The Energon Pub

[william-james88]

Devastator is definitely better than the sum of his parts. A good toy, but I dont know if I would call him the year's best.

Yeah, the best fig of the year for me has gotta be legends class Shockwave (yeah, I'm gonna be that guy )

I'm gonna chime in there: best figure of the year would have to be CW Rook. I cannot count Shockwave considering he is 2016, but Rook to me is the best of the best. Devy in combined mode would be top 5 though, along with Air Raid

Gotta be Prowl or Hotspot for me

I like Hotspot as much as you like CW Magnus.

[Hellscream9999]

Devastator is definitely better than the sum of his parts. A good toy, but I dont know if I would call him the year's best.

Yeah, the best fig of the year for me has gotta be legends class Shockwave (yeah, I'm gonna be that guy )

I'm gonna chime in there: best figure of the year would have to be CW Rook. I cannot count Shockwave considering he is 2016, but Rook to me is the best of the best. Devy in combined mode would be top 5 though, along with Air Raid

Gotta be Prowl or Hotspot for me

I like Hotspot as much as you like CW Magnus.

I wanted to like him - I do like him, just not his quality; I get that hotspot's an acquired taste, he's got a fulfilling truck mode, and a great bot mode...

[william-james88]

I wanted to like him - I do like him, just not his quality; I get that hotspot's an acquired taste, he's got a fulfilling truck mode, and a great bot mode...

I am referring to that too. I find Hotspot to be of very inferior quality to the other torsos. His plastic feels flimsier, parts come off more easily, the ratchets are positionned terribly and he just feels cheap,especially the ladder segment. Also, not a fan of that visible head and alt mode which doesnt look like anything real, just a stretched out vehicle.

[Evil Eye]

I wanted to like him - I do like him, just not his quality; I get that hotspot's an acquired taste, he's got a fulfilling truck mode, and a great bot mode...

I am referring to that too. I find Hotspot to be of very inferior quality to the other torsos. His plastic feels flimsier, parts come off more easily, the ratchets are positionned terribly and he just feels cheap,especially the ladder segment. Also, not a fan of that visible head and alt mode which doesnt look like anything real, just a stretched out vehicle.

Well technically, Hot Spot's vehicle mode is based on something real- or at least part of it is. He's MOSTLY based on an airport fire engine, like this:



(British example pictured because I'm patriotic like that.)

HOWEVER, airport fire engines/crash tenders don't have ladder/bucket assemblies like Hot Spot. So technically he's a hybrid of two different kinds of fire engine.

Personally I rather like him (aesthetically at least, as I don't own him yet) but I do think he'd be better as a more traditional fire engine. I actually think TFC's Hydrant (their Not Spot) is the best looking Hot Spot out there besides the G1 figure, especially in that sexy, sexy fire engine mode, pictured here being awesome and making me want it.

[Wolfman Jake]

I wanted to like him - I do like him, just not his quality; I get that hotspot's an acquired taste, he's got a fulfilling truck mode, and a great bot mode...

I am referring to that too. I find Hotspot to be of very inferior quality to the other torsos. His plastic feels flimsier, parts come off more easily, the ratchets are positionned terribly and he just feels cheap,especially the ladder segment. Also, not a fan of that visible head and alt mode which doesnt look like anything real, just a stretched out vehicle.

CW/UW Hot Spot is an airport fire truck.



Of course, there are some concessions made so that the mold can double as Onslaught, but Hot Spot's not all that far off from a realistic vehicle. He lost a little truck mass and gained a ladder and bucket assembly. It also helps Hot Spot look more similar to his original toy release in the 80's. Honestly, there was nothing surprising to me about how this Hot Spot turned out. I think you may have been spoiled by the numerous light blue redecos of regular fire trucks as a non-combining Hot Spot over the years that we've had to make do with.

[Hellscream9999]

I wanted to like him - I do like him, just not his quality; I get that hotspot's an acquired taste, he's got a fulfilling truck mode, and a great bot mode...

I am referring to that too. I find Hotspot to be of very inferior quality to the other torsos. His plastic feels flimsier, parts come off more easily, the ratchets are positionned terribly and he just feels cheap,especially the ladder segment. Also, not a fan of that visible head and alt mode which doesnt look like anything real, just a stretched out vehicle.

His head doesn't have to face up, I used to leave it facing downwards - til I realized that I didn't care. And his ladder only feels squishy if you squeeze it, so don't do that; he's hollow, so he doesn't incur menasor syndrome - especially with as many other figures are using this mold, it had to be at it's best in torso mode.

He has double jointed elbow... so they aren't place perfectly, but combiners have long since been about compromise, it'll only get worse, the more complexity they want to include; at least they haven't sunk to the level of the GO! combiners' compromises yet

[william-james88]

Guys, Hotspot looks nothing like those firetrucks. I get that they are aiming for him to be that kind of alt mode but it looks nothing like it.

This is an airport firetruck:


Transformers Dark of the Moon Sentinel Prime Gallery

This is what happens when you run over an airport firetruck with a steam roller :


Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Hot Spot Gallery

That firetruck mode on hotspot is a failure.

[Evil Eye]

Sorry, I need a moment.



That's better.

[Hellscream9999]

Guys, Hotspot looks nothing like those firetrucks. I get that they are aiming for him to be that kind of alt mode but it looks nothing like it.

This is an airport firetruck:


Transformers Dark of the Moon Sentinel Prime Gallery

This is what happens when you run over an airport firetruck with a steam roller :


Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Hot Spot Gallery

That firetruck mode on hotspot is a failure.

That's why I always said he was an 'awesome modified airport fire truck' that combined everything I wanted as a kid in one alt mode (it is a toy after all). So it's not totally realistic, neither are the rest of the protectobots

[Nemesis Maximo]

Guys, you're all wrong! WJ, you're wrong! Delta, YOU'RE wrong!

Ahem...Hotspot is definitely designed to look like a fire truck, and there IS precedence for his design. In the fiction, even.



The cab is similar to an airport fire truck, but the rest is quite normal. And I expect a repaint in the future.

[Hellscream9999]

Guys, you're all wrong! WJ, you're wrong! Delta, YOU'RE wrong!

Ahem...Hotspot is definitely designed to look like a fire truck, and there IS precedence for his design. In the fiction, even.



The cab is similar to an airport fire truck, but the rest is quite normal. And I expect a repaint in the future.

Yep, he's a modified ladder truck

[william-james88]

So it's not totally realistic, neither are the rest of the protectobots

At least they look like alt modes I could recognize. If he didnt have a ladder, Hotspot would not at all look like a firetruck, which is something Inferno pulled off:



Actually, we have a good idea of what Hotspot would look like without the ladder...


Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Onslaught Gallery

[Hellscream9999]

So it's not totally realistic, neither are the rest of the protectobots

At least they look like alt modes I could recognize. If he didnt have a ladder, Hotspot would not at all look like a firetruck, which is something Inferno pulled off:



Actually, we have a good idea of what Hotspot would look like without the ladder...


Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Onslaught Gallery

You're right, without the ladder, he wouldn't look like a ladder truck, guess that's why he has a ladder then

[Wolfman Jake]

Guys, you're all wrong! WJ, you're wrong! Delta, YOU'RE wrong!

Ahem...Hotspot is definitely designed to look like a fire truck, and there IS precedence for his design. In the fiction, even.



The cab is similar to an airport fire truck, but the rest is quite normal. And I expect a repaint in the future.

Congratulations to Nemeis Maximo! You are today's Winner of the Internet!

Seriously, though. Nice work. Billy-J, would it be easier to see CW Hot Spot as a fire truck if he were bright red instead of pale blue?

[Cobotron]

CONGRATS NEMI MAX!!!!

Hey guys, as much as the 4 year old me loves fire trucks, I just wanted to let you all know, that after 6 days of being lost in limbo... My UW Devy has shown up in the tracking system! He is at my local post office ready to come home tomorrow!!!!!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE It's Christmas!

[william-james88]

Seriously, though. Nice work. Billy-J, would it be easier to see CW Hot Spot as a fire truck if he were bright red instead of pale blue?

Not really, th G1 is light blue and I get a beter idea of wha that toy is trying to emulate:



Transformers G1 1986 Hot Spot Gallery

[Wolfman Jake]

Hey guys, as much as the 4 year old me loves fire trucks, I just wanted to let you all know, that after 6 days of being lost in limbo... My UW Devy has shown up in the tracking system! He is at my local post office ready to come home tomorrow!!!!!

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE It's Christmas!

Lucky! My Devastators and Defensors only shipped this past Saturday, and FedEx still doesn't have the tracking information loaded into their system! >.< I'm losing hope that I'll have these figures in time for the holidays.

[fenrir72]

Seriously, though. Nice work. Billy-J, would it be easier to see CW Hot Spot as a fire truck if he were bright red instead of pale blue?

Not really, th G1 is light blue and I get a beter idea of wha that toy is trying to emulate:



Transformers G1 1986 Hot Spot Gallery

Kind of weird in that the G1 cartoon of Hostspot's vehicle mode looking a lot like TFC version (an American model) while the G1 toy is that of a JP Fuso Great fire engine model.

As Guard City, the red fits hime even better.

[william-james88]

Good news to those who are getting UW Devastator, your copy wont be stuck mistransformed. I just noticed this, look at scraper's roof/cab when he forms a leg on takara compared to Hasbro's





The leg mode for Takara's Scrapper has a different transfomration sugestion than Hasbro's, aside from the added heel. With Hasbro, because the decepticon symbol is on scrapper's roof, they dont rotate that roof piece when forming the leg so that the symbol doesnt look upside down. However, what Takara shows us is that the proper transformation of the mold has that roof/cab piece rotated to prevent scrapper's leg panels from coming apart when posing devastator.

This means that the hasbro version is perpetually mistransformed and someone messed up with the decal placement.

[william-james88]

We had some comparison pictures between Hasbro and Takara's Devastator, as well as a guide to all the changes in Takara's version, and now we have a video review. This comes from Chuckdawg1999.

Leave it to Takara to go all out on the Granddaddy of Transformer Combiners. New knees, new elbows, and a set of G1 weapons makes this version of Devastator the best ever. This isn't the Devastator we need, it's the one we deserve, and need.

[Hellscream9999]

Good news to those who are getting UW Devastator, your copy wont be stuck mistransformed. I just noticed this, look at scraper's roof/cab when he forms a leg on takara compared to Hasbro's
The leg mode for Takara's Scrapper has a different transfomration sugestion than Hasbro's, aside from the added heel. With Hasbro, because the decepticon symbol is on scrapper's roof, they dont rotate that roof piece when forming the leg so that the symbol doesnt look upside down. However, what Takara shows us is that the proper transformation of the mold has that roof/cab piece rotated to prevent scrapper's leg panels from coming apart when posing devastator.

This means that the hasbro version is perpetually mistransformed and someone messed up with the decal placement.

Boy, hasbro's devastator just can't catch a break at all, can it; I mean, hasbro doesn't deserve the break, but I feel bad for poor devs

[Ultra Markus]

he got who had what visor wrong the regular hasbro has the visor while the SDCC version has the eyes

good review though ordered mine from BBTS last week cant wait

[durroth]

for a solid minute I looked at the news thumbnail and thought he was sitting on an oversized longrack KO

[chuckdawg1999]

he got who had what visor wrong the regular hasbro has the visor while the SDCC version has the eyes

1435767188_1.jpg

good review though ordered mine from BBTS last week cant wait

The cartoon got it wrong too, a lot.

[Windsweeper]

Nice as the Takara extras are, I actually prefer the colour scheme of the Hasbro version.