The Energon Pub

[D-Maximal_Primal]

repai-er, combiner wars abounds!

[MemphisR56]

It probably would've been a better idea to post the new Repaint wars chart in this thread than over in the unite warriors one.

[Va'al]

DOGE WARS

[Ironhidensh]

I still can't believe how many fans are not only okay with the vast amount of repraints, but Will vigorously defend them.

Hasbro is laughing at us... all the way to the bank.

[MemphisR56]

I still can't believe how many fans are not only okay with the vast amount of repraints, but Will vigorously defend them.

Hasbro is laughing at us... all the way to the bank.

I'm a big critic of the intensive repainting going on, but I'll admit, they're under budgetary constraints.

One of the things that my charts illustrated was the sheer number of characters and figures released. Yes, they're not all winners, but they're giving us a lot of stuff. I think if they'd put more of the budget into the molds, that would've meant missing out on things like Devastator, Like the G2 repaint sets, like the fanmade bot (whether you're okay with the rest of it is a big issue).

I feel like they had massive plans for the combiner wars line and they really pushed what they had to try and give us all of it, but it's ultimately made things too thin on the ground.

So do I understand that Hasbro is limited in it's capacity to deliver on our expectations? Yeah of course, and I'll defend them for that. The design team are all fans like ourselves who want to see things get made.

But does that mean I'm happy with the excessive repaints? no way totally not.

Does it make Hasbro the detestable spawn of satan that a lot of fans will make them out to be? I don't think so, personally.

People can call me "Hasbro Defense Force!" all they want, I don't really care.

[ThunderThruster]

Part of the franchise has always about repaints. There is a line on what is considered too many repaints. and that line occupies a different location for every fan.
For my own collection, as I'm not buying everything in the CW line, I think it's butting up to the line. Had I been on a completionist mission, it would have crossed the line.

[Rodimus Prime]

I will confess: I'm not too bothered by the repaints. Yes, it would be great if all the characters would get their own unique molds, or at least some retooling. However, what makes it easier to accept is the fact that the molds are pretty damn good to begin with. You guys gotta admit, we've had some pretty crappy molds in previous lines. Hell, we've had some pretty crappy lines altogether. I just wish that since Hasbro went the repaint route, they would have gotten as much out of it as they could and given us a representation of as many G1 characters as possible. We could still get Blue Streak and Sideswipe, not to mention Ratchet and the Seekers (since Starscream was included in the Gakvatronus UW 6 set) as well as Inferno from Hotspot and maybe with some retooling Grapple, since he hasn't had an update in forever. And I can definitely see a deluxe Rodimus from the Sunstreaker mold, as well as Kup from the Ironhide mold, even though we're already getting Trailbreaker.

Unless I'm way behind (as usual) and all these repaints are actually happening.

[Noideaforaname]

Repaints are one thing. Each mold getting an average of 4-6 uses is another. Doing that while strongly encouraging people to buy 5/6 figures at a time is another another. FunPub immediately following that with more repaints is yet another thing. The molds all being very similar to start with, well...

[Rodimus Prime]

I guess for me the key is as long as the character exists in original G1 fiction, it's alright for it to have a figure, even if it's a repaint. This is just a personal preference though. And is the reason I passed on Battlecore Prime and got rid of Alpha Bravo, Rook and Offroad. Blast Off? That's a tough decision, knowing he isn't a shuttle, but that the jet makes much more sense, just as Groove being a Legends class did in terms of scale.

[william-james88]

I still can't believe how many fans are not only okay with the vast amount of repraints, but Will vigorously defend them.

Hasbro is laughing at us... all the way to the bank.

What bothers me is not so much that there are a bunch of repaints but by the fact that it is all repaints and retools. In G1 with he aerialbots, they all transform very similarly with slightly different looks from one another. So I think Combiner wars did well following the same formula. They must all serve as 2 limbs at once so tehre is only so much you can do and I feel they did fine with them. I don't see why every deluxe couldnt have some molding changes in the alt mode though. The G1s did. Wildrider and Dead End transform similarly but have different bodies, I would have liked seeing that in Combiner Wars.

Retooling the front of the race car for Dragstrip would aso have been fun so that it could be different from Mirage. I would have liked stuff like that as I have absolutely no issue having both Offroad and First Aid who feel as different to me as Skydive from Slingshot (even more different in fact). But then we just see more and more of these molds. And used when they shouldnt. I get that Blades works a bit with the alpha bravo mold a bit but Vortex doesnt. And then with all these remolds and the excuse for budget (which doesnt hold wter since Takara keeps proving you can have a higher production cost and still stay afloat)leading to us not getting a deluxe groove or shuttle blastoff. I mean they saved all their costs in the other figures, at least give us a fun new mold here and there where it is actually needed. Blastoff especially.

I like how they stuck to their guns with Groove by still releasing a groove albeit in a different class and giving a new character which has distinctive sculpting instead. But Blastoff is just a recycled mold. If they were serious about this toy, they would make him different, some new wings for the jet, mybe give him a different flair. But no.
And they could give us some more disctinctive deluxes like the abominus limbs or computron limbs. So my big beef here is not that there are so many repaints and retools but that there are ONLY repaints and retools. All I want is for those who can work as retools be done as retools (and more than just a different head) and those who should get their own molds to get their own molds. That's it.

[Cobotron]

Speaking of repaints... I may have just found the excuse I was (/ wasn't) looking for to double dip and grab Battle Core Prime.

http://toyhax.com/for-classics/1891-labels-for-cw-battle-core-optimus-thunderclash.html
Man that looks AWESOME!

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Speaking of repaints... I may have just found the excuse I was (/ wasn't) looking for to double dip and grab Battle Core Prime.

http://toyhax.com/for-classics/1891-labels-for-cw-battle-core-optimus-thunderclash.html
Man that looks AWESOME!

Those are some pretty sweet apps!!

[Mindmaster]

Speaking of repaints... I may have just found the excuse I was (/ wasn't) looking for to double dip and grab Battle Core Prime.

http://toyhax.com/for-classics/1891-labels-for-cw-battle-core-optimus-thunderclash.html
Man that looks AWESOME!

I bought him because I wanted a Nova Prime. Ergo...

[Cobotron]

Speaking of repaints... I may have just found the excuse I was (/ wasn't) looking for to double dip and grab Battle Core Prime.

http://toyhax.com/for-classics/1891-labels-for-cw-battle-core-optimus-thunderclash.html
Man that looks AWESOME!

I bought him because I wanted a Nova Prime. Ergo...

Ergo..there you go!

[BombshellDaBug]

I will confess: I'm not too bothered by the repaints. Yes, it would be great if all the characters would get their own unique molds, or at least some retooling. However, what makes it easier to accept is the fact that the molds are pretty damn good to begin with. You guys gotta admit, we've had some pretty crappy molds in previous lines. Hell, we've had some pretty crappy lines altogether. I just wish that since Hasbro went the repaint route, they would have gotten as much out of it as they could and given us a representation of as many G1 characters as possible. We could still get Blue Streak and Sideswipe, not to mention Ratchet and the Seekers (since Starscream was included in the Gakvatronus UW 6 set) as well as Inferno from Hotspot and maybe with some retooling Grapple, since he hasn't had an update in forever. And I can definitely see a deluxe Rodimus from the Sunstreaker mold, as well as Kup from the Ironhide mold, even though we're already getting Trailbreaker.

Unless I'm way behind (as usual) and all these repaints are actually happening.

My thoughts exactly. A lot of the Combiner Wars molds are pretty good. Even the worst ones seem decent (except for Brawl. I don't understand that gaping torso cavity). Could more effort be put in? Yes, but there are budgetary restraints, so this is understandable. It seems to me like most of the budget went into making Titans Return stuff, considering the barrage of new molds that we're getting as a result.

[no-one]

I don't mind all the repaints. Sure I would have liked more retooling/new heads and stuff to make each character stand out a bit from each other. I can always just skip a character who's mold that I already have a ton of, but...

I think what the problem is, in a combining line like CW, that folks want complete combiners and then feel like they are "forced" to buy repaints to complete a combiner released later on. For example I kinda want a Bruticus, but I don't really want another version of his arms.

What I've been doing to combat this issue is rotate out who is in what mode. I'll have one team combined, one team in bot mode and one team in alt mode. That way I get a little taste of everything at a glance.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I don't mind all the repaints. Sure I would have liked more retooling/new heads and stuff to make each character stand out a bit from each other. I can always just skip a character who's mold that I already have a ton of, but...

I think what the problem is, in a combining line like CW, that folks want complete combiners and then feel like they are "forced" to buy repaints to complete a combiner released later on. For example I kinda want a Bruticus, but I don't really want another version of his arms.

What I've been doing to combat this issue is rotate out who is in what mode. I'll have one team combined, one team in bot mode and one team in alt mode. That way I get a little taste of everything at a glance.

That plan may just work out. When I get Sky Reign, Wheeljack and Mirage will switch places so Optimus Maximus has Wheeljack for an arm and then all the members of Sky Reign will be in individual modes. Smoke, Trail, Mirage and Hound will go on my lost light shelves and maybe combiner with Cyclonus sometimes, while Sky Lynx will look marvelous all by himself

[Hellscream9999]

I don't mind all the repaints. Sure I would have liked more retooling/new heads and stuff to make each character stand out a bit from each other. I can always just skip a character who's mold that I already have a ton of, but...

I think what the problem is, in a combining line like CW, that folks want complete combiners and then feel like they are "forced" to buy repaints to complete a combiner released later on. For example I kinda want a Bruticus, but I don't really want another version of his arms.

What I've been doing to combat this issue is rotate out who is in what mode. I'll have one team combined, one team in bot mode and one team in alt mode. That way I get a little taste of everything at a glance.

That plan may just work out. When I get Sky Reign, Wheeljack and Mirage will switch places so Optimus Maximus has Wheeljack for an arm and then all the members of Sky Reign will be in individual modes. Smoke, Trail, Mirage and Hound will go on my lost light shelves and maybe combiner with Cyclonus sometimes, while Sky Lynx will look marvelous all by himself

I won't be bothering with wheeljack unless they paint the d@mn figure

[Zeedust]

I know it's a little early, but does anyone know if the Sky Reign torso is designed to accommodate the Groove/Wreck-Gar mold as a chest plate.

And I really think they should have done the Shockwave for G2 Bruticus in a gray Astro Magnum/Longarm Prime color scheme. Just me?

[william-james88]

I just had an epiphany, Hasbro will never ever release the Shuttle Blastoff Takara is doing.

If you look at the G2 boxsets for superion and menasor, they come with all their original members. If blastoff and groove were following the same trend, they would have released the deluxe molds we didnt get and then include them in the G2 version. But we know they arent doing that since G2 Bruticus has the plane blastoff. Which makes sense to them since unlike the previous combiners, they didnt incude all their original characters, but Bruticus does indeed come with Blastoff, albeit not the one we were hoping for.

[Hellscream9999]

I just had an epiphany, Hasbro will never ever release the Shuttle Blastoff Takara is doing.

If you look at the G2 boxsets for superion and menasor, they come with all their original members. If blastoff and groove were following the same trend, they would have released the deluxe molds we didnt get and then include them in the G2 version. But we know they arent doing that since G2 Bruticus has the plane blastoff. Which makes sense to them since unlike the previous combiners, they didnt incude all their original characters, but Bruticus does indeed come with Blastoff, albeit not the one we were hoping for.

Doesn't mean they won't release them individually later; As we haven't actually seen pics of him yet - and based on how far off the uw bruticus seems to be - I'd wonder how far along in the design process uw blast off actually is. We saw fairly early prototypes of bigroove in pics, so uw blast off may not even have a functioning proto made yet...

[william-james88]

I just had an epiphany, Hasbro will never ever release the Shuttle Blastoff Takara is doing.

If you look at the G2 boxsets for superion and menasor, they come with all their original members. If blastoff and groove were following the same trend, they would have released the deluxe molds we didnt get and then include them in the G2 version. But we know they arent doing that since G2 Bruticus has the plane blastoff. Which makes sense to them since unlike the previous combiners, they didnt incude all their original characters, but Bruticus does indeed come with Blastoff, albeit not the one we were hoping for.

Doesn't mean they won't release them individually later; As we haven't actually seen pics of him yet - and based on how far off the uw bruticus seems to be - I'd wonder how far along in the design process uw blast off actually is. We saw fairly early prototypes of bigroove in pics, so uw blast off may not even have a functioning proto made yet...

Oh I know that too. But if Hasbro would have released him eventualy, they would have waited for it to be finished before making their G2 Bruticus. The G2 releases seem to indicate the ideal formation and components of the combiner. Its them telling us, this is as good as its gonna get. So I dont know why they would release takara blastoff. People can be hopeful but I am now 100% certain that Hasbro will not release the toy Takara will give us.

[Hellscream9999]

I just had an epiphany, Hasbro will never ever release the Shuttle Blastoff Takara is doing.

If you look at the G2 boxsets for superion and menasor, they come with all their original members. If blastoff and groove were following the same trend, they would have released the deluxe molds we didnt get and then include them in the G2 version. But we know they arent doing that since G2 Bruticus has the plane blastoff. Which makes sense to them since unlike the previous combiners, they didnt incude all their original characters, but Bruticus does indeed come with Blastoff, albeit not the one we were hoping for.

Doesn't mean they won't release them individually later; As we haven't actually seen pics of him yet - and based on how far off the uw bruticus seems to be - I'd wonder how far along in the design process uw blast off actually is. We saw fairly early prototypes of bigroove in pics, so uw blast off may not even have a functioning proto made yet...

Oh I know that too. But if Hasbro would have released him eventualy, they would have waited for it to be finished before making their G2 Bruticus. The G2 releases seem to indicate the ideal formation and components of the combiner. Its them telling us, this is as good as its gonna get. So I dont know why they would release takara blastoff. People can be hopeful but I am now 100% certain that Hasbro will not release the toy Takara will give us.

Depends, if TT isn't finished making/using the mold before hasbro releases G2 Bruticus (very likely) then, there would be no other choice for hasbro. I guess it would come down who funded the molds...

[william-james88]

Seibertron has something special for you, a review of Hasbro's Generations Combiner Wars Bruticus in full combined glory. So far, reviews have concentrated on individual members (Onslaught, Brawl, Blast Off, Swindle, Vortex and Legends Class Shockwave) but we thought it would be important to highlight the main point of these toys, the fact that they combine into Bruticus! Anyone still on the fence can check out the Seibertron.com exclusive video review below to see how the combined form looks like in hand. Galleries for all of the Combiner Wars Combaticons will be available soon.

[Genericon #378]

I still can't believe how many fans are not only okay with the vast amount of repraints, but Will vigorously defend them.

Hasbro is laughing at us... all the way to the bank.

Some of the repaints do make sense. The only CHUG toys Ironhide got were a BotCon exclusive, and not everyone can attend those, and that poopy Universe figure. Even the Takara one looks terrible! Universe Prowl was awesome, so I'm going to use him as my Prowl, once I find one that doesn't fall victim to sticky paint virus in five minutes. G2 teams are just cool.