The Energon Pub

[Cobotron]

Oh Will, I hesitate giving you advice because of what happened with Thunderwing.

But, I'll go with my gut. I really think you would be happier waiting for a deep discount on Armada Megs. I love the G1 version and display him proudly, but he has short comings. Knowing what you like, and how important value is to you, I feel like you would be upset by paying that much. It's like you always say about Jetfire. You got him for $30, and he is a 30 dollar toy. I think the same for either Megatron. I got mine for $38 and I don't think he is worth any more than that.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Alright Will, sit down time:

i got my leader G1 Megs for $38 and he is damn worth it. It is a great, solid, pretty hefty mold. The tank mode is amazing and accurate to real tanks with incredible detail, moving turret and treads and the extra guns to make it beautifully accurate. There is very little robot tellable from the vehicle mode. Transformation is fun, can be fast but very satisfying.

the robot mode looks so much like G1 Megs, has a beautiful head and very nice detail. there is detail everywhere you look, even beneath plates of armor that move! The paint job is gorgeous and the fusion cannon, while a little long in the back, looks very good with the firing missile part back. All the paint lost in the combiner wars figures was made up for this guy. He has very little kibble, and to me the tank treads on the back make him look bulkier and much more imposing. He is still quite posable despite everything and you can put his extra guns on his legs for more bulk look. He looks like he should turn into a gun but doesn't! It to me is a true G1 Megs brought to life. The Armada version is not as good since the silver makes the figure and the armada just doesn't look as close to the original as the G1 version.

I would seriously have bought the guy at full price but managed to get him for cheaper. He was well worth full price to me. If you really want Armada, I'd say wait for massive discounts, but I would get the G1 Megs if you have the chance. He is an amazing leader and honestly the best of the combiner wars leaders all around

[Ironhidensh]

I paid 40 even for my leader class Megatron, & I don't feel ripped off on it. Of course, I would have liked that paid less and I'm of mixed feelings if he's really worth $40 but like I said, I don't feel ripped off. If you're a big Megatron then I'd say go for it. The Canon is very disappointing, and he could use a little more articulation, but that's it. another plus the fact that Megatron feel so much more solid than the other recent leader class in trees by Hasbro.he doesn't feel like he's going to break apart in your hands.

Also Will, a good argument for Jetfire being designed first, and the Seekers just being a repaint, is the IDW Transformers comic.Starscream's reformatting into the leader class seeker body felt very out of nowhere. You can clearly tell it was Hasbro flexing their muscles on the artist.

[Cobotron]

Just want to add,

If you do go for G1 Megs, I hope I'm wrong.

[chuckdawg1999]

I think it's worth the wait to see what Amazon does for Black Friday

[william-james88]

I think it's worth the wait to see what Amazon does for Black Friday

Not sure, amazon.ca doesnt know what it is doing in canada. Their retail price for Megatron is 70$. F**K OFF Amazon.ca!

http://www.amazon.ca/Transformers-B1136AS0-TRANSFORMERS-Generationerations-MEGATRON/dp/B00ND603UU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445982715&sr=8-1&keywords=megatron

[Agamemnon]

I think it's worth the wait to see what Amazon does for Black Friday

Not sure, amazon.ca doesnt know what it is doing in canada. Their retail price for Megatron is 70$. F**K OFF Amazon.ca!

http://www.amazon.ca/Transformers-B1136AS0-TRANSFORMERS-Generationerations-MEGATRON/dp/B00ND603UU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445982715&sr=8-1&keywords=megatron

On sale now for 43.14!! You save 38%!!

Maybe they heard you, WJ88? Or are they pulling a Kohls? (If you don't have them, Kohls here in the US is notorious for jacking up the price and providing us with unbelievable savings. I mean, my shoes are $130 shoes I got for $34.99!)

[william-james88]

I think it's worth the wait to see what Amazon does for Black Friday

Not sure, amazon.ca doesnt know what it is doing in canada. Their retail price for Megatron is 70$. F**K OFF Amazon.ca!

http://www.amazon.ca/Transformers-B1136AS0-TRANSFORMERS-Generationerations-MEGATRON/dp/B00ND603UU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445982715&sr=8-1&keywords=megatron

On sale now for 43.14!! You save 38%!!

Maybe they heard you, WJ88? Or are they pulling a Kohls? (If you don't have them, Kohls here in the US is notorious for jacking up the price and providing us with unbelievable savings. I mean, my shoes are $130 shoes I got for $34.99!)

They were pulling a Khols all along (we dont have Khols, but I get the drift from reading posts). They never issued him for 70$ (not that I know), I was just quoting their "MSRP" price and how the savings were not that much of savings afterall. I will be waiting till black friday to see how this guy goes (as well as Trypticon and the astrotrain blitzwing set). If he goes for 30$, he is bought.

[King Kuuga]

I find the leader Megatron to be a very satisfying figure. I got the G1 version and it works in all the right ways. The Armada version might have been good if we hadn't had the G1, but we do, soooooooo I gotta go with that. He has good articulation (raise his treads high on his back and his waist swivel works fine), a lovely head sculpt, an impressively-sized compensator-I mean, fusion cannon, and a smooth transformation. He looks great in both modes and I think he's fantastic. There are upgrade kits for his legs and feet but personally I'm fine with him the way he is.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I find the leader Megatron to be a very satisfying figure. I got the G1 version and it works in all the right ways. The Armada version might have been good if we hadn't had the G1, but we do, soooooooo I gotta go with that. He has good articulation (raise his treads high on his back and his waist swivel works fine), a lovely head sculpt, an impressively-sized compensator-I mean, fusion cannon, and a smooth transformation. He looks great in both modes and I think he's fantastic. There are upgrade kits for his legs and feet but personally I'm fine with him the way he is.

Yeah, I saw those upgrades kits, but while they definitely do look good, the mold by itself is pretty amazing and not really in need of upgrades

[Sabrblade]

Or we can think about this realistically and not make a bullshit non cannon explanation (that''s funpub's job); the reason probably has something to do with which parts are on which sprues, the chest sections may be molded with the arms and engines.

The chest is painted purple.

[Fireback]

I really want Acid Storm and Sunstorm from this mold.

I also want Dreadwind and Hooligan from Jetfire.

I would quickly Fork-over $$ for an Acid Storm! Break-up the reg.
MP Seeker mold template- that my Seeker shelf has..
An if they put A darker green Con-head tat right on the real nose-cone. In alt. Mode Acid Storm would look super badass.

I Lost all respect for Dreadwing when SoundWave demolished him
In IDW Transformers vol.4 (or vol.5? The GN with this New seeker mold Crowned Starscream on the cover).

[DedicatedGhostArt]

Thundercracker's on Amazon for the price of a voyager if anyone's interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Gene ... 0PS0N3J5S7
Personally I'm gonna get Jetfire. I hope to get him this Christmas season, WITHOUT is selling out on Amazon.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Thundercracker's on Amazon for the price of a voyager if anyone's interested:
http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Gene ... 0PS0N3J5S7
Personally I'm gonna get Jetfire. I hope to get him this Christmas season, WITHOUT is selling out on Amazon.

Go to the thread about sales. Leader TC was on sale there for only $22 2 weeks ago. He keeps bouncing around

[william-james88]

Dont know if a leader is shipping alongside Skywarp but I sure hope its G1 (Grey/Silver) Megatron. He is the only one that is hard to find or completely sold out. In canada, he is now sold out from Walmart, Toysrus and Amazon, while armada megs (the green one) is everywhere. If Hasbro wants to play it smart, just release more of the G1 deco megs in 2016, it seems we cant get enough of him.

MOVING ON... I have some stuff to say about the Leader seekers. I was about to buy them the other day because they are quite cheap (35$cdn/27$US in stores) and as I was holding the Starscream box, I took a good look at him and realized how dissapointing he was as a toy.

The first thing that made me flinch was the headsculpt. For some mind boggling reason, Hasbro has the hardest time coming up with a good seeker head. They put lines that dont need to be there. Takara does that with the masterpiece, giving him a pronounced chin but what Hasbro does here is that and more. I hadnt noticed it before but the nose is all sorts of wack:


Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Starscream Gallery

He has these two lines that branch out at the top of his nose, making it look like it was pinned to his face and not part of it, kinda like he's the scarecrow from wizard of oz. Your eyes go directly to his nose:



It was more distracting than I thought it would be. And his eyes are totally lifeless. I dont know, the faceculpt just didnt scream Starscream to me in the least and was more generic seeker (which was probably their goal).

But beyond that, I realized how this mold doesnt work for a seeker at all. Sure, when you look at it, the first thing you see is the chest and you'd think it was a great rendition of the IDW seeker design below:



But if you take more than a second to look elsewhere, you realize that its only the torso area that is similar and everything else is very different:


Transformers Generations Combiner Wars Starscream Gallery

The exhausts end up in back of the head instead of the back of the feet, there is no tail find on the feet, there are no triangular parts at the sides of the head, the arms are all wrong and my biggest pet peeve: the wing design in the back is not at all that of a seeker's. Instead of having the two wings, you have thing canopy with absolutely no color. Here is a better and far more definite version of that IDW design and you can tell how it looks very different to the Leader class:


Transformers Generations Starscream Gallery

Another seeker trait is of course the seeker chest and the designs show the nosecone extending beyond the mid section. It doesnt on the Leader mold, making it look more like a chest design imitating a nosecone rather than an actual nosecone, unlike the Legion class toy (from RTS), which had a fake nosecone chest but clearly intended it to portray the actual nosecone rather than a chest design resembling the nosecone.


Transformers Reveal The Shield Starscream Gallery

And please note that I am not being nitpicky on the hallowness or any of that, this is specifically design and how it fails to capture what its trying to do.

This made me think about Jetfire. Why wasnt I this nitpicky? Well, turns out its because he is indeed far better suited for this mold and a lot more care went into him.

Here is the animation model they were basing it off and trying to modernize:



The wings in the back have colour (as they of course would), but this mold doesnt, right?

Nope, Jetfire had those exact colours on his wings in the back:


Transformers Generations Jetfire Gallery

Also, look at how well it recreates the torso area, and making it extra sleek. It definitely benefits on the fake chest, giving you a show accurate chest for the robot mode while giving you a nice cockpit area to replicate the G1 toy. The headsculpt is also spot on (with that awesome extra mask), and they give us those red turrets which you can pose to recreate the G1 look (using the toy's look of having a space between them).

So all in all, there was a lot more love that went into this mold being Jetfire while the Seekers look like an afterthought, especially when you look at the wing area. The same mold that beautifully homaged two distinct Jetfire looks at once totally fails at giving us a good looking seeker.

Anyways, this was all to say that I am never getting these seeker toys, no matter the price and you can see my logic behind that.

[DedicatedGhostArt]

I AM IN TOTAL AGREEMENT WILLIAM! I am hoping to maybe get Jetfire this Christmas season, but those seekers look pretty crappy to me. The only thing I like about the seeker versions are the chests, but even that is not spot on. I can totally see why people hate that version and I am in that same camp. I WILL get Jetfire if I get this mold. The only things I think are crappy on Jetfire are the arms, and the neck joint. (And believe me, I'm already working on custom hands for Jetfire, and I'm thinking of making a neck piece too when I get him to measure.)

[D-Maximal_Primal]

I do respect you opinion will, and that is a great analysis, but I still really like the design. Sure it isn't the classic, but it is a pretty good retool, even if it is a lighter one than what we may want. Plus the jet mode is amazing on them. The mold will always belong to Jetfire (love that toy) but the seekers aren't too bad a try at it

[william-james88]

Any reason Leader Starscream is 60$ (!!!!!) on Walmart.com? It sounds crazy to me:
http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=starscream

[LOST Cybertronian]

Any reason Leader Starscream is 60$ (!!!!!) on Walmart.com? It sounds crazy to me:
http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=starscream

Because it says sold and shipped by Toywiz not Walmart. Like how Amazon has marketplace sellers.

[Hellscream9999]

Any reason Leader Starscream is 60$ (!!!!!) on Walmart.com? It sounds crazy to me:
http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=starscream

Man, what's your deal? You save $1 You should consider yourself lucky

[william-james88]

Any reason Leader Starscream is 60$ (!!!!!) on Walmart.com? It sounds crazy to me:
http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=starscream

Because it says sold and shipped by Toywiz not Walmart. Like how Amazon has marketplace sellers.

Oh I see, I didnt know the US site for Walmart allowed that too, thanks!

[RAR]

I hardly profess much knowledge of IDW - but isn't there radically different Jet designs depending on the artist and the Legends/Basic class ones are only representing one of several artistic types for the Decepticon Jets when they are not F-15s. Perhaps they were looking more at the more F-22 like designs as the inspiration for the Jetfire adaptation.

Besides no one said the toyline had to be based on the comic -sometimes it is sometimes it isn't as it doesn't always share the same continuity with it and only does when the decide it does for short periods how comic accurate they are likely only matters to the small number of people who read the comics to everyone else it's just "Starscream" it's not like it's required for it to be so specific.

This especially applies outside of the USA where the toys do not have comics with them, so those consumers have no basis of comparison.

In a way I see the current toy line as being a bit like Beast Hunters was sometimes it matches up with the media other times it wildly fails to.

Leading to the conclusion that the toy universe isn't really the same thing it just shares some designs - sort of like how Ironhide pinched his comic body design from war For Cybertron for a while.

[King Kuuga]

Starscream adopted his leader body in the comics at the start of Combiner Wars, but that's much more of "the comics follow the toys" than vice-versa.

[Sabrblade]

Though, Thundercracker (and only Thundercracker) has his Guido Guidi Seeker body back in the 2009-2011 ongoing, while Starscream and Skywarp had other bodies at the time.

[DedicatedGhostArt]

Starscream adopted his leader body in the comics at the start of Combiner Wars, but that's much more of "the comics follow the toys" than vice-versa.

I actually find this idea pretty awesome. When they made Leader Jetfire, then put that exact design in the comics, I thought it was quite cool.









That choice was quite genius in my opinion, and makes me want that Jetfire figure even more. I hope to get him about Christmas time. (UW Devastator will probably wait till January or February.)