The Energon Pub

Rated X wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I like what I'm seeing so far. Wish Groove could be ridden by other Protectobots (the handlebar placement makes this unlikely), but that was never going to be a deal breaker for me.

It's a little odd that Streetwise is so G1 inspired while Groove is so not. But that's about all the complaints I have.

I think Streetwise is more or less a Barricade style Mustang. And police actually do use them In Florida, the Highway Patrol does have them. Not the Barricade model, but something similar. I cant say I'm feeling the neo bike. I'm getting tired of seeing transformers having alt modes that never make it past prototype stage in real life. One thing I liked about G1 is that most of the car alt modes were common on the streets when the toys came out. I couldn't see a cop riding that thing in real life. Maybe in a science fiction movie. Lets hope TFC doesn't come up with some kind of one man mini copter for Blades. That would be horrible.

Well ... I was talking more about the robot mode, actually. Streetwise is very much based off the G1 toy. Groove obviously is mostly new, although you can see a few details are lifted from the toy.

I'm gonna wait on this one to see what the next four protectobots sets look like .

I just really don't like that streetwise robot mode, him and groove don't even look like there from the same team . I think tfc are slipping a bit lately with there predaking and i'll not count this one out yet but with out the leg transformation I find this very dull when looking at there devastator and superion limbs.

Rated X wrote:I know plenty about jets. This isn't the 80's any more where the Air Force builds a new fighter every year to answer the Russians latest Mig. The only true combat fighter seeing real service these days the F-22 Raptor. Then came the F-35 Lightning which looks almost the same as the raptor.

I'll agree that the F-35 does share a similar design aesthetic to the F-22, but it's a much smaller jet with half the engines and designed to undertake a multitude of roles. Not to mention there's a version with VTOL capability. As for the F-22 being "the only true fighter", I think you've watched too many movies. I don't think there's been a single instance of the type seeing actual combat, not to mention there has been a lot of people that know a lot more than you or I saying it'd be terrible in a dogfight. And hell, since you love the 80s so much, would you like to hazard a guess as to when the F-22 was first designed?

Agamemnon did a good job sounding off on the bulk of the US fast jets still in service.

Rated X wrote:Sure we still have some F-16's in service.

Some??? Try more than any other type.

Rated X wrote:And the F-18 seems to be the preferred choice of military air show teams.

The F-18 is only used by the US Navy's display team as far as I know, with the Air Force's Thunderbirds still using the Falcon.

Rated X wrote:I'm not sure what the Chinese have now a days. There was a time they just had cold war era stuff but with all the money they got now I'm sure they got some pretty high tech stuff too.

Mostly MiG and Flanker variants built domestically under license, but there are a handful of indigenous models only one of which is actually in service, if I recall correctly.

Rated X wrote:Im sure there are plenty of jets out there that I don't know about because they never made it past the prototype stage (similar to the FP Stunticon cars)

Sorry dude, wrong again. Only T-Bone's Ankonian never made it to production. All the others went into production (if limited) and sold.

Rated X wrote:And if I was TFC, I would have gone with the B1 Bomber rather than the Blackbird. it's still in service or at least was during the Iraq war. Of course, I would still rather have a Concorde, but the B1 actually was a combat jet unlike the Blackbird which was a spy plane.

Personally I quite like the Ultra class Universe figure. I like to think it's what the XB-70 would've been like had it made it to production.

My apologies for the tangent. It's rare that I get to go off on one about this kind of thing.

Agamemnon wrote:Perhaps a station wagon type of ambulance and a small jumper type of helicopter can be used. I don't know how they are going to get around such recognizable vehicles, but I am eager to see them try.

I think they'd get away with still using a UH-1 for Blades. I think it's still seeing usage with civilian groups.

If not-First Aid looks good I might bite just for him, but I'm going to wait for the hopeful eventual Maketoy and/or Fansproject attempts at the Protectobots since they'll more than likely be of a more desirable size next to the other combiners from those 2 companies that I already have, not to mention being more in line with my aesthetic tastes.

Shadowstream wrote:If not-First Aid looks good I might bite just for him, but I'm going to wait for the hopeful eventual Maketoy and/or Fansproject attempts at the Protectobots since they'll more than likely be of a more desirable size next to the other combiners from those 2 companies that I already have, not to mention being more in line with my aesthetic tastes.

^^^^
THIS

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Shadowstream wrote:If not-First Aid looks good I might bite just for him, but I'm going to wait for the hopeful eventual Maketoy and/or Fansproject attempts at the Protectobots since they'll more than likely be of a more desirable size next to the other combiners from those 2 companies that I already have, not to mention being more in line with my aesthetic tastes.

^^^^
THIS

I can't say much about your aesthetic tastes compared to mine, but I too am a little worried about the size of these guys. For what it's worth Streetwise looked to be smaller than TFC's Predacons. I'm hoping that, coupled with a fairly generously sized team of FP Stunticons (generous in comparison to Colossus anyway ) means that the size differences may not be too great.

I think I'll wait for FP or Maketoys to make one.

TFC Toys - Prometheus aka Not-Defensor

Sodan-1 wrote:

Banjo-Tron wrote:

Shadowstream wrote:If not-First Aid looks good I might bite just for him, but I'm going to wait for the hopeful eventual Maketoy and/or Fansproject attempts at the Protectobots since they'll more than likely be of a more desirable size next to the other combiners from those 2 companies that I already have, not to mention being more in line with my aesthetic tastes.

^^^^
THIS

I can't say much about your aesthetic tastes compared to mine, but I too am a little worried about the size of these guys. For what it's worth Streetwise looked to be smaller than TFC's Predacons. I'm hoping that, coupled with a fairly generously sized team of FP Stunticons (generous in comparison to Colossus anyway ) means that the size differences may not be too great.

is there enough plastic left in the world to make a combiner with individual robots larger than TFC's Predacons?

love these and all tfc combiners because they look cool, they're solid, and they are BIG like a combiner should be.

keep it up TFC you rock!!!

p.s. a dino combiner is a great idea and it doesn't need a sixth or seventh member that become shoes or something. five is the standard for most combiners

p.p.s. a nice big not- menasor without holey leg arms is a must as well to go against your uranos!!!

mbd88prime wrote:love these and all tfc combiners because they look cool, they're solid, and they are BIG like a combiner should be.

keep it up TFC you rock!!!

p.s. a dino combiner is a great idea and it doesn't need a sixth or seventh member that become shoes or something. five is the standard for most combiners

p.p.s. a nice big not- menasor without holey leg arms is a must as well to go against your uranos!!!

I agree, but more importantly I love your SIG!!

yeah, they are quaint ideas these days, i know, but still very true to some of us. Also they seem to be ideas that ol op would agree with since freedom is the right of all sentient beings!!!

Quite true my friend! I have not given up on that shining city on the hill yet...

Rated X wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I like what I'm seeing so far. Wish Groove could be ridden by other Protectobots (the handlebar placement makes this unlikely), but that was never going to be a deal breaker for me.

It's a little odd that Streetwise is so G1 inspired while Groove is so not. But that's about all the complaints I have.

I think Streetwise is more or less a Barricade style Mustang. And police actually do use them In Florida, the Highway Patrol does have them. Not the Barricade model, but something similar. I cant say I'm feeling the neo bike. I'm getting tired of seeing transformers having alt modes that never make it past prototype stage in real life. One thing I liked about G1 is that most of the car alt modes were common on the streets when the toys came out. I couldn't see a cop riding that thing in real life. Maybe in a science fiction movie. Lets hope TFC doesn't come up with some kind of one man mini copter for Blades. That would be horrible.

SOME of the G1 car alt modes were common on the streets when the toys came out. Can't say I ever saw a convoy of a Porsche, a couple of Lambos and a F1 car rolling past my house very often.

I see your point about concept cars though. Sort of. It definitely removes the Robots In Disguise aspect of them if they're driving about as things that people can't even buy, and there are only 5 of in the world and things. On the other hand, with cars especially, I like that the concept vehicles tend to have more variety on their designs than those that actually end up being sold. I can think of about 5 distinct car shapes that exist on the current market, at least thinking about ones I see commonly. Sure sometimes the shape of the headlights or the badge on the front is a little different, but it's all the same streamlined crap. I think this is most visible in the Toyworld Throttlebots. They're all vaguely different, but you could swap the colours on the cars and no-one would be any the wiser.

With Groove it's definitely a challenge. We've seen a fair amount of decent motorcycle bots over the years now, but they're still not really ideal candidates for lining up in a Scramble City combiner with a car, an ambulance and a helicopter. This chunky Groove is at least using a design that I liked the look of when I first saw it (it's a bit Lawmaster from Judge Dredd) and whilst still looking faintly ridiculous as a leg is almost believable as some kind of Cybertronian thing.

I get what youre saying. I was just hoping they would have used a sidecar attached to the traditional police harley davidson to add the needed bulk. But i guess the parts forming aspect would upset some. I grew up with G1 so i dont mind extra parts on my combiners.

GiveMeSkyfire wrote:Quite true my friend! I have not given up on that shining city on the hill yet...

Glad someone knows what the shining city on a hill means still, so now lets transform our country into shining city mode and roll out!!!

craggy wrote:

Rated X wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:With Groove it's definitely a challenge. We've seen a fair amount of decent motorcycle bots over the years now, but they're still not really ideal candidates for lining up in a Scramble City combiner with a car, an ambulance and a helicopter. This chunky Groove is at least using a design that I liked the look of when I first saw it (it's a bit Lawmaster from Judge Dredd) and whilst still looking faintly ridiculous as a leg is almost believable as some kind of Cybertronian thing.

As a collector of motorcycle bots, I can tell you that I think the only motorcycle combiner I've ever seen (we'll ignore the movie Arcee combiner) that seems to make any sense scale-wise was the Machine Robo Rescue police car that combined with 4 police motorcycles to make his limbs.

I like streetwise, but I don't like grooves bot mode.

ill wait to see the rest or if another company does them to decide.

Gumball?? AKA Streetwise .

These latest pictures confirm it, I'm out. I'd rather no Protectobots at all than have this set of oversized, uninspiring figures.

Looks like they learned nothing from Uranos and there will be a pile of crap sitting off to the side no matter what mode they are in

RK has the pre-order up and are saying available end of January 2014. No way I'm jumping on this before seeing comparisons with Herc and Uranos, and even then maybe not

Banjo-Tron wrote:These latest pictures confirm it, I'm out. I'd rather no Protectobots at all than have this set of oversized, uninspiring figures.

If they scale well with everything TFC has done so far then they aren't over-sized. That will mean they are perfectly sized for those of us who want BIG gestalts.

He does look uninspiring though...

Arctorro wrote:Looks like they learned nothing from Uranos and there will be a pile of crap sitting off to the side no matter what mode they are in

I think this was brought up in the FP Stunticons thread, but I do have to hand it to FP: they seem to have a real knack for integrating the combiner parts (feet and hands, in particular) into the individual bot and alt modes. (I will admit that the two hand weapons for Vortex and Blast-off were stretching the bounds of coolness.)



Even with Herc, TFC did a pretty decent job of integration. (I liked the use of the hand as a sort of "disc" or "plow" behind the vehicle.) The feet-used-as-display-stands was a neat idea with Uranos. This looks like they are getting lazy, or maybe just running out of ideas on integration.

Agamemnon wrote:I think this was brought up in the FP Stunticons thread, but I do have to hand it to FP: they seem to have a real knack for integrating the combiner parts (feet and hands, in particular) into the individual bot and alt modes. (I will admit that the two hand weapons for Vortex and Blast-off were stretching the bounds of coolness.)



Even with Herc, TFC did a pretty decent job of integration. (I liked the use of the hand as a sort of "disc" or "plow" behind the vehicle.) The feet-used-as-display-stands was a neat idea with Uranos. This looks like they are getting lazy, or maybe just running out of ideas on integration.

FP (for all their quality issues with M3) have obviously put a fair amount of effort into integrating everything in all modes, though the weapon on the back of Diesels trailer is a let down.

I look at the hand weapons for Bruticus the same way as Herc, a good try at something difficult to do.

I can't stand the feet-used-as-display-stands thing and see it as a completely lazy and uninspired way of dealing with the feet.

It doesn't look like they are even trying with integration any more. If it was due to scramble city style gestalts, like people were claiming Uranos was going to be, then maybe it could be over looked. But when the hands and feet could be worked into the big Blackbird and Firetruck figures what they are doing is pathetic really.

The problem for those of us collecting the larger scale combiner teams is that TFC is really the only hope we have. Yes MMC have made Feral Rex, but they don't seem interested in doing another combiner team. So we are forced to hope TFC will get it right and they seem to have run out of inspiration with the completion of Herc. Do we keep going with them, over looking the flaws, or wait hoping someone will do something in what is really TFC's own scale...

Arctorro wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:I think this was brought up in the FP Stunticons thread, but I do have to hand it to FP: they seem to have a real knack for integrating the combiner parts (feet and hands, in particular) into the individual bot and alt modes. (I will admit that the two hand weapons for Vortex and Blast-off were stretching the bounds of coolness.)



Even with Herc, TFC did a pretty decent job of integration. (I liked the use of the hand as a sort of "disc" or "plow" behind the vehicle.) The feet-used-as-display-stands was a neat idea with Uranos. This looks like they are getting lazy, or maybe just running out of ideas on integration.

FP (for all their quality issues with M3) have obviously put a fair amount of effort into integrating everything in all modes, though the weapon on the back of Diesels trailer is a let down.

I look at the hand weapons for Bruticus the same way as Herc, a good try at something difficult to do.

I can't stand the feet-used-as-display-stands thing and see it as a completely lazy and uninspired way of dealing with the feet.

It doesn't look like they are even trying with integration any more. If it was due to scramble city style gestalts, like people were claiming Uranos was going to be, then maybe it could be over looked. But when the hands and feet could be worked into the big Blackbird and Firetruck figures what they are doing is pathetic really.

The problem for those of us collecting the larger scale combiner teams is that TFC is really the only hope we have. Yes MMC have made Feral Rex, but they don't seem interested in doing another combiner team. So we are forced to hope TFC will get it right and they seem to have run out of inspiration with the completion of Herc. Do we keep going with them, over looking the flaws, or wait hoping someone will do something in what is really TFC's own scale...

Good points. I am very curious to see how MakeToys does with Computron. I'm hoping they will try Defensor next.