The Energon Pub

News Credits: 332 · Sun Jan 22, 2017 11:47 pm

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:
chuckdawg1999 wrote:Something I just noticed, the Crash Combiner line features two vehicles being "crashed" together to make something. I'm surprised there haven't been complaints about teaching children crashing is cool.

There no such complaints with the Crash Test Dummies toy lines AFAIK.

There was. The line didn't get pulled but parents weren't buying the toys for their kids. Al Rocker the weather man for the American morning show Today, publicly stated he didn't like the toys.

News Credits: 4880 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:00 am

chuckdawg1999 wrote:There was. The line didn't get pulled but parents weren't buying the toys for their kids. Al Rocker the weather man for the American morning show Today, publicly stated he didn't like the toys.

Its not the only line which encouraged crashing.

And **** Al Rocker, he felt no pity for Harambe, he should stick to reporting the weather.

Plus, transforming and crashing has been used as a concept before this.
(go to the 1:50 mark)

Moving on, what's with the obsession here about RID being cancelled or not? How does it matter? It got a third season which is where all mainline TF shows have gotten more or less. It will one day end and another one will take its place to keep the brand alive among that demographic.

News Credits: 19 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 4:56 am

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Madeus Prime has pointed us in the direction of another review, this time for the upcoming wave 2 Combiner Force Crash Combiner Skyhammer! Skyhammer is the fusion of Skysledge and Stormhammer in typical Crash Combiner fashion, and appears to be a pretty good figure with solid colors and a good looking combined mode. The figures themselves will be available soon at retail so keep your eyes peeled for this latest Crash Combiner set!

OMFG! that thing looks terrible! individual modes are just a 1 or 2 step brick!(i'm telling you now.....if Menasor's limbs are that bad....then i'll be giving it a huge miss)

the combined mode is pretty....meh! a kinda Optimus/Starsaber crossbreed.

News Credits: 101 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 5:38 am

Sure, the guy is sarcastic in his SkyHammer review. But I guess he haven't tried PrimeStrong nor BumbeSwipe yet. He's yet to see way worse and way sadder.

Because honestly, I think it work very well for SkyHammer and I'll buy it when I see it on the shelves.

News Credits: 1646 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:56 am

-Kanrabat- wrote:Sure, the guy is sarcastic in his SkyHammer review. But I guess he haven't tried PrimeStrong nor BumbeSwipe yet. He's yet to see way worse and way sadder.

Because honestly, I think it work very well for SkyHammer and I'll buy it when I see it on the shelves.

I agree. I think this is the best looking of the crash combiners, and it does look really good and as I have Primestrong, the gimmick is actually really fun

News Credits: 1 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:34 pm

Found these Minicon Deployers at Ross for $8.99.

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News Credits: 1646 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:43 pm

DestronMirage22 wrote:Found these Minicon Deployers at Ross for $8.99.
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Thanks for the heads up! We did news this about a month ago, but keep us updated with your finds!

News Credits: 41 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 1:45 pm

Maybe I'm more excepting of these Crash Combiners because I grew up playing with bricks, but they are fun for what they are. The gimmick is so totally G1ish. I completely forgot I was going to hold out for Sky Guy there, but taken by the moment I grabbed Primestrong when I first saw them.
I agree that the gimmick is fun, but I do not agree that they are worth the price paid.
But that could be said for a lot of toys these days. >:oP

News Credits: 1646 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:39 pm

Thanks to Seibertronian rodimusconvoy13 we have a new sighting for the Combiner Force toyline for you guys to check out. The new figures in question are 3-steps Grimlock and Thunderhoof in new Combiner Force packaging, which as a result includes some sort of action gimmick for each. Thunderhoof appears to be a repaint of his original 3-step version but with darker colors and some sort of gimmick involving a 'hyper hook' while Grimlock appears to be a whole new mold with a 'hyper swoop' gimmick (Dino-pun intended?). These figures were found in a Meijer in Ann Arbor, MI, so head on out and start hunting these new 3-steps!

News Credits: 11 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:44 pm

Combiner Force Windblade review

The new one with the new face mask !!!

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I'm interested to see what the new 3 steps are like the Bumblebee & Optimus are modified or new Mould and I wonder what Thunderhoof's hook is like in a practical sense.

I wonder if they'd make that shark that you can use as a bath toy ?

News Credits: 79 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:50 pm

Still too red.

News Credits: 11 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 2:52 pm

Kurona wrote:... also, this conversation would probably better be suited to the thread actually dedicated to the animated series rather than the thread for it's toyline

Quite possibly - but that raises an interesting thought - why stop making the shows at all - just keep making them in blocks of 6 that tell a contained story - they can do that with Rescue Bots too and tie the mini-season into the theme of the toys.

The reason I was mentioning it in the 1st places was due to marketing of the toys - as I don't follow the show very closely so I'm mainly interested in it as a means as to how it's related to the Toyline and the way it's sold to us.

News Credits: 241 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 3:52 pm

RAR wrote:I'm interested to see what the new 3 steps are like the Bumblebee & Optimus are modified or new Mould and I wonder what Thunderhoof's hook is like in a practical sense.

All new molds, I assure you. You can't really replace a gimmick of a toy with a new one. Thunderhoof on the other hand looks like a straight redeco of the 3-Step. What's interesting is that gimmick name has been trademarked.

:EDIT: OK, looking closer, I'm not so sure anymore... looks like they're retools after all.

I wonder if they'd make that shark that you can use as a bath toy ?

Hammerstrike? That would be interesting to see.

News Credits: 11 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 7:07 pm

Robots in Disguise Hammerstrike Soapy ?

( a soapy is the collectors names for branded character shampoo or bubble bath Bottles in case anyone doesn't know)

It would be vinyl plastic and might even float - I can see that working might even work to some extent with robot mode Bisk and Thermidor too.

I can't see anyone making such a container that isn't someone like Grimlock or Bumblebee unfortunately even though the Aquatic Decepticons would be kind perfect for it.

Another daft idea that such a thing could be put too is to make them split up the middle - have a normal bottle inside and once that is removed use the rubbery shell as a Pretender. Though that might require a lot of close product Marketing to pull something like that off. and then there is the question - what to put on & in the shells ?

News Credits: 42 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:36 pm

Well, I'm currently planning to buy a few NuRiD deluxes, and I'd like to see what the general consensus on these guys is:
Starscream (actually Skywarp, but very few people have him in hand so far, and Scream and Warp are basically the same thing)
Stormshot

News Credits: 1646 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:43 pm

Autobot N wrote:Well, I'm currently planning to buy a few NuRiD deluxes, and I'd like to see what the general consensus on these guys is:
Starscream (actually Skywarp, but very few people have him in hand so far, and Scream and Warp are basically the same thing)
Stormshot

I plan to buy Stormshot. I've heard good reviews on him, and he looks good.

The Starscream mold is pretty good too, so you can go for whoever there, but I think Scream wears it so much better

News Credits: 42 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:44 pm

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:The Starscream mold is pretty good too, so you can go for whoever there, but I think Scream wears it so much better

I've always been a Skywarp man (unless there's a Sunstorm version, of course), and Warp's paint apps look a lot better.

News Credits: 191 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:50 pm

Stormshot is essentially borrowing Firefly's engineering and transformation with a new trick and removed Combining capability (... ironically considering the sub-line) in much the same way TR Chromedome does with Dead End. If you liked the Aerialbots, you'll like Stormshot - especially since he sort of refines their engineering into a better single product as he has no need to sacrifice anything for combination.

News Credits: 42 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:51 pm

Kurona wrote:Stormshot is essentially borrowing Firefly's engineering and transformation with a new trick and removed Combining capability (... ironically considering the sub-line) in much the same way TR Chromedome does with Dead End. If you liked the Aerialbots, you'll like Stormshot - especially since he sort of refines their engineering into a better single product as he has no need to sacrifice anything for combination.

Luckily, I'm certainly a fan of the Aerialbots.

News Credits: 7 · Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:48 pm

RAR wrote:Robots in Disguise Hammerstrike Soapy ?

( a soapy is the collectors names for branded character shampoo or bubble bath Bottles in case anyone doesn't know)

It would be vinyl plastic and might even float - I can see that working might even work to some extent with robot mode Bisk and Thermidor too.

I can't see anyone making such a container that isn't someone like Grimlock or Bumblebee unfortunately even though the Aquatic Decepticons would be kind perfect for it.

Too bad there's no aquatic Autobots in this show.

(Although if you shove it over to Rescue Bots, Heatwave and High Tide would be good options.)

News Credits: 41 · Tue Jan 24, 2017 1:57 am

Hey N, I'm digging Stormshot. He has this real nice old time feel to me. Something about the simplicity and the colors. Just feels like a good ol' Transformer.

His guns are cool looking, and the way they combine is nice.

Only thing I think could be better is his head should have been a ball joint. It's just a swivel, and hard to turn at that. With those shoulder stacks it's also impossible to turn his head 180 in alt mode. His face just sits there in the under carriage of the jet.

News Credits: 332 · Tue Jan 24, 2017 2:42 am

Autobot N wrote:Well, I'm currently planning to buy a few NuRiD deluxes, and I'd like to see what the general consensus on these guys is:
Starscream (actually Skywarp, but very few people have him in hand so far, and Scream and Warp are basically the same thing)
Stormshot

The Starscream mold is solid, but the plastic is very soft and I'm concerned about it holding up over time.

Stormshot is awesome, but really stands out in the RID line

News Credits: 4880 · Tue Jan 24, 2017 7:41 am

Starscream is a great mold, on par with the best of RID with a fresh transformation we havent seen before (which is very impressive when you think of the 30 plus years of seekers) and how his chest is not fake. Like Chuck said, the only problem is the soft plastic used for the wings but thats because its considered a flying toy by Hasbro and has to answer to the drop test.

News Credits: 4880 · Tue Jan 24, 2017 7:53 am

The Robots in Disguise Combiner team toys are coming! We know the next season will have some four member combiners with the likes of Menasor and a team Bee combiner and we were hoping we would get toys too. Well, a combiner set was found on a Toysrus database, which can be seen below. It gives us a few clues, the biggest being the price point of $50 in Canadian dollars, which is around the $40 USD price point, which is midway between Powersurge Optimus Prime and the other big power Surge figures but nowhere near the price point of a combining team done in a deluxe scale. So what we can expect is either a simplified combiner, like ROTF Devastator (done smaller) or a smaller scale combiner, made up of figures the size of the ones found in the battlepacks. These images were given to us by fellow Seibertronian Megazarak. Let us know what you think!

News Credits: 191 · Tue Jan 24, 2017 9:57 am

It's also totally possible that this is a smaller, legends-scale Combiner with it coming in a larger scale and hence larger price later - much like ROTF Devastator.