The Energon Pub

fenrir72 wrote:Negative in buying 3rd party toys? Expensive and darn near hard to replace.

Well, yes... But again, that is inherent in all third party products. (And in many cases, after a period of time "darn near hard to replace" applies just as much to most Has/Tak products, as well.) Hardly a negative applicable to just third party combiners, specifically. (Combiners just multiply that expensiveness, as you're looking at five figures as opposed to one.)

But I still love 'em "Y"

HAHHAHHAA I just realized after all this time, who Tsutsukakushi is.

You're deathy, also known as Tidalwavex or TigerMegatron, and finally dinogeist.

You have the exact same posting style - with a love for the word "I" and forgetting to add spaces between your commas, as well as dropping & instead of and.

You do realize that the purpose of being banned from a site is so that you.. don't pop back up again?

ha! so is tsutsawhatever getting banned?

@Blurrz

Was he as bad as fanboy? The guy who like to make a popsicle out of MP-01?

Blurrz wrote:HAHHAHHAA I just realized after all this time, who Tsutsukakushi is.

You're deathy, also known as Tidalwavex or TigerMegatron, and finally dinogeist.

You have the exact same posting style - with a love for the word "I" and forgetting to add spaces between your commas, as well as dropping & instead of and.

You do realize that the purpose of being banned from a site is so that you.. don't pop back up again?

Was he previously banned from this site, or others?

megatronus wrote:

Blurrz wrote:HAHHAHHAA I just realized after all this time, who Tsutsukakushi is.

You're deathy, also known as Tidalwavex or TigerMegatron, and finally dinogeist.

You have the exact same posting style - with a love for the word "I" and forgetting to add spaces between your commas, as well as dropping & instead of and.

You do realize that the purpose of being banned from a site is so that you.. don't pop back up again?

Was he previously banned from this site, or others?

Sorry to bust your bubbles. I'm not any of those guys.

Damn thats some funny s**t. But dont ban him. He is very entertaining. I enjoy reading his bizzare rants about vintage toy accuracy and unpopular oversized scales.

Rated X wrote:Damn thats some funny s**t. But dont ban him. He is very entertaining. I enjoy reading his bizzare rants about vintage toy accuracy and unpopular oversized scales.

nice to see you can take him with a grain of salt. but im personally tired of the same old rants in almost every thread.

Damn this thread has become such a joke. But since none of us can seem to find any real "negatives" to buying 3rd party combiners (outside of price) lets flip the question around....what are the positives of buying ONLY Hasbro combiners ? (without add on parts) I recall T-man saying he was happy with ROTF Superion without the FP set. Anyone else on here prefer the Hasbroish combiner look over the cartoon accuracy the 3rd parties usually aim for ?

Rated X wrote:Damn this thread has become such a joke. But since none of us can seem to find any real "negatives" to buying 3rd party combiners (outside of price) lets flip the question around....what are the positives of buying ONLY Hasbro combiners ? (without add on parts) I recall T-man saying he was happy with ROTF Superion without the FP set. Anyone else on here prefer the Hasbroish combiner look over the cartoon accuracy the 3rd parties usually aim for ?

I'd like to say that Hasbro combiners are easier to find. I'd like to, but I've seen as many TFC, Maketoys and Fans Project combiner bots in my local TRU as I have FOC Combaticons or Wreckers. At least the Cyberverse TerrorPreds have turned up here and there over time, and the Abominus gift set is, was and forever will be on the shelves at Tesco.
Official combiners so far over the past few years anyway, have only had the advantage of price, really. Although I suppose there have been gift sets of Bruticus and Abominus as well, which isn't something you often get with the 3rd parties, at least not directly. The G2 or SDCC Bruticus sets would look nice in box on your shelf if you aren't bothered opening them.

If you go back a few years more, there have been some decent Hasbro combiners. I don't have them (yet!) but the RiD train bots (Rail Racer?) get good reviews, and for all his dodgy proportions the RiD Autobot construction vehicle combiner seems pretty cool too.

It's sort of related to price, but with Hasbro combiners, there's more chance of getting multiple repaints meaning you've more options for building your gestalt. Don't like the colour of one of the helicopters on your Energon Bruticus? Hunt down one of the other variants and swap it out.

craggy wrote: If you go back a few years more, there have been some decent Hasbro combiners. I don't have them (yet!) but the RiD train bots (Rail Racer?) get good reviews, and for all his dodgy proportions the RiD Autobot construction vehicle combiner seems pretty cool too.

If, You've got to get the Rid trains bots. Then I seriously suggest you get the Takara versions with the Translucent clear train windows. The Takara Hong kong versions are cheaper than the Hasbro USA versions.

The thing that terrible about the Hasbro USA Rid Trains bots. Is that hasbro decided to save money by not having the translucent clear train windows. The decision to use solid plastic made these toys look inferior. to make matters worse Hasbro colored the trains windows in cheaply and ugly.

Have Zero love for the car robots or 2001 Rid Quadro Construction bots combiner. Thought the toy looked bad in all modes including the combined form. The combiner tech used was by far the worse ever created. However,If your sold on buying them. Then allow me to make a friendly fan suggestion. Please buy the Hasbro Rid versions Because the joints and parts were more tight and not loose. Some of the Takara Cars robots toys like Gigatron,the Quadro construction combiner, Had very loose floppy ball joints. Hasbro fixed these issues.

Still think, The Energon Five men combiners teams. Were HasTaks most superior Five Men combiners tech toys. Think the FOC Combaticon,Kreon Quadro combiners & BH Abonimus are vastly inferior compared to the Five Men Energon Combiners toys.

At the very least the BH Abonimus toys get a C grade for trying. They were at least great homage designs that tried to look like the 1987 Terrorcons toys sculpts and proper colors. The negatives were the tiny scale,cheap plastic and inferior combiner tech ports,slots.

RID is ancient history.

I think it's possible to be happy with the Energon guys on their own. They aren't completely terrible (Well, Sueprion has a LOT of flaws, but LOOKS decent enough). But the add ons add so much that I can't even separate them anymore. When it comes to official combiners the benefits are price and availability.

I doubt anybody HERE is going to really be pro-Hasbro. After all, this is the 3rd party forum.

as far as official combiners go, the only ones who get a pass are rail racer and landfill. while landfill wasnt nearly as much win as RR, he at least had the decency to be four completely different bots unlike the energon combiners. and i didnt hate his aethetics either... just the fact that he was an autobot. construction vehicles... combiner... doesnt equal autobot in my books

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I doubt anybody HERE is going to really be pro-Hasbro. After all, this is the 3rd party forum.

There might be a few of us around. It has been extremely rare for me to completely replace a Hasbro release with a 3rd Party. I have Herc because there isn't a decent classics Devastator out there. I got ManiaKing even though I have Generations Galvy, but MK sits up on my G1 shelf in Cannon Mode. Other than that, all of my 3rd party peeps are ones that do not have a "Classics" Has/Tak counterpart, or are enhancements to the Has/Tak product.

If Hasbro put out even partway decent combiners, I would probably go for those over the 4x the price 3P versions. An example would be Abominus, though I'd like to see a deluxe version. But, because I have Abominus, I'd rather see other combiners get some love, like the MT Computron. (Please, someone give us a better Defensor!!) Oh, and Monstructor would be nice. Even a Piranacon would be nice, though the G1 version isn't bad as far as scramble city combiners go.

Agamemnon wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I doubt anybody HERE is going to really be pro-Hasbro. After all, this is the 3rd party forum.

There might be a few of us around. It has been extremely rare for me to completely replace a Hasbro release with a 3rd Party. I have Herc because there isn't a decent classics Devastator out there. I got ManiaKing even though I have Generations Galvy, but MK sits up on my G1 shelf in Cannon Mode. Other than that, all of my 3rd party peeps are ones that do not have a "Classics" Has/Tak counterpart, or are enhancements to the Has/Tak product.

If Hasbro put out even partway decent combiners, I would probably go for those over the 4x the price 3P versions. An example would be Abominus, though I'd like to see a deluxe version. But, because I have Abominus, I'd rather see other combiners get some love, like the MT Computron. (Please, someone give us a better Defensor!!) Oh, and Monstructor would be nice. Even a Piranacon would be nice, though the G1 version isn't bad as far as scramble city combiners go.

In fairness, however, you're talking about price. I'd be surprised if someone out there actually replaced Giant with the official Classics Devestator and touted that one as superior. Especially here.

Maybe I should clarify a bit? I mean pro-Hasbro in terms of "the quality of their combiners is superior to the quality of 3rd party combiners".

I find Kre-o Computron quite awesome.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I doubt anybody HERE is going to really be pro-Hasbro. After all, this is the 3rd party forum.

There might be a few of us around. It has been extremely rare for me to completely replace a Hasbro release with a 3rd Party. I have Herc because there isn't a decent classics Devastator out there. I got ManiaKing even though I have Generations Galvy, but MK sits up on my G1 shelf in Cannon Mode. Other than that, all of my 3rd party peeps are ones that do not have a "Classics" Has/Tak counterpart, or are enhancements to the Has/Tak product.

If Hasbro put out even partway decent combiners, I would probably go for those over the 4x the price 3P versions. An example would be Abominus, though I'd like to see a deluxe version. But, because I have Abominus, I'd rather see other combiners get some love, like the MT Computron. (Please, someone give us a better Defensor!!) Oh, and Monstructor would be nice. Even a Piranacon would be nice, though the G1 version isn't bad as far as scramble city combiners go.

In fairness, however, you're talking about price. I'd be surprised if someone out there actually replaced Giant with the official Classics Devestator and tyouted that one as superior. Especially here.

Maybe I should clarify a bit? I mean pro-Hasbro in terms of "the quality of their combiners is superior to the quality of 3rd party combiners".

That's definitely a fair point to make. However, Hasbro has to contend with things like toy safety laws. So it would not really be a fair debate. I'd also point out that some of the connecting technology from 3P combiners came from the Energon combiners. (TFC Herc, in particular, IIRC.) I'd give Hasbro props for that one. But, yes, the playing field is definitely angled toward 3P as the debate is framed here...

Agamemnon wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:

Agamemnon wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:I doubt anybody HERE is going to really be pro-Hasbro. After all, this is the 3rd party forum.

There might be a few of us around. It has been extremely rare for me to completely replace a Hasbro release with a 3rd Party. I have Herc because there isn't a decent classics Devastator out there. I got ManiaKing even though I have Generations Galvy, but MK sits up on my G1 shelf in Cannon Mode. Other than that, all of my 3rd party peeps are ones that do not have a "Classics" Has/Tak counterpart, or are enhancements to the Has/Tak product.

If Hasbro put out even partway decent combiners, I would probably go for those over the 4x the price 3P versions. An example would be Abominus, though I'd like to see a deluxe version. But, because I have Abominus, I'd rather see other combiners get some love, like the MT Computron. (Please, someone give us a better Defensor!!) Oh, and Monstructor would be nice. Even a Piranacon would be nice, though the G1 version isn't bad as far as scramble city combiners go.

In fairness, however, you're talking about price. I'd be surprised if someone out there actually replaced Giant with the official Classics Devestator and tyouted that one as superior. Especially here.

Maybe I should clarify a bit? I mean pro-Hasbro in terms of "the quality of their combiners is superior to the quality of 3rd party combiners".

That's definitely a fair point to make. However, Hasbro has to contend with things like toy safety laws. So it would not really be a fair debate. I'd also point out that some of the connecting technology from 3P combiners came from the Energon combiners. (TFC Herc, in particular, IIRC.) I'd give Hasbro props for that one. But, yes, the playing field is definitely angled toward 3P as the debate is framed here...

Safety laws, budget, marketing and more hamper Hasbro. But that's precisely what makes the 3rd party superior in almost all respects, IMO.

The Eenrgon ports .... I'll give it to Hasbro, but in a different way. The real Energon ports are superior in the way Hasbro implemented them. Yes, TFC implemented a similar shape, but the adapter on the main bot actually had a spring in there and didn't rely on grinding the connector port when you moved the arm. This actually made Herc suffer quite a bit, although Uranos has a separate joint for rotation, so there's that (don't know if Nemean does). So, I'm with you on the quality of that particular port. But not on the combiner that surrounds it (without upgrades).

I completely agree with you, Binary Glove...Err, Gauntlet101010

Agamemnon wrote:I completely agree with you, Binary Glove...Err, Gauntlet101010

When you combine the Heart of Cybertron, the Spark Extractor, and the Binary Glove, what Transformers Armada weapon do you get?

I'm in the Aggie camp of preferring Hasbro over 3rd Party as a general rule, unless it's to fill gaps in my Classics collection. Even with combiners, I'm somewhat picky. I have Hercules, M3, and soon, Feral Rex. I have the MBC-upgrade on preorder, but haven't decided if I really want an FOC Bruticus to stand-in for a G1-esque version (no, I'm not interested in Warbotron).

But things like Maniaking... I'll probably use the Specialists 3-pack Galvatron instead, if I can get it at a decent price. I'd rather support the source of the characters, fiction, and mythos than, well, not.

I don't understand haters - Hasbro created this universe we so love, and they make pretty honest attempts at catering to us adults. I give them a lot of credit for the amazing Generations figures we've been getting the last 4 or so years (Classics and Universe were more cross-marketed to kids and adults, IMO, whereas Generations is pretty clearly targeted to us), and have no problem giving them love, money, and benefit of the doubt. Even if their attempts at gestalts are indisputable failures.

Don't mistake me for a Hasbro hater. I'm not ... AT ALL! I want 'em to do well and they've made a lot I like. If there's a Hasbro or Takara product I like I'm down for it.

That said my ultimately loyalty is, well, to myself. And I'll buy the TF I want regardless of who makes it. And if the best quality combiner team (or any character really) comes from a non official source ... welllllll ...

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Don't mistake me for a Hasbro hater. I'm not ... AT ALL! I want 'em to do well and they've made a lot I like. If there's a Hasbro or Takara product I like I'm down for it.

That said my ultimately loyalty is, well, to myself. And I'll buy the TF I want regardless of who makes it. And if the best quality combiner team (or any character really) comes from a non official source ... welllllll ...

I never intended to label you a hater, not did I intend for you to take that as my meaning - I apologize for that!

I meant those folks who derisively use terms like 'Has-blow' and reflexively bash whatever it is the company is trying to do. Yuck. I hate on those haters.

I don't consider myself a Hasbro Hater either, but I have noticed the majority of my purchases (and posts) have been 3P when it comes to Transformers.

When Hasbro makes a decent version of a character, I'm right there.
Skids is awesome, I loved Rhinox and Waspinator too.
Metroplex, barring a few minor quibbles, is an amazing figure I never thought I'd see.

I'd rather pay retail prices than pay the markup 3Ps need to charge for the limited audience they serve. Sure, of course.

But, that said, I'd rather pay more for a figure I actually want than less for something I really don't. But because of the price differences I try to be more selective about the 3P stuff I buy. Before I drop 3P $$$ on a figure, I try to be damn sure it is a figure I really, really want.

But I DO often ask myself, "If all these 3Ps can come up with great versions of , why can't Hasbro get it right?" Megatron, Galvatron, Shockwave and the Dinobots all come to mind, in addition to all the combiners.

But I'm happy to have all the choices. If I want to stick with the Deluxe Galvatron I got for ten bucks, I can. If I prefer a Galvatron that actually looks like the show character, and has the same alt mode, I have an option for that. If I like Defender better than Voyager Springer, or vice versa, I have that choice too.

With combiners I have a theory. And I mean on top of all the other facts.

I really think that hasbro is reluctant to release similar toys with the same colour scheme. This would affect Predacons, Dinobots, Insecticons, and the Constructicons. I've noticed that even the Animated Dinos don't all have exactly the same colours and it goes a long way to explain Fruticus.

I mean, think about it. In the old days we had a lot of teams with the same colour schemes, but now? The Animated Dinos are the closest I think we've gotten in a long time.