The Energon Pub

william-james88 wrote:Ouuu, then I am pretty sure you will be swtiching fully back. But hey, why not both?

And why is that WJ?! I could part ways with the MPs and pay for my CHUGS for the next decade!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!

Or not.. Competing shelf space is the issue. And all these dang Titans Return figures want me to buy them and play with them. They said it. Via Amazon. Via Skynet..

itscramtastic wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Ouuu, then I am pretty sure you will be swtiching fully back. But hey, why not both?

And why is that WJ?!

Because that Kup toy is a certainty. I keep my toys in boxes so there is no competing shelf space. They all lie in their dark dungeons waiting for me to give them a bit of light muahahahaha

william-james88 wrote:

itscramtastic wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Ouuu, then I am pretty sure you will be swtiching fully back. But hey, why not both?

And why is that WJ?!

Because that Kup toy is a certainty. I keep my toys in boxes so there is no competing shelf space. They all lie in their dark dungeons waiting for me to give them a bit of light muahahahaha

That's what I don't want to do to them anymore!! I want them freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Time to go back to the CHUG shelf of chaos?!

What's sad is most of those bots aren't even around anymore!!

Oh man. TR Kup. PARTS SHARING FROM WHOM?!

I keep my toys in alt mode in boxes stored away for when I want to play with them. Nice and neat.



I wish Hasbro would release the Takara Legends versions as a premium line aimed at collectors. I don't know if that would help or hurt their bottom line, but I'd be scrambling to find money for certain figures Takara hit out of the park.

Bradimus wrote:I wish Hasbro would release the Takara Legends versions as a premium line aimed at collectors. I don't know if that would help or hurt their bottom line, but I'd be scrambling to find money for certain figures Takara hit out of the park.

But have the Takara TR figures really had premium deco in the TR line in general? Most look to have the same amount of paint just in different places.

Like check this out: Both Blasters are as knee deep in referencing, they just refernce different things



And judging from the pic above, the toy is made with sculpted detail imitating the design on the original stickers. So the mold itself is an homage to the toy and not the tv show (added to the fact that he towers over everyone) so in reality, the true deco for this toy is the hasbro version, while Takara is attempting to turn this toy into something it isnt (ie. an "MP" Blaster).

I was perfectly content with Hasbros blaster, but then Takara unveiled theirs and I knew I wouldn't be happy with Hasbros. Don't get me wrong the Hasbro one is fine but the deeper red, gorgeous silver legs and painted twincast just pushed it over the top. it's no contest.

william-james88 wrote:

Bradimus wrote:I wish Hasbro would release the Takara Legends versions as a premium line aimed at collectors. I don't know if that would help or hurt their bottom line, but I'd be scrambling to find money for certain figures Takara hit out of the park.

But have the Takara TR figures really had premium deco in the TR line in general? Most look to have the same amount of paint just in different places.

Like check this out: Both Blasters are as knee deep in referencing, they just refernce different things



And judging from the pic above, the toy is made with sculpted detail imitating the design on the original stickers. So the mold itself is an homage to the toy and not the tv show (added to the fact that he towers over everyone) so in reality, the true deco for this toy is the hasbro version, while Takara is attempting to turn this toy into something it isnt (ie. an "MP" Blaster).

Sure, go and show one of the few figures that doesn't matter all that much. Though I do like Takara's Blaster better as well as their Soundwave.

Takara is going for animation accuracy and there is no contest between Takara Blurr and Hasbro Blurr.

And Takara hit home runs with the original headmasters in paint and head sculpt. The only one I prefer from Hasbro is Chromedome because I like the IDW style head. That's why Chromedome is the only original headmaster I plan on getting.

But if Hasbro had a premium line that offered us the Takara Legends versions...

steals_your_goats wrote:I was perfectly content with Hasbros blaster, but then Takara unveiled theirs and I knew I wouldn't be happy with Hasbros. Don't get me wrong the Hasbro one is fine but the deeper red, gorgeous silver legs and painted twincast just pushed it over the top. it's no contest.

The painted Twincast and Soundblaster are the overlooked keys to what makes Takara Legends superior. Also, the light gray Hasbro uses makes the toy look cheap while the darker colors on Takara give Blaster a premium look.

I guess the differences matter more than I originally thought in my previous post.

Bradimus wrote:Sure, go and show one of the few figures that doesn't matter all that much.

No argument on legends Blurr, thats the one I bought! But for the rest, I went Hasbro, they each had a cool element. Hardhead is especially awesome when comparing to the original toy.

Yeah, I've been compelled to buy all of wave 1&2's deluxes - love fiddling with them.

The only MP I have is for Bluestreak - love him, but he's more fragile than I'd like. My DX9 Tyrant could be tossed around and be just fine....

TR also gave me my first Fort Max! Totally missed out on the original....and missed out on Metroplex twice now.

I suppose those cheap KO Metroplex's have all dried up now then ?
They were going very cheaply at one point - I'm rather delighted with the Ko Metrotitan I got as takara showed no interest in an official re-release and a Generations one seems equally to not be happening either (at least so far).

Perhaps if they do experiment with Pretenders they might think about Grand Maximus too.

twinferno aka doublecross!

I finally had time to illustrate why I find it a bit silly that shared engineering is still seen as new when we had a whole line about it where the exact same molded details were copied onto several figures to produce different results that share engineering.

Bradimus wrote:Also, the light gray Hasbro uses makes the toy look cheap while the darker colors on Takara give Blaster a premium look.

Funny how people can see different things in the same figures. To me Hasbro's Blaster is pure perfection, possibly one of the best looking figures in the entire Generations line. I see the colors as flawless including those sandy gray colored parts that are perfectly matched to the original figure. I love that Hasbro decided to use TR to update the original toys rather than trying to paint non-cartoon accurate sculpts in cartoon colors.

The Takara Tomy version is OK, but doesn't get me excited like the Hasbro version does.

I did order TT Astrotrain, but only because I don't own a gray Astrotrain yet, I'll probably still get the Hasbro version, too. I ordered Super Ginrai as well, but because it's a new retool and matches the original Ginrai toy nicely, not because of cartoon accuracy and I still intend to buy the Hasbro Powermaster Prime.

Emerje

william-james88 wrote:I finally had time to illustrate why I find it a bit silly that shared engineering is still seen as new when we had a whole line about it where the exact same molded details were copied onto several figures to produce different results that share engineering.

Shared engineering goes all the way back to frickin G1. Bumblebee and Cliffjumper and their brethren.

King Kuuga wrote:Shared engineering goes all the way back to frickin G1. Bumblebee and Cliffjumper and their brethren.

That's not quite the same thing, Bumblebee and Cliffjumper are still both tiny cars and more like a reshelling. That's entirely different from a truck and jet sharing Transformations.

Emerje

They share zero parts, much like Chromedome and Dead End.


Upon further analysis, I wonder if it would be more appropriate to call Highbrow a reshell of Scourge rather than simply sharing engineering, since they are known to share parts as well.

william-james88 wrote:I finally had time to illustrate why I find it a bit silly that shared engineering is still seen as new when we had a whole line about it where the exact same molded details were copied onto several figures to produce different results that share engineering.

The difference there is that the two Combiner Wars toys share a Transformation in part due to the requirement that they be the same size in limb mode - and also perhaps as a nod to the "Special Team" combiners of the 1980's sharing the torso plate / combiner post element.

Scourge & Highbrow don't just share engineering design for their Transformation they share parts mould design wise too. (like the upper legs and hands)

RAR wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I finally had time to illustrate why I find it a bit silly that shared engineering is still seen as new when we had a whole line about it where the exact same molded details were copied onto several figures to produce different results that share engineering.

The difference there is that the two Combiner Wars toys share a Transformation in part due to the requirement that they be the same size in limb mode - and also perhaps as a nod to the "Special Team" combiners of the 1980's sharing the torso plate / combiner post element.

Scourge & Highbrow don't just share engineering design for their Transformation they share parts mould design wise too. (like the upper legs and hands)

It still doesn't change the fact they completely share engineering. No-one's saying it as a positive or negative point, just a fact.

King Kuuga wrote:They share zero parts, much like Chromedome and Dead End.


Upon further analysis, I wonder if it would be more appropriate to call Highbrow a reshell of Scourge rather than simply sharing engineering, since they are known to share parts as well.

Who shares zero parts?

Also the reshell makes sense,but then that would make it a pretool right? Since both were designed at the same time (as per what Takara said).

A 'preshell', if you will.

Finally found a use for Hasbro's Blue-urr.



TM Nightbeat works pretty well as a head, and got myself a "new" character

That Takara Blurr really is a pretty piece of plastic!

The more and more I see pictures of either version of this glorious figure...
... the more I can't wait to get it as Brainstorm

Kurona wrote:The more and more I see pictures of either version of this glorious figure...
... the more I can't wait to get it as Brainstorm

Considering Brainstorm's based on Blurr, there are enough changes to the mould to make the difference, and a MUCH better Transformer than the 2014 T30 version. That release was probably the definitive MTMTE Brainstorm on bot mode, but the Alt mode was terrible (imo.)
Really love the WG TR Brainstorm as a toy, and they've done just enough in terms of deco and remoulded parts to make him a separate figure - even though for the most part, the entire body is just Blurr - but having jet boosters on his arms/legs isn't too out of the question for a Starfighter alt-mode, and the wings on the arms break up his silhouette quite well, as does the shield/fore section of the old mode. In fact it's more useful as a weapon than just a shield as with Blurr.

Happy to have all three of them so far.