The Energon Pub

When do you guys think we'll get to see a tease for Menasor's combined mode or Motormaster himself? I'm hoping that we'll get the tease at New York Toy Fair, but I wouldn't be surprised if that event either just shows off Wave 1 and a bit of Wave 2 (like maybe they show off whichever Stunticon is in Wave 2 and an Autobot), or is more for Studio Series figures.

Autobot N wrote:

Nemesis Primal wrote:Agreed with everyone who said making Bulkhead a Grapple remold would have been a worse figure.

A better figure but a worse Bulkhead imo

I think the figure would have been worse honestly. Grapple retool was worst case scenario here.

Sentinel_Primal wrote:When do you guys think we'll get to see a tease for Menasor's combined mode or Motormaster himself? I'm hoping that we'll get the tease at New York Toy Fair, but I wouldn't be surprised if that event either just shows off Wave 1 and a bit of Wave 2 (like maybe they show off whichever Stunticon is in Wave 2 and an Autobot), or is more for Studio Series figures.

Here is the likely scenario for coming reveals:

January: Fan First Friday with more SS86 reveals from the Fall or Winter
early February: Legacy Wave 1 cores are found in stores and finally revealed that way
mid-February: NYCC coincides with Wave 2 Legacy reveals and titan reveal
May: Wave 3 Legacy reveals including Menasor reveal to coincide with full stock of wave 1 in stores and finding of wave 2 in asian countries and UK
July: Wave 2 of 2022 SS hits shelves and is given half-hearted reveal after the fact
August: wave 4 Legacy reveal
November: wave 3 2022 SS figures found in stores
December: wave 3 2022 SS figures revealed while wave 4 found in stores and never revealed

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

Autobot N wrote:

Nemesis Primal wrote:Agreed with everyone who said making Bulkhead a Grapple remold would have been a worse figure.

A better figure but a worse Bulkhead imo

I think the figure would have been worse honestly. Grapple retool was worst case scenario here.

Sentinel_Primal wrote:When do you guys think we'll get to see a tease for Menasor's combined mode or Motormaster himself? I'm hoping that we'll get the tease at New York Toy Fair, but I wouldn't be surprised if that event either just shows off Wave 1 and a bit of Wave 2 (like maybe they show off whichever Stunticon is in Wave 2 and an Autobot), or is more for Studio Series figures.

Here is the likely scenario for coming reveals:

January: Fan First Friday with more SS86 reveals from the Fall or Winter
early February: Legacy Wave 1 cores are found in stores and finally revealed that way
mid-February: NYCC coincides with Wave 2 Legacy reveals and titan reveal
May: Wave 3 Legacy reveals including Menasor reveal to coincide with full stock of wave 1 in stores and finding of wave 2 in asian countries and UK
July: Wave 2 of 2022 SS hits shelves and is given half-hearted reveal after the fact
August: wave 4 Legacy reveal
November: wave 3 2022 SS figures found in stores
December: wave 3 2022 SS figures revealed while wave 4 found in stores and never revealed

While we joke, this is a frighteningly real possibility going on past performance.

ZeroWolf wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

Autobot N wrote:

Nemesis Primal wrote:Agreed with everyone who said making Bulkhead a Grapple remold would have been a worse figure.

A better figure but a worse Bulkhead imo

I think the figure would have been worse honestly. Grapple retool was worst case scenario here.

Sentinel_Primal wrote:When do you guys think we'll get to see a tease for Menasor's combined mode or Motormaster himself? I'm hoping that we'll get the tease at New York Toy Fair, but I wouldn't be surprised if that event either just shows off Wave 1 and a bit of Wave 2 (like maybe they show off whichever Stunticon is in Wave 2 and an Autobot), or is more for Studio Series figures.

Here is the likely scenario for coming reveals:

January: Fan First Friday with more SS86 reveals from the Fall or Winter
early February: Legacy Wave 1 cores are found in stores and finally revealed that way
mid-February: NYCC coincides with Wave 2 Legacy reveals and titan reveal
May: Wave 3 Legacy reveals including Menasor reveal to coincide with full stock of wave 1 in stores and finding of wave 2 in asian countries and UK
July: Wave 2 of 2022 SS hits shelves and is given half-hearted reveal after the fact
August: wave 4 Legacy reveal
November: wave 3 2022 SS figures found in stores
December: wave 3 2022 SS figures revealed while wave 4 found in stores and never revealed

While we joke, this is a frighteningly real possibility going on past performance.

I was only half joking when i wrote that. Given some more thought, I could adjust the times a bit to make it my real prediction

Legacy Started in the best possible way.

Nice . I'm also glad to know that I'm not the only one who uses Aragon as a stand-in for Grand's "Cog". I cannot wait to get my BZ and have my Titan Shelf truly complete. Even GameStop however seems to be delayed in getting this into the United States. I have my pre-order with Pulse, but basically, whoever gets it first, for the original price point gets my money.

Funny enough, this Legacy Selects is the only item of that line I am purchasing thus far.

JTPrime has now stated that Twincast (with Rewind) is the Legacy Wave 4 Voyager.

Happy holidays y'all!

Finally got a break from my studies, so I can give my thoughts on the Legacy reveals. Mind you, it's a few months waiting, so it's going to be a bit of a text dump:

In general, the G1 characters so far look very good, though I can only say for certain when we start getting reviews. The Energon Weapon gimmick seems fun, especially if they do combine like the Solitarium weapons or even just like the Energon ones - which, if Prime Arcee's blades/shield are any indication, is pretty likely - and are not as intrusive as previous line-wide gimmicks for those who want an accurate representation of the character coughprimewarstrilogycough.

The other continuity characters, though, are a bit hit and miss. If they just transplanted characters into the G1 aesthetic like they did with so many like Barricade, Bulkhead, Lugnut and Lockdown I wouldn't mind (...okay I would mind a bit we were still stuck in G1, but at least the other iterations were being aknowledged), but to advertise them as being the non-G1 characters when they're clearly designed differently just feels wrong. It feels like a repeat of the Prime Masters, where instead of toys of the Thirteen or updated Pretender toys we got a mishmash of both which ended up being faithful to neither. Prime Arcee doesn't actually look too bad - she's just blockier and with a nose - but Prime Bulkhead they didn't even try: it's basically another character with Bulkhead's head and mace, and the vehicle looks less like Prime's jeep-like truck and more like Animated's military van, and even then only in the most superficial level (long, cylindrical six-wheeled military vehicle), since the details are closer to AOE Hound. The concept art is closer, but it still needed shorter legs and a bigger torso to be true Bulkhead proportions. Honestly, the whole thing makes me wish they don't touch on the more "drastic" designs like Animated and Beast Machines - and that's a poor sentiment to have for a line that's meant to homage all of Transformers' history.

As for the Menasor combiner, that seems like a pass for me. I'm usually all for greater cartoon accuracy, but when you sacrifice an integral and frankly more interesting gimmick of the original - the interchangeable limbs with other similar combiners - for the sake of what's basically a persistent character model error, I feel it's a bit too much. That being said, if this was an alternate continuity's take on Menasor, or as a rumour said a multiversal Menasor made from different iterations of the Stunticons (which I think has been debunked by now but still sounded interesting), I'd be all for it; it actually sounds like an original take on combination we rarely see in Transformers, and it reminds me of that concept from a scan of the Generations book which was basically 14 cars and a base. I hope we do see more original combiners like that in Transformers in the future outside of the typical humanoid gestalt we tend to get, like the Duocons, beast combiners like Sky Lynx and Magmatron, weapon combiners like the Armada Mini-Con teams, GoBots-esque exosuits or the cancelled (also from Generations book) vertically-split animal-vehicle Duocons.

As for the rumours: Cybertron Metroplex sounds really good, but the original was pretty much a copy of the toy's AutoCAD anyway, I don't really care for scale accuracy and it will probably not have the Cyber Planet Key gimmick, so it's not for me; I hope Iguanus is an update of the Pretender concept instead of another Transformer with the robot mode shaped like the Pretender shell, or at least the Beast Wars character; no idea what the Energon Monsters are yet, but given the Energon Weapon gimmick could it be another take on the Weaponizer/BattleMaster/Fossilizer concept?

MaximalNui wrote:I hope Iguanus is an update of the Pretender concept instead of another Transformer with the robot mode shaped like the Pretender shell, or at least the Beast Wars character;

Hope is just undiscovered dissapointment.

MaximalNui wrote:another Transformer with the robot mode shaped like the Pretender shell

That's exactly what he is

Maybe after they release Menasor, they could give us a show-accurate Bruticus set, including Swindle with the windscreen chest, and Blast-Off's wings forming the combiner's chestplate.

Unite Warriors Bruticus has the right colors, that is good enough for me

william-james88 wrote:

MaximalNui wrote:I hope Iguanus is an update of the Pretender concept instead of another Transformer with the robot mode shaped like the Pretender shell, or at least the Beast Wars character;

Hope is just undiscovered dissapointment.

I was hoping Iguanus would be a Pretender like the Prime Wars ones. At least that way theys a chance I could get Diver and complete the set. However I am at least interested in whatever these energon monsters could be.

o.supreme wrote:Unite Warriors Bruticus has the right colors, that is good enough for me

And I think that's as good as we will get for Bruticus. That version even retools the amount of blades for vortex.

william-james88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:Unite Warriors Bruticus has the right colors, that is good enough for me

And I think that's as good as we will get for Bruticus. That version even retools the amount of blades for vortex.

I have UW Bruticus and the set is only truly good with the epic upgrade kit. Still good enough without though.

Anyway, if a second combiner with it's own unique system ever came out like Legacy Menasor, I think the next one should be Liokaiser. The CW version was just "fan art."

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:Unite Warriors Bruticus has the right colors, that is good enough for me

And I think that's as good as we will get for Bruticus. That version even retools the amount of blades for vortex.

I have UW Bruticus and the set is only truly good with the epic upgrade kit. Still good enough without though.

Anyway, if a second combiner with it's own unique system ever came out like Legacy Menasor, I think the next one should be Liokaiser. The CW version was just "fan art."

Definetely. The CW version is not only a mere repaint, but it also misses the point by having combiner kibble, of which the original only had the combiner helmet. However, I think it is too obscure a combiner for the mainline. IF we ever get him, I'm afraid we'll probably get him trough HasLab.

Rtron wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:Unite Warriors Bruticus has the right colors, that is good enough for me

And I think that's as good as we will get for Bruticus. That version even retools the amount of blades for vortex.

I have UW Bruticus and the set is only truly good with the epic upgrade kit. Still good enough without though.

Anyway, if a second combiner with it's own unique system ever came out like Legacy Menasor, I think the next one should be Liokaiser. The CW version was just "fan art."

Definetely. The CW version is not only a mere repaint, but it also misses the point by having combiner kibble, of which the original only had the combiner helmet. However, I think it is too obscure a combiner for the mainline. IF we ever get him, I'm afraid we'll probably get him trough HasLab.

Or TakaraTomy Selects... once we get two figures suitable for retooling into Leozack and Jallguar.

I think Bruticus is definitely a candidate for an upgrade, as is Defensor. Maybe even Superion, but he was really good in CW already. The Silverbolt mold aged much better than the Motormaster and Onslaught/Hotspot molds.

I don't think we need to circle back around to the CW combiners for at least another 5-10 years. If anything, we are overdue for a Monstructor, maybe give us a Commander class Magnaboss and Tripredacus, and how about generations versions of RiD2015 combiners or even a proper Cyberverse Volcanicus?

We don't need to re-do the G1 ones. Let them sleep for a while.

As for the Black Zarak images coupled with rumors of red Cog, I really am realizing I should have gotten Grand Max

I don't think we need a new Volcanicus, the PotP version is about 95% of the way to the Cyberverse version. If we're only getting one a year, then Hasbro probably isn't going to go too deep into the catalog. I don't want a Monstructor unless they're going to get serious about Pretender shells, which I don't expect anytime soon.

AcademyofDrX wrote:I don't think we need a new Volcanicus, the PotP version is about 95% of the way to the Cyberverse version. If we're only getting one a year, then Hasbro probably isn't going to go too deep into the catalog. I don't want a Monstructor unless they're going to get serious about Pretender shells, which I don't expect anytime soon.

I think we do, the Cyberverse transformation scheme is very different, probably on par with the CW vs G1 cartoon Menasor in terms of looks/design.

I really want to see Monstructor. I have accepted that modern Pretenders will never have shells again, only have a inner robot/shell fusion, and I am willing to accept that to get Monstructor

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

AcademyofDrX wrote:I don't think we need a new Volcanicus, the PotP version is about 95% of the way to the Cyberverse version. If we're only getting one a year, then Hasbro probably isn't going to go too deep into the catalog. I don't want a Monstructor unless they're going to get serious about Pretender shells, which I don't expect anytime soon.

I think we do, the Cyberverse transformation scheme is very different, probably on par with the CW vs G1 cartoon Menasor in terms of looks/design.

I really want to see Monstructor. I have accepted that modern Pretenders will never have shells again, only have a inner robot/shell fusion, and I am willing to accept that to get Monstructor

While I'm glad some people can do with fusions, that's the kind of update that sounds pointless for me. It's sort of the same dilemma we'll face when they start redoing Cybertron. When a gimmick is so central to a design's personality and enjoyment, is there really a point to a redo that omits that gimmick? In my case, the answer to that question about pretenders is "no". Having essentially two action figures is sort of the whole point. And also the reason why we'll probably never get pretenders again.

The only way I can see pretenders happening again is with a bunch of core class transforming inner robots, with deluxe or voyager class shells which also transform and are sold separately as their own figures. Sort of like G1 Thunderwing and the other mega pretenders, but split across two toys that can interact.

Rtron wrote:The only way I can see pretenders happening again is with a bunch of core class transforming inner robots, with deluxe or voyager class shells which also transform and are sold separately as their own figures. Sort of like G1 Thunderwing and the other mega pretenders, but split across two toys that can interact.

If they do that, I also want them to make vehicles for Core Class figures. Give me Gunrunner and Roadgrabber's cars, and Wheeljack's Turbo Racer while we're at it.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote: I really want to see Monstructor. I have accepted that modern Pretenders will never have shells again, only have a inner robot/shell fusion, and I am willing to accept that to get Monstructor

Preaching to the Choir. Both Monstructor and Dinoking are on my wish list below. As the only U.S. released Original Series combiner not to have a modern update ( the rest on my wishlist are Japanese) Hasbro and TT have to understand that is a pretty big omission, and will hopefully rectify that when they feel the time is right. Also to make the combiner a proper size ( Honestly if he is either made op of Deluxes or voyagers I'd be happy either way). To correct the errors of the massively undersized original toy.

We're only getting a new Menasor because his cartoon design was so much different from the toy we got and also had non-standard combining thanks to looking like a giant robot with cars hanging off of him so they could do something new in Legacy. There's really no need to redo most of the CW lineup aside from Liokaiser. Hopefully they come up with a really good system for combining two deluxe figures into a torso eventually so we can get proper Deluxe six member combiners like Liokaiser, Monstructor/Dinoking, Raiden and Devastator. They could do an entire year and a half long line with that line up and almost all of them have built in repaint potential. Aside from the obvious pair, Liokaiser can keep being a CW retool with some updated parts ala TT Selects combiners, Raiden can be repainted into "updated" Sixtrain and/or Sixliner, and Devastator can either go full Diaclone or G2. There's a lot they could do here.

Emerje