The Energon Pub

[Sabrblade]

Awwww, why didn't they use the most ACCURATE remold of Primal, tbis one just hasthe new robot head you know what, why am I complaining if I know im buying it anyway! (goes to corner)

No, this one has the remolded robot chest/gorilla face. This is the more accurate one.

I forget, was there anything newly remolded for this specific release?

The Legends one? Twas a straight redeco of the Beast Wars Reborn remold.

Yeah the legends one, ok so its just a redeco. Is this redeco more show accurate than the previous Reborn version?

Nope. The Reborn one is more accurate. The Legends one uses blue-gray in places where the Reborn one used show-accurate silver-gray.

[william-james88]

Nope. The Reborn one is more accurate. The Legends one uses blue-gray in places where the Reborn one used show-accurate silver-gray.

So what is the appeal to owning the Legends one?

[galvatron00]

Nope. The Reborn one is more accurate. The Legends one uses blue-gray in places where the Reborn one used show-accurate silver-gray.

So what is the appeal to owning the Legends one?

"Newer is always better."

Missing out on the other one? Packaging differences? Completeness! Grasping at straws now..

[Wolfman Jake]

Transformers Legends Optimus Primal looks very show accurate to me. I love him! Nothing stands out as "not right" to my eye. I don't think it's so much a matter of messing with the show deco as interpreting some hues a little differently. At any rate, he'll obviously be retired once Masterpiece Optimus Primal arrives in October. That thing is truly a Masterpiece of art and engineering.

[Kurona]

Wait, did I miss something? We're talking about Primal now? Is LG-01 getting reissued or something???

(Hope that didn't sound like I thought it was bad we're talking about it, just confused me since it seemed to come out of nowhere)

[william-james88]

Wait, did I miss something? We're talking about Primal now? Is LG-01 getting reissued or something???

(Hope that didn't sound like I thought it was bad we're talking about it, just confused me since it seemed to come out of nowhere)

Firstly, yes LG-01 is getting reissued. And the reissue is now available on e-bay for the standard price it will be at BBTS and elsewhere (which is not more expensive than exclusives stateside):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Takara-Tomy-Leg ... SwXSJXPYys

Secondly, I just had a question about LG-02 Optimus Primal and I thought this thread was the best place to ask it. Check the toy haul thread in about 2 weeks for the revelation

Oh and while we are on topic, e-bay now has all the LGX toys ready to ship at their standard "exclusive" prices (which arent that bad)

Rattrap: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Takara-Legends- ... 2247874229

Waspinator: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Takara-Legends- ... 2247874229

Rhnox: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Takara-Legends- ... 2247874229

[Wolfman Jake]

Thanks for the tip, Willie-J! I've been waiting for the Legends EX Beast Wars exclusives to become available online. I can't believe the prices either! If anyone else is interested in these, act quickly. There are only 2 left in stock of each from the above seller!

[william-james88]

Thanks for the tip, Willie-J! I've been waiting for the Legends EX Beast Wars exclusives to become available online. I can't believe the prices either! If anyone else is interested in these, act quickly. There are only 2 left in stock of each from the above seller!

No worries, but it turns out we actually newsed their availability a while back, and they are cheaper here (but its off set by the shipping): http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... 324/35293/

So yeah, if anyone wants these rereleases in superior deco of rhinox, waspinator and rattrap, Robot Kingdom has them now for a decent price. Just follow the link in this post and click on the toy listing for it to bring you to the site. They are out now and can ship right away.

[Sabrblade]

Nope. The Reborn one is more accurate. The Legends one uses blue-gray in places where the Reborn one used show-accurate silver-gray.

So what is the appeal to owning the Legends one?

I guess it mostly just boils down to giving people who missed out on the mold in all previous times another chance to get it at Japanese retail, while also giving those who own it something new with its slightly different deco to potentially incline them to double-dip on the mold.

Here's a comparison gallery with the Legends and the Reborn versions (as well as with the Legend Commander Collection version and other Japanese CHUG Maximal toys). The Reborn version is the one with the shiny gorilla face and, in this one's case, the red symbol on the robot mode tummy that Alfes 2010 seems to have personally added to his Reborn figure since the actual figure does not have that.

[Wolfman Jake]

You know, after looking at that gallery and then looking again at stills from the original Beast Wars show, I think the Legends deco is actually the most screen accurate one yet. They blue-tinged gray for Primal's gorilla face and hands matches up much better than the gunmetal gray of the Reborn release.

Transformers Legends


Beast Wars Reborn

[Sabrblade]

You know, after looking at that gallery and then looking again at stills from the original Beast Wars show, I think the Legends deco is actually the most screen accurate one yet. They blue-tinged gray for Primal's gorilla face and hands matches up much better than the gunmetal gray of the Reborn release.

You're forgetting the reflective quality of Primal's gorilla face, chest, and hands when placed under blue light sources such as the sky and those within the base.

Under normal non-blue-enhanced lighting conditions, Primal's gorilla face, chest, and hands were all silver gray, as seen in most of the images within these image compilations:
http://postimg.org/gallery/p9thydua/e7cd219f/
http://postimg.org/gallery/30fk9oa2o/676c3907/
http://postimg.org/gallery/1wcw8wk3c/b169e8e9/
http://postimg.org/gallery/1asd0rzsu/0ac72d51/

[Wolfman Jake]

I dunno. The Reborn silvery gray still doesn't look at all right to me. The contrast between that and the fur is too low. I've looked through all of those pictures, and what I find is that Primal's bare skin is much more of a dark grayish blue/black kind of color. Think of old ladies with gray or white hair that try to dye it jet black, and it comes out looking very dark blue instead. Granted, the Legend's shade of gray-blue isn't quite right either, being a bit too light/bright, but it's a better attempt at matching what Primal looks like most often on the show. The upcoming Masterpiece figure seems to lean that way too with a nice, dark, blue-gray/black shade for his beast mode face, hands, and chest.

[Sabrblade]

It's more likely that the animators of the show from back then saw how Primal's gorilla skin looked when reflected under blue light sources and thought it looked nice enough for them to keep putting him under blue light sources so as to make that nice reflective blue hue appear on his skin, and Takara seems to think the same with how nice a contrast it makes with his fur that they based the Legends deco and the MP deco on those scenes with the Primal set against blue light sources, though the MP deco does a much better job at making it more of a subtle contrast than the Legends deco does.

Under normal lighting conditions, Primal's skin ends up looking like this:

[william-james88]

I dunno. The Reborn silvery gray still doesn't look at all right to me. The contrast between that and the fur is too low.

I agree. But thats because what works on screen doesnt always work in toy form. For what it maters, I wanted that mold and I am happy to have the Legeds as the option to get.

[galvatron00]

The Beast Wars Reborn one you posted Wolfman Jake has MUCH better eyes.

That Legends one got it right as seen above for that one frame in that one episode

[Wolfman Jake]

I pulled that pic from the gallery Sabr had posted earlier. Fine details like the eyes will vary from sample to sample, but I can tell you that my Legends Primal is definitely not cross eyed. The only deco difference between the Reborn and Legends releases seem to be the "skin" color (which extends to the robot chest detailing in both), a slightly lighter gray for the fur for Reborn (it's almost got a brownish tinge to it), a white versus silver mouth plate respectively, painted nostrils on the Legends version, and...that's about it, really.

Neither captures Primal's bare skin perfectly. It should be a charcoal color under "neutral" lighting. As Sabr said, though, the upcoming Masterpiece version looks to be the best reproduction of the screen look with a nice dark slate gray, that I bet will look more or less blue depending on lighting levels.

[Sabrblade]

There's another difference between the Reborn version and the Legends version in that the comparison gallery: The robot mode faces. The Reborn version has a softer-looking whitish mouthplate (like in the show) while the Legends version has a shiny silver mouthplate (like the traditional Optimus Prime look):





Though, in the show itself, while the mouthplate was not shiny, the rest of his face around his eyes was a slightly darker and slightly more shiny shade of gray from the mouthplate's matte whitish gray, so neither toy really captures the look of the face completely exact, but the Reborn one at least got the mouthplate right. If one could take the Reborn mouthplate and the Legends face around the eyes, that might look best.



There's also one more difference that the comparison gallery doesn't show: The Reborn version painted the toy's deployable arm missile launcher silver to match Primal's arm guns in the show, while Legends version left it unpainted in red like on the original 1996 toy:

[Wolfman Jake]

I did mention the mouth plates, actually. But I didn't know about the arm guns.

[william-james88]

Primal's bare skin perfect

Is it getting hot in here or is it just me

[Wolfman Jake]

Primal's bare skin perfect

Is it getting hot in here or is it just me

Joining my team, Willy-J?

[william-james88]

Primal's bare skin perfect

Is it getting hot in here or is it just me

Joining my team, Willy-J?

Wont say I'm not tempted but my wife would kill me

[Wolfman Jake]

Without saying too much, I'd warn that dipping your toe in these waters with a "gorilla" may be an underwhelming experience. Sorry, Primal. Still love ya!

In the interest of not letting this topic get too far off track, I'll mention that my eBay order for LGEX Rattrap, Waspinator, and Rhinox should be arriving late next week. I've got the previous Takara releases of each already, and will try to provide some in depth comparisons between the initial releases and the new EX versions for anyone still on the fence.

[Cyberpath]

[Va'al]

We have another couple of images directly from TFYuki, via fellow Seibertronian Cyberpath, of the Takara Tomy Transformers Legends line - namely, of LG25 Blurr and LG26 Scourge (featured below with Unite Warriors Cyclonus). Check out the two new Titans Return molds below, in some relatively action-y shots!

[Wolfman Jake]

I'll take that Cyclonus, Scourge, and Sweeps picture as a ringing endorsement from TFYuki and Takara Tomy for using Unite Warriors Cyclonus as G1 "Classics" Cyclonus. I can hardly wait until Legends Galvatron and Scourge (and Titans Return Scourge for some Sweeps army building) are released!