The Energon Pub

[fenrir72]

Lazy recolors like the uber expensive e-Hobby Orion Pax.

Oy! No you don't. He may have needed a new head, and a custom sticker sheet... but once you took care of those few minor(ish) issues, he's actually a really good G1 Orion Pax, and I quite love having him in my collection!





I won't hear another word against him!

...

...

...

...in part, because if I did hear another word, and then felt compelled to reply to that word, it really would drag this thread too far off topic.

So... Erm... On that note, now back to your regularly scheduled Unite Warriors discussion! Yeah!

You forget mein freund, yours has the "moded" head. I also own that version.A new head totally makes the difference.

See?



This is what the "unmoded" version looked like.



Without the head, he looks like cr@p!

So do I get a "No" Prize?

So a good retool and repaint really goes a mile for a particular mold. As I mentioned, back then, true, just a lazy repaint. Now? We have an actual new head aside from the paint apps. A lot to be thankful nowadays.

[Burn]

Oh good ... more off-topic.

[fenrir72]

Oh good ... more off-topic.

It's not off topic Burn. Didn't this start out as having a new Autobot combiner team with new molds for the limbs? Then it got sideswiped as being useless lazy repaints.

Well we discussed the lazy repaints of yesteryears to todays "lazy repaints" which are actually sporting new retools. We already have slingshot and Wildrider. So in essence, we are not out of topic.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

For those who are interested, Scramble core has Takara Defensor up for Pre-order for $115.
http://scramblecore.com/collections/fro ... 3-defensor

[Yotsuyasan]

For those who are interested, Scramble core has Takara Defensor up for Pre-order for $115.
http://scramblecore.com/collections/fro ... 3-defensor

That's an interesting price... If the only place it is officially available for sale is selling it for about $132.00, I wonder how that store is acquiring their stock and still able to have any profit? Seems vaguely questionable...

Still, it is a good price. It isn't a retailer I am familiar with myself. Are they reliable? Do they have good customer service? And what might someone expect to pay for shipping from them? (If the shipping ends up being something ridiculous like $40.00, I'm just as good leaving my pre-order where it is at TFSource!)

[D-Maximal_Primal]

For those who are interested, Scramble core has Takara Defensor up for Pre-order for $115.
http://scramblecore.com/collections/fro ... 3-defensor

That's an interesting price... If the only place it is officially available for sale is selling it for about $132.00, I wonder how that store is acquiring their stock and still able to have any profit? Seems vaguely questionable...

Still, it is a good price. It isn't a retailer I am familiar with myself. Are they reliable? Do they have good customer service? And what might someone expect to pay for shipping from them? (If the shipping ends up being something ridiculous like $40.00, I'm just as good leaving my pre-order where it is at TFSource!)

I have personally never actually made an order there, It's just a site I keep an eye on if a deal were to come up. I cannot give you any actual information, but I believe shipping costs would be reasonable considering I once tested out the shipping by putting in several orders but stopping before officially ordering to test the shipping, and it stayed very consistent despite added products and the rates were competitive with say BBTS, so I'd go check it out, and if you like it, yay and if not, just a suggestion to keep an eye out for

[Magna Prime]

Out of curiosity, anyone else thinking we might be seeing a couple of the Defensor molds used for this. I'm thinking specifically for Ironhide and Prowl.

[Collector Canine]

Nice look to it, but I don't think it's necessary. Rook and the legends class Groove are perfectly fine. I probably will pick this up, but it won't replace Rook on my Defensor (once I get my Defensor anyway). Wait, I just remembered, isn't Takara selling them in gift sets? If I'm remembering that right, then if I bought this, I would have a full Defensor then wouldn't I.interesting, very interesting indeed. This Deluxe Class Groove is still pointless though! Even though I most likely will just end up buying it along with the Unite Warriors Superion, soooo... yeah. Also, the Armada Megatron looks too similar to the Hasbro version for me to even care. The Black Convoy is really cool though, I might actually pick that one up along with Unite Warriors Grand Scourge. Because Grand Scourge is an awesome looking figure!

[Yotsuyasan]

Nice look to it, but I don't think it's necessary. Rook and the legends class Groove are perfectly fine. I probably will pick this up, but it won't replace Rook on my Defensor (once I get my Defensor anyway). Wait, I just remembered, isn't Takara selling them in gift sets? If I'm remembering that right, then if I bought this, I would have a full Defensor then wouldn't I.

If you want everything and don't want duplicated characters other then Groove in two different scales, and don't want to wait and see if Hasbro releases the Deluxe Groove themselves, then probably the best way to go about it would be to buy the Takara Unite Warriors Defensor set plus Hasbro's Rook and Groove. I'm actually vaguely considering doing that myself, unless the molds end up getting reused as other characters I want. (Kind of like I may have been more inclined towards Alpha Bravo if I didn't pretty much figure all along I'd be able to get almost the same toy as Blades.)

[Tsutsukakushi]

Would prefer my CW Defensor had that deluxe limb Groove.

Not willing to spend Takara Import Gift set prices to get Groove.

Will show some patience and wait for the Hasbro American CW Deluxe Groove toy.

While CW Legends class Groove and Deluxe Rook are fine toys. Don't think they are as great as Deluuxe Groove is.

No regrets about buying CW Legends Groove and Rook. As I joke it's a Six or Seven man combiner team.

look at the extra guys as replacements temps when the other guys get hurt or are MIA.

[King Kuuga]

It seems inevitable that Hasbro will get us that Groove eventually, but the question is when, and how soon they'll be willing to tell us. It's safe to speculate that this Groove is actually a prototype Afterburner being co-developed with Hasbro for release next year. But plans can change, and Hasbro doesn't like to talk about releases that aren't certain, so while they'll certainly be asked about it at Botcon and SDCC, they may just deflect the question until they're ready to announce something. It may be that they're willing to release him as Afterburner but they haven't yet secured a Groove release of the mold along the same lines as Quickslinger and Brake-Neck got (which makes sense, since the toy is still in prototype stage).

However, if Hasbro was caught off guard by this mold, and it wasn't meant to be Afterburner, then a release may be harder since it's less likely to comply with Hasbro's manufacturing requirements. However, they are sure to realize that releasing it in their markets would be profitable, so I want to think they'd try to find a way.

Regardless, I'm predicting a shifty or deflective answer when they get asked about it at future events.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Out of curiosity, anyone else thinking we might be seeing a couple of the Defensor molds used for this. I'm thinking specifically for Ironhide and Prowl.

It's a tossup between Offroad and First Aid for Ironhide: the sketches show him using the Offroad version, and the lean profile of the right lower arm of the silhouette points in that direction as well. On the flipside, the game shows Ironhide with First Aid's chest, though that could be explained by a simple oversight: they're both red, you know? Plus, they may be saving First Aid for Ironhide's mold twin Ratchet.

Prowl using Streetwise is practically a sure thing, as people claim Streetwise's upper body resembles Prowl's, plus Streetwise using blue instead of the usual black may indirectly point to a future Prowl release. The blue one is Streetwise, the black one is Prowl.

[Puhonix]

Plus, they may be saving First Aid for Ironhide's mold twin Ratchet.

Oh dear God yes, please give us a decent Ratchet and Ironhide. The last release, what did they call them, puzzleformers? Ugh.

[MemphisR56]

Considering how ridiculously fast Quickslinger and Brakeneck sold out just about everywhere, they'd have to be mad not to do the same for Groove. They'd just be denying themselves money.

Though it would mean that Legends groove would just sit on shelves and not go anywhere.

I'm fairly certain that's about the only issue here, really.

But when the market exists to make a bunch of money at a deluxe pricepoint, it doesn't make great sense to me to value the sales of a legends class figure pricepoint.

[Yotsuyasan]

Considering how ridiculously fast Quickslinger and Brakeneck sold out just about everywhere, they'd have to be mad not to do the same for Groove. They'd just be denying themselves money.

It really depends on if Hasbro even has access to the mold. Slingshot and Wildrider were reuses of already existing molds. Groove is a new mold. If it was a new mold initiated by Takara, and if Takara doesn't want to share the mold with Hasbro, Hasbro may not have a choice in the matter.

Also, maybe Hasbro won't want to even if they do have access to the mold. Since (unlike Slingshot and Wildrider) Hasbro's Defensor does still have a version of Groove, it is possible Hasbro won't see the need. And sadly, Hasbro may have a point, as there may not be as large a market for a Deluxe Groove as there was for Slingshot and Wildrider. Since Hasbro did put out a Groove, many of the people who would have otherwise be upset at a replaced limb are content. Some of them even feel Groove in the Legends Class is better, because of the obvious alt-mode scale issues Groove presents. So maybe Hasbro wouldn't be denying themselves money as you suggest, but saving themselves money by not producing a figure they might not sell enough of to profit on.

That being said, even as someone taking no chances who already has the Takara version on pre-order, I hope Hasbro can put it out as well. It'd be awesome for everyone who wants a shot at him to be able to get him.

[Sabrblade]

As Powered Convoy pointed out previously, is it very likely that this Deluxe Groove mold is to be another Takara-only case like Prime War Breakdown, Jet Vehicon, Gaia Unicron, etc. were.

The figure has clear plastic while none of the Hasbro molds do, suggesting it has an additional plastic sprue that the other Hasbro molds lack, making this figure a greater expense than your average Hasbro Deluxe class figure. After all, Hasbro has a standards when it comes to the budgetary limits for figures in each of their size classes, while Takara's standards aren't nearly so rigid.

It has two guns that are based directly on the G1 Groove toy's guns, whereas the Hasbro CW Deluxe molds each have just a single weapon (aside from the foot/hand gun) that is more original in its design instead of being deliberately based on the weapons of the G1 toys.

The figure has been given special attention by TakaraTomy advertisement, which wasn't the case for either Slingshot or Wildrider since those two were treated by Takara to be just ordinary figures. But Groove here is given big focal imagery in the magazines to make him stand out as something unique and different from the other Protectobot figures.

And finally, the figure is still a gray prototype, placing its development cycle far later than any other Combiner Wars / Unite Warriors molds we've seen thus far, which strongly suggests that Takara had to make it themselves since if Hasbro was behind this plan all along, would it not have made sense for Hasbro to have initiated its development as early as the other Protectobots? After all, when both Slingshot and Wildrider were first revealed, their new heads were already done, instead of still being in the hardcopy stage like Groove is.


So as far as can be told, this Unite Warriors Groove mold is looking more and more to be a non-Hasbro product designed solely by Takara without regards to Hasbro's standards or input. And with Hasbro having already made a Legends Groove that still interacts with the Defensor combiner in some way, Hasbro very likely might feel contented enough with the Legends Groove and see the Deluxe Groove as an unnecessary redundancy.

Not to mention that they went to the trouble of making Rook as a replacement for Groove's limb status, and did so by making him inherently meant to be the new Protectobot character that he is and no one else, instead of another preexisting character first like Alpha Bravo and Offroad were.

[william-james88]

The figure has clear plastic while none of the Hasbro molds do, suggesting it has an additional plastic sprue that the other Hasbro molds lack, making this figure a greater expense than your average Hasbro Deluxe class figure. After all, Hasbro has a standards when it comes to the budgetary limits for figures in each of their size classes, while Takara's standards aren't nearly so rigid.

This is the one point I disagree with. Dont the RID (2015) figures show that Hasbro is fine with using clear plastic in a deluxe figure?

[Jelze Bunnycat]

As Powered Convoy pointed out previously, is it very likely that this Deluxe Groove mold is to be another Takara-only case like Prime War Breakdown, Jet Vehicon, Gaia Unicron, etc. were.

The figure has clear plastic while none of the Hasbro molds do, suggesting it has an additional plastic sprue that the other Hasbro molds lack, making this figure a greater expense than your average Hasbro Deluxe class figure. After all, Hasbro has a standards when it comes to the budgetary limits for figures in each of their size classes, while Takara's standards aren't nearly so rigid.

It has two guns that are based directly on the G1 Groove toy's guns, whereas the Hasbro CW Deluxe molds each have just a single weapon (aside from the foot/hand gun) that is more original in its design instead of being deliberately based on the weapons of the G1 toys.

The figure has been given special attention by TakaraTomy advertisement, which wasn't the case for either Slingshot or Wildrider since those two were treated by Takara to be just ordinary figures. But Groove here is given big focal imagery in the magazines to make him stand out as something unique and different from the other Protectobot figures.

And finally, the figure is still a gray prototype, placing its development cycle far later than any other Combiner Wars / Unite Warriors molds we've seen thus far, which strongly suggests that Takara had to make it themselves since if Hasbro was behind this plan all along, would it not have made sense for Hasbro to have initiated its development as early as the other Protectobots? After all, when both Slingshot and Wildrider were first revealed, their new heads were already done, instead of still being in the hardcopy stage like Groove is.


So as far as can be told, this Unite Warriors Groove mold is looking more and more to be a non-Hasbro product designed solely by Takara without regards to Hasbro's standards or input. And with Hasbro having already made a Legends Groove that still interacts with the Defensor combiner in some way, Hasbro very likely might feel contented enough with the Legends Groove and see the Deluxe Groove as an unnecessary redundancy.

Not to mention that they went to the trouble of making Rook as a replacement for Groove's limb status, and did so by making him inherently meant to be the new Protectobot character that he is and no one else, instead of another preexisting character first like Alpha Bravo and Offroad were.

One can hope right? I'll wait on the news and hope Guardian won't sell out...

The clear plastic argument is a strong one, as I have not seen any in Combiner Wars at all. Though it's entirely possible that the clear plastic only exists in the prototype stages before being switched out with opaque. It's happened before with Universe Tankor.

[Sabrblade]

The figure has clear plastic while none of the Hasbro molds do, suggesting it has an additional plastic sprue that the other Hasbro molds lack, making this figure a greater expense than your average Hasbro Deluxe class figure. After all, Hasbro has a standards when it comes to the budgetary limits for figures in each of their size classes, while Takara's standards aren't nearly so rigid.

This is the one point I disagree with. Dont the RID (2015) figures show that Hasbro is fine with using clear plastic in a deluxe figure?

The clear plastic on those figures was evidently budgeted into those figures, whereas the entire Deluxe class of the CW line is fully without any clear plastic. That Takara is using clear plastic on this new Groove mold and not on any other CW Deluxes suggests that more money was put into developing this one figure over all the others so that it could have that extra clear plastic sprue, which implies that it breaks the budget Hasbro established for the CW Deluxes by having one additional plastic sprue.

[shajaki]

Wow. Nice arguements Sabr

[Tsutsukakushi]

Like the idea of Takara and Hasbro doing this autobot Menasor combiner.

Thought some of the toy sculpts and QC on the Takara United and CHUG Deluxe autobots was poor. Looking forward to better Takara Unite warriors and CW toys for some Season 1 autobots.

Think if anyone deserves repetitive updates toys. it's the 1984 Season 1 characters toys. As they are most recognized iconic ancestors characters of the franchise.

[Wolfman Jake]

Sabre's got some very good points about Takara's deluxe scale Groove figure likely being exclusive to their markets. The only way to be absolutely certain to get such a figure is to buy Takara's offering, because there is no guarantee Hasbro will ever sell it in their markets. If I were a fan on the fence right now, I would put in a pre-order now at any retailer that offers a "no penalties" cancelation policy, should Hasbro, through some miracle, later announce a release of the deluxe Groove mold in their markets. I've got two of the Defensor gift sets pre-ordered in my stack at TFSource. I think they still have some available. Can anyone speak for BigBadToyStore's policy on pre-order cancelations?

[megatronus]

Sabre's got some very good points about Takara's deluxe scale Groove figure likely being exclusive to their markets. The only way to be absolutely certain to get such a figure is to buy Takara's offering, because there is no guarantee Hasbro will ever sell it in their markets. If I were a fan on the fence right now, I would put in a pre-order now at any retailer that offers a "no penalties" cancelation policy, should Hasbro, through some miracle, later announce a release of the deluxe Groove mold in their markets. I've got two of the Defensor gift sets pre-ordered in my stack at TFSource. I think they still have some available. Can anyone speak for BigBadToyStore's policy on pre-order cancelations?

BBTS' preorder cancellation policy is better. After an item comes into stock, you have 2 weeks to cancel. Once an item's in stock at TFsource, that's it.

[Yotsuyasan]

Once an item's in stock at TFsource, that's it.

Still, with it not expected in stock until December, that should be plenty of time to see what other options (if any) crop up.

[King Kuuga]

As I said earlier, if Hasbro wasn't involved in this, I'm sure they will consider all options in releasing it because they have to know there's some degree of demand. I love what I've seen of Rook and I still want this deluxe Groove. I want options in my combiners and so the more members, the better. It may end up as a special Club release or something if they can't justify the cost of releasing it through their normal outlets. No matter what, it's going to be a good while before we hear about it, though.