The Energon Pub

[Optimizzy]

I hear all this about Hasbro being stupid by not releasing this guy. What if they can't for some reason? What if Takara wanted an exclusive? Honestly I think this is just to generate some buzz.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

It's funny how a change in viewpoint can make all the difference. The bare facts we have:

1) United Warriors Guardian is a TakaraTomy Mall exclusive
2) His release date is set to the 28th of November 2015
3) It has the new-mold Groove as a Deluxe, which is "unavailable overseas"

The last bit can be taken in several ways, one of them being realised by adding "at this time". The US Protectobots have just been released, giving impatient Japanese collectors the chance to import it albeit sans proper Groove beforehand.
It's still possible that Hasbro will release him, but not this year. The mold still looks to be in final stages of development, and may actually either be originally intended for the 2nd year of Combiner Wars, or be a TakaraTomy original mold.

[YoungPrime]

Eff it then. Slingshot will replace Alpha Bravo who will sit in for deluxe Groove while Rook and that crappy Legends Groove can marinate in Ross's clearance section for all I care.

Guess Offroad can stand in for whatever Combaticon Hasbro chooses not to release since that seems to be the trend among CW's these days.

[Yotsuyasan]

Well, not that I expect a detailed answer (especially since they may not know their own plans as of yet) but I just sent my retailer of choice (TFSource) a message asking, if the rumors of this being a Takara Tomy Mall exclusive are true, if they still plan on trying to acquire any stock of this even if they have to pay the Japanese retail and do a mark-up on that. If I receive any kind of response (even if it is a polite "We cannot comment at this time.") I'll be sure to share it.

[Genericon #378]

Eff it then. Slingshot will replace Alpha Bravo who will sit in for deluxe Groove while Rook and that crappy Legends Groove can marinate at Ross's clearance section for all I care.

Guess Offroad can stand in for whatever Combaticon Hasbro chooses not to release since that seems to be the trend among CW's these days.

Are you the same YoungPrime from TFW2005 who complains about anything that is different from G1? You guys sound reaallllly similar. Y'know, the G1 purists club is looking for new members.

[Editor]

In re-reading the translation....
To make this stick-out a bit further than the two in the previous announcements which are reused from other molds, there is a chance that it only means that this is a new mold that simply is not YET been made available.

[MelRains]

If I were a betting man, I would be putting serious money down on an eventual Hasbro release.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Eff it then. Slingshot will replace Alpha Bravo who will sit in for deluxe Groove while Rook and that crappy Legends Groove can marinate in Ross's clearance section for all I care.

Guess Offroad can stand in for whatever Combaticon Hasbro chooses not to release since that seems to be the trend among CW's these days.

A leaked Walmart listing showed that Bruticus will be the first Hasbro Combiner to have all his regular components. His sixth appears to be legends Shockwave, from the G1 episode. All of this is speculation, but it points to no new Bruticus members

[TimothyR]

In re-reading the translation....
To make this stick-out a bit further than the two in the previous announcements which are reused from other molds, there is a chance that it only means that this is a new mold that simply is not YET been made available.

yeah, at this point, that's what i thought it meant as well. clearly it's not available in the US.. but that doesn't entirely mean that it won't be.

plus, if it did get released in the US, it doesn't mean it needs to be named "groove" .. i mean, look at "break-neck" and "quickslinger"..

do i think hasbro will release it over here? probably not.. i hope they do, but at this point it doesn't seem like anything is concrete.

now, i think hasbro has handled this whole thing, like they do most everything else lately, terribly. they seriously have no regard for their fans and collectors when it comes to transformers. it's rather insulting.

i'd love for botcon to be held within 100 miles of where i live, but it isn't. i wish i could ask them all of the questions i want.. but i can't, and it seems like everyone who asks a question at botcon never really calls them out on crap like this. whether it be at a public Q&A or in a private conversation.. i never see answers for this type of stuff.

i mean, there's been TFA blackout, thundercracker, wingblade prime, hydrodive bumblebee, dotm deluxe leadfoot, soundwave, que, human alliance soundwave, TFP unicron, breakdown, jet vehicon, jet vehicon general, and now this crap with groove. all of these figures that haven't been released in the US are based on designs and characters from US content (movies and tv shows).. how is it that another country gets more complete collections of figures than where the content originated from?.. it just doesn't make sense. i think it clearly delineates hasbro, the company that only cares about the bottom line, from takara, the company that cares about money, but also cares about what their fans want.

why won't they release all of these figures here?.. i think it shows a ridiculous lack of care for the fan base. it's stuff like this that makes me want to support 3rd parties even more.

oh well, i guess we'll have to see how this plays out. i'd love to buy the takara set.. but with how cheaply these figures are made, how they all basically share a similar, if not identical transformation, i can't justify paying import prices for figures like these. i'll gladly pay BBTS prices for masterpiece figures.. but i just can't do that with these combiner wars figures.

[Editor]

i think it clearly delineates hasbro, the company that only cares about the bottom line, from takara, the company that cares about money, but also cares about what their fans want.

It's not that Hasbro doesn't care about fans, it they didn't they wouldn't support the fan club, do panels at SDCC, or try to pander to us by giving us "Fan built" characters.

Many others have likely done a better way of explaining this but the percentage of units sold to profit, Hasbro makes more on joe/jane parent buying for their kids, then they do from fans. Takara on the other hand is catering to a demographic where older collectors make up a sizable portion of their units sold to profit.

As far as CW/Unite Warriors goes... Hasbro can mix things up because many will be bought by and for non-G1 Collectors, while Takara doesn't have an existing market that would buy the same way so they must focus on G1 buyers.

[Rated X]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHA

HAHA

*snort*

HAAAA

Guess you're going to have to give ol' Rook a chance after all.

Rook will be getting a chance to join alpha bravo in the toilet. I will be buying Takara anyways even though I already bought hasbros. Theres this little thing called "buying online". Google it.

Then ill buy the inevitable KO for my hasbro version to display as a leg. Calling CHMS!!!

[Genericon #378]

In re-reading the translation....
To make this stick-out a bit further than the two in the previous announcements which are reused from other molds, there is a chance that it only means that this is a new mold that simply is not YET been made available.

yeah, at this point, that's what i thought it meant as well. clearly it's not available in the US.. but that doesn't entirely mean that it won't be.

plus, if it did get released in the US, it doesn't mean it needs to be named "groove" .. i mean, look at "break-neck" and "quickslinger"..

do i think hasbro will release it over here? probably not.. i hope they do, but at this point it doesn't seem like anything is concrete.

now, i think hasbro has handled this whole thing, like they do most everything else lately, terribly. they seriously have no regard for their fans and collectors when it comes to transformers. it's rather insulting.

i'd love for botcon to be held within 100 miles of where i live, but it isn't. i wish i could ask them all of the questions i want.. but i can't, and it seems like everyone who asks a question at botcon never really calls them out on crap like this. whether it be at a public Q&A or in a private conversation.. i never see answers for this type of stuff.

i mean, there's been TFA blackout, thundercracker, wingblade prime, hydrodive bumblebee, dotm deluxe leadfoot, soundwave, que, human alliance soundwave, TFP unicron, breakdown, jet vehicon, jet vehicon general, and now this crap with groove. all of these figures that haven't been released in the US are based on designs and characters from US content (movies and tv shows).. how is it that another country gets more complete collections of figures than where the content originated from?.. it just doesn't make sense. i think it clearly delineates hasbro, the company that only cares about the bottom line, from takara, the company that cares about money, but also cares about what their fans want.

why won't they release all of these figures here?.. i think it shows a ridiculous lack of care for the fan base. it's stuff like this that makes me want to support 3rd parties even more.

oh well, i guess we'll have to see how this plays out. i'd love to buy the takara set.. but with how cheaply these figures are made, how they all basically share a similar, if not identical transformation, i can't justify paying import prices for figures like these. i'll gladly pay BBTS prices for masterpiece figures.. but i just can't do that with these combiner wars figures.

Oh, so it has to cater to your needs? No, **** the fans. They complain about anything if it's not G1 enough for their ridiculous tastes. Have you bought a Transformer in the last 6 months? If you did, you'd know they are not cheaply made. Slingshot is dead. Deal with it.

[Autobot032]

In re-reading the translation....
To make this stick-out a bit further than the two in the previous announcements which are reused from other molds, there is a chance that it only means that this is a new mold that simply is not YET been made available.

yeah, at this point, that's what i thought it meant as well. clearly it's not available in the US.. but that doesn't entirely mean that it won't be.

plus, if it did get released in the US, it doesn't mean it needs to be named "groove" .. i mean, look at "break-neck" and "quickslinger"..

do i think hasbro will release it over here? probably not.. i hope they do, but at this point it doesn't seem like anything is concrete.

now, i think hasbro has handled this whole thing, like they do most everything else lately, terribly. they seriously have no regard for their fans and collectors when it comes to transformers. it's rather insulting.

i'd love for botcon to be held within 100 miles of where i live, but it isn't. i wish i could ask them all of the questions i want.. but i can't, and it seems like everyone who asks a question at botcon never really calls them out on crap like this. whether it be at a public Q&A or in a private conversation.. i never see answers for this type of stuff.

i mean, there's been TFA blackout, thundercracker, wingblade prime, hydrodive bumblebee, dotm deluxe leadfoot, soundwave, que, human alliance soundwave, TFP unicron, breakdown, jet vehicon, jet vehicon general, and now this crap with groove. all of these figures that haven't been released in the US are based on designs and characters from US content (movies and tv shows).. how is it that another country gets more complete collections of figures than where the content originated from?.. it just doesn't make sense. i think it clearly delineates hasbro, the company that only cares about the bottom line, from takara, the company that cares about money, but also cares about what their fans want.

why won't they release all of these figures here?.. i think it shows a ridiculous lack of care for the fan base. it's stuff like this that makes me want to support 3rd parties even more.

oh well, i guess we'll have to see how this plays out. i'd love to buy the takara set.. but with how cheaply these figures are made, how they all basically share a similar, if not identical transformation, i can't justify paying import prices for figures like these. i'll gladly pay BBTS prices for masterpiece figures.. but i just can't do that with these combiner wars figures.

Oh, so it has to cater to your needs? No, **** the fans. They complain about anything if it's not G1 enough for their ridiculous tastes. Have you bought a Transformer in the last 6 months? If you did, you'd know they are not cheaply made. Slingshot is dead. Deal with it.

Well, that's pleasant. lol

[Rated X]

Slingshot is dead. Deal with it.

Slingshot is alive and kicking on my display shelf thanks to robotkingdom.

[william-james88]

I will be buying Takara anyways even though I already bought hasbros. Theres this little thing called "buying online". Google it.

How are you gonna buy it, its only available at takara tomy mall. Betcha an alpha bravo figure you cant buy it right now. If you can, please post your receipt in a picture as a response. And then I will ship you an alpha bravo.

[Ultra Markus]

and i was hoping to have groove ride himself

[Nemesis Destron]

Might we see Takara release Viper?

[Yotsuyasan]

How are you gonna buy it, its only available at takara tomy mall. Betcha an alpha bravo figure you cant buy it right now.

No one can buy it right now, so that isn't a very fair bet. But when it is eventually released, even if it is only officially through the Takara Tomy Mall website, there will be ways (unfortunately at a premium) for other people to get their hands on it.

[primalxconvoy]

The translation could be either way. It could mean that this mold WILL NOT be made available overseas, or that it is NOT CURRENTLY available overseas. However, the limited selling through their online service suggests a besopoke order/production run, so I cannot confirm if my idea is true or not.

Hasbro will lose some serious fan-trust if this isn't available outside the USA, though. Time to pull-up the big-boy trousers and make it happen.

[Fox Thiagarajan]

Hope and pray this Groove mold is released outside of the TT Mall at some point. I would like to see what the wheel looks like from the back.

[Powered Convoy]

Question guys, can someone outside Japan order from Takara Tomy Mall?

No. You have to have a Japanese address and seemingly (at times) a Japanese credit card.

Here are the reasons that I feel Groove will remain a TakaraTomy only release (unless Fun Pub does them or something). That is beyond the announcement that TakaraTomy says that Groove is developed exclusively for their release.

*His reveal has special attention brought to it, Slingshot and Wildrider (who were also first revealed via magazine scans) didn't have any special attention drawn to them via the magazine scans.
*He's still in the gray prototype stage, which means his development cycle was later than any of the other revealed Combiner Wars / Unite Warriors figures.
*He has two guns, both of which are based on the G1 figure's Twin Vaporators. No other CW Deluxe has 2 guns and most weapons tend to not be at all based on the original figure's weapons for the CW Deluxes.
*He has clear plastic. All of the Combiner Wars Legends, Deluxes, and Voyager sized figures don't have any clear plastic at all. Clear plastic adds to the cost and number of molds for the figure, which have been reduced for Combiner Wars.

Also, despite what people want to believe this is a TakaraTomy Mall exclusive. Just like Cloud Optimus, Rodimus, Brawn, and Roadbuster (they had the Autobots, eHOBBY had the Decepticons). So he'll be as easy to acquire as they likely were. Which is pretty difficult in some cases.

Randy

[fenrir72]

I will be buying Takara anyways even though I already bought hasbros. Theres this little thing called "buying online". Google it.

How are you gonna buy it, its only available at takara tomy mall. Betcha an alpha bravo figure you cant buy it right now. If you can, please post your receipt in a picture as a response. And then I will ship you an alpha bravo.

You can buy it by proxy.Just finding the right one is the trick.

[Deadput]

Rook will be getting a chance to join alpha bravo in the toilet. I will be buying Takara anyways even though I already bought hasbros. Theres this little thing called "buying online". Google it.

Then ill buy the inevitable KO for my hasbro version to display as a leg. Calling CHMS!!!

Your extreme smugness that spews from your every post disgusts me.


So


Very





Much




But moving on why do you dislike Alpha Bravo and Rook so much? (Just want a honest opinion)

[megatronus]

Rook will be getting a chance to join alpha bravo in the toilet. I will be buying Takara anyways even though I already bought hasbros. Theres this little thing called "buying online". Google it.

Then ill buy the inevitable KO for my hasbro version to display as a leg. Calling CHMS!!!

Your extreme smugness that spews from your every post disgusts me.


So


Very





Much




But moving on why do you dislike Alpha Bravo and Rook so much? (Just want a honest opinion)

He's all about that G1.

[Deadput]

He's all about that G1.

I like G1 as much as the next guy but this is obsession at an unhealthy level not obsession with G1 mind you but it seems he bashes the new guys at every opportunity he gets and beyond that.



Slingshot was the worst Aerialbot anyways anyone's better then him.