The Energon Pub

[Va'al]

Thanks to a tip from fellow Seibertronian Autobot Genocide, we can share some in-hand images of the second wave of Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Air Raid - the final Aerialbot and missing limb of Superion! Check out some of the mirrored photos from Genetic of the TFND.net boards below, showing off jet mode, robot mode, articulation and combined form with other team members Alpha Bravo, Silverbolt, Skydive and Firefly.

[shajaki]

its sad to see that the gold trim on the chest is absent... but! superion completed!

[peaces]

i'll add my own gold trim. way too plain without it.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Any comparisons with his supposed pretool partner Skydive? I can see the tail and legs match.

[Rated X]

its sad to see that the gold trim on the chest is absent... but! superion completed!

Superion is not complete. 4 down, 1 more to go. Alpha Bravo doesnt count. He goes in the padded cell for impersonating an Aerialbot.

[Moody magpie]

Oh no he comes with a comic, the chances of him coming to UK has decreased!

[Cobotron]

Any comparisons with his supposed pretool partner Skydive? I can see the tail and legs match.

Looks like his forearms too.
Man! He looks cool. That head sculpt is great.

[Evil Eye]

its sad to see that the gold trim on the chest is absent... but! superion completed!

Superion is not complete. 4 down, 1 more to go. Alpha Bravo doesnt count. He goes in the padded cell for impersonating an Aerialbot.

Alpha Bravo is an Aerialbot, and he definitely counts. He's just not the one you want. If it bothers you that much then buy the Takara version with the Firefly redeco.

[Agamemnon]

So, granted I may have missed it somewhere in the 150 damn pages of this thread, but am I going to have to import from Takara to get a complete superion? All due respect to Va'al, but a helicopter does NOT belong amongst the Airialbots.

Planes and whirlybirds are like the bloods and crips, they just shouldn't mix.

Uh, why doesn't a helicopter belong among the Aerialbots? They're the Aerialbots, not the Jeticons! Anything that flies makes sense.

Because the Aerialbots have an established history of being jets. There was never a member named Alpha Bravo. At least before IDW showed up. I don't like the change. Plus, how the hell does a helicopter keep up with three fighter jets and a Concorde?

Also, I'm a bit of a geewunner at heart.

#ChildOfTheEighties

[Rodimus Prime]

If it bothers you that much then buy the Takara version with the Firefly redeco.

I will be doing exactly that. The Aerialbots are Silverbolt, Skydive, Air Raid, Fireflight, and Slingshot. Alpha Bravo would go well in place of Blades for Defensor, but not with a group of jets. Makes no sense.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

its sad to see that the gold trim on the chest is absent... but! superion completed!

Superion is not complete. 4 down, 1 more to go. Alpha Bravo doesnt count. He goes in the padded cell for impersonating an Aerialbot.

Alpha Bravo is an Aerialbot, and he definitely counts. He's just not the one you want. If it bothers you that much then buy the Takara version with the Firefly redeco.

Or at the very least wait for the Hasbro Slingshot rumor to ring true,

[Sabrblade]

If it bothers you that much then buy the Takara version with the Firefly redeco.

I will be doing exactly that. The Aerialbots are Silverbolt, Skydive, Air Raid, Fireflight, and Slingshot. Alpha Bravo would go well in place of Blades for Defensor, but not with a group of jets. Makes no sense.

Makes more sense than a large delivery tractor trailer being part of a group called the "Stunticons". Or two non-predatory herbivores (a buffalo and a rhino) being part of a group called the "Predacons". At least a helicopter is still aerial.

[gothsaurus]

He's the big rig that carries all those stunt cars tho the next stunt show

[peaces]

how does g1 bumblebee keep up with g1 sideswipe?

[Autobot N]

its sad to see that the gold trim on the chest is absent... but! superion completed!

Superion is not complete. 4 down, 1 more to go. Alpha Bravo doesnt count. He goes in the padded cell for impersonating an Aerialbot.

Don't be a jerk to Alpha Bravo. Just because he is a helicopter doesn't mean he can't be an Aerialbot. And besides, he is a really good figure. In fact (I can't judge Air Raid yet until I own him), Bravo is actually my favorite figure from the line so far.

[Cyberpath]

Kind of a shame that none of them form a small "plane" on their backs. I always thought it was clever and fun on the original toys.

[william-james88]

*Sigh* missing Starscream & Thundercracker...

MP? Me too.

it's a cheap alternative to mp

Been my plan all along.

Of course there may be that instance were Shockwave zaps 'em with a Giganto Ray so they can go toe to toe with Superion and the likes. Who knows what adventure lays ahead?
(I liketh to play wif my toys)

I am finding that "waiting" on certain Transformers is a bad idea... Which I waited to get MP Starscream & Thundercracker (I had seen them at Walmart too!!) Now I am kicking myself as they go for any where from $140-$200+

I do plan on using TC as a "in between" while I wait to get MP TC...

Good news, the MP Starscream is being reissued by TRU later this year, so you might be able to get him for cheaper.

[Flashpoint_82]

Has anyone noticed that Silverbolts nose can turn down, like a real Concorde ???

[Rodimus Prime]

If it bothers you that much then buy the Takara version with the Firefly redeco.

I will be doing exactly that. The Aerialbots are Silverbolt, Skydive, Air Raid, Fireflight, and Slingshot. Alpha Bravo would go well in place of Blades for Defensor, but not with a group of jets. Makes no sense.

Makes more sense than a large delivery tractor trailer being part of a group called the "Stunticons". Or two non-predatory herbivores (a buffalo and a rhino) being part of a group called the "Predacons". At least a helicopter is still aerial.

But nowhere near with the capabilities of a jet. So makes NO SENSE. I do agree about the Predacons and perhaps even Motormaster. Yeah, he has about as much to do with stunt vehicles as a helicopter does with jets. I always thought a monster truck alternate mode for Motormaster made more sense, both purpose (stunt) and scale wise.

[Evil Eye]

Well Silverbolt was an "odd-man-out", being a civilian craft alongside military planes. Surely something like an SR-71 or an F-111 would have made more sense?

[william-james88]

He's the big rig that carries all those stunt cars tho the next stunt show

You might be joking, but thats an awesome and fun explanation.

[kirbenvost]

Good looking bot! I like how his shoulder design hides the arms a little better in alt mode too. Looking forward to completing my currently one-armed Superion!

[william-james88]

As to why Alpha Bravo is part of the set, here is the reasoning given by Hasbro TF head Jery Jivoin:

What was the thought process behind introducing new Combiner characters such as Offroad and Alpha Bravo instead of just sticking with new interpretations of classic characters?
We wanted to introduce some new characters. There is also names and which we have, which is trademarked and what we're allowed to release. You've seen that in the past where we've had to change the names of some characters. Also we wanted to make sure the scales of everything were what needed to be. Sometimes scales were a bit funky in the original releases, you have a motorcycle that's the same size as a helicopter. Some of those decisions came into play. We wanted to create the essence of what the original characters were originally with the colors and type of characters you can make in the big Combiner character.

I really like the product line. It turned out really fantastic and I think from what I want to keep pushing the brand is that Generations isn't just about looking in the past. It's also about creating new stories, new characters as we go forward. I tell this story to the design and marketing team, when we were kids, when I first came out and was playing with this brand, somebody was in our seat, in our job and they were creating new stories and new toys for us. That's our job, you know? And that's what makes this fun. There's a 5, 6, 7...10 year old kid out there, whatever age they are who's getting into this and they're experiencing Transformers for the first time. So it's our responsibility and what we get to give back now is that we are creating the next generation of fans with this new product line whether it's Generations product line, whether it's Robots in Disguise whether it's Rescue Bots. We're creating this new fun way to play.

The Combiner Wars gives us you know, a great way not only to look back with the characters that everyone loves but also say "What's new?". We have our fan app right now and you can go vote, we're letting the fans create the next Combiner from the Autobot or Decepticon allegiance, the colors, the limbs, everything even down to...we're going to let them choose the gender. For the first time ever, there could be a female Combiner, which would be amazing! You know, we've never seen that before! I love seeing what's new. I love the past. I grew up on G1, but I want to keep adding new. The stories we tell with IDW, the new characters they're creating. Let's keep pushing it and pushing the story forward.

Also, just for those who think that comics might influence what Hasbro decides to make as toys... um no, its always the other way around:

We saw the success of the Combaticons with Bruticus, then the story started...we wanted to celebrate the 30th anniversary in '14. We talked about putting Combiners in there, then this idea came out of the Combiner Wars. So I said let's save that for after the 30th anniversary, we start with Combiner Wars. We worked on the storyline with IDW and obviously the toys that we have and that's where it came from.

I love how he uses the word "obviously" as if everyone knows that at the end of the day, its all about the toys. That's what Hasbro (as a toy company) cares about, selling new toys to both new and old fans, and finding ways to promote them in the media. And there's nothing really wrong with that.

[william-james88]

Boy, that sure isn't a vague, nondescriptive bio, no siree bob!

The only way it could get more generic is by saying: "Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons. He is evil. The decipticons are evil. Thus the autobots are good.

"Autobots rage their battle to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons."

I thought it was that the Autobots waged their battle.... Huh.....

I've heard people say it both ways, but definitely not in a past tense.

"Rage" just makes more sense when battle is concerned, since it's not like the Autobots are always gambling their fights.

Dosen't that make it sound like the autobots are the assholes in this? Aren't the Decepticons the aggressors in all of this. So wouldn't the Decepticons be raging war, while the autobots wage the war, considering they're continuing and reciprocating. After all the definition of wage in this context is to carry on.

Another fun point that always seemed to hint at this is how the fractions are called in Japanese. Decepticons are Destron and Autobots are Cybertron, which really labels the autobots as the chosen people of cybertron and the decepticons as outsiders, when they are both from the same planet.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Another fun point that always seemed to hint at this is how the fractions are called in Japanese. Decepticons are Destron and Autobots are Cybertron, which really labels the autobots as the chosen people of cybertron and the decepticons as outsiders, when they are both from the same planet.

Actually no. The planet and the faction do come from the same root but they're spelled differently in Japanese:

Faction: サイバトロン Saibatoron: Cybertron
Planet: セイバートロン Seibātoron: "Seibertron"

"Seibertron" is a pun, combining "Cybertron" and "sei", meaning "star" and used for basically any celestial body, including planets, meteors and comets.