The Energon Pub

[FellintoOblivion]

What’s the deal with the Target seekers? Have they officially reached wide distribution yet? Seems like the coasts got some but middle America, not so much.

I managed to order one for pickup at a Target about 90 minutes away but would rather not make the drive if they’re going to start showing up all over the place next week.

[sol magnus]

I had the same thought and it really makes me want to facepalm. From what I read, Ron Friedman had an uphill battle getting them to let him put Arcee in the movie.

The same guys thought it was gonna be just fine to kill off half the toyline including, unbeknownst to them at the time, their Ultimate Cash Cow.

Consider the source.

[Flashwave]

Her G1 design has been made into a decent toy before:
.
It is perfectly possible. All they had to do was use the same integration tricks the version they already made used. That was all they needed to do. They've done it before.

But no. No, instead what they tried to do was downscale the MP design (which was already iffy) into a Deluxe. And predictably, it resulted in a trainwreck. Just like the THREE DIFFERENT TIMES they tried downscaling MP-01. You'd think they'd have learned, but apparently not.

And this doesn't even do anything useful (like, say, have a Titan Master head and seat) to make up for the clunk.

They should have known better. They should have done better. They could have done better. They knew how to do better.
And yet, we got this trash.

So AFAIC, ER Arcee's value is equivalent to that of an Armada Side Swipe that's been run over by a truck.

Yeah, and T30 Arcee's integration was also terrible. Earthrise is incrementally worse, but only just.

Oh, get real. "Actually integrates the chest and legs into the car" is leagues ahead of "Wears the entire car mode on the back". And T30 Arcee manages to put the unintegrated parts on the back far more compactly.

Yeah... No. If they did T30 Arcee like the Seekers are in Earthrise, HARD pass. I want an Arcee whose limbs arent so tiny as to look brittle. (The T30 isnt, but they look like it) the pistol handles are bigger than her arms

[ZeroWolf]

I had the same thought and it really makes me want to facepalm. From what I read, Ron Friedman had an uphill battle getting them to let him put Arcee in the movie.

The same guys thought it was gonna be just fine to kill off half the toyline including, unbeknownst to them at the time, their Ultimate Cash Cow.

Consider the source.

I actually thought the gambit of the shelf cleaner worked as it was a shocking thing to happen. If they hadn't done that and basically just done an extended Season 1 episode, I think the animated movie wouldn't be held up to the same regard. Its more thinking like that we need, a willingness to take risks to advance the franchise forward.

[sol magnus]

I had the same thought and it really makes me want to facepalm. From what I read, Ron Friedman had an uphill battle getting them to let him put Arcee in the movie.

The same guys thought it was gonna be just fine to kill off half the toyline including, unbeknownst to them at the time, their Ultimate Cash Cow.

Consider the source.

I actually thought the gambit of the shelf cleaner worked as it was a shocking thing to happen. If they hadn't done that and basically just done an extended Season 1 episode, I think the animated movie wouldn't be held up to the same regard. Its more thinking like that we need, a willingness to take risks to advance the franchise forward.

It worked out so well for them before...

In theory I agree with you. In practice, it's just harder to say how effective that would be. At a certain point, even inventing new characters simply won't bring the ROI that using versions of the characters already made continue to bring in. And I'm talking media, not even toys necessarily.

New characters are always welcome. I don't want to give a false impression. But, they gain relevance by interacting with the tried and true characters we all know (regardless of continuity).

[grimdragon2001]

I had the same thought and it really makes me want to facepalm. From what I read, Ron Friedman had an uphill battle getting them to let him put Arcee in the movie.

The same guys thought it was gonna be just fine to kill off half the toyline including, unbeknownst to them at the time, their Ultimate Cash Cow.

Consider the source.

I actually thought the gambit of the shelf cleaner worked as it was a shocking thing to happen. If they hadn't done that and basically just done an extended Season 1 episode, I think the animated movie wouldn't be held up to the same regard. Its more thinking like that we need, a willingness to take risks to advance the franchise forward.

It worked out so well for them before...

In theory I agree with you. In practice, it's just harder to say how effective that would be. At a certain point, even inventing new characters simply won't bring the ROI that using versions of the characters already made continue to bring in. And I'm talking media, not even toys necessarily.

New characters are always welcome. I don't want to give a false impression. But, they gain relevance by interacting with the tried and true characters we all know (regardless of continuity).

That only works if the tried and true characters are respected. If writers try to make the new characters relevant by knocking the tried and true characters a peg or two (like Modern Marvel or Star Wars likes to do) the new characters will end up resented and despised as a result.

[Sabrblade]

Things would probably be less messy if there was a 1986 toy to work from, but nooooo. Hasbro just had to cancel it - literally because "Ewww girl cooties in our boys' toyline"

That's one bizarre "logic" that I really don't understand. GI-Joe was also owned by Hasbro at the time. And as far as I know, there's a LOT of female characters that got their toys since day one and they were all super popular.



But for some weird reasons, what worked perfectly in GI-Joe "could not work" in Transformers. I need to find myself a time machine so I can bitch-slap some executives.

There's quite the big difference between the two lines though. G.I.Joes all share the same basic engineering with only sculpting and weapons being different and even that can be mixed to save money on new characters. If Scarlett or Lady Jay doesn't sell it isn't a huge loss since they're tiny figures that don't use a lot of plastic. A female Transformer in the '80s when society had bigger expectations for gender boundaries (boys play with boys' toys) would have been a much bigger gamble. The engineering is much more expensive, there's little opportunity for mold reuse (back then), she'd use a lot of plastic, and there's no telling during preproduction if she would be popular enough to sell. It's unfortunate, but I can see why they wouldn't want to take the risk.

Emerje

In this context, it make total sense.

I had the same thought and it really makes me want to facepalm. From what I read, Ron Friedman had an uphill battle getting them to let him put Arcee in the movie.

And to think that there was a time when Bob Budiansky was going use this toy as a female without any hesitation:

[ZeroWolf]

True but there's only so much you can reinvent the wheel, also Beast Wars wants a word with you considering, aside from bat Prime and mega gator, they were supposed to be unconnected from what came before.

To put it a better way, what do they do when they give us the perfect G1 Prime update? Where do they go from there? Same with the rest of G1. There needs to be a better balance between G1 homage and new ideas.

Though looking at Arcee, I do wonder if a perfect update is possible on the limitations placed on Hasbro's deluxe size class..

[cruizerdave]

That Arcee's alt mode is garbage.

[NTESHFT]

I have a kind of off topic question. I didn't know where to put this. I pre-ordered sleep mode prime. Does Amazon take the money out upon pre-order or do they wait til it comes in?

[FellintoOblivion]

What size class are the figures in the Target Clone pack?

[Sabrblade]

What size class are the figures in the Target Clone pack?

Roughly the old Scout class.

[ZeroWolf]

What size class are the figures in the Target Clone pack?

Roughly the old Scout class.

I assumed they were legends scale

[grimdragon2001]

Maybe this will help

[aronjlove]

I have a kind of off topic question. I didn't know where to put this. I pre-ordered sleep mode prime. Does Amazon take the money out upon pre-order or do they wait til it comes in?

All Amazon orders are supposed to charge when being prepared for shipment and this includes pre-orders. Mine says delivery on the 17th so I expect not to be charged until the 15th, maybe even 16th if the figure is in a local warehouse.

[-Kanrabat-]

I have a kind of off topic question. I didn't know where to put this. I pre-ordered sleep mode prime. Does Amazon take the money out upon pre-order or do they wait til it comes in?

Your credit card is charged only when they ship you the item.

[Starseeker]

Maybe this will help

You have Pounce and Wingspan???

[sol magnus]

Maybe this will help

You have Pounce and Wingspan???

I got em, too. I was semi-surprised they didn't have weapons, but they never advertised them with them.

[Sabrblade]

You have Pounce and Wingspan???

They're no different from the ones Takara put out two years ago.

[grimdragon2001]

Maybe this will help

You have Pounce and Wingspan???

Mine are the Japanese Legends versions. From what i can tell based on the promo art, they are exactly the same as the upcoming Earthrise versions

[sol magnus]

Maybe this will help

You have Pounce and Wingspan???

Mine are the Japanese Legends versions. From what i can tell based on the promo art, they are exactly the same as the upcoming Earthrise versions

They're not upcoming. I and another guy got them on Sunday in Baltimore, MD at Target.

[grimdragon2001]

ahh ok, they haven't arrived here in Florida yet

[sol magnus]

ahh ok, they haven't arrived here in Florida yet

Shouldn't be long!

[Starseeker]

Yeah same in CT, I haven't seen them in any Target. Grrrrrrr!
How much were they?

[sol magnus]

Yeah same in CT, I haven't seen them in any Target. Grrrrrrr!
How much were they?

24.99 plus tax, which may vary where you live.