The Energon Pub

[prjkt]

Ok this will be a text-only quick review for now, will post some pics/comparisons later today/tonight.

Legends

Windcharger - Repaint of the recent Tailgate. Not sure if I'll keep this one as I already have the United version of the RTS mould. Will remain unopened for now.

Thundercracker - Repaint of Starscream, or Acid Storm (which I do have). Again, not sure if I'll open this one as I already have the deluxe Asia Excl. Generations version, and already have this mould in acid storm. Will remain unopened for now.

Bombshell - Awesome little bug. His purple is a deeper, more metallic colour than Shrapnel. Good and bad, as it looks better, but doesn't quite fit in with Shrapnel (or is it Skrapnel?) His lack of a weapon is not really a problem with the moulded cannons in front of his hands (which can still hold 5mm weapons)

Powerglide - Not as impressed as I thought I would be, GREAT design, but the plastic quality is lacking a little - has trouble holding together in alt mode. Sort of hampered by lack of a weapon, but then I guess he can just point his fists at the sky and launch missiles from the underside of his arm. Again his own targetmaster mode is slightly hampered by plastic quality.

Deluxes
These guys are big. Gone are the FOC and post FOC midget characters (Trailcutter has another reason to drink now) - they're more in line with the early Generations/RTS lines, and Universe (think Drift/Blurr, Jazz and Sunstreaker/Sideswipe.) Not as complex in transformation (understandably so) but still great representations of the characters.

Dragstip - Big, chunky, articulated and an awesome face. As expected, works really well as either a foot or an arm, but it took me a while to figure out why his leg mode was a centimetre or so longer than everyone elses, the rear of the car actually folds up in front, shortening him a little. No more lopsided gestalt!

Alpha Bravo - Possibly my favourite design of this wave - I like the way the helicopter works, and am getting a real Astrotrain vibe from his legs. On his legs, the plastic doesn't feel as solid as the other figures, but I have no fear of it breaking. His arms stick out a lot, the missiles help, hide his hands, but still kind of obvious. His rotors aren't really held in place by anything, other than his tail fins, and will often slip over the top.

Firefly - His colours make me think Ratchet decided to change jobs, but I've always liked red. So I'ts cool. In all modes (other than robot) his arms are pretty conspicuous, if only there was a way to fold them up into the torso ala Classics Seekers, but with the combination joint I can see why they didn't. Leg transformation is really cool, makes a really solid looking jet.

Skydive - Dark colours - this jet means business. Transformation is almost identical to Firefly, except that you move his arms/wings further down his torso, streamlining the jet and helps hide his hands underneath the tail fins. Vertical tailfins and nosecone are soft rubber.

Voyagers
Again, these guys are big.

Optimus (Ultra?) Prime - Big. Really Big. It's like Optimus decided to take the Cybertronian form of steroids in the lead up to festival season to show off. Alt mode is a really solid truck, though the contrast between silver paint and grey plastic at the front is jarring.
Torso mode is a little bit of a let down to me. For starts his Ultra Prime head is floppy. Really floppy. I dismantled the head and found quite a lot of stress marks, so in the meantime I've covered the ball with some Blu-tac, and it's a fair bit better. His legs are a bit weird in this mode too, I'm not sure if the ratchets on his legs are aligned with each other. Still a better figure than some I've got in my collection, but the weakest of the wave IMO - hopefully Motormaster is an improvement.

Silverbolt - This guy is great. Like a new version of the only Aerialbot I had as a kid. No real complaints I have based on this price here, other than the obvious undercarriage in alt mode. He is a literal d*ckhead in torso mode though, and this is one photo I WILL take, just because. The whole conversion of legs to chest really breaks up his torso, and it really changes his profile - doesn't look like Silverbolt anymore. The soft rubber antennae are annoying, as they don't go all the way into place, but stick out backwards at a 30-40° angle.


That's about it for now, as mentioned before, will make another post with pics, and further thoughts later on.

[Cobotron]

Square shoulders, rectangular torsos, rib caged abs, blocky lower arms, long boxy lower legs, tiny upper limbs... They're practically brothers!

:lol:
I thought the same thing.

[Arctorro]

So jelly.

You and me both!

Deluxes
These guys are big. Gone are the FOC and post FOC midget characters (Trailcutter has another reason to drink now) - they're more in line with the early Generations/RTS lines, and Universe (think Drift/Blurr, Jazz and Sunstreaker/Sideswipe.) Not as complex in transformation (understandably so) but still great representations of the characters.

Voyagers
Again, these guys are big.

Thanks so much for this, after seeing the vid reviews I was close to cancelling my pre-orders, going to keep em now.

[prjkt]

as promised, here are some comparison shots (and a d*ckhead)

various primes:

Yeah, CW Prime is big

CW Prime, CW SIlverbolt and Gen Blitzwing

Hard to show in a photo, but Silverbolt feels a lot more solid than Blitzwing, there's just more plastic to him


Henkei Lambor, CW Dragstrip, Gen Crosscut, United Rodimus

Again hard to show, but Dragstrip is solid, feels more like Sideswipe in mass than Crosscut.

United Starscream, CW Skydive, Gen Windblade, Gen Sky Shadow

Taller and more articulated than a seeker, far more solid than Windblade (fitting though) and a little more solid than the Skyshadow/Thunderwing mould.

Shrapnel & Bombshell

Again, even in the legends class, the build quality seems to be improving, and you can see what I mean about the colour difference.

FOC Bruticus, CW Superion

No contest here, Bruticus may be almost as tall, but there's no mass to him at all, having such a solid voyager class torso really makes a difference.

Maketoys Green Giant, CW Superion

Ok, in weight terms, Green Giant wins here. But he's what, $400 US vs the roughy $100 price of Superion. I don't really have a problem here. Height-wise they're a pretty good match, Superior being just a little taller.

Hope you enjoy these guys, if you want any shots of alt-mode comparisons, that may have to wait until later tonight/tomorrow - there's dinner to be cooked/eaten and TV to be watched

[leakin' lubricant]

as promised, here are some comparison shots (and a d*ckhead)

various primes:

Yeah, CW Prime is big

CW Prime, CW SIlverbolt and Gen Blitzwing

Hard to show in a photo, but Silverbolt feels a lot more solid than Blitzwing, there's just more plastic to him


Henkei Lambor, CW Dragstrip, Gen Crosscut, United Rodimus

Again hard to show, but Dragstrip is solid, feels more like Sideswipe in mass than Crosscut.

United Starscream, CW Skydive, Gen Windblade, Gen Sky Shadow

Taller and more articulated than a seeker, far more solid than Windblade (fitting though) and a little more solid than the Skyshadow/Thunderwing mould.

Shrapnel & Bombshell

Again, even in the legends class, the build quality seems to be improving, and you can see what I mean about the colour difference.

FOC Bruticus, CW Superion

No contest here, Bruticus may be almost as tall, but there's no mass to him at all, having such a solid voyager class torso really makes a difference.

Maketoys Green Giant, CW Superion

Ok, in weight terms, Green Giant wins here. But he's what, $400 US vs the roughy $100 price of Superion. I don't really have a problem here. Height-wise they're a pretty good match, Superior being just a little taller.

Hope you enjoy these guys, if you want any shots of alt-mode comparisons, that may have to wait until later tonight/tomorrow - there's dinner to be cooked/eaten and TV to be watched

Thanks for these man, just what I needed, looks like my rotf Superion is heading to an auction site near you!

[megatronus]

Thanks for the pics! These are great

I have just one photo request:

Maketoys Green Giant, CW Superion

Ok, in weight terms, Green Giant wins here. But he's what, $400 US vs the roughy $100 price of Superion. I don't really have a problem here. Height-wise they're a pretty good match, Superior being just a little taller.

Can you snap another pic of Superion next to Giant, but with Giant either standing straight, or with Superion rocking the 'A' stance? Just want to see how they compare when they're in the same standing position (like you have with FOC Bruticus).

Thanks!

[Cobotron]

All my questions have been answered.
Dreams really can come true.
Bombshell looks amazing!
Thanks prjkt, you lucky dawg.

[leakin' lubricant]

Combiner Wars Silverbolt Review:

Well much to my surprise I was fortunate enough to snag a Combiner Wars Silverbolt this morning from my local toy shop, I thoughts I'd offer my thoughts on him here.

Robot Mode:



I'll start with Bot mode as this is haow he comes out of the box, a very nice Bot mode that evokes his G1 repesentation very well, he has a nice vibrant colour scheme and is proportioned very well, the paint apps are of good quality however there are some areas that could have benifited with being painted, such as the shoulders, they dont look horrible in black, but I feel silver or white may have been a better choice. He has good articulation and all the joints are nice and tight,he has a ball jointed head, very sturdy ratcheted shoulders and there are a few soft ratcheted joits elswhere on the figure. There is a fair bit of kibble on the back, with the nosecone, tailfin and wings being folded back there, however the wings can be folded all the way back to make them look less intrusive, the tailfin is the most obvious peice of kibble and it does hang down rather low on the back of the figure, if I'm honest I wish there was a way to collase that up a little but its not that big a deal. Dispite the back kibble he balances very well and is able to hold some nice poses. Accessory wise he comes with a big assed gun, which can seperate for him to wield in botmode, the second half of the gun forms a shield that can be stored on his other arm, I'm not to sure about this really, the gun appears a little on the large side and the shield appears far to small, I would have rather the gun not separate but thats just me.



Jet Mode:







The transformation is quite simple however is quite satisfying, it is not unlike Leader Class Jetfre to be honest, and there is a fair amount of kibble on the underside. Kibble aside the jet mode is very nice, the transformation seams are well hidden along the wing sections however I cant for the life of me figure out why Hasbro used the orange plastic as the connection hinge for the nosecone, white would have looked much better, there is also that rubbery plastic on the nosecone and at the tip of the tailfin, I dont care for it personally but all toys appear to have it these days. All in all it is a nice update to the G1 Concorde mold, as a nod to Concorde the nosecone can tilt forward slightly, which I think is a nice touch. The gun can be stored in Alt mode, you need to raise the landing gear which reveals a second 5mm hole in oreder to store the gun, and the gun has a small molded wheel on it to replicate the landing gear.




Torso Mode:

The Transformation to torso mode is quite impressive, I love how the arms form his legs and the way the chest section is formed is very well engineered, I dont yet have any limbs to attach to the figure so I cannot comment on how well they intergrate. There are two things however I dislike about the torso mode, first Superions anttene are made of that awful rubbery plastic, and it is very, very pliable, very little presure at all is needed to move them around, they also dont stand upright, leaning a couple of degrees back, its not that bad but I would preffer they were made of a more robust material, no doubt Shapeways will fix that in time, secondly in order to make the combiner ports available Silverbolts fists need to be pivoted to the rear of the knees, the problem is they just kind of sit there and no attempt has been made to conseal them in torso mode, sure there at the back and very unlikley to be seen but I would have liked them to have been stored away a little better.



Comparison with ROTF Silverbolt.

Ive done this comparison because, firstly I've not seen it done yet and secondly this is the figure he will be replacing in my collection.








As you can see Combiner Wars Silverbolt is a huge improvment in every mode.

Conclusion.

Silverbolt is a fine figure, I am very happy with my purchase, he is a very solid Voyager class figure, he has good quality plastics and has a simple yet satisfying transformation, there are some compromises due to him being a combiner but these dont detract from the overall enjoyment of the figure, I reccomend him highly and cannot wait to find the rest of his brethren to see him in all his glory.

Thanks for reading.

[jogunwarrior]

Thanks so much for the comparison pics. Its so reassuring to me to see that these new Deluxe figures can more than stand up next to the previous years.
I'm now more excited for Combiner Wars than ever before!

[william-james88]

The gun can be stored in Alt mode, you need to raise the landing gear which reveals a second 5mm hole in oreder to store the gun, and the gun has a small molded wheel on it to replicate the landing gear.

This is a very impressive piece of detail. It is subtleties like this that make such a huge difference for me.

[prjkt]

Thanks for the pics! These are great

I have just one photo request:

Maketoys Green Giant, CW Superion

Ok, in weight terms, Green Giant wins here. But he's what, $400 US vs the roughy $100 price of Superion. I don't really have a problem here. Height-wise they're a pretty good match, Superior being just a little taller.

Can you snap another pic of Superion next to Giant, but with Giant either standing straight, or with Superion rocking the 'A' stance? Just want to see how they compare when they're in the same standing position (like you have with FOC Bruticus).

Thanks!

problem there is that Green Giants design sort of forces the wider stance due to the width of his legs vs gap between thighs - not sure if I'll be able to close it up. And with no ankle tilt, the opposite can be said of Superion, won't be very stable.

Ill give both a shot tonight though, but yeah, for four times the cost there's going to be some differences in poseability

[william-james88]

So to me, since the pose shown is the preferred post of the two toys, it only makes sense that this is the best way of comparing them.

[prjkt]

So to me, since the pose shown is the preferred post of the two toys, it only makes sense that this is the best way of comparing them.

Exactly. What with not being able to keep his legs closed, and accepting all sorts of new members, Devastator isn't really doing much for his reputation...

(I really shouldn't be awake at 4am when I'm working 8-7 today... Caffeine it is!)

[megatronus]

So to me, since the pose shown is the preferred post of the two toys, it only makes sense that this is the best way of comparing them.

Exactly. What with not being able to keep his legs closed, and accepting all sorts of new members, Devastator isn't really doing much for his reputation...

(I really shouldn't be awake at 4am when I'm working 8-7 today... Caffeine it is!)

I get that - I just like to see in-kind type shots. If it's not possible, it's not possible.

[Syn_13]

FOC Bruticus, CW Superion

No contest here, Bruticus may be almost as tall, but there's no mass to him at all, having such a solid voyager class torso really makes a difference.

This is the pic I wanted to see! Thanks so much for posting this! You can see how Hasbro are really started to up their game now with these combiners and, as you said, the Voyager torso does make a difference when it comes to bulk.

I have the Boosticus upgrade kit and it makes Bruticus look a hell of a lot better, albeit the recent Voyager sized Onslaught provided by Microblaze gives him a bit more bulk in the torso and thighs. Nonetheless, I'm glad that they're roughly the same height, so my Bruticus will still look good with the new combiners.

[Yotsuyasan]

Maketoys Green Giant, CW Superion

Thank you for this pic! While I was feeling relatively confident, it is nice to have confirmation that the Combiner Wars gestalts will scale nicely with the three gestalts I currently have in my collection!



I was particularly hoping Superion would look good with the Fansproject Stunticons, since I'm not really digging Hasbro's Menasor. (I know given my usual "Hasbro, when an option, is preferable to 3rd party!" stance, this may seem hypocritical, but I don't mind being flexible for that with 3rd party figures I've acquired when that was the only option, and a Hasbro version wasn't even a blip on the radar. Unless, of course, the Hasbro one turns out to be better! *cough*Springer*cough*)

Still, even though I don't dig Menasor, I will be getting that Optimus, and likely will be interested if/when his limbs get Autobot recolors, so at least hopefully the molds themselves will be represented in my collection.

[william-james88]

Oh man, there are so many things I just cant get over with this line.

Not only are we getting beautiful upgrades of G1 greats at a stellar price, but we are getting new versions of classics figures that I dont have yet. I dont have a universe prowl or ironhide. Both suffered from a design perspective. I am aware that a connecting port will affect the figure's individuality (maybe) and hinder movement and transformation complexity on some level, but I still cant wait for a ne classics version of these characters.

Also, with Defensor practically confirmed, I think we can all kiss our thoughts on Abominus goodbye. With the scramble city theme, Hasbro will want to have limbs that work well with one another and the combaticons would be more interchangeable than the terrorcons. It's too bad, but at least I feel I still had a cute small Abominus update from Beast Hunters.

Guess that's gonna be one more CHUG Onslaught figure for us to all own.

[Robogeek1973]

Wow, if I wasn't already planning on getting Superion, I would be now. Those comparison pics look fantastic, and make me even more excited for these than I already was.

[shajaki]

these comparisons are awesome! the scale i chose for all my 3P combiners seems to have really paid off. passing on uranos, and seeing hasbros superion fitting so nicely makes me really happy.

[prjkt]

Glad you guys liked the comparisons. I tried to use figures most people would have/want to see. Will try to do some alt-more comparisons tonight

[Yotsuyasan]

Guess that's gonna be one more CHUG Onslaught figure for us to all own.

I know recently the Fansproject augmented Bruticus has been seeing a lot of hate, but I'm still quite happy with it. So a hypothetical Combiner Wars Bruticus would have to be an absolute thing of perfection to get me to upgrade.

(And I do feel less hypocritical about this one then I do about earlier in the thread when I said I'd be passing up on the official Menasor, as at least in this case, three fifths of the team is official figures!)

Bring on the Defensor, though! I need a good Autobot team for Bruticus to be paired off against! Other then Devastator, who in his time was unique as a gestalt, I do prefer my gestalts to be in pairs of opposing Autobot & Decepticon teams.

[prjkt]

Here we go, some more pics. This time Altmodes

United Tracks, Arms Micron Wildrider (repurposed as G1), CW Dragstrip, Asia Gen Mirage, JP Gen Hoist

As you can see, big vehicle mode, bigger than Mirage in bulk, just a little longer (sooo tempted to do a "race" shot of these two) and much bigger than AM Wildrider and Hoist, closer to Tracks in size

Asia Gen Astrotrain, CW Alpha Bravo, JP Gen Vortex

He's obviously smaller than Astrotrain, in size and over-all mass, and looks smaller than Vortex in this shot, though he is a lot more solid and a bit longer.

G1 Reissue OP, AOE Evolution "1984" OP, CW OP, Classics Inferno

As in robot mode, much bigger/bulkier than the classics mould, but doesn't seem out of scale (just a slightly bigger truck model) and is closer to Inferno in size.

United Skywarp, CW Skydive, JP Gen Armada Starscream, CW Firefly, United Thunderwing

Unlike robot mode, these guys look smaller than the classics seeker, purely because streamlined they are not. They're chunky looking jets, just pushing the realm of over the top, but to be solid combiner limbs I guess there was no choice. Bigger and heavier than Armada SS, closer in feel to Thunderwing (though still a little shorter, just thicker)

JP Gen Blitzwing, CW Silverbolt, Henkei (2013) Skyfire

These guys are my only voyager size jets, sure I have the Spring/Storm guys and Whirl, but they're not jets...
Anyway, more streamlined and "complete" than Blitzing, holds together a lot better. Arms are hidden a little bit better than Jet/Skyfire with no weapons attached, tabs together really well, but I think Skyfire still wins in size (and weapons load out)


EDIT: Megatronus - I did try to pose Superion legs out - one ratchet stop, but he fell over, and Green Giant can't close his legs any tighter, so my earlier pics is about as good as it gets.

[shockblast2]

G3 Ironhide?

AWESOME!

[Jelze Bunnycat]

G3 Ironhide?

AWESOME!

Possibly a repaint of one of the Stunticons. Awesome?

[robotmel]

G3 Ironhide?
AWESOME!

Possibly a repaint of one of the Stunticons. Awesome?

You never know, with Hasbro creating moulds with the intent of a repaint or two and a version getting some promotion first (looking at you CW Optimus), it is entirely possible the mould marked for the Stunticon release is being promoted the same way?

What I mean to say is despite the Stunticon version coming first, Hasbro may have marked the same mould as Ironhide but improved sales will come by releasing Ironhide later knowing fans will also purchase the same mould a second time!

What with not being able to keep his legs closed, and accepting all sorts of new members, Devastator isn't really doing much for his reputation...