The Energon Pub

[william-james88]

Desription of Scrounge by Hasbro at Botcon:

SCROUNGE!! – Cosmos & Payload remold, NEW HEAD! Forms a shield to make Computron’s arm more special. The addition of the little space ship gives Computron seven components! They think the ship’s name is the same as before (Later talk at the Hasbro booth confirmed that the Payload redeco is still just Payload)

Q&A from Botcon:

Q: You guys made new hands and feet for Computron, any chance of getting new hands and feet for the other combiners? And since we’re getting both Metroplex and Fortress Maximus, any chance of getting another Titan class Decepticon city besides Trypticon?
John: You mean like Scorponok? The fans voted for Trypticon so Trypticon’s coming and he’s breathtakingly amazing. It’s coming along really, can’t share too many details about it. We know how much people like the other two guys from the poll, in the first place. Those guys are definitely on our radar. It’s one of those things that’s just a matter of when, you know? No plans right now for the combiner hands/feet, but the tool exists, so that’s good. If in the future we wanted to do another series pack, I wouldn’t rule that out, I think it’s a great idea.

Q: For the May Mayhem, is there any chance that Blast Off will actually be in there too?
John: That’s a question we get a lot. No plans at this time, we’ll be moving into Titans Return, so it’s a bit of a weird gray area.

Q: Is there any kind of story behind the release of Scattershot as a standalone figure outside of Computron?
John: Originally, Computron really wasn’t even on our radar. As the last combiner, he has a certain amount of tooling involved with him to do him right. You got a spaceship, and Lightspeed/Lightsteed is a redeco, and Afterburner/Afterbreaker ends up being a little bit of another piece he has to tool up, so it wasn’t until we actually access to a little bit more parts so that we can do Computron right. It ended up creating its own set, but on the short end, we needed a Voyager, we knew that Scattershot was a cool character, and that’s why we created his combiner to be Betatron because the idea is that the beta comes out before the final game, so that’s why that was called “Betatron”. It’s sorta like the precursor to Computron. It’s a unique deco. Keep in mind that it’s not just fans who like to buy these, it’s also kids, so we wanted to make sure that it was a cool spaceship mode, and you guys probably thought so too.

Q: What goes into the decision-making process of things like for the figures’ prime character still having a Superion head versus a few months later Takara comes out with a Generation 1-accurate Computron head?
John: That’s a good question. A complicated question.
Ben: Yeah, I don’t think it’s something we can get into the full details here, it’s something we definitely know and acknowledge for you guys it can be confusing, but it’s a decision we make on, a lot of it is timing-based, what we kinda wanna get on the market certain things and in our stories. And some of it may have to do with what we’re doing outside of toys and video games, you know, stuff that’s influencing and impacting how we approach our characters and our stories, so we often have an eye to the future that the things we introduce here we expect to see that kind of evolution of that character and that look in other spaces. So, a lot of what you see here is an homage to the past, but as John and Eddie have talked about, a lot of what we’re doing too is an eye towards the future of bringing new fans in and kind of giving us a chance to tell a new story versus kinda being chained to only the old stories. Hopefully you guys all see that big part of the new Machinima Combiner Wars story is there’s a lot of story that’s untold, a lot of gray area, a lot of gaps in our continuity, and that’s part of what we see the opportunity to do with the toys. Like, let’s fill in some gaps, let’s do some cool things that kind of open up the freedom whether it’s a comic or animation just to introduce something new.

[Kurona]

I like how they completely glossed over the "any more computron hands/feet for the other combiners" part of the question; guy who asking should have just asked one at a time. Though to me them not answering at all is as good as no.

[megatronus]

I like how they completely glossed over the "any more computron hands/feet for the other combiners" part of the question; guy who asking should have just asked one at a time. Though to me them not answering at all is as good as no.

I got that feeling too.

[MelRains]

I was at that press conference. I heard the phrase "on our radar" so much my ears started to bleed.

I'm pretty sure "on our radar" is code for "we're doing it."

[ZeroWolf]

I like how they completely glossed over the "any more computron hands/feet for the other combiners" part of the question; guy who asking should have just asked one at a time. Though to me them not answering at all is as good as no.

I got that feeling too.

They did say it was possible now that they have the tooling for the new hands so they can be used again

[megatronus]

I like how they completely glossed over the "any more computron hands/feet for the other combiners" part of the question; guy who asking should have just asked one at a time. Though to me them not answering at all is as good as no.

I got that feeling too.

They did say it was possible now that they have the tooling for the new hands so they can be used again

I could definitely go for new feet, but quite honestly, I would much rather use the current, articulated HFGs for hands as opposed to those solid molded hands Computron's got going on.

It's definitely on their radar... I'm just curious/skeptical as to how they would sell/distribute these new hands/feet. Certainly not through mass retail. Maybe Amazon or BBTS? That's more my concern.

[Kurona]

It could be a fun idea to make them transform into Titan Master vehicles and make them obtainable + an extra headmaster that way. Or maybe I'm crazy and just want a Minerva that rides around in a giant foot :p

[jay5]

Comparing them to Breakdown on the other shelf, they look about the same size as I saw some at AA. Alternity were always about deluxe size, and these look the same. So I guess Liger is indeed alot smaller than you thought. Is that a G1 Mirage? Or a third party one?

It's Mastermind Creations' Sphinx, which is a masterpiece-scale Mirage. It's a little bit larger than the SuperGT GT-Rs next to it, and scales with the HasTak MP cars.

[King Kuuga]

That answer to "Why does Computron have a Superion head while Takara's has a new head" is still the biggest steaming pile of nonsense I've read in a while.

[william-james88]

That answer to "Why does Computron have a Superion head while Takara's has a new head" is still the biggest steaming pile of nonsense I've read in a while.

I should stop reading these baords at work, I am laughing to myself and everyone around me must think I am an idiot.

[Hellscream9999]

I dunno what it is about the mold, but I love to just sit around and transform the Onslaught figure back and forth from vehicle to torso form. I don't really get why the mold is so appealing to me, but I love it - maybe it's the ball-jointed neck

[DedicatedGhostArt]

I might get Hot Spot and paint his head black. I only like him with a black head for some reason. I guess it's just more familiar to me. Plus it contrasts better.

[jay5]

Two CW Smokescreens with crummy paintjobs so far. Got a third on order, will see if that one pans out.

[Kurona]

So I guess my whining paid off, because Kapowtoys has restocked Swindle and Brawl at RRP! Yaaaaaaaay!
... no Vortex though. Shame.
Although they're also offering a set of all 4 deluxe combaticons + Onslaught for 90 quid, which ain't bad at all. That's just under the combined RRP price.

[Kurona]

Bought Brawl and Swindle, along with Groove because his price was down.
That set me back like £44.47 and I don't give a ****

[ZeroWolf]

Bought Brawl and Swindle, along with Groove because his price was down.
That set me back like £44.47 and I don't give a SHIZZLESNIT

I may of inadvertently set myself up trying to get the combaticons now. I picked shockwave for a £7 and Defensor looks a bit unnatural wielding him.

[Kurona]

Bought Brawl and Swindle, along with Groove because his price was down.
That set me back like £44.47 and I don't give a SHIZZLESNIT

I may of inadvertently set myself up trying to get the combaticons now. I picked shockwave for a £7 and Defensor looks a bit unnatural wielding him.

I greatly want Shockwave for Bruticus; possibly more than Vortex. Just the fact that he can add to Bruticus' back cannons that can be flipped up works so well for me.
... also, it's a damn cool figure.

[jay5]

Updated with a couple arrivals and news of the TFCC deluxe CW car figure in TFSS 5.0.

[Kurona]

Damn...
I'm curious, what led you to want to display just a bunch of CW cars with Devastator and some other miscellaneous carformers? I mean, it's not a bad thing and it looks hella cool; just that train of thought is very different to what one might expect

[jay5]

Errrm, it happened to fit the space available? And for some reason I find the CW cars appealing (more so than their robot or combined modes).

I used to have them parked in rows on a deeper shelved display but wanted to give this arrangement a try.

Probably not their final home but works for an easy way to get them all in one shot.

Also, I have some parts of the collection divided by alt mode types. These are all of my real-world cars.

Could swap out the two shelves with spaceships for the CW trucks or something else that makes it a bit more cohesive.

Green Giant's there because he happens to fit well in the display and the Constructicon alt modes are real-world vehicles.

[ZeroWolf]

Bought Brawl and Swindle, along with Groove because his price was down.
That set me back like £44.47 and I don't give a SHIZZLESNIT

I may of inadvertently set myself up trying to get the combaticons now. I picked shockwave for a £7 and Defensor looks a bit unnatural wielding him.

I greatly want Shockwave for Bruticus; possibly more than Vortex. Just the fact that he can add to Bruticus' back cannons that can be flipped up works so well for me.
... also, it's a damn cool figure.

Oh I can testify to that, he's really fun to play with and I'm highly tempted to get another two just to create reflectors camera mode

If you need one and want to take a chance, check your nearest asda or asda living as that's where I found him for £7.

[ZeroWolf]

Updated with a couple arrivals and news of the TFCC deluxe CW car figure in TFSS 5.0.

Who's the bots above brainstorm? One of them seems to have cutthroats colour scheme

[jay5]

The two spaceships above Fansproject X-3 Smartrobin and X-7 Combes Robin are MakeToys Blindfire and Ripper. Blindfire is part of the MakeToys Quantron combiner set (a Computron hommage) and Ripper is a shattered glass redeco of Blindfire.

[Mr Skram]

Got my Vortex x4 today and banged out a custom combiner using only Combiner Wars parts. I was very pleased my shipment came this weekend instead of the middle of next week as it was scheduled!


Take a look!

Here he is combined out of the box, nothing extra done.




And post slight customization(just removed the rotors and tossed in some extra parts)







This guy really evens out my personal Combiner War. It's a 4 on 4 fight now with the edge to the Decepticons due to Devastator being a 6 man team.

[ZeroWolf]

That looks awesome skram! Where did those extra parts come from?