The Energon Pub

Honestly I didn't dislike the original design they were going to go for with Skyquake, but only in a "that's a neat design" way more than "that's a good Skyquake design". Not to mention the older design doesn't make him seem as beefy as the new one!
I also just really like the new design being an amalgamation, I just find that neat personally.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Anyone have an image of how Metalhawk's alt mode looked like in the cartoon?

Only real change is that the arms have been relocated from the top of the jet to the sides.

Found a pic of Grimlock's leg mode, and he transforms roughly how I thought he would: arms swing to the front and peg in, legs swing back and over and the 5mm peg flips out of the main body assembly. Not bad, I wonder how they'll do Snarl.

Honestly, I like the original Skyquake look, I'd like to see a jet like that down the line.

I knew something was bothering me about Metalhawk and it finally hit me, the rifle wings should sit lower to the main tail fins and/or the main tail fins should be smaller. I also would've liked to have had the Jet Rifle included too. These are probably all things that a totally new mold could've solved.

I am forever grateful that they listened to the bad feedback on Bulkhead and Arcee and changed the Skyquake design. That original design was a disaster waiting to happen. The one we got is much better.

Also, Chuck, I cannot disagree more about the Menasor distribution. Thanks to SS Devastator, I discovered that I far prefer to have the combiner spread out over waves. And even so, so long as you have Motormaster, you can have a full big robot, so he suffers the least for it

Metalhawk looks alright for the most part but he simply an unknown to me as I stopped watching the show after seeing the Movie. I don't really remember why, but has I recently went back to watch the whole series to reacquaint myself with everyone I can understand why I stopped.

Thus he's not really a character that resonates with me and I don't need every bot made, and I don't really care for how thick the body design is under the "Jet" part. Just throws off the aesthetics when in alt mode IMO. Though I might get him if I see him on a sale because his bot mode ain't too bad.

I'm not into Prime series design at all, so none of those are ever going to interest me.

Till-all-R1 wrote:Metalhawk looks alright for the most part but he simply an unknown to me as I stopped watching the show after seeing the Movie. I don't really remember why, but has I recently went back to watch the whole series to reacquaint myself with everyone I can understand why I stopped.

Thus he's not really a character that resonates with me and I don't need every bot made, and I don't really care for how thick the body design is under the "Jet" part. Just throws off the aesthetics when in alt mode IMO. Though I might get him if I see him on a sale because his bot mode ain't too bad.

I'm not into Prime series design at all, so none of those are ever going to interest me.

I’m in this same boat with you.
On both accounts.
I really like the original Prime design aesthetic…. But these new designs have moved away from those enough that I really have no interest in those at all.
And unfortunately the same can be said for Animated Prowl.
Saying I don’t like that look is a ginormous understatement.

Unless you were Japanese (or had someone in Japan sending you tapes) you wouldn't have seen Metalhawk in the 80s anyway as his series, super god masterforce, wasn't officially subbed till the 00s (fan subs filled the void before then)

ZeroWolf wrote:Unless you were Japanese (or had someone in Japan sending you tapes) you wouldn't have seen Metalhawk in the 80s anyway as his series, super god masterforce, wasn't officially subbed till the 00s (fan subs filled the void before then)

Don't forget all the Malaysian kids who watched the Omni Productions dub.

Sabrblade wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Unless you were Japanese (or had someone in Japan sending you tapes) you wouldn't have seen Metalhawk in the 80s anyway as his series, super god masterforce, wasn't officially subbed till the 00s (fan subs filled the void before then)

Don't forget all the Malaysian kids who watched the Omni Productions dub.

Ah yes, how could I have forgotten those dubs

Back in December I had said...

Emerje wrote:Hasbro also said they acknowledge the complaints about the Prime Universe figure designs and will be taking that into consideration for Animated toys. Skyquake looks to be the best of the Prime Universe figures so they do seem to be listening.

I got some flack about it being too soon for those comments to have an effect on Skyquake. And yet:

The second image features an outline done by the great marcelomatere when the prime redesigns were decided upon before we started Legacy. Since there was mixed feedback on Arcee and Bulkhead I decided to take a swing.

I've said for a while that the whole two year production schedule isn't really a thing anymore. Sure, they plan lines long in advance and probably already have a solid idea of what they're doing in 2025, but they can also do things like overhauling War for Cybertron part 3 in record time and not just produce Kingdom but also SS86.

Emerje

ZeroWolf wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Unless you were Japanese (or had someone in Japan sending you tapes) you wouldn't have seen Metalhawk in the 80s anyway as his series, super god masterforce, wasn't officially subbed till the 00s (fan subs filled the void before then)

Don't forget all the Malaysian kids who watched the Omni Productions dub.

Ah yes, how could I have forgotten those dubs

And, shockingly, Metalhawk and the Masterforce Pretenders all got a shout-out in one of the Marvel UK letters pages (in the first question):

so when bbts had preorders up for metalhawk and twincast, before they had images and took them down, I got an order in for metalhawk. Today, I just got an arrival notice for him.

Emerje wrote:
I've said for a while that the whole two year production schedule isn't really a thing anymore. Sure, they plan lines long in advance and probably already have a solid idea of what they're doing in 2025, but they can also do things like overhauling War for Cybertron part 3 in record time and not just produce Kingdom but also SS86.

Emerje

Isn't it still 2 years between Mark drawing that new Skyquake and it appearing evebtually on shelves ?

Got'em.

I'll post pictures and my impressions tonight.

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:
I've said for a while that the whole two year production schedule isn't really a thing anymore. Sure, they plan lines long in advance and probably already have a solid idea of what they're doing in 2025, but they can also do things like overhauling War for Cybertron part 3 in record time and not just produce Kingdom but also SS86.

Emerje

Isn't it still 2 years between Mark drawing that new Skyquake and it appearing evebtually on shelves ?

More like 1.5ish years (though the .3 is heavily variable depending on when we get the first sightings in.)
If I recall correctly, we first saw Arcee and Bulkhead in the September/October time of 2021. A full 2 years would mean Skyquake dropping into shelves fall this year. Or at least, that's my take on it.

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:
I've said for a while that the whole two year production schedule isn't really a thing anymore. Sure, they plan lines long in advance and probably already have a solid idea of what they're doing in 2025, but they can also do things like overhauling War for Cybertron part 3 in record time and not just produce Kingdom but also SS86.

Emerje

Isn't it still 2 years between Mark drawing that new Skyquake and it appearing evebtually on shelves ?

Since when does the two years go from concept to release? It's supposed to be from concept to production. And I'd like to think they weren't taking the criticism seriously until people started to get these in hand just a little over a year ago. Seeing as how we now have multiple reports of people either finding wave 2 in shops or ready to ship (and in North America, not Asia!) I don't think we're that far from Skyquake turning up. Hasbro has tightened up their turnaround times to unprecedented levels.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:
I've said for a while that the whole two year production schedule isn't really a thing anymore. Sure, they plan lines long in advance and probably already have a solid idea of what they're doing in 2025, but they can also do things like overhauling War for Cybertron part 3 in record time and not just produce Kingdom but also SS86.

Emerje

Isn't it still 2 years between Mark drawing that new Skyquake and it appearing evebtually on shelves ?

Since when does the two years go from concept to release? It's supposed to be from concept to production.

I thought it was from concept to release. Hasbro would use the two years to talk of toys they were revealing ("we started working on these two years ago, and here they are now" type thing), often times not far from actual release.

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:
I've said for a while that the whole two year production schedule isn't really a thing anymore. Sure, they plan lines long in advance and probably already have a solid idea of what they're doing in 2025, but they can also do things like overhauling War for Cybertron part 3 in record time and not just produce Kingdom but also SS86.

Emerje

Isn't it still 2 years between Mark drawing that new Skyquake and it appearing evebtually on shelves ?

Since when does the two years go from concept to release? It's supposed to be from concept to production.

I thought it was from concept to release. Hasbro would use the two years to talk of toys they were revealing ("we started working on these two years ago, and here they are now" type thing), often times not far from actual release.

But the whole, "here's some new toys, they'll be out in a couple months" thing is a pretty recent development. Back when they used to talk about the two year time during Toy Fair, BotCon and SDCC we had to wait nearly half a year before figures would actually see release. I really doubt the Skyquake redesign happened in 2021, it make no sense for them to make such a drastic change before fans actually had them in hand and could form a better opinion of them. Surely their original plan was to ease fans into new designs that they could easily use for other figures and would have resisted Prime accuracy as long as they could.

Emerje

Distribution is wild. Turns out Metalhawk shipments landed in North America a little while ago and the smaller stores have been quicker to get them to their clients. While BBTS is in the process of fulfilling orders, some Canadians (like me) were able to get him live. The one pictured below (by me) was bought at the store Geekstuff in Laval, Qc, where he is still in stock at $50 CAD ($37 USD). While a review is coming, here are some in hand images first. We see a comparison to Cyclonus, his mold mate, and the Titans Return Metalhawk. Plus lots of other images showcasing his effects part compatibility and scale with other figures.

Looks like I can be lazy then.
I'll open my Metalhawk later.

Now all I'll need is the Botcon Metalhawk.
And if I ever find a Monkey Paw, the original and complete G1...

I can understand that time frame for an all new mold, but for a retool it shouldn't take as long as they only need to adjust the new to fit the old. A repaint it should be even far less.

Till-all-R1 wrote:I can understand that time frame for an all new mold, but for a retool it shouldn't take as long as they only need to adjust the new to fit the old. A repaint it should be even far less.

It's not just some retool like a new head. At least 60% of the thing is all new parts. Those take time to do. Regardless, Kingdom Cyclonus is not that old so unless you have the life expectancy of a mouse, the timeframe was relatively short.

Oh, and rubbing it in that he's got a copy of Cosmos? That's just cruel...

DeathReviews wrote:Oh, and rubbing it in that he's got a copy of Cosmos? That's just cruel...

I know. "I have a legally obtained copy of a figure that we only saw 3 days ago for the first time" and the biggest flex in the photo is still *****in' Cosmos

I have given up on the little green mech.

Wow great pics. Even side by side I see very little similarities to Kingdom Cyclonus. I'm glad I pre ordered him. I wonder if I can request a picture with him next to ER Prime and Kingdom Rodimus.