The Energon Pub

They're no different to any of the other Pretenders really.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

I swear this looks like a dissection

Oh the Pretender Beasts, Aces?! YES

Absolutely love Carnivac & that Cybertronian boar. It's hard to find 'em loose/complete for cheap, but still -- they kick ass.

-Kanrabat- wrote:I own Carnivac. The shell is awesome and the inner beast mode is solid. However, the bot is completely derp.

I think the Autobots came out on top this round. I have Chainclaw and find all of his modes to be pretty fantastic, more in line with the regular Pretenders. The proportions are better and his shoulders actually joint at the top of his arm rather than the middle. Catilla is basically the same, but Chainclaw has that sweet gun.



Emerje

Funny, Chainclaw was the one I found most interesting so I wiki-ed him to learn more. It would of been awesome to get some of these pretender beasts as titan or prime master homages.

I want to get a full pretender beast eventually. Chainclaw is probably my favorite of the group too, though Carnivac is a personal favorite

Decoy armor/pretender, or sad 'con plush?

D'awwww, Baby Submarauder! I'm going with Sad 'Con plushie.

Thunderwing keeps getting the Pretender spotlight in my house -- I can only imagine how much cooler he could be with more articulation.....

Roadblock is still one of my faves; I'm also digging Roadgrabber.I also can't wait to get the Prime Master versions of Octopunch & Bludgeon. They look like great weapons for the G1 Pretenders.

Carnivac has the worst robot mode next to Snarler, but their alt modes and shells more than make up for it. And wolfriders are bad @$$.

So, I was perusing Japanese toys, because well, why not. Anyway, while doing my looking over of said toys I hopped over to BBTS to start looking into upgrading my daughter's RID collection from the legions to warriors, so she can have transformers like mine, without borrowing mine. (her reasoning, not mine) I found a micron version of Carnivac. He's a slightly off black Wolf Transformer: The Lost age toy. The only real similarity is that he becomes a wolf, but I just thought it was interesting to see that he was looked at there for some kind of release since his pretender days.

That Micron version looks pretty cool, Aces. And that's cool your daughter wants to separate her collection from yours -- me any my brother did the same thing, and merged 'em later -- mine was G1 and his was Beast Wars.

It's only recently I went retro and hunted down the Pretenders and others bots of the Beast era.Now I love mixing those two flavors up!

Pretenders Gonna Pretend

So it's no secret (much to the annoyance of those with delicate sensitivities) that Power of the Primes are rare in my area.

For the most part, they've been seen in two major retailers in Australia, Target and Myer. I have a Target in town but it's a scaled down version that offers mostly clothing. The nearest big ones are 100km's (60mi) away by car (around an hour drive). Same as the movie cinemas.

Intended to go up last week to catch Black Panther and have a look around, but personal issues put a damper on that, so I did it today!

And the best part, Power of the Primes were going to be on special at Target!

So off I went with my partner. After a brief stop over at one store, we made it to the shopping centre that had a Target. I made a beeline there.

Imagine my excitement when I found ... Windcharger and Skrapnel. That was it. Nothing more.

Dejected, I slumped over to the food court to have some lunch before we took in Black Panther. Afterwards I headed to Myer, knowing that any POTP there would be full price.

And lo I did find Power of the Primes. First wave except for leaders.

Now ... I've seen plenty of pictures, even ones where the POTP Pretenders were standing beside their G1 counterparts. I knew they were small. And I've made my disappointment known about them.

But seeing them for real, in my hand ... I honestly didn't think my disappointment could sink any further but they did. Maybe my like of Pretenders blinded me to this, and seeing them for real became a stark realisation, but I was left disappointed, heck, even slightly angry that this is what we're going to get in modern Pretenders. In the end I got Micronus and Vector Prime (the only ones they had) but for a moment I considered not bothering with them.

I am honestly curious Burn, is it just the size issue, or are there multiple reasons for your dislike? I know why I enjoy them, but I'm not blind enough to see that some may not like them so much. I mean, neck I generally use my own as something of a joke, using them as a stuffed animal prop for CW Onslaught and CW Bruticus, who due to their faults (still love to play with them though) always look slightly sad to me. So I guess this is the long way of me asking what about them you don't enjoy, and as I hope you know, I may state why I disagree with that thought, but I don't do it to say you're wrong, but rather as a conversation. So yes, I really am curious what you think about the PotP little guys.

The Prime Masters don't measure up to the original Pretenders, Burn. But I do find the novelty of them amusing. I don't see them as the "real" Pretenders, but simply the Primes pretending to be Pretenders who lile to play pretend. Or as accessories for other bots.

I've had a lot of fun with Vector Prime & Liege Maximo, though, based on their Powers. But again, they're more prop than PRETENDER.I like that Prime Master Bludgeon....but I'd still rather have the original. Too bad deals for G1 Bludgeon are nearly impossible to find.

I'm glad PotP made it to Straya! And you at least got the first wave -- I do feel Liege Maximo is better than Micronus and Vector Prime, however, thanks to the shell -- the Bots don't have as much character as Skullgrin.

Acesmcgee wrote:I am honestly curious Burn, is it just the size issue, or are there multiple reasons for your dislike?

So much potential lost. They could have been bigger, with better articulation. The inner bots could have been more than just blocks.

Burn wrote:

Acesmcgee wrote:I am honestly curious Burn, is it just the size issue, or are there multiple reasons for your dislike?

So much potential lost. They could have been bigger, with better articulation. The inner bots could have been more than just blocks.

I too feel this. Personally I'd have been happy if they just made them in TR as Headmasters, or perhaps made them as "regular" TFs that came with the little Prime Master figures that could fit inside cockpits in the main figure's bodies (and wouldn't have to be removed for transformation unlike the Headmasters). As it stands I'll probably grab a few of the Prime Masters, but I do wish they were a bit better. Still, I do kinda like the idea of the shells being sarcophagi rather than actual armour.

As for how I'd do the Pretenders if Hasbro approached me, I have two ideas.

1: Make them "regular" Transformers (perhaps Headmasters for a little homage to the old gimmick) but have their robot modes resemble the original shells with the vehicle modes updated to look less like absolutely nothing. So Skullgrin would turn from a cow skull headed demon into a biomechanical tank seemingly made of flesh, bone and weapons, Submarauder would turn from a crustacean sea monster man into a horseshoe crab (his old toy's vehicle mode kinda looked like one), etc.

2: Release them as decently poseably action figures with a very simple Transformer that could fit in the body- about Legion sized, or maybe even a little Prime Master styled thing ala the current incarnations. So basically the original gimmick but "done right" (slightly at the expense of the inner robot admittedly).

Burn wrote:

Acesmcgee wrote:I am honestly curious Burn, is it just the size issue, or are there multiple reasons for your dislike?

So much potential lost. They could have been bigger, with better articulation. The inner bots could have been more than just blocks.

I do agree with this, we still need proper pretender updates. But for what they are, prime masters are cool too. Just not the perfect back scratcher

I get it, I guess that, for me, I don't have such a connection to the original source material. Never really played with pretenders(yet), so this is just a fun kin d of like what I imagine they were deal for me.
Thanks for the elaboration Burn, appreciate your thought on the matter.