The Energon Pub

[Stuartmaximus]

http://tfylp.com/announcements-from-cyb ... bro-panel/
What the...? Beast Combiners? i thought there wasn't to be any Beast ones in this line? + isn't this line nearing it's end now

[RiddlerJ]

Strafe and Nosecone don't have guns?

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Strafe and Nosecone don't have guns?

Nosecone has the removable drill piece, and Strafe's gun can't be removed: those are considered the "weapons" for the figures.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

http://tfylp.com/announcements-from-cybertron-con-hasbro-panel/
What the...? Beast Combiners? i thought there wasn't to be any Beast ones in this line? + isn't this line nearing it's end now

Hasbro said they would revisit combiners again soon, and it is presumed that we will get the beasts then

[Bounti76]

You know.....I got my Computron from A3U yesterday, and while he makes a GREAT display piece, and I'm actually pretty impressed with all the Technobots save Lightspeed, the many uses of these molds and the general crappiness of the Brawl mold are really showing.

With Nosecone in his usual position as Computron's leg, the rotating pieces of the CW tank mold, and the fact that it's legs don't peg together worth a damn, make it completely impossible to use the ankle tilts in the new feet without the entire lower leg/feet coming apart. They are TIGHT ankle/feet tilts. Same with Lightspeed. Prowl is the only use of that mold that pegs together and stays together really well as either an arm or a leg. Plus, though it's not a huge concern, Scattershot's torso mode is a little wiggly and not as tight as Superion's, which makes posing him a really iffy thing if it's not thought out before hand, and the feet aren't posed before inserting them into the leg bots. It just doesn't seem as sturdy as previous uses of that torso and limbs. Random last though, though I'm appreciating Hasbro Nosecone more and more (he does look fairly G1 toy accurate, save the maroon bits and brown chest), he's crap as a limb, as the Brawl/tank mold is absolutely the weakest of the entire line.

So, though Computron was my favorite G1 combiner, the CW version of him will not be posed or played with much. Too bad. I hope the Takara version (yes, I'm double dipping) will hold up better.

[Sjeng]

I fully agree. I think the reuse of the Brawl mold is terrible. Nosecone, to me, does not look like a subterrainian drilling machine at all. He's a backwards tank with a tiny drill... I think he'd look much better if you simply put the drill on the turret pointing towards the front of the tank, makes more sense to me, even though he's not ever gonna drill a tunnel big enough for him to actually drive through.

Takara's version has that covered a lot better. A shame Takara doesn't have the feet/hands.

I'm wondering though, now that Hasbro has feet and hand molds, why won't they make feet/hand packs in different colours for all the other Combiners? No more expensive 3rd party "perfect effect" packs nessesary. (€40,- for a few plastic fists and feet? wow, no way)

[Kurona]

Honestly, I think you could argue that Hasbro's Nosecone is the worst figure of the entire line (ironic, considering you could argue UW Nosecone is the best of the entire line).
He's the Brawl mold for starters, which is obviously the worst mold; so it's between him, Brawl, Botcon Ramhorn and Liokaiser Drillhorn and "Ironbison". However, all of those have headsculpts that fit the characters wonderfully, the Liokaiser and Botcon ones have beautiful paint jobs, and the use of the mold as a tank is faaaaaar more convincing and effective than using it as a drill... thing. So nosecone ends up with the worst mold in the line, the worst alt mode use of the mold, a recoloured head which doesn't even begin to fit him, looks like a block of cheese, and apparently has some QC issues. Poor guy.

[Sowndwave76]

http://tfylp.com/announcements-from-cybertron-con-hasbro-panel/
What the...? Beast Combiners? i thought there wasn't to be any Beast ones in this line? + isn't this line nearing it's end now

Hasbro said they would revisit combiners again soon, and it is presumed that we will get the beasts then

The big question is how soon is "soon"??!?
Being that I've been borderline yawning with TR, this is really exciting news!


Watched that Comp review. The combined figure doesn't look awful, still don't like the individual bot modes. That brighter, kinda regular red looks so bizarre on Scattershot... Especially in spaceship mode. Afterburner/breaker looks best imo, but that's not saying much.
"Lightsteed"?? Should've just named him LightWise.
Don't really see how you'd take this set and the UW one and mish-mash them together...
UW is hands-down the better-looking set all the way around.
Not tempted at all to get this Hasbro release.
I'll be saving up some $$$ for these new beast combiners!!

[Kurona]

http://tfylp.com/announcements-from-cybertron-con-hasbro-panel/
What the...? Beast Combiners? i thought there wasn't to be any Beast ones in this line? + isn't this line nearing it's end now

Hasbro said they would revisit combiners again soon, and it is presumed that we will get the beasts then

The big question is how soon is "soon"??!?

I'd presume that if this is true, most likely the next Generations line. I doubt they'd want to give away details of a line other than the one immediately after the current.

[Sowndwave76]

http://tfylp.com/announcements-from-cybertron-con-hasbro-panel/
What the...? Beast Combiners? i thought there wasn't to be any Beast ones in this line? + isn't this line nearing it's end now

Hasbro said they would revisit combiners again soon, and it is presumed that we will get the beasts then

The big question is how soon is "soon"??!?

I'd presume that if this is true, most likely the next Generations line. I doubt they'd want to give away details of a line other than the one immediately after the current.

When does the LK line start??
It would be nice if the new Generations line immediately followed that.

[Kurona]

http://tfylp.com/announcements-from-cybertron-con-hasbro-panel/
What the...? Beast Combiners? i thought there wasn't to be any Beast ones in this line? + isn't this line nearing it's end now

Hasbro said they would revisit combiners again soon, and it is presumed that we will get the beasts then

The big question is how soon is "soon"??!?

I'd presume that if this is true, most likely the next Generations line. I doubt they'd want to give away details of a line other than the one immediately after the current.

When does the LK line start??
It would be nice if the new Generations line immediately followed that.

WJ88 knows more about why it's possible than me, but it seems there's no reason why Generations, -insert cartoon toyline- and -insert movie toyline- could not exist at the same time.

[RAR]

Hasbro did have a representative state that they wouldn't stop other lines just for the Movie toyline like they used to. they plan to carry on with wht ever prime wars stuff there is at the same time -if anything suffers as a result it will be RID which I'm guessing will have reached the end of it's natural life span by then anyway.

The might dial back a little on Rescue bots too if Last Knight has it's own little-kid sub brands if it doesn't then that will probably carry on in the same erratic manner too.

I just hope they don't make the HUGE ERROR of dumping all the Generations style Movie toys on TRU and then only distributing terrible toys to other retailers.

But character wise the only thing that looks promising so far would be some car alt modes and the new Bulk-hound vehicle mode. Unless Optimus gets another new body at the end of the Movie that they are keeping quiet about.

Megatron i'll judge depending on what he turns into. Barricade has some toy potential especially if they can make something less finicky than the DOTM mould.

But anyway here isn't the proper place to talk about this so I'll shut up now.

[Kurona]

I probably sound really really biased but as long as Generations and RiD can continue while we get a decent Squeeks toy from LK, I'm happy. I think we could expect to see some LK Deluxes and Voyagers chucked into an extra Generations wave or two. Or three.

[Sabrblade]

The might dial back a little on Rescue bots too if Last Knight has it's own little-kid sub brands if it doesn't then that will probably carry on in the same erratic manner too.

But Rescue Bots is handled by Playskool, a different branch of the Hasbro company from the main Hasbro Transformers branch. The Last Knight or any main line shouldn't interfere Rescue Bots (which is even sold in a completely separate aisle in the stores from the main TF lines... unless any stores have merged the Playskool aisle with the big kid aisle, but that shouldn't be too common).

[Emerje]

Don't forget that with Liokaiser they pushed the combiners into the Platinum line. Those figures may have been remolds, but they had six new heads and a new Arms Micron. That tells me they're willing to think more creatively which makes beasts a little more possible without worrying about what Generations is up to.

Emerje

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Don't forget that with Liokaiser they pushed the combiners into the Platinum line. Those figures may have been remolds, but they had six new heads and a new Arms Micron. That tells me they're willing to think more creatively which makes beasts a little more possible without worrying about what Generations is up to.

Emerje

I hope you're willing to live with retools, because that's all the Platinum series has been so far, no original molds.

[Kurona]

And even then, the furthest a Platinum retool has ever gone is new heads - Sweep, Dinobots, Liokaiser. Not counting things like Battle Grimlock, of course.

[Tyrannacon]

The new Dinobots and new Predaking shown look very tempting for me.

[Kurona]

The new Dinobots and new Predaking shown look very tempting for me.

The... the new what?

[Tyrannacon]

The new Dinobots and new Predaking shown look very tempting for me.

The... the new what?

http://tfylp.com/announcements-from-cyb ... bro-panel/

The link that was posted earlier at the top of the page from the Hasbro panel. If those are indeed Hasbro (which it looks like) they definitely are very tempting to try to pick up for me when available.

[Kurona]

The new Dinobots and new Predaking shown look very tempting for me.

The... the new what?

http://tfylp.com/announcements-from-cyb ... bro-panel/

The link that was posted earlier at the top of the page from the Hasbro panel. If those are indeed Hasbro (which it looks like) they definitely are very tempting to try to pick up for me when available.

I'm afraid those pictures are of Third Party toys. You got me extremely excited there...

[Tyrannacon]

Ah, dang it!

I apologize as I was excited too here. Even for 3P they don't look bad though.

[RAR]

But Rescue Bots is handled by Playskool, a different branch of the Hasbro company from the main Hasbro Transformers branch. The Last Knight or any main line shouldn't interfere Rescue Bots (which is even sold in a completely separate aisle in the stores from the main TF lines... unless any stores have merged the Playskool aisle with the big kid aisle, but that shouldn't be too common).

I was thinking they might decide to dial back on Rescue bots and offer something from Hasbro for little kids as a movie item - like the Battlechargers/gobots from DOTM or the Cyberslammers from 2007
They might simply ignore that under 6's segment with the Movie tie ins and carry on with Rescue Bots as they had nothing more kiddy than a Power Attacker for the last Movie that I remember seeing.

If anyone remember the DOTM Gobots & Battlechargers they were kind cute.
--------

Random question : has anyone found any interesting decorative use for Combiner wars hand/feet/guns when you are not using them (don't say earrings) I mean on toys.

[Sabrblade]

But Rescue Bots is handled by Playskool, a different branch of the Hasbro company from the main Hasbro Transformers branch. The Last Knight or any main line shouldn't interfere Rescue Bots (which is even sold in a completely separate aisle in the stores from the main TF lines... unless any stores have merged the Playskool aisle with the big kid aisle, but that shouldn't be too common).

I was thinking they might decide to dial back on Rescue bots and offer something from Hasbro for little kids as a movie item - like the Battlechargers/gobots from DOTM or the Cyberslammers from 2007

But those were still sold as main line toys in the big kid aisle rather than Playskool toys in the preschool aisle.

[Emerje]

Don't forget that with Liokaiser they pushed the combiners into the Platinum line. Those figures may have been remolds, but they had six new heads and a new Arms Micron. That tells me they're willing to think more creatively which makes beasts a little more possible without worrying about what Generations is up to.

Emerje

I hope you're willing to live with retools, because that's all the Platinum series has been so far, no original molds.

Heh, I actually meant to say more, but being up for 20 hours and posting that just before going to be left my thoughts unfinished.

Takara Tomy isn't done with Unite Warriors yet and we don't know what they're doing after their version of Victorion. If they choose to continue the line and move into beasts I could see Hasbro taking the molds for Platinum releases.

And really, it wouldn't be that difficult to repurpose Terrorcons into a Seacons with the right tooling. Even Hun-grr and Snaptrap can share molds, just replace the dragon tail with a turtle head and have the bot legs on Snaptrap fold up and over to make a shell similar to how Silverbolt et al form the combiner chest plate with the legs. The same could be left on the dragon necks for when combining. They could even borrow further by flipping the figures upsidedown when combined so the bot arms become the thighs of the combiner.

Other possible mold shares:
Rippersnapper -> Overbite
Blot -> Skalor
Cutthroat -> Seawing and Tentakil
Sinnertwin -> Nautilator

I don't think it's impossible and I doubt we'll see this as part of Titans Return, but in a Platinum box set seems reasonable.

Emerje