The Energon Pub

ZeroWolf wrote:Let's not do the whole third party thing here, comparing them is futile as they have different priorities and third party stuff isn't subject to the same restrictions as hasbro.

If ironhidesh wants 3rd party stuff that's fair enough, you want hasbro stuff then that's fair enough as well

Thanks Zerowolf. Everyone is free to do as they choose and to feel the way they feel about certain products. We are free to criticize the products but it must be in the right place and we must be careful not to criticize eachother inadvertently.

Deadput wrote:Bleh fine whatever who gives a damn.
I don't support third party figures they will hurt Hasbro sales eventually not now but they will.

You clearly care, and thats ok, you are perfectly free to. But just be careful about insulting people who go against your beliefs. And dont worry about Hasbro's sales, they wont lose anything. The recent presentation from hasbro showed us how small we are. Funny actually, they were hoping to make it look like fans accounted for a bigger number in their marketting speak, but for that, they needed to pair us up with kids of 10 years of age and older Like that they were able to give this "big" figure like people of 10 years and over account for 30% of toy sales. Which is ridiculously small. That means that kids below ten account for 70%. And out of the people 10 years and above, I dread to think how small the percentage is for people 18 and above. All to say that Hasbro is not threatened at all by 3p and plus many fans who buy 3p also will buy the Hasbro version when it comes out. I highly doubt anyone who had Warbot defender decided they didnt need Generations Springer when that came out.

Deadput wrote:Sorry for my posts I'm just really irritated and grumpy right now due to personal issues and it's got nothing to do with Seibertron or anyone here.

Dont worry man, we've all been there, I wish you all the best

Mindmaster wrote:To get us back on track...

Anyone else's wallet having a panic attack from calculating how much getting the entirety of Titans Return lineup thus far revealed? Not counting Scourge and Blurr, it's going to cost $320+, and that's not counting Fortress Maximus!

I am not that worried actually. Last year was super expensive because I went for the Takara options and while if you play it smart you can get the Takara toys for the same price as Hasbro's MSRP, you still have that high shipping cost depending on where you live. Plus, if you stick with hasbro you can wait for discounts. To be totally honest, I wasnt blown away by most molds in Combiner Wars since it was more about the completed combiner and how fun and simple it was to dissasemble and build up. So I felt I needed that extra deco and Takara's Devastator was just calling out to me due to the principle of wanting the full effect of what Takara had designed (they rarely design the actual Hasbro toy, but with Devastator they did, so I wanted their vision). But with Titans Return, I am more curious about the variety of molds. I don't need the extra deco, not this time. And I am not a big fan of Fort Max as he is right now so its not like the Takara version will be something I just must get. I want to experience all these molds, and I will at least get one of each (except some tapes) and the fact that I dont need Takara this time and can thus wait for the Hasbro version to go on sale, will make this year a bit less expensive after all.

ZeroWolf wrote:I try not to think about how much this line will cost me...rather think about how cool the cities will look (till trypticon comes in to smash them)

My costs are not looking terrible at the moment. So far, my want list includes: Blurr, chromedome, Hardhead, Rewind, Wheelie, Galvatron, Sentinel, Blaster, Fort Max and maybe Prime. That's not too terrible!

william-james88 wrote: Snip

Thank you Will it's good to hear about Hasbro sales and that kids are still the main customers for Transformers.

I'm a "bit" sensitive when it comes to seeing negativity to the company that created the toy hobby I love and I admit I let my anger get the best of me which leads me to lashing out at people I guess I just don't understand other people's opinions and understandings outside my own so once again I apologize.


I hope we can find the good points in the upcoming Titan Returns toyline and talk about the good things over the bad.

For all those who still wish to see the TF: Prime Vehicon and Jet Vehicon molds redecoed into Fastlane and Cloudraker, I say we now have a much better option for the pair:




Courtesy of The Allspark.

Deadput wrote:I hope we can find the good points in the upcoming Titan Returns toyline and talk about the good things over the bad.

I hope we don't. I'd hate everyone agreeing with everyone. I might have to fire Cobotron!

But seriously, differing opinions is good. There's been many times I've had a different opinion about a figure open my eyes to something about it that changed the way I look at it.

Sabrblade wrote:For all those who still wish to see the TF: Prime Vehicon and Jet Vehicon molds redecoed into Fastlane and Cloudraker, I say we now have a much better option for the pair:




Courtesy of The Allspark.

oooh, the twins, I - strangely - want this to happen

Burn wrote:I hope we don't. I'd hate everyone agreeing with everyone. I might have to fire Cobotron!

But seriously, differing opinions is good. There's been many times I've had a different opinion about a figure open my eyes to something about it that changed the way I look at it.

What you say is true however I meant we shouldn't being arguing and being rude to each other about it.

Sabrblade wrote:For all those who still wish to see the TF: Prime Vehicon and Jet Vehicon molds redecoed into Fastlane and Cloudraker, I say we now have a much better option for the pair:


Courtesy of The Allspark.

This makes too much sense for Hasbro or Takara not to do.



But more likely it will become some Botcon exclusive I will never own

Deadput wrote:But more likely it will become some Botcon exclusive everyone will never own

Fixed that for ya.

Sabrblade wrote:Fixed that for ya.

Oh yeah that's a thing.


I feel much better I hate exclusives (That includes Takara exclusives as well)

Those actually work quite well for the twins

@will no worries

a quadruple post there, Zero

I don't have anything especially negative to say about Titans Return over all there are a few niggles.

Like the shape of Scourge's vehicle mode lower fuselage, or the way Fort Max's main ramps do not touch the ground, and he is missing a key joint in his legs needed to make a better approximation of the proper city mode.

I think Hasbro is taking the pi** a bit with Chromedome being another darn Stunticon remould - that is just lazy and a bit pathetic. but if I pretend the previous toys didn't exist on it's own it's not terrible.

Though that said Wheelie does look pretty decent and I am kind looking forward to a set of the Decepticons despite any of their quirks. I appreciate that there some ramp contectability between toys.

Not that there is things I dislike as there is _ don't much like the laziness of Rumble (not enough remoulding for my tastes), I don't much like that the Titanmaster (heads) often lack paint and have fused knees... But I guess that is to protect them from breaking when exposed to younger kids.

Basically my reaction is "shrugs" which translates too "I'll buy them in a sale". Not great love no great hate they are perfectly fine overall.

I still think Transformers as a toyline has gone down hill a lot since 2014 though.

Stuartmaximus wrote:a quadruple post there, Zero

My phone was playing up but my thanks to whoever cleaned them up for me.

RAR wrote:I don't have anything especially negative to say about Titans Return over all there are a few niggles.

Like the shape of Scourge's vehicle mode lower fuselage, or the way Fort Max's main ramps do not touch the ground, and he is missing a key joint in his legs needed to make a better approximation of the proper city mode.

I think Hasbro is taking the pi** a bit with Chromedome being another darn Stunticon remould - that is just lazy and a bit pathetic. but if I pretend the previous toys didn't exist on it's own it's not terrible.

Though that said Wheelie does look pretty decent and I am kind looking forward to a set of the Decepticons despite any of their quirks. I appreciate that there some ramp contectability between toys.

Not that there is things I dislike as there is _ don't much like the laziness of Rumble (not enough remoulding for my tastes), I don't much like that the Titanmaster (heads) often lack paint and have fused knees... But I guess that is to protect them from breaking when exposed to younger kids.

Basically my reaction is "shrugs" which translates too "I'll buy them in a sale". Not great love no great hate they are perfectly fine overall.

I still think Transformers as a toyline has gone down hill a lot since 2014 though.

To be fair, chromedome is a drastic remold of dead end, has as been discussed to death a few pages ago till will found an official statement from hasbro on the matter.

Personally, I feel the opposite, that tfs are improving and moving onward

Nice post RAR, just 2 things I wanted to adress:

RAR wrote:I think Hasbro is taking the pi** a bit with Chromedome being another darn Stunticon remould - that is just lazy and a bit pathetic. but if I pretend the previous toys didn't exist on it's own it's not terrible.

The people to blame are actually Takara this time. Hasbro designed the toy like the usually do and sent those diagrams to Takara who had to figure out the engineering. And they decided it would work pretty well with what they had developed for Dead End so they just copy pasted parts of that engineering when developing the mold. I don't like this anymore than you do but I like to know who is to blame for my dislike

I still think Transformers as a toyline has gone down hill a lot since 2014 though.

What about FOC in 2012-2013, you think that's better than today's offerings?

Sabrblade wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:Didn't Hb do that with the upcoming PM OP from the UM mold? FM and Metroplex etc.

Those were each made from the same mold, though. Prime and Max are reshells of Magnus and Metroplex. Blurr/Brainstorm and Chromedome, however, aren't even that.

They're what then? Whatever it's called, cost cutting, maximizing the profit by recycling a portion of an existing mold.

fenrir72 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:Didn't Hb do that with the upcoming PM OP from the UM mold? FM and Metroplex etc.

Those were each made from the same mold, though. Prime and Max are reshells of Magnus and Metroplex. Blurr/Brainstorm and Chromedome, however, aren't even that.

They're what then? Whatever it's called, cost cutting, maximizing the profit by recycling a portion of an existing mold.

They are just reused parts. Remolding usually reffers to the whole toy and its transformation and how one toy is based on another toy. For Blurr and Chromedome, its just reusing a part. Its not an indication of the entire toy itself. Its more like a car toy reusing the same wheels that were used on another car toy.

I think it's a real bummer any time I see someone say they aren't excited about Titans Return. I love Headmasters. I buy most of the third party headmaster offerings & will buy all of these alongside them. This is easily my favorite TF gimmick.

I'm very happy Fprt Max retained his double headmaster function. That will be really cool for anyone who hasn't gotten to handle a G1 Fort Max. I do wish they would have been able to work in the waist cannons on him. That would have been the icing on the cake for me. My only real concern would be the knees & hips. My metroplex gives me fits if I try to hold him anywhere other than his chest. With the added upper body bulk, I could see that being an issue on Fort Max too if they aren't tightened a bit.

Doctor McGrath wrote:I think it's a real bummer any time I see someone say they aren't excited about Titans Return. I love Headmasters. I buy most of the third party headmaster offerings & will buy all of these alongside them. This is easily my favorite TF gimmick.

I'm very happy Fprt Max retained his double headmaster function. That will be really cool for anyone who hasn't gotten to handle a G1 Fort Max. I do wish they would have been able to work in the waist cannons on him. That would have been the icing on the cake for me. My only real concern would be the knees & hips. My metroplex gives me fits if I try to hold him anywhere other than his chest. With the added upper body bulk, I could see that being an issue on Fort Max too if they aren't tightened a bit.

Dude, I totally agree with you! I'm a huge Headmasters fan, and Headmasters are my favorite Transformers gimmick. I'm really excited for Titans Return! I don't care about the remolds because there's a reason for them. Hasbro and Takara aren't just being lazy, they're saving money so they can keep making new products. Wheelie looks amazing, the cassette minions now back as weird data cartridges are fun for me, because my G1 Soundwave is one of my favorites in my collection (also good because my CW Buzzsaw is on the way), PMOP is great, because I don't own CW Magnus, that Galvatron is the Galvatron I've been waiting for, Fortress Maximus looks great, though they could've done more with it, and I really hope he has tighter legs than Metroplex did, as my Metroplex has a lot of trouble standing, and I'm also a big Micromaster fan, so the fact that the Leaders and Fort Max have base modes is totally up my alley!

DigitalBrave3 wrote: (also good because my CW Buzzsaw is on the way)

Let us know how you find him and if you still want Lazerbeak after handling him.

william-james88 wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote: (also good because my CW Buzzsaw is on the way)

Let us know how you find him and if you still want Lazerbeak after handling him.

I picked up Buzzsaw this weekend. I'm still forming an opinion. He's kinda dorky, like a goofy Real Gear toy. Just so happens I tend to like this kind of stupid. A lot! So things are going well.
I worry a little about the stickers that form his screen graphics. I keep having to press them back down.

I think the true test will be, how fun is the interaction with the Leader toys?

Cobotron wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote: (also good because my CW Buzzsaw is on the way)

Let us know how you find him and if you still want Lazerbeak after handling him.

I picked up Buzzsaw this weekend. I'm still forming an opinion. He's kinda dorky, like a goofy Real Gear toy. Just so happens I tend to like this kind of stupid. A lot! So things are going well.
I worry a little about the stickers that form his screen graphics. I keep having to press them back down.

I think the true test will be, how fun is the interaction with the Leader toys?

Yeah, I saw 2 whole sets of the legends figures at my target last week, funnily enough, buzzsaw's stickers were already peeling off - big time - in the package, so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say the cassett-icons aren't going to be that great a quality

I like headmasters too - and I'm pleased Titans Returns exists as there are always people who value Hasbro items more than 3rd party who will sell their 3rd party stuff off when Hasbro makes an official version.

So no I'm not going to complain to much - I'm thinking that since I play with my toys I might get a bit more fun out of something with more joints on it.

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Oh and just to clarify doesn't Chromedome have the exact same parts like in the upper legs for example - That feeds my feelings of the toys worth more than than if they just copied the proportions and Transformation.

It's that they couldn't even be bothered to add new surface detail to the legs that annoys me.

I'm actually Ok with CW Wheeljack and Prowl as they at least made some effort - it's just the 3rd remould of the same toy seems a bit much when it's in a new line I could argue the same about Fort Max to - but that depends on how many times the re-sell it to us.

If they never repaint him then I'll be fine with him being a remould if they repaint the heck out of it - I will be mildly irritated they didn't invest more new design into it - especially when being a remould compromises the alt modes like it does.

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Just for the record though I like Headmasters - the only thing I do object a bit too is the use of Headmasters on character who are not normally headmasters - like Hotrod, Alpha Trion and Blurr.

If you actually think about who Alpha Trion is you have to jump through some pretty extreme story hoops to come up with a rational for him being a headmaster that doesn't seem other than a little bit silly.

But if I step back and look at it from a 8 year old's perspective I'm sure they will have fun with it just as the kids of the later 80's did - especially if they can get spare heads now too.

RAR wrote:
Oh and just to clarify doesn't Chromedome have the exact same parts like in the upper legs for example - That feeds my feelings of the toys worth more than than if they just copied the proportions and Transformation.

It's that they couldn't even be bothered to add new surface detail to the legs that annoys me.

This is false. The engineers who designed and used this mold based it on the Dead End mold, but it is a completely new mold, and is confirmed as such. The part about shared thighs and stuff is about Blurr, not Dead End. There are no parts shared between the combiner wars molds and this one. One is just based on the other, no sharing.