The Energon Pub

[ZeroWolf]

So far it seems that only bombshell is going there as part of the adventures line

[MemphisR56]

I never understood why people would want a cartoon accurate mold/sculpt in vintage toy accurate colors. It boggles the mind.

Some people who grew up on G1 toys didn't grow up watching the cartoon.

If, say, you had lived in the UK instead of Miami back in the 1980s, you would not have grown up watching the Transformers cartoon because it didn't air there. The UK got the toys and the comics (even creating a ton of UK-original comics the U.S. didn't get back then) and the 1986 movie, but the cartoon barely ever aired over there, airing only a scant few episodes of season 1 before just disappearing from UK television completely. UK fans in the 1980s had only the toys and the comics to get their fill of the Transformers, and since the comics largely drew from the decos of the toys themselves moreso than the cartoon did, people developed a certain fondness for the look and colors of the toys over what they characters looked like in the cartoon (cuz they weren't watching it since it wasn't on).

Some kids in other markets had ONLY the toys and NO cartoon or comics, having to play with the toys by making up their own stories with them, and making their attachment to the toys' looks even more justified.

Not everyone allowed the cartoon to dictate how they feel a character should look. Some simply preferred how the toys looked over their cartoon looks, and some didn't even get to watch the cartoon to really make a choice and just defaulted to the toys' looks anyway.

Actually the videos of the cartoon were easily accessible and the key to vector sigma and a lot of the following episodes were aired as I watched them growing up from videos taped off tv. We even got season 3 on tape. don't quote me on this but the wide awake club programming block may have shown it all.

I remember it being on every morning on ITV, either before or part of TV:AM.

I was born a bit late (88) for the whole thing, but my exposure was mostly through the Goldbox Classics figures and vicariously, through video store rentals and VHS tapes we owned.

They seemed to be well distributed from what I remember. I remember seeing a lot of episodes on video

Starscream's brigade, revenge of bruticus, the key to vector sigma, dinobot island, more than meets the eye, nightmare planet, only human, forever is a long time coming, ghost in the machine/starscream's ghost.

Even if the TV showings were obscure, it seemed pretty easy to have stumbled over the cartoons.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

So far it seems that only bombshell is going there as part of the adventures line

Skrapnel/Shrapnel too: he's TAV17, right after Bombshell. Powerglide and Cosmos will appear there too.

[MemphisR56]

Anyway, in a more contributory post;

The 2 pack figures mentioned in the listings for the upcoming takara figures seemed a mystery, I've been nosing through HLJ on my lunchbreak and they have them both listed as GRIMLOCK vs. STRONGARM Rival pack and BUMBLEBEE vs. STEELJAW Enemy pack.

Nothing new and interesting there then.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Anyway, in a more contributory post;

The 2 pack figures mentioned in the listings for the upcoming takara figures seemed a mystery, I've been nosing through HLJ on my lunchbreak and they have them both listed as GRIMLOCK vs. STRONGARM Rival pack and BUMBLEBEE vs. STEELJAW Enemy pack.

Nothing new and interesting there then.

The first one is actually "R Strongarm" (short for "Redeco Strongarm"), which turned out to be Decepticon called "Greejeeber". You may know him as RiD 2001 Rollbar There's also a third set, but the contents are unknown at this point.

[Autobot032]

Courtesy of fellow Seibertronian, fenrir72, we were directed to the link of Amiami's higher resolution and non-watermarked copies of the previously seen promotional photos for the upcoming TakaraTomy Unite Warriors Aerialbots set. The updated images feature Slingshot in better detail as well, and as expected, all of the figures feature different decos from their Hasbro counterparts including their weapons and combiner weapons/appendages.



















Keep your optics tuned to Seibertron.com for the latest in news and updates, plus the best galleries around!

[shajaki]

Anyone interested in Has/Tak comparison shots?











So has anyone else noticed the guns added to the thighs of Takaras Superion? it fills him out a little more, i think it helps the overall aesthetic

[peaces]

good idea with the guns on the thighs. just did it to mine. looks great.

[Va'al]

I prefer the Hasbro version, seeing them side by side.

[william-james88]

There are a few reasons I opted for Takara's over Hasbro's. Firstly, it actually comes out cheaper than buying the hasbro version locally at walmart. It come to about the same price if I waitied for a sale and plus I would be waiting forever for slingshot (I can always get the alpha barvo mold as blades later).

Secondly, while the deco is better, the big part of the deco that gets me giddy is the superion chest. Let me explain.

The character model has Silverbolt's chest transform into Superion's chest and they are very different color wise. Silverbolt's chest in the G1 cartoon is red but seperated by white while Superion is red all across (except for a small patch).

Due to the engineering of back then, the G1 toy could not do that so the chest was a full red for both Superion and Silverbolt since it didnt really transform.

However, the new updated Combiner Wars toys have the engineering so that whatever chest Silverbolt has, Superion doesnt necessarily have to share it. And indeed, the transformation into a torso is quite involved and the same chest peices are not reused. And yet, Hasbro's lazy paint job doesnt showcase that at all since you still end up with a full red chest for both Silverbolt and Superion.

However, Takara does make the most of this great tnrasformation by showcasing how the torso has morphed and is far from just being Silverbolt's chest. And for once, the color change on the chest is very visible. This may look small, but it is a big deal for me since it highlights the evolution in engineering of these wonderful toys.

[shajaki]

I prefer the Hasbro version, seeing them side by side.

and im SUUUURE alpha bravo has nothing to do with it...

[ZeroWolf]

Are we sure that blades is going to be a remold and not a new mold (or at least a remold like chromia)

Also I like takara's silverbolt better than hasbro but the rest are the same and I will take new over old, so hasbro for me

[Va'al]

I prefer the Hasbro version, seeing them side by side.

and im SUUUURE alpha bravo has nothing to do with it...

Nope.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Are we sure that blades is going to be a remold and not a new mold (or at least a remold like chromia)

He was shown on a comic cover as part of Defensor: Blades' tail piece looks remarkably like Alpha Bravo's, only in red, plus he follows the arm transformation exactly.

[shajaki]

my thoughts on Hasbro VS Takara:

Air Raid
i think i like hasbros more. that gold trim looks really nice, and the extra red spot on his shins pops better than takaras silver.

Skydive
pretty much the same, but takaras is just hasbros +1. black on the ribs and red on the shins makes him better. its just math folks.

Fireflight
takara wins for having less blue. i also like how the silver "trims" the sculpted parts of the chest.

Silverbolt
that yellow, looks kinda bad in the pics. but its spot on accurate. while hasbros orange/gold is really nice, i gotta go accuracy. the little things like gold knees and silver shoulders go a long way too. takara wins.

Superion
over-all, takaras snow white just looks nicer (also, big points for white hands/feet). combiner head has his needed gold antenna. and the crotch, being red all the way across give it a faux attachment piece look. as does the almost solid white chest with red center piece.

over-all, takara wins for me!

[Va'al]

You're obviously wrong. Because where is Alpha Bravo?

Exactly.

Suckers.

[ZeroWolf]

Are we sure that blades is going to be a remold and not a new mold (or at least a remold like chromia)

He was shown on a comic cover as part of Defensor: Blades' tail piece looks remarkably like Alpha Bravo's, only in red, plus he follows the arm transformation exactly.

Hmm he could still be a retool since reports were saying he was more futuristic looking. Then again I'm buying him anyways so I can have rotor arms

[CrankyOldTruck]

Are we sure that blades is going to be a remold and not a new mold (or at least a remold like chromia)

He was shown on a comic cover as part of Defensor: Blades' tail piece looks remarkably like Alpha Bravo's, only in red, plus he follows the arm transformation exactly.

Hmm he could still be a retool since reports were saying he was more futuristic looking. Then again I'm buying him anyways so I can have rotor arms

If it's a re-tool it's going to be the absolute minimum they can get away with to make it different. Look at the rest of the line. EVERYTHING is getting repainted and re-purposed at least twice and they are hauling in crap from 2 lines (or further) back and repainting and re-purposing THAT stuff as well. It's not going to be a matter of what figure, it's going to be what color do you want any figure in because you are going to have 6 different paint schemes to choose from.

[SW's SilverHammer]

Are we sure that blades is going to be a remold and not a new mold (or at least a remold like chromia)

He was shown on a comic cover as part of Defensor: Blades' tail piece looks remarkably like Alpha Bravo's, only in red, plus he follows the arm transformation exactly.

Hmm he could still be a retool since reports were saying he was more futuristic looking. Then again I'm buying him anyways so I can have rotor arms

If it's a re-tool it's going to be the absolute minimum they can get away with to make it different. Look at the rest of the line. EVERYTHING is getting repainted and re-purposed at least twice and they are hauling in crap from 2 lines (or further) back and repainting and re-purposing THAT stuff as well. It's not going to be a matter of what figure, it's going to be what color do you want any figure in because you are going to have 6 different paint schemes to choose from.

Or maybe that's because Scramble city toys were so generic interchangeable in the first place.

[peaces]

fun? bah humbug

[Cyberpath]

I take it the Takara version will be available only as a set?

[Jelze Bunnycat]

I take it the Takara version will be available only as a set?

Yup. Hasbro and TakaraTomy are opposites in that regard.

[fenrir72]

Courtesy of fellow Seibertronian, fenrir72, we were directed to the link of Amiami's higher resolution and non-watermarked copies of the previously seen promotional photos for the upcoming TakaraTomy Unite Warriors Aerialbots set. The updated images feature Slingshot in better detail as well, and as expected, all of the figures feature different decos from their Hasbro counterparts including their weapons and combiner weapons/appendages.



















Keep your optics tuned to Seibertron.com for the latest in news and updates, plus the best galleries around!

Thanks A32! I could not find this thread that's why I posted it in TAV. Must need to ugrade by spectacles

[Sabrblade]

Something to note about Hasbro's deco. While Takara went full on cartoon-accurate with theirs, the Hasbro deco leaned more towards toy-accurate, especially with Silverbolt's robot mode color layout, his gold color and its layout, and with the wing designs on Firefly, Skydive, and Air Raid.

However, there is one thing on Hasbro's Superion that was deliberately not colored toy-accurate, but was not colored show-accurate either: Superion's face. The original toy had a face with a mouth and nose under the visor, while the cartoon model had a mouthplate instead. A dark gray mouthplate. Notice that Hasbro's CW Superion instead has a bright silver mouthplate instead of being either toy-accurate black or show-accurate dark gray? Well, there is a reason for that.

The original toy was not the only place in the 1980s that depicted Superion with a mouth instead of a mouthplate. Japanese magazines illustrations and manga, like those dran by Studio Ox and such, retained the toy's mouthed face instead of drawing the cartoon model's mouthplate, even despite the version of Superion portrayed in that Japanese media being the same person as the cartoon version. What's more is that the few Japanese illustrations that were colored instead of in black and white had Superion's mouth area colored light gray/silver instead of toy-accurate black or show-accurate dark gray.

Fast forward to today with Hasbro's CW Superion having a light silver-colored mouthplate serving as a compromise between all of his 1980s media depictions. The mouthplate is from the cartoon, but its silver coloring is from the Japanese illustrations, such as these ones:








Also notice the Autobot-y blue visor the colored ones, when the original toy had a yellow visor, the cartoon had a Decepticon-y red visor, and both the Hasbro and Takara new Superions have red visors.

[Syn_13]

I prefer the Hasbro version, seeing them side by side.

Me too, I prefer the extra bits of colour in both Firefly (blue) and Air Raid (gold). I also prefer the black hands/feet on Hasbro's Superion. It's not as accurate but it doesn't over-do the white and does well to break things up.

For the sake of accuracy I will still get Slingshot. I'll pose Alpha Bravo as a standalone figure, as he's a cool little dude in his own right.

Now here's the thing. What with Takara going for character accuracy, I fully expect to see Menasor with Wildrider, but what's going to happen with Defensor? Groove is already there, just as a Legends figure to add on to the chest. I doubt that Takara will re-design him as a Deluxe to replace Rook.