The Energon Pub

[xMXUx]

Combiner Wars might just be taking a break to give some variety to the shelves with Titan Wars.
I can see Combiner Wars making a comeback in a year or two.

[Stuartmaximus]

There's something that I just don't get! Hasbro has said that they're not doing any beasts for Combiner Wars(apart from Sky Lynx) but yet we seem(not definitely) to be getting beasts for Titan Wars! some are speculating Horri-Bull on that recent silouette shot, so it seems Hasbro are being rather character limited for one line....but not the other......where beasts are concerned.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems a large portion of transformers consumers do not like beast formers. The predacons from Beast Hunters were on shelves long after the show ended, and only about 2 months ago did the last large Predaking leave Target, and it was on sale for $20 when it was originally $70! When I bought Abominus, he was on sale for $9!! Rattrap and Rhinox are constant shelfwarmers in my area, and it leads me to believe beastformers are not in demand. Doing a whole wave of beastformers as combiners may not have gone well, so they decided against it.

[Shuttershock]

There's something that I just don't get! Hasbro has said that they're not doing any beasts for Combiner Wars(apart from Sky Lynx) but yet we seem(not definitely) to be getting beasts for Titan Wars! some are speculating Horri-Bull on that recent silouette shot, so it seems Hasbro are being rather character limited for one line....but not the other......where beastformers are concerned.

I think their biggest concern with the "no beasts in CW" is the relatively limited redeco/retool potential. Sure they could make Terrorcons, but what else could they make from the Terrorcon molds?

[Stuartmaximus]

There's something that I just don't get! Hasbro has said that they're not doing any beasts for Combiner Wars(apart from Sky Lynx) but yet we seem(not definitely) to be getting beasts for Titan Wars! some are speculating Horri-Bull on that recent silouette shot, so it seems Hasbro are being rather character limited for one line....but not the other......where beastformers are concerned.

I think their biggest concern with the "no beasts in CW" is the relatively limited redeco/retool potential. Sure they could make Terrorcons, but what else could they make from the Terrorcon molds?

Seacons!

[Shuttershock]

There's something that I just don't get! Hasbro has said that they're not doing any beasts for Combiner Wars(apart from Sky Lynx) but yet we seem(not definitely) to be getting beasts for Titan Wars! some are speculating Horri-Bull on that recent silouette shot, so it seems Hasbro are being rather character limited for one line....but not the other......where beastformers are concerned.

I think their biggest concern with the "no beasts in CW" is the relatively limited redeco/retool potential. Sure they could make Terrorcons, but what else could they make from the Terrorcon molds?

Seacons!

That would indeed be a glorious day.

If they did beastformer combiners, it'd basically be all Decepticon teams, which I'd be totally in favor of.

[albnok]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems a large portion of transformers consumers do not like beast formers. The predacons from Beast Hunters were on shelves long after the show ended, and only about 2 months ago did the last large Predaking leave Target, and it was on sale for $20 when it was originally $70! When I bought Abominus, he was on sale for $9!! Rattrap and Rhinox are constant shelfwarmers in my area, and it leads me to believe beastformers are not in demand. Doing a whole wave of beastformers as combiners may not have gone well, so they decided against it.

I didn't watch Beast Hunters or Prime. I did watch Beast Wars and Beast Machines.

I personally prefer either completely animal-looking beastformers (Beast Wars) or robot-looking beastformers (Predacons that form Predaking). The halfie look that Beast Hunters and TF4 AOE Dinobots have is ugly.

I still like filled-out beastformers like the Fuzors and Transmetal lines of Beast Wars, though. You don't get a ridiculous break in shape from robot to organic all over.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems a large portion of transformers consumers do not like beast formers. The predacons from Beast Hunters were on shelves long after the show ended, and only about 2 months ago did the last large Predaking leave Target, and it was on sale for $20 when it was originally $70! When I bought Abominus, he was on sale for $9!! Rattrap and Rhinox are constant shelfwarmers in my area, and it leads me to believe beastformers are not in demand. Doing a whole wave of beastformers as combiners may not have gone well, so they decided against it.

I didn't watch Beast Hunters or Prime. I did watch Beast Wars and Beast Machines.

I personally prefer either completely animal-looking beastformers (Beast Wars) or robot-looking beastformers (Predacons that form Predaking). The halfie look that Beast Hunters and TF4 AOE Dinobots have is ugly.

I still like filled-out beastformers like the Fuzors and Transmetal lines of Beast Wars, though. You don't get a ridiculous break in shape from robot to organic all over.

I'm ok with beastformers, but it just seemed to be a trend that the beasts are the ones that are left on shelves, save the movie dinobots except Slog and Snarl. It just seems they are not that popular as toys for the broader audience.

[Stuartmaximus]

Btw I talk about which arm & legbots could be which combiner on this video I did a while back
(Please start the vid at around 13:15)





Btw some of my predictions were spot on! even if you look at when this video was posted(on YouTube) & when some of these figures were officially announced to ALSO be used as these other characters(for instance...Hot Spot as Onslaught, Alpha Bravo as Vortex & Silverbolt as Scattershot).

Btw I dunno who Ghost Computron is! lol, sounds a cool name, maybe he's a repaint or something

[william-james88]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems a large portion of transformers consumers do not like beast formers. The predacons from Beast Hunters were on shelves long after the show ended, and only about 2 months ago did the last large Predaking leave Target, and it was on sale for $20 when it was originally $70! When I bought Abominus, he was on sale for $9!! Rattrap and Rhinox are constant shelfwarmers in my area, and it leads me to believe beastformers are not in demand. Doing a whole wave of beastformers as combiners may not have gone well, so they decided against it.

Well its because you have to look at era and not the type of transfomer. Statistically, there are more fans with money out there (also more fans with young kids) who grew up on G1 rather than Beast Wars. So G1 is more popular than Beast Wars. However G1 did have beasts too. If those were made available (like a generations Predaking), I am sure he would be just as popular as the other G1 ispired toys. So my guess is that beastformers from the G1 era would sell just as well as any other G1 inspired toy of he same popularity.

I think the reason they didnt do it is because of lower revenue from the production costs of all new molds that cant be reused as much.

[ThunderThruster]

There's something that I just don't get! Hasbro has said that they're not doing any beasts for Combiner Wars(apart from Sky Lynx) but yet we seem(not definitely) to be getting beasts for Titan Wars! some are speculating Horri-Bull on that recent silouette shot, so it seems Hasbro are being rather character limited for one line....but not the other......where beastformers are concerned.

I think their biggest concern with the "no beasts in CW" is the relatively limited redeco/retool potential. Sure they could make Terrorcons, but what else could they make from the Terrorcon molds?

Seacons!

some minor retooling would give figures for Terrorcons, Seacons and the Dinoforce(monster pretenders - Monstructor)

[william-james88]

some minor retooling would give figures for Terrorcons, Seacons and the Dinoforce(monster pretenders - Monstructor)

But isnt the dinoforce 6 members? That doesnt work with the scramble city molds

[chuckdawg1999]

I have a gut feeling, that for now on we'll see at least one combiner a year or so. Might not be a 5 or 6 member team but we'll see something.

[ThunderThruster]

some minor retooling would give figures for Terrorcons, Seacons and the Dinoforce(monster pretenders - Monstructor)

But isnt the dinoforce 6 members? That doesnt work with the scramble city molds

They are, but that shouldn't effect the re-use of limb molds

[william-james88]

They are, but that shouldn't effect the re-use of limb molds

How shouldnt it affect it? It just doesnt work. Look at Devastator, would you have been content if they made Longhaul the torso and dropped one of them so it could be a scramble city combiner?

They did stuff like that before in the energon line and that sucked hard. We are beyond the era where we can settle for something in between while we wait for something better. If they make monstructor, you all know they wont make another for a long time, so I would like for this one to count.

[Agamemnon]

They are, but that shouldn't effect the re-use of limb molds

How shouldnt it affect it? It just doesnt work. Look at Devastator, would you have been content if they made Longhaul the torso and dropped one of them so it could be a scramble city combiner?

They did stuff like that before in the energon line and that sucked hard. We are beyond the era where we can settle for something in between while we wait for something better. If they make monstructor, you all know they wont make another for a long time, so I would like for this one to count.

Could they make two deluxes that combine to form the voyager torso? Just a thought....

[Evil Eye]

Well with Monstructor they could make him out of 6 Deluxes with 2 figures forming the torso, thus allowing the limb-bots to function as normal CW limbs. They won't though, because Monstructor is far too obscure to see a mainline release, and the name Slog has already been taken...by Sludge.

[william-james88]

They are, but that shouldn't effect the re-use of limb molds

How shouldnt it affect it? It just doesnt work. Look at Devastator, would you have been content if they made Longhaul the torso and dropped one of them so it could be a scramble city combiner?

They did stuff like that before in the energon line and that sucked hard. We are beyond the era where we can settle for something in between while we wait for something better. If they make monstructor, you all know they wont make another for a long time, so I would like for this one to count.

Could they make two deluxes that combine to form the voyager torso? Just a thought....

Well we thought they were doing that with Devastator, back when he was just a rumour. When they revealed that he would instead be a totally different class, the staff was kind of sad since it meant that Hasbro had not gone the extra mile for trying to do a six member combiner using all deluxes and preserving the ports. We were sad because it meant we wouldnt get these guys. It could happen, but with the fact that combiner wars is coming to a close next year, and that they never attempted that route with a 6 figure combiner, I think its best we stay rational and accept the fact that we wont be seeing beast combiners (in this scale) for a while.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems a large portion of transformers consumers do not like beast formers. The predacons from Beast Hunters were on shelves long after the show ended, and only about 2 months ago did the last large Predaking leave Target, and it was on sale for $20 when it was originally $70! When I bought Abominus, he was on sale for $9!! Rattrap and Rhinox are constant shelfwarmers in my area, and it leads me to believe beastformers are not in demand. Doing a whole wave of beastformers as combiners may not have gone well, so they decided against it.

Well its because you have to look at era and not the type of transfomer. Statistically, there are more fans with money out there (also more fans with young kids) who grew up on G1 rather than Beast Wars. So G1 is more popular than Beast Wars. However G1 did have beasts too. If those were made available (like a generations Predaking), I am sure he would be just as popular as the other G1 ispired toys. So my guess is that beastformers from the G1 era would sell just as well as any other G1 inspired toy of he same popularity.

I think the reason they didnt do it is because of lower revenue from the production costs of all new molds that cant be reused as much.

But at the same time I saw Prime beast formers doing bad. They would not sell! And that was a show with a pretty Boss Predaking, a clone army and then a terror/preda-con army. It just seems beasts are not that in, and considering kids watched that show, it really can't be blamed on age of buyer and the era

[Railbomb]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems a large portion of transformers consumers do not like beast formers. The predacons from Beast Hunters were on shelves long after the show ended, and only about 2 months ago did the last large Predaking leave Target, and it was on sale for $20 when it was originally $70! When I bought Abominus, he was on sale for $9!! Rattrap and Rhinox are constant shelfwarmers in my area, and it leads me to believe beastformers are not in demand. Doing a whole wave of beastformers as combiners may not have gone well, so they decided against it.

Well its because you have to look at era and not the type of transfomer. Statistically, there are more fans with money out there (also more fans with young kids) who grew up on G1 rather than Beast Wars. So G1 is more popular than Beast Wars. However G1 did have beasts too. If those were made available (like a generations Predaking), I am sure he would be just as popular as the other G1 ispired toys. So my guess is that beastformers from the G1 era would sell just as well as any other G1 inspired toy of he same popularity.

I think the reason they didnt do it is because of lower revenue from the production costs of all new molds that cant be reused as much.

But at the same time I saw Prime beast formers doing bad. They would not sell! And that was a show with a pretty Boss Predaking, a clone army and then a terror/preda-con army. It just seems beasts are not that in, and considering kids watched that show, it really can't be blamed on age of buyer and the era

I don't think Prime/Beast Hunters was that accessible since it was on The Hub instead of Cartoon Network. I only saw someone shopping for Prime stuff ONCE while for the new Robots in Disguise I see parents getting them for their kids (a lot of the time with them) all the time now.

[william-james88]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems a large portion of transformers consumers do not like beast formers. The predacons from Beast Hunters were on shelves long after the show ended, and only about 2 months ago did the last large Predaking leave Target, and it was on sale for $20 when it was originally $70! When I bought Abominus, he was on sale for $9!! Rattrap and Rhinox are constant shelfwarmers in my area, and it leads me to believe beastformers are not in demand. Doing a whole wave of beastformers as combiners may not have gone well, so they decided against it.

Well its because you have to look at era and not the type of transfomer. Statistically, there are more fans with money out there (also more fans with young kids) who grew up on G1 rather than Beast Wars. So G1 is more popular than Beast Wars. However G1 did have beasts too. If those were made available (like a generations Predaking), I am sure he would be just as popular as the other G1 ispired toys. So my guess is that beastformers from the G1 era would sell just as well as any other G1 inspired toy of he same popularity.

I think the reason they didnt do it is because of lower revenue from the production costs of all new molds that cant be reused as much.

But at the same time I saw Prime beast formers doing bad. They would not sell! And that was a show with a pretty Boss Predaking, a clone army and then a terror/preda-con army. It just seems beasts are not that in, and considering kids watched that show, it really can't be blamed on age of buyer and the era

Its like I said, only G1 beastformers seem to sell well, those Prime predacons are very far from anything G1.

Also, characters present in the show always sell better and only Predaking (who was way overpriced) was present on the actual show. His 3 headed voyager figure sold well, even though it was the worst.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Here's something cool for you: Take CW Prime, Give him the combiner mode head and arm configuration but leave the legs in robot mode, add 2 good arms (like Prowl/Streetwise) and BAM!! Combiner Wars Optimus Primal!!!

[phantom1592]

Its like I said, only G1 beastformers seem to sell well, those Prime predacons are very far from anything G1.

Also, characters present in the show always sell better and only Predaking (who was way overpriced) was present on the actual show. His 3 headed voyager figure sold well, even though it was the worst.

This is my first thought too. I don't think it's a 'beastformer or NoT-Beastformer' issue. I think it entirely depends on the character. The original Predaking would be awesome to see. Brand new characters without that nostalgia impact, not so much.

Beast wars would only sell well if there was an indication that there would be MORE Beast Wars, and I never really got that impression. Another factor is that the original Beast Wars were REALLY pretty good the first time around. Decent articulation, awesome weapon integration... It's not like the G1 bricks remade with new articulation people had only dreamed about in the 80's.

But yeah, the only Beast Wars I ever saw was Rhinox, Rattrap and Waspinator... and at first glance I was convinced they were just rereleases not all new sculpts. Without at LEAST Primal and Megatron, I had no interest in picking them up.

[ThunderThruster]

They are, but that shouldn't effect the re-use of limb molds

How shouldnt it affect it? It just doesnt work. Look at Devastator, would you have been content if they made Longhaul the torso and dropped one of them so it could be a scramble city combiner?

They did stuff like that before in the energon line and that sucked hard. We are beyond the era where we can settle for something in between while we wait for something better. If they make monstructor, you all know they wont make another for a long time, so I would like for this one to count.

As I stated Limb molds. I didn't say anything about torso's.

Scowl, Icepick & Blot can all share the same base mold, as can Wildfly and Cuthroat. Bristleback is really only an alt mold head remold away from Sinnertwin.
Boom.
4 limbs for Monstructor and 3 for Abominous

All 4 of the post movie beast combiners have radically different torso's, which is the bigger issue to figure out.

[RAR]

I actually 'prefer' animals.

But in general I welcome some variety so yes I was getting a little bored by an excess of Earth Mode vehicles. I felt the need for some Cybertronian modes and some animals. Rhinox/Rattrap/Waspinator were welcome additions.

I also liked the Triple-changers and indeed the idea at least if perhaps not so much the implementation in all cases of Combiner Wars.

Perhaps other than G1er issues one reason some people might be put off by Animals or even perhaps some Cybertronian modes is that such things can sometimes be used as an excuse to not try so hard in making the two modes as well realised.