The Energon Pub

o.supreme wrote:HTS really needs to fix their site. no way of knowing if an item is in stock or not unless you click on it.

Yeah, it's like going to the store & thinking they have the hard to find video game system everyone is looking for & when you get to the counter you find out you're just looking at an empty cardboard display box & they're sold out

Albatross250 wrote:i wonder if they will make a Primal Prime redeco?

Let’s ask the Magnificance

Magnificance: ...no.

We now have images from Amazon Japan and Dengeki Hobby showing us Power of the Primes Abominus combined and Optimal Optimus with flight mode, among other images. While these are images from Takara, the releases are the very same as the Hasbro versions, as with every toy part of this line (both in the in fact that they are released individually and look the same).

However, this gives western fans something truly amazing that we never had before. The marketing technique of Hasbro and Takara have varied wildly in the past with Hasbro releasing official images of products using 3-d renders while Takara usually has high quality images of the actual finished product showing all of its possible configurations/gimmicks. Well, since both lines are the very same, this means that western fans can now be treated to this kind of marketing for toys they do not need to import.

So below you will see images of the following finished figures from the Power of the Primes line, well posed, well transformed )except for Optimal Optimus' robot mode), and showing all their possible configurations in terms of accompanying accessories.

PP-20 Quintus Prime with Bludgeon Decoy Armor
PP-21 Rippersnapper
PP-22 Cutthroat
PP-23 Blot
PP-24 Sinnertwin
PP-25 Hung-Gurrr
PP-26 Elita-1
PP-27 Optimal Optimus

I want that Abominus!

And Optimal Optimus. (Or a future Primal Prime?)

First time in years I've thought that of a main line.

Surfing monkey mode is going to be completely hollow in the back.
Not too fond of that.

So how hollow is Primal's back when he's on the surfboard?

Well I'll be Optimus Primal's father's brother! Bludgeon is a major retool of Metalhawk:





Compare the dark grey pieces with the purple ones.

Metalhawk retooled into Landmine, then shares parts with Bludgeon.

All is right again.

RustedCross wrote:Surfing monkey mode is going to be completely hollow in the back.
Not too fond of that.

Here is to hoping that Perfect Effect comes up with a fix for the hollow back.

RiddlerJ wrote:So how hollow is Primal's back when he's on the surfboard?

Who cares. It was dumb to begin with. It's good to know that his jet(thing) mode is achievable, and he can have a proper looking gun backpack like the OG did.

Sure his Optimal bits will just sit there and look hollow while you're using lil Primal, but it's not any different than the previous "Evolution" Leader figures.

*sorry RJ, wasn't meaning to be condescending*

Lucky Logician wrote:

RustedCross wrote:Surfing monkey mode is going to be completely hollow in the back.
Not too fond of that.

Here is to hoping that Perfect Effect comes up with a fix for the hollow back.

Yeah it’d be a real shame when you have him on your shelf with his back turned facing you and you can see all that hallowness...

Optimal Optimus is gonna be hollow as hell. No thank you.

The Terrorcons look pretty great though. Will definitely try and nab them.

Black Hat wrote:Optimal Optimus is gonna be hollow as hell. No thank you.

The Terrorcons look pretty great though. Will definitely try and nab them.

No more hollow than the original, or any of the other leader figures from this line

And besides, you can fill the cavity with primal to give him his screen accurate cannons anyways, so what is everyone bitching about? That he has so many options - more than any other figure in this class is awesome, it would have been easy for the designers to not bother trying to integrate primal into his suit in any way and force you to use the surfing monkey mode and bot mode only, but they didn't, and that's great

The Terrorcons all look amazing. Great upgrades of the G1.

The thing I don't like about OpOp is that his unevolved form doesn't really turn into anything. I am trying to figure out how to make it look like something. Otherwise, all other forms look great. Heck, I bet he can basically turn into a hover tank that is an approximation of his ground form from Beast Wars.

Bludgeon doesn't turn into sword. Why? It would have been perfect. I hope some third party comes out with an alternate weapon.

MagicDeath wrote:Why does this retool debate keep popping up? We all agree on the facts, it’s just what you want to call a retool, which really should be ‘to each his own’.

Anyone mind telling me where I’ve seen Inferno’s packaging art chestplate before? Is it MtMtE Grapple?

The Sticking point is that in almost all cases of shared engineering across different toys, the two products are still dinctly different. TR Chromedome uses the same arm and leg principles as CW Dead End. But he’s clearly a different toy. The most infamous of shared engineering, the G2 Starscream (possibly better known as Smoke Sniper or Smokejumper, see WJ88’s sig pic) and Energon Starscream molds transform the same way, but they are clearly two different sizes and the jet kibble is different.

With HunGrr and Silverbot, you have two toys that are of the same size, same relative parts count, in the exact same blueprint, and they cast an almost identical profile as the other. This isn’t just “Oh, well he transforms the same way as this other toy” at the surface they have no less in common with each other than he Clones do. And its hard, when the human brain instinctively wants to find patterns (That’s why you see shapes in clouds) and explanations for things, to disconnect these two nigh—identical toys as anything other than being related.

OPtimal Optimus looks. Better and better. Odds re good I won’t be removing Primal though.

Gonna have a hard time turning down Elita 1 when I see her. But thats not a character I am attached to.

The Terrorcons look great as well. Again, gonna be hard to resist but I just don’t need them.

The heck does Bludgeon vein turn into?

Flashwave wrote:

MagicDeath wrote:Why does this retool debate keep popping up? We all agree on the facts, it’s just what you want to call a retool, which really should be ‘to each his own’.

Anyone mind telling me where I’ve seen Inferno’s packaging art chestplate before? Is it MtMtE Grapple?

The Sticking point is that in almost all cases of shared engineering across different toys, the two products are still dinctly different. TR Chromedome uses the same arm and leg principles as CW Dead End. But he’s clearly a different toy. The most infamous of shared engineering, the G2 Starscream (possibly better known as Smoke Sniper or Smokejumper, see WJ88’s sig pic) and Energon Starscream molds transform the same way, but they are clearly two different sizes and the jet kibble is different.

With HunGrr and Silverbot, you have two toys that are of the same size, same relative parts count, in the exact same blueprint, and they cast an almost identical profile as the other. This isn’t just “Oh, well he transforms the same way as this other toy” at the surface they have no less in common with each other than he Clones do. And its hard, when the human brain instinctively wants to find patterns (That’s why you see shapes in clouds) and explanations for things, to disconnect these two nigh—identical toys as anything other than being related.

The answer is simple: silverbolt made a damn solid torso, and abominus deserves only the best

Flashwave wrote:The heck does Bludgeon vein turn into?

A gun that uses a kanabo for a barrel

Hellscream9999 wrote:

partholon wrote:im trying to figure out what the hell bludgeons alt mode is.

Pretty sure it's supposed to be a Kanabo, a Japanese studded club that Samurai used, they tend to be octagonal, and have metal studs running down the sides, not so sure it carries over to the alt mode, it might be a gun, maybe, but the part the tm uses is definitely a Kanabo

Flashwave wrote:The heck does Bludgeon vein turn into?

That also keep popping up and was answered above quickly as a result. Decepticon shells turn into melee weapons (Octopunch may be debatable), while Autobot ones are exclusively guns.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Flashwave wrote:The heck does Bludgeon vein turn into?

That also keep popping up and was answered above quickly as a result. Decepticon shells turn into melee weapons (Octopunch may be debatable), while Autobot ones are exclusively guns.

The funny part is that the soft detent would allow the weapon mode to be stood upright and you could use it to beat 's to death with a tiny suit of samurai armor

Looking forward to Abominus, he was already a definite and Elita 1 has swayed me for her, though I'm quite happy to skip on Starscream. Optimal Optimus is pretty much awful compared to the original toy so I'll end up going third party eventually on him, when I fail to resist building up a beast wars collection again.

Optimal Optimus was always a bad design...

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Flashwave wrote:The heck does Bludgeon vein turn into?

A gun that uses a kanabo for a barrel

Hellscream9999 wrote:

partholon wrote:im trying to figure out what the hell bludgeons alt mode is.

Pretty sure it's supposed to be a Kanabo, a Japanese studded club that Samurai used, they tend to be octagonal, and have metal studs running down the sides, not so sure it carries over to the alt mode, it might be a gun, maybe, but the part the tm uses is definitely a Kanabo

Well, at least his name finally is appropriate. Never understood why a Samurai armed with swords is named Bludgeon.

Abominus is still amazing as is all the individual terrorcons...my wallet hurts

Abominus looks great, but why does he have two different coloured hands? Not a fan of that it looks weird.

Bludgeon looks terrible, the barrel needs paint and the Prime Master needs a ton, it looks way too bland. I really hope this is just a prototype and not the finished product.

Albatross250 wrote:Takara POTP Abominus, Hun-grr