The Energon Pub

[steals_your_goats]

I really like the set but I think the limbs would look much better on grand scourge.

[primalxconvoy]

This could have been so much better. Custom playing card decals on each figure, with black, red, silver and other playing card livery on each figure, plus playing card numbers for each. The leader could have been a Jester while the combined mode could have been the "Queen of Hearts"...

As for a female Megs, it just seems like a dialled-in Ghostbusters re-boot style thing.

And, hasn't Takara seen this already (WARNING: - NSFW) :

- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sg0D1PpgCXs

[MemphisR56]

And, hasn't Takara seen this already (WARNING: - NSFW) :

- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sg0D1PpgCXs

Please, lets keep the "muh SJWs!" politics out of an otherwise decent thread. The original victorion nonsense got bad enough. Lets just nip it in the bud here.

Sick to death of seeing this video. Pretty sure everyone has seen it by now.

[primalxconvoy]

And, hasn't Takara seen this already (WARNING: - NSFW) :

- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sg0D1PpgCXs

Please, lets keep the "muh SJWs!" politics out of an otherwise decent thread. The original victorion nonsense got bad enough. Lets just nip it in the bud here.

Sick to death of seeing this video. Pretty sure everyone has seen it by now.

I posted it, not in agreeing with the politics behind the video, but due to it being a "female Megatron". I actually wrote a longer disclaimer at the TFW2005 thread, but it was a hassle to do, keep editing, on my phone, without going mad. Every time I popped the bloody video inside a "spoiler" or "hidden" tag, their site showed the ruddy embedded video anyway. At least here, it's just in its raw url link.

That's it. Although I'm sure the female Ghostbusters angle could be applied to this repaint, too.

I'd rather a completely new and unrelated to any existing character/s who were new and/or existing characters that haven't really gotten much love. I'm sure "Roulette" would fit in well here, for example.

(Excuse typos, as it's REALLY hard to post here via phone)

[Emerje]

I think you lost, Thunderblast

Emerje

[Va'al]

And, hasn't Takara seen this already (WARNING: - NSFW) :

- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sg0D1PpgCXs

Please, lets keep the "muh SJWs!" politics out of an otherwise decent thread. The original victorion nonsense got bad enough. Lets just nip it in the bud here.

Sick to death of seeing this video. Pretty sure everyone has seen it by now.

Thank you.

[Munkky]

This doesn't look too bad, I certainly like her more than Victorion, but I'm not keen on the weird pinky-orange on Lunaclub, a deep scarlet would look much better with Moonheart's blue (are their colours paying homage to something? Or are they linked to playing cards somehow like their names?) It's also a shame that she doesn't come with a version of the Legends Groove mould for the chest plate. Regardless, I'll definitely get this set when it's out.

[Sigma Magnus]

Of course, the big reveal happens the one time I don't stay up late.

...but anyway, this is not what I expected...I doubt anyone expected it. Neat backstory, weird names, and looks ridiculous and I love it. I would get it if I had more money, but it's all going to Titans Return, for better or worse...

[william-james88]

Megaempress: Terrible name aside, she looks awesome. Like, I'd buy that on its own without a second thought.

I would buy it on its own too since, like Emerge pointed out, she does have a really cool homage going on for Cybertron Galvatron. And I like how different the colour scheme on the torso is compared to themostly silver robot and alt mode.

But she's not available alone and thats too bad because I am not feeling it for the rest. I like Takara for their intricate decos but I am not seeing that here. They went with a more Piet Modrian approach at blotches of colour, especially on the helicopters. The molded detail isnt highlighted, instead we just see where the different parts connect. It kind of looks like the way they broke down colours on UW Blstoff with a colour scheme broken up with blotches. Kinda looks like this to me:



In the end, the deco breakdown looks too simplistic (asdie from on Megaempress) and I would have liked more highlighted detail. I feel Hasbro did a better job in that dpartment though I would have preffered different colours used.

And for the love of God, would it kill any designer to just give the dead end mold a similar plastic colour on the elbow. I get it that it cant be painted but clearly a different colour can be used, so why not make it a consistent colour?!

[Tyrannacon]

Suddenly I want this set more than anything right now. Hah.

[william-james88]

Suddenly I want this set more than anything right now. Hah.

Makes sense, its your favourite Bro's wife!

[Agamemnon]

Saw this last night. Slept on it. Yeah, even after a good night's rest, I need this. I don't know where it is going to go in my collection...

I am very amazed that Megaempress can look so much like Megatron (well, I suppose technically Unicron Trilogy Cybertron Galvatron, nice Emerje) but looks nothing like him in combined mode.

Way to disrupt the fanbase, Takara!

[ebonyleopard]

I laugh at the people who complain about the color deco while at the same time have any of the current three G2 Combiner Wars sets sitting on their shelves.

[william-james88]

I laugh at the people who complain about the color deco while at the same time have any of the current three G2 Combiner Wars sets sitting on their shelves.

I dont think there are any of these people. So you'd be laughing at nothing.

[Cobotron]

Does Megaempress have a re-molded chest plate to be more Megatrony?
Can't remember what Pyra Magna's looks like.

[SureShot18]

Well, that was a surprise. I actually really like this. If only this was a normal Takara release, that high price on the EX sets makes this a much harder sell for me.

I like the decos on everyone but Lunaclub. I'll admit I can't really call this better than Victorion, just different and I really like that different.

[SureShot18]

Does Megaempress have a re-molded chest plate to be more Megatrony?
Can't remember what Pyra Magna's looks like.

Just checked because I thought about that myself as well and the answer is no. It's all deco.

[william-james88]

Does Megaempress have a re-molded chest plate to be more Megatrony?
Can't remember what Pyra Magna's looks like.

Thats her chest in the Hasbro version too:

[Cobotron]

Wow! Crazy how that little bit of red makes her look soooo Megaton-esque.
I would jump on this set, but I think Grand Galvatron will have to be my one Grand Splurge for CW/UW.

Grand Splurge! Get it? ... ...

[william-james88]

Grand Splurge! Get it? ... ...

[paul053]

What the....

Anyway, I like the Flowspade (what a weird name) color scheme, but I'm somewhat tired of seeing that mold again and again. A good one, don't get me wrong.

[Dr. Caelus]

I want this a lot despite the fact that the paint job seems a lot less detailed, and despite the fact that they didn't carry the playing card theme over to the paint jobs (because, who wouldn't want a race car assassin with an Ace of Spades/Grim Reaper paint job on the hood?).

As far as Empress vs. Queen - The Empress is a tarot card, so it does break theme, but not entirely.



Also, I would consider myself a hardcore pro-social-justice feminist (enough so, at least, to earn me a fair bit of hostility from men and women), have spent most of my adult life working in environments dominated by women, have taken classes on power and privilege, etc. and I'm not seeing where the sexism would be at with these characters so far.

Yes, the leader is 'just a female version of Megatron.' But that's frankly, darkly hilarious - Megatron decides he wants a wife, but rather than go out and actually try to court another existing Transformer, he decides none of them are good enough for him, and goes off to make his *ideal* woman from scratch. In his attempt to create a perfect partner for himself, he ends up simply creating a female version of himself, who Shockwave locks away because she's TOO MUCH like Megatron. Whether intentional or not, it's a great metaphor for the pressure on women to defeminize themselves, to adopt traditionally masculine behaviors and attitudes, in order to earn the respect of men, only to then be slapped down by society when they act like men.

And her honor guard aren't female versions of any male characters, are they? One is Starscream's stalker (which, honestly, most people would consider funny because it inverts gender roles), one is a spy for Soundwave (a notable but not unusual distinction), and one is business partners with Swindle. They're just their own characters, who have exactly as much tie in with old characters as you'd expect for new characters that have to be embedded in an existing universe.

Obviously, there's not really enough content there to apply the different 'tests' of feminine presence in literature, but what's there looks encouraging so far. Clearly, none of the characters could be replaced by a "sexy lamp" (though that would have made for a hilarious repaint of Legends Shockwave) so it looks like it will pass that test. Except maybe for the Screamer fangirl, the characters don't appear to be female stereotypes, so it may pass the Sphinx test. The Empress's narrative arc is short and vague, but she's the main character in it, rather than a supporting character to Megatron, so it passes the Mako Mori test (as well as it can with, like, three sentences). And, of course, five women who conjoin physically and psychically into one entity without a man would have to be the literal embodiment (get it?) of the Bechdel test.

And what happened to the Rust Dust repaint? Obviously they burned her in the 70s.

[o.supreme]

Awesome reveal! I only have two nitpicks...but nothing that really takes away from how great this release will be for Takara and for TF fans in general. 1. The naming convention- I'm a HUGE numbers guy. Why Lynx master is not UW-09 and Megatoronia is not UW-10 ? Having the series go all the way to 10, its a nice round number, a great way to end the series

and...

2.The hands/Feet. We can argue the HFG vs dedicated Hands/Feet all day long. But Takara stuck with them for Computron...why not for Megatoronia? --The Victorion ones look good in this example/color scheme, don't get me wrong, but one thing I like about Takara is there *seeming* consistency (even in a release as unprecedented as this).

again these are just small personal nitpicks, the set still looks amazing and am glad we are getting it.

[Kurona]

Awesome reveal! I only have two nitpicks...but nothing that really takes away from how great this release will be for Takara and for TF fans in general. 1. The naming convention- I'm a HUGE numbers guy. Why Lynx master is not UW-09 and Megatoronia is not UW-10 ? Having the series go all the way to 10, its a nice round number, a great way to end the series

and...

2.The hands/Feet. We can argue the HFG vs dedicated Hands/Feet all day long. But Takara stuck with them for Computron...why not for Megatoronia? --The Victorion ones look good in this example/color scheme, don't get me wrong, but one thing I like about Takara is there *seeming* consistency (even in a release as unprecedented as this).

again these are just small personal nitpicks, the set still looks amazing and am glad we are getting it.

My best guess is that Megatronia is directly based on Victorion down to having all the molding still be there while Hasbro and Takara each built their Computrons from scratch rather than Takara later doing their own version of a Hasbro release like with Megatronia, Superion, Devastator etc.

[Cobotron]

The hands/feet posses some degree of femininity. Could be why they went with them.

Empress Vs. Queen. Japan had/has no Queen or King. Only Emperor and Empress. Maybe in a deck of cards this is what they refer to them as? Maybe their words for these titles means the same thing.

Just guessing.