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So I got both Leader Prime and Rodimus today. These are not the standouts of the line. Not terrible, but not the standouts due to pretty big flaws in the look of some of their modes.

They each have good stuff though and its a mixed bag all around. I will say this though, the way they are built, they feel more "toyish" than the previous generations leaders. The plastic is very light. Its not a KO feeling at all, but more of the feeling you get playing with toys made for younger kids, like anything from Imaginext or the Bandai of America Power Rangers Zords. Think of a Batmobile made for a younger audience and its that kind of feel I get. The fact that there is a ton of unpainted plastic adds to that notion too. They dont feel like collectables in any way (unlike, says, Titas Return Sky Shadow). It also doesnt help that the stickers are misaligned.





My main problem with optimus is how Orion pax is very very simple to transform. I think the G1 Optimus Prime toy has more steps. The cab mode is probably the worst we have ever gotten for an Optimus type vehicle, aside from some recent simplified RID toys (then again, its not better than those, probably on par). And there really isnt much to him connecting to his Prime Armour. Orion doesnt really convert much for that. There is nothing for his legs or arms to tab into so you can fold him whichever way you want or leave him be.







The good stuff comes with the trailer transformation. Now that is awesome. It is a really meaty and involved transformation of turning what is essentially a box into practically a full body. The box disapears away and you just use the panels to create different shapes. Orion contributing little to the full body means Optimus is very solid in his evolved form. The only part with isues are the feet. Not only are they quite unnatractive, but they are linked to his legs in an odd way, its not directly to his ankles. There is this extra ligament panel that is not very strong and will fold in different ways withouth you intending it to so the feet can give way and the robot would have problem standing.


Not onto Rodimus. The alt mode is excellent. Especially combined. Its a solid combination too, with several points to attach and there is even a slight transformation to do so it feels like its own mode rather than just the hot rod car mode and the trailer. And really cool exhaust conecting effect.

The Hot Rod robot mode is serviceable but I much preffer the Titans Return one. This one isnt as sleek and uses a fake chest. The worst part though is that the shoulders are limited in movement. I can handle the massive butt flap/kibble but shoulder artiulation is really key for me. The posing is thus quite limited, which isnt helped by the big guns which have a crazy long back section.

The combined mode is where I have most issues with Rodimus. The use of his thighs for shoulder connections looks more off than any image I have seen so far. The back is really a non issue compared to how bad this looks. Plus, it limits the shoulder articulation, here too Also, the arms to tend to get undone and fall off since the thighs are not securely set on Hot Rod.

So there you go, what one gets right, the other gets wrong.

Sounds disappointing, to say the least, Will. I will set expectations accordingly, but here's hoping they improve the mold for Rodimus Unicronus.....

bodrock wrote:Sounds disappointing, to say the least, Will. I will set expectations accordingly, but here's hoping they improve the mold for Rodimus Unicronus.....

They cant improve the look. Its a simple redeco and everything is done and in boxes waiting to ship out. Nothing is changing now.

william-james88 wrote:

bodrock wrote:Sounds disappointing, to say the least, Will. I will set expectations accordingly, but here's hoping they improve the mold for Rodimus Unicronus.....

They cant improve the look. Its a simple redeco and everything is done and in boxes waiting to ship out. Nothing is changing now.

I figured as much.....I was hoping a revision might be possible in a later wave, but I highly doubt it. Here's hoping PotP Primal gets it right.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

King Kuuga wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

Hotconvoy wrote:Stupid gray circles

Can no one photoshop them out?

I can, but I don't know what you're expecting to see.

The wave 2 figures in package, or is that not how Photoshop works?

Photoshop (or Gimp, which I'm using) is not magic, you can't create something from nothing. They have overwritten the original data for the image and it's the only version any of us have. I can erase the circles (like I did before, and did to transparency in this version) but there's nothing underneath. It's not like a painting where a vandalism would go on top of the original artwork, in this case, the original pixels have effectively been replaced. I'm sure a copy exists on someone's hard drive, but we don't have it.




Well I went to a couple TRUs the last few days to try and find the Prime Masters both for myself and as gifts to some of my friends. The first one I went to, yesterday, only had two Cloudbursts, both of which I nabbed. They also had some legends. The other one which I visited today had everything from Prime Masters all the way to Voyagers, although they only had 2 Dreadwinds and a Jazz among the deluxe selection. Anyway, I nabbed 2 each of Skullgrin and Metalhawk and left them with some Cloudbursts, as some sort of apology for taking the ones from the first location (though I think he's my least favorite of the first wave so eh). They're fun little guys. You can't see the Prime Master's eyes peeping out very well on Cloudburst, it's a bit better on Metalhawk, and of course if it weren't for the leg hole you'd barely know if anybody is inside Skullgrin at all. I like how they can hold their little weapons or become targetmasters. Speaking of which, they're a bit bulky as weapons, to the point where some figures will have trouble holding them. The handles aren't super long and the armor's feet can get in the way so if the figure has a thick wrist (like Chromedome) it might have to sit at an angle. It's also fun to use the PMs as heads, most of them look like weird faces so there's some possibilities here for customizers.
And since I have no POTP deluxes yet, I stuck them on a TR deluxe.

Are ya feeling lucky, punk?

The first wave of Transformers Power of the Primes has made its way to store shelves recently to much anticipation. The roll-out has been quite a success compared to the well-known flaws in the distribution and execution of the previous two lines, The Last Knight and Titans Return. However, just because it went over smoothly on the whole does not mean that there weren't some strange slip ups in the toyline. One of the most central is the fact that some copies of the Prime Master size class figure Micronus Prime and Vector Prime have shipped with two copies of the actual robot Prime Master itself. The Masters are separate in the package, one in the traditional packing slot for the Prime Masters, and the other already inside the Prime Master Suit/Pretender shells. Here's a stock photo of how these new figures are supposed to be packaged:


Several Seibertronians from across the country and the world have run into this situation, ruling out that this factory error is a one off, or that it's location based in some way. In fact, one of our board members, Agamemnon, even madw a visual guide so you can tell if the copy you're thinking of picking up has two Prime Masters inside. You can find his photos below.


(Empty Shell)

(Full Shell)

(Empty Shell)

(Full Shell)

The way the Pretender shell should appear in package (well, the most common at this point, I guess) is the face won't be showing. There is also a gap between the legs

It's unknown how these errors are occuring, but there have been no reports of Micronus or Vector Primes shipping without any Prime Masters at all.
Several Seibertron board members have expressed interest in documenting this strange anomaly, so if you run into any Power of the Primes figure that includes two Prime Masters please leave a comment in the Energon Pub Forums below. There might be some information on your figure that could help us track down exactly what production lot run these errors are coming from!

Reminds me of when I was a kid in '85. My G1 Dirge, Swoop and another I forget now came with 2 sets of instructions, stickers, and tech spec decoders. I was like "Whuuuuutt????".

Not only that, but some of the Prime Masters have been packed into the wrong 'boxes'. The display cards for Vector Prime were on Micronus' figure, and vice-verse, in at least one TRU, according to my minions...

DeathReviews wrote:Not only that, but some of the Prime Masters have been packed into the wrong 'boxes'. The display cards for Vector Prime were on Micronus' figure, and vice-verse, in at least one TRU, according to my minions...

You have minions? I want minions!

Anyway, this is something that'll probably never hit me seeing that only deluxes and legends have appeared in my area, and will most likely be fixed by the time they arrive...

Having messed around with Starscream I can safely say: this mold IS salvageable. But not as Starscream. Now while I intend to keep this guy in my collection until a better voyager or deluxe seeker mold exist (if it ever exist, who knows where Generations will go after PotP?!) and is available at retail

HOWEVER! Those Rob Liefeldian proportions? Those over the top bracer/arms and big boots? That tiny head? This mold would rock as Skyquake (maybe with some jet mode retooling?) or as a G2 Comic-inspired Jhiaxus. Now THAT, my friends, would really allow this mold to shine in my opinion:

Thats awesome ! For once Hasbro finally screws up in our favor. Too bad I didnt buy a Hasbrolord to use those extra engines in his chest. But im holding out for Takara on that one and it seems they love to glue stuff in place that Hasbro doesnt.

Skritz wrote:Having messed around with Starscream I can safely say: this mold IS salvageable. But not as Starscream. Now while I intend to keep this guy in my collection until a better voyager or deluxe seeker mold exist (if it ever exist, who knows where Generations will go after PotP?!) and is available at retail

HOWEVER! Those Rob Liefeldian proportions? Those over the top bracer/arms and big boots? That tiny head? This mold would rock as Skyquake (maybe with some jet mode retooling?) or as a G2 Comic-inspired Jhiaxus. Now THAT, my friends, would really allow this mold to shine in my opinion:

Ive never really been in that toy accurate camp that wants voyager seekers. I like my troops to stand eye to eye when they go to war so the deluxe classics seeker mold is perfect for me. I find the POTP starscream to be hideous. If you give it a giant head it could easily pass off as "super deformed" and be sold in Japan to those people who buy weird figures. Surprisingly the mold isnt bad as Elita one. The skinny thighs with big legs look like those furry stripper boots. And since the upper arms are painted a different color she wont look like Popeye. It would be cool if 3rd partys find a way to remove the cockpit and wings and add some stuff that makes her look like a space car from the G1 cartoon. You only see the front so they would have a blank canvas to work with.

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:ElitaVehicle01.jpg

Rated X wrote:so the deluxe classics seeker mold is perfect for me.

Yes, maybe so, but that mold is functionally unobtainable for me given its age.

Skritz wrote:

Rated X wrote:so the deluxe classics seeker mold is perfect for me.

Yes, maybe so, but that mold is functionally unobtainable for me given its age.

Ebay is a great way to obtain older transformers. You should be able to get a good price on all the Hasbro deluxe seekers except Skywarp. He will cost a bit more because he was a TRU exclusive.

Rated X wrote:

Skritz wrote:

Rated X wrote:so the deluxe classics seeker mold is perfect for me.

Yes, maybe so, but that mold is functionally unobtainable for me given its age.

Ebay is a great way to obtain older transformers. You should be able to get a good price on all the Hasbro deluxe seekers except Skywarp. He will cost a bit more because he was a TRU exclusive.

Target exclusive with Ultra Magnus. The set was collecting dust until Fans Project came out with their Ultra Magnus armor.

Rated X wrote:

Skritz wrote:

Rated X wrote:so the deluxe classics seeker mold is perfect for me.

Yes, maybe so, but that mold is functionally unobtainable for me given its age.

Ebay is a great way to obtain older transformers. You should be able to get a good price on all the Hasbro deluxe seekers except Skywarp. He will cost a bit more because he was a TRU exclusive.

Man, skywarp was so pricey, I got a better deal by buying the takara version.

Honestly? If not for their small size, I'd otherwise would have bought the DX9 seekers and gotten all six 'main' seekers. Sadly them being more or less legends class doesn't really 'work' for me.

Plus...man...are the three coneheads even available in the 'Classics Seekers' mold? Weren't a few Botcon exclusives?

Skritz wrote:Honestly? If not for their small size, I'd otherwise would have bought the DX9 seekers and gotten all six 'main' seekers. Sadly them being more or less legends class doesn't really 'work' for me.

Plus...man...are the three coneheads even available in the 'Classics Seekers' mold? Weren't a few Botcon exclusives?

They sure are, in several varieties to boot. Here's a list for you to look into:

Classics
Ramjet

BotCon 2007
Dirge (straight redeco of Ramjet)
Thrust (newly tooled wings)

Henkei
Ramjet
Dirge (new wings)
Thrust (new wings, different from BotCon)

Generations
Dirge (using Henkei wings)
Thrust (using Henkei wings)

United
Seekers: Elites

The Classic and Generations ones were general US retail to boot!

There has been a lot of talk about how odd it is that more and more Takara toys are the exact same as the Hasbro released. We saw it with Trypticon but even more with the Transformers: The Last Knight toylines where even the box was the same. And now with the Power of the Primes toys looking identical for both companies (an example is given below) and both company logos appearing on the upcoming Studio Series toys, this similarity for multiple lines is getting fans both concerned and confused. Is there any hope that those images from Takara were still just placeholders? And what exactly is going on?

Well, the upcoming Figure King magazine (number 239) sheds some light on that and clarifies that indeed what we are seeing is true and intended to be the very same toys. There will be three pages dedicated to Takara's Transformers and the Snakas blog reports that we will not only see the same Power of the Primes toys we have already seen (and which many of us already own) but it will also discuss the new path Takara is taking with figures being identical to Hasbro. The Snakas blog quotes the magazine to say that the companies are "unifying the world brands on an unprecedented scale".

This does confirm the fears many fans had, where Takara is choosing not to do their own take on Generations toys, unlike what has been the case with the Legends line so far. While the movie toys have already been very similar between brands in the past, having other lines be identical at the same time is indeed unprecedented.

This definitely confirms that both companies are looking at their own markets first and foremost an that issuing the same toys for both markets must be more beneficial than the added money of imports. Or at least, this is what would seem to be the case with such an unprecedented decision.

While it does mean that the same deco from Hasbro's Power of the Primes will also be seen in the Takara releases under the same toyline name (which so far excludes complete combiner teams), it does bring about the idea that maybe Takara is satisfied with the deco for their own market. Jazz for instance is a deluxe combiner which uses clear plastic and thus demands a lot more paint and the only combining deluxe to also need that was Groove which was a Takara design. So instead of seeing this as Takara lowering their standards for deco, it could be that this unified deco instead takes the Hasbro deco to higher stanards than before. What do you think? Let us know!


Takara



Hasbro

Please nobody freak out.

MagicDeath wrote:Please nobody freak out.

*entire site proceeds to freak out*

ToaLeePrime wrote:

MagicDeath wrote:Please nobody freak out.

*entire site proceeds to freak out*

Haha, but seriously I have seen little to no complaining on this specific site

william-james88 wrote:While the movie toys have already been very similar between brands in the past, having other lines be identical at the same time is indeed unprecedented.

'85 and '86 G1 would like a word

While this news sucks and reeks of non-ironic Total Brand Awareness, I don't think surprise is the right emotion

Does not matter so long as it is "available". Most often than not,scalpers tend to buy everything on the shelf at TRU (well so long as it exists) hence the need (on my part to import). Same thing happened when the original Skrapnel/Reflector was released.......scalpers got to him or in the case of TFA Arcee, HB sh1tty distribution or both.

Availability first then the added bling (which is the bonus). Though the "unification" for both sides of the Pacific might also mean that some cost cutting is indeed coming the way ( here's hoping its not an ominous sign for the future ).

I am beyond thrilled about this change. Amen.