The Energon Pub

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Starscream ..is a Starscream. I thought Armada Screamer already received a modern update not too long ago?

Inferno looks great. Something cute about the Ants features. I don't like the idea of a gun stuck on top of a Beast Mode. I'm used to weapons being hidden in BW figures. But apart from that he looks like one of the most faithful BW updates yet.

Tarantulus and Primal look more faithful. I feel this guy is quite the departure by comparison.

william-james88 wrote:Tarantulas and Primal look more faithful. I feel this guy is quite the departure by comparison.

The Bot Modes are all on-point. But I think the fact that the new Beast aesthetic doesn't impact on Inferno's design, as it does with Dinobot or Scorponok. Makes him faithful as an update to the original.

Starscream looks fantastic, my only real issue is the odd lack of powerlinx ports. It looks like the engines can flip forward as giant cannons like the original toy too, which is awesome. Inferno looks really good too, especially the headsculpt. Impressed by both.

Both Armada Starscream and BW Inferno look great in my book. I especially like Inferno's articulated jaw.

Both look really good so far. My only real complaints are around the faux-parts and their redundancy: why keep Armada Starscream's wing-sword if instead of actually becoming or at least storing into a wing it'll just dangle from the real one? And couldn't they try to hide/fold one of Inferno's beast mode legs better so the robot mode doesn't look to have eight of them?

Overall, though, I'll wait for the first reviews to form my opinion.

Starscream looks great. Wondering if I wanna headcanon him as post-G1 with a character arc simular to that of Loki, or if I wanna get ER/86 starscream and headcanon this guy as Redwing. Decisions decisions

Inferno is pretty cool. I've never been into the character, too much of a buffoon to be taken seriously as an adversary for my Maximals. But I need more voyager predacons so I'll be picking him up

Starscream looks really good. Don't know if I should wait for the inevitable Super Starsream / Thundercracker repaint.

Star Saber is kind of small and dinky though.

I still have the Dark Saber team and they simply don't hold together at all. A unified saber would have been nice if it was a tad bit larger.





Inferno looks like a really chibified ant. Big bulbous head... short thorax.

Robot mode looks fine though.

Razorbeast88 wrote:Inferno is pretty cool. I've never been into the character, too much of a buffoon to be taken seriously as an adversary for my Maximals.

Sadly his characterisation was one of the lowlights of Season Two and Three. For some reason they got it into their heads that every Predacon who isn't Rampage, Megatron or Tarantulas, needs to be Waspinator

Both look pretty good! I think I might get Armada Starscream to go with the upcoming Megs. I think the little Star Saber is pretty cute, too.
Inferno definitely is something I'm hoping to get, he looks pretty ferocious and I love how 'tough' the gun looks.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Razorbeast88 wrote:Inferno is pretty cool. I've never been into the character, too much of a buffoon to be taken seriously as an adversary for my Maximals.

Sadly his characterisation was one of the lowlights of Season Two and Three. For some reason they got it into their heads that every Predacon who isn't Rampage, Megatron or Tarantulas, needs to be Waspinator

Yeah and it sucks because his character had so much potential to be more menacing. Him calling Megatron his queen was hilarious though.
On the upside I suppose I can just headcanon him to be more like Carnage or something. He'd be a great rival to Tigatron since he's so destructive. And he should have some form of super strength

Razorbeast88 wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Razorbeast88 wrote:Inferno is pretty cool. I've never been into the character, too much of a buffoon to be taken seriously as an adversary for my Maximals.

Sadly his characterisation was one of the lowlights of Season Two and Three. For some reason they got it into their heads that every Predacon who isn't Rampage, Megatron or Tarantulas, needs to be Waspinator

Yeah and it sucks because his character had so much potential to be more menacing. Him calling Megatron his queen was hilarious though.
On the upside I suppose I can just headcanon him to be more like Carnage or something. He'd be a great rival to Tigatron since he's so destructive. And he should have some form of super strength

Yeah, on my shelf I'm not beholden to the kiddified characterizations of Beast Wars villains. My fondness for the Beast Wars characters come primarily from the toys - the show has very little to do with it in my mind.

Can't say I was tempted by either of the new voyager offerings. Maybe it's because they're venturing into mid-timeline figures that I didn't have much fondness for back when they were new. But as far as updates go, they look good. I'm sure those who were fans of the original figures will be pleased.

Razorbeast88 wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Razorbeast88 wrote:Inferno is pretty cool. I've never been into the character, too much of a buffoon to be taken seriously as an adversary for my Maximals.

Sadly his characterisation was one of the lowlights of Season Two and Three. For some reason they got it into their heads that every Predacon who isn't Rampage, Megatron or Tarantulas, needs to be Waspinator

Yeah and it sucks because his character had so much potential to be more menacing. Him calling Megatron his queen was hilarious though.

That's the thing. Inferno, Quickstrike, and Waspinator were made as comical as they were because the audience of the time reacted very positively to how funny they were. You get a large room full of longtime Beast Wars fans together to watch some of their most "classic Looney Tunes"-styled slapstick moments and the whole room will be howling with laughter.

Sabrblade wrote:That's the thing. Inferno, Quickstrike, and Waspinator were made as comical as they were because the audience of the time reacted very positively to how funny they were. You get a large room full of longtime Beast Wars fans together to watch some of their most "classic Looney Tunes"-styled slapstick moments and the whole room will be howling with laughter.

Depends on the room. Waspinator, in small doses, was tolerable to me as a kid. Aside from Quickstrike being the absolute worst character in Beast Wars (although worse still would come in Beast Machines). I thought Rampage was best new edition to the cast. More should have been like him. Maybe not as ..intense. But at least making the Predacons look like a credible faction of the Beast Wars. Much like Sunbow. The Decepticons were never better depicted than in The Movie, when the comic relief stopped.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Honestly, I can't seem them going any other way. TM2 Megatron doesn't fit in with the rest of the Beast Wars figures released since Kingdom. Unless they change his aesthetic to bring it inline with the others. Bypassing the Transmetals to include him, as they have, will likely lead to caveats.

I think we already have listing as "Metals Megatron", don't we?

Also, a remake of TM2 is the logical place to have the two aesthetics cross. Give the package a / symbol and add a blurb about the two Megatrons merging. You don't have to explain Quantum surges, etc. - it's enough to say thay G1 Megatron and BW Megatron merged and now you have a bot that is half Predacon, half Decepticon.

Hopefully some other TM2's manage to sneak into Legacy. Honestly thought Dragon Megs was one of the worst of the line.

Both of these are great, I'm definitely buying both. Inferno isn't quite how I pictured it in my head when the store listing first leaked, but I still like how he turned out. While it is a shame that Starscream doesn't have Swindle (I've had hope since Blaster was revealed to come with Eject), it's still a lovely looking figure. I used to have the Generations 30th Anniversary Armada Starscream, but never liked how itsy bitsy teeny weeny he was, even compared to other Deluxes, so I've been hoping for a Voyager version for years and I'm happy it's finally happened.

As I've stated before I was in college when BW came out. Tigatron/Tigerhawk was my favorite character, followed by Depthcharge. Magnaboss and Tripredacus were my favorite toys (though they only appeared in the BWII series).

One of my best friends however quickly grew to have Inferno be his favorite, especially after he basically killed Tarantulas at the end of S1 (You'll notice pretty much every character dies at the end of S1 and 2, as the showrunners never knew if they were going to get another season. "Kill em' all and let Hasbro sort it out" as stated directly from Forward and DiTillio at Botcon 98).

However as the series progressed, while I personally thought Inferno's antics were somewhat humorous, my best friend grew increasingly embarrassed and disappointed for Inferno in S2 and 3. I completely understand if my favorite had been turned to comedy relief, it would be tough.

As for the new toy, the Robot mode looks pretty good. The ant mode looks too short "stubby" I guess I would call it. It could just be the angle of the pictures. I wonder though... with Selects seemingly on hiatus. I wonder if the inevitable Antagony reuse would be offered as Selects, or a store (Walmart or Target) exclusive?

o.supreme wrote: with Selects seemingly on hiatus. I wonder if the inevitable Antagony reuse would be offered as Selects, or a store (Walmart or Target) exclusive?

Not to take away from your story there, but where is this coming from? I haven't seen Hasbro state this anywhere (even if I notice more store exclusives coming available). Cyclonus is Generations Selects, right?

sol magnus wrote:

o.supreme wrote: with Selects seemingly on hiatus. I wonder if the inevitable Antagony reuse would be offered as Selects, or a store (Walmart or Target) exclusive?

Not to take away from your story there, but where is this coming from? I haven't seen Hasbro state this anywhere (even if I notice more store exclusives coming available). Cyclonus is Generations Selects, right?

Might just be because we haven't had any announced in a while, since Cyclonus

ZeroWolf wrote:

sol magnus wrote:

o.supreme wrote: with Selects seemingly on hiatus. I wonder if the inevitable Antagony reuse would be offered as Selects, or a store (Walmart or Target) exclusive?

Not to take away from your story there, but where is this coming from? I haven't seen Hasbro state this anywhere (even if I notice more store exclusives coming available). Cyclonus is Generations Selects, right?

Might just be because we haven't had any announced in a while, since Cyclonus

I'm still hoping we get that rumored blue Trailbreaker. Hopefully we'll get more announced this month

sol magnus wrote:

o.supreme wrote: with Selects seemingly on hiatus. I wonder if the inevitable Antagony reuse would be offered as Selects, or a store (Walmart or Target) exclusive?

Not to take away from your story there, but where is this coming from? I haven't seen Hasbro state this anywhere (even if I notice more store exclusives coming available). Cyclonus is Generations Selects, right?

Hasbro hadn't said anything,that's why I said "seemingly". Since the subline started, there have been usually multiple reveals in advance of what's coming out. Cyclonus is already out in some markets and Pulse is supposed to have it next month. I have supported Selects at length, and it had given us many great characters that otherwise might not have been possible. I hope it continues, but lack of news is concerning.

Sentinel_Primal wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:

sol magnus wrote:

o.supreme wrote: with Selects seemingly on hiatus. I wonder if the inevitable Antagony reuse would be offered as Selects, or a store (Walmart or Target) exclusive?

Not to take away from your story there, but where is this coming from? I haven't seen Hasbro state this anywhere (even if I notice more store exclusives coming available). Cyclonus is Generations Selects, right?

Might just be because we haven't had any announced in a while, since Cyclonus

I'm still hoping we get that rumored blue Trailbreaker. Hopefully we'll get more announced this month

Yeah, Blue Trailbreaker named "DK3" is the last known Selects leak we've heard about, and that was awhile ago. Nothing's been rumored since.

Anyway, Antagony was brought up in this rumor post along with many other leaked figures that have since come to fruition, but she was mentioned in a category of "Release venue unknown but they exist", meaning we have no idea if she'll be Selects, Amazon, Target, Walmart, Walgreens, Hasbro Pulse, or some other form of exclusive.

I'm actually kind of disappointed with how Inferno turned out.

Beast mode looks fine, I don't mind the more realistic look as it matches everyone in Kingdom, but I'm hoping we're missing something and the rocket/gun can still be stored internally somehow in beast mode, because that looks dumb. Also not a fan of the antennae being on those pivots in his head, they look bad and I feel like those were unnecessary.

But bot mode is really disappointing. First, with the rocket serving as his gun instead of his separate weapon from the show. Can't even tell from this if it can plug into the back where it belongs (bow chicka bow wow). But also, all the bug legs just everywhere. This wasn't an issue on the original toy or the show model, and it makes him look weird. They even sculpted additional faux bug legs into his robot legs. This guy has 10 legs in bot mode! Was there no better way to integrate them?

I may still pick him up just to complete my Generations S1 BW guys, but this just feels like a drop in quality compared to some of the excellent BW updates we got in T30 and Kingdom.

Atleast the 2012 Deluxe Armada SS had Mini-Con Ports!

This has neither and doesn't even include Swindle.

No Swindle. No Buy.