The Energon Pub

Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:22 am

Swindle and Brawl are amazing. Onslaught is ok. Blast-off and Vortex are hideous.
Bruticus looks good except for his gangly ill colored arms. :BANG_HEAD:

News Credits: 3658 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:26 am

This is why I didn't get excited at first. 5 years ago I would've thought this was amazingly awesome. But unfortunately, FansProject came out with this ...

Many of you know how I loathe 3rd party Transformers, but FP Bruticus would kick the one Hasbro is coming out with's ass.

Or so it currently seems, at least. Hopefully it will look better in person and is larger than it seems ... and hopefully they'll have it on display at Toy Fair this weekend.

Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:27 am

I don't see what all the negative fuss is about. It's a combiner and it's clear it's made up from different parts. Also, it's a toy. It's designed to be assembled/disassembled. Not to stand on a shelf looking like a CGI copy. Sure, that's what most of us will do with it, but it's not the original intention.

The 8-year old me is marveling at the screen at what seems to be the best combiner ever, capable of some kind of posing, not requiring any awkward additional plastic parts and not looking like a brick. (Or a sorry collection of guns as hands/feet like in Energon.) As for Vortex's colours: it seems they focused on his G1 robot mode stickers for inspiration, but it's far from a deal-breaker.

You can bet your Matrix I'm getting this. It's going to be an awesome toy.

Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:29 am

I think this is a great execution. The connector ports are probably out of whack anyways. But if you look at the concept art pic of Bruticus this is a pretty spot-on rendition of him. I even think he looks way more accurate than the G1 toy to the cartoon. I normally stick with my 6-12 transformers I collect different versions of but this I will be getting. Hasbro, you did a good job! Thanks for this and I hope to see some new renditions of the Dinobots!

Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:34 am

Geez, put the chill to the lax, guys. You sound worse than the 8-10 year-olds they market these things to. This thing is CLEARLY mistransformed. Both in the arms, and in the pelvic area (basically in every area you're complaining about). The only legit thing that you can base a solid opinion on right now would be the way the arms connect to Onslaught, as that's kinda hard to get wrong when assembling these things. Looks a bit spread-out but it's but one minor nitpick that shouldn't detract fully from the awesomeness of knowing that WE FINALLY HAVE A LEGIT 5-BOT COMBINER. That's not that horrendous movie-verse Devy, too.

Just wait for the in-hand photos and youtube reviews before you go jumping the gun on this thing. It may still surprise you yet.

Personally I still kinda want two sets, three if Takara does one. My spare Hasbro set I want painted in Ruination colors :3

News Credits: 11 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 1:42 am

T-Macksimus wrote:We thought Hasbro was paying attention but this is proof positive that they don't seem to give a ****!

Actually, it's pretty positive proof that they are listening. We wanted G1 combiners, this is a G1 combiner. We wanted actually hands and feet, look! Actual hands and feet! We wanted combiner ports that weren't colored extremely-conspicuous Allspark blue, they gave us that too.

You're welcome to your opinions of course, but it seems to me that Hasbro is trying.

News Credits: 5 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:03 am

I want this so much!!!!! Bruticus was easily my favorite combiner. And to the nay-sayers, I have the Fansproject Bruticus figures, as well as the Power Core Combiner homage to Bruticus. I will have this. Oh, yes.

News Credits: 101 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:16 am

I do hope this will be released AS A SET IN EVERY STORES. Please, Hasbro, no more of that "exclusive" bullshit and don't sell the components separately. I can bet my left nut that if you do, one piece will manage to get rare and being scalped at silly prices.

News Credits: 1 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:20 am

Well...it is definitely a step in the right direction. I commend Hasbro for that. Hopefully this was a learning process, and they will get the hang of it and make improvements for future combiners and triplechangers. Especially if these sell well.

Also note there is a quote from Joshua Lamb, "director of design for the Transformers brand at Hasbro" visible in the image of Swindle:

"Overall, it's about a two-year process, from early concept to when the product hits the shelf".

Wouldn't that put them working on this around the time Power Core Combiners were the "hot new item"? That would explain the obvious PCC influences.

News Credits: 6 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:23 am

its been said, btt wow. pcc arms all the frikkin way! i too hope that its mis-transformed, crappy hasbro photagraphy. ima still buy it. but still. if the arms are really that bad, im going to have to re-arrange them alot. and i hope that gun snaps onto his back! if not, then much awkwardness there will be.....

News Credits: 6 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:25 am

its been said, btt wow. pcc arms all the frikkin way! i too hope that its mis-transformed, crappy hasbro photagraphy. ima still buy it. but still. if the arms are really that bad, im going to have to re-arrange them alot. and i hope that gun snaps onto his back! if not, then much awkwardness there will be.....

News Credits: 8 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 2:50 am

WTH is wrong with Hasbro's photography? Seriously, wishing for the best. Can't go with 3rd parties with every combiner i want....my wallet's gonna slap me...

News Credits: 3658 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:01 am

gema wrote:WTH is wrong with Hasbro's photography?

I'm not their photographer.

News Credits: 17 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:06 am

I'll, reserve judgement until I see good pics of Bruticus, kinda neat that they went with the Soul of Chogokin way of hiding the fists, which has each fist stored in one of the legs of the robots who form the arms, I have to say though, I am kinda miffed with Vortex, why is he yellow? when has he ever been yellow? reminds me more of Universe Rotor than Vortex. :oops:

News Credits: 17 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:09 am

Seibertron wrote:
gema wrote:WTH is wrong with Hasbro's photography?

I'm not their photographer.

I man can dream :-(

, seriously your galleries made want more toys than any of Hasbro's pics could ever hope to.

News Credits: 8 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:11 am

Seibertron wrote:
gema wrote:WTH is wrong with Hasbro's photography?

I'm not their photographer.

and THAT is an awesome pic!

News Credits: 226 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:35 am

Yep, that there is a big ol thing of fail.

Seibertron wrote:
gema wrote:WTH is wrong with Hasbro's photography?

I'm not their photographer.

Which makes you wonder what sort of people they have working in the PR department if none of them can go up to the design studio and say "hey, can you guys pop down and transform a few toys properly for us?"

News Credits: 5 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:41 am

Well, not quite as good as I was hoping for, but still a better effort (by leagues) than Hasbro's previous combiner attempts (i.e. PCC and Engergon).

A shame they can't get the finished product near the quality of the likes of FansProject & TFC's efforts. Still, at least this will be cheaper.

Vortex's colours really bug me though. Why red & gold when all the others are colours much more accurately? I'm hoping there might be a Target exclusive or something with more G1 accurate colours for him (and perhaps Blast-Off).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the reviews when this comes out.

News Credits: 767 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:46 am

This, wow. I think we where too fast with praising it...

News Credits: 2 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:47 am

I'm reserving judgement until we get some decent pictures (as in not ones from Hasbro). Bruticus still has the potential to be awesome.

Wed Feb 08, 2012 3:53 am

Eh, this has left a sour taste in my mouth.

Those color schemes are just awful. I know they're all about trying to match colors with G1 bruticus ('cept for vortex, don't know what that brown is all about) but they should have tried getting closer to the FoC colors. Darker hues, purple accents. Those connectors are also too obvious and thin, he needs to be thicker in parts where he should be bulky.

Guess I'm just too fp bruticus spoiled.

News Credits: 8 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:06 am

better than PCCs but not as good as G1 or even RIDs combiners. One thing id like to know though is how come blastoff & vortex dont have their G1 colors and yet the others do? At least newer fans will get to see what a real combiner is. This is the first time im not completely excited about classics figures, i hope the other FoC figures are better than these.

Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:09 am

Well i for one thank hasbro for a new combiner! I never understand all the fan hate, i thought we liked this property?

News Credits: 8 · Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:12 am

I dig the big apelike arms! He looks f***** awesome!

Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:24 am

2 problems with this.

1) The shoulder connectors. They did a better job of hiding them on the PCC figures so I hope that there is a way to hide this a little better.

2) The thighs of Onslaught. They should have been a little bit beefier. As it is, they look a little too spindly when connected to Brawl and Swindle.

Not bad overall and leaps, not steps, in the right direction. The color schemes on Vortex and Blast-Off? Not terrible. Obviously could have been improved by going closer to the G1 colors but I guess they need bright colors to attract ADD-addled kids. Still, 3 out of 5 is great considering some of the more recent combiners Hasbro pumped out.