The Energon Pub

Glad his ant eyes are finally blue, sad that they're still so small and far away from each other in robot mode when they were the most prominent part of his torso in robot mode, providing a most noticeable and very forward color contrast to his torso.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

Bumblevivisector wrote:

SpaceEagle wrote:

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:It's still crazy how some good stock images can help a figure look better, in this case Crankcase looks really sharp here

Yeah, these stock photos really help out!

Except if they cross the line into outright deception. Is Inferno actually going to have 4 butt-flaps instead of 3? This bot mode pic sure makes it look that way.

Regardless, way better than leaked photos with unintentional mistransformations.

It was already shown both in the reveal stream and in the behind-the-scenes social media post for Inferno that he has all 4 of them.

inferno thruster 1.jpg

inferno thruster 2.jpg

And they spin too!

I know that there is no difference b/t Hasbro and Takara products, but I still thought that they might release Override as Nitro Convoy.

So I was messing around with Metroplex and came up p with this for a base/city mode. This weekend's plan is to see what fun I can have with the air lock figures from Siege through Legacy.



Also, I found another weird and mostly useless feature. Metroplex has an adjustable cod piece that appears to have no real function.

After seeing what @TF-fan kev777 did with his Mertoplex, I had to try something different with mine. I basically used the other side (chest area), rotated the legs to replicate what @TF-fan kev777 did except i just angled them out a bit and then rotated the arms around to display the white cannon weapons. Then i flip forward the black pieces from the chest area and mounted Jetfire’s weapons onto them with Eject and Rung manning them.

Then in the other photo; using Sheeldron i connected Metrolex to Omega Surpreme’s base mode. I had Omega Surpreme’s track connected another way but it didnt look right. Overall, this does give you more playability and other options.

Again thanks to @TF-fan kev777 for this idea for a new base mode.


SGM

Base mode shenanigans! I like it!

Also, since Nightprowler was released in legacy, thought this worked here. How do the 3 Halloween Horrorcons look together?

@D-Max, Trick or Treat? They look good together!

SGM

SGMLordMirage wrote:After seeing what @TF-fan kev777 did with his Mertoplex, I had to try something different with mine.

*snip*

Again thanks to @TF-fan kev777 for this idea for a new base mode.


SGM

No thanks needed, I'm glad to be an inspiration for fun, and I honestly like yours a bit more as well and will probably go that route depending on how I can fit everyone together tonight and tomorrow.

Legacy Tarantulas has been found at multiple Gamestops across Canada. The picture below is from a Gamestop in Montreal. While Gamestop may seem niche, Toysrus is no longer the massive and dependable Transformers retailer it once was and with the Edge card, Gamestop has become the main nation wide retailer where Canadian fans get their Transformers toys (the other being Walmart). However, there is an extra layer to this shift since unlike Toysrus or Walmart, Gamestop does not get assortment cases, they get solid cases which are then opened at regional centres and shipped to local stores. So right now, Tarantulas is the only one of wave 2 to be distributed to stores.

My Walmart has basically the opposite distribution. They have all wave 2 except Elita and tarantulas.

RodimusPrimeUkraine1 wrote:My Walmart has basically the opposite distribution. They have all wave 2 except Elita and tarantulas.

Tarantulas, Elita, Wildrider, and Knockout all come in the same case. So you just see what's left if you don't get there first.

For example in my area Wave 1 went from most to least popular:

1. Dragstrip, 2. Kickback, 3. Skids, and 4. Prime Arcee.

For wave 2 I haven't seen enough even to hazard a guess. I'm thinking they will all be extremely popular, but Elita might slightly sell a bit less between just having a toy 2 years ago, and kids (young boys) generally not wanting female characters as much. Not trying to be chauvinistic, just stating a fact. Personally I enjoy female characters, usually their designs are unique and awesome. They just don't sell as well. Although Elitas exclusive availability at Walmart 2 years ago did make her the 2nd most popular character of that deluxe Netflix Wave behind Bumblebee... So we shall see.

I e only ever seen 2 Elitas, then yesterday 1 knockout. This 2nd wave is just barely starting to come out, so not enough to make any real claim of popularity yet.

-Kanrabat- wrote:As for Twintwist, it's my first time with the mold. He's easy to figure out, the colors are magnificent, and he's a lot of fun! Let's hope his partner Topspin will be done in "diaclone" colors relatively soon.

If we for some reason don't get a second Wreck N Rule set then I'd like to think Hasbro would find another way like a future Velocitron wave or a Buzzworthy four pack. There's no reason why they couldn't have done a two pack like the other two so I'm going to guess they were just saving Topspin for later.

Emerje

My WalMarts just got Arcee and Bulkhead

My guess that I will find Tarantulas sometime next summer

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Also, I found another weird and mostly useless feature. Metroplex has an adjustable cod piece that appears to have no real function.

I thought it's function was to look like Wheelie from RotF . Anyway, all joking aside, cool base modes for sure.

I found Kingdom Tigatron first at Toys ‘R’ Us back in December, but it’s basically been trash ever since. Their Transformers area has also shrunk from two entire 4” bays to three shelves that have housed Kingdom Rodimus, Kingdom Rhinox, some Studio Series Bayformers, and the overpriced Dracula dude for months now.

Emerje wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:While I do suspect there's a bit too much shareholder overhead in Shapeways' case... You're forgetting that the items aren't being bought in bulk, especially not stuff like Transformers add-ons.
They're mostly being bought in singles or as small lots, by individual consumers. Which means that Shapeways has to either A. use those big commercial printers inefficiently for single-item or small-lot runs, or B. Group different people's purchases together to make more efficient use of the printers... adding the complexity of having to keep track of which items in a given production batch belong to which buyer. Not sure which way works out cheaper for them, but either way does mean extra operating costs.
The ultimate point is, you're not dealing with mass production prices here. So even with the annoying factory middleman pricing from Shapeways, it is still cheaper than injection molding would be for the same purpose.

I'm not forgetting, that's just it. A mass produced part would require $100K steel molds and bulk ordering to bring the price to, let's say, $5 per part (which may or may not also require somebody to remove the part from a sprue, clean the burs and possibly even assemble and sonic weld the part). Shapeways is supposed to be the cheap alternative to that process for the designers so they can get their things out without having to pay the molding costs at a similar price, and that's how it was in the beginning. Instead Shapeways is pushing an inflated price on customers.

Well, it is still cheaper for the designers than traditional production is - by an immense margin. So immense that evidently the shareholders feel they have wiggle room to bump up the cut they take (which of course makes the designers have to charge more for use of their design to actually get any money).

Emerje wrote:Those Menasor parts are relatively small and irregular so they don't use a lot of material and have a low z-axis profile so the print time shouldn't be very long, I just can't understand how that would translate to such high prices. I could print that part in 4 hours, they're printers should be able to do it faster and I'm sure they have many of these printers running at the same time and can scale appropriately. I'd love to see them breakdown exactly where these expenses are coming from.

Emerje

The thing is, I think that even with as fast as those industrial printers are... the piecework nature of the average person's Shapeways order means that they either lose out on efficiency-of-use by only printing one thing to a small handful of things per cycle, or consolidate multiple people's orders into one cycle to use the printers more efficiently and then have to pay somebody to not only remove and pack them, but also keep track of which pieces belong to which order.
But I don't doubt that there's Shareholder Overhead on top of that.

Rapid prototyping is probably their best benefit, but with prices climbing so much you really wouldn't have to buy much before you're better off just buying your own printer and doing it yourself or wait to see if it get copied and sold on eBay.

Emerje

I'm getting quite annoyed/obsessed with acquiring Tarantulas. I have him preordered on Amazon, at $27 with a delivery date of December 5th. I just checked Pulse, he's available to preorder, with shipping date of September 15th, for $32 after shipping (and before possible taxes) and I've been checking both Wal-Mart and Target, with no results.

So what do I do? Do I wait on Amazon for possibly another 2 and a half months to save $10? They might move the release up. Or do I pay voyager price for a deluxe figure if it means MAYBE having it 2 months earlier?

Rodimus Prime wrote:I'm getting quite annoyed/obsessed with acquiring Tarantulas. I have him preordered on Amazon, at $27 with a delivery date of December 5th. I just checked Pulse, he's available to preorder, with shipping date of September 15th, for $32 after shipping (and before possible taxes) and I've been checking both Wal-Mart and Target, with no results.

So what do I do? Do I wait on Amazon for possibly another 2 and a half months to save $10? They might move the release up. Or do I pay voyager price for a deluxe figure if it means MAYBE having it 2 months earlier?

I’d just buy him on Pulse, personally. Ten bucks is a trivial amount.

Deluxe Wave 2 is starting to show up in stores. I know my closest Target had at least one case since I was able to see Elita and Knockout. If you ask an employee specifically, sometimes they'll tell you when the next shipment is coming if you direct them to the tag on the shelf. For instance, I found out another deluxe case is coming this Thursday the 15th. After getting one case of wave 2 Already,it seems logical it would be the same, but I've seen older waves come in after the fact. In any case I hope to be there when the doors open Thursday to see if I can snag a Wildrider.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I'm getting quite annoyed/obsessed with acquiring Tarantulas. I have him preordered on Amazon, at $27 with a delivery date of December 5th. I just checked Pulse, he's available to preorder, with shipping date of September 15th, for $32 after shipping (and before possible taxes) and I've been checking both Wal-Mart and Target, with no results.

So what do I do? Do I wait on Amazon for possibly another 2 and a half months to save $10? They might move the release up. Or do I pay voyager price for a deluxe figure if it means MAYBE having it 2 months earlier?

I'd just keep checking the brick and mortar stores when you go in for groceries. If you find it there, cancel Amazon. And if not then you have Amazon as a backpack and they might ship early.

It just feels weird being like this about getting a figure. It's rarely happened. I did see Elita at Target last night, but she was with Prime Arcee and Red Cog. So I wasn't sure who her wavemates were.

Rodimus Prime wrote:It just feels weird being like this about getting a figure. It's rarely happened. I did see Elita at Target last night, but she was with Prime Arcee and Red Cog. So I wasn't sure who her wavemates were.

I reviewed him. I too was excited to get him, but in hand he's less stellar than I thought he'd be. That's not to say he's bad - he's not. But he's not worth all this fuss. LOL