The Energon Pub

Skritz wrote:Know what would be cool with Return of Convoy and Zone getting some love in SELECTS? Somehow, Big Bang getting a figure. Don't know who he'd be a retool of (POTP Rodimus?) but this obscure fella deserves to finally get a toy.

Been thinking it over for a while and while I get where you're coming from with thinking POTP Rodimus would be a good base for Big Bang, I had another idea. I thought about using PMOP or rather Super Ginrai/Delta Magnus more specifically (for the new arms). Make another set of new feet, new shin guards, another new truck cab with a new head, another new chest plate, new shoulders (more for vehicle mode than robot mode due to the mold's shoulder placement in vehicle mode) and more new weapons. Maybe even some new side panels too but that wouldn't leave much of the original toy and some concessions must be made (ie more robot mode than vehicle mode accuracy). Also he could still retain a base mode even if it will look nothing like his original concept.

Am I the only one concerned that I could order theses two and never have access to the rest of them?

Asepticon wrote:Am I the only one concerned that I could order theses two and never have access to the rest of them?

Hasbro Pulse did just send me a notification that the next 2 will be shipping soon. I think the first 2 went live on Pulse on their anticipated ship date of March 23, so keep an eye on the next 2 on April 6. If those show up and the first 2 are still available, I think it would be a reasonable gamble that the final 2 will show up on April 27th.

After a year, we finally know what that Transformers Generations Selects Super Megatron actually looks like. I will let you be the judge of the images below, coming from Dengeki Hobby. The bottom half is tooling based on the voyager Ttans Return Galvatron mold (making that mold no longer unique). We see him in Megatron and Spaceship mode but we all know he had a third mode as does the Galvatron toy he is based on so there might be more to this toy than meets the eye. This voyager sized bot is 6000 yen, so around $55 USD. He will be released in September.

Also, in case anyone thinks it's an April Fool's joke, this was actually posted on April 2nd in Japan.

It kinda looks like this toy uses elements from both Super and Ultra Megatron instead of just the former.

That's not bad. I wish it was leaferclass, and to me the jet mode is the weaker, but I like the colors and he seems to be well-proportioned. That cannon is a bit of overkill, but at least we got a figure. So overall this is positive, but I'm not blown away. Just like I wasn't with Star Convoy.

Lower body, plus the arms minus the elbow joints.

Sabrblade wrote:It kinda looks like this toy uses elements from both Super and Ultra Megatron instead of just the former.

Indeed, the main boy is Super, but the wings and treads are Ultra.

Also, the accompanying manga reveals that this toy's third mode is Ultra Tank Mode!

I...kinda like it. I'd have to head canon him, since I've no interest in Japanese Continuity other than just watching it from time to time. Decisions, decisions.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:

lies.jpg

Whatchu talkin' 'bout? We were shown a year ago that this was going to be a TR Galvatron retool.

Definitely planning to grab this guy. Though, now I have to decide whether he'll replace the Furai IDW Megatron in my Lost Light display, or if he'll serve as Pre-War Megatron in my standard display...

that is an awesome looking Super Megatron, and the tank mode addition is really cool too. Also sort of feels like a nice Marauder Megatron from Animated vibe with the triple changing aspect, which is fitting since that Megatron drew inspiration from Super Megatron.

I intend to pick him up

Okay, so, the manga apparently seems to be hinting that this toy can also change into Ultra Megatron, with its forehead crest possibly able to switch around, its cannon able to split open, and maybe something to give the chest its little gray piece on its right pectoral.

Sabrblade wrote:Okay, so, the manga apparently seems to be hinting that this toy can also change into Ultra Megatron, with its forehead crest possibly able to switch around, its cannon able to split open, and maybe something to give the chest its little gray piece on its right pectoral.

Looking at the cannon, it definitely has the hinges to open up into that cannon. And with that chest cavity that Galvatron had, I'm sure they could hide a secondary crest in there with the regular head

Sabrblade wrote:Okay, so, the manga apparently seems to be hinting that this toy can also change into Ultra Megatron, with its forehead crest possibly able to switch around, its cannon able to split open, and maybe something to give the chest its little gray piece on its right pectoral.

The cannon splits and reverses direction, like Razorclaw's gun into Predaking's.

I like it. The colors are better than some of the other more recent Megatron's and that gun is such overkill that it fits the Japanese Super Megatron to and outsider perfectly. Like if someone not in the fandom saw it and you just said "Oh, that's the Japanese Super Megatron." the person would just nod like of course it is.

Sabrblade wrote:Okay, so, the manga apparently seems to be hinting that this toy can also change into Ultra Megatron, with its forehead crest possibly able to switch around, its cannon able to split open, and maybe something to give the chest its little gray piece on its right pectoral.

His chest changed too, can't quite tell if the figure can do that too. Looking closely at the figure's head it looks more like the entire face spins around, not just the forehead crest.



Emerje

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:You mean how headmasters quickly killed Prime off again just to sell Fortress Maximus as the new Autobot leader

Yes. How it quickly killed him off again in a lame way because he didn't have a toy out anymore. And also how it then invalidated that sacrifice a scant few episodes later by blowing up Cybertron.

The Headmasters is full of stupid.

Think of it this way, Many say how the Takara Series ignored The Rebirth alone. But essentially by killing off Prime immediately, they are undoing Return of Optimus Prime too. Perhaps because the Home Fanbase didn't want him back, following The Movie?

Well see, that's the root of the problem: At the time of The Headmasters, Japan still hadn't got the movie. The Japanese fanbase was missing that major piece of lore and emotional impact.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:To look at the Takara Series in a broader sense, other than some early visual cameos in the opening episodes, they largely pushed the new characters throughout. You could dismiss that cynically as "New Toys", but look at the changing cast from one series to the next.

That is "New Toys", especially with how the Dinobots are treated and the lackluster mutual defeat of Soundwave and Billy Blaster to bring in their new toys.
But there's a difference between characters falling out of prominence in favor of a new focus cast (this is seen even in Seasons 1-3), and a beloved character who had been brought back with much fanfare and fuss dying in a sacrifice with minimal fanfare - and then that sacrifice being invalidated a scant few episodes later.

And I mean it about The Headmasters being full of stupid. There's that trainwreck of events, there's the execution of the Power Pack Matrix's renewal, there's the flipflop over whether Rodimus or Fortress is the younger leader, there's the kerfuffle of Scorponok's Japanese names (where, in an obvious clash of someone who wanted to use the "Scorponok" name and someone who wanted to have "Zarak" and "Megazarak" to parallel "Fortress" and "Fortress Maximus", the "Megazarak" got used for the big scorpoion-bot transtector but the guy who formed the head and isn't a scorpion got named "Scorponok"), there's the Autobot Headmasters making no effort to break the Decepticons Headmasters' telepathic grip on the energy satellite before resorting to blowing it up, there's the Autobots' constant bungling in "The Dormant Volcano Mysteriously Erupts" (extra-painful compared to the stellar disaster relief seen in Season 1)... It has a better narrative justification for Headmasters themselves than the US continuities, but the actual show is very painful. (Of course, The Rebirth is a mess too...)

The overall competence of the Masterforce Autobots is a very pleasant contrast.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Unlike Takara,

Pretty sure you mean Hasbro

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:there wasn't really any knee-jerk backpeddling. No documented outcry which lead to former characters returning?

Because Japan hadn't gotten the movie yet. See also Wheeljack running around alive when he shouldn't be.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:It is strange that for a series that is literally about change,

Okay, I am going to stop you right there. It is a series about metal people (who are largely divided into two warring factions, one imperialist and one anti-imperialist) from space who can change their physical forms. There is a difference between having physical change as an essential gimmick, and being about change in status quo.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:how many seem resistant to the very concept.

There's a difference between concept and execution. And The Headmasters' execution of the changing of the guard... is about as smooth as sandpaper and as graceful as the Micro Change Magnum Robo in robot mode.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:You mean how headmasters quickly killed Prime off again just to sell Fortress Maximus as the new Autobot leader... Then in Masterforce brought in God Ginrai as bot leader etc etc.

Ginrai was not Prime though. Visually similar, in the way others have since been EG Primal, Lio Convoy, Car Robots Prime etc but it wasn't the same character. Nor intended to be.

No, but his toy sure was, which put Takara in an awkward position as to what to do with it in the fiction after their having lackadasically killed Optimus back off instead of writing him out nonlethally.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I always thought The Return of Optimus Prime should have been the onscreen debut of Powermaster Prime, the only original Prime design I liked, but for whatever reason they didn't make it so.

It's very simple: "The Return of Optimus Prime" was in 1987, and PMOP didn't exist until 1988.

Sentinel_Primal wrote:Speaking of Animated, what are the chances of us getting a Slipstream from ER Starscream? Given her prominence (I assume, haven't watched it yet) in Cyberverse, I think she might make the jump to Generations, but I can't see her getting a retail release until maybe after the third part of WFC. I think it might be kind of fun to see her in SELECTS though

I'd personally rather have her from the SIEGE mold.

The reds look nice and bright but they haven't done enough with the shape of the legs (and other parts). Spaceship doesn't quite look as arse as the none energon cybertronian spaceship megatrons but I think for scale/decent looking alt I'd be happier to save money and use the animated leader megatron to represent him alongside star convoy. Maybe a retool of galv will get used again for energon megs somewhere down the line.

Super Megs looks good, and I'm intrigued to see the change to Ultra Megatron, a decent way to represent both forms without releasing another very similar figure.

Though now that we've seen Super Megs, and a possible release of the BWII Seacons... Will this be the end of this particular storyline? Where could Takara go from here

@Zelda it should be pointed out though that the Japanese knew Optimus was dead as they had Transformers 2010 which included Dark Awakening. So I think even if they had the movie... They'd still killed him off in Headmasters, just the same. Part of that may lie on cultural differences, after all Anime at the time had no problems in killing off characters with little fanfare, heck headmasters debuted the year after Zeta Gundam which is where the director cemented his nickname of Kill'em all Tomino.

I also want to say characters were killed off in the Kamen Rider series and Super Sentai shows but having not seen them I can't be sure if I'm going off hear'say or not.

ZeroWolf wrote:Super Megs looks good, and I'm intrigued to see the change to Ultra Megatron, a decent way to represent both forms without releasing another very similar figure.

Though now that we've seen Super Megs, and a possible release of the BWII Seacons... Will this be the end of this particular storyline? Where could Takara go from here

I'd say it's entirely dependent on which figures Takara does after the Seacons. It could be like Legends where every figure gets added to the storyline. Personally I'm hoping that they keep going to "G1.5" with Thunderclash and the Turbomasters, and Stalker and the Predators

TR Galvatron was the very worst of all TR figures (my opinion, please dont tell me now wrong I am), so that automatically makes this figure full of fail. Kinda sucks as I like the general looks, but a bad mold is a bad mold, and you can't save it with a face lift.

ZeroWolf wrote:@Zelda it should be pointed out though that the Japanese knew Optimus was dead as they had Transformers 2010 which included Dark Awakening.

Here's the thing: There is a huge difference in impact between knowing from Season 3 that Optimus was dead, and actually seeing his death scene from the movie. That is what I'm getting at.

ZeroWolf wrote:So I think even if they had the movie... They'd still killed him off in Headmasters, just the same.

Not necessarily. And it doesn't make the execution any less stupid, especially with the sacrifice being invalidated a scant few episodes later.

ZeroWolf wrote:Part of that may lie on cultural differences, after all Anime at the time had no problems in killing off characters with little fanfare, heck headmasters debuted the year after Zeta Gundam which is where the director cemented his nickname of Kill'em all Tomino.

I also want to say characters were killed off in the Kamen Rider series and Super Sentai shows but having not seen them I can't be sure if I'm going off hear'say or not.

Those deaths are still generally written for genuine emotional and story impact, even if that impact is just showing "This is a serious war". Optimus' death in "Birth of the Fantastic Double Prime" is blatant "You don't have a toy in stores anymore, so back out of the show with you kthxdie". It's wasteful writing, and it's a wasted death.

They should have either just found an excuse to have him leave like they did with Rodimus, or if they were going to be that set on killing him back off... instead of having him sacrifice himself to save Cybertron only for that to be invalidated shortly after by Scorpnok blowing up the planet, saved his death for that episode and had him die in a heroic (though probably doomed) struggle to thwart the destruction. That would have been a much better way to do it.

Frankly, I think both "The Trainwreck Rebirth" and The Headmasters missed a narrative opportunity by not doing playing with the story potential of Hot Rod and the resurrected Optimus sharing the burdens of command... Anyway..

Back on the subject of Selects: I can think of some places Takara can go still. They could do a G2 Volcanicus set as part of expanding on the G2 branch of the storyline. They could do Galvatron II. They could turn TR Wheelie into Dion. They could do something with Overcharge.

Ironhidensh wrote:TR Galvatron was the very worst of all TR figures (my opinion, please dont tell me now wrong I am), so that automatically makes this figure full of fail. Kinda sucks as I like the general looks, but a bad mold is a bad mold, and you can't save it with a face lift.

I know the crown mechanism wasn't to everyone's tastes B T what did you feel was off about the rest of it?

@Zelda I see, but don't necessarily agree, best bet would be to ask the Japanese fans what they thought about it. Afterall our perceptions are coloured by the order of things we watched, then filtered through our likes and tolerances. I didn't think his death was that much of a waste, otherwise you could argue that star wars episodes 4 - 6 are pointless with the New Republic getting offed in Episode 7