The Energon Pub

[Wolfman Jake]

If people were hoping for an "IDW" Impactor, I'm afraid that was just setting yourself up for disappointment. (I learned it from you, Will! I learned it by watching you! ) Hasbro isn't making Transformers with IDW designs right now. That was over with after Thrilling 30 concluded. Since then, IDW has been adapting toy designs from Hasbro when told to in their comics. If Impactor shows up in the new IDW continuity, expect him to look pretty much like this new figure.

As for some of the specific complaints: the shoulder cannon is supposed to be kinda flat, from all the artwork in G1 and IDW I've seen. What's weird there? The spear hand has a blunt end for safety reasons, I'm sure. Hollow legs are NOTHING new in Transformers toys for the past 5 years. I get nitpicking, as we are all obsessed over the tiniest details in our big boy toys, but some of these complaints don't even make sense. What magical standard of Impactor are people judging this toy by, because I can't find the piece of art that completely contradicts this toy's design.

[Skritz]

I think most of us expected a very GEEWUN design with a more spartan-like helmet. This isn't what I got, but given what we got pays homage to the roots of the character by almost being a 1:1 recreation of his old Marvel UK design this isn't really a bad thing in the end.

Mostly I guess I just don't find his face 'mean' looking enough but overall, this was a pleasant surprise in the long run.

[Sentinel_Primal]

My issue with the cannon being flat is that it looks like it's too flat for it's width. Like, the barrel height to width ratio is off by a small amount. I'm sure it'll look better when it's not CG rendering, but at the moment, it seems a little off

[Carnivius_Prime]

Wait, that Impactor toy is supposed to be a Marvel one? I did not get that. I remember him fondly from those early comics (I dislike the IDW version immensely) but I just thought this toy looked like junk. And yeah those hollow legs look atrocious. Bad enough when you get a few small hollow bits that you can easily fill in with apoxie but that is just taking the piss and makes it look really cheap and nasty.

Hm TFWiki says it's based on his IDW body but the toy looks to me like somewhere in between the Marvel and IDW versions. To be honest I never really like his design. He looked cool enough when drawn by Geoff Senior but was always a quite a generic design back then with a couple cool features, probably cos he wasn't intended to be around long anyways.

[Burn]

Meanwhile ... as someone who grew up on Marvel UK Transformers and found Impactor's death the second toughest to handle death in TF lore, I'm just happy to see him finally get his own unique mold.

[Carnivius_Prime]

Meanwhile ... as someone who grew up on Marvel UK Transformers and found Impactor's death the second toughest to handle death in TF lore, I'm just happy to see him finally get his own unique mold.

I'm similar way up to the being happy to see him get an unique (half-assed) toy. I remember when Deluxe Straxus/Darkmount and Thunderwing but they were both mostly decent figures just made far too small to do justice to the characters (i still bought them anyways) and had hoped there would be larger versions at some point (even if just OS KOs of those Deluxes), this one just looks awful. I'm looking at it now and trying to find one thing I like about it. Um. The shoulder gun looks decent-ish? Everything else just looks really bad to me. Especially the head and face sculpt (no i don't want the IDW spartan look either but they could have done better than this). Legs, torso, arms, head, all looks pretty ugly. The alt-mode ain't great either and is certainly not helped by that colour scheme Oh well.

[ThunderThruster]

Just remember that this only a render, and not a full likeness of the figure we're getting. What we need is pics of the actual figure before saying how bad it.

[Skritz]

Impactor was always kind of a 'fugly, generic blocky forgettable Autobot no name' generic.

The difference is that in spite of this he more or less stuck around the fanbase due to his time in Marvel UK being quite iconic and his usage in ancillary medias has made him far more popular and enduring than his throwaway design and purpose initially intended. He was a one-off, toyless made up nobody leader of a squad of guys who didn't appear in the cartoon (for the most parts).

Clearly this is a guy whose popularity outstrip his rather generic design. Had Impactor's role not caught on in the collective thoughts of the fandom he'd be one more 'made-up comic guy' destined to be forgotten, existing only as a stub on the TF wiki.

[Lunatic Prime]

The spear hand has a blunt end for safety reasons, I'm sure.

Maybe but it's definitely because of the effects part compatible peg on its tip.

[Emerje]

i hope they make an Omega Spreem and this will be dope as hell.

Hmmm...



The spinning wrists leaving visible peg holes for guns is similar, as are the treads on his legs. The alt mode would certainly be an improvement, but still be a double treaded tank. Really just needs a new head and some new guns to be a convincing enough Spreem.

Emerje

[Lunatic Prime]

That's what an awesome Jetfire looks like (in alt mode at least)

[Wireless_Phantom]

Man when I get a job this summer I might have to take the hit for a Devastator to go with Omega when he comes out (wouldn't be the first time, seeing as immediately after Abominus was announced I bought CW Computron). I'm kind of hoping Springer will be a smaller voyager, to better scale with Impactor, who will presumably be a larger deluxe.

[Wolfman Jake]

The spear hand has a blunt end for safety reasons, I'm sure.

Maybe but it's definitely because of the effects part compatible peg on its tip.

Two birds with one stone.

[Lunatic Prime]

Man when I get a job this summer I might have to take the hit for a Devastator to go with Omega when he comes out (wouldn't be the first time, seeing as immediately after Abominus was announced I bought CW Computron). I'm kind of hoping Springer will be a smaller voyager, to better scale with Impactor, who will presumably be a larger deluxe.

A smaller Voyager AND a triple-changer? I don't wanna destroy your hopes. I want a Springer that scales well with a Deluxe Impactor, too, but...

[Lunatic Prime]

The spear hand has a blunt end for safety reasons, I'm sure.

Maybe but it's definitely because of the effects part compatible peg on its tip.

Two birds with one stone.

But still ugly.

I will use this for my custom Impactor's right "hand":



Looks way better to me at least.

[no-one]

Man when I get a job this summer I might have to take the hit for a Devastator to go with Omega when he comes out (wouldn't be the first time, seeing as immediately after Abominus was announced I bought CW Computron). I'm kind of hoping Springer will be a smaller voyager, to better scale with Impactor, who will presumably be a larger deluxe.

A smaller Voyager AND a triple-changer? I don't wanna destroy your hopes. I want a Springer that scales well with a Deluxe Impactor, too, but...

Well we had legend class triple changes during Prime Wars so its not out of the question and I doubt in such a slavish line that inherent gimmicks will get stripped. Besides has Springer or his size class even been confirmed yet?

[Overcracker]

Omega Supreme looks great. Though the robot mode seems to be missing some base parts. More notably the Rocket has an entire middle section with red highlights that is nowhere to be seen in robot mode.

Skyfire is amazingly accurate to the G1 cartoon in Jet mode. I wonder if the fastpack / weapons pack does more in Jet mode, than just clip to the top.

No attachment to Impactor. However he looks o.k to. Legs are a bit hollow though.

Mirage also looks pretty cool. I'd like to see him next to Classics Mirage.

The middle part of the rocket actually slots into Omega's back, you can see the recess for it in the base mode.

Thats because its inside his body. You can see his main body has a large empty spot in alt mode. The whole rocket coencts to that and you ge the arms on each side.

Ahh yes. I see that now. Thanks. I totally missed the circular slots at the back of the torso in base mode.

[Lunatic Prime]

Man when I get a job this summer I might have to take the hit for a Devastator to go with Omega when he comes out (wouldn't be the first time, seeing as immediately after Abominus was announced I bought CW Computron). I'm kind of hoping Springer will be a smaller voyager, to better scale with Impactor, who will presumably be a larger deluxe.

A smaller Voyager AND a triple-changer? I don't wanna destroy your hopes. I want a Springer that scales well with a Deluxe Impactor, too, but...

Well we had legend class triple changes during Prime Wars so its not out of the question and I doubt in such a slavish line that inherent gimmicks will get stripped. Besides has Springer or his size class even been confirmed yet?

According to...

The leaks already said that springer was a voyager, and as he was a triple changer originally, he'll still be one now.

But yes, if I look at the G1 toy the transformation between alt modes is darn simple. So that should even fit well into a Deluxe calss figure without compromising too much.

[Wolfman Jake]

I'm pretty sure that product listings from store inventory trackers revealed months ago that SIEGE Springer will be a Voyager Class figure, set to be released in the third wave along with a Thundercracker repaint of SIEGE Voyager Class Starscream.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

See, when I was looking at an Impactor toy, I was looking for something more IDW and more hardass/badass. This character has virtually not changed in any of his appearances, only adding some more stylized detail physically in IDW (aside from his Requiem body, which still rocked, and didn't change the head) and generally his personality of a Black Ops Commander is consistent.

For me, this would be the equivalent of giving Movie Masterpiece Ironhide his G1 cartoon head. You've got something screaming "I will frikkin ruin you" but then the head just lets it right down. It's what let MP Sunstreaker way down to me, otherwise, he was good.

The head looks "cutified" to me and it needs to be better. the hollow legs suck because they have gone out of their way to remove the hollowness look, giving characters parts to help fill in gaps so far. And I wish he had a larger right spear hand. The cannon is good, no complaints there. But he feels too Floro Dery-fied from his Marvel G1 without taking a single cue from his other probably equally as famous self.

They could have done far better. I wanted him to win cause he deserves it. The Wreckers deserve it. Hell, the Wreckers through time deserve their own Toyline for how big they have become in the fandom. He deserved more than he's looking to get so far

[Skritz]

Poor Impactor seems like he was an unfortunate victim of overly high fandom expectations.

[Deadput]

People can be mean without looking the part, just ask G1 Cliffjumper or any Springer who is more like the original in looks and not the version from IDW.

Consider this Impactor from early on in his life and before he became more of a bad ass (The bio/story for this version was that he wasn't even an Autobot for real at the time so he obviously was not the Wrecker commander back then)

The more Spartan like look makes for an interesting "upgraded himself over time" look.


Also just like any other Transformers toy I would save final judgement for in hand pics or to some extent toyfair pics.

We don't know how tall this Impactor is because deluxes does not always mean "short" with Lockdown or even this line's Ironhide as good examples of taller deluxe class figures, nor do we know of how "solid" he is, the hollowness might be less bad in hand.

[Skritz]

To be fair, one impression I get is that these CG renders on flat white backgrounds tend to make figures look way worse than a proper photo.

[Hellscream9999]

To be fair, one impression I get is that these CG renders on flat white backgrounds tend to make figures look way worse than a proper photo.

There is nothing that can make me like him, I was hoping he'd look like his most iconic and widely known version (they use that same argument on o/p, pretending that g1 is the most widely known, when realistically, its probably a toss up between that and the bay-verse design that's more well known at this point);

It'd be like bw dinobot winning a poll, and we'd hope it'd look like he did in the show:



and then getting this:



but we'd be told to like it b/c he was totally that at one point in the continuity, so, no, I don't have to like it cuz its teh geewun, and it seems like I'm not alone in being outright disappointed

[Lunatic Prime]

It just came to my mind that if you just paint his nose purple or yellow it might look way more like a Spartan helmet.