The Energon Pub

Cobotron wrote:Weren't there just a slew of Voyager Galvatron only cases that hit before the holidays?

Either that, or it was a Wave 2 revision with Alpha Trion switched out. I've seen Astrotrain alongside Galvatron at a store not too long ago.

Cobotron wrote:Weren't there just a slew of Voyager Galvatron only cases that hit before the holidays?

I still see a lot of Galvatron, and now I'm seeing a lot of Alpha Trion as well.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Qwan wrote:Is it possible for the Voyager wave to consist entirely of Broadside? Having seen a Broadside in the wild (admittedly, just the one so it clearly wasn't the whole case) without any other figures alongside him, I had kind of assumed that it would be just Broadside without anybody else accompanying him - but I'm not sure if that's the way Voyager cases would be able to work.

From what I've seen, cases are usually never solid (as in, multiples of a single figure), except in Titan Class.

Sixshot is two to a case and I think Soundwave was too.

Wave 2 packed Soundwave with PM OP, if I recall.

Kurona wrote:Wave 2 packed Soundwave with PM OP, if I recall.

I know from my Woes in getting a Soundwave only a couple of weeks ago or so - only to have him get another £10.00 cheaper not long after.

That the case packing was

Optimus & Blaster
Soundwave & Optimus (but not in the UK)
Soundwave X2 (UK got this revision - possibly elsewhere too)
Then Six Shot X 2
& up next is Sky Shadow X2

I'm hoping they do a revision case of Soundwave & someone else (as Soundwave was hard to get in some places outside Europe) and perhaps also a Six Shot / Sky Shadow Revision case.

Smyths just got some Power Master Optimus Primes in again (after he was impossible to find for months) so I think they might have ordered the Optimus / Soundwave case instead of the just Soundwave case they must have had initially.

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Speaking of Sky Shadow though I wonder if we are supposed to only see him as the westernised version of Black Shadow (or what ever IDW does with him) or if we are supposed to associate him with earlier Characters called Sky Shadow (who are not Black Shadow).

The particularly peculiar thing is that there is a Sky Shadow in the Energon Aerialbots and another one in TF Cybertron who is Jetfire pretending to be a Decepticon. Then to add further confusion there is also a Minicon and a Beast Wars Character.

So it got me wondering which one is an influence on which other ones.

Considering Sky Shadow looks exactly like Masterforce Black Shadow, and was specifically stated to be part of Hasbro doing the three Phase-Sixers (of which Black Shadow is a part), yeah, he's westernized/IDW Black Shadow. He's got nothing to do with previous characters and toys called Sky Shadow and is simply a name re-use; much like Armada Wheeljack.

So random question. Does anyone know if Shuffler is the same purple as Astrotrain?

Kurona wrote:Considering Sky Shadow looks exactly like Masterforce Black Shadow, and was specifically stated to be part of Hasbro doing the three Phase-Sixers (of which Black Shadow is a part), yeah, he's westernized/IDW Black Shadow. He's got nothing to do with previous characters and toys called Sky Shadow and is simply a name re-use; much like Armada Wheeljack.

That's a bit confusing to say he's a "name reuse." Sky Shadow is the current trademarkable version of G1 Black Shadow for Hasbro. The IDW Phase-Six character is based upon the character from the Japanese exclusive portion of the G1 line. He's meant to be a modern version of the initially Japanese continuity character. It's not at all like the Unicron Triology where characters got slapped with seemingly random names from previous fiction that had no ties to their original selves, like Armada Wheeljack or Energon Mirage, for instance.

"Sky Shadow" was used when he first debuted as a Hasbro released toy back in 2010/2011 as a Generations deluxe class figure, redecoed and remolded from the earlier Thunderwing figure (mimicking their mold relationship in G1 as well). There's no relation to those previous toys mentioned, and no real effort to "reuse" those previous toy names currently, other than, as I said, getting close enough to the G1 original name while still being a defendable trademark.

So I found out that Octane is going to have a new nose cone as well as being called Octone. Seeing as how Voyager Prime was always meant to be Octane, why not use the nose cone in the first place? The saved money could've gone to better QC. Also I heard that the designers had to make the decision of either electronics in Tripticon, or make Full Tilt. That doesn't sit right with me at all. It really would've been nice to have full electronics, including a walking feature.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:So I found out that Octane is going to have a new nose cone as well as being called Octone. Seeing as how Voyager Prime was always meant to be Octane, why not use the nose cone in the first place? The saved money could've gone to better QC. Also I heard that the designers had to make the decision of either electronics in Tripticon, or make Full Tilt. That doesn't sit right with me at all. It really would've been nice to have full electronics, including a walking feature.

Just as an experiment, I did some calculations. According to Mister Seibertron's own recollections here, G1 Trypticon originally cost about $50 when he was first released. Accounting for inflation (according to this online calculator), that comes out to what would be around $110 nowadays. Taking into account the Titan-ic ( ) increase in size, engineering, part-count (presumably), etc. in this new Trypticon, then it makes sense that the further addition of electronics to the new toy (especially a full walking mechanism) would push the toy's budget and therefore retail price up considerably - waaay beyond what I imagine Hasbro could expect kids or their parents to reasonably pay.

After all, pretty much every other aspect has been improved upon, so it makes sense that something - in this case the most expensive part, however iconic it may have been - had to be dropped to keep it at relatively the same (reasonable) price. Sure I would've loved to see the walking feature make it through to this new version, but I think it's understandable that it was cut all things considered.

Not only that, but I feel like even though a walking gimmick would be neat (especially to mess with your pets), it would restrict articulation and transformation somewhat. And I'd rather have the latter.

Qwan wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:So I found out that Octane is going to have a new nose cone as well as being called Octone. Seeing as how Voyager Prime was always meant to be Octane, why not use the nose cone in the first place? The saved money could've gone to better QC. Also I heard that the designers had to make the decision of either electronics in Tripticon, or make Full Tilt. That doesn't sit right with me at all. It really would've been nice to have full electronics, including a walking feature.

Just as an experiment, I did some calculations. According to Mister Seibertron's own recollections here, G1 Trypticon originally cost about $50 when he was first released. Accounting for inflation (according to this online calculator), that comes out to what would be around $110 nowadays. Taking into account the Titan-ic ( ) increase in size, engineering, part-count (presumably), etc. in this new Trypticon, then it makes sense that the further addition of electronics to the new toy (especially a full walking mechanism) would push the toy's budget and therefore retail price up considerably - waaay beyond what I imagine Hasbro could expect kids or their parents to reasonably pay.

After all, pretty much every other aspect has been improved upon, so it makes sense that something - in this case the most expensive part, however iconic it may have been - had to be dropped to keep it at relatively the same (reasonable) price. Sure I would've loved to see the walking feature make it through to this new version, but I think it's understandable that it was cut all things considered.

I'm not that bothered that the electronics were cut, but that it was an either or situation between something cool, and a hunk of purple plastic designed to work the current gimmick into the Titan figure

I'd rather have a cool little deluxe than an annoying sound effect that just won't stop. Even as a kid I didn't like lights and sounds that much in my figures.
... except Wing Saber. He was the one exception to me for some reason...

I'm not a fan of electronics in my tf's either, so I'm glad they went with full tilt. Noises make things irritating sometimes

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Noises make things irritating sometimes

*cough*"I AM OPTIMUS PRIME"*coughcough*

I'm really glad they didn't do a stupid walking gimmick for Trypticon. I feel like lights, sounds and stuff of that nature devalues a figure. It makes it feel like strictly a toy instead of something that can act as a toy or as a collectable.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

Qwan wrote:

chuckdawg1999 wrote:So I found out that Octane is going to have a new nose cone as well as being called Octone. Seeing as how Voyager Prime was always meant to be Octane, why not use the nose cone in the first place? The saved money could've gone to better QC. Also I heard that the designers had to make the decision of either electronics in Tripticon, or make Full Tilt. That doesn't sit right with me at all. It really would've been nice to have full electronics, including a walking feature.

Just as an experiment, I did some calculations. According to Mister Seibertron's own recollections here, G1 Trypticon originally cost about $50 when he was first released. Accounting for inflation (according to this online calculator), that comes out to what would be around $110 nowadays. Taking into account the Titan-ic ( ) increase in size, engineering, part-count (presumably), etc. in this new Trypticon, then it makes sense that the further addition of electronics to the new toy (especially a full walking mechanism) would push the toy's budget and therefore retail price up considerably - waaay beyond what I imagine Hasbro could expect kids or their parents to reasonably pay.

After all, pretty much every other aspect has been improved upon, so it makes sense that something - in this case the most expensive part, however iconic it may have been - had to be dropped to keep it at relatively the same (reasonable) price. Sure I would've loved to see the walking feature make it through to this new version, but I think it's understandable that it was cut all things considered.

I'm not that bothered that the electronics were cut, but that it was an either or situation between something cool, and a hunk of purple plastic designed to work the current gimmick into the Titan figure

That's true, I do hate hearing about either/or situations where doing both would be the far preferable option. I'd guess, though, that those kinds of situations happen all the time (probably in nearly every figure, even!) and this is just one of the few times we've heard about it. In fact I'd be willing to bet that Max's designers found themselves in a similar situation: electronics or giant gun, or something like that - just a guess at a hypothetical similar situation. (If they chose the electronics that time and subsequently noticed the significant backdraft that FM didn't have his rifle, for eaxmple, then they'd also probably be more likely to choose the hunk of plastic over lights and sounds in the future as happened with Tryp.)

Sigma Magnus wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:Noises make things irritating sometimes

*cough*"I AM OPTIMUS PRIME"*coughcough*

aaaaaargh

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I'm not a fan of electronics in my tf's either, so I'm glad they went with full tilt. Noises make things irritating sometimes

Same here. It's a nice gimmick but limits the figure''s poseability( I remember how the original Superpants Prime of ML had limited arm movement. The JP version corrected that and all). Bad enough you already are risking damaging the ratchets (if at all present) during regular transformation play but you have to also deal with battery leaks and at times non functional electronics or those that give in after like 3 button presses and you are stuck with a half damaged item.

Sure you can go the replacement route but for overseas orders like the JP versions that sell out?

Kurona wrote:Considering Sky Shadow looks exactly like Masterforce Black Shadow, and was specifically stated to be part of Hasbro doing the three Phase-Sixers (of which Black Shadow is a part), yeah, he's westernized/IDW Black Shadow. He's got nothing to do with previous characters and toys called Sky Shadow and is simply a name re-use; much like Armada Wheeljack.

I believe that this Black/Skyshadow is/was directly adapted by IDW from the Space gangsta (together with Blue Bacchus) in Victory.

They were like cookie cutter bad guys for Greatshot and Starsaber to kick around. IDW just gave them a little more meat.

I can see a 3rd party putting generic Chinese Gi Joe Sound Attack like noises and a light in a 3rd party version of Brunt and solving much of the issue of missing electrics in Trypticon (I'm not missing the walking feature though) - I do think he needed light up eyes/cannon though at the very least.

I wonder if I'll need to buy a Japanese Octane just so I can legitimately call him Octane and not Octone or Tankor ?

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I suppose Full-Tilt could have been released on his own as a deluxe or as part of a Boxed set though. or they could even have made a whole bunch of the various City accessory characters and released them as a gift set.

RAR wrote:I can see a 3rd party putting generic Chinese Gi Joe Sound Attack like noises and a light in a 3rd party version of Brunt and solving much of the issue of missing electrics in Trypticon (I'm not missing the walking feature though) - I do think he needed light up eyes/cannon though at the very least.

I wonder if I'll need to buy a Japanese Octane just so I can legitimately call him Octane and not Octone or Tankor ?

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I suppose Full-Tilt could have been released on his own as a deluxe or as part of a Boxed set though. or they could even have made a whole bunch of the various City accessory characters and released them as a gift set.

Actually, Octane is called Octone in Japan. That's where they got the name from for this toyline.

The idea of a City-bot's extra characters being released in a separate boxset or wave... I could totally get behind that, actually. Only problem is that in most cases they're very simple figures; Full-tilt here if I'm not mistaken has the amazingly complex transformation of "fold out robot legs and arms then attach head robot".

Kurona wrote:Actually, Octane is called Octone in Japan. That's where they got the name from for this toyline.

The idea of a City-bot's extra characters being released in a separate boxset or wave... I could totally get behind that, actually. Only problem is that in most cases they're very simple figures; Full-tilt here if I'm not mistaken has the amazingly complex transformation of "fold out robot legs and arms then attach head robot".

I was hoping that the Decepticon Specialist set calling him 'Octane' might be a sign that they'd changed the name like how Convoy is often called Optimus Prime now in Japan. But I doubt we will be that lucky.

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I was wondering to anyone who owns Sky Shadow is it possible to make some decent fan modes out of him especially bases or combined vehicle forms ?

RAR wrote:

Kurona wrote:Actually, Octane is called Octone in Japan. That's where they got the name from for this toyline.

The idea of a City-bot's extra characters being released in a separate boxset or wave... I could totally get behind that, actually. Only problem is that in most cases they're very simple figures; Full-tilt here if I'm not mistaken has the amazingly complex transformation of "fold out robot legs and arms then attach head robot".

I was hoping that the Decepticon Specialist set calling him 'Octane' might be a sign that they'd changed the name like how Convoy is often called Optimus Prime now in Japan. But I doubt we will be that lucky.

What Takara would probably do for their release of the figure would be to refer to him as "Octone" in Katakana and "Octane" in Latin script, as they've lately been using both the original Japanese names and the Western Hasbro names together in that way for the Legends line.

Yes to the Katakana.

&

Yes... There is an Alpha Trion & Galvatron case.
http://www.bbcw.com/product.php?product ... at=&page=1

And then Takara inexplicably calls him "Tonkor" just to mess with you even more.


I would be up for a couple Titan-buddies being released mainline or box-sets (though I wouldn't expect much more than a Legends class, maybe Deluxe, for most of them). In fact, I think it could encourage some great creativity from the designers - like how would they do a Six-Gun? I would think that something similar in concept to Centuritron might work - like a Legends or Deluxe-sized pack of six guns (or more? Maybe he can be like, Ten-Gun, and have knees and elbows) that can combine into a robot. As much as I'd like a properly Deluxe-sized one of those I think it'd have to be pretty impressive to justify that, so if it were to happen I imagine it'd be a Legends-sized box of random guns that can combine into a Deluxeish-height (but not Deluxeish-mass) robot.

Boy, that's nowhere near the realm of reality is it? Ah well, it's fun making up fun ideas even if they'll probably never happen.