The Energon Pub

My wallet like this, as does my shelf space. But, I will echo others here and wish for Takara's positive influence on Hasbro to help up the mold detailing/design and potentially increase the quality of the decors (more/effective paint!)

I am planning to get both Rodimi, I will pass on Optimus for now.

Still no figures here, but I'm still trying to wait another week before I actively try to find them

So...has anyone gone to any stores to see the aftermath yet? I mean I remember years past, the day after the holiday, the toy aisles were completely wiped out. s I kid it wasn't so fun, but now as an adult it gives me hope, to see new product. The last couple of years though...haven't been the case. I guess it is true kids are buying fewer toys than ever before. I haven't been to any stores yet, but what Black Friday didn't take, I'm hoping the last minute shoppers did. My son laughingly told me last Wednesday that most of the TR Broadsides that had been sitting around a particular store in our area were almost all gone...so there's that at least.

o.supreme wrote:Still...while the toys remain *exactly the same*, I imagine the packaging will still need to be region specific, and may offer some alternatives.

Back in the original series, while toys were the same, Takara still released gift sets for Bruticus, Predaking, Abominus...etc. that North America never got. I'm still hoping we may get Unite Warrior styled gift sets for PotP Volcanicus, Abominus, perhaps some of the other voyagers as well. Even if the toys are exactly the same, I'd go for the packaging in this case, which should be less expensive overall I would think, with this announcement, maybe $120-$130 range to import?

For the toys under their POTP line, I would expect the packaging to be identical, just like what they did with TLK. But yeah their combined teams could offer different packaging since it would be sold a s box set. Nice G1 callback

And your range is dead on, thats how much Takara's Superion was at BBTS whe he came out.

Agamemnon wrote:My wallet like this, as does my shelf space. But, I will echo others here and wish for Takara's positive influence on Hasbro to help up the mold detailing/design and potentially increase the quality of the decors (more/effective paint!)

Sabrblade wrote:

Asepticon wrote:Well if it means Hasbro will up their quality of paint and deco, then it's good news, but if Takara plans to downscale their deco and paint, then this does not bode well.

I suspect it's the latter since Takara's POTP toys look exactly like Hasbro's, cartoon-inaccurate decos and foil stickers and all.

About all this, I find that POTP is the best example we have an thus I am curious to know what you all think of it. Comparing to previous years, is the deco better than usual? As I said, Jazz was surprising since Hasbro rarely used clear plastic for their combiner limbs. And Swoop had that cartoon/diaclone accurate chest. So do you guys feel this is Hasbro stepping up their game? How do you find them compared to Titans Return Arcee or Grotusque which were supposed to be more premium in deco than the other Titans Return toys?

I ask because even if I own them all, I cant really tell. To me, CW Trailbreaker was as premium as any other Hasbro products I own but none of these compare to the deco on, say, Unite Warriors Roller.

Skritz wrote:Does it make me a bad toy collector that I don't find PotP 'screamer as horrific as everyone else says? He's really not the figure I regretted the most buying at retail price when he came out.

You are free to like anything you want. As long as you have a collection, you are a collector What makes us all good or bad is how we treat eachother, not the contents of our collection.

And yeah, I know what you mean about TLK deluxe megs, but believe it or not, thats probably the best version of that mold so far. It came from a really rough time in Transformers toys where plastic felt super cheap. And he was one of the better ones.

RAR wrote:the Legends in particular are actually "Good".

Yeah, they are the best toys of the line to me. While every other class has a gimmick to conform to, the Legends class simply advance the transformation technology. Its nice to simply have generations toys again. They all feel as good as the ROTF scouts of old.

william-james88 wrote:And Swoop had that cartoon/diaclone accurate chest.

And that's the only thing cartoon-specific about Swoop's deco. The rest of it is toy-specific, making the blue chest stand out against all the deco's non-cartoon aspects, like the black robot helmet.

I'm extremely upset by this. I'm not screaming at the top of a mountain, but I woudln't be surprised if I was the most upset person here.

I like having options. And I hate stickers. Even Reprolabels high quality ones. They're a pain in the ass and there's no comparison to actual paint apps and tampos.

I'm not optimistic about Takara "elevating" the Hasbro products, as thus far I've seen no examples of such. Just straight up copy cat'ing.

Takara, please make me eat my words.

I own very few PotP so far, because of well..holding out for , which this news may or may not change depending on the packaging discussion we had above.

But from what I do have...I think Dreadwind is a great toy. Definitely not a lazy retool, it offers more versatility than I thought possible form a mold previously used so often in CW.

I also have the first 3 Prime Masters. while they are fun on a small scale, is it just me, or do the Prime Masters themselves look and feel a bit to be made of a "lower grade" plastic, even a bit lighter than the average Titan Master head? Also you have less detail in a symbol vs. a molded face. Also as many have pointed out, they are held together with a pin rather than a screw...

I just noticed the arms popping off my Micronus very easily, which did not occur with most Titan Masters.

shajaki wrote:I'm extremely upset by this. I'm not screaming at the top of a mountain, but I woudln't be surprised if I was the most upset person here.

I like having options. And I hate stickers. Even Reprolabels high quality ones. They're a pain in the ass and there's no comparison to actual paint apps and tampos.

I'm not optimistic about Takara "elevating" the Hasbro products, as thus far I've seen no examples of such. Just straight up copy cat'ing.

Takara, please make me eat my words.

Thanks for putting my scattered thoughts well. This is the same way I feel. I'm not a fan of stickers, they're always the worst option for deco. And the idea of a company increasing quality without need is laughable. Companies increase quality or decrease their overhead only when sales dictate it.

I would be all for this if it meant that everyone was going to get the best deco possible. Alas, I worry that this means that everyone will now get the worse deco possible. If reprolabels was traded on the stock market, I'd be investing in them right about now lol

william-james88 wrote:<snip>
About all this, I find that POTP is the best example we have an thus I am curious to know what you all think of it. Comparing to previous years, is the deco better than usual? <snip>

This is an excellent question, and as such, I've taken a second long look at the PotP Deluxes. If Dreadwind is an example of what we might see in Takara's influence on Hasbro, then I am optimistic. He appears to have a higher part count than the CW Aerialbots. There appears to be substantially more paint apps. It appears that the Decepticon insignia are all tampos. I think I need to get my CW bots out of storage and try to do a direct comparison to Air Raid and stopp all this "it appears" stuff...

He really can't handle that right now

shajaki wrote:

LMAO

Very disappointing news, as long as this means the designs are still G1 cartoon inspired and don't include stickers and some nice paint i don't mind it.

If this means a difference between light and day when it comes to the finished products as we have seen with the Titans Return/Legends line i am not too happy about this. In this case i would only welcome this unification if it means Hasbro and Takara are releasing the superior versions. So cartoon accurate paint, no stickers and apropriate accessories. I like How Takara is giving us some extra paint and accessories and hate the lack of when it comes to Hasbro. Just look at the Dinobots, where the heck are all the weapons?

This seems odd to me. On the one hand, Takara is probably saving money by sharing production run costs with Hasbro vs setting up the decos or themselves. But in the other, theyvare losing an unknown part of their market in the collectors who boought their stuff because it was different than Hasbro's. Obviously, they must hink the tradeoff is worth it, but that seems like funny numbers to me.

Flashwave wrote:This seems odd to me. On the one hand, Takara is probably saving money by sharing production run costs with Hasbro vs setting up the decos or themselves. But in the other, theyvare losing an unknown part of their market in the collectors who boought their stuff because it was different than Hasbro's. Obviously, they must hink the tradeoff is worth it, but that seems like funny numbers to me.

I'm guessing Takara ran the numbers and found the U.S. collectors market isn't big enough to account for the savings in running the exact same toy as Hasbro.

I have absolutely no problem with this as long as they take the higher quality and make that the norm.

Booooo!! Goodbye painted rims. Goodbye rich and vibrant colours. Goodbye brilliant whites which will yellow over time. Hello whites that are produced yellow in the factory.

Still holding onto the hope that the combiner teams will feature that signature Takara flair (although if it does, there goes the theory that Takara is simply happier with the initial efforts.)

I just hope that a few prominent characters don't get a Takara overhaul as part of some limited edition special series in a couple of years.

Got Grimlock and Slug who got mixed in some boxing day Titans Return stuff, which mean I now feel obligated to finish Volcanicus. Well, that's fine, will give me something to oppose Abominus who was the combiner from this line I originally figured I'd focus on getting.

While I get why they want to "unify the brands" or whatever the frag they're calling it, I just REALLY hope this doesn't become the norm.

Sure, completionists are probably ecstatic over this cuz they don't have to spend so much importing Takara's stuff, and that's cool. But paint decos are REALLY important to me, and while hasbro's are passable, I have to be honest: Most of the time they're s*it. That's why I loved the fact that Takara was doin their own thing, because we got toys that were VASTLY better looking than the Hasbro offerings, with better paint apps aimed at collectors. It gave you options. This just seems like a terrible thing in my eyes, and I really hope this doesn't mark the end of some of the beautiful things we've seen from Takara in the past

o.supreme wrote:So...has anyone gone to any stores to see the aftermath yet? I mean I remember years past, the day after the holiday, the toy aisles were completely wiped out. s I kid it wasn't so fun, but now as an adult it gives me hope, to see new product. The last couple of years though...haven't been the case. I guess it is true kids are buying fewer toys than ever before. I haven't been to any stores yet, but what Black Friday didn't take, I'm hoping the last minute shoppers did. My son laughingly told me last Wednesday that most of the TR Broadsides that had been sitting around a particular store in our area were almost all gone...so there's that at least.

Most significant changes I noticed at the Walmart nearest work Tuesday morning was that there were a few less TR Voyager Megatrons and Broadsides, and the Deluxe TLK figs had been greatly reduced. On the flip side, the TR Deluxe pegs were still packed with revision wave 4, the RID Warrior pegs were restocked with whatever wave Drift and masked Windblade are part of, at some point over the last couple days they got in TLK Voyager Nitro and Scorn.

This same store never did get the PotP Legends Christmas display or any other PotP stuff for that matter. The other local Walmart did get it on the 17th (it wasn't there the 16th, I just happened to go there both days that weekend).

Going to try my luck tomorrow.

Emerje

Sodan-1 wrote:Booooo!! Goodbye painted rims. Goodbye rich and vibrant colours. Goodbye brilliant whites which will yellow over time. Hello whites that are produced yellow in the factory.

Still holding onto the hope that the combiner teams will feature that signature Takara flair (although if it does, there goes the theory that Takara is simply happier with the initial efforts.)

I just hope that a few prominent characters don't get a Takara overhaul as part of some limited edition special series in a couple of years.

Or the opposite, Takara's paint jobs will be the default. You can always hope.

What's strange to me is that figures that Hasbro did a really nice job with like the Dinobots and Dreadwing will most likely be painted differently by Takara Tomy (assuming the jets are given proper Hydra and Buster colors and the Dinobots are given a cartoon accurate UW-style box set). Meanwhile the poorly painted Optimus Prime that could have used a ton more paint in his arms and fists is being left unchanged.

Emeje

Emerje wrote:What's strange to me is that figures that Hasbro did a really nice job with like the Dinobots and Dreadwing will most likely be painted differently by Takara Tomy (assuming the jets are given proper Hydra and Buster colors and the Dinobots are given a cartoon accurate UW-style box set). Meanwhile the poorly painted Optimus Prime that could have used a ton more paint in his arms and fists is being left unchanged.

Emeje

What makes you think any of those are going to have their decos changed by Takara when all signs given by both this line and this news point to Takara just releasing the exact same unchanged decos as the Hasbro versions in Japan?