The Energon Pub

[Sabrblade]

I'm debating what will be the least "problematic" Optimus Primal to go in my Classics Beast Wars collection. The upcoming reissue of the original Ultra figure, which is bigger than voyager Rhinox, or this reissue of the Robotmasters figure, which is quite a bit smaller than Voyager Rhinox. I'm leaning towards a large figure, which would at least scale Primal properly with Cheetor, but then he'd be too big for Dinobot. Ugh...such a headache.

I just use my Telemocha Series figure (which uses the RobotMasters mold) and have Cheetor (who is also the Telemocha Series figure, using the original BW mold, since the Universe Cheetor mold is garbage) in an action pose with his legs bent to make him squat shorter than Primal.

Though, I also use the original Rattrap mold since the Generations mold, while nice, is too big for even Rhinox and Dinobot, only scaling well with the original BW Ultra Optimus Primal mold.

[Wolfman Jake]

Scale is simply a nightmare for Beast Wars figures.

[Sabrblade]

Scale is simply a nightmare for Beast Wars figures.

This looks enough enough to me:



Though, my Rattrap is the more show-accurate Japanese one with the copper head and hands.

[Wolfman Jake]

Not bad, but I don't want to have to use the original BW toys to fill in my gaps. I'm building a "Classics" collection of Beast Wars figures. I think a nice voyager scale Optimus Primal would fix it all for me. Yeah, Generations Rattrap would still be too big, but he'd still at least be the smallest member of the group. Unfortunately, I don't think a new Optimus Primal is coming any time soon. Takara is reissuing the original ultra class figure (yet again) and Hasbro is switching gears to the "Combiner Wars" next year.

[Sabrblade]

Not bad, but I don't want to have to use the original BW toys to fill in my gaps.

That's what the Ultra mold is, though. A Classics version would be like this:

[Wolfman Jake]

Not bad, but I don't want to have to use the original BW toys to fill in my gaps.

That's what the Ultra mold is, though. A Classics version would be like this:

Yeah, I know the Ultra toy coming up from Takara is technically the original toy from Beast Wars, but it's been retooled and redecoed compared to the original release. That gives it a pass in my mind. I do have that deluxe Optimus Primal from the Beast Wars Anniversary line as well. He's the "Classics" primal on my shelf right now, and he's frankly not too bad in bot mode. Gorilla mode is a different matter, but I just kind of pretend he's transmetal. The biggest let down is the size. I wish some of that surf board mass could have gone into the figure itself instead.

[Sabrblade]

Yeah, I know the Ultra toy coming up from Takara is technically the original toy from Beast Wars, but it's been retooled and redecoed compared to the original release. That gives it a pass in my mind.

But that tooling isn't new. It was already given that tooling back in 2007 for the Takara's Beast Wars Reborn release (which was released later that year for Hasbro's BW 10th Anniversary line).

[shajaki]

Scale is simply a nightmare for Beast Wars figures.

This looks enough enough to me:



Though, my Rattrap is the more show-accurate Japanese one with the copper head and hands.

off topic: hey sarblade... doncha think telemocha cheetor is incredibly underated? ive always been a fan of the mold, but i was blown away with how nice the paint apps were.

and i was going to say, as far as scale goes i thought beast wars was one of the best. only real issues lie with the original (season 1) toys. which as you can see, have since been rectified.

[fenrir72]

Just noticed something, Jetfire is still Jetfire in the Legends line. Not renamed Skyfire like his henkei incarnation. He is designated LG07

[Va'al]

Courtesy of site sponsors Kapow! Toys and RobotKingdom, we get a better look at the humorously named new Takara Tomy Legends line figures, repainting Hasbro Generations ones under new names (sometimes). On the Legends website, the figures are only listed up to LG07 Jetfire, but we also know that Generations Swerve and Tailgate will be released together under LG08 (with the amusingly named Swarp),and Voyager Brainstorm will be LG09. Check out both sites for pre-orders now!

[MemphisR56]

That grey plastic on the brainstorm is awful dark, the faceplate looks quite dull in those pictures too. It's quite a heavy contrast against the blue; remembering my childhood brainstorm figure it feels as though the hasbro version is the more accurate this time around.

Swerve and Tailgate look quite dull too, a lot unchanged; there was a lot of potential for tailgate to get some extra paint apps and break up all that white too, but all I can see that they've done is remove the blue flames from the hood.

That's cemented me picking up the hasbro versions then.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

"Swarp" is actually a misreading of the Japanese kana for Swerve. Stores are well-known do to that. Just saying And good to see the name Arcana being confirmed, and Flanker is now Phaser?

[Sabrblade]

(with the amusingly named Swarp)

"Swarp" is a mistranslation.

The way Swerve's name is spelled in Japanese Katakana, スワーブ, gives us the Romanization of "Suwābu". Seeing as how the "bu" sound (ブ) is made from almost the same character as the "pu" sound (プ) but with a two little notches instead of little circle, it seems that RobotKingdom misread the ブ as a プ and misconstrued "Suwābu" into "Suwāpu" and came out with "Swarp" instead of "Swerve".

A similar thing happened with the Prime Arms Micron Swerve figure (the remold of Breakdown), whose name was initially mistranslated as "Swoop" (which is also written as スワープ "Swāpu", with the same little difference from スワーブ "Suwābu" in its プ vs. the latter's ブ)

[Rated X]

Takara needs to give fans a real tailgate from the scout windcharger mold, not this legends crappy mold.

[shajaki]

Takara needs to give fans a real tailgate from the scout windcharger mold, not this legends crappy mold.

*agrees*
but now that the character has a new mold, i doubt we'll ever see it.

[Sabrblade]

[khrome]

Tailgate comes with a pooper-scooper bot? Thats gotta be embarassing.
"My minicon turns into an arm cannon!"
"Well MY minicon is my head! What's your minicon do, Tails?"
"um.. I dont wanna talk about it"

[Sabrblade]

Tailgate comes with a pooper-scooper bot?

Bomb disposal skid loader.

[Sabrblade]

That grey plastic on the brainstorm is awful dark, the faceplate looks quite dull in those pictures too. It's quite a heavy contrast against the blue; remembering my childhood brainstorm figure it feels as though the hasbro version is the more accurate this time around.

Swerve and Tailgate look quite dull too, a lot unchanged; there was a lot of potential for tailgate to get some extra paint apps and break up all that white too, but all I can see that they've done is remove the blue flames from the hood.

That's cemented me picking up the hasbro versions then.

Those ARE the Hasbro versions pictured (with Tailgate's flames digitally edited out of the pics). Those Takara pics are using images of Hasbro figures.

[Wolfman Jake]

That grey plastic on the brainstorm is awful dark, the faceplate looks quite dull in those pictures too. It's quite a heavy contrast against the blue; remembering my childhood brainstorm figure it feels as though the hasbro version is the more accurate this time around.

Once again, I think Hasbro has gone with the G1 toy as the basis for their "Classics" rendition while Takara-Tomy aims more for screen accuracy from the original cartoon series. The G1 Brainstorm toy has lighter gray plastics, but on the show, the gray in Brainstorm's character model was a LOT darker. I used to just buy what Hasbro released because it's more readily available in stores in the U.S. (and cheaper), but my tastes have turned to screen accuracy of late, so I'm leaning more towards the Takara release for Brainstorm now. That is, unless Takara goes too far in trying to make him "screen accurate" to Headmasters and paints a mouth over his mouth plate.

[Wolfman Jake]

Sorry, double posted somehow!

[Sabrblade]

Those ARE the Hasbro versions pictured (with Tailgate's flames digitally edited out of the pics). Those Takara pics are using images of Hasbro figures.

[Wolfman Jake]

Those ARE the Hasbro versions pictured (with Tailgate's flames digitally edited out of the pics). Those Takara pics are using images of Hasbro figures.

Brainstorm too? Is that what you're implying?

[Sabrblade]

Those ARE the Hasbro versions pictured (with Tailgate's flames digitally edited out of the pics). Those Takara pics are using images of Hasbro figures.

Brainstorm too? Is that what you're implying?

Yes. All figures shown in these pictures of the "foreign" (as in "Hasbro") versions as placeholders.

[Wolfman Jake]

Those ARE the Hasbro versions pictured (with Tailgate's flames digitally edited out of the pics). Those Takara pics are using images of Hasbro figures.

Brainstorm too? Is that what you're implying?

Yes. All figures shown in these pictures of the "foreign" (as in "Hasbro") versions as placeholders.

I would ask, then, if the colors were purposely skewed on the Hasbro stock photos to show what Takara intends to do with the figure, hence the much darker looking gray plastics. They did alter the photos of Hasbro's Tailgate to remove the blue detailing on his alt mode, after all.