The Energon Pub

Delta Magnus wrote:I, for one, am really digging the inhuman proportions of Abominus. He's an alien robot death machine made from 5 smaller alien robot death machines. He doesn't need to be humanly scaled.

He will need repainting into less loud colours though, that's for sure.

And let's face it, at least it's better than the G1 combiners.

I like you.

Delta Magnus wrote:I, for one, am really digging the inhuman proportions of Abominus. He's an alien robot death machine made from 5 smaller alien robot death machines. He doesn't need to be humanly scaled.

He will need repainting into less loud colours though, that's for sure.

And let's face it, at least it's better than the G1 combiners.

Abominus was the most possible of all G1 combiners. This Abominus looks like a PCC. Now Grimstone finally has a rival.

Rated X wrote:

Delta Magnus wrote:I, for one, am really digging the inhuman proportions of Abominus. He's an alien robot death machine made from 5 smaller alien robot death machines. He doesn't need to be humanly scaled.

He will need repainting into less loud colours though, that's for sure.

And let's face it, at least it's better than the G1 combiners.

Abominus was the most possible of all G1 combiners. This Abominus looks like a PCC. Now Grimstone finally has a rival.

Nah, Grimstone's limbs don't have robot modes

Grimstone is also way bigger and has a better colour scheme.

Rated X wrote:

Delta Magnus wrote:I, for one, am really digging the inhuman proportions of Abominus. He's an alien robot death machine made from 5 smaller alien robot death machines. He doesn't need to be humanly scaled.

He will need repainting into less loud colours though, that's for sure.

And let's face it, at least it's better than the G1 combiners.

Abominus was the most possible of all G1 combiners. This Abominus looks like a PCC. Now Grimstone finally has a rival.

He was also a blocky, goofy looking mess whose individual components absolutely sucked. And being the most poseable of the G1 combiners is hardly an accomplishment. He doesn't even have elbows. On top of that he's a major partformer, with feet and hands that have nowhere to go in the separate modes.

Even the silliest PCC was miles better than any of the G1 combiners, or any of the G1 toys at all for that matter.

I just threw up in my mouth a little.

If I may ask, are all the people in this topic saying this is acceptable or awesome actually Hasbro employees or something?

Looking at this, I get the same shivers I did when opening up the newest collection note in G1, only to find that Hasbro had run out of Takara designs and started hardcore making their own.
You know, the thing that killed the line stone cold dead?

Were they trying at all on this thing?

Obviously they were or they wouldn't have bothered with any combining at all. Or reviving the Terrorcons. It's just that each individual component has decent modes that happen to combine as well. I shouldn't have to mention that combiners make sacrifices and one at this size and price point is no exception. Limb, robot, alt mode: pick two.

Having a different opinion on what looks good, what's acceptable, and what I like, does not make me a Hasbro employee. It makes me an individual with unique tastes that, evidently, do not line up with yours. What I see here is a beastly combiner made out of five figures in the smallest size class Hasbro currently makes. Each figure turns into a monster, a robot, AND a component of the larger combined robot, retails for $6, and has to adhere to strict requirements on plastic quantity, number of parts, paint details, and other limitations in order to be mass produced and sold at that price. For the price of admission, I quite like what I'm seeing.

Handels-Messerschmitt wrote:Obviously they were or they wouldn't have bothered with any combining at all. Or reviving the Terrorcons. It's just that each individual component has decent modes that happen to combine as well.

This reminds me of an episode of Mr.Bean where he gets his girlfriend a picture of a happy, loving couple that came in a picture frame instead of an engagement ring.

That Bot wrote:Having a different opinion on what looks good, what's acceptable, and what I like, does not make me a Hasbro employee. It makes me an individual with unique tastes that, evidently, do not line up with yours. What I see here is a beastly combiner made out of five figures in the smallest size class Hasbro currently makes. Each figure turns into a monster, a robot, AND a component of the larger combined robot, retails for $6, and has to adhere to strict requirements on plastic quantity, number of parts, paint details, and other limitations in order to be mass produced and sold at that price. For the price of admission, I quite like what I'm seeing.

Ok, i'll bite... let's put this in your hands alone from here on...

If I told you "make a combiner robot, but the limbs HAVE to look like they don't transform, and the core must NOT look like it can support the weight, and the legs HAVE not be able to stand up straight because they bump into each other...


...how different would you design it from this? Or, is it exactly just that?

When I was young Abominus was the first combiner I collected. I loved it. I may be in the minority with some collectors but I love the look and design of these guys. It's not perfect, but that makes it more endearing to me. These guys are huge for legion class and I think they look awesome...though I always used sinnertwin and cutthroat as legs.

Nyancatron wrote:

That Bot wrote:Having a different opinion on what looks good, what's acceptable, and what I like, does not make me a Hasbro employee. It makes me an individual with unique tastes that, evidently, do not line up with yours. What I see here is a beastly combiner made out of five figures in the smallest size class Hasbro currently makes. Each figure turns into a monster, a robot, AND a component of the larger combined robot, retails for $6, and has to adhere to strict requirements on plastic quantity, number of parts, paint details, and other limitations in order to be mass produced and sold at that price. For the price of admission, I quite like what I'm seeing.

Ok, i'll bite... let's put this in your hands alone from here on...

If I told you "make a combiner robot, but the limbs HAVE to look like they don't transform, and the core must NOT look like it can support the weight, and the legs HAVE not be able to stand up straight because they bump into each other...


...how different would you design it from this? Or, is it exactly just that?

Given the restrictions of durability, plastic amount, and number of parts allowed, what would you have done?

We're not talking Bandai MiniPla or Kabaya kits here, these are designed as fully functional standalone figures with no extra parts or partsforming necessary. Given what it has to do, it pulled it off well, similar to Generations Bruticus. It's not perfect, but passable.

What boggles my mind is how accepting people are that because something is inexpensive, that common sense desung has to go crashing out the window.
I used to get combiners out of gumball machines in the 80s... Godmarz, Albegas, other ones straight from Japan. They were just 50cents a piece. They might not have triple-changed, but they made what looks like "something". They didn't just randomly attach and have illogical forearms or look "impossible".

Imagine playing with this, if you're a kid. Where in the 80s combiners you'd often find people just keeping it combined, this one is the complete opposite.

Imagine too, if it were real.
"Um, excuse me, right arm? Can you lift your feet a moment? I want to move my shoulder. It's ok, you can rest them back down after I'm done."

Just picture having massive forearms attached to tinier upper arms. Think about that, truly.

This is not good design. It seriously isn't.
Like, if you favor this combiner, think in your head about what mistakes could be made which WOULD bring you to say it's "unacceptable".

Comparing it with the 80's is comparing apples and oranges. Not mention comparing Hasbro and TakaraTomy to Bandai and PLEX, who each focus differently on designs: Hasbro focuses on articulation and looks, while Bandai focuses on simple yet working transforming and combining gimmick-loaded bricks with no articulation to speak of.

Each is good at what they do, but having to choose one over the other goes a bit too far for me.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
Given the restrictions of durability, plastic amount, and number of parts allowed, what would you have done?

VERY glad you asked that.

So, you have an extreme cost restraint placed on you by the budgeting department.
You KNOW there's going to have to be sacrifices already.
Those sacrifices have NO business being "looking cool" or "making physical sense".
If that's where you're making cuts, then you shouldn't be in the toy business.

I'd:
--Sacrifice one of the units to bulk up the core unit. A "weapon" element could flip out, say cannons from the shoulders. This thing already looks not very much like the G1 Abominus anyway... so might as well have him standalone looking cool in this new imagining of him.
A VERY good idea would of been to have the winged arm become a backup to the torso, perhaps even being the upper legs as well... those ugly wings shooting off could have been on its back!
--Not configure the lower legs to jab outwards within the inner leg area. This is just crazy, and there's no reason a toy can't be designed to not do that.
--Would not have all the weight of an arm unit down at the forearm area. There's no problem with claws instead of hands. The reduced budget severely destroys cool armor plating, swords, guns significantly. Also... this guy's a beast. Claws fit that nicely.
--Would not have big giant freaking feet resting on a shoulder of the core unit. Again, poor design issue, not cost.

All of these things are about design, not the budget handed them.
I could be kinder to it if I knew how long the design team had to create this thing from start to finish. I know bosses sometimes put nonsensical time constraints on people to do grand things.
The fact remains, at least with me... this thing was rushed and doesn't look very fun as a combiner.

Whereas Abominus looks nice, I'll wait for the Target 5-pack. If only for the different colors.

Also, he doesn't hold a candle to the awesomeness of Power Core Combiners.

I'll buy it for the following reasons:

1.) I want to support the Beast Hunters line. (I love Prime to pieces.)
2.) I want to fully flesh out the Predacon series of figures. (There's one of each size class, if you think about it. That's pretty frickin' neat.)
3.) I like combiners. (A lot.)

Which makes me sad about this set.

It's just flat out ugly. My gosh, that's terrible. Scramble City or not, that's just utter $#!73. Thankfully, it does have Scramble City capability, so it might be possible to find a mode that's somewhat visually appealing and actually looks like a creature of some form than a bunch of toys plugged together. (There's no cohesive feeling to it.)

Fortunately, it's more than affordable, so I've no complaint there. Still, just a terrible design, so far. Granted, it could be the person taking the picture, I'll be fair, but I'm pretty sure that ball of terrible is Hasbro's fault.

Someone mentioned FOC Bruticus and the proportions, earlier. Bruticus is another example where Hasbro's kinda just fumbled the ball and given it to the 3rd parties. I like Bruticus. I love that you can reconfigure it to your liking and make legs and arms out of everyone (except Onslaught, of course), and for what it does and is supposed to do, it fits the bill just fine.

This, however, does not. It combines, sorta. It looks like a massive beast, sorta. It's just...*sighs* a mess.

That each component has its own two individual decent-looking modes plus the fact that they turn into monsters instead of a brick with wheels also goes some way towards explaining why it isn't the best possible gestalt of this size. Of course it's easier to do a better arm out of something that has bulk and doesn't need limbs of its own, and it gets even easier if you decide to prioritise the combined mode over the robot or alt mode. That obviously hasn't been done because each component figure is sold separately and is meant to be appealing on its own merits.

Handels-Messerschmitt wrote:That each component has its own two individual decent-looking modes plus the fact that they turn into monsters instead of a brick with wheels also goes some way towards explaining why it isn't the best possible gestalt of this size.

Fair point.

Handels-Messerschmitt wrote:Of course it's easier to do a better arm out of something that has bulk and doesn't need limbs of its own, and it gets even easier if you decide to prioritise the combined mode over the robot or alt mode. That obviously hasn't been done because each component figure is sold separately and is meant to be appealing on its own merits.

Also a fair point. However, we've seen combiners from various sources, Bandai, Hasbro, TakaraTomy, 3rd party, and for some reason...this set and the Bruticus that came before it...just a mess.

Your points are valid, no doubt, but they're just not enough to answer away all the flaws found here. Kudos to you for supporting their efforts, but Hasbro should reciprocate by producing a product that's better than this. I'm hoping that once it's in hand, some tweaks can be done during transformation that will help clean it up, cuz dang.

Man, you guys remember that crappy Bruticus toy? The one with five unique figures all with individual robot modes and alt modes, and whose limbs could mix and match to serve as arms or legs, and had absolutely no extra pieces or parts-forming whatsoever?

Man, that thing sucked.

I like the cut of your jib, Bullycon.

...And man, those are some nice looking little robots.

daimchoc wrote:

Yeah, I'm going to have to pick each one up the moment I see them.

Seriously though, what's with all the hate? They're Legends-scaled, for Chrissakes, they aren't Leader class.

This looks awful. Hun-Gurr's body should be Voyager sized. If it was, then the arms wouldn't look ridiculous. I know nobody enjoys storing the extra parts, but this is a figure that could have benefitted well from detachable fists and feet, as well as a combiner helmet to go over Hun-Gurr's head. Speaking of which, looks to close to Knock Out's head.

Dclone Soundwave wrote:Hun-Gurr's body should be Voyager sized.

Now, are we talking about having Hun-Gurr as a Voyager, and the remaining individuals still being Legends-scaled? Or an upsize for everyone? Because having only Hun-Gurr as a Voyager would make it horribly out of scale.