The Energon Pub

[Skritz]

You know, I was going to joke about them not redoing the previous Titans yet but honestly I'm expecting a new Devastator that's even MORE cartoon accurate. And another the year after!

[Rodimus Prime]

Here's my question: When are we getting a Commander-size Predaking to better match the new Sky Lynx?

I think the fact that he was already titan class works well enough to match Sky Lynx.

No, it makes him too big to match Sky Lynx.

As he was done, he is too big to scale with Sky Lynx. Hasbro needed to justify a Titan Class figure for that year. But a commander class would be too small.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Here's my question: When are we getting a Commander-size Predaking to better match the new Sky Lynx?

I think the fact that he was already titan class works well enough to match Sky Lynx.

No, it makes him too big to match Sky Lynx.

As he was done, he is too big to scale with Sky Lynx. Hasbro needed to justify a Titan Class figure for that year. But a commander class would be too small.

Unfortunately probably true... But a Commander-height combined robot mode (putting him on par with the regular CW and PotP combiners) would be just right. Would require a price point between Commander and Titan.
At least in Predaking's case, his original toy can fill that niche until a Generations version that size happens.

As far as the next Titan release after Scorponok goes... Honestly, I think the best thing would be a Metroplex reissue because the eBay price for him is ouch.

[Sabrblade]

I vote for MegaZarak.

That was my suggestion to the brand team at Toy Fair yesterday as well. Scorponok, Megazarak and Lord Zarak. Sounds great to me!

You got to talk to them directly? Tell me, please, what did they say, exactly, about the names of Scorponok's three components? Is it really true that the middleman is named "Lord Zarak" while the smaller guy is nameless? If so, that's unfortunate.

And if so, did they say why they left the little guy without a name?

[Emerje]

Was anyone able to ask if Knok and Skar have any way to interact with Doubledealer outside of 5mm pegs? I hope they have slots that they can be inserted into, but if it's just pegging on, that's fine too

Doubledealer has a chest compartment, similar to Soundwave. It is demonstrated in the Earthrise video on Seibertron.com's Youtube channel. The feature is briefly shown around the 2:15 mark in the video.

Transformers War For Cybertron Earthrise video on Seibertron.com's YouTube Channel

Forget Doubledealer for a moment, the real star of the video is the Quint Judge's articulated mouths! I haven't seen anyone mention that yet. Guilty!

Emerje

[Emerje]

I vote for MegaZarak.

That was my suggestion to the brand team at Toy Fair yesterday as well. Scorponok, Megazarak and Lord Zarak. Sounds great to me!

You got to talk to them directly? Tell me, please, what did they say, exactly, about the names of Scorponok's three components? Is it really true that the middleman is named "Lord Zarak" while the smaller guy is nameless? If so, that's unfortunate.

And if so, did they say why they left the little guy without a name?

You can hear him asking about it for yourself in the Earthrise video above unless he had another conversation with them.

Emerje

[Sabrblade]

I vote for MegaZarak.

That was my suggestion to the brand team at Toy Fair yesterday as well. Scorponok, Megazarak and Lord Zarak. Sounds great to me!

You got to talk to them directly? Tell me, please, what did they say, exactly, about the names of Scorponok's three components? Is it really true that the middleman is named "Lord Zarak" while the smaller guy is nameless? If so, that's unfortunate.

And if so, did they say why they left the little guy without a name?

You can hear him asking about it for yourself in the Earthrise video above unless he had another conversation with them.

Emerje

Ah, thanks. Haven't been able to watch any of the videos yet. Got a time stamp for that part of the conversation?

[Emerje]

Ah, thanks. Haven't been able to watch any of the videos yet. Got a time stamp for that part of the conversation?

3:09 She seemed pretty unsure and mentioned having to run a trademark search, but at least it didn't sound like she was entirely brushing Ryan off about it.

Emerje

[matthewrex]

Scrapface is up on Walmart.com too: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Transformers-Generations-War-for-Cybertron-Series-Inspired-Scrapface/695839517

[Evil Eye]

I've always preferred the Japanese "Transtector" explanation for Headmasters, so if I were to get this fellow (which I probably won't as I prefer Scorponok to be a slightly bigger than usual bloke rather than a titan) all three components would be the same guy- that is to say, Scorponok.

A new Predaking would be nice, but I'd rather we got a better Devastator first. The CW/UW one was a bit of a disappointment in my book, being too big, weirdly proportioned and the individuals suffering for the combined mode. If we DO get a new Predaking though, I think "slightly larger/bulkier than a CW gestalt" would be an OK size for him.

[ZeroWolf]

I'd say devy is big enough to go toe to toe with his rival, omega supreme

[Evil Eye]

I'd say devy is big enough to go toe to toe with his rival, omega supreme

Perhaps, but he's also far too big to scale with the other combiners, and in my opinion at least, he suffers a bit from being so big. I dunno, I never cared much for HUEG combiners.

[ThunderThruster]

Here's my question: When are we getting a Commander-size Predaking to better match the new Sky Lynx?

I think the fact that he was already titan class works well enough to match Sky Lynx.

No, it makes him too big to match Sky Lynx.

As he was done, he is too big to scale with Sky Lynx. Hasbro needed to justify a Titan Class figure for that year. But a commander class would be too small.

Unfortunately probably true... But a Commander-height combined robot mode (putting him on par with the regular CW and PotP combiners) would be just right. Would require a price point between Commander and Titan.
At least in Predaking's case, his original toy can fill that niche until a Generations version that size happens.

SO a CW/POTP sized combiner Predaking, which is what some of us were arguing for to begin with.

[Ironhidensh]

Here's my question: When are we getting a Commander-size Predaking to better match the new Sky Lynx?

I think the fact that he was already titan class works well enough to match Sky Lynx.

No, it makes him too big to match Sky Lynx.

As he was done, he is too big to scale with Sky Lynx. Hasbro needed to justify a Titan Class figure for that year. But a commander class would be too small.

Unfortunately probably true... But a Commander-height combined robot mode (putting him on par with the regular CW and PotP combiners) would be just right. Would require a price point between Commander and Titan.
At least in Predaking's case, his original toy can fill that niche until a Generations version that size happens.

SO a CW/POTP sized combiner Predaking, which is what some of us were arguing for to begin with.

I always said that CW/UW Devastator would have been much better with six deluxes instead of voyagers as well. I feel the Titan class line is simple big for the sake of being big.

[Sabrblade]

Here's my question: When are we getting a Commander-size Predaking to better match the new Sky Lynx?

I think the fact that he was already titan class works well enough to match Sky Lynx.

No, it makes him too big to match Sky Lynx.

As he was done, he is too big to scale with Sky Lynx. Hasbro needed to justify a Titan Class figure for that year. But a commander class would be too small.

Unfortunately probably true... But a Commander-height combined robot mode (putting him on par with the regular CW and PotP combiners) would be just right. Would require a price point between Commander and Titan.
At least in Predaking's case, his original toy can fill that niche until a Generations version that size happens.

SO a CW/POTP sized combiner Predaking, which is what some of us were arguing for to begin with.

I always said that CW/UW Devastator would have been much better with six deluxes instead of voyagers as well. I feel the Titan class line is simple big for the sake of being big.

Yep. That was the whole agenda for the old brand team's making Metroplex that big. They wanted to make the "tallest Transformer ever" for the 35th anniversary, which meant making 'Plex taller than G1 Fort Max... only for the next team to reshell the same mold into a slightly taller Fort Max, thus robbing 'Plex of his new title and giving it back to Max (and which will later be taken again by Planet class Unicron).

If they hadn't made Metroplex so ridiculously tall and just let G1 Fort Max keep the tallest TF title, then maybe the Titan class could have stood to be less ridiculous in height.

Although, people seem to love Titan class Omega Supreme, but if they also want Devastator and Predaking to scale better with the CW/UW/Potpie Combiners, then Omega would need to be smaller too since he's also Combiner-sized. And which would probably also require Commander class Jetfire to be smaller too since he's big but not Combiner big like how his Commander class toy currently is (he's more "near-Combiner big").

[Evil Eye]

I think the simple answer to this conundrum is to remember that G1's scale was so absolutely screwed that following it faithfully is borderline impossible, and to just make figures as big or small as they need to be to look good and work well. Combiners rarely work well above a certain size (even 3Ps that make big boi combiners tend to resort to reducing half the combined mode to useless kibble because at that size "proper" combiners just don't work), and they will NEVER be in scale with other figures due to the blatant mass shifting in the combination process. Thus it's best to keep them roughly CW sized. As for Omega, he's consistently shown to be a big lad, but again is victim to inconsistent mass shifting- however, he IS almost always bigger than whatever else he's next to (with the exception of Devastator, but as mentioned, functional combiners can't be to scale) so it makes sense for him to be bigger.

Basically, either you have to accept that Omega is going to be bigger than Devastator, or Omega needs to be smaller.

[Sabrblade]

Technically, Omega is supposed to be bigger than Devastator, but just by a head or two (not counting his track pieces).

[Nemesis Destron]

Snapdragon looks amazing, too bad Apeface didn't look as good.

[Nemesis Destron]

I got my hands on Cliffjumper and what a cool figure. I don't agree why HasTak chose to consider him a Deluxe class...?

If anything he should be considered a Scout class...? Considering he is slightly taller than LG Bumblebee which is STILL great and my Neo G1 Bumblebee. IMHO they both are perfect together, 'nuff said!

[gothsaurus]

@Nemesis Destroy

Hasbro is making one figure in the wave small (Cliff), and one big (Hoist). They counterbalance each other. Like, instead of four identical size figures, we get two medium, one small, one big in a shipping box.

It's a way to give us figures that are in scale while dealing with their logistics issues of packaging size, shipping weights and costs, etc. (They have caps on amount of plastic and box weight that would otherwise drive up the price.)

[Cobotron]

All hyped up on the current juicy sale, I scoured my nearest Targets for anything Earthrise. I found one lone Grapple. He is AWESOME! Everything I could want from a mainline version of the character. This idea keeps being thrown around of "mini Masterpieces", and that's a great assessment.

For me, if Grapple is a measuring stick of what to expect from Earthrise, this is going to be a great line.

[Ironhidensh]

I’m pretty freaking happy with this line so far!

[Sabrblade]

I’m pretty freaking happy with this line so far!

No fair! You got the ones with Spider-Man powers!

[Tuned Agent]

Alright, time for my belated thoughts on this weekend's reveals.

Runamuck went from "looking good" to "looking ok" once I saw the display pics. The faux chest roof and fake (or at least fake looking) rear wheels on his feet are a bit disappointing, but I've wanted new battlechargers for years, and I haven't been dissuaded yet. I hope his alt mode pegs together better than the one on display, though.

Scorponok, Fasttrack, Snapdragon, Doubledealer, the Alicon and the Quintesson all look good, but I'm not really interested in any of them.

The new battlemasters all look cool.

Arcee, Megatron and Smokescreen are all disappointing, each for different reasons. Enough has been said about Arcee, and that Megatron may be the most pointless mass retail release in recent memory. At least Smokescreen looks good, but this is the mold we should have gotten in Siege.

Sky Lynx was the winner of Toy Fair. He looks amazing in every mode, great playability, and he just looks awesome. I didn't think I'd ever be interested in Sky Lynx, but he's going to be very hard to resist.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Yep. That was the whole agenda for the old brand team's making Metroplex that big. They wanted to make the "tallest Transformer ever" for the 35th anniversary, which meant making 'Plex taller than G1 Fort Max... only for the next team to reshell the same mold into a slightly taller Fort Max, thus robbing 'Plex of his new title and giving it back to Max (and which will later be taken again by Planet class Unicron).

If they hadn't made Metroplex so ridiculously tall and just let G1 Fort Max keep the tallest TF title, then maybe the Titan class could have stood to be less ridiculous in height.

Well, for my money it works really well for the citybots since they're supposed to be dollhouses for normal-size Transformers. They kinda need to be Titan class to pull that off, especially with the Legion size class having fallen by the wayside for now.

Although, people seem to love Titan class Omega Supreme, but if they also want Devastator and Predaking to scale better with the CW/UW/Potpie Combiners, then Omega would need to be smaller too since he's also Combiner-sized.

Well, Titan Class is good for Omega's base mode, so there's that. And it does make him his full cartoon size relative to the regular bots. Which the regular CW/PotP Combiners are not, because of the "Mario mushroom" effect combining had in the cartoon. The combined forms end up with the same dilemma the Gigantion character toys from Cybertron had. And I think the solution Takara came up with there works just as well (and is more practical than having Titan-class versions of all the combiners): Put them next to Legion-class versions of everybody.
Devy being a Titan is somewhat excusable since he fought regular bots more often than he fought other combiners, but it would be nice to have a toy of him that was more in line with the other combiners size-wise.

And which would probably also require Commander class Jetfire to be smaller too since he's big but not Combiner big like how his Commander class toy currently is (he's more "near-Combiner big").

Nah, it wouldn't require that. He's as big as he should be next to the regular bots. And as big as the combiners would be without magically enlarging when they combine.