The Energon Pub

[shajaki]

what i dont like it how the open chest is barren of paint apps. hopefully takara fills in those spots, because theres some great details in that sculpting.

Speaking of what Takara-Tomy might do to touch up the CW Optimus Prime mold, here's what I'm hoping: They'll cover up some of the bare gray plastic with red or blue paint as needed. The feet should be blue. They also need to paint up some of the obvious bare spots on the cab mode with red. Some appropriate blue and yellow detailing on the pelvis would help. Also, I'm curious as to if the biceps can be rotated at all. I'd leave the grill gray (or painted metallic silver), but do the sides in red and rotate them 90 in robot mode to give a better G1 "all red arms" look to the figure.

Takara's got it easy with what they have to do to the combiner chest. They just have to make the entire chest covered in one color: Silver chrome!

plucked the thought right out of my brain sabre

[Flashwave]

You know, when I first saw Prime, I was with most of the fandom, he's awefulyl bulbous and pudgey. But I'm growing to like him. I really liked the BH Voyager for the wings and the bulk, but this is nice, the guns are cool, and I think Ultra Prime might look good with Armada Prime's cannon, and I can still mount the Tommy Guns from the "Ultimate" Delue Prime on the bak of the truck mode.

The headsculpt reminds me of Primal's noggin.

[Gallifreyan Autobot]

what i dont like it how the open chest is barren of paint apps. hopefully takara fills in those spots, because theres some great details in that sculpting.

Speaking of what Takara-Tomy might do to touch up the CW Optimus Prime mold, here's what I'm hoping: They'll cover up some of the bare gray plastic with red or blue paint as needed. The feet should be blue. They also need to paint up some of the obvious bare spots on the cab mode with red. Some appropriate blue and yellow detailing on the pelvis would help. Also, I'm curious as to if the biceps can be rotated at all. I'd leave the grill gray (or painted metallic silver), but do the sides in red and rotate them 90 in robot mode to give a better G1 "all red arms" look to the figure.

Takara's got it easy with what they have to do to the combiner chest. They just have to make the entire chest covered in one color: Silver chrome!

Both the outside:


And the inside:

Takara sure does love chrome they probably use more chrome than what is used on Freight-liners and Peterbilts

[Sabrblade]

Takara sure does love chrome they probably use more chrome than what is used on Freight-liners and Peterbilts

Ironically, it's Hasbro whose using more Chrome these days where Takara isn't. Just look at Jetfire or a lot of the Platinum Edition toys.

[Dr. Caelus]

Just hypothetically, if you were a toy designer, and you wanted to apply what you've learned from working on the Combiner Wars toys we've seen so far to making some of the beast-mode-based combiners, how would you go about it?

Assuming you were sticking with one voyager, four deluxes, and 1 or 2 legion class figures (1 gun and one armor) per combined form, how many combiners could you get out of how few beast molds?

I got to thinking about this because I realized that there are some unexpected similarities out there. Overbite, Skalor, Rippersnapper, and Grimlock are pretty similar really, if you're okay with taking some creative license, and Headstrong, Rampage, Slog, and Slug are really all quadrupedal bricks defined by their heads and tails.

[Arctorro]

I wonder if we can expect a redeco/retool of Blackjack especially for Prime, in the opened chest there are two pegs that serve no purpose whatsoever (another clue that Motormaster actually came first).

Roller's the obvious choice, but I'd like to see them go all out on the Masquerade theme and turn Blackjack into, I dunno, Bumblebee or someone.
Or for irony's sake Hot Rod.

I was initially hoping that Blackjack would be repainted into Windcharger as a homage to the G1 episode Masquerade, but clearly that wont be happening

You know, using Windcharger as a chest piece for Optimus makes a lot of sense (if it's legit anyway)! Better yet, it frees up Offroad/Wildrider's position in the giant.

That crossed my mind too. It was Windcharger's magnetic powers that allowed the combination in the first place, so making him part of the torso just makes sense if you want to recreate/reimagine "The Masquerade." Maybe then Offroad could be repainted/remolded into Ironhide?

Personally, Offroad is to small for Ironhide, Hound would be nice though. After my disappointment with the Trailbreaker (or whatever it was called) mould I wouldn't mind seeing him as a repaint of Offroad.

im excited about the two following prospects:
-the recent reveal of him being compatible with (all?) legends figures.
-and picturing him "scramble city'ing" with every other figure yet to come out. with all the possibilities we "could" get... my head is spinning!

Imagine the possibilities if the four Stunticon limbs are repainted into Autobots, the number of options would be awesome!

That would be 12 limbs (assuming the Protectobots are going to happen) as well as several chest and weapon options

[YRQRM0]

This looks like a lot of fun, even though the proportions seem a little off. Also not fond of how his legs make it look like it's just Prime on stilts, the way you can still see his feet and all.

[chuckdawg1999]

I'll be honest, I'm not really digging Ultra Prime with all those different legend figures on it. Does this mean the mold for Windcharger and Thundercracker was retooled, a hastily cobbled together idea, or the ability to merge was there all along meaning CW was in development for quite awhile?

[Flashwave]

I'll be honest, I'm not really digging Ultra Prime with all those different legend figures on it. Does this mean the mold for Windcharger and Thundercracker was retooled, a hastily cobbled together idea, or the ability to merge was there all along meaning CW was in development for quite awhile?

D) 5MM ports for the win!!!

Probably, Windcharger is holding on by uing one of the hands to hold onto one of the pegs and the carbody is just resting on the other one. Thundercraker too

[Flashwave]

Just hypothetically, if you were a toy designer, and you wanted to apply what you've learned from working on the Combiner Wars toys we've seen so far to making some of the beast-mode-based combiners, how would you go about it?

Assuming you were sticking with one voyager, four deluxes, and 1 or 2 legion class figures (1 gun and one armor) per combined form, how many combiners could you get out of how few beast molds?

I got to thinking about this because I realized that there are some unexpected similarities out there. Overbite, Skalor, Rippersnapper, and Grimlock are pretty similar really, if you're okay with taking some creative license, and Headstrong, Rampage, Slog, and Slug are really all quadrupedal bricks defined by their heads and tails.

Well, Hypothetically, I got SLog, and Skowl (had the paintwork been good) out of the Blot mold in the BH line, which also gave us Rot-Gut (AWESOME Name). Remold the beast head for clarity's sake. Sinnertwin, Birdbrain, and Bristleback all could share a quadroped chassis, although there you would NEED to retool at least once to give ST his split neck. Wildfly and WIndrazor cold be twins easily. Where you run into trouble with the beast bots is torsos. Who does Icepick or Hun-grr(r)(ar)(y) share with? If you're willing to be flexible, Icepic could use the Blot/Scowl/Slog mold as a bipedal swamp mosnter, but who becomes the new torso?

Here's a thought: Divebomb as the Torso for Predaking, retooled with new wings and heads for Wildfly and Windrazor. Develop a Quadropedal figure that can easily be reskinned, that allows the entire beast mode head piece to fold over on either a ball or a hinge to be ou of the way. Hasbro basically did this with the Airelbots, giving each figure new wings and a headbut ultimately identical transformation schemes. Rampage, headstrong, Razorclaw, and Tantrum basically the same figure "tweaked". Accesories included, cost offset is proably equivalent to two molds. The fans will cry out in joy that they are getting a Predaking, then revolt in the same day because all the Predacons are identical, despite being largely the same figure in G1. (actually, two base chassis according to pictures.)

[Va'al]

You must have heard of that Singapore store event launching Transformers Combiner Wars - TAG Hobby has posted some nice, clear images of the whole thing a completely different event in Hong Kong, featuring the new Optimus Prime figure, Silverbolt and Aerialbots (minus one), Dragstrip and Legend Class Powerglide, Windcharger, Thundercracker and Bombshell. Added bonus is showing off that all Legend figures can 'combine' with any Voyager torso, as william-james88 has also showed before - check it out below!

[Insurgent]

Mmmm, that Bombshell looks nice.


Hope we get a legends kickback someday to complete them.

[Va'al]

You know, I keep thinking about those two Leader Megatron figures that are also meant to come out next year, and find it weird that they're part of a select few that do not combine with anything.

If it weren't for the fact that the comics fiction does not allow for Megatron in his current state to be part of Combiner Wars (MTMTE is not part of the event, it's doing its own thing, probably with Drift: EoS if it decides to make sense), I'd be speculating like a wild thing.

[ZeroWolf]

Va'al I already am speculating and I have a theory, though it only concerns the normal looking Megatron. Basically once elegant chaos is done and dusted. Megs leads the lost light back to cybertron to lend a hand with Defensor in tow.

[It Is Him]

This looks sick.

Also, I plan on reading the rest of this thread at some point. I've been pretty pumped about this line for months.

[GuyIncognito]

Now that Generations Bombshell is joining Shrapnel (Skrapnel), can we assume that Kickback is coming at some point? (I hope they're not thinking "We already made a Generations Kickback (FoC), so we don't need to make another.")

Ah, I see I'm not the only person wondering about this:

Mmmm, that Bombshell looks nice.

Hope we get a legends kickback someday to complete them.

[Cobotron]

Hey, where is Huffer? He's not in those pictures.
I thought he was coming in wave one.
They usually release Legends in groups of 4, and I see four of them there, so
Huffer is wave 2?

[Cobotron]

Now that Generations Bombshell is joining Shrapnel (Skrapnel), can we assume that Kickback is coming at some point? (I hope they're not thinking "We already made a Generations Kickback (FoC), so we don't need to make another.")

I had this same fear.

[jogunwarrior]

Wow Superion looks great...even better when the lower legs are attached correctly.

I'm on the fence about Powerglide...I really like the Classics version, and while I like the look of the robot mode on this one, the vehicle mode is just okay. He's one of those that I'll pick up if I find him but won't hunt him down.

[jogunwarrior]

The Classics Silverbolt has really grown on me, and I'd love to see the robot modes of both that one and this new one side by side. I'm obviously going to have to purchase the new one to get my Superion, but I need to decide whether or not to keep the Classics version, or find a new home for him.

[ZeroWolf]

Wow Superion looks great...even better when the lower legs are attached correctly.

I'm on the fence about Powerglide...I really like the Classics version, and while I like the look of the robot mode on this one, the vehicle mode is just okay. He's one of those that I'll pick up if I find him but won't hunt him down.

But you'll miss him as a kick ass weapon for the combiner

[megatronus]

Wow Superion looks great...even better when the lower legs are attached correctly.

I'm on the fence about Powerglide...I really like the Classics version, and while I like the look of the robot mode on this one, the vehicle mode is just okay. He's one of those that I'll pick up if I find him but won't hunt him down.

But you'll miss him as a kick ass weapon for the combiner

Yea, Powerglide looks pretty great.

I never got the Ultra Class version for whatever reason, so this Legends figure will make a great Powerglide. At any rate, I do have Universe Stromcloud, so at least I'll have that older mold in my collection in some form or another.

[megatronus]

Sorry for this second post, but...

Superion looks AWESOME. I'm liking him better than any iteration - 3rd Party or otherwise - that came before him.

[Robogeek1973]

Bombshell and Powerglide look oh so sexy.

[Noideaforaname]

I wonder if those Legends are intended to combine with Prime, or if it's just a fan-mode or some such. IIRC Powerglide is the only one advertised as being able to combine... but Bombshell seems to be hinting at something with those knee pegs and hand-cannons.

You know, I keep thinking about those two Leader Megatron figures that are also meant to come out next year, and find it weird that they're part of a select few that do not combine with anything.

Yeah, I feel like there's got to be more to Megatron.

Although I kinda half expect them to make a Movie Galvatron out of Prime instead... or maybe Scourge/Nemesis Prime? *shrug* Dunno if they'd want another black/dark grey Decepticon truck though.