The Energon Pub

Emerje wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:So, now, since we have a dinoking members head as a prototype (which means a conscious effort to put it there) and now, a dinoking accesory, do you feel safe (like 'cw computron once botcon ramhorn was announced' safe) that Dinoking is coming somewhere, somehow?

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the parts existed between the Dinobots and Terrorcons to make both Dinoforce and the Pretender Monsters. Since Swoop and Cutthroat share parts, if the parts they share also contain the heads on the same sprew then we could see the the same head used on both molds to make a Yokuryu with a pteranodon alt mode and a Wildfly with a winged monster alt mode. Maybe Snarl has a Doryu head on the mold and maybe worked the same head into the Blot or Rippersnapper mold.

Really nothing would surprise me now.

Emerje

I could see Hasbro doing a Platinum Edition boxed set for Monstructor and Takara doing a Unite Warriors EX release of Dinoking on Takara Tomy Mall. However, I wonder how well that would work out with the current "Scramble City" style of combination they're using. Monstructor and Dino King have SIX components each. Hasbro might just cheat like they did with its release of Liokaiser, reducing and remixing the team roster. Takara, I don't think, would stand for anything less than G1 authenticity, though.

As for combiner names for Starscream, Elita-1, and eventually Inferno, we've got some precedence in recent fiction for two of them. Starscream as a combiner is "Megascream" per the IDW "Deviations" story. Fun Pub and the former TFCC gave us "Firestormer" as the name of a hypothetical combiner with Inferno as the torso and Ratchet, Hoist, Sideswipe, and Bluestreak as the limbs in their "Masters of Mayhem" story. Elita-1 truly has no fictional roots for a combiner name, but Elita-5 seems like a fantastic fit for a "fan name."

Hotconvoy wrote:

Hotconvoy wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Moonracer looks terrific to me, except for that hefty backpack, of course. We need a new term for figures that really hit the mark except for a very noticeable chuck of kibble on the back. Maybe "butherback?" As in, "Moonracer has got a real butherback of a robot mode."

Well we could keep it simple with "Fatback"

Wait wait i'v got it "Hichhiker" like CW Prime would be hichhiker Optimus Prime

Moonracer looks great in those colors, the silhouette of her Cybertronian alt mode, and I can't wait to pick her up -- butterback tho

william-james88 wrote:

Acesmcgee wrote:Doubt it was that. I was living either in Virginia or New York at the time. It's funny, living in Michigan since I was 7 (spent the first 7 years moving around due to my Dad being navy) I never realized how many collectors live in this state. Back to the primes line, I am so super excited for that Abominus to stand next to Computron.

Pretty sure someone just got you the whole set in individual packages. That means there were some pretty aware adults back in the day, lucky you

If it was in the U.S. he would have got the terrorcons individually, but could have go the Computron gift set, though personally *I* never saw it, I know it was out there. Not to get to OT, but I have to give props t my mom, back in the early 80's, I was more into MOTU than TF prior to 1985. My mom would get the complete list of figures, vehicles etc... I did not have, and assign different family members (Grandparents, aunts, uncles etc...) to get different ones. I got the best gifts and no duplication! Of course TF were far too expensive to do that with, so yeah, in 1987, the whole family combined there budgets' to get me Fort Max, that was pretty cool

It was the idea that back in the day Takara released gift sets for combiners that Hasbro did not, that initially gave me hope for their versions of PotP, but sadly we know that isn't happening. I can only hope has some surprises for us down the line with some possible gift sets for later this year, or early 2019.

We'll probably get official combiner names at some point just like how we eventually got names for the Titan masters in the two box sets.

Wolfman Jake wrote:Hasbro might just cheat like they did with its release of Liokaiser, reducing and remixing the team roster.

I would be very surprised anythign different than that happens.

And anyways, its already inner robots turning into outer dino shells, which is different from G1 already, so might as well do other changes.

steals_your_goats wrote:We'll probably get official combiner names at some point just like how we eventually got names for the Titan masters in the two box sets.

Except at least as far as I understand it, this is not a "gestalt" like Superion or Menasor. This is "Elita-1" using other bots to augment herself. This is "Armor of my subordinates Elita-1"

Or think of it in Energon terms, the combiner is still the person on top, or in this case, the torso. Eg "Powerlinx Elita-1"

Or Inferno. Him too.

william-james88 wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Hasbro might just cheat like they did with its release of Liokaiser, reducing and remixing the team roster.

I would be very surprised anythign different than that happens.

And anyways, its already inner robots turning into outer dino shells, which is different from G1 already, so might as well do other changes.

This is sorta what they did back at the beginning in a way, hybridizing the Pretender characters' different aspects into a figure. Generations Skullgrin (still a better figure than the PotP brick we are getting) and Thunderwing, for example.

Oh dear. Poor, poor Moonracer. That backpack is...ouch. Not sure it's a deal breaker given that she otherwise looks pretty decent and I was OK with Movie Payload and his enormous back plunger, but still. Not great.

Flashwave wrote:This is sorta what they did back at the beginning in a way, hybridizing the Pretender characters' different aspects into a figure. Generations Skullgrin (still a better figure than the PotP brick we are getting) and Thunderwing, for example.

And best of all

So did anyone else read that editorial on another TF site (not sure if I'm allowed to mention the name not, always forget the rule). Anyway, he seems to think Generations is coming to a close with PotP Wave 4. It's an interesting theory, one that I think does warrant discussion, but I don't believe it to be correct on a great many assumptions. Here are some of my thoughts (keeping it pertaining to PotP as much as possible):

1. It was stated that Generations WOULD be continuing after PotP (by John Warden I believe). It was hinted though that they would do away with line-wide gimmicks for the next set.

2. Generations, IDW, and Earth Wars are pretty much hand in hand in many respects. And we know that there is a big event coming later this year and in 2019 for IDW (Unicron). Earth Wars is still making a crap load of money off of whales in the game, and they entered even more interesting territory by being an official sneak peek avenue for new releases (Volcanicus and Predaking). If EW slows down, you can bet Earth Wars 2 will come in short order to fill the gap.

3. It was pointed out that maybe TF Authentics/Evergreen will be the spiritual successor to PotP. I doubt it, because we haven't heard a peep about the Cyberverse line. I am guessing Cyberverse will tie into Authentics.

4. CW, TR, and PotP are definitely making money. Transformers in general is one of Hasbro's hot tickets. In spite of TLK being somewhat of a flop (compared to the other films) toy sales still hit growth. Why would they sabotage that?

5. PotP ending earlier than we think is starting to feel a bit more feasible. I cannot remember the exact dates for CW releases, but PotP definitely seems to be releasing slower. Robot Kingdom just posted that Wave 2 will ship in April 2018, while BBTS and TFSource seem to think it will still be Q1 (which could technically be as late as March 31st). If it does slip to April, that's a 4 month difference between releases. Even if it picks back up to 3 months, that's July for wave 3, and October for wave 4, which means new waves will be 2019.

6. What if PotP is intentionally stopping early? Not as a way to sabotage Generations, but to improve the release process. What if, each sequence is yearly, instead of 18 months. PotP may very well be a trial run for the new system (much as the tail end of TR was). Introduce a new subline for January stock (some hitting in December), new toys/characters in the beginning and middle (Wave 1 and 2, and mostly 3). Then Wave 3 starts the repacks. Why would they do this? Well, I think it's to try to get more sales during the holiday season. B&M stores overload on the same 4 deluxes/legends because they get the latest wave. My Walmart STILL has Scourges, Blurrs, and Hardheads. What if retailers pushed on Hasbro to find a way to combat that, and Hasbro's way is to trickle down the new characters, so they can reload the rest of the years toys back in. For collectors, kids, and parents, more choices will lead to better chances of purchases. During the massive holiday rush (late november) you could actually see so many different characters on the shelves. I really want to see if this is the plan.

7. Shorter release cycles mean less time they have to spend in a particular ecosystem (Combiners/Headmasters) to be able to get new characters out. People are clamoring for Apeface and Snapdragon, but if PotP is a normal release cycle (18 months), that means it won't be till summer 2019 when we maybe could get them. Shorter releases would allow them to be a bit more agile and get a better breadth of characters/play patterns out there.


So really, my question is, has anyone's opinion changed as to whether PotP is going to be a shorter than usual cycle? And do you think it is for better or worse if that is the case?


Moderators, if this strays too far off topic from PotP (which I tried not to do) feel free to let me know and we can start a new thread about it.

william-james88 wrote:

Flashwave wrote:This is sorta what they did back at the beginning in a way, hybridizing the Pretender characters' different aspects into a figure. Generations Skullgrin (still a better figure than the PotP brick we are getting) and Thunderwing, for example.

And best of all

I'm eagerly anticipating Wave 3 of the Prime Masters so that my Voyager RotF Bludgeon can wield his own Pretender shell!

the backpack would be more excusable if her chest wasn't so weirdly shoehorned into her alt mode where it looks like they just forgot to make something to hide it

Good points Mordhelm, I will give some added details as to why generations wont be coming toa close and my comments below

mordhelm wrote:So did anyone else read that editorial on another TF site (not sure if I'm allowed to mention the name not, always forget the rule). Anyway, he seems to think Generations is coming to a close with PotP Wave 4. It's an interesting theory, one that I think does warrant discussion, but I don't believe it to be correct on a great many assumptions. Here are some of my thoughts (keeping it pertaining to PotP as much as possible):

1. It was stated that Generations WOULD be continuing after PotP (by John Warden I believe). It was hinted though that they would do away with line-wide gimmicks for the next set.

He didnt say there wouldnt be any gimmicks, but he did say generations has a roadmap until 2021, so yeah right off the bat the editorial is wrong

2. Generations, IDW, and Earth Wars are pretty much hand in hand in many respects. And we know that there is a big event coming later this year and in 2019 for IDW (Unicron). Earth Wars is still making a crap load of money off of whales in the game, and they entered even more interesting territory by being an official sneak peek avenue for new releases (Volcanicus and Predaking). If EW slows down, you can bet Earth Wars 2 will come in short order to fill the gap.

3. It was pointed out that maybe TF Authentics/Evergreen will be the spiritual successor to PotP. I doubt it, because we haven't heard a peep about the Cyberverse line. I am guessing Cyberverse will tie into Authentics.

Cyberverse wont tie with authentics, they are different lines using similar designs. Just like Generations Lugnut was in a different line than Animated Lugnut. And Authentics is a sublne of generations, it is not the successor. We know this from the leaks. If there are Cyberverse toys, they will be in a show line, like RID was

4. CW, TR, and PotP are definitely making money. Transformers in general is one of Hasbro's hot tickets. In spite of TLK being somewhat of a flop (compared to the other films) toy sales still hit growth. Why would they sabotage that?

Just wanted to reinforce your point that yes, at Hsbro TFs are what is bringing in the most growth $ wise. It is their best performing brand, and generations is part of it.

5. PotP ending earlier than we think is starting to feel a bit more feasible. I cannot remember the exact dates for CW releases, but PotP definitely seems to be releasing slower. Robot Kingdom just posted that Wave 2 will ship in April 2018, while BBTS and TFSource seem to think it will still be Q1 (which could technically be as late as March 31st). If it does slip to April, that's a 4 month difference between releases. Even if it picks back up to 3 months, that's July for wave 3, and October for wave 4, which means new waves will be 2019.

So far, its been 6 quarters for CW, TR and will be the same with POTP. The release schedule is the same. POTP Wave 1 was supposed to show up in December, but we got it a month early, hence the 4 month rather than typical 3 month. But 3 month is just an average.

6. What if PotP is intentionally stopping early? Not as a way to sabotage Generations, but to improve the release process. What if, each sequence is yearly, instead of 18 months. PotP may very well be a trial run for the new system (much as the tail end of TR was). Introduce a new subline for January stock (some hitting in December), new toys/characters in the beginning and middle (Wave 1 and 2, and mostly 3). Then Wave 3 starts the repacks. Why would they do this? Well, I think it's to try to get more sales during the holiday season. B&M stores overload on the same 4 deluxes/legends because they get the latest wave. My Walmart STILL has Scourges, Blurrs, and Hardheads. What if retailers pushed on Hasbro to find a way to combat that, and Hasbro's way is to trickle down the new characters, so they can reload the rest of the years toys back in. For collectors, kids, and parents, more choices will lead to better chances of purchases. During the massive holiday rush (late november) you could actually see so many different characters on the shelves. I really want to see if this is the plan.

7. Shorter release cycles mean less time they have to spend in a particular ecosystem (Combiners/Headmasters) to be able to get new characters out. People are clamoring for Apeface and Snapdragon, but if PotP is a normal release cycle (18 months), that means it won't be till summer 2019 when we maybe could get them. Shorter releases would allow them to be a bit more agile and get a better breadth of characters/play patterns out there.


So really, my question is, has anyone's opinion changed as to whether PotP is going to be a shorter than usual cycle? And do you think it is for better or worse if that is the case?

I am certain this wont be the case. We already know there are 12 primemasters and theya rent releasing 3 per wave so right there we know there is mroe than 4 waves.

Moderators, if this strays too far off topic from PotP (which I tried not to do) feel free to let me know and we can start a new thread about it.

I really hope that if they end up doing Monstructor/Dinoking that they just make all 6 deluxes with Slog having the shoulder combiner ports and Birdbrain having the leg combiner ports. Then just have them both peg into each other top-down and bam, you have yourself a complete Monstructor.

(they should've done this for Devvy too)

AFTRHR wrote:I really hope that if they end up doing Monstructor/Dinoking that they just make all 6 deluxes with Slog having the shoulder combiner ports and Birdbrain having the leg combiner ports. Then just have them both peg into each other top-down and bam, you have yourself a complete Monstructor.

(they should've done this for Devvy too)

Hope is just undiscovered dissapointment.

You know what... I keep forgetting about the remaining prime masters.

So what if part of my thought is correct (and this is something we have all discussed before) and that wave 4 will not have much new, as a way to redistribute waves 1-3 for the holidays. Wave 5 and 6 can finish off the prime masters and give us some deluxes and voyagers that have been left out so far.

I am still extremely curious what the boxsets will be for this subline. The TR boxsets seemingly sold way better than CW.

To my point about gimmicks. I meant that I read somewhere that the entire line won't be just headmasters or just combiner limbs/torsos. So wave 1 of Unicron Returns could have 2 seacons, a target master, and a headmaster (as an example). I know there are people unhappy that such great toys for characters like Blurr and Scourge were saddled with the headmaster gimmick. Personally I am not bothered, but having multiple gimmicks in a single line could keep an expanded audience. I think the titan master and combiner ports are very well thought out gimmicks that are going to last a long time.

william-james88 wrote:

AFTRHR wrote:I really hope that if they end up doing Monstructor/Dinoking that they just make all 6 deluxes with Slog having the shoulder combiner ports and Birdbrain having the leg combiner ports. Then just have them both peg into each other top-down and bam, you have yourself a complete Monstructor.

(they should've done this for Devvy too)

Hope is just undiscovered dissapointment.

Agreed, this is unlikely. Best bet if Monstructor is in the works, Slog is a retool of a voyager and birdbrain is a weird retool of Slash or Cindersaur.

william-james88 wrote:

AFTRHR wrote:I really hope that if they end up doing Monstructor/Dinoking that they just make all 6 deluxes with Slog having the shoulder combiner ports and Birdbrain having the leg combiner ports. Then just have them both peg into each other top-down and bam, you have yourself a complete Monstructor.

(they should've done this for Devvy too)

Hope is just undiscovered dissapointment.

While I agree that we won't get a 6 deluxe monstructor that's a pretty poopy way to go about life.

steals_your_goats wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

AFTRHR wrote:I really hope that if they end up doing Monstructor/Dinoking that they just make all 6 deluxes with Slog having the shoulder combiner ports and Birdbrain having the leg combiner ports. Then just have them both peg into each other top-down and bam, you have yourself a complete Monstructor.

(they should've done this for Devvy too)

Hope is just undiscovered dissapointment.

While I agree that we won't get a 6 deluxe monstructor that's a pretty poopy way to go about life.

We can hope for a better tomorrow, but it will only happen if we make it happen. Hoping my kids will have something to eat tonight wont put food on the table. Me going to work does. We are the masters of our own destiny.

On a more on topic note, I will buy a 5 member Dinoking, if the price is right. I am far more interested by the dinobots being reused to make Dinoking than the terrorcons reused to make monstructor since the alt modes look more the part.

william-james88 wrote:

steals_your_goats wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

AFTRHR wrote:I really hope that if they end up doing Monstructor/Dinoking that they just make all 6 deluxes with Slog having the shoulder combiner ports and Birdbrain having the leg combiner ports. Then just have them both peg into each other top-down and bam, you have yourself a complete Monstructor.

(they should've done this for Devvy too)

Hope is just undiscovered dissapointment.

While I agree that we won't get a 6 deluxe monstructor that's a pretty poopy way to go about life.

We can hope for a better tomorrow, but it will only happen if we make it happen. Hoping my kids will have something to eat tonight wont put food on the table. Me going to work does. We are the masters of our own destiny.

On a more on topic note, I will buy a 5 member Dinoking, if the price is right. I am far more interested by the dinobots being reused to make Dinoking than the terrorcons reused to make monstructor since the alt modes look more the part.

While a cute anecdote it doesn't apply to this at all. We have no control over what Hasbro produces so hope is all we as a fandom have.

As for monstructor and dinoking I think we're all forgetting about what combiner wars introduced for 6th members. If either or both of these are to be released it'll most likely be in a box set so it'll need a legends figure to reach the $100 price point.

steals_your_goats wrote:As for monstructor and dinoking I think we're all forgetting about what combiner wars introduced for 6th members. If either or both of these are to be released it'll most likely be in a box set so it'll need a legends figure to reach the $100 price point.

But thats not what happened with Liokaiser, the only original 6 member combiner that was turned scramble city, and the best bot to base any of these hopes on. The 6th member was not a smaller version of one of its original members, but an homage to the breastmasters the original came with.

Sludge doesn't look that bad in person, and OOOOOH I cannot wait for Rippersnapper and Blackwing....

william-james88 wrote:

steals_your_goats wrote:As for monstructor and dinoking I think we're all forgetting about what combiner wars introduced for 6th members. If either or both of these are to be released it'll most likely be in a box set so it'll need a legends figure to reach the $100 price point.

But thats not what happened with Liokaiser, the only original 6 member combiner that was turned scramble city, and the best bot to base any of these hopes on. The 6th member was not a smaller version of one of its original members, but an homage to the breastmasters the original came with.

Which was likely due to the fact that there were no molds suitable to use for the 2 missing members. And while there aren't any legends molds right now that would work there's still 2 waves left to fill that gap.

I wouldn't mind seeing two molds retooled in various crazy ways to yield Slog & Birdbrain, Jarugar & Leozack, and Shouki & Kaen.

Don't ask me how on Earth that could ever actually work. That's not my job

mordhelm wrote:I am still extremely curious what the boxsets will be for this subline. The TR boxsets seemingly sold way better than CW.

Don't expect any box sets in Power of the Primes. Hasbro was supposed to make two more box sets in Titans Return, but canceled them based on, I believe, the poor sales of the CW sets. Instead they made the remaining clones a Walgreens exclusive and put Arcee with die cast TM Ultra Magnus and Grotusque with die cast TM Scorponok out as convention/TRU exclusives. Theoretically that would mean there are two TR Leaders and two Voyagers sitting in a Hasbro warehouse somewhere that may never seen the light of day depending on how far into the process they got.

The TR box sets did sell really well, but you can still get Arcee on TRU.com months later so...

william-james88 wrote:On a more on topic note, I will buy a 5 member Dinoking, if the price is right. I am far more interested by the dinobots being reused to make Dinoking than the terrorcons reused to make monstructor since the alt modes look more the part.

You think so? I guess it depends on if you want them to turn into their shells or not. Outside Japan the Dinoforce shells aren't very iconic and it would be hard to look at the figures as anything other than green Dinobots. On the other hand I think there's some potential in Terrorcons looking really good in Pretender Monster (very creative name, Hasbro) colors.




Granted, they wouldn't all be perfect, but maybe if they give us Seacons we'll have more options.

Emerje

ScottyP wrote:I wouldn't mind seeing two molds retooled in various crazy ways to yield Slog & Birdbrain, Jarugar & Leozack, and Shouki & Kaen.

Don't ask me how on Earth that could ever actually work. That's not my job

You know, aside from the head and size difference, maybe they should of waited till PotP for liokaiser as they could of retooled starscream for leozack