The Energon Pub

I was hoping the Prime Masters were at my TRU, but no luck -- I'm ready to impulse buy!I need more Autobot Pretenders.

Here's my shortlist:
-G1 Metalhawk
-Double Pretender Optimus
-G1 Gunrunner
-G1 Chainclaw
-G1 Doubleheader
-G1 Pincer

The Prime Masters work great as Pretender weapons!

Pretenders with their Prime Masters counterpart be like:

LMAO - totally, Kanra! And the Prime Masters look wicked as roboheads, imho.

Time to put some life back into this thread. So have a video.

My thoughts exactly, Kanra.

Take me back to 198X, Mega Pretender Thunderwing!
I'm still waiting for some PotP update for Thunderwing to be announced...even if only as a Prime Master. And then it'd be awesome if he transformed into a cyclone cannon for the innerbot. Cuz missing Pretender accessories suck. ;p

I'm still casually hunting for G1 Bludgeon, but am waiting to see his Prime Master incarnation.

Thunderwing remains a favorite -- his multiple forms really make it easy to fit into a lot of different eras of Transformers....I guess that's a Pretender thing.

Can't find any affordable G1's ... can't find a single Prime Master ... at this rate I may as well just go hunt down some BW Mutants and finish that section of the collection off.

What's really fun with G1 Thunderwing is not only the bot look organic, the whole spaceship have a organic feel too. Not out of place in the Beast Machine universe.

Agreed, Burn. G1 Pretender bargain hunting has never been easy, but it seems even harder now that the Prime Masters reminded others that Pretenders are cool.

Ok, "cool" is a bit much, but you know that I love 'em.

So the Prime Masters aren't in Straya, yet? Have the other figures in the wave appeared?

The BW Mutants are amazing -- they take the monstrous look of Pretenders, and poseability of BW figures to make something unique.

I've thought about huntin' down the Blentrons....

Hey Kanra -- MegaHead is my first figure from Beast Machines, unless you count Magmatron (I don't lol).

To maintain techno-purity, MegaHead would probably prefer the likes of Roadgrabber.

bodrock wrote:So the Prime Masters aren't in Straya, yet? Have the other figures in the wave appeared?

Hasbro AU promised "mid-January", and that was true to an extent. Comic book shops and small franchised toy stores got them (so we're talking less than 20 stores around the entire country).

They are in the major retailers computers and a sighting of them in a Target AU did appear yesterday. So they're coming. It's a **** joke though.

I imagine that owning a small franchised toy store in AU might be kinda cool -- I'd almost say living the dream, Burn.

Especially if I could have my Pretender collection on display in the store! Of course, they would be for display purposes only (NOT FOR ***** SALE!). And I sure as hell would have PotP Prime Masters to sell.

But they'd be free for you and anyone else who posts here.

I'd be worried someone would try knocking them off!
Though I did see a post on FB asking about where to find stores that sell G1 figures, and there's a few in Sydney apparently. No help to me considering that's a 1 hour drive + a 3 hour plane flight away.
I'd be curious about their prices though.

I guess it makes sense the franchised stores would be in Sydney -- I'd hope that they could ship to other parts of AU for reasonable prices.

And they should have a website with all their current products -- like my favorite new, franchised vintage toy store: https://roguetoys.com

Their prices are higher than the average, but not as bad on the more obscure figures. They haven't had any Pretenders, though. :/

So after being invited by Bodrock to check out this page, I'm glad I did. Those collections and photos are awesome. Never had any pretenders growing up, though I did have that Bumblebee inner robot my Gtanpa picked up for me at a flea market at one time. If I ever pick up a classic pretender, it'll be him. I had the original G1 Bumblebee and played with him so much he fell apart. Love that character. Damnit Bodrock, your making my itch to collect worse.

Acesmcgee wrote:So after being invited by Bodrock to check out this page, I'm glad I did. Those collections and photos are awesome. Never had any pretenders growing up, though I did have that Bumblebee inner robot my Gtanpa picked up for me at a flea market at one time. If I ever pick up a classic pretender, it'll be him. I had the original G1 Bumblebee and played with him so much he fell apart. Love that character. Damnit Bodrock, your making my itch to collect worse.

If you don't mind the random missing accessory, you can get yourself a few nice pretenders for relatively cheap. The classic ones are the cheapest so you may try to get one or two complete. Bumblebee is definitely the BEST Classic Pretender. The inner robot could easily have been the original Bumblebee toy. So much better by himslef than the minibot original IMO.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Acesmcgee wrote:So after being invited by Bodrock to check out this page, I'm glad I did. Those collections and photos are awesome. Never had any pretenders growing up, though I did have that Bumblebee inner robot my Gtanpa picked up for me at a flea market at one time. If I ever pick up a classic pretender, it'll be him. I had the original G1 Bumblebee and played with him so much he fell apart. Love that character. Damnit Bodrock, your making my itch to collect worse.

If you don't mind the random missing accessory, you can get yourself a few nice pretenders for relatively cheap. The classic ones are the cheapest so you may try to get one or two complete. Bumblebee is definitely the BEST Classic Pretender. The inner robot could easily have been the original Bumblebee toy. So much better by himslef than the minibot original IMO.

NO, you're not supposed to make it easier for me to convince myself this is something I want to do!
So, I was explaining the pretenders to my daughter after she asked if the prime masters where like the titan masters, meaning based on an older toy idea. After my talk with her she gets a thoughtful look on her face and says "Do you think Mr. Peanut is a pretender shell?" I just hugged her, because that innocent thought makes such a great joke on so many levels.

Acesmcgee wrote:So, I was explaining the pretenders to my daughter after she asked if the prime masters where like the titan masters, meaning based on an older toy idea. After my talk with her she gets a thoughtful look on her face and says "Do you think Mr. Peanut is a pretender shell?" I just hugged her, because that innocent thought makes such a great joke on so many levels.

Your daugher is far from innocent. I call EVIL GENIUS!

-Kanrabat- wrote:The inner robot could easily have been the original Bumblebee toy. So much better by himslef than the minibot original IMO.

I'm the opposite. I guess because I had the Mini-bot first, but I always felt there was something off with Pretender Bumblebee.

He's a figure though that could have been awesome if they'd had ball joints back then though.

Burn wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:The inner robot could easily have been the original Bumblebee toy. So much better by himslef than the minibot original IMO.

I'm the opposite. I guess because I had the Mini-bot first, but I always felt there was something off with Pretender Bumblebee.

He's a figure though that could have been awesome if they'd had ball joints back then though.

The only thing off with Pretender Bee are his weird rally tires. Appart that, he's pretty much cartoon accurate for the time.

The minibot original, I can forgive the weird head because the toy came first. Still, the build of the toy itself is pretty flimsy and can break easily..... based on my possibly KO keychain version that is.

I used to pretend that pretender Bee was his off-road form, and until the MP version, my favorite was G2 Bee, I loved the shiny gold chrome. The only reason the MP version is not in my collection is I'm trying to only get the original versions of the character for that collection.

Acesmcgee wrote:I used to pretend that pretender Bee was his off-road form, and until the MP version, my favorite was G2 Bee, I loved the shiny gold chrome. The only reason the MP version is not in my collection is I'm trying to only get the original versions of the character for that collection.

You should still get the MP, if found at a reasonable price, that is. Just put it in a different collection.

Also, a collection of the "very first toy made for the character", whennever the toy came first or not? That's an idea.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Appart that, he's pretty much cartoon accurate for the time.

Come on man, that's a bit of a stretch! Either that or you need your eyes checked.

Still, the build of the toy itself is pretty flimsy and can break easily..... based on my possibly KO keychain version that is.

How'd he break? There's very little that figure that you shouldn't have been able to fix.

Welcome, Acesmcgee!

I still have my G1 Bumblebee, believe it or not -- his rubber tires probably got chewed off by a baby sibling, but he's still around.

Surprisingly enough, I don't have any of the Classic Pretenders -- I'd pick-up Jazz, if he was a Kanra-custom.

But yeah, the Classics can be found around $20 if you're hunting -- the other Pretenders start getting expensive, and fast. Especially if you want them complete.

I had the keychain version of Windcharger! He'd literally fall apart if you looked at him funny, but he was easy enough to put back together -- like a 3D puzzle or something.

I couldn't find MP 'Bee for cheap (but was tempted since he came with Spike!), but I did enjoy the recent TR incarnation of him -- dat face makes him, for me.

And speaking of faces, Mr. Peanut is totally a Deception Pretender! Just look at him!

It has to be that monocle, it's the most evil version of glasses ever. Could he technically be a double pretender, like that newer Optimus Prime or Megatron? I'm just imagining his shell cracking open and two minicons popping out.
The classics, they where who? Jazz, grimlock, Bumblebee, and Starscream?