The Energon Pub

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Yeah, Aaron Archer and combiners/headmasters/other gimmicks did not get along. T30 Brainstorm was the first ever Headmaster post G1 (save for Energon Omega but he wasn't advertised as such I believe), and it wasn't until CW Superion that we got a good and proper combiner. All the others were very weak compromises

[Deadput]

Just a demonstration that each and every team has their goods and bad's

Aaron's team not really delving into gimmicks and depending on your views Warden's team being overly G1 although I feel that's more of a trying to pull themselves back after the sort of flukes that were the movies and the aligned continuity.

[Sabrblade]

Aaron's team not really delving into gimmicks

They most certainly did. They were the brains behind the Unicron Trilogy lines (Mini-Con activation gimmicks, Energon stars, Autobot Powerlinx, Decepticon Hyper Modes, Cyber Key activation gimmicks), the first three movie lines (Automorph, Mech Alive, MechTech), the Animated toyline (the Automorph gimmick of the first Movie line carried over into a number of this line's figures), the Power Core Combiners line (a gimmick in and of itself), and the Prime toyline (Deluxe class "Revealer" gimmick, Voyager class "Powerizer" gimmick).

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Aaron's team not really delving into gimmicks

They most certainly did. They were the brains behind the Unicron Trilogy lines (Mini-Con activation gimmicks, Energon stars, Autobot Powerlinx, Decepticon Hyper Modes, Cyber Key activation gimmicks), the first three movie lines (Automorph, Mech Alive, MechTech), the Animated toyline (the Automorph gimmick of the first Movie line carried over into a number of this line's figures), the Power Core Combiners line (a gimmick in and of itself), and the Prime toyline (Deluxe class "Revealer" gimmick, Voyager class "Powerizer" gimmick).

Can they also be credited with the amount of new characters they introduced? Not talking just the UT cast, but the characters in later series that did not (completely) originate from G1 or BW like Lockdown, Lugnut and Bulkhead.

[Sabrblade]

Aaron's team not really delving into gimmicks

They most certainly did. They were the brains behind the Unicron Trilogy lines (Mini-Con activation gimmicks, Energon stars, Autobot Powerlinx, Decepticon Hyper Modes, Cyber Key activation gimmicks), the first three movie lines (Automorph, Mech Alive, MechTech), the Animated toyline (the Automorph gimmick of the first Movie line carried over into a number of this line's figures), the Power Core Combiners line (a gimmick in and of itself), and the Prime toyline (Deluxe class "Revealer" gimmick, Voyager class "Powerizer" gimmick).

Can they also be credited with the amount of new characters they introduced? Not talking just the UT cast, but the characters in later series that did not (completely) originate from G1 or BW like Lockdown, Lugnut and Bulkhead.

Those three in particular were created by the Animated cartoon staff, Derrick Wyatt and Friends. But otherwise, yes.

[Ig89ninja]

Ton ton just posted his review of Mixmaster if anyone is interested

[Deadput]

Aaron's team not really delving into gimmicks

They most certainly did. They were the brains behind the Unicron Trilogy lines (Mini-Con activation gimmicks, Energon stars, Autobot Powerlinx, Decepticon Hyper Modes, Cyber Key activation gimmicks), the first three movie lines (Automorph, Mech Alive, MechTech), the Animated toyline (the Automorph gimmick of the first Movie line carried over into a number of this line's figures), the Power Core Combiners line (a gimmick in and of itself), and the Prime toyline (Deluxe class "Revealer" gimmick, Voyager class "Powerizer" gimmick).

I should of reworded that as revisiting gimmicks from say G1.

[ZeroWolf]

Except that there was headmasters in the form of Armada Overload/ Energon Ultra Magnus, Armada Sideways and Energon Omega Supreme though with the last two, both had heads that could be displayed without headmasters present. Worked well in Sideways caseym, not so well in Omega's case

[EvasionModeBumblebee]

Just realized I never posted pics of SS Sideswipe after I painted it up.

B279D5DF-47D2-4130-9B4C-9BD83F0404C1.jpeg

3EA2019B-DA59-47BF-A9E2-AF7FAC959D1F.jpeg

Not much changed for vehicle mode, just the tires and spoiler.

4029415E-C6FD-416B-9B6D-2CDD6BC78448.jpeg

[ZeroWolf]

That is looking very fine

[Omegatron.]

I found this image on Reddit of Devastator's upper body combined (Mixmaster, Scavenger, Scrapmetal, Hightower)

rs7he7xkzox31.jpg

As expected, it looks much better than the image of the prototype we had recently.

[Ig89ninja]

Looks cool right now, thou I wish the person who took the photo captured the rest of Devastator and added Rampage and Long Haul to the picture as well.

[Deadput]

Looks cool right now, thou I wish the person who took the photo captured the rest of Devastator and added Rampage and Long Haul to the picture as well.

Probably not possible Overload seems to be the one who attaches the legs to Devastator.

[Ig89ninja]

Looks cool right now, thou I wish the person who took the photo captured the rest of Devastator and added Rampage and Long Haul to the picture as well.

Probably not possible Overload seems to be the one who attaches the legs to Devastator.

I realize that, but I still want to have some idea what he’ll look like with his legs, even if they are not properly attached.

[Hellscream9999]

Looks cool right now, thou I wish the person who took the photo captured the rest of Devastator and added Rampage and Long Haul to the picture as well.

Probably not possible Overload seems to be the one who attaches the legs to Devastator.

I realize that, but I still want to have some idea what he’ll look like with his legs, even if they are not properly attached.

We've seen that already, hasbro showed off the completed form, albeit standing a little straighter rather than hunched over

[Ig89ninja]

Looks cool right now, thou I wish the person who took the photo captured the rest of Devastator and added Rampage and Long Haul to the picture as well.

Probably not possible Overload seems to be the one who attaches the legs to Devastator.

I realize that, but I still want to have some idea what he’ll look like with his legs, even if they are not properly attached.

We've seen that already, hasbro showed off the completed form, albeit standing a little straighter rather than hunched over

Which is exactly why I wanted to see it here

[william-james88]

I was at Toysrus today and people were looking at the studio series in a dissapointed manner. Then I overheard someone say " You'd think for the holiday season that they'd stock some Optimus Prime". And yeah, while there are Optimus toys in the younger lines, he isn't there much for studio series or generations. The leader was not in stock, and then again he isnt easy to find. There were tons of megs on the shelves but not primes, Hasbro is definitely losing some easy sales here.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Considering the SS line gave us 3 Primes this year, I think that line has done great with Primes. And all 3 were different packages that gave their own unique look to Prime.

and Devastator is looking so good, I am ready to see him in color hunched over complete

[william-james88]

Considering the SS line gave us 3 Primes this year, I think that line has done great with Primes. And all 3 were different packages that gave their own unique look to Prime.

and Devastator is looking so good, I am ready to see him in color hunched over complete

I dont mean giving us a new one but maybe repackaging prime in a voyager wave forbthe holiday season.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Considering the SS line gave us 3 Primes this year, I think that line has done great with Primes. And all 3 were different packages that gave their own unique look to Prime.

and Devastator is looking so good, I am ready to see him in color hunched over complete

I dont mean giving us a new one but maybe repackaging prime in a voyager wave forbthe holiday season.

I mean, a repack could be possible right now considering SS got 3 waves this year and Siege 5, so there is a lot of room here for a case of old figures

[Zeedust]

I think Hasbro might have done some sort of running change to Long Haul. Mine does not seem to suffer the same waist looseness all the reviews mention. While it's possible I just won the qc lottery, I severely doubt it (I managed to get four defective Rampages in a row, so I'm clearly NOT a lucky person). Can anyone else who's gotten a Long Haul recently or is gets one in the near future tell me if they have a fixed waist in order to help me confirm? Or is this old news and everyone's Long Hauls are turning out fine now?

[TF-fan kev777]

I think Hasbro might have done some sort of running change to Long Haul. Mine does not seem to suffer the same waist looseness all the reviews mention. While it's possible I just won the qc lottery, I severely doubt it (I managed to get four defective Rampages in a row, so I'm clearly NOT a lucky person). Can anyone else who's gotten a Long Haul recently or is gets one in the near future tell me if they have a fixed waist in order to help me confirm? Or is this old news and everyone's Long Hauls are turning out fine now?

I got mine pretty early on but haven't had any waist issues. No idea how widespread the issue was, but I don't recall it being much of a topic at all.

[Zeedust]

I got mine pretty early on but haven't had any waist issues. No idea how widespread the issue was, but I don't recall it being much of a topic at all.

It came up pretty consistently in the review videos. Maybe it was just the first batch?

[D-Maximal_Primal]

mine has a looser waist as well, though based on some others on Twitter I think it was luck of the draw with the waist bits

[Jelze Bunnycat]

"Loose" waist... I think it's more accurate to say there's too much play between the clicks of the ratchet joint. Mine has that too.