The Energon Pub

I'm surprised pre-orders for wave 7 still haven't gone up, or at least on Pulse UK they haven't, perhaps August at the same time as the new Studio Series stuff? Either way, none of the recent exclusives have sold out on Pulse UK yet, so I could still get Nova if I wanted to, I'm just debating whether or not he really has a place in my current collection set up. On the plus side, I got a "Your item will ship soon" e-mail about my Armada Optimus Prime pre-order, so I'm looking forward to having him soon.

My current list of figures to get is Shadow Striker, Bombshell, Dreadwing, Powerlinx Hot Shot, Ultra Magnus, Frenzy and Ratchet, with Nova and Strongarm on the maybe pile. The Shattered Glass Rodimus and Sideswipe set is also very tempting, but it's obvious that Sideswipe and Whisper will be repainted into Armada Wheeljack and Wind Sheer eventually, so I may just hold out for that.

sol magnus wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I'll be going after the amazon exclusives at 1.

I'll get em later. i gotta recover from the Haslab Dragonfly 'Copter.

I got them all locked down.

I appreciate the fact that I have been able to skip all the haslabs lately.

Bombshell is probably the most anticipated figure from his wave and thanks to our friend Matt in Japan, we have an early review of him. While he isn't a 100% new mold (and instead is a retool of Shrapnel), you'll let us know if you think Hasbro still pulls it off well here. Or maybe you think Bombshell really needed a whole mold of his own. Either way let us know! For those curious, Matt found this toy on the Mercari website.

Speaking of retools, we also have a review of one of Bombshell's wavemates, Strongarm. She is a retool of the Elita 1 mold from last year.

And lastly, we also have Detritus which is our best look at the new Earth mode Hound mold.

I'm waiting for Bomshell and the Reprolabels that goes with it. Then once I have both on hand, I'll finally unpack all of my 3 Insecticons, apply the Repros on all of them, then proudly display them with my G1 and Primes Wars ones.

Why waiting to do everything at once?

Why not?

That bug mode for Bombshell is growing on me...
While I do wish the legs stuck out the sides just a little more, I'm more glad this didn't end up looking too much like Shrapnel's bug mode. Not that Shrapnel's is bad.
Just glad there's more of a distinct look for each.

If anyone needed a fully new figure, it should have been Strongarm. The character has some heft and size to her. Not all female robots need to be petite, curvy, and small. Which, while we're on the subject, Elita One should have been a Voyager Class figure. In the cartoon, she's a head shorter than Prime, so why do they make her so small?

Bounti76 wrote:If anyone needed a fully new figure, it should have been Strongarm. The character has some heft and size to her. Not all female robots need to be petite, curvy, and small. Which, while we're on the subject, Elita One should have been a Voyager Class figure. In the cartoon, she's a head shorter than Prime, so why do they make her so small?

It's also a very, very BAD mold. I sold Elita-1 and Minerva with no regrets. Damn clown car with gaps everywhere, and not fun to handle. But I wonder if Strongarm will feel different in hand.

There's also a Detritus review as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xLG302KDjY&t=51s

Im still bewinldered at how this is coming out before SS86 Hound. I know some are pointing to examples such as TR Sentinal Prime (before Astrotrain) or Skyshadow (Before Overlord).

What I dont think people recall correctly though is...

With Hound, we've known about him for over a year, then Detritus name came up later.

With TR Sentinel & Skyshadow, the toys came out first, and fans just drew correct conclusions that these were pretools for the characters they were obviously made for.

The delay for SS86 Hound is still

Bounti76 wrote:If anyone needed a fully new figure, it should have been Strongarm. The character has some heft and size to her. Not all female robots need to be petite, curvy, and small. Which, while we're on the subject, Elita One should have been a Voyager Class figure. In the cartoon, she's a head shorter than Prime, so why do they make her so small?

Apparently, Hasbro doesn't like making characters with just car altmodes any bigger than the Deluxe class.

o.supreme wrote:There's also a Detritus review as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xLG302KDjY&t=51s

Im still bewinldered at how this is coming out before SS86 Hound. I know some are pointing to examples such as TR Sentinal Prime (before Astrotrain) or Skyshadow (Before Overlord).

What I dont think people recall correctly though is...

With Hound, we've known about him for over a year, then Detritus name came up later.

With TR Sentinel & Skyshadow, the toys came out first, and fans just drew correct conclusions that these were pretools for the characters they were obviously made for.

The delay for SS86 Hound is still

Exclusives are weird because retailers' attitudes and preferences can shift. Velocitron Hot Rod was cancelled, it's possible something similar happened with Hound, but we know Hasbro is committed to getting the figure out there somehow.

o.supreme wrote:There's also a Detritus review as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xLG302KDjY&t=51s

Im still bewinldered at how this is coming out before SS86 Hound. I know some are pointing to examples such as TR Sentinal Prime (before Astrotrain) or Skyshadow (Before Overlord).

What I dont think people recall correctly though is...

With Hound, we've known about him for over a year, then Detritus name came up later.

With TR Sentinel & Skyshadow, the toys came out first, and fans just drew correct conclusions that these were pretools for the characters they were obviously made for.

The delay for SS86 Hound is still

Don't forget triple changing Titans Return Voyager Prime and Megs being pretools for Tankor and Blitzwing respectively.

Sabrblade wrote:

Bounti76 wrote:If anyone needed a fully new figure, it should have been Strongarm. The character has some heft and size to her. Not all female robots need to be petite, curvy, and small. Which, while we're on the subject, Elita One should have been a Voyager Class figure. In the cartoon, she's a head shorter than Prime, so why do they make her so small?

Apparently, Hasbro doesn't like making characters with just car altmodes any bigger than the Deluxe class.

They made Override in the Speedia 500 line as a Voyager. And like Override, Elita One doesn't need to be a large Voyager, just more in scale with Optimus. Even if they'd left Elita as a Deluxe, a large Deluxe (eg Siege Ironhide) would have worked better.

Bounti76 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Bounti76 wrote:If anyone needed a fully new figure, it should have been Strongarm. The character has some heft and size to her. Not all female robots need to be petite, curvy, and small. Which, while we're on the subject, Elita One should have been a Voyager Class figure. In the cartoon, she's a head shorter than Prime, so why do they make her so small?

Apparently, Hasbro doesn't like making characters with just car altmodes any bigger than the Deluxe class.

They made Override in the Speedia 500 line as a Voyager. And like Override, Elita One doesn't need to be a large Voyager, just more in scale with Optimus. Even if they'd left Elita as a Deluxe, a large Deluxe (eg Siege Ironhide) would have worked better.

Don't forget that there's also SS86 Hotrod.

Also, RiD Strongarm is not supposed to be a car. She's supposed to be a truck/SUV. So a voyager would have been appropriate.

o.supreme wrote:There's also a Detritus review as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xLG302KDjY&t=51s

Im still bewinldered at how this is coming out before SS86 Hound. I know some are pointing to examples such as TR Sentinal Prime (before Astrotrain) or Skyshadow (Before Overlord).

What I dont think people recall correctly though is...

With Hound, we've known about him for over a year, then Detritus name came up later.

With TR Sentinel & Skyshadow, the toys came out first, and fans just drew correct conclusions that these were pretools for the characters they were obviously made for.

The delay for SS86 Hound is still

Thanks, I'll add it to the article.

As for your question, the difference is you are comparing regular retail releases that are planned by Hasbro to exclusive releases that are planned by retailers. The delay for SS86 Hound is due to Target's scheduling, just as Velocitron Hot Rod's current cancellation is due to Walmart's scheduling.

I'll be getting Bombshell, yes. But I'm among those who wish he had gotten a completely new mold. The rear half looks too boxy, and I agree that the rear insect legs need to stick out at the sides somehow. The only legs you can see are the tiny ones poking out near the front. The rest are completely occluded.

I'm curious, if they were going to do a Stunticon 5-pk then why bother with a Motormaster rerun? Seems that maybe these two items would be out around the same time.

Till-all-R1 wrote:I'm curious, if they were going to do a Stunticon 5-pk then why bother with a Motormaster rerun? Seems that maybe these two items would be out around the same time.

Is there a Motormaster rerun?

Sabrblade wrote:

Till-all-R1 wrote:I'm curious, if they were going to do a Stunticon 5-pk then why bother with a Motormaster rerun? Seems that maybe these two items would be out around the same time.

Is there a Motormaster rerun?

Yes and it's been a while since its announcement.

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/ ... 201976?o=4

https://www.agesthreeandup.ca/products/ ... 8f01&_ss=r

https://tfsource.com/tfsource/commander ... ns-legacy/

https://toysnowman.com/products/transfo ... 2609415394

All are preorders.

Till-all-R1 wrote:I'm curious, if they were going to do a Stunticon 5-pk then why bother with a Motormaster rerun? Seems that maybe these two items would be out around the same time.

Isn't the 5-pack toy deco? In that case the rerun for Motormaster is justifiable considering the deco difference.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Till-all-R1 wrote:I'm curious, if they were going to do a Stunticon 5-pk then why bother with a Motormaster rerun? Seems that maybe these two items would be out around the same time.

Is there a Motormaster rerun?

Yes and it's been a while since its announcement.

https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/ ... 201976?o=4

https://www.agesthreeandup.ca/products/ ... 8f01&_ss=r

https://tfsource.com/tfsource/commander ... ns-legacy/

https://toysnowman.com/products/transfo ... 2609415394

All are preorders.

It basically comes down to availability: The Menasor giftset is a Pulse exclusive, while the Motormaster re-release is available anywhere else.

So close to completing CW Menasor, and now this...

Till-all-R1 wrote:I'm curious, if they were going to do a Stunticon 5-pk then why bother with a Motormaster rerun? Seems that maybe these two items would be out around the same time.

The second run is for people that got all of the single cars but weren't able to get Motormaster. Those people aren't very likely to buy the box set just for Motormaster and even if they did they'd still be left with four unused cars either way.

Emerje

william-james88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:There's also a Detritus review as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xLG302KDjY&t=51s

Im still bewinldered at how this is coming out before SS86 Hound. I know some are pointing to examples such as TR Sentinal Prime (before Astrotrain) or Skyshadow (Before Overlord).

What I dont think people recall correctly though is...

With Hound, we've known about him for over a year, then Detritus name came up later.

With TR Sentinel & Skyshadow, the toys came out first, and fans just drew correct conclusions that these were pretools for the characters they were obviously made for.

The delay for SS86 Hound is still

Thanks, I'll add it to the article.

As for your question, the difference is you are comparing regular retail releases that are planned by Hasbro to exclusive releases that are planned by retailers. The delay for SS86 Hound is due to Target's scheduling, just as Velocitron Hot Rod's current cancellation is due to Walmart's scheduling.

Why is as Hound dependent on Target? Would he not be mass retail?

TK415 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:There's also a Detritus review as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xLG302KDjY&t=51s

Im still bewinldered at how this is coming out before SS86 Hound. I know some are pointing to examples such as TR Sentinal Prime (before Astrotrain) or Skyshadow (Before Overlord).

What I dont think people recall correctly though is...

With Hound, we've known about him for over a year, then Detritus name came up later.

With TR Sentinel & Skyshadow, the toys came out first, and fans just drew correct conclusions that these were pretools for the characters they were obviously made for.

The delay for SS86 Hound is still

Thanks, I'll add it to the article.

As for your question, the difference is you are comparing regular retail releases that are planned by Hasbro to exclusive releases that are planned by retailers. The delay for SS86 Hound is due to Target's scheduling, just as Velocitron Hot Rod's current cancellation is due to Walmart's scheduling.

Why is as Hound dependent on Target? Would he not be mass retail?

Hound was leaked as part of a Buzzworthy Bumblebee two-pack that included Hatchet. As far as I recall, it's not clear if that release has been delayed or cancelled, but Hasbro has said that he's still coming.

TK415 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:There's also a Detritus review as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xLG302KDjY&t=51s

Im still bewinldered at how this is coming out before SS86 Hound. I know some are pointing to examples such as TR Sentinal Prime (before Astrotrain) or Skyshadow (Before Overlord).

What I dont think people recall correctly though is...

With Hound, we've known about him for over a year, then Detritus name came up later.

With TR Sentinel & Skyshadow, the toys came out first, and fans just drew correct conclusions that these were pretools for the characters they were obviously made for.

The delay for SS86 Hound is still

Thanks, I'll add it to the article.

As for your question, the difference is you are comparing regular retail releases that are planned by Hasbro to exclusive releases that are planned by retailers. The delay for SS86 Hound is due to Target's scheduling, just as Velocitron Hot Rod's current cancellation is due to Walmart's scheduling.

Why is as Hound dependent on Target? Would he not be mass retail?

No, Hound is not mass retail

AcademyofDrX wrote:

TK415 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

o.supreme wrote:There's also a Detritus review as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xLG302KDjY&t=51s

Im still bewinldered at how this is coming out before SS86 Hound. I know some are pointing to examples such as TR Sentinal Prime (before Astrotrain) or Skyshadow (Before Overlord).

What I dont think people recall correctly though is...

With Hound, we've known about him for over a year, then Detritus name came up later.

With TR Sentinel & Skyshadow, the toys came out first, and fans just drew correct conclusions that these were pretools for the characters they were obviously made for.

The delay for SS86 Hound is still

Thanks, I'll add it to the article.

As for your question, the difference is you are comparing regular retail releases that are planned by Hasbro to exclusive releases that are planned by retailers. The delay for SS86 Hound is due to Target's scheduling, just as Velocitron Hot Rod's current cancellation is due to Walmart's scheduling.

Why is as Hound dependent on Target? Would he not be mass retail?

Hound was leaked as part of a Buzzworthy Bumblebee two-pack that included Hatchet. As far as I recall, it's not clear if that release has been delayed or cancelled, but Hasbro has said that he's still coming.

I dont *think* it was a 2-pack, I think it was just 2 seperate deluxe releases. Based on what we know now from missing numbers it would likely be:

94 DotM Hatchet &
86-18 TF:TM Hound

If Target decided to drop their exclusivity for these in the Buzzworthy line, hopefully Hasbro can adjust to make them standard mass retail releases at some point. One additional point though. Because they would only be *exclusive* in the United States to Target, other parts of the world it wouldn't matter. If it was just target holding them back, one would think they would have seen release in other parts of the world by now.