The Energon Pub

I'd definitely pick up a release of G1 Unicron and Arcee. Just because of the history behind them. But I don't think G1 Unicron was titan class. Even with a voice box.

I doubt he'd do well at retail, though. I mean there's a market for retro toys, but this isn't a regular sized toy; it's really large. I dunno if kids would want him today.

transformers_va wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

transformers_va wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I'd cream my pants if "G1" Unicron is the next titan.

Hell, I'd do more than cream my pants. I'd bake them into a freaking wedding cake!

Why? I get that it was the original prototype, but that thing is ugly as hell. Wouldn't it be better for Hasbro/Takara to focus their efforts on better toys, or improving old toys, instead?

Well, because it will be different from what we usually gets.
Also, many like myself LOVES the appeal of old vintage clunky things. The price and demand of old G1 Transformers and other vintage toys is proof enough.

Be honest.
Compared to let's say Leader Earthrise Optimus Prime, the original G1 Optimus Prime is a "bad toy" (ignoring the trailer, of course.), and is basically "garbage" compared to today's standards.
But people keep buying him. Over and over. Why? It's not because it's the "better" Optimus. It's nostalgia and the vintage appeal.

I bet many TF fans who were not even alive when Beast Wars came out are now adult today and spend a fortune on G1 toys. There's also a huge market for old metal vehicles from last century.

Feel free to not like the old stuff, but I know I'm not alone in wanting "new" G1 toys like the unreleased Unicron prototype. The G1 Arcee too.

If they actually produced this, my bet would be it would be a shelfwarmer. It would be geared towards a minority subset of the collector community, just like the BW characters. Personally, I'm getting sick of tired of seeing 25 Scorponoks, 40 Shadow Panthers, 30 Waspinators, etc taking up the shelves in the stores, to please the few, but don’t see better characters like Legacy Cosmos, Motormaster, Blitzwing, etc. which seem to be in higher demand.

*Edit: forgot to mention the BW reissues that are littering the shelves... every character I've seen, ends up in the clearance section, because there isn't a high demand for them...

Well, logic would dictate that it would be produced in relatively limited quantities for online stores only. He'll also be expensive as hell.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Decepticon Stryker wrote:

noctorro wrote: This G1 Unicron, is he Titan size or smaller?

Uh… he’s 6 inches tall.

The full quote:

noctorro wrote:Just Haslab the original Unicron and I think plenty of us old folk will support and buy it. This G1 Unicron, is he Titan size or smaller? If they can get big boy to be under 200 euro's it's a no brainer for me.

Was referring to this guy:



Not the Super7 figure.

As far as we're aware of his intended size:

TFWiki wrote:Though the prototype had the tallest robot mode at the time of its planned release, it was ultimately shorter than Fortress Maximus.

Personally, I don't think there is a need for HasLab-Greed.



Remaking this mold wouldn't exactly cost the Earth today. As mentioned earlier, he could easily be sold under the reissue banner in G1 packaging. For potentially the price of a Devastator boxset. As he should have been all those years ago.

The problem is, if not HasLab, who will Hasbro sell to? Walmart and Target have said in past they are hesitant about giant toys in niche categories, and second gen nostalgia alone won’t sell Unicron like G1 Prime. Could they do this through Selects? Could they do it through Amazon/Online Retailers? I am not sure but my gut says no. HasLab let’s them control and adjust the costs to match production run size

This is really neat for those who are excited for this, but I have Christmas Prime, and he will be the only of these I get, these are just not even remotely worth it.

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:wait-WHY ISN'T JETFIRE A 6 INCH?

Because then he'd be the same size as Devastator and Unicron. They only reserve the 6" for the really giant characters.

Emerje

Are you saying devastator and unicron being the same size is good scale?

Scale matters not in this line of figures. Is it a really big character? he gets the 6" figure; otherwise, you are 3.75".

transformers_va wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

transformers_va wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I'd cream my pants if "G1" Unicron is the next titan.

Hell, I'd do more than cream my pants. I'd bake them into a freaking wedding cake!

Why? I get that it was the original prototype, but that thing is ugly as hell. Wouldn't it be better for Hasbro/Takara to focus their efforts on better toys, or improving old toys, instead?

Well, because it will be different from what we usually gets.
Also, many like myself LOVES the appeal of old vintage clunky things. The price and demand of old G1 Transformers and other vintage toys is proof enough.

Be honest.
Compared to let's say Leader Earthrise Optimus Prime, the original G1 Optimus Prime is a "bad toy" (ignoring the trailer, of course.), and is basically "garbage" compared to today's standards.
But people keep buying him. Over and over. Why? It's not because it's the "better" Optimus. It's nostalgia and the vintage appeal.

I bet many TF fans who were not even alive when Beast Wars came out are now adult today and spend a fortune on G1 toys. There's also a huge market for old metal vehicles from last century.

Feel free to not like the old stuff, but I know I'm not alone in wanting "new" G1 toys like the unreleased Unicron prototype. The G1 Arcee too.

If they actually produced this, my bet would be it would be a shelfwarmer. It would be geared towards a minority subset of the collector community, just like the BW characters. Personally, I'm getting sick of tired of seeing 25 Scorponoks, 40 Shadow Panthers, 30 Waspinators, etc taking up the shelves in the stores, to please the few, but don’t see better characters like Legacy Cosmos, Motormaster, Blitzwing, etc. which seem to be in higher demand.

*Edit: forgot to mention the BW reissues that are littering the shelves... every character I've seen, ends up in the clearance section, because there isn't a high demand for them...

Saying the BW community is a minority like that is both pretty wrong and narrow based on your stores. Mine still have shelfwarming SS86 Blurrs, Kups, Sweeps, and Wreck Gars, and all the beasts are gone, including the walmart exclusive ones, so it's all about your specific location. Beast Wars is hardly G1 Unicron level of minority target audience.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Decepticon Stryker wrote:

noctorro wrote: This G1 Unicron, is he Titan size or smaller?

Uh… he’s 6 inches tall.

The full quote:

noctorro wrote:Just Haslab the original Unicron and I think plenty of us old folk will support and buy it. This G1 Unicron, is he Titan size or smaller? If they can get big boy to be under 200 euro's it's a no brainer for me.

Was referring to this guy:



Not the Super7 figure.

As far as we're aware of his intended size:

TFWiki wrote:Though the prototype had the tallest robot mode at the time of its planned release, it was ultimately shorter than Fortress Maximus.

Personally, I don't think there is a need for HasLab-Greed.



Remaking this mold wouldn't exactly cost the Earth today. As mentioned earlier, he could easily be sold under the reissue banner in G1 packaging. For potentially the price of a Devastator boxset. As he should have been all those years ago.

The problem is, if not HasLab, who will Hasbro sell to? Walmart and Target have said in past they are hesitant about giant toys in niche categories, and second gen nostalgia alone won’t sell Unicron like G1 Prime. Could they do this through Selects? Could they do it through Amazon/Online Retailers? I am not sure but my gut says no. HasLab let’s them control and adjust the costs to match production run size

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:wait-WHY ISN'T JETFIRE A 6 INCH?

Because then he'd be the same size as Devastator and Unicron. They only reserve the 6" for the really giant characters.

Emerje

Are you saying devastator and unicron being the same size is good scale?

Scale matters not in this line of figures. Is it a really big character? he gets the 6" figure; otherwise, you are 3.75".

Exactly. Super7 drew a line between large characters and giant characters and it runs right between Jetfire and Devastator.

As for making G1 Unicron into a figure, while I would really like that, I don't see Hasbro doing it. There is the smaller Takara version with the stand, but that still feels out of reach.

What I would like to see is the next best thing, a non Transforming Super7 Super Cyborg version. Proportions would be good and at a reasonable size of 11".



Emerje

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Remaking this mold wouldn't exactly cost the Earth today. As mentioned earlier, he could easily be sold under the reissue banner in G1 packaging. For potentially the price of a Devastator boxset. As he should have been all those years ago.

G1 Unicron is a big figure from that era at approximately 12 to 14 inches tall. I'm assuming brand new tooling for a figure that large with a low production run would make Unicron a much more expensive figure than a G1 reissue Devastator with existing tooling that has been around for almost 40 years (give or take with the Diaclones).

However, I would absolutely love to see a 40th, 45th, or 50th anniversary faithful reproductions of Unicron and G1 Arcee (in prototype colors and accurate colors for Arcee). Toss in some collectible G1 style'd boxes with or without windows and I'm 1000% sold. In my fantasy land where we get those at some point, I figured about $300 for a reproduction of G1 Arcee and around $500 for Unicron would be appropriate.

One day!

Flashwave wrote:The problem is, if not HasLab, who will Hasbro sell to? Walmart and Target have said in past they are hesitant about giant toys in niche categories, and second gen nostalgia alone won’t sell Unicron like G1 Prime. Could they do this through Selects? Could they do it through Amazon/Online Retailers? I am not sure but my gut says no. HasLab let’s them control and adjust the costs to match production run size

Well, as Walmart and Target mean nothing to anyone outside the US. I would infer G1 Unicron would be an online retail piece. In recent years, in spite of some fans wholeheartedly buying into Hasbro's line about extra engineering and parts numbers dramatically increasing price. A G1 figure is extremely basic and that excuse wouldn't really apply. They would inflate the price anyway, because Hasbro. But he realistically shouldn't be too more expensive to make or sell than G1 Devastator or any other combiner team, or City Bot.

HasLab-Greed means they can bump up the price to whatever they feel like and some will blindly throw money at it regardless.

Seibertron wrote:G1 Unicron is a big figure from that era at approximately 12 to 14 inches tall. I'm assuming brand new tooling for a figure that large with a low production run would make Unicron a much more expensive figure than a G1 reissue Devastator with existing tooling that has been around for almost 40 years (give or take with the Diaclones).

However, I would absolutely love to see a 40th, 45th, or 50th anniversary faithful reproductions of Unicron and G1 Arcee (in prototype colors and accurate colors for Arcee). Toss in some collectible G1 style'd boxes with or without windows and I'm 1000% sold. In my fantasy land where we get those at some point, I figured about $300 for a reproduction of G1 Arcee and around $500 for Unicron would be appropriate.

One day!

See but that would price G1 Arcee around the range of Masterpiece Dinobot. G1 Unicron to MP-44. Which I think would be a false equivalence. Hasbro would never honestly price either. But they could likely leave such reproductions to their lowest level designers. Who could probably finish it in a weekend.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

transformers_va wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I'd cream my pants if "G1" Unicron is the next titan.

Hell, I'd do more than cream my pants. I'd bake them into a freaking wedding cake!

Why? I get that it was the original prototype, but that thing is ugly as hell. Wouldn't it be better for Hasbro/Takara to focus their efforts on better toys, or improving old toys, instead?

Well, because it will be different from what we usually gets.
Also, many like myself LOVES the appeal of old vintage clunky things. The price and demand of old G1 Transformers and other vintage toys is proof enough.

Be honest.
Compared to let's say Leader Earthrise Optimus Prime, the original G1 Optimus Prime is a "bad toy" (ignoring the trailer, of course.), and is basically "garbage" compared to today's standards.
But people keep buying him. Over and over. Why? It's not because it's the "better" Optimus. It's nostalgia and the vintage appeal.

I bet many TF fans who were not even alive when Beast Wars came out are now adult today and spend a fortune on G1 toys. There's also a huge market for old metal vehicles from last century.

Feel free to not like the old stuff, but I know I'm not alone in wanting "new" G1 toys like the unreleased Unicron prototype. The G1 Arcee too.

Well, this.
Owh a G1 Arcee prototype stick figure would be awesome!

I think if Hasbro releases a G1 Team set (like the studio series autobot full pack) like:
G1 Sideswipe, prowl, smokescreen, optimus, ironhide, Ratchet and Megatron/Soundwave /3 seekers.
If that was released for a not insane price then it would sell.

If this prototype G1 Unicron is about the old supreme class, and considering it's simplistic engineering, it should cost around 100 euro's / 130 euro's.

Which G1 fan would not buy a fatboy G1 Unicron for only 100 usd?

noctorro wrote:
Which G1 fan would not buy a fatboy G1 Unicron for only 100 usd?

Oh, I would. But realistically speaking, I think Faticron will be titan priced due to a more limited run.
The irony is they could then repaint it a few times like they did with the original Armada mold.

I'd be VERY interested in a G1 Unicron. I don't know if I'd be $500 interested, but I'd definitely be into it.

I'm not sure how kid-appeal it is. But they did do retro He-Man figures lately, retro Ghostbusters, and retro TMNT sometimes, all at retail ... maybe it would sell.

Seibertron wrote:I figured about $300 for a reproduction of G1 Arcee and around $500 for Unicron would be appropriate.

I'm with you on Unicron since that guy would definitely have to be a HasLab project and probably require a lower target number than Selects Unicron so the higher price would be needed to offset that.

But for Arcee, she'd be a pretty small figure, I wouldn't want her any bigger than than G1 Hot Rod, Kup, and Blurr. The benefit is that they could probably get a retailer like Walmart involved like with previous reissues, especially if it coincides with a movie that features Arcee and is in G1 style packaging. Add Takara Tomy to the mix and the price could be under $50. Hey, if Walmart is willing to accept an entirely remade Rattrap then his aunt Arcee should be no problem, too.

Emerje

OK, here's something not many of you may think about when it comes to G1 prototypes: do they have any permanent molds or masters with which to work from? As I understand, those are made when a figure is greenlit for mass-production, so any design rejected before that stage would literally have nothing.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:OK, here's something not many of you may think about when it comes to G1 prototypes: do they have any permanent molds or masters with which to work from? As I understand, those are made when a figure is greenlit for mass-production, so any design rejected before that stage would literally have nothing.

I do think we all understand that any prototype would have its mold made from scratch. So if they decide to mass produce the th8ng, I wouldn't mind some more repaints.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:OK, here's something not many of you may think about when it comes to G1 prototypes: do they have any permanent molds or masters with which to work from? As I understand, those are made when a figure is greenlit for mass-production, so any design rejected before that stage would literally have nothing.

I do think we all understand that any prototype would have its mold made from scratch. So if they decide to mass produce the th8ng, I wouldn't mind some more repaints.

Yeah, I even mentioned it at the end of my post. I don't think that's an obstacle.

Emerje

That [500] is a crazy sum for G1 Unicron and anyone would be a fool to pay it. It wouldn't cost them anywhere near that to produce from scratch in 2022. Looking at it: the head pops up/down. The arms fold open to be the planet rings (don't assume that shoulder joints would move) and the legs (don't assume they move either) ratchet down from within the hollow planet body. One final flourish would seem to be an extra ratchet in the planet for his bot waist.
That is a guestimate of less than five step transformation. The size of him might add some cost in raw materials. But he isn't an expensive piece of engineering.

Beast Wars Neo Unicron, on the other hand, would be pricey to reproduce from scratch.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:That [500] is a crazy sum for G1 Unicron and anyone would be a fool to pay it. It wouldn't cost them anywhere near that to produce from scratch in 2022. Looking at it: the head pops up/down. The arms fold open to be the planet rings (don't assume that shoulder joints would move) and the legs (don't assume they move either) ratchet down from within the hollow planet body. One final flourish would seem to be an extra ratchet in the planet for his bot waist.
That is a guestimate of less than five step transformation. The size of him might add some cost in raw materials. But he isn't an expensive piece of engineering.

Beast Wars Neo Unicron, on the other hand, would be pricey to reproduce from scratch.

I bet there would be more then enough people willing to pay that price. If they did it, it'd easily be a limited product to like say a 1000 pieces, they would sell out quickly.

ZeroWolf wrote:I bet there would be more then enough people willing to pay that price. If they did it, it'd easily be a limited product to like say a 1000 pieces, they would sell out quickly.

Best case scenario would be mass produced like a normal Titan with a normal Titan price and make it NON exclusive. This way, scalpers will be screwed and everyone will have a chance.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I bet there would be more then enough people willing to pay that price. If they did it, it'd easily be a limited product to like say a 1000 pieces, they would sell out quickly.

Best case scenario would be mass produced like a normal Titan with a normal Titan price and make it NON exclusive. This way, scalpers will be screwed and everyone will have a chance.

Yeah, thats not going to happen I'm afraid. I think Seibertron had it right on the money.

Still, I maintain that even at $500 they'd sell out

ZeroWolf wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:I bet there would be more then enough people willing to pay that price. If they did it, it'd easily be a limited product to like say a 1000 pieces, they would sell out quickly.

Best case scenario would be mass produced like a normal Titan with a normal Titan price and make it NON exclusive. This way, scalpers will be screwed and everyone will have a chance.

Yeah, thats not going to happen I'm afraid. I think Seibertron had it right on the money.

Still, I maintain that even at $500 they'd sell out

Well, I think this also could be a very nice HASLAB project. And depending of the target number, I'm sure that price could be toned down by more than half.

ZeroWolf wrote:I bet there would be more then enough people willing to pay that price. If they did it, it'd easily be a limited product to like say a 1000 pieces, they would sell out quickly.

Exactly, hence why I also said:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:HasLab-Greed means they can bump up the price to whatever they feel like and some will blindly throw money at it regardless.

The figure remade in 2022 is not worth 500, in any currency. If they had actually released it in 1986. There would be no question as to it's value. Indulging in HasLab-Greed for it now, at that price, equates to one thing:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:The figure remade in 2022 is not worth 500, in any currency. If they had actually released it in 1986. There would be no question as to it's value. Indulging in HasLab-Greed for it now, at that price, equates to one thing:

Except it wouldn't be remade, it would be an entirely new first time released figure based on something that was almost made but wasn't. That means tooling out entirely new steel molds which everybody I hear talking about their own experience with them estimate each mold costing around $100K to make. Articulation doesn't really matter when it comes to molds, just how much plastic is used, and Unicron would take a lot of plastic (the tall one is like 20" tall or so. Back in 2012 we were happily paying $350 for Encore Fortress Maximus and his molds were already made. Asking $500 for a n entirely newly molded "vintage" Unicron in 2022 sounds right. This is the same Hasbro that was charging $50 for reissue Optimus Prime without his trailer after all.

Emerje

We have our first good look at some upcoming Super7 ReAction figures. These are the figures which emulate figures from the late 1970s, before Transformers ever existed. Some of the new ones coming out are in a much larger size than ever before, like Unicron who is modelled after the G1 prototype. Below you will see stock images for Super7 G1 Unicron, Magnus, Sharkticon, Cyclonus and Wreck-Gar. There will be Beast Wars characters in this series as well. And if anyone wonders, yes come Transformers fans do them. Like fellow Seibertronian Powered Convoy, who took this photo of their collection.

I NEED THAT UNICRON!

Round Unicron looks hilarious.