The Energon Pub

News Credits: 12 · Wed Mar 18, 2020 1:07 am

Only figures I never saw at retail were Apeface, Astrotrain, Rumble, Ratbat, Direct Hit, and Power Punch(?). Overall it's good, but I feel like Hasbro did the best they could for the last wave by having that be the wave stores could stock around Christmas/Black Friday, but stores chose to restock Wave 1 and 2 instead

News Credits: 42 · Wed Mar 18, 2020 7:12 am

Sentinel_Primal wrote:Only figures I never saw at retail were Apeface, Astrotrain, Rumble, Ratbat, Direct Hit, and Power Punch(?). Overall it's good, but I feel like Hasbro did the best they could for the last wave by having that be the wave stores could stock around Christmas/Black Friday, but stores chose to restock Wave 1 and 2 instead

I don't think that the stores necessarily made a choice there. Rather, I'm guessing they had more Wave 1 and 2 in their regional warehouses that needed to be moved first before restocking with the last wave.

News Credits: 1646 · Wed Mar 18, 2020 9:56 am

I saw Barricade more than his wavemates, whom I only saw once each (when I bought them)

MyFigureCollection.net collection · Wed Mar 18, 2020 8:39 pm

Saw Barricade's wave a few times at Walmart and Target. On Amazon he went down to around $15 for a while, but I bought mine on Walmart.com for $13 back in January.

barricade.JPG

Only Siege figures I never saw in stores was the last wave of Deluxes and Micromasters. Spinister and Crosshairs are pretty easy to find online, but for the latter there must have been some shenanigans there. The Battle Squad was readily available online (I got mine on Amazon for $10), but Spy Patrol 2 was never at regular retailers (not even from third party sellers) and sold out in pre-order bundles through specialty sellers. Even Pulse didn't offer the Spies, but did the Battle Squad. It's almost like Hasbro came up short on them and could only offer solid Battle Squad cases. I still think they should have been in Earthrise wave 1 where they were probably originally intended instead of the rushed Siege wave 5. I guess they rushed them too soon and came up short. I did snag Spy Patrol on eBay recently from China for $20 so I'll still be able to complete the set.

I don't know if I'll be able to get Nemesis Prime, by the time it was obvious Pulse wouldn't be getting him he was sold out everywhere (and BBTS never offered him).

Emerje

Wed Mar 18, 2020 8:45 pm

In my area the Micromasters seem to have shelfwarmed HARD. Pretty sure I was seeing the Wave 1 Micromaster packs on every trip I made.

News Credits: 12 · Wed Mar 18, 2020 9:21 pm

Well, despite being stuck at home due to the obvious, the USPS came through and delivered Rumble and Ratbat. I think these two are tied with Laserbeak and Irontread for my favorite micromasters. I can't wait for Frenzy and Wingthing to be released. Only major member of Soundwave's crew left is Buzzsaw, but I could easily see him being packaged with a repainted Ravage, maybe as Glit or Howlback

News Credits: 332 · Thu Mar 19, 2020 1:34 am

Emerje wrote:Saw Barricade's wave a few times at Walmart and Target. On Amazon he went down to around $15 for a while, but I bought mine on Walmart.com for $13 back in January.

barricade.JPG

Only Siege figures I never saw in stores was the last wave of Deluxes and Micromasters. Spinister and Crosshairs are pretty easy to find online, but for the latter there must have been some shenanigans there. The Battle Squad was readily available online (I got mine on Amazon for $10), but Spy Patrol 2 was never at regular retailers (not even from third party sellers) and sold out in pre-order bundles through specialty sellers. Even Pulse didn't offer the Spies, but did the Battle Squad. It's almost like Hasbro came up short on them and could only offer solid Battle Squad cases. I still think they should have been in Earthrise wave 1 where they were probably originally intended instead of the rushed Siege wave 5. I guess they rushed them too soon and came up short. I did snag Spy Patrol on eBay recently from China for $20 so I'll still be able to complete the set.

I don't know if I'll be able to get Nemesis Prime, by the time it was obvious Pulse wouldn't be getting him he was sold out everywhere (and BBTS never offered him).

Emerje

Is nemesis prime still happening? I haven't heard a peep about it.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · Thu Mar 19, 2020 2:11 am

Sentinel_Primal wrote:Only major member of Soundwave's crew left is Buzzsaw, but I could easily see him being packaged with a repainted Ravage, maybe as Glit or Howlback

Overkill and Slugfest might like to have a word with you. They at least got to be in the cartoon, unlike Beastbox and Squawktalk. Maybe Buzzsaw can be paired with Enemy in a future Selects set since his "partner" Wingthing (they've been paired together twice now) is already being made.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:Is nemesis prime still happening? I haven't heard a peep about it.

Why wouldn't he be? He's still scheduled for the end of March so we should be seeing some in hand pics soon.

Emerje

News Credits: 65 · Thu Mar 19, 2020 11:42 am

The final wave of Siege Micromasters got a fair bit of distribution in my area, mostly around the Xmas shopping season. I personally saw Frenzy and Ratbat on the shelves a number of times, along with the Battle Squad, which I probably saw just a bit more often, to be honest. I chalk that up to the fact that Soundwave's buddies are probably the most sought-after Micromasters of the series. They're A-list characters, like Soundwave himself. The G1 Micromasters were never even featured in the original cartoon. Laserbeak and Ravage from wave 2 of Siege were also more scarce, but they were around, and often if I couldn't find them, I saw their wave mates Red Heat and Stakeout at least. I've also seen the Battle Masters and the Deluxe Class figures from wave 5 several times. In fact, I continue to see them even now. I only saw Apeface once, and never saw Siege Astrotrain on shelves. Siege wave 5 was probably one of the better tail end waves in the past 10 years in terms of in-store availability.

News Credits: 1646 · Thu Mar 19, 2020 1:02 pm

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:In my area the Micromasters seem to have shelfwarmed HARD. Pretty sure I was seeing the Wave 1 Micromaster packs on every trip I made.

Wave 1 Micros were right there beside my wave 1 Earthrise micros yesterday, they are not popular it seems, same with the wave 1 battlemasters

Thu Mar 19, 2020 5:00 pm

Barricade has had a consistent presence here in the North, the only ones I never saw at retail are Astrotrain, Rumble & Ratbat, Caliburst and Smashdown. Although the later popped up in the earthrise repack. Micromasters do seem to be sticking around as well, hopefully this doesn't clog up distribution down the road here ..

News Credits: 20 · Thu Mar 19, 2020 6:04 pm

Barricade was on the shelves for a good while in my area, I saw him multiple times. The deluxes were the only figures from the final wave that ever showed up in my neck of the woods, plus maybe Direct-Hit and Power Punch. Never once saw Apeface, Astrotrain, or Ratbat and Rumble.

News Credits: 332 · Thu Mar 19, 2020 8:20 pm

Emerje wrote:
Sentinel_Primal wrote:Only major member of Soundwave's crew left is Buzzsaw, but I could easily see him being packaged with a repainted Ravage, maybe as Glit or Howlback

Overkill and Slugfest might like to have a word with you. They at least got to be in the cartoon, unlike Beastbox and Squawktalk. Maybe Buzzsaw can be paired with Enemy in a future Selects set since his "partner" Wingthing (they've been paired together twice now) is already being made.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:Is nemesis prime still happening? I haven't heard a peep about it.

Why wouldn't he be? He's still scheduled for the end of March so we should be seeing some in hand pics soon.

Emerje

After the initial announcement there wasn't a peep. No prototype pics no magazine teasers, nothing.

News Credits: 23 · Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:50 pm

So I brought Siege Prime and one of my Rungs home from work and realized two Rungs and Siege Prime's backpack combine into a sweet jetpack

News Credits: 462 · Fri Mar 20, 2020 9:01 am

aronjlove wrote:

So I brought Siege Prime and one of my Rungs home from work and realized two Rungs and Siege Prime's backpack combine into a sweet jetpack

"Transform! God On!"

News Credits: 131 · Fri Mar 20, 2020 2:22 pm

Man, Prime just can't get enough jet packs... first he steals Sideswipe's, in an alternative universe he turns Jetfire into one, now he's duplicating another bot to use and it turns out he already had one to begin with.

Reminds me of the end of AoE :lol:

BTW, very cool use of Rung ;)^

News Credits: 1350 · Fri Mar 20, 2020 2:26 pm

You also forgot the Unicron Trilogy universe where he combined with other characters to get a jet pack :lol:

till Cybertron where his own super mode give one

News Credits: 131 · Fri Mar 20, 2020 2:30 pm

ZeroWolf wrote:You also forgot the Unicron Trilogy universe where he combined with other characters to get a jet pack till Cybertron where his own super mode give one

I wouldn't say forgotten as much as I'd say completely ignorant of.

Fri Mar 20, 2020 2:32 pm

ZeroWolf wrote:You also forgot the Unicron Trilogy universe where he combined with other characters to get a jet pack till Cybertron where his own super mode give one

And a mighty damn fine one it is. So fine they resurrected it for this line.

News Credits: 1350 · Fri Mar 20, 2020 3:36 pm

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:
ZeroWolf wrote:You also forgot the Unicron Trilogy universe where he combined with other characters to get a jet pack till Cybertron where his own super mode give one
And a mighty damn fine one it is. So fine they resurrected it for this line.

Agreed. I think the designers really out did themselves with him. He's a beast of a toy and ever so fun to handle.

Fri Mar 20, 2020 4:27 pm

Bit the the bullet and ordered the Ratbat/Rumble set from an ebay seller in China. Seems like it was the best option but I didn't realize the instructions would be in Chinese, anyone have and English Ratbat/Rumble instruction sheet they'd be willing to part with? (I collect them, not that I'm having trouble with the transformation lol)

News Credits: 131 · Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:31 pm

negativedan wrote:Bit the the bullet and ordered the Ratbat/Rumble set from an ebay seller in China. Seems like it was the best option but I didn't realize the instructions would be in Chinese, anyone have and English Ratbat/Rumble instruction sheet they'd be willing to part with? (I collect them, not that I'm having trouble with the transformation lol)

It's not the same, but Hasbro will provide a PDF by request.

Fri Mar 20, 2020 8:34 pm

carytheone wrote:
negativedan wrote:Bit the the bullet and ordered the Ratbat/Rumble set from an ebay seller in China. Seems like it was the best option but I didn't realize the instructions would be in Chinese, anyone have and English Ratbat/Rumble instruction sheet they'd be willing to part with? (I collect them, not that I'm having trouble with the transformation lol)
It's not the same, but Hasbro will provide a PDF by request.

LOL Funny story I actually tried them hoping for a physical one but all they could provide was a PDF... Of the Chinese instructions...

News Credits: 131 · Sat Mar 21, 2020 8:27 am

negativedan wrote:
carytheone wrote:
negativedan wrote:Bit the the bullet and ordered the Ratbat/Rumble set from an ebay seller in China. Seems like it was the best option but I didn't realize the instructions would be in Chinese, anyone have and English Ratbat/Rumble instruction sheet they'd be willing to part with? (I collect them, not that I'm having trouble with the transformation lol)
It's not the same, but Hasbro will provide a PDF by request.
LOL Funny story I actually tried them hoping for a physical one but all they could provide was a PDF... Of the Chinese instructions...

Oh Hasbro

I've got a set on order from aliexpress, guess I'll be in the same boat.

News Credits: 19 · Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:29 pm

The Netflix bots (megatron, hotlink) are out in blighty thanks to CyclonusG1s sighting, bad news for us, is that the toyshop doesn't sell food unlike walmart, so we can't go to the shop to buy them