The Energon Pub

News Credits: 1350 · by **ZeroWolf** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 5:12 am

-Kanrabat- wrote:For me, Minerva is a headmaster first and foremost. As I see in the transformation video, there's enough room inside the car "cockpit" to slap a car seat on Minerva's butt for a standard headmaster to sit in.

So even if the total cost end up being double the price of the OG figure, I'm pretty sure that someone will make an upgrade kit to go convert her into a proper headmaster.
Then, Reprolabels to complete her looks. Especially for the infamous Red Cross symbols.

Oh that's a given. Add on companies will love it for that segment of fans who want to enhance her.

News Credits: 11 · by **primalxconvoy** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 5:30 am

ZeroWolf wrote:Oh that's a given. Add on companies will love it for that segment of fans who want to enhance her.

The thing is, the days of "mainstream" (?) 3P add-on kits (sold at the major online vendors) seems to be almost over. Most of the kits for smaller figures seem to be from "indie" companies, selling at smaller sites or on Ebay; both of which don't accept credit cards (and I don't do Paypal)...

If I had a feeling an easily available kit would come out, I might bother with Minerva, but I doubt there will be...

News Credits: 10 · by **sol magnus** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:11 am

william-james88 wrote:
RiddlerJ wrote:The robot mode looks okay. the alt mode still looks kinda dinky.

yeah, it aint great. Turns out this looks like it was meant more for Elita 1 afterall.

I don't know. That's Minerva from the Wreckers comic from last year / this year all the way up and down.

As to Minerva being / not being a Headmaster, I'd like to see it as the original toy was. Even completely reusing the Elita-1 mold or vice versa, making her a Headmaster just as a nod to the original probably could have been done within budget now that we're all up on figure budgets.

I guess 3P can tackle this, but with a ball jointed neck I'm not sure how you carry that off.

News Credits: 10 · by **sol magnus** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:41 am

DeathReviews wrote:I would have been perfectly happy to live without the energon gauntlets, and lowered Blitzwing to Voyager price. Based on the size and engineering seen in videos, that seems to be all it's worth. Instead, we have to pay leader price for a voyager figure (again) and have our intelligence insulted with the notion that the inclusion of these gauntlet weapons somehow makes Blitzwing "worth" the price of a Leader figure. The only way I could see myself using those silly things is if they could be fitted onto Mensaor's forearms somehow and become proper gloves. Don't see how that's possible though.

That wouldn't have reduced Blitzwing's price. He would still be a leader class figure.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:43 am

I think the thing that annoys me most about this figure is that she's once again a pink and white female Autobot just like Arcee and Elita 1. She's supposed to be red and white, best I can tell even IDW colored her that way. Sure it's a dark pink, but it's still pink.

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:At this point, any new Minerva that transforms into something resembling an ambulance is great. Remember the Thunder blast Minerva? THAT was awful.

I literally just bought one, I think she's great! Non-G1 characters don't need to stick to the looks of their G1 namesakes, that would be boring.

Emerje

News Credits: 11 · by **primalxconvoy** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:44 am

DeathReviews wrote:
You're right, that's not how it works. And I thought I wrote it clearly enough in the article. It's the other way around. None of the engineering is diminished, it is instead improved by having a leader budget for a voyager sized toy. The gauntlets are just there to help sell the figure to people who need a visual aid to substantiate paying leader prices.

I'll allow it 'works' in that it represents what Hasbro is actually DOING. But it doesn't 'work' for many of us buyers, in the sense that we're being asked to believe that figures like Blitzwing are 'improved' by mere reason of the inclusion of these gauntlet pieces.

I would have been perfectly happy to live without the energon gauntlets, and lowered Blitzwing to Voyager price. Based on the size and engineering seen in videos, that seems to be all it's worth. Instead, we have to pay leader price for a voyager figure (again) and have our intelligence insulted with the notion that the inclusion of these gauntlet weapons somehow makes Blitzwing "worth" the price of a Leader figure. The only way I could see myself using those silly things is if they could be fitted onto Mensaor's forearms somehow and become proper gloves. Don't see how that's possible though.

THIS.

Thank goodness I didn't bother with the atrocious Siege Astrotrain-wreck, Shocked-it-was-included-inna-wave and Sh*tswing.

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:12 am

Hasbro's been doing this since 1987. Hot Rod, Kup, Blurr, Cyclonus, and Scourge weren't originally Targetmasters until they were. Optimus Prime wasn't originally a Powermaster until he was. Bumblebee, Jazz, Grimlock, and Starscream weren't originally Pretenders until they were. And then the next time we got toys of them all, they all lost their Targetmaster/Powermaster/Pretender gimmicks for something else.

News Credits: 100 · by **-Kanrabat-** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 10:05 am

Emerje wrote:I think the thing that annoys me most about this figure is that she's once again a pink and white female Autobot just like Arcee and Elita 1. She's supposed to be red and white, best I can tell even IDW colored her that way. Sure it's a dark pink, but it's still pink.

Emerje

Where's Minerva's pink appart the highlight on her chest? Sure, that's not "G1 toy/toon accurate" but it ain't so bad.
She's pretty much just red and white all over to a fault.
If you see that red as "pink", it may just be either your monitor or you colors perception (gold/blue dress and all that jazz).

Still, to be completely accurate all over, a Reprolabels set is a must.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 10:51 am

-Kanrabat- wrote:
Emerje wrote:I think the thing that annoys me most about this figure is that she's once again a pink and white female Autobot just like Arcee and Elita 1. She's supposed to be red and white, best I can tell even IDW colored her that way. Sure it's a dark pink, but it's still pink.

Emerje

Where's Minerva's pink appart the highlight on her chest? Sure, that's not "G1 toy/toon accurate" but it ain't so bad.
She's pretty much just red and white all over to a fault.
If you see that red as "pink", it may just be either your monitor or you colors perception (gold/blue dress and all that jazz).

Still, to be completely accurate all over, a Reprolabels set is a must.

I just spent $800 on this monitor so I could have something pre-color calibrated with 4K HDR. It's dark pink, not red. The comic image shown is red, the G1 figure was red, the G1 box art was red, the cartoon screen caps I looked at are red, but the pictures of the toy are definitely pink. That's not to say it's not possibly the fault of the photographer screwing up the colors, that would actually be nice.

Emerje

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 11:06 am

G1 Minerva is scarlet, Legacy Minerva is crimson.

News Credits: 2 · by **First-Aid** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 12:38 pm

Sabrblade wrote:G1 Minerva is scarlet, Legacy Minerva is crimson.

Red. The correct term for both is red. :HEADHURTS:

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:50 pm

Minerva looks pretty good. I agree with Emerje, the red coloration is not quite right in those pictures, I hope that is the lighting and not the actual color.

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:10 pm

Dragstrip and Nightprowler went to the office lately. I feel bad for nightprowler, I feel sort of indifferent towards him, especially since Sandstorm and Buzzsaw were so desired by me and he was the odd guy out. but he's still good, i like the mold a lot.

also, Dragstrip is really good and continues to be really good

by **cruizerdave** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:35 pm

The problem is they already did this gimmick.
How about a firing missile? An LED? They’ve never done anything with glow in the dark.A lot of fans would give their left nut to see chrome on the figures again!

Nope just trot out the ol translucent weapons you can combine to make nonsense. Yawn. Energon 2.0 at least has better figures.

News Credits: 11 · by **primalxconvoy** » Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:38 pm

cruizerdave wrote:The problem is they already did this gimmick.
How about a firing missile? An LED? They’ve never done anything with glow in the dark.A lot of fans would give their left nut to see chrome on the figures again!

Nope just trot out the ol translucent weapons you can combine to make nonsense. Yawn. Energon 2.0 at least has better figures.

I'm surprised they didn't go with either some sort of "build-a-thing/figure" or accessories in a similar vein to those that came with the Centurion Drone. There's a market for add-on parts, like spoilers for the Lambos, parts fillers, etc, so why not include something like that?

News Credits: 20 · by **Tuned Agent** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 12:20 am

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote:A bit of a tangent, but I do worry that the "in between classes" figures are going to end up lowering fan's standards over time. At what point will the not-quite-a-class figure just become accepted as the standard for that class? When ER Cliff and Netflix Bee came out, people complained about their size, but eventually warmed up to them because they felt complex, weren't hollow, were slathered with paint, and had a ton of accessories. Then Huffer comes along, who's simple, has very hollow legs, and has an average amount paint and accessories, but nobody batted and eye. Bee and Cliff were worth deluxe money, so obviously Huffer is too, right? Classes are just price points now, after all. I don't know if an overall lowering of standards will ever really happen, but it's food for thought.

Like the "It's what it is" complacent attitude? Maybe, but there will be always be people who want more and they will eventually be vocal about it when push comes to shove. That's why we have reviewers And in my experience, people who shout the loudest get the most followers, though that's not always a good thing generally speaking...

That's probably a good way of summing it up. I guess it then comes down to which group eventually becomes the loudest.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote:Also, a tad off topic, but there are some businesses/corporations that willingly sell certain products for a loss, usually in order to encourage more sales of other products with higher profit margins. A good example are Sony and Microsoft with the PS5 and Series X, which are sold at a loss to make the consoles more competitively priced and affordable, which in turn encourages more people to buy more games (which is where the real money is made). Not really applicable to transformers of course.

Like sacrificial lambs? I don't see Hasbro or TakaraTomy doing that main line figures plus exclusives, but TakaraTomy has more experience with promotional giveaways (granted, those are big in Japan) and Hasbro has given away samples of finished first wave product to reviewers now and again.

Rtron wrote:Operating at a loss for a while, because they know they'll recoup it. That would not be the case with how Hasbro operates, it would probably just be money lost and that's it.

I would like to see that sort of project, but I wouldn't be able to contribute as I live on the arse end of the world relative to most of the people on this site, or really the fandom at large

Yeah, it doesn't really apply to Hasbro or TakaraTomy, I was more playing devil's advocate, since the strategy does get used occasionally. Probably wasn't a point that needed to be made. :lol:

I will continue that project though. ;)^

News Credits: 226 · by **Burn** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:02 am

So for anyone hanging out for Motormaster, Onyxstrike over TFW is tracking the batch numbers of Motormasters that have been affected by fresh-out-of-the-box discolouration.
https://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/ ... n.1233489/

Whether any of those batches make it to the northern hemisphere who knows ... or even if any of those batches bound for up north will even be affected, but it is most definitely an issue.

News Credits: 100 · by **-Kanrabat-** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 4:30 am

I just opened and transformed Skids. He's fantastic and well done, except for the Authentic-like hollow legs. I wouldn't have minded skipping the energon axe for some extra panels to cover those legs. Especially at 38 freaking Canadian dollars for a deluxe.

No choice but to pay a bit more, as usual.

For me, he's worth it.

News Credits: 19 · by **blackeyedprime** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:18 am

Kind of odd having four more titan master compatible figures (red Fastrack and three of the street fighters) coming out yet poor minerva gets left out. Nice to know they aren't totally dead yet tho.

News Credits: 1350 · by **ZeroWolf** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 12:45 pm

blackeyedprime wrote:Kind of odd having four more titan master compatible figures (red Fastrack and three of the street fighters) coming out yet poor minerva gets left out. Nice to know they aren't totally dead yet tho.

To be fair all of them aren't exactly new, the street fight xover figures especially. I have a feeling that had Minerva Vern a head master, she a) would have not have been a walgreen exclusive and b) been at the Voyager price point.

News Credits: 48 · by **Nemesis Primal** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:58 pm

UM

2023 Listings (presumably part 1)

News Credits: 12 · by **Razorbeast88** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:35 pm

Whoaaaaa i hope those are true
Prime skyquake, tarn, junkion, needlenose, shadow striker, and tarn would all be potential buys for me

Maybe even hot shot or hot rod

News Credits: 456 · by **Sabrblade** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:38 pm

Delete

News Credits: 12 · by **Razorbeast88** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:41 pm

Sabrblade wrote:
Razorbeast88 wrote:Maybe even hot shot or hot rod
0 they've already done both of those, recently.

Since its velocitron hot rod my assumption is thered be a different deco, like a rodimus unicronus considering first velocitron line had black Convoy

As far as hot shot goes, my assumption was brand new mold and of Armada version this time around

Since there isn't much to go off of, that's why I had them towards the bottom as maybe

News Credits: 48 · by **Nemesis Primal** » Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:59 pm

Razorbeast88 wrote:Since its velocitron hot rod my assumption is thered be a different deco, like a rodimus unicronus considering first velocitron line had black Convoy

I feel like if it was Rodimus Unicronus/SG Rodimus/Dark Hot Rod that would be called out by name, it wouldn't just say Hot Rod, but I could be wrong. My prediction is either that magenta repaint people want (although I think that would make more sense as an SS86 or Buzzworthy Bee release) or an IDW Hot Rod/Rodimus retool in the vein of Blurr (who's listing and box both say nothing about being an IDW design).

Looks like the listings are still coming too, they just added "Velocitron LDR 2", which is very suspiciously vague.