The Energon Pub

News Credits: 11 · Sun Jul 09, 2017 5:39 am

The first thing I thing I thought of when I saw this was that Filthy Frank video where the bald guy shouts "FRUIT SNACK! FRUIT SNACK!"

Sun Jul 09, 2017 9:26 am

Twitter just announced this now? I've been seeing these at the grocery store since at least last Christmas.

Glarryg

News Credits: 41 · Sun Jul 09, 2017 9:43 am

I think the really important take away from this bit of news, other than a tasty fruit blaster fun snack
for lunch on the go is..................

MEGATRON?!?!?!?!?!?!

Sun Jul 09, 2017 9:58 am

Also Acme, Albertsons, Vons, Pavillions, Shaws, Jewel Osco! Just to name a few.

They're all owned by the same patent company which unified it's store brand across all its banners.

News Credits: 10 · Sun Jul 09, 2017 11:43 am

Somebody's got to bite the bullet fruit snack and give us a review of them.

Sun Jul 09, 2017 2:57 pm

They're like every fruit snack out there: artificial flavoring, gummy texture, and only slightly less likely to get stuck in your teeth than traditional Gummy Bears (rest assured, they will get stuck, but only to a slightly smaller extent). The shapes are hit-or-miss; there are as many that look like the picture on the box as there are those that are barely-decipherable blobs. You won't learn any more about Megatron in RID15 by buying these than you will by looking at the above pic.

That's not to say they're bad. It's just that fruit snacks are a dime-a-dozen product; if you've had one, you've had them all.

Glarryg

News Credits: 1 · Sun Jul 09, 2017 8:31 pm

I work at a Harris Teeter grocery store in North Carolina. They've had those RID fruit snacks for about 2 years now...maybe 3 years. They cost like $.97 with your VIC card. They taste just like every other fruit snack. I buy them every once in awhile just for a treat...

News Credits: 4877 · Mon Jul 10, 2017 1:40 pm

There is lots of new Robots in Disguise toys found both online and in stores for Canadian fans.

Canada had skipped on every Legion class wave under the "weaponiser" so toys like Bisk and Grounpounder never appeared. However, Bisk is rereleased with Blurr under the "combiner force" subline and is currently found at Toysrus.

The latest Warriors such as Twinferno, Thermidor and Bludgeon have been found in Toysrus stores and are also available on both toysrus.ca and walmart.ca

The same applies to the latest wave of Crash Combiners which includes Dragbreak Lunaforce Primestrong and Shocknado. They have ben found at both Walmart and Toysrus stores but only Toysrus.ca has them online at the moment.

News Credits: 4877 · Mon Jul 10, 2017 10:43 pm

When it comes to Thermidor, this review, and images found within, will mostly be comparing him to Bisk. I'd love to review the toy as new but in reality he is similar to Bisk in every way aside from the head and deco. For those who do not own this mold, it is simply perfect. The alt mose is original, the robot mode has great personality with alt mode integration. It's a fun transformation that is not at all bothersome and both intuitive and creative. The real difference here is the deco and the head. The head has very features, he actually has pupils for a change.

The deco for the eyes works rather well. The paint may be sloppy depending on your copy, especially in the lower mandibles. The amount of paint apps between both is almost the same but Thermidore wins out with having his whole abdominal area painted silver while Bisk's is left unpainted. Also, I always appreciate when the rims are painted which is the case here so no need to wait for the Takara version here (not that it would happen).

I recomend this toy to any fan of the Bisk mold and to those who have not experienced this mold yet, as well to those who want a nice representation of the character found in the show. I am happy with my purchase and there isn't much more I could ask for.

News Credits: 26 · Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:27 pm

That blue is GORGEOUS.

News Credits: 462 · Mon Jul 10, 2017 11:55 pm

Heh, Thermidor is to Bisk what Cryotek was to Transmetal 2 Megatron.

News Credits: 295 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 1:11 am

I like that Thermidor looks like he's ether happy or screaming depending on the angle you look at his face.

News Credits: 10 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 2:31 am

Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

Tue Jul 11, 2017 8:12 am

In nature, blue lobsters are rare and considered a sign of good luck by lobster catchers:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36369687

News Credits: 4877 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:33 am

MaverickPrime wrote:That blue is GORGEOUS.

It IS! I have never seen such a full blue like this on TF plastic before. And the fact that only detailing on it is painted gives it a nice unifying look.

Terrsolpix wrote:Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

It only snaps off when the "neck" piece is not locked in correctly.

News Credits: 4877 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:33 am

I short, Warrior Bludgeon is lots of fun and gets the job done. He of course has a few cons (heh) of his own but the pros far outweighed them. Now onto the full review!

I do not know if you're like me but every single picture I see of a toy will never prepare me for the real thing. There will always be something I had not noticed. With Bludgeon, it is all about the head sculpt. There is a depth to it that no picture can show and I hope I will be able to demonstrate it this time. Firstly the centre of his helmet crest sticks out forward quite a bit. Then there are he's very very deep set literal cheek bones.

It's now that we get to the cons. The depth also extends in the back but not in the best way. You see there is a peg they put there with the edge unpainted that is used for the alt mode and not to great success if I may add.

But that should not detract from the amazing headsculpt which I believe is the best we have ever gotten for a transforming bludgeon. Especially when you realize that it's mae of orange plastic, meaning that every other colour is painted. I also had not noticed the fangs which are very different from the artwork on the box which makes him look more like a Jack O Lantern.

Another element I had not noticed was the point of the black outline on the shoulders. You see, they appear to be tank treards and since he turns into a tank we would assume that they would be used in the altmode. However those that own Megatronus (which is the base mold for Bludgeon) know that the shoulders were never part of the treads below. So the shoulder treads actually do not contribute to the alt mode at all and are simply there for the robot mode as an homage to the Revenge of the Fallen toy whos tank treads imitate Samurai armour. This was quite a fun revelation for me.

We spoke of paint earlier I have no need for more paint aside from maybe the samurai skirt and the kneecaps as well as the teeth on his chest. His weapons can be weilded in very different ways. He has two cannons on his back à la Bruticus but they can actually be either become shoulder cannons or simply lowered in the back not to be seen.

They can also be removed and used as a handheld weapon and even stored on the side of his legs were you have a peg hole. Speaking of those peg holes, they work perfectly for the sword and are actually painted green so that they can match the end of the sword making it resemble a scabbard for the weapon. Speaking of the weapons they are both very well painted with the sword blade painted fully in silver and the same for the cannons which are all in silver aside from some very intricate purple detailing on the sides.

I like the look of the robot mode, he looks like a force to be reckoned with. My main problems with this toy come from the alt mode and how the robot parts are (not) hidden. Firstly you have the arms and while I do very much like the paint on them (it's a gorgeous red) I do not like how the hands stick out. It is very similar to the problem we have with Soundwave (though I admit I adore transforming both these toys, they have dynamic and fun yet chunky transformations). Megatronus had the extra step/piece which made you able to hide the hands inside the arm so this is a step back. Another robot part which is very noticeable is the head now sadly I would have thought that putting the sword on top of the alt mode was optional weapon storage but it is not. If you want to hide the robot head the only way is to use the sword. However I must admit it does not look terrible and hides the head quite well. The holes on the legs that imitated a scabbard are still useable in this mode and can be used for any 5 mm port weapon.

In the end, even with its flaws, I still find this very well-done toy and I think any fan of Bludgeon will be pleased, especially wth the headsculpt and homages to previous versions. The paint is well applied and the colour variation is perfect and it is fun to now have a fully articulated deluxe sized Bludgeon. It's pretty cool to think that one could now make a top 5 list of Bludgeon releases.

News Credits: 10 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:36 am

william-james88 wrote:
Terrsolpix wrote:Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

It only snaps off when the "neck" piece is not locked in correctly.

What do you mean? The tiny pegs connecting the face, eyestalks, and antennae on broke off with the face, the neck piece was always lock in correctly. I think this one will fair better with a smaller face, but I'm not sure.

News Credits: 4877 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:37 am

Terrsolpix wrote:
william-james88 wrote:
Terrsolpix wrote:Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

It only snaps off when the "neck" piece is not locked in correctly.

What do you mean? The tiny pegs connecting the face, eyestalks, and antennae on broke off with the face, the neck piece was always lock in correctly. I think this one will fair better with a smaller face, but I'm not sure.

Oh sorry, I didnt know you meant it broke, I thought you meant it popped off. I wouldnt know then. My Bisk never broke off and I have transformed Thermidor a bunch with no issues so far.

News Credits: 10 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:43 am

william-james88 wrote:
Terrsolpix wrote:
william-james88 wrote:
Terrsolpix wrote:Maybe this one's face won't SNAP OFF. Great mold though, these colors really work it.

It only snaps off when the "neck" piece is not locked in correctly.

What do you mean? The tiny pegs connecting the face, eyestalks, and antennae on broke off with the face, the neck piece was always lock in correctly. I think this one will fair better with a smaller face, but I'm not sure.

Oh sorry, I didnt know you meant it broke, I thought you meant it popped off. I wouldnt know then. My Bisk never broke off and I have transformed Thermidor a bunch with no issues so far.

I tried to do reconstructive face surgey on him........... I don't think I'm fit for any sort of medical field. Also, scotch tape is great for holding on broken parts while glue dries, then proceeds to break the connection because I don't have any super glue at home. Oh, and since these 2 are retool/decos, is there any obvious mold degradation?

News Credits: 13 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:48 am

No pictures of him next to Blastwave?

News Credits: 10 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:50 am

kurthy wrote:No pictures of him next to Blastwave?

From what I can tell, a lot of people skipped him since he's just a palette swapped Bludgeon.

News Credits: 19 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:50 am

Nah. Don't like it. Also the weapons storing just below the knees looks pretty poor and isn't really very practical either for walking or drawing the weapon. The head sculpt is alright but looks like they're going for more of a vampire bat face than actual humanoid skull and I can't say I'm a fan. Was trying to think what it is about the colours that bug me but I think it's just that seemingly random purple on the 'eyes' of the chest armour. It's bizarre and doesn't really fit. The similar areas on RotF Bludgeon were just black and so didn't jar so much. And his eyes are purple too so are they all eyes? And then having the alt-mode's version of that chest armour end up on his butt...so does he have eyes on his butt? Sorry the whole figure just seems extremely dumbed down from what is one of my fave Transformer figures of all time. And that's me done. Nice review though and great picture quality.

News Credits: 12 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 12:41 pm

It's a nice looking mold and I love the robot mode. The vehicle mode is a bit "Huh?" but I can dig it. I have a few qualms stopping me from getting it though. The colours look...wrong somehow. Dunno if it's just the camera, but somehow he looks a bit wrong. Like, the orange reminds me of burger cheese. The toy suffers a lot from RIDitis though. His legs are annoyingly hollow and so is his head. But by far my biggest problem is the size. I could overlook the other two issues and have him as my CHUG Bludgeon if he were Voyager scaled (yes I know RID doesn't have Voyagers, a crying shame IMO as the designs are great) but as a Deluxe he's just too small.

THAT SAID, I might track him down and redeco him into Banzai-Tron at some point. He does look like a lot of fun, and as a toy his flaws are mostly overlookable.

News Credits: 419 · Tue Jul 11, 2017 12:51 pm

Our very own Seibertronian staff member ScottyP ran into the Transformers Robots in Disguise Activator Optimus Prime and Hi-Test in Cary, North Carolina! These two come from the most recent wave of RID Activators, meaning there's a good chance we'll be seeing their wave mates, Soundwave with Lazerbeak, very soon!
These two were selling for $19.99.

If you find any new Toys out in the wild, please report them to us via the sightings link under the Toys tab!