The Energon Pub

Agamemnon wrote:I think MakeToys is doing a Protectobots set right after Computron.

Well, crap. Sorry TFC, you ain't gettin' my money.

Rated X wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I dunno. He IS pretty damn big, but have you seen firetrucks? They're big. And Hot Spot uses a whole truck for his robot mode, not just a cab. We're comparing a whole firetruck to only a pump truck and a voyager-sized car.

The G1 Protectobots were all tiny and I think that's part of the problem.



Relatively speaking, TFC's take may be even SMALLER than G1's take in relation to deluxe sized figures. Personally .... I'm on board. For this AND Maketoys' set. Eventually. TFC stuff sticks around; I'm just going to bide my time and wait for the heat to die down.

Well vehicle scale wise, the Protectobots were screwed from day one. Not to mention the G1 vintage toy scale sucked, especially for combiners. On the other hand, the cartoon scale just looked better and made more sense. Mass shifting is something fans have always been divided over. I'm all for it because I care more about the robots than the alt modes in my displays. Do you really want a faction commander towering over Optimus Prime ? Silverbolt didn't and he was a concorde.

I always liked it when Optimus wasn't the leader just because he's the biggest.

Defensor may be screwed scale-wise, but that doesn't really mean I don't want them to try their best. I don't want teeny tiny cars - I want the cars to be the size of regular deluxe cars. And I'd rather Hot Spot scales to that as best as he can. So if one guy transforms into something with far more mass than Prime it makes sense that they be bigger. G1 animation cheats e damned.

Don't want all the combiners team members to be the same scale. Because this is exactly what HasTak did for the FOC Combaticons. A big chunck of online fans including myself hated this. As the Gestalt looked it had a tiny core, huge oversized arms and badly misproportioned body parts.

As proven with FOC Bruticus. Having all the combiners team members being the same scale is a bad idea as it put way to much stress on the joints and body parts of the core team leader. To prevent this the limbs bots need to be a scale or two smaller than the core team leader.

Think HasTak and some 3rd parties are creating the perfect scaled combiners team members. Think the limbs-bots need to be one or Two scales lower than the Core team leader.

I'm fine with the limbs bots being basics while the core team leader is deluxe scale like Energon did. Also fine with the limbs bots being deluxes while the core team leader is voyager, ultra or leader scale.

Don't mind the leader scaled core team leaders combiners TFC is creating. Because it allows some like myself to just buy the Core team leaders and that's it. Like the Leader scale and I welcome this. their just isn't enough leader scale TF toys out their, So this is more than welcomed.

So using the new photos and this photo.



Gumball's head should come about level with Hydrant's abdomen.

Lord Raze wrote:So using the new photos and this photo.



Gumball's head should come about level with Hydrant's abdomen.

I would have been cool with this scale for Hotspot.

MMC pulled it off with Feral Rex so it can be done. TFC is just being lazy. They nailed it with silverbolt. Dont know what happened after, maybe new designers. And yes FOC Bruticus was a piece of crap alone, but the x-transbots Boosticus set fixed the combiner mode without the annoying huge leader bot. Sure it made sense for the leader to be a bit bigger, but not huge. Its just one of my pet peeves. If the technology in 1986 would have allowed all the team members to be the same height like the cartoon (and Devastator) Hasbro would have done it. The scramble city concept was all about being lazy and saving money by mass retooling. It had nothing to do with cartoon accuracy. They just played it off by choosing a big vehicle as the torso and dubbing him the faction commander on the sole basis of being huge. Thats the same reason everytime someone wants to make the dinobots a combiner, Grimlock always ends up being the torso even though sludge should be the biggest. (oh yeah wasnt that TFC too lol) But oh no grimlock is the leader so he has to be the biggest. Screw scramble city. This is why I loathe the G1 vintage toy scale, especially for combiners. Sure the cartoon cheated, but it made them look look better as a group.

I don't know how big Silverbolt is in relation to the Inferno mould, but one of the problems isn't laziness - it's the fact that they kept Hot Spot's G1 alt. mode. There's only so much you can do.

And a lot of people don't like Silverbolt, by the way. Just saying.

I'm not one to champion toy scale by any means, but firetrucks are pretty big in relation to cars (and having it be tiny would bug me; I see firetrucks around a lot more than, say, planes). Keeping it even some what G1 true is going o look like this.

Agamemnon wrote:I think MakeToys is doing a Protectobots set right after Computron.

sorry TFC. i like your devastator and predaking, but with this, im out.
*wipes hands*

shajaki wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:I think MakeToys is doing a Protectobots set right after Computron.

sorry TFC. i like your devastator and predaking, but with this, im out.
*wipes hands*

Defensor might be my first Maketoys combiner, the more I think about it.

megatronus wrote:

shajaki wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:I think MakeToys is doing a Protectobots set right after Computron.

sorry TFC. i like your devastator and predaking, but with this, im out.
*wipes hands*

Defensor might be my first Maketoys combiner, the more I think about it.

Yep, mine too. My sentiments exactly regarding TFC's as well. I am still getting TFC's not-Groove though just because I love the concept and look of the alt mode. He'll just be a standalone bot and with that alt mode, I might paint him or something and stick him on my WfC/FoC shelf as a generic Cybertronian Decepticon or Autobot scout or something.

xyl360 wrote:

megatronus wrote:

shajaki wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:I think MakeToys is doing a Protectobots set right after Computron.

sorry TFC. i like your devastator and predaking, but with this, im out.
*wipes hands*

Defensor might be my first Maketoys combiner, the more I think about it.

Yep, mine too. My sentiments exactly regarding TFC's as well. I am still getting TFC's not-Groove though just because I love the concept and look of the alt mode. He'll just be a standalone bot and with that alt mode, I might paint him or something and stick him on my WfC/FoC shelf as a generic Cybertronian Decepticon or Autobot scout or something.

while im not a fan of TFC's grooves bike mode (cool bike, just not for me) i feel the bot mode hits the nail better than MT's does. but for me, MT's bike mode is puurrrfect. bot mode, while is nice just looks too busy. almost like a movie former. its still nicely executed though.

First response.

what... uhh... is that?

Feel free to combine something at some point, I'm starting to think they can't.

oh wait. thats their first aid right?

shajaki wrote:oh wait. thats their first aid right?

I'm pretty sure it's one of the constructicons.

This is all looking pretty great so far. The lack of anywhere for the feet to go annoys me though (although that can be explained with "super-robot magic", I do wish they did something, like turning into shields/gun turrets). I'm really liking the aesthetic they're going for- it reminds me of the Unicron Trilogy (also the source of my favourite designs) with all those greebles and mech detailing and wonderfully anime proportions. Not Spot looks fantastic- as someone mentioned previously, he looks a lot like RID Optimus Prime, which makes me very, very happy. Repaint time, methinks! Kinda wish they'd gone for the slightly more G1 accurate teal though- not because I care for GEEWUN accuracy, but just because the G1 colour is a bit nicer. This blue still looks good though.

As for the scale...eh. It's Transformers. Scale is basically non-existent. The vehicle modes are horrendously out of scale, and in basically every Transformers media save the movies, the robot modes fluctuate wildly in size depending on the situation.

Personally I'd rather that toy designers (HasTak and 3rd parties) said "**** it" to G1 accuracy and tried to make the alt modes scale properly whilst still retaining semi-workable robot scaling (so change Swindle from a Jeep to a much bigger vehicle, configure the Seeker's transformations so that they ended up in alt-mode scale without being a lot taller than everyone else like the movies did, change the more ridiculous alt modes like the space shuttles and aircraft carriers, etc...) but these companies are all owned by GEEWUNNERS so that's never going to happen.

Overall I'm liking this a lot more than the MakeToys version. The individual robots look great, and Not Spot looks wonderfully massive. The fact that the combiner parts do **** all outside of the combined mode is lame though. I mean, Jesus, if you can't be bothered to integrate the feet into the combined mode (even though you literally just need to make one end of the leg turn into a semi-flat surface to work as a foot) then at least have the parts do something! Heck, **** Liokaiser managed inetgrated hands and feet and that was from the 80s!

Lord Raze wrote:Feel free to combine something at some point, I'm starting to think they can't.

Not exactly what you want but.....

Clear images of First Response aka First Aid .

Autobot Genocide wrote:

Lord Raze wrote:Feel free to combine something at some point, I'm starting to think they can't.

Not exactly what you want but.....

I'm not sure why but I get the impression they're hiding something. The torso seems stunted for what it needs to do. There doesn't seem to be much of a thigh for the lower limbs to attach to. Nor does there seem to be a shoulder for the arms to attach to. Am I missing something?

Also if it helps here's a digibash by Diego of Transformers Italia

Photo by Azrael .

Badass. I just hope those feet have something to do outside combined mode...

My Warning Line/Groove is processing at BBTS. I guess I was right when I earlier said them putting Hot Spot up for pre-order meant the next guy was coming soon.

Pictures from my review of TFC Warning Line. Full review can be found below











Full Review
http://blackplasticlife.blogspot.com/2014/08/tfc-warning-line-project-prometheus.html

Thank you, Gema. You have great pictures, provide a wonderful background of the character and new alt mode, and you really get into some good details related to the playability of the character as well as his position in gestalt mode. Your review is extremely helpful. Please keep up the great work.