The Energon Pub

Seibertron wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Vicalliose wrote:A fully translucent First Edition Prime and a Nemesis Prime release of a mold that is supposed to be lost forever...

I believe we've just been trolled by Has/Tak.

Whoever said anything about the molds being lost forever? You'll get the First Edition toys ... they just won't be in First Edition packaging when those molds come out at retail, kind of like how the First Edition Cliffjumper mold is being used for both Zombie versions, and the FE version of Megatron and the Starscream mold (as Skywarp) was used in the Arms Micron line. I'm sure they'll show up in some form or another in the Transformers Prime toy line at some point.

No, he means the Classics Voyager Prime mold, which was supposed to be lost forever due to mold degradation.

I misread that.

Comment still remains though ... whoever said anything about the Classics Prime mold having mold degradation? Wasn't it only used 6 times? (Classics, Ultra Magnus, SDCC, BotCon, Henkei, and transparent).

The mold started showing its age around SDCC Nemesis Prime and BotCon 2008, I read about alignment problems here and there with those two toys.

Don't have any problems with either of mine. This all sounds like fan assumptions that fans have said so many times that they consider it to be fact. Happens a lot in this fandom.

That's what I've been thinking this entire time in regards to 'mold degradation'. They retooled the Classics seeker mold to fix problems, after all.

As for these releases, I'm never interested in transparent figures, but I've wanted that Black Convoy for a very long time. Unfortunately I no longer have the money to afford expensive Japanese exclusive figures, so I will have to admire it lovingly from afar.

Just take my money! FE Voyager OP deserves aton of accolades and turning him clear was probably guessable but still great! Now we need some clear microns....

Dead Metal wrote:Oh and the author of the tfwiki article who put that there was me, after hearing all the complaints of SDCC and BotCon SG Prime, and well my own personal experience with SDCC Prime, which I had to take apart to cut off all the deformed plastic in the joints, well except for a few misalignments that are beyond my abilities. I put it under "seem to be on their way out" due to it being unconfirmed. That was one of the last edits I did on there before stopping with wiki work, I completely forgot about it to be honest.

Any chance that some of the products you have or that others have were just imperfect toys? If mine and others are OK, but yours and some other people's aren't, just seems like it's too few examples and that no assumptions should be made.

It's one thing to state your opinion, but it's another thing to make statements of fact out of assumptions.

Blurrz wrote:Just take my money! FE Voyager OP deserves aton of accolades and turning him clear was probably guessable but still great! Now we need some clear microns....

Do the clear Shadow Microns count?

Blurrz wrote:Just take my money! FE Voyager OP deserves aton of accolades and turning him clear was probably guessable but still great! Now we need some clear microns....

And some made of translucent sparkly pink plastic, Sparkle Sparkle Sparkle!

A few cast in G2 colour schemes, ones done up in the colours of their larger partners.

Ones done in show accurate weapon colours.

And finally G1 targetmaster colour homages.

Seibertron wrote:

Blurrz wrote:Just take my money! FE Voyager OP deserves aton of accolades and turning him clear was probably guessable but still great! Now we need some clear microns....

Do the clear Shadow Microns count?

Im still not sure where those four are going! Maybe we'll get a clear black Prime or a clear Megatron

Seibertron wrote:

Dead Metal wrote:Oh and the author of the tfwiki article who put that there was me, after hearing all the complaints of SDCC and BotCon SG Prime, and well my own personal experience with SDCC Prime, which I had to take apart to cut off all the deformed plastic in the joints, well except for a few misalignments that are beyond my abilities. I put it under "seem to be on their way out" due to it being unconfirmed. That was one of the last edits I did on there before stopping with wiki work, I completely forgot about it to be honest.

Any chance that some of the products you have or that others have were just imperfect toys? If mine and others are OK, but yours and some other people's aren't, just seems like it's too few examples and that no assumptions should be made.

It's one thing to state your opinion, but it's another thing to make statements of fact out of assumptions.

I didn't post it as fact, I posted it as a possibility after people spouted it as fact, since there was a good chance that it was just a few bad ones.

Then Takara cancelled their Black Convoy due to issues with the toy, the people who managed to snag some of the test samples reported the same problems that people had with the botcon release, so we never got confirmation one way or the other.

So the option of, well it might be broken, but it might not sounded like a pretty good place for the figure.

Well, mine was loose, so the possibility of it being just a test shot or one that didn't pass the QC test exists, however the store I bought it from had a boxed set left which he offered to break up to replace mine, after I refused that he stated that he checked that one and it had a few (not all) of the problems that mine had (loose back-kibble, wonky head, loose shoulders and a warped air-vent).

There where loads of posts about SG Prime being bad, too many for me to believe that it was just a few. I mean it was an expensive short run exclusive, BotCon would have removed all the really bad ones and only supplied the best. They wouldn't knowingly sell a crappy figure if they could supply better samples. But seeing how there are so many complaints from people who own him and they all sound a hell of a lot like the complaints people had about the Classics Seeker mold and other toys suffering from mold degradation.

While I'm not sure there are any facts regarding the degradation of the classics prime mold, there are a lot of factors involved that draw people to the conclusion that it's degraded to the point of non-use. I mean even ignoring the numerous reports of Nemesis and SG Prime being wonky, there were reports of the re-issue Henkei Convoy being pretty bad. Add to that the mass number of similar, if not higher quality knock offs of the mold and we start making assumptions.

That said, if the mold can make a comeback I REALLY hope it does! I don't give a s**t what anyone says, as far as I'm concerned the classic voyager leaders are my absolute favorite renditions of Prime and Megatron ever. G1? Masterpiece? Pfff! Kibble forever!

Additional note: Despite how cool translucent plastic is, I wish they wouldn't use it on the jointed plastic kibble.

I have 4 Henkei Primes and an Ultra Magnus (no KO's) and they ALL have the same minor alignment issue with the head.

Given that Henkei was one of the first runs of the mold (as was UM), I suspect it's just an issue with the original condition of the mold itself, not degradation. It's just more pronounced/noticable on some copies of the figure vs others.

xyl360 wrote:I have 4 Henkei Primes and an Ultra Magnus (no KO's) and they ALL have the same minor alignment issue with the head.

Given that Henkei was one of the first runs of the mold (as was UM), I suspect it's just an issue with the original condition of the mold itself, not degradation. It's just more pronounced/noticable on some copies of the figure vs others.

Neither my Classics Prime or Ultra Magnus have the head issue though.

Dead Metal wrote:

xyl360 wrote:I have 4 Henkei Primes and an Ultra Magnus (no KO's) and they ALL have the same minor alignment issue with the head.

Given that Henkei was one of the first runs of the mold (as was UM), I suspect it's just an issue with the original condition of the mold itself, not degradation. It's just more pronounced/noticable on some copies of the figure vs others.

Neither my Classics Prime or Ultra Magnus have the head issue though.

Yet my UM does. I got him in the 2 pack TRU exclusive with Skywarp (Skywarp was the reason I bought him, before I ever heard about City Commander). I believe there was only one run of that set, so if mine has it and yours does not, then that again would indicate that the problem may not be mold degradation (unless it occurred in the middle of the run or something).

I want that United Black Prime. That's the figure we dhould've got as part of the Universe line. God how I want that.

Red tinted windows and black legs look nice. Only question is are they nice enough to upgrade the SDCC NP I already have for lord know how much through the online retailers?

I'm the only one who noticed "Prime" was misspelled?

The black prime's not doing anything for me, since I own the SDCC one. Seems nearly Identical, except this one's all black, without the navy blue parts, and has red clear plastic instead of blue.

Might be getting that FE Prime though... Might keep it MISB.

They are both awesome and wants!

Oh My! Wow, never thought they'd do him after all this time.

I have a test shot of the original (way before the KO's were made).

The original is different, using a really nice sparkle blue instead of the normal teal.



With that said, the Henkei one is SO much prettier than the Hasbro one in person. SO SO much prettier. Obviously people won't agree with me (I'm used to it by now), but I'm telling you, the figure is gorgeous.

















Also looks like he has Decepticons symbols and his grill is chromed this time.

Randy

Sexy, yes, but I'm happy (for now) with my SDCC Nem Prime. I'm more excited to see that there's still an outside chance of a new issue of the Classics Prime mould so I don't have to shell out a hundred buck on ePay for one.

Seibertron wrote:Sounds like a problem with your particular Ultra Magnus, as that was the first reuse of the mold and came out shortly after the release of Optimus, that there wouldn't have been mold degradation at that point. There are no issues with any of my versions of this toy. They all transform fine, they all line up fine, all four wheels touch the ground in vehicle mold. None of them are loose.

Well, it could also have something to do with the trailer armor, hard to say. It's not really so much degradation as a design flaw, but it did seem to happen more quickly on him. That said allot of people had different problems with latter uses of the mold anyway. The mold getting fixed is not out of the question though. Hey, maybe they got their hands on some of those KO molds!

Can't say I'm that enthused about a return of this mold though, the translucent arm panels were a bad idea. I don't exactly play with my Transformers anymore (much) but I do transform them allot when I'm bored and want to change up the shelf a bit, and at this point all but Henkei convoy have cracks in their panels, not to mention how badly chipped Classics Prime got (I was careless back then) seeing as how those panels have to be painted. Yeah I hate translucent plastic.

Bandai translucent plastic is cool though, it has some give to it and won't crack. Dunno if you can paint it though...

Yep, the clear plastic worries me a bit too, but it sure looks cool, so I'll most likely bite since I love the FE mold. I'll probably get the black Classics Prime as well if he's available on BBTS. It's hard for me to turn down that mold and it looks quite good in black.

Curious how much we'll actually end up paying for these. I'm thinking somewhere between $100 to $150 each.

Powered Convoy wrote:Oh My! Wow, never thought they'd do him after all this time.

I have a test shot of the original (way before the KO's were made).

The original is different, using a really nice sparkle blue instead of the normal teal.



With that said, the Henkei one is SO much prettier than the Hasbro one in person. SO SO much prettier. Obviously people won't agree with me (I'm used to it by now), but I'm telling you, the figure is gorgeous.




Randy

Dude that's awesome, I'm curious does it suffer from problems that are associated with mold degradation or was that just panicked hype from back then? From the pics his head at least looks perfect.
Man, that really is an awesome item to have in one's collection, especially when taking the history behind it in mind.

Thanks for the pics Powered Convoy! Now I really want this United Prime for sure, I figure he and SDCC NP would be towering minions to 2012 SG Prime...ahhhh yeah!

Finally, Wonderfest Black Convoy! That's pretty rad. I wonder who's gonna offer these. I need a pre-order stat!

TFSource and BBTS have opened up pre-orders for these figures.