The Energon Pub

A word of caution however, voting with your wallet may produce an opposite effect to what you want. It's still the best way to make a point but just be aware of all consequences.

ZeroWolf wrote:A word of caution however, voting with your wallet may produce an opposite effect to what you want. It's still the best way to make a point but just be aware of all consequences.

This.
I don't see Joe CEOstein going,
"Ya know, we should really go back to the way these changeformers were made during the Unicorn Trilogy, or what ever the kids call it. I mean we have found the way to produce these things as cheap as possible. Increase our profit margin, and all pay off our German touring automobiles. But even though everyone still buys these cheaped down toys, we at Hasbro have integrity and a reputation to to uphold so lets up the quality no matter how much money we loose."
"*Mr. CEOstein?*"
"Yes, Sandy?"
"*The Board of Directors is on line one. Apparently your fired*"
"Thank you Sandy"


I don't ever see things going back to the way they were, and am well aware that every time I buy one of these toys, I'm saying, it's ok Hasby, keep cutting corners.

ZeroWolf wrote:A word of caution however, voting with your wallet may produce an opposite effect to what you want. It's still the best way to make a point but just be aware of all consequences.

Oh definitely, hence why I am glad may here are cool with the Hasbro deco

But while I say voting with my wallet, for me its more like rewarding those who went the extra step. But you know, Hasbro can really kick ass sometimes. We sometimes wish there was more paint but I just got Hasbro Legends Shockwave and he has so much paint, its amazing! Probably the more paint per square inch than any Hasbro figure last year.
In the end Hasbro is a corporation and if enough people dont buy their products because their deco isnt good enough then they might find an intuitive way to improve the deco while not increasing their costs too much. Just look at MP Starscream from last year. Hasbro found a way to sell it for 60$ and it had the same quality and paint as the Takara version. Their Wolfwire and Skullcruncher have the same amount of paint as Takara. So they are on the right track and have found ways to make it work. I guess some of us are simply upset because we instead see where they dont look as good since that is more obvious than when they are doing great. Just so people know where I am coming from with this line, the only toy I am getting the Takar version of is Blurr. I am sticking with Hasbro for the rest, I feel they did a pretty good job with the majority.

And while i am here and we were speaking of toy deco vs toon deco, here is another cool toy deco tidbit Hasbro did that I find awesome. Look at Blaster's upepr thighs below (thanks Cyberpath for this):



Takara went for the show deco and while it works in robot mode, it doesnt look much like the detail in boombox mode especially since one fo the red lines just dissapears. However, for Hasbro, that detail with the arrows stays consistent (though in the wrong orientation). While Takara's deco shines due to the literal glossy legs, I find that Hasbro did a good job with the paint apps here and offers the same amount of painted detail, especially on the legs where you see a bunch of coloured details. think thats an awesome example of Hasbro going all out on the Toy Accurate deco.

Cobotron wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:A word of caution however, voting with your wallet may produce an opposite effect to what you want. It's still the best way to make a point but just be aware of all consequences.

This.
I don't see Joe CEOstein going,
"Ya know, we should really go back to the way these changeformers were made during the Unicorn Trilogy, or what ever the kids call it. I mean we have found the way to produce these things as cheap as possible. Increase our profit margin, and all pay off our German touring automobiles. But even though everyone still buys these cheaped down toys, we at Hasbro have integrity and a reputation to to uphold so lets up the quality no matter how much money we loose."
"*Mr. CEOstein?*"
"Yes, Sandy?"
"*The Board of Directors is on line one. Apparently your fired*"
"Thank you Sandy"

I get what you are saying but we know for a fact that parents who voted with their wallets did affect the TF output recently. I definitely see the CEO going:
"we Havent sold as much DOTM toys as ROTF toys. Ya know, we should really go back to the way these changeformers were done during the Unicorn Trilogy, or what ever the kids call it. Where transformations didnt take as long and younger kids could enjoy them as much as fans. It doesnt have to all be babied, but not as complex as that red and blue truck with the sowrds no kid can transform, and we should have easier TFs on the aisles for young kids to transform in one step"
"*Mr. CEOstein?*"
"Yes, Sandy?"
"*The Board of Directors is on line one. Apparently we get to live for another year*"
"Thank you Sandy"

So yes, when your product isnt selling as well as anticipated, companies will look into how to change things so they do.

I fully agree with both of you on your many points and will, I heartily endorse the money going to where you feel it deserves to go, as fans, we have options when we want to buy our plastic crack.

WillyJammer wrote:Edits to my Tony Award winning play

I get how it works/ has worked. I was more expressing my fear. I don't see the quality ever reverting back to what it once was. Especially if the business end sees a huge profit spike on the decline of quality. I'm also a little tiered of watching the poor dead horse be beaten to pulp.

Sad truth here really is that, as long as crack gets a crack head high, they will continue to buy it no matter the quality. Count me among the crack heads.

Cobotron wrote:

WillyJammer wrote:Edits to my Tony Award winning play

I get how it works/ has worked. I was more expressing my fear. I don't see the quality ever reverting back to what it once was. Especially if the business end sees a huge profit spike on the decline of quality. I'm also a little tiered of watching the poor dead horse be beaten to pulp.

Sad truth here really is that, as long as crack gets a crack head high, they will continue to buy it no matter the quality. Count me among the crack heads.

But then how come Deluxes have gotten bigger and the plastic has gotten better than the one used for the FOC toys? Can you imagine a world where your combiners are all like that FOC Bruticus?

In the case of combiners, they were very innovative and found a way to mazimise on the initial costs it took to make a very solid and quality combining system. If we just accepted FOC Bruticus, we might not be here with these beutiful toys today.

We can't take it for granted though, that is what is happened. Another possibility is that the people in charge of the brand were able to argue a compromise with "those above".

william-james88 wrote:But then how come Deluxes have gotten bigger and the plastic has gotten better than the one used for the FOC toys?

This I can not explain. It has also gotten better than the plastic used on the Prime toys, or at least thicker.

Prince william-james the 8th wrote:Can you imagine a world where your combiners are all like that FOC Bruticus?

Dear Primus NO!

Born on the 4th of 88 wrote:In the case of combiners, they were very innovative and found a way to mazimise on the initial costs it took to make a very solid and quality combining system. If we just accepted FOC Bruticus, we might not be here with these beutiful toys today.

Agreed. I think the designers did a GREAT job of making the most of the constraints put on them by the suits above. I hope they proved there is still life in the Generations line.

Also I personally can't fully judge the quality of the TR toys until I have some in hand. I don't have high hopes of them living up to the TFs of old, but I have seen a lot of them with my own eyes in real space, and I'm nothing but excited. Especially for Alpha Trion.

When will the Titans Return?

Cobotron wrote:When will the Titans Return?

They should be returning online in mid summer, and in retail late summer.


And thanks for all the nice titles

Hellscream9999 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:I still don't see the issue with his vehicle mode. It looks like Blurr to me, and his robot mode has some obvious G1 toy references in it. (Such as the darker painted lower legs and red triangles painted on the shins.) I find this toy to look quite aesthetically pleasing compared to the original toy, especially in robot mode. And the butt of the car doesn't bother me. It may not be a complete mirror of the original toy in color, but you can see some of the artist's homages in there. I was mostly referring to the darker color-scheme in robot mode rather than the full color palate comparison.

The problem is that hasbro gave this figure (a highly anticipated figure) a crappy lazy paint job that effectively ruins the figure for a lot of people, especially when it's compared to the Legends version

You're opinion doesn't matter either! You're not even a G1 fan!

Joking aside, how the heck is this ruined? I feel they made the right choice here. The color scheme they gave him doesn't NEED any more paint. They saved that paint so they can paint his gun silver. I much prefer a silver painted gun than a slightly different shade of blue slapped on the butt of his vehicle just to avoid fans' bellyaches and whining for no reason. It looks good. It is not crappy in the slightest. In fact, if they added more paint on him, it wouldn't have even mattered to me. Blue is blue, and the more of that pretty blue color the better. Like I said before, I consider him in the same kind of category as CW Cyclonus where he doesn't really need much paint to look great. People nowadays just get too picky.

A first European sighting of the Transformers Titans Return line comes from the often neglected land of Italy, and fan Mattia Sanges of Transformers Italia! Legends class Rewind was spotted and pocketed at the Carrefour store in Carnate (Monza and Brianza, in the North) for the price of 12,90€ (approx $14.50 USD), though it was also the only figure from its wave, never mind the rest of the line.

If you come across any sightings yourself, make sure to help out fellow fans by updating our database and various threads. Happy weekend hunting!

Dr Va'al wrote:A first European sighting of the Transformers Titans Return line comes from the often neglected land of Italy, and fan Mattia Sanges of Transformers Italia! Legends class Rewind was spotted and pocketed at the Carrefour store in Carnate (Monza and Brianza, in the North) for the price of 12,90€ (approx $14.50 USD), though it was also the only figure from its wave, never mind the rest of the line.

If you come across any sightings yourself, make sure to help out fellow fans by updating our database and various threads. Happy weekend hunting!

Well, now I just have to sit back and wait until people start spotting these figures here in the United States of America.

Isn't that the US packaging? It has the 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and Portugese), plus EU packaging usually omit the "tm" next to the names.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Isn't that the US packaging? It has the 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and Portugese), plus EU packaging usually omit the "tm" next to the names.

OMG, I think that is the U.S. packaging!

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Isn't that the US packaging? It has the 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and Portugese), plus EU packaging usually omit the "tm" next to the names.

OMG, I think that is the U.S. packaging!

Huh, that is very odd. Maybe Nemesis Maximo or someone can say their two cents about this to enlighten us all?

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Isn't that the US packaging? It has the 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and Portugese), plus EU packaging usually omit the "tm" next to the names.

OMG, I think that is the U.S. packaging!

Huh, that is very odd. Maybe Nemesis Maximo or someone can say their two cents about this to enlighten us all?

Well, I do live in the U.S. and I see that packaging every single time I go shopping. In fact, I keep all the packaging, so there's currently a giant box full of cardboard underneath my bed! (I think I need to get help for my hoarding problem.)

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Isn't that the US packaging? It has the 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and Portugese), plus EU packaging usually omit the "tm" next to the names.

OMG, I think that is the U.S. packaging!

Huh, that is very odd. Maybe Nemesis Maximo or someone can say their two cents about this to enlighten us all?

Well, I do live in the U.S. and I see that packaging every single time I go shopping. In fact, I keep all the packaging, so there's currently a giant box full of cardboard underneath my bed! (I think I need to get help for my hoarding problem.)

Keep it there until such a time to where you want to record a video to show the world all the insects nesting under there.

Just a question: Are the TR U.S. deluxes coming with comics?

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Isn't that the US packaging? It has the 4 languages (English, French, Spanish and Portugese), plus EU packaging usually omit the "tm" next to the names.

OMG, I think that is the U.S. packaging!

Huh, that is very odd. Maybe Nemesis Maximo or someone can say their two cents about this to enlighten us all?

Well, I do live in the U.S. and I see that packaging every single time I go shopping. In fact, I keep all the packaging, so there's currently a giant box full of cardboard underneath my bed! (I think I need to get help for my hoarding problem.)

Keep it there until such a time to where you want to record a video to show the world all the insects nesting under there.

Just a question: Are the TR U.S. deluxes coming with comics?

I think there's already a colony of spiders living down there and no, the Titans Return Deluxes will not be coming with comics.

DigitalBrave3 wrote:...and no, the Titans Return Deluxes will not be coming with comics.

That is a HUGE shame. Maybe wave 1 doesn't kinda like Combiner Wars?

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:...and no, the Titans Return Deluxes will not be coming with comics.

That is a HUGE shame. Maybe wave 1 doesn't kinda like Combiner Wars?

Nope, it's already been confirmed that every Deluxe in Titans Return will not include comics. If you would like proof, I suggest you check out the stock images of the figures for the first 2 waves.

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:...and no, the Titans Return Deluxes will not be coming with comics.

That is a HUGE shame. Maybe wave 1 doesn't kinda like Combiner Wars?

Nope, it's already been confirmed that every Deluxe in Titans Return will not include the comics. If you would like proof, I suggest you check out the stock images of the figures for the first 2 waves.

That sucks man. That sucks. I guess if they left the comics out so they'd have more money to make the toys better, I guess that's okay though.

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:...and no, the Titans Return Deluxes will not be coming with comics.

That is a HUGE shame. Maybe wave 1 doesn't kinda like Combiner Wars?

Nope, it's already been confirmed that every Deluxe in Titans Return will not include the comics. If you would like proof, I suggest you check out the stock images of the figures for the first 2 waves.

That sucks man. That sucks. I guess if they left the comics out so they'd have more money to make the toys better, I guess that's okay though.

I honestly don't mind them not including comics. Since I don't read the comics, whenever I got a Deluxe Class figure from Thrilling 30th or Combiner Wars, I got a comic where I had no clue what was going on.

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:...and no, the Titans Return Deluxes will not be coming with comics.

That is a HUGE shame. Maybe wave 1 doesn't kinda like Combiner Wars?

Nope, it's already been confirmed that every Deluxe in Titans Return will not include the comics. If you would like proof, I suggest you check out the stock images of the figures for the first 2 waves.

That sucks man. That sucks. I guess if they left the comics out so they'd have more money to make the toys better, I guess that's okay though.

I honestly don't mind them not including comics. Since I don't read the comics, whenever I got a Deluxe Clas figure from 2014 or Combiner Wars, I got a comic where I had no clue what was going on.

Yeah true, but it was nice to have them for the artwork and collectability.

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:

SillySpringer wrote:

DigitalBrave3 wrote:...and no, the Titans Return Deluxes will not be coming with comics.

That is a HUGE shame. Maybe wave 1 doesn't kinda like Combiner Wars?

Nope, it's already been confirmed that every Deluxe in Titans Return will not include the comics. If you would like proof, I suggest you check out the stock images of the figures for the first 2 waves.

That sucks man. That sucks. I guess if they left the comics out so they'd have more money to make the toys better, I guess that's okay though.

I honestly don't mind them not including comics. Since I don't read the comics, whenever I got a Deluxe Clas figure from 2014 or Combiner Wars, I got a comic where I had no clue what was going on.

Yeah true, but it was nice to have them for the artwork and collectability.

That's true, though I honestly believe it was for the best, so people who don't read the IDW comics aren't conpletely confused and so they can put a little nore money into the figures themselves.