The Energon Pub

william-james88 wrote:I have experienced this too and its true. I very much dislike that FOC Grimlock mold, but man were these two decos below to die for:

That Grimlock is my "Classics" Grimlock. He's G-wonderful.

I rather like the macabre brain detailing on Soundwave's noggin, as much as that wouldn't make any sense on a helmetless Deluxe body.



Also, off topic but...

Do we really need to be so obnoxious with quotes? This one image shows up TEN TIMES on the front page. TWELVE if you include the Soundblaster digibash. Come on.

Wolfman Jake wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I have experienced this too and its true. I very much dislike that FOC Grimlock mold, but man were these two decos below to die for:

That Grimlock is my "Classics" Grimlock. He's G-wonderful.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who displays that particular one as a Classics Grimlock versus the actual Deluxe one from a while back.

On an unrelated note that sort of has to do with Titans Return (and Combiner Wars by extension) but not really: what're the odds of seeing upgrade kits that replace the cabs of Powermaster-ish Optimus Prime and it's base (pun intended and relished) Ultra Magnus with cabs that are capable of transforming into mini Optimuses (Optimi?) and can still retain combining with their trailers?

Wolfman Jake wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I have experienced this too and its true. I very much dislike that FOC Grimlock mold, but man were these two decos below to die for:

That Grimlock is my "Classics" Grimlock. He's G-wonderful.

I've actually warmed up to the FOC mold since my Masterpiece Grimmy's arm broke. He's great. I regret not picking up that repaint while it was in stores

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Voyagers and Leaders have helmets that go over the Titan Master heads.

That's not entirely true, as far as I know, Sentinel is not getting a helmet for his Titanmaster

Mindmaster wrote:Glad to see I'm not the only one who displays that particular one as a Classics Grimlock versus the actual Deluxe one from a while back.

On an unrelated note that sort of has to do with Titans Return (and Combiner Wars by extension) but not really: what're the odds of seeing upgrade kits that replace the cabs of Powermaster-ish Optimus Prime and it's base (pun intended and relished) Ultra Magnus with cabs that are capable of transforming into mini Optimuses (Optimi?) and can still retain combining with their trailers?

I use regular FOC Grimmy as my Classics Grimlock. The mold ain't perfect but it has stature.

And I'm right there with you in wanting transformable cabs for Magnus and PMOP. I love that they were able to integrate them into the transformation of the larger robots, but I also love the idea of them being able to transform on their own for added play value. Bonus points if they keep the same aesthetic as the stock cabs. I don't buy much third party stuff, but I'd buy those.

LegendaryAntiHero wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I have experienced this too and its true. I very much dislike that FOC Grimlock mold, but man were these two decos below to die for:

That Grimlock is my "Classics" Grimlock. He's G-wonderful.

I've actually warmed up to the FOC mold since my Masterpiece Grimmy's arm broke. He's great. I regret not picking up that repaint while it was in stores

The Grimlock that broke, was it the 1st or 2nd TRU release?

Hellscream9999 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Delta Magnus wrote:That stereo mode is pretty terrible.

Pass.

Totally agree. I was kinda on board until I saw that pic

I much preffer Blaster's alt mode which makes me realize how this Soundwave is clearly the recedo here.

Will, I love ya man, but are you really gonna skip this guy because he doesn't turn into some antiquated piece of tech that has been obsolete since the late '90's? (maybe more or less)

Man, I bet kids today don't even know what the heck a tape deck is, soundwave at least looks like an ipod docking station/speaker system now; remember, hasbro has to stay at least a bit relevant, soundwave was always going to be the problem-child (after G1 megs of course) with his pointless alt mode...

But that's juat it, Screamer. He still turns into an antiquated piece of 90's tech, it's just the wrong one!

LegendaryAntiHero wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I have experienced this too and its true. I very much dislike that FOC Grimlock mold, but man were these two decos below to die for:

That Grimlock is my "Classics" Grimlock. He's G-wonderful.

I've actually warmed up to the FOC mold since my Masterpiece Grimmy's arm broke. He's great. I regret not picking up that repaint while it was in stores

He's actually still warming shelves near me and heavily discounted to boot.

This is the one I use for my classics Grimlock too. I added the Art-Tek retrorex head and blaster upgrades though.

MemphisR56 wrote:

LegendaryAntiHero wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I have experienced this too and its true. I very much dislike that FOC Grimlock mold, but man were these two decos below to die for:

That Grimlock is my "Classics" Grimlock. He's G-wonderful.

I've actually warmed up to the FOC mold since my Masterpiece Grimmy's arm broke. He's great. I regret not picking up that repaint while it was in stores

He's actually still warming shelves near me and heavily discounted to boot.

Yeah, I saw the two pack in Toys R Us and The Entertainer within the last few months here in the UK for about £19.99. I really hate the dino mode on that Grimmy but the robot mode ain't a bad version of the G1 character. I should have really got it. Might pop to Cambridge later (well.. 'pop' sounds like it's an easy trip. Over two hours of cramming myself into a bus seat made for old people more like...) and see if still available. Probably not.

Rule 1 of action figure buying: If you see something that even remotely tempts you, just buy the damn thing, and if it turns out you don't like it, sell it on later cos it's likely by the time you decide you do want it, it'll be sold out everywhere except on eBay for silly prices...


(Blurr's looking disappointing but will wait for proper shots... Soundwave looks... bad... I would like a time again where Blaster and Soundwave DON'T share molds but it's just not happening is it?)

Carnivius_Prime wrote:Yeah, I saw the two pack in Toys R Us and The Entertainer within the last few months here in the UK for about £19.99. I really hate the dino mode on that Grimmy but the robot mode ain't a bad version of the G1 character. I should have really got it. Might pop to Cambridge later (well.. 'pop' sounds like it's an easy trip. Over two hours of cramming myself into a bus seat made for old people more like...) and see if still available. Probably not.

Rule 1 of action figure buying: If you see something that even remotely tempts you, just buy the damn thing, and if it turns out you don't like it, sell it on later cos it's likely by the time you decide you do want it, it'll be sold out everywhere except on eBay for silly prices...

Well, the nearest entertainer to me is literally on my walk to the train station from work, so if you want to save the trouble, I could pick one up for you and ship him over to you, save you a 4 hour round trip. Shipping would probably cost about the same as a bus ticket.

Shoot me a PM if you're interested.

That Bot wrote:

Mindmaster wrote:And I'm right there with you in wanting transformable cabs for Magnus and PMOP. I love that they were able to integrate them into the transformation of the larger robots, but I also love the idea of them being able to transform on their own for added play value. Bonus points if they keep the same aesthetic as the stock cabs. I don't buy much third party stuff, but I'd buy those.

Looking at Magnus in-hand, I'd say it's entirely plausible for someone to engineer that. Given his size (about the same as Power Battler Galvatron below), it would be tricky to also include both Magnus' head and armoured head modes. But not impossible.



Oh and expensive. But that's a given.

God, now I have to decide if I want both Blaster and Soundwave or just Blaster. Blaster has Rewind coming for him, so that is always a plus. But actual tape player Soundwave is as well. I don't own a Blaster yet, so he is definite.

TR is going to wreck my wallet.

Mindmaster wrote:On an unrelated note that sort of has to do with Titans Return (and Combiner Wars by extension) but not really: what're the odds of seeing upgrade kits that replace the cabs of Powermaster-ish Optimus Prime and it's base (pun intended and relished) Ultra Magnus with cabs that are capable of transforming into mini Optimuses (Optimi?) and can still retain combining with their trailers?

While we have seen other kits be pretty darn extensive, I wonder how much cheaper it is for a company to do this rather than just making their own PMOP and Ultra Magnus.

MemphisR56 wrote:But that's juat it, Screamer. He still turns into an antiquated piece of 90's tech, it's just the wrong one!

Yeah thats my problem. And the only reasons he turns into that is because he's using another character's mold.

Crosscheck wrote:God, now I have to decide if I want both Blaster and Soundwave or just Blaster. Blaster has Rewind coming for him, so that is always a plus. But actual tape player Soundwave is as well. I don't own a Blaster yet, so he is definite.

TR is going to wreck my wallet.

Yeah, your train of thought and mine are the same.

here's my call for later on in the Titan Returns line.

Leader Class Star Saber and Leader Class Overlord from the same core mold.

Star Saber is a jet that merges with a large second unit to form a giant robot. Overlord is a jet that merges with a tank to form a giant robot.

So, if they do a single piece alt-mode...they start with Star Saber's merged mode and retool it to pay homage to Overlord's jet/tank split. Then the basemode is built to look more like Overlord's and you paint up Star Saber's and maybe tool it slightly differently to get it's own somewhat unique look. (They did it when converting Magnus to PM Prime)

If they go two pieces. You could have the tank/shuttle as a larger unit with the headmaster and a partner legends vehicle that homages both bots' jet modes.

As a bonus, Star Saber's headmaster partner would pay homage to his Brain of Courage gimmick. Overlord would never have had a head master before...but that wouldn't stop him.

Plus...Hasbro is apparently not going to shy away from Victory for inspiration. They based Battle Core on Star Convoy and now we've seen Liokaiser.

So yeah, Star Saber and Overlord are very definitely going to happen down the road. I'd even be willing to say they'd be the leader class wave after Blaster/Soundwave. This would allow Hasbro to tease (if not reveal them) at Botcon 2016 along with the official reveal of their buddy CW Liokaiser.

^ I don't care if Overlord transforms into a big, adorable, teal-white-purple bunny: as long as we get a Leader-class, IDW-themed, luscious-lipped sadist, I can die happy.

Stuartmaximus wrote: A lot of really cool sounding stuff

I would be really happy if they ended up doing this. I really want a star saber but don't feel like shelling out $200+ for the mp and Overlord would be great for a lost light display

I've got a suspicion that Titan Omega Supreme, Trypticon and Scorponok have already been designed to share some of the same parts. We should certainly get Titan Omega (and Scorponok) in a few years.

MemphisR56 wrote:
Well, the nearest entertainer to me is literally on my walk to the train station from work, so if you want to save the trouble, I could pick one up for you and ship him over to you, save you a 4 hour round trip. Shipping would probably cost about the same as a bus ticket.

Shoot me a PM if you're interested.

Cheers I may do. Just trying to think what I need to allocate money for in the next month or so. I ended up going to Cambridge anyways and yeah Toys R Us didn't have them anymore. In fact they barely had anything good at all. The Transformers section is mostly RID stuff now and most of that is either the simple one step stuff or the tall figures that don't do anything (seriously what is up with that... all the big franchises have these crappy overly-large barely articulated figures filling up shelf space). A lil bit of AoE stuff and a tiny bit of Combiner Wars and that's about it.

It's frustrating when you want to buy a Transformer but there aren't many actually in existence you really want that much. At least officially (that third-party large-scale massively improved remake of AoE Evasion Prime has caught my eye but that's probably out of my budget unfortunately).

Thanks for the offer though and I shall think about it. Do you know if there are any replacements for the dinosaur head and tail? I wouldn't mind that Deluxe movie Prime in the double pack either. I actually quite like the mold as a desk toy sorta thing but the huge amount of silver chrome and little actual red and blue kinda put me off.

I'm quite underwhelmed with Soundwave. It's nice that he has his shoulder weapon, but it's a total cop out on his handheld blaster. The mold itself just keeps looking more hollow with every new pic I see. I fear he and Blaster are going to be as bad as Leader Magnus. And I suppose I like Magnus well enough, but I remember being super excited back when we saw the teasers for him, then he didn't quite live up to the hype in hand. Just trying to keep my expectations in check this time around. Maybe I'll get the Leader baseformers anyway since I do have a fair number of Micromasters from back in the day that could potentially make use of that mode.

I have been eagerly awaiting our first look at Soundwave, the photo they shared on FB looked a little derpy but I was relieved when I saw all the CG renders here, with the helmet in the correct position, making the visor slimmer.

I never really had any attachment to Blaster so I may pass on him in favor of Soundwave I will likely also pass on Sentinel Prime for Astrotrain, which I hope we also get a look at soon.

New question: Anyone got any theories as to how Takara might market these toys (WITH their line-wide gimmick intact) in Japan? Like, what sort of fiction they could come up with to accompany these figures?

I myself have one idea. Like with Legends and Unite Warriors, they could craft a new story via pack-in material that would take place after The Headmasters cartoon/during the Masterforce cartoon with a lot of the non-Headmaster characters getting Headmaster upgrades, which would work since all of the Titans Return characters we've seen thus far (minus Sentinel Prime) are characters who existed in the era of both the Master Wars and Masterforce Wars. Though, Galvatron died in the Master Wars, but the recent Grand Galvatron comic had him resurrected, so his new toy could be his new body, and then he could be killed off again in the Arctic to let him be resurrected by Dark Nova later.

Leader class Blaster and Soundwave could be released by Takara as Twincast and Soundblaster instead of their normal versions since those two were in those forms during that era. And Powermaster Optimus could be released as Super Ginrai, with some in-fiction explanation given to make his new form be like a temporary upgrade he underwent for his pack-in story, so as to not fully contradict his appearance in Masterforce. Sentinel Prime could either be introduced as a new character for this storyline or just be the Astrotrain version since Astrotrain did already exist in that era. And Crashbash, Nightbeat, Loudmouth, and Terribull could all, respectively, be released as temporary upgraded Suit Modes of Cancer, Minerva (but probably with a remolded, more friendly/feminine face), Shuta, and Bullhorn.

Or Takara can just do new normal heads for the figures that never were Headmasters in G1. The Leader and Voyager class figures all have those built in helmets. Takara has shown they're not afraid to do a little retooling for better accuracy. It shouldn't be hard to turn those helmets into full on heads, eschewing the need for the "Titan Masters" completely. The Deluxe class figures so far, with the exception of Blurr, and proper Headmaster characters anyway.

Wolfman Jake wrote:Or Takara can just do new normal heads for the figures that never were Headmasters in G1. The Leader and Voyager class figures all have those built in helmets. Takara has shown they're not afraid to do a little retooling for better accuracy. It shouldn't be hard to turn those helmets into full on heads, eschewing the need for the "Titan Masters" completely. The Deluxe class figures so far, with the exception of Blurr, and proper Headmaster characters anyway.

My question was in regards to marketing them as they were, not yanking the gimmick out. The gimmick's presence across the line is why I asked what I asked in the first place.