The Energon Pub

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Tempting really, especially since 18 VW Bumblebee has yet to hit my area, warmed by Crowbars

[Hip-Hoptimus Rime]

He should be thrown at the Bumblebee Movie's director for his okaying Dropkick as a triple-changer. It was a dumb idea with Drift in Age of Extinction and it's a dumb idea with Dropkick. Triple-changing and Earth-mode Bayformers don't mix.

Agreed! Give them a single alt mode at a time, have them scan a new one when they need it.

That scene in the Bee trailer when Shatter and Dropkick fly in, transform into cars for a moment, then again into bots is cringe-inducing. Takes me right out of the movie.

[ZeroWolf]

I'm a bit confused why don't they mix exactly? Surely if they're designed as triple changers from the get go and this movie is acting as a soft reset, then I'm not sure I see a problem?

[no-one]

That scene in the Bee trailer when Shatter and Dropkick fly in, transform into cars for a moment, then again into bots is cringe-inducing. Takes me right out of the movie.

Really? I thought it was pretty awesome, if not a little superfluous. Now if they used it as a reason to sell triple changer toys that'd be a different story.

I'm a bit confused why don't they mix exactly? Surely if they're designed as triple changers from the get go and this movie is acting as a soft reset, then I'm not sure I see a problem?

Probably because the designs are too detailed and already require complicated engineering to pull off the movie accurate robots with realistic alt-modes. Triple changers in other lines have to make sacrifices as is to all three modes. Pulling off a believable muscle car and helicopter and semi screen accurate movie bot in plastic would be a difficult feat of engineering.

A lot of the movie figures already struggle with just two screen accurate modes.

[-Kanrabat-]

I'd have no problem with a triple changing deluxe movie bot. The solution is piss-easy. Give the bot a main Earth mode, and a nice bot design. Then make the extra form a "Cybertronian hey-give-us-a-break-we're-playing-it-by-ear" mode.
It could work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Jelze Bunnycat]

I'd have no problem with a triple changing deluxe movie bot. The solution is piss-easy. Give the bot a main Earth mode, and a nice bot design. Then make the extra form a "Cybertronian hey-give-us-a-break-we're-playing-it-by-ear" mode.
It could work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If it's Cybertronian, one thing less to license

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

I'm a bit confused why don't they mix exactly? Surely if they're designed as triple changers from the get go and this movie is acting as a soft reset, then I'm not sure I see a problem?

Probably because the designs are too detailed and already require complicated engineering to pull off the movie accurate robots with realistic alt-modes. Triple changers in other lines have to make sacrifices as is to all three modes. Pulling off a believable muscle car and helicopter and semi screen accurate movie bot in plastic would be a difficult feat of engineering.

A lot of the movie figures already struggle with just two screen accurate modes.

This.

I'd have no problem with a triple changing deluxe movie bot. The solution is piss-easy. Give the bot a main Earth mode, and a nice bot design. Then make the extra form a "Cybertronian hey-give-us-a-break-we're-playing-it-by-ear" mode.
It could work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If it's Cybertronian, one thing less to license

Even being able to convert between an Earth car and a not-trying-to-look-Earthly vehicle mode (beyond just a G1 Tracks-style "car sprouts wings" flight mode, and even then..) would require some complex engineering, possibly reaching ROTF Optimus levels of complexity for the whole figure - and the smaller a toy, the harder that is to do (Plus the Studio series it seems is oft. unwilling to get too complex even on Leader-class figures *glares at DOTM Megatron*). Even if you don't have to worry about keeping the other mode Earthly in appearance, you still have to worry about stashing its parts away. Say the other mode is a helicopter - where do you hide the engine, the main rotor, the tail, and the tail rotor?

[Carnivius_Prime]

That scene in the Bee trailer when Shatter and Dropkick fly in, transform into cars for a moment, then again into bots is cringe-inducing. Takes me right out of the movie.

Really? I thought it was pretty awesome, if not a little superfluous. Now if they used it as a reason to sell triple changer toys that'd be a different story.

It's one of my fave bits of the trailers. Certainly prefer it to certain other scenes which make no damn sense...

[-Kanrabat-]

Even if you don't have to worry about keeping the other mode Earthly in appearance, you still have to worry about stashing its parts away. Say the other mode is a helicopter - where do you hide the engine, the main rotor, the tail, and the tail rotor?

The car shell could split in just a few more ways. Then the arms and the legs of the bot itself can be used to make the tail of the copter and other parts. Finally for the rotorblade, go the classic route and cheat with a sword accessory.

Same thing for one who could have a beast mode. Stashing an extra head is easy and the rest is just to change the stance of the bot mode, like they did for Beast Wars and Prime Beast Hunters.

Too many fan modes on deluxes that are designed with only 2 modes DO work. They just have to work around this general idea while adding just 2 or 4 extra parts.

[TulioDude]

Does anyone think we will have toys from the scenes on Cybertron of The Bumblebee movie?
Some of these redesigns are so sick that would be shame if dont get a toy or two from them.

I'd love to see those designs in plastic form, but probably not because we can't have nice things

To be fair though, the new Siege line is pretty much just that

And now we know what Siege is scaled to

IMO I prefer some of the Cybertronians designs of the trailer that the Siege ones.

I'd have no problem with a triple changing deluxe movie bot. The solution is piss-easy. Give the bot a main Earth mode, and a nice bot design. Then make the extra form a "Cybertronian hey-give-us-a-break-we're-playing-it-by-ear" mode.
It could work. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If it's Cybertronian, one thing less to license

I always assumed this was Drift was going for.The reason nobody could guess what kind of helicopter he was,is because he was made up one.

[-Kanrabat-]

I always assumed this was Drift was going for.The reason nobody could guess what kind of helicopter he was,is because he was made up one.

That's why I wonder why they never botheted to make an actual triple changing Drift in toy form. They could have designed the cyber compter with the toy in mind.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

I always assumed this was Drift was going for.The reason nobody could guess what kind of helicopter he was,is because he was made up one.

That's why I wonder why they never botheted to make an actual triple changing Drift in toy form. They could have designed the cyber compter with the toy in mind.

... with lots of Bugatti Veyron kibble. Seriously though, compared to other lines the Movie designs were relatively kibble free, with the robot mode featuring few hints of its alt mode. Some toys tried to mimic that by basically making a vehicle shell surrounding a robot performing extreme feats of yoga, hoping the kibble is easily ignored. That goes double for AoE and on, so making a triple changing toy with two realistic vehicles was pretty much doomed from the start; no opportunity for parts to do double duty.

The solution? Give each alt mode its own toy. Added benefit: more profit

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Added cost: Substantially less fun. Kinda like with Springer before the Thrilling 30 version.

Now, I know that seems to clash with how I've poo-poo'd the idea of making Jetfire outright combine with Optimus and favored doing the Jetpower armor as its own accessory set because I think trying to get the combo right and not compromise Jetfire overmuch would be extremely difficult at best (especially with the Studio Series' complexity-shyness). But I think that because they didn't outright combine in the movie - Jetfire's corpse was dismantled and kitbashed (which is why doing a combining toy without compromising Jetfire, the combo, or both would be so difficuly), so it wouldn't be a case of lacking a feature the movie heavily showed off. Whereas triple-changing.. That's something Drift and now Dropkick do outright do in their debut movies but that the toys don't have and could never hope to have.

[ZeroWolf]

While it seems like we've known of these for a while, we've got a confirmed sighting of Studio Series Wave 4 Deluxes Dropkick and KSI Sentry hitting retailers! While it's possible some of you may have seen these on your travels, this means more stores are starting to get this wave in,so if you want Dropkick or KSI Sentry, now is the time to start checking stores!

The sighting was made by fellow Seibertron user, ScottyP, who also shared this photo with us.



The toys were found at Target in Holly Springs, NC. They were retailing for the usual price of $19.99.

Dropkick is a brand new mold and features the upcoming Transformers Bumblebee movie villain in his helicopter alt mode only. KSI Sentry is a redeco of wave 1 Stinger.

Are you wanting either of these figures? Let us know in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews.

[reluctantyouth]

Nice to see these are hitting. My local brick and mortars are overstocked with old stuff. No room for Siege. Hasbro sucks...distribution sucks...it's an all out suck fest as usual. I did find Siege legions on an end cap, but they were put there out of necessity and bunched with other non Transformer garbage. I'm not interested in the legions this go round. I just want that Voyager prime.

[Randomhero]

Saw KSI and dropkick earlier this but decided to skip them. I’ll get them eventually but for now I’m just hunting for siege and with zero luck so far

[william-james88]

Nice to see these are hitting. My local brick and mortars are overstocked with old stuff. No room for Siege. Hasbro sucks...distribution sucks...it's an all out suck fest as usual. I did find Siege legions on an end cap, but they were put there out of necessity and bunched with other non Transformer garbage. I'm not interested in the legions this go round. I just want that Voyager prime.

why not just wait for toys to show up on amazon. With these studio series toys, for isntance, Amazon got them before brick and mortar. Retail is changing, so why not change with it?

[Carnivius_Prime]

Liking the new pics just released from some show (I don't know which it is). Megatron looks fun. His cloak looks a bit cheap but if it bothers me that much I'll just make my own. Just buy some material and cut it all up ragged. Jetpower Optimus looks good. Hell of a big gun. :O Jetfire has a fair amount of junk under his jet mode (including visible hair) but he looks fine and the robot mode looks great and of course the combining stuff is better this time too.

Also got my OS KO Grimlock coming in a couple weeks or so. Dunno where the heck I'll put it. My shelves ain't big enough.

[Ironhidensh]

So much for scale accuracy attempts.

[william-james88]

There is an absolutely gorgeous display of Studio Series figures at Tokyo Comic-Con 2018 right now. They arranged the figures per film so there are six seperate displays (with some extras to fill out the TLK display). The main attraction here is the full reveal of leader Dark of the Moon Mgatron. This is the full finished figure, so this gives us a perfect idea of how he will look like when he comes out next year in the second quarter. He does still have those boxy lower legs, as expected, but he looks rather magnificent (aside from the tarp's fabric pattern), and Igor is there too. We also get a great look at Jetfire and his monstrously sized face. The images come from Twitter user @QVx9l3YcRlSEntk.

[Carnivius_Prime]

So much for scale accuracy attempts.

Did you buy them at same time or do you just always carry Blackout about with you? And what should the scale be here? Should there be a bigger difference size-wise?

[Carnivius_Prime]

There is an absolutely gorgeous display of Studio Series figures at Tokyo Comic-Con 2018 right now.

Ah yeah there's all them lovely photos. I figured someone might have them. Definitely wanting revised Prime, DotM Megatron and new slender far more accurate Jetfire.

[Randomhero]

Nice to see these are hitting. My local brick and mortars are overstocked with old stuff. No room for Siege. Hasbro sucks...distribution sucks...it's an all out suck fest as usual. I did find Siege legions on an end cap, but they were put there out of necessity and bunched with other non Transformer garbage. I'm not interested in the legions this go round. I just want that Voyager prime.

Oh my god how many times do I have to explain retails to people?! Stores order their own stuff! Wave one is directly forced into stores and after that the stores order future waves themselves. It’s not hasbro a fault if retailers are sitting on a ton of old stuff it’s the store itself. Hasbros drive like everyone else is to make money. It’s not their fault if your store is sitting on old waves because they don’t control that.

[ZeroWolf]

So much for scale accuracy attempts.

Did you buy them at same time or do you just always carry Blackout about with you? And what should the scale be here? Should there be a bigger difference size-wise?

Plus I figured that scale was only relevant to robot scale and not vehicle mode.

Those are fantastic displays and the costructicons are looking very fine.

[ScottyP]

Nice to see these are hitting. My local brick and mortars are overstocked with old stuff. No room for Siege. Hasbro sucks...distribution sucks...it's an all out suck fest as usual. I did find Siege legions on an end cap, but they were put there out of necessity and bunched with other non Transformer garbage. I'm not interested in the legions this go round. I just want that Voyager prime.

Oh my god how many times do I have to explain retails to people?! Stores order their own stuff! Wave one is directly forced into stores and after that the stores order future waves themselves. It’s not hasbro a fault if retailers are sitting on a ton of old stuff it’s the store itself. Hasbros drive like everyone else is to make money. It’s not their fault if your store is sitting on old waves because they don’t control that.

Yeah I go an extra five miles or so to the store I saw Dropkick/KSI Sentry at because they actually tend to move product, therefore they're more likely to have newer stuff. Thinking of other recent stuff, this same Target is one of only a few where I ever saw the last wave of RiD Crash Combiners.