The Energon Pub

when you buy the Grimstone and Paddles retools of Sludge and Slag... you'l have the extra fists to go in all spots

Actually, I'm thinking they had to go with the combiner foot option for the extra hands for Inferno, since it looks like they are only giving him a new head and not any other retooling.

I thought his chest was retooled as well? If that's the only difference, will make for an easy G2 Hot Spot with a head swap. Anyone seen pictures of Inferno anywhere?

So here's Grimlock's enigma on Titans Return Nitro and Titans Return Cogman. Head doesn't turn!

Bronzewolf wrote:The newest Transformers you'll be, Power of the Primes has been slowly trickling it's way into mass retail stores. For quite a while now, the figures had only been seen at Target, but now we have proof that they're making their way to other big box stores! Our very own ScottyP sent a brand new sighting our direction, not of a figure, but of a new store display!
The display comes from a Wal-Mart in North Carolina, and features various stocking stuffer toys. Among them Lego Polybags, Nerf Darts, and POTP Legend Class Figures! With a price tag of $9.94, this is one of the first times these figures have been spotted at a non-Target store, and certainly the first time we've seen this display! This will hopefully make it easier for collectors and fans to fond the highly coveted figures! Check out the provided image of the display below!

Lol... "Display"

albnok wrote:

trheads.jpg

So here's Grimlock's enigma on Titans Return Nitro and Titans Return Cogman. Head doesn't turn!

Dude! Yeah! Never gonna find me a Cogman, though.

gothsaurus wrote:I thought his chest was retooled as well? If that's the only difference, will make for an easy G2 Hot Spot with a head swap. Anyone seen pictures of Inferno anywhere?

We really don't know. The only two pics we've seen are from around the time of the leak so it's hard to say if what we've seen is the final product or a mock up since it's likely the head sculpt already existed with the mold and it wouldn't have taken much to produce an unfinished Inferno to show off to buyers. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to have a whole play feature that involves sticking an Enigma into the chest of combiners and then use a figure that doesn't have that feature as one of your few offerings. With the amount of retooling they put into the PM jets why wouldn't they try to improve Inferno, too? Really just a matter of altering the center of Defensor's chest, doesn't seem that complicated.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

gothsaurus wrote:I thought his chest was retooled as well? If that's the only difference, will make for an easy G2 Hot Spot with a head swap. Anyone seen pictures of Inferno anywhere?

We really don't know. The only two pics we've seen are from around the time of the leak so it's hard to say if what we've seen is the final product or a mock up since it's likely the head sculpt already existed with the mold and it wouldn't have taken much to produce an unfinished Inferno to show off to buyers. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me to have a whole play feature that involves sticking an Enigma into the chest of combiners and then use a figure that doesn't have that feature as one of your few offerings. With the amount of retooling they put into the PM jets why wouldn't they try to improve Inferno, too? Really just a matter of altering the center of Defensor's chest, doesn't seem that complicated.

Emerje

I'm not sure we even saw any photos of the actual product or even a mockup. Rather, I though all we've seen so far were the box art and a portion of the instructions. What we do know is that they didn't retool the arms to be able to accept the combiner feet as bucklers, rather, they have you combine the feet with the regular Hot Spot guns to make bigger (and worse looking) guns. From the box art/instructions, the chest area of the combiner torso looked pretty much identical to Defensor.

As for modifying it to include the gimmick, that may actually be a bit difficult, depending on how deep it would need to sit. Remember that the area of the combiner torso where the matrix would go is formed from 2 different pars of Inferno, the ladder and the main body of the bot/fire truck. Not impossible, but not an easy change either.

Alas - no voyagers yet...

I'm guessing in this case, they will just expect kids to insert an enigma into the hands/feet... no retooling done to the mold. Just my gut feel.

This looks SOOOOOOO much better! Thats's a BEAUTIFUL fan mode. May have to try it myself when I get these guys.

I'm okay with this turn of events. It means I can buy the Prime Masters, the Legends Class, and the Leader Class figures for Power of the Primes from Hasbro, for significantly less money, and significantly sooner than Takara's versions will be available. I'm still going to TRY to hold off on getting the Dinobots until we know what Takara plans to do with them and other upcoming proper combiner teams, thought it's gonna be REALLY tough be patient. I want me some cartoon accurate blue eyes for the Dinobots and red helmets for Slag and Swoop, though! Please make it happen, TakaraQ!

All in all, Hasbro has done a very good job so far with the Power of the Primes in terms of design, sculpting, and deco choices. There's not much to improve on Takara's end, except for the damned stickers on the Voyager and Leader figures. We don't have a situation like with Titans Return where Takara needed to change almost all of the face sculpts because of art style and animation differences between The Transformers season 4 and the separate Headmasters anime. It makes sense for Takara to turn some of the PotP stuff into an "overseas" import line, especially if they can't cram the characters and gimmicks into their already unbelievably bloated G1 timeline and extended narrative. I suspect the majority of Deluxe class and Voyager class stuff will be in a revived Unite Warriors line, with deco changes.

Bronzewolf wrote:The newest Transformers you'll be, Power of the Primes has been slowly trickling it's way into mass retail stores. For quite a while now, the figures had only been seen at Target, but now we have proof that they're making their way to other big box stores! Our very own ScottyP sent a brand new sighting our direction, not of a figure, but of a new store display!
The display comes from a Wal-Mart in North Carolina, and features various stocking stuffer toys. Among them Lego Polybags, Nerf Darts, and POTP Legend Class Figures! With a price tag of $9.94, this is one of the first times these figures have been spotted at a non-Target store, and certainly the first time we've seen this display! This will hopefully make it easier for collectors and fans to fond the highly coveted figures! Check out the provided image of the display below!

If you go to brickseek.com and search the Walmart stock as "Transformers PW" instead of the individuals, you get headings for Legends, Deluxes, Voyager, and Leader. My store shows 24 of the Legends. If I try the individuals as Slash, etc., I get nada.

Dang! I was just at my local Wal-Mart this morning, but I didn't see anything like this in the main aisle of the toy section. I'm betting that since it's stocking stuffers, these will be in the Garden Center department along with all the Christmas decorations. That's where I found Hunt for the Decepticons figures years ago... no where near their toy department.

Bronzewolf wrote:...Check out the provided image of the display below!

What an unattractive display. Why does it look like a bargain bin?

Stuartmaximus wrote:So lemme get this straight! they're going all LG-43 with this?

well that's messed up!

I take it the days of Takara repaints are truly over

Takara breaks the mold for what might only be just this line and suddenly it's the end of The Transformers!

Despite popular belief the Hasbro versions are usually not under painted anymore with a few exceptions like Blur for example I don't think anyone can say that Hasbro Galvatron or Chromedome were underpainted.

Like a few others have said what is there to changed for POTP? Just a few minor details like Prime's hands (Which honestly is not a big deal at all, if you hate them so much just unscrew the hands off and put them in a bucket of blue paint and let them dry)

TF-fan kev777 wrote:I'm not sure we even saw any photos of the actual product or even a mockup.

Our first look at the figure was the blurry mass leak from a while back. That one was probably photoshopped like some of the other in the leak. It had a red a mostly red chest and white squares on the shoulders. This is our second look from October 16:



The picture was probably taken much earlier leaving plenty of room for changes on the final figure. How many times have we seen figures on the packaging that were absolutely nothing like the figure in the box? Remember this? The figure on the bottom is the one that came in the package rather than the one on the comic cover.

As for modifying it to include the gimmick, that may actually be a bit difficult, depending on how deep it would need to sit. Remember that the area of the combiner torso where the matrix would go is formed from 2 different pars of Inferno, the ladder and the main body of the bot/fire truck. Not impossible, but not an easy change either.

The spot in the center of his chest sticks out enough already that an Enigma or whatever could be plugged in there if it were modified right.

Of course I'm just speculating on possibilities, we'll likely have our answers by February at Toy Fair.

Emerje

OptimusPrimeval wrote:

Bronzewolf wrote:...Check out the provided image of the display below!

What an unattractive display. Why does it look like a bargain bin?

Tomae you think it might be a bargin bn.

DIsplays like this look like crap, but they are designed to make you look at them and dig through them. By digging, you are investing into something and are more likely to come out with something rather than just looking at a peg and walking by.

This isn't even the first time they've had those bins, they've become an annual thing for Walmart. I think last year they filled them with Legends or Titan Masters, 2015 was RID One-Step Changers, and 2014 was AOE One-Step Changers. Before that I don't remember, maybe nothing.

Emerje

Stopped by Walmart on the way home -- mine got in more TR revision waves, only. :/

steals_your_goats wrote:People are acting like this is the end of the world. The figures we got are not bad by any stretch of the imagination and there's honestly not much Takara could've changed. Stickers sure, blue fists for prime and black for jazz and windcharger's forehead but that's pretty much it. Was there this much outcry when Takara revealed their entire last knight line to be the same as Hasbros?

And I highly doubt Hasbro has any say over what Takara does. They are partners one doesn't own the other. I think the logical answer is Takara is over extended and saw this as a way to go "easy" for once. Between Masterpiece, Legends, POTP, TLK, the upcoming movie series and MTB they have a lot of stuff out or coming out. They probably just needed a financial breather.

You've a got a good head on your shoulders. When a company "might be" overextended. This means?????????????

o.supreme wrote:Hasbro did try to purchase TT recently, but that fell through.

NOT true. That was merely market speculation, but nothing concrete about it was announced at all. It was Mattel that fell through, and Hasbro tried to acquire Lionsgate while we're at it.

Those who are upset, I don't think are overreacting. No one has been acting out of turn, so the accusations are pretty empty. It's JUST a differing opinion.

And y'know, its completely legitimate. Ive been a long supporter of TakaraTomy, and they've set a certain standard. But right now, they're going far below said standard.

Im hearing lots of "what could they have even done different?" when that's not the point. It's always been standard practice for them to be different even if said differences are slight. Sometimes its just a different shade of plastic, or an added paint app here or there. So the fact that we're getting the next 2-3 years of Transformers with no optional differences is extremely disappointing. Which is my opinion, and not a "crazy" one if you ask me.

While this whole deal of course dispels any notion that the "higher price" was due to paint apps, doesn't this also prove that Takara does not consider the market outside japan as significant? Or more simply said, that they only look at the Japanese market?

I have often thought this but this is the best evidence I have so far.

As to why we are having this reaction now instead of when the same thing happened with movie toys, its pretty simple: Since 2007, Takara has not cared much about providing different paint apps than the Hasbro releases for those. Many movie toys from 2007 were just Hasbro toys with a stick on the packaging, which is what we got in TLK. Plus, the films are really just a western product while the original toys and a lot of the G1 fiction has roots in Japan.

Basically, there is more precedent for movie toys than for "Generations" toys.

shajaki wrote:So the fact that we're getting the next 2-3 years of Transformers with no optional differences is extremely disappointing.

I think you're extrapolating too much from this one turn of events, honestly. We don't know that Takara will simply "import" Hasbro's merchandise for all of their Transformers lines going forward. All we know is that it's happening for Takara's "Power of the Primes" line. We don't know what the plans are with Transformers Legends, or Unite Warriors, or really anything else at this point. We've yet to see any hint of the Dinobots, Terrorcons, or the Female Autobots, all of which Takara could shuffle into different sublines with different business objectives. Look at how they slid some Hasbro Generations Legends figures into their Transformers Adventure line, for example.

I don't think this is "2 to 3 years" of no Transformers options we're looking at, honestly. If this turns out to be a bad move for Takara, they'll adjust course. Look at what happened with the Fall of Cybertron toys for Hasbro. They went with cheaper plastic, simpler transformations, smaller figures, and hollowed out parts, to try and bring costs down. Consumers balked and they addressed most of those issues (within reason). Takara has proven over the years that it takes great pride in putting out the best product it can for its consumers and fans. It'll take a lot more to shake my faith in them than letting a G1 Optimus Prime with gray hands slip through the cracks.

There's always a chance of some of these getting DX releases with premium decos. I'd say it's probably VERY likely for Rodimus and Optimus.