The Energon Pub

[Logan.]

This is Goshooter, or rather Shūta Gō:

Sabrblade... you are a TF knowledge well

[no-one]

[Logan.]

Cerebros in (my) hand

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Thanks to Seibertronian Cyberpath and our favorite Twitter user TFYuki we bring to you today 2 new images of upcoming Takara Tomy products in the form of Legends Mindwipe and Chromedome! Chromedome is a differently painted version of his Titans Return toy with a new face sculpt to more closely resemble his Headmasters appearance and comes with the small drill/jet that came with Titan master Nightbeat. Mindwipe is also a differently painted version of his Titans Return toy with a new Headmasters accurate faces sculpt and comes with the dinosaur/bird that came first with Titan master Crashbash. You can check out the images below, and stay tuned to Seibertron.com for all your latest Transformers news and galleries!

[RAR]

Takara need to count their Titanmaster mini-vehicles to make sure they use them all and don't keep using the same one in another colour and miss some out completely.

[Kurona]

Should also be noted that these two have new face sculpts much more accurate to The Headmasters, and I'm pretty sure to their original toys.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Should also be noted that these two have new face sculpts much more accurate to The Headmasters, and I'm pretty sure to their original toys.

It has been added to the article!

[Cyberpath]

Here's the heads chart again.

[Kurona]

It's not very well done and I can't find Mindwipe's face (He always stays in beast mode it seems), but I made a necessary addition

[Sabrblade]

Cerebros in (my) hand

Fortress, you mean. He's a different guy from Cerebros in Japan.

[Wolfman Jake]

Here's the heads chart again.

I think Sabr mentioned this a while back, but for the most part, the face models for the Decepticon Headmasters didn't change all that much between Sunbow's "The Rebirth" miniseries and the Japanese original production of "The Headmasters." In fact, Takara's head sculpt for Legeneds Mindwipe looks almost like a compromise between the details found on the Western character model versus the Japanese character model.

[Cyberpath]

Here's the heads chart again.

I think Sabr mentioned this a while back, but for the most part, the face models for the Decepticon Headmasters didn't change all that much between Sunbow's "The Rebirth" miniseries and the Japanese original production of "The Headmasters." In fact, Takara's head sculpt for Legeneds Mindwipe looks almost like a compromise between the details found on the Western character model versus the Japanese character model.

Yep. I wish the Autobots were the same, too. We would have gotten Rebirth-accurate heads all around.

[Kurona]

Hasbro's Chromedome becomes more and more of an utterly bizarre scenario the more I look at it. He has an IDW-styled head... yet an original toy/rebirth/headmasters-styled body. And then it doesn't end there - the colour layout on his toy/cartoon-accurate body is IDW-accurate, and the colours on his IDW-accurate head are cartoon-accurate. It's a very strange way to do a compromise

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Hasbro's Chromedome becomes more and more of an utterly bizarre scenario the more I look at it. He has an IDW-styled head... yet an original toy/rebirth/headmasters-styled body. And then it doesn't end there - the colour layout on his toy/cartoon-accurate body is IDW-accurate, and the colours on his IDW-accurate head are cartoon-accurate. It's a very strange way to do a compromise

I've just learned to go with the flow with some of these things. Just look at poor Whirl. There was the party to go for G1 accuracy (or as accurate as it could be) and then there was the super IDW version that lots of people wanted, so we ended up with a G1 Whirl with some chicken legs options. Thew said it best in his review" "What do you people want?!?!"

[Cyberpath]

Hasbro's Chromedome becomes more and more of an utterly bizarre scenario the more I look at it. He has an IDW-styled head... yet an original toy/rebirth/headmasters-styled body. And then it doesn't end there - the colour layout on his toy/cartoon-accurate body is IDW-accurate, and the colours on his IDW-accurate head are cartoon-accurate. It's a very strange way to do a compromise

You know, after seeing the "leaked" concept sheets from Hasbro, I get the feeling that, sometimes, Hasbro uses whatever photos that come up on Google Images when looking for references. And that's why their stuff can seem inconsistent.

And maybe the colour choices are decided by someone other than the mold designer.. TR Mindwipe for instance was designed in a way that allows him to have purple legs in robot mode, and red bat wings in beast mode. But Hasbro just made both purple.

I get that, they make a lot of toys, and move on to the next thing. Takara seems more "into it" -- or maybe it's their market. Or both.

[fenrir72]

Mindwipe's original head back in 1987 is kind off spookier now that I give him a second look.

[Sabrblade]

Hasbro's Chromedome becomes more and more of an utterly bizarre scenario the more I look at it. He has an IDW-styled head... yet an original toy/rebirth/headmasters-styled body. And then it doesn't end there - the colour layout on his toy/cartoon-accurate body is IDW-accurate, and the colours on his IDW-accurate head are cartoon-accurate. It's a very strange way to do a compromise

It seems to me like they simply molded the figure--head and body--to resemble Chromedome's IDW Shadowplay design (at least in robot mode), but applied to it the traditional, not-specifically-IDW-based Chromedome colors.

[Kurona]

Hasbro's Chromedome becomes more and more of an utterly bizarre scenario the more I look at it. He has an IDW-styled head... yet an original toy/rebirth/headmasters-styled body. And then it doesn't end there - the colour layout on his toy/cartoon-accurate body is IDW-accurate, and the colours on his IDW-accurate head are cartoon-accurate. It's a very strange way to do a compromise

It seems to me like they simply molded the figure--head and body--to resemble Chromedome's IDW Shadowplay design (at least in robot mode), but applied to it the traditional, not-specifically-IDW-based Chromedome colors.

They modeled it after the toy with the only real differences being caused by the Dead End engineering, fixed proportions and updated articulation. It just happened to look like Shadowplay Chromedome because Shadowplay Chromedome is modeled after the toy. And even then it still has some differences that make it clear the toy is G1-based rather than any iteration of IDW Chromedome-based.

[Sabrblade]

Hasbro's Chromedome becomes more and more of an utterly bizarre scenario the more I look at it. He has an IDW-styled head... yet an original toy/rebirth/headmasters-styled body. And then it doesn't end there - the colour layout on his toy/cartoon-accurate body is IDW-accurate, and the colours on his IDW-accurate head are cartoon-accurate. It's a very strange way to do a compromise

It seems to me like they simply molded the figure--head and body--to resemble Chromedome's IDW Shadowplay design (at least in robot mode), but applied to it the traditional, not-specifically-IDW-based Chromedome colors.

They modeled it after the toy with the only real differences being caused by the Dead End engineering, fixed proportions and updated articulation. It just happened to look like Shadowplay Chromedome because Shadowplay Chromedome is modeled after the toy. And even then it still has some differences that make it clear the toy is G1-based rather than any iteration of IDW Chromedome-based.

How do you know they didn't deliberately model it after the Shadowplay design because of the Shadowplay design being based on the G1 toy?

[Kurona]

Hasbro's Chromedome becomes more and more of an utterly bizarre scenario the more I look at it. He has an IDW-styled head... yet an original toy/rebirth/headmasters-styled body. And then it doesn't end there - the colour layout on his toy/cartoon-accurate body is IDW-accurate, and the colours on his IDW-accurate head are cartoon-accurate. It's a very strange way to do a compromise

It seems to me like they simply molded the figure--head and body--to resemble Chromedome's IDW Shadowplay design (at least in robot mode), but applied to it the traditional, not-specifically-IDW-based Chromedome colors.

They modeled it after the toy with the only real differences being caused by the Dead End engineering, fixed proportions and updated articulation. It just happened to look like Shadowplay Chromedome because Shadowplay Chromedome is modeled after the toy. And even then it still has some differences that make it clear the toy is G1-based rather than any iteration of IDW Chromedome-based.

How do you know they didn't deliberately model it after the Shadowplay design because of the Shadowplay design being based on the G1 toy?

Touche I suppose, but that seems a bit... roundabout and pointless compared to just modeling it on the G1 toy.
Besides there's details on the toy that aren't there on the shadowplay design so

[Sabrblade]

Hasbro's Chromedome becomes more and more of an utterly bizarre scenario the more I look at it. He has an IDW-styled head... yet an original toy/rebirth/headmasters-styled body. And then it doesn't end there - the colour layout on his toy/cartoon-accurate body is IDW-accurate, and the colours on his IDW-accurate head are cartoon-accurate. It's a very strange way to do a compromise

It seems to me like they simply molded the figure--head and body--to resemble Chromedome's IDW Shadowplay design (at least in robot mode), but applied to it the traditional, not-specifically-IDW-based Chromedome colors.

They modeled it after the toy with the only real differences being caused by the Dead End engineering, fixed proportions and updated articulation. It just happened to look like Shadowplay Chromedome because Shadowplay Chromedome is modeled after the toy. And even then it still has some differences that make it clear the toy is G1-based rather than any iteration of IDW Chromedome-based.

How do you know they didn't deliberately model it after the Shadowplay design because of the Shadowplay design being based on the G1 toy?

Touche I suppose, but that seems a bit... roundabout and pointless compared to just modeling it on the G1 toy.
Besides there's details on the toy that aren't there on the shadowplay design so

True, but the fact that there are details on the toy that are taken specifically from the Shadowplay design (i.e. - the upper torso's overall shape and molded details, the kneecaps, the waist's overall shape and molded details, etc.) points to the Shadowplay design being more likely a deliberate source of inspiration for the toy rather than a happily coincidental resemblance.

All it really needs is a Shadowplay-accurate deco and it's a good enough approximation of the look in toy form, like a lot of the other IDW-inspired Generations toy molds.

[william-james88]

I feel like the headmaster gimmick is becoming an overkill. Everyone is a Headmaster now regardless if they were so in fiction.

That can be said about Unite Warriors too, even more so than Combiner Wars. Now that was a big time overkill.

A new Sunstreaker? Combiner
Deluxe Ghost Starscream? Combiner
Classics Armada Thrust? Combiner
G1 style Trailbreaker? Combiner
A new Ironhide? Yay! Oh no wait, its also a combiner
And after 30 years we finally get skylynx redone and he is a freaken combiner!?!?

And this was worse than TR because while TR gives them a gimick they didnt have before, it doesn't limit the toy's possible uniqueness, or general look. Scourge, Blurr and Trigerhappy still look very much like themselves and all have nice transformations that are all their own. But with UW/CW, the fact that they are redecos fo the same mold means they arent all that unique, nor do they look the part. Ironhide looks nothing like his G1 self and all the cars have fake parts for the chest (like Wheeljack, Sunstreaker, and the Datsuns). And Skylynx is made smaller and gutted of his seperate lynx and bird modes.

I still have many of these toys and do not regret my purchases, but I did mean to show that TR handles the shared gimick much better than Combiner Wars did when it comes to homaging the look and idiosyncratic nature of these characters.

[Kurona]

I'm more lenient than most; unless it's a character I'm a massive stickler for, you can just stick the character's head on a body that's not entirely unfitting for them and I'm pretty cool with that. That's why I'm alright with CW Prowl and Mirage. I still can sorta see them in that.

[Ultra Markus]

i get that hasbro goes with more toy accuracy and takara goes with cartoon accuracy
but with cerebros hasbro went with cartoon accuracy and takara went with toy accuracy on fortress maximus

[Kurona]

i get that hasbro goes with more toy accuracy and takara goes with cartoon accuracy
but with cerebros hasbro went with cartoon accuracy and takara went with toy accuracy on fortress maximus

Takara were still going cartoon-accurate; just accurate to their cartoon.



Just so happened that their cartoon was toy-accurate in the first place.