The Energon Pub

I don't think this looks too bad

Looks good, I am glad I waited for him. I hope they do all three Autobot Brothers. I don't think we have had any molds that would make a great basis of either X-Brawn or Prowl though.

Crosscheck wrote:Looks good, I am glad I waited for him. I hope they do all three Autobot Brothers. I don't think we have had any molds that would make a great basis of either X-Brawn or Prowl though.

Part of the reason i was OK with getting Universe Ratchet, TFCC Sideswipe, and the Super Sideburn (whom I will call Hot Rod) is because I hope we get the OG X-Brawn, Prowl, and Sideburn in Legacy, so I can have a version of both molds (it is what I am trying to do with Cybertron era figures too, get repaints of one mold or the other so the OG vs Legacy stand out from each other).

I think X-Brawn is rumored for next year?

Emerje wrote:One of the worst kept secrets in the Legacy line has finally been revealed thanks to users ZetcaReturns and ZipperMan29x over on TFW2005. Even without leaked listings showing this figure was coming in wave 3 it was obvious to anyone that took a quick glance at Legacy Evolution Shadow Striker that she was a pre-tool of Robots in Disguise Universe Sideburn. Unfortunately, unlike the recent trend of making shared tools of two different characters within the same line stand out by changing things up a bit, the only tooling difference between Sideburn and Shadow Striker is the heads. If you were hoping for at least a more realistic looking front end to the car that's unfortunately not happening.

Sideburn will be coming in the summer alongside Cybertron Hot Shot, Infernac Nucleus, a refresh of Strongarm, Cybertron Vector Prime and Armada Galvatron.

He looks pretty good in robot mode. Much more solid than the OG.

His car mode still odd, but somehow works better in blue than in Shadow Striker purple.
Loving the head sculpt though.

Kind of sad they strayed so much from the Dodge Viper alt mode. That was one of the defining characteristics of Side Burn. His real life alt mode. But I guess licensing costs might have prevented this.

We get a single gun to stand in for his gun blade and his crossbow bumper gun. Odd choice but would have been o.k, if they included the exhaust missile.

I hope they do release him in his "Super" color scheme, just because red and flames are never wrong.

Should we assume the other 2 car bots are coming in the future?

Definitely pre-ordering this guy and Cybertron Hot Shot.

I wonder if the Dodge Viper license is prohibitively expensive, or they just didn't feel it was worth it?

First-Aid wrote:

Emerje wrote:

First-Aid wrote:Meh, not bad. but remember, this is not a direct interpretation of the character. This is a geewunned version of the character. WHile there isn't much of a difference, there are some subtleties the RiD1 series had that G1 didn't.

Maybe we will get lucky and this isn't a final product?

Wouldn't "Geewunifying" it mean a more realistic alt mode like we've seen in other reinterpretations of character, not whatever this is supposed to be?

At least two people have it in hand and we're about 3 months from release, this is the final figure.

I do like the head, it's a bit mature, but more importantly I like the effort with the four paint hits and clear yellow. He definitely stands out in bot mode. Though it's a little strange that he's going to be in the same wave as another blue sports car with clear yellow parts.

Emerje

Geewunning is creating more of a blocky and wide/sturdy look vs the smooth lines of the Dodge Viper he was to start. Examples: Prime Arcee, Bulkhead, Knockout, Animated Prowl. All of them lost a lot of the smooth,sleek lines and definition that defined them in favor of very generic bot/alt modes. The blocky front here is definitely more G1 than anything...or Hasbro may simply be lazy.

The thing about this particular mold is that there was one thing more besides the head that was actually faithful to Cyberverse Shadow Striker: the altmode. This mold's altmode is pretty faithful to the shape and silhouette of Cyberverse Shadow Striker's pre-Frankensteined altmode, but with the addition of Side Burn's exposed engine and most of its angles smoothed out (but still visibly molded).




The Cyberverse designs were already pretty blocky and Geewun in aesthetic to begin with. And Side Burn (or rather, Speedbreaker) was originally conceived by Takara as a G1-universe character who already had a blocky robotic design with a very Diaclone Car Robot-styled vehicle mode.

So in this mold's case, it was less of an instance of "G1-ifying" like with the Prime and Animated designs, and more a case of Hasbro taking two different characters (Shadow Striker and Side Burn) from two different series (Cyberverse and RiD 2001) with two completely different designs, and forcibly trying to mash those two designs together, all because of Shadow Striker's original namesake (Universe Shadow Striker) having been made from the RiD 2001 Side Burn mold, despite the fact that Cyberverse Shadow Striker was a completely new design that looked absolutely nothing like Universe Shadow Striker.

This is like if the Legacy Bulkhead toy had instead tried to have a helicopter mode as a second altmode, and had been given a mustache on top of his very Prime-styled robot mode head, in order to cram in elements from Energon Bulkhead just because he was the first Bulkhead, despite Prime Bulkhead being nothing like him in design or character.

It's basically a return of the "Aligned" mentality that gave all us those mashed G1/Movieverse concept designs from a decade ago.

The Car Robots brothers' designs weren't blocky at all, they were all rounded and sleek like the Beast bots. They were pretty much "Beast Wars but they turn into cars".

Ironhidensh wrote:I wonder if the Dodge Viper license is prohibitively expensive, or they just didn't feel it was worth it?

They never use vehicle licenses for Legacy figures. I guess its not part of the line's budget.

Rtron wrote:The Car Robots brothers' designs weren't blocky at all, they were all rounded and sleek like the Beast bots. They were pretty much "Beast Wars but they turn into cars".

Thanks for verbalizing what I was trying to say. It's been a weird full-moon-like day here at the clinic and my brain haz hurtz.

First-Aid wrote:Geewunning is creating more of a blocky and wide/sturdy look vs the smooth lines of the Dodge Viper he was to start. Examples: Prime Arcee, Bulkhead, Knockout, Animated Prowl. All of them lost a lot of the smooth,sleek lines and definition that defined them in favor of very generic bot/alt modes. The blocky front here is definitely more G1 than anything...or Hasbro may simply be lazy.

That really only applies to bot mode. Back in the day the goal was to have the most realistic car modes of the time, but the engineering wasn't all that great so we got our minimally articulated brick bots and the aesthetic stuck (thankfully not the articulation). That's GeeWuning, realistic alt modes and blocky bot modes. All of the examples you gave have pretty realistic alt modes compared to Side Burn who now has a plinth sticking off the front of the car. Hasbro is really good at making cars that look really close to what they're supposed to look like without actually being what they're supposed to be. Look at the cars we got during the War for Cybertron trilogy like the Earth Sideswipe mold or Sunstreaker or the Earth Bluestreak mold, they're familiar and recognizable because they hit the right notes when it comes to design cues, but Side Burn doesn't do that. His car mode is now Cybertronian being based on Shadow Striker and is pretty far detached from his original. This is like GeeWunning by way of Siege, no other figure in Legacy has been handled that way.

Emerje

I was on vacation and thusly couldn't answer this in a more timely manner, but:

Sabrblade wrote:According to JTPrime, this Tarantulas was originally going to be in the main Legacy Evolution line before Hasbro decided to just go with a straight rerelease of the normal Legacy Tarantulas, and it would have been a new character named Chimeracon.

Not entirely sure how that name fits since spiders aren't chimeras, but whatever.

It's a reference to IDW Mesothulas/Tarantulas, it's the name of his beast mode upgrade tech: https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Chimeracon

Also, I realize I haven't said anything in here in a hot minute, so I guess my opinions on the last month of Legacy?:
-Wave 2: preordered Silverbolt and Sandstorm from Pulse (Silverbolt is already on the way), rest of the wave was a pass for me even though Starscream looks ridiculously good (I'm holding out for my main Screamer to be his Animated incarnation)
-Star Raiders: Filch looks basically perfect and Cannonball looks surprisingly solid as a retool, preordered both, indifferent towards Ferak but surprised by the amount of seemingly-needless retooling he got, and that Lockdown is now tied with Knock Out for worst Legacy update in my eyes, thank god they said an actual Animated Lockdown is still on the table
-Legacy United 4-pack: Prime Cliffjumper looks very solid and I would love to get my hands on him, it's a shame the rest of the pack is useless to me, hopefully enough people will troop-build Cyberverse Tarns that I'll be able to snag a loose CJ off eBay
-Side Burn leak: no interest in/attachment to the character, but the colors look surprisingly good to me, probably still a pass though

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I think X-Brawn is rumored for next year?

Not unless one of the 13 is a secret X-Brawn pretool, no. Only time X-Brawn has come up recently was in speculation about that weird "ROBO WLD RDR" listing we had for a while that seems to have disappeared.

Sideburn looks good in robot mode, but that Viper alt mode was pretty slick and this new version just falls short. It worked for Shadow Striker, but not for Sideburn. He should be a Viper, or as close to it as possible. Luckily the original is still readily available and reasonably priced.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I don't think this looks too bad

I like it too. Then again blue is my favorite color so there's that.

Times have definitely changed…
There’s almost nothing in this mainline that’s appealing to me.

If they make him in G1 Hot Rod colors I'll get Side Burn just like his 01 release.

It's disappointing that his car doesn't resemble a real car at all. I know licensing would prevent a Viper, but they could have made it just different enough to dodge the trademark. Or, Hell, pay for the trademark and also make an Alternators Dead End / Sunstreaker inspired toy. I have fond memories of that guy.

I think x brawn will be a retool of the Crankcase mold. With a removable car front that could reposition on the arm, they’re basically there. I’m still trying to sort out the third car brother tho

Found Legacy United wave 2 voyagers at Target today.

Echoing what has already been said, that is a very nice head sculpt. Hoping some renewed interest in Car Robots will lead to a certain Predacon Multiformer getting a Commander/Leader Class update?

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Echoing what has already been said, that is a very nice head sculpt. Hoping some renewed interest in Car Robots will lead to a certain Predacon Multiformer getting a Commander/Leader Class update?

If they did him, he'd have to be a commander. However, is there anything to update there, though? Like, I can only think about giving him ankle tilts and a waist swivel, at most. Dude is pretty much perfect as he is.

Rtron wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Echoing what has already been said, that is a very nice head sculpt. Hoping some renewed interest in Car Robots will lead to a certain Predacon Multiformer getting a Commander/Leader Class update?

If they did him, he'd have to be a commander. However, is there anything to update there, though? Like, I can only think about giving him ankle tilts and a waist swivel, at most. Dude is pretty much perfect as he is.

And, well, the original is pretty readily obtainable on the secondary market for not-terrible prices.

Rtron wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Echoing what has already been said, that is a very nice head sculpt. Hoping some renewed interest in Car Robots will lead to a certain Predacon Multiformer getting a Commander/Leader Class update?

If they did him, he'd have to be a commander. However, is there anything to update there, though? Like, I can only think about giving him ankle tilts and a waist swivel, at most. Dude is pretty much perfect as he is.

Aside from rescaling. Pretty much only minor improvements like that are all that would be applicable to Gigatron. I mean, he technically had all of the "extra" Devil Gigatron forms. So they could cut to the chase and just label the default as a Tenformer.

Sabrblade wrote:And, well, the original is pretty readily obtainable on the secondary market for not-terrible prices.

That said, if a potential new mold shared his prior variants. They would be significantly cheaper too...

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Found Legacy United wave 2 voyagers at Target today.

20240405_120656.jpg

Yep I found them last night! Along with SS86 Blaster. No luck on Wheeljack.

The second wave of Transformers Legacy United had a planned stocking date of April 1st and so fans are indeed already finding these "newly revealed" toys on retail shelves. In the US, the wave 2 voyagers were found at Target. We have an image from fellow Seibertronian TF-fan kev777 below. That wave includes Cybertron Starscream and Silverbolt.

The same voyagers were also found at Canadian Gamestops.

Speaking of Gamestop, US Gamestops are currently starting to stock the wave 2 Legacy United deluxes. Those include Chromia, Gears and Shard (with an Animated Bumblebee repack). The Autobot 5 pack with that now mythical earth mode Hound was also found at US Gamestops, while it was found at Toysrus stores in Canada.

We have some reviews of all toys mentioned, below.

I snagged silverbolt, cheetor, animated bee and Prime, chase, tiger hawk, blaster, and 2 dinobots. (Foggy head this morning)

I got a bunch of Legacy, and I have a bunch of opinions.

First up, the Legacy hauls:




First up, let's talk Wheeljack.

This is a really nice figure. I really love the mass he has to him. The kibble management is decent, not really good because of how much there is, but still decent. The transformation is involved but not difficult, and he forms a very sizeable alt mode. I also love his colors, this is a much better colored Wheeljack.

Compared to the ER figure, I think the ER figure forms a real nice car mode, has great feet, the black arms are good, and the shoulder cannon is good. The origins Jackie forms a real nice van mode, has the better colors, feels better in hand, and is just more interesting. Both have arms that are a little oddly sized/proportioned to me though, though neither is really bad.

I will say the fact that Origins Wheeljack has the gimmick of forming a hollow form to pair up with Bumblebee helps him step up. Couple that with the fact that I have always found the ER jackie somewhat boring, I think Origins Wheeljack is my favorite of the 2. I am going to struggle with deciding on displaying him in alt mode or robot mode.

As for his role with the other 2 origins figures, they all pair up really nicely. I think Jazz is the cleanest in bot mode, and the sleekest looking in alt mode, but both modes are pretty divorced from one another, so that helps both modes out. Bee is still the most integrated between modes, and is probably still my favorite of the 3, i still adore that little guy. Wheeljack is the most involved of the 3 I'd say, but his gimmick helps him stand up to them, and his size and rod storage is also cool, as is the road/blast shield.

All 3 Origins figures are cool, they made a great trio.







And now, we roll into the retail wave. I had no interest in Gears, as the T30 is still perfect for me. And I will get Sandstorm, but i have a feeling he will go on sale, so I am going to wait on him.

starting low on the price tag and going up, lets start with Cheetor. Cheetor is simply wonderful. I really adore him! I just got the Botcon CatSCAN about a month or so ago, and he lives up to that larger figure, and is really fun. Not gonna lie, I had kinda hoped the core Beast Machines would have been Nightscream or Rattrap for actual show scale, but this is also kinda nice because he can scale with MPs.

Also, my daughter, like CatSCAN, took an immediate liking to him, she grabbed him and was loving him. I think she is going to be a Beast Machines fan!




Next up is Chromia. She is super nice in hand, the blue, teal, and red are perfect. She may not be accurate to Cyberverse, but she is still a really nice looking Chromia. She also looks great with Windblade, so she will slot in nicely on that shelf.




Last in terms of photos, we have Shard. I am enjoying these Infernac rocks, and she is no exception. The colors are super rich in hand, very pleasing to look at. I also love how her legs work, really adds some expressiveness to her. Her light piping is also sublime. She is just overall fun, and goes nicely with her rock brothers






As for the voyagers, I do not have photos of them yet, but i do have some opinions.

Silverbolt is a little odd, his wings feel oddly limited in robot mode, like I wish they could actually rotate up to his feather launching position. They also feel weirdly small. Other than that, is robot mode is cool, as is his transformation. However, bid-dog mode is also weird, the back legs feel too far back or the tail feather too short, and the wings still feel oddly smaller/undersized in some way. I like him, but i feel like he fell short.

Cybertron Starscream, however, is a stunner. Someone loved him on the design team, cause this robot mode is incredibly posable, and looks awesome no matter what you do with him. There is so much playability and posability with him, it's great. Transformation is good, and the jet mode is solid. I feel like the underwide could've been a smidge tighter, but otherwise, he is great. I think he may be the star of the wave.