q & A done at a convention shortly before the first film premiered in theaters, done by one of the big names at DM.net though I don't recall which, reports the guys at ILM flipped out on the designs when first presented, simply HATED them, much like a good deal of traditional TF fans did when designs started to hit the web years ago. I mean fit throwing, walk outs, denouncing work on the film. So the designs? Not ILM's. It was Bay who had to convince them of what he was trying to do with his designs. It's solely because of Bay, for example, that Movie Optimus has a face. Don't get me wrong on this (any of this), I dig the face (and still wonder why Hasbro won't produce a removable faceplate already!), but it's all Michael Bay there. In that same prior mentioned ILM interview it was reported that everyone, from the writers to ILM, wanted to keep the faceplate on Prime. Yet even when the animators purposely kept it on during preliminary renders in hopes of swaying Bay's decision, it was reiterated by Mikey that this was his film and he had final say. And here we have the results. And when Michael was once asked if there was any concern that Bay was also serving Hasbro, in regards to ensuring that Mikey was true to things like the original toys and characters? Bay's answer? "Well, I said 'Listen, if I do this, I'm going to redesign these things. You might not like everything, but I'm going to do it my way or I'm not going to do it.'" He even reported that they had huge issues with LAM Starscream, yet his take came out on top. If that doesn't speak volumes over his control in that department, I sure as **** don't know what does.

Ah, then I was misinformed. I always have thought the designs were Hasbro's. Thank you for clearing this up. And I do agree. I think he is a pretty poopy director. But I also think it's unfair that so much of the blame is pinned on him.