The Energon Pub

I'm waiting until next Tuesday before I ship out my next POL, so I can give myself a nice Christmas present.

I never liked the 1986 Sharkticon toy or animation design enough to spend the 3rd party prices for it. I was happy & accepted the newer toy designs for the character from Energon,Beast wars & Beast Machines.

Hasbro is going to be creating a 30th 2014 legion toy for gnaw & 30th 2014 voyager toy for Sky-byte. For a fraction of the 3rd party price. These right here will have me covered for these characters.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:I never liked the 1986 Sharkticon toy or animation design enough to spend the 3rd party prices for it. I was happy & accepted the newer toy designs for the character from Energon,Beast wars & Beast Machines.

Hasbro is going to be creating a 30th 2014 legion toy for gnaw & 30th 2014 voyager toy for Sky-byte. For a fraction of the 3rd party price. These right here will have me covered for these characters.

Yeah but "Leigon" class kind of sucks. I have a small amount of these figures just to scale with Metroplex. But I never could take that small size seriously. I always felt they should be put inside McDonalds kids meals rather than sold in toy stores. Just my opinion.

Rated X wrote:Yeah but "Leigon" class kind of sucks. I have a small amount of these figures just to scale with Metroplex. But I never could take that small size seriously. I always felt they should be put inside McDonalds kids meals rather than sold in toy stores. Just my opinion.

I agree with that TBH. Apart from Abominus all the (6) legion figures I have are for displaying with Metroplex as well.

Arctorro wrote:

Rated X wrote:Yeah but "Leigon" class kind of sucks. I have a small amount of these figures just to scale with Metroplex. But I never could take that small size seriously. I always felt they should be put inside McDonalds kids meals rather than sold in toy stores. Just my opinion.

I agree with that TBH. Apart from Abominus all the (6) legion figures I have are for displaying with Metroplex as well.

I am not a fan of Legion sized Transformers either. I was just trying to offer up a simple cheap priced solution to help the Beast Hunters Abonimus become a better toy. Creating a 3rd party deluxe Sized BH Hun-Gurr will do this. As this would turn BH Abonimus into a Eight inch sized combiner. This would at the very least give buyers a BH Abonimus that is scaled to the 1986 toy. At any rate it's got to be better than settling for the current Five & Half inch tall BH Abonimus toy.

I'd have no problem buying a FP Abonimus. That had Four almost deluxes & One Voyager sized Hun-gurr. that is priced around $320 for the whole set.

I just don't need a TFC Abonimus that has four Voyagers & One Ultra Hun-gurr. That is priced almost around $550.

Got the Sharkies in yesterday. I have to say, they're really nice in person. The plastic on the body could be slightly thicker, and he does feel hollow - but that mainly has to do with how his transformation works. I really like the number of paint apps, and the chrome application to the beast-mode eyes.

Overall, very happy with the set, especially given the price. I've already ordered a second set to really round out my '86 movie display.

late to the party here (thanks UK Customs) but finally got these in hand today.

very nice. Word of warning before we start, these aren't super-high-end engineered out the wazoo Masterpiece toys in size or scale. They're not loaded with variety like Maketoys or Perfect Effect might give you. What they are, is a cool little set of relatively simple, relatively inexpensive, fun Classics versions of the G1 Sharkticons. I'm not going to get a screen-grab from the cartoon or blueprints of the original toy. There will no doubt be some details changed. Official Hasbro Classics which make up much of my collection have more than a few deviations from the original G1 source materials and for $30 each, I'm more than happy to accept these guys into my collection because they feel like Sharkticons.

Their robot modes are short and chubby. I never understood why you'd build a fat robot, but the Quintessons did, and these guys fit the bill. The expressions on the different heads make them look great standing together. The colours are well chosen and the detailing is fine. The different purple used on one of them is barely noticeable if you're really after a uniform look. If I pick up one at random, and don't compare it to the other two (or remember which head is on which) then I'd honestly be at a loss to say which it is. Alone, each colour looks right. Together it simply adds a slight bit more variety, without standing out too much. Articulation isn't anything spectacular, but there's not a bit more that I'd want them to add. What there is is plenty and it all works well.

Transformation is quick and easy. I tried my first one with only a vague memory of a couple of video reviews from when these first got released and I figured it out all ok. Enough to get the job done, anyway. I'd had a little trouble closing up the torso after squashing the bot mode legs in, and so had a look at the instructions. I'd not really done anything wrong, but following the directions exactly did make the whole process smoother and the last one went by in a flash. More complicated than some of the Beast Hunters Predacons, but also much more satisfying, and very effective.

"Shark" mode is as accurate as the bot mode to the source material. I'm sure there are details that are "wrong" but I'd be surprised if anyone looked at a bunch of these guys and didn't imagine them swarming over Hot Rod and Kup or getting squashed by some Dinobots. The beast legs are relatively poseable, and the mouth opens and closes. Maybe a joint in the arms would have been kinda cool, but the way they're molded is fine for any real pose I can think of putting these guys into, and the sculpt is pretty cool. Colours remain the same, although there is more of the darker grey on show now they're crouched down, and the fins on the back look great. Those eyes are a nice touch, though I do have one eye that's a bit grubby. I can only guess this Sharky got infected swimming through some sewer or another.

Box is great, they're packed securely, size is fine for Classics scale and the price is right. Already considering another set, but with so much else on offer these days, I might have to hold out for a further reduction. If they were sold in singles for $30, I'd snap up a couple right now though.

Only real nitpick is the loose horns (antennae?) on their beast heads. They slot back in fine, and aren't so loose they flop about or fall out on their own, but I've pinged a couple out when transforming them.

These are ok.... They fall apart when I transfer form them.. all three.

mooncake623 wrote:These are ok.... They fall apart when I transfer form them.. all three.

fall apart completely?

craggy wrote:

mooncake623 wrote:These are ok.... They fall apart when I transfer form them.. all three.

fall apart completely?

I have one pretty tight figure, that has tight joints all around. The other two have some pretty loose limbs.

The parts that I have had fall off are most frequently the eye antennae and shoulder armor. The gun and tail don't stay firmly in the hands on one of mine. But that is all I have had actually "fall apart."

Agamemnon wrote:

craggy wrote:

mooncake623 wrote:These are ok.... They fall apart when I transfer form them.. all three.

fall apart completely?

I have one pretty tight figure, that has tight joints all around. The other two have some pretty loose limbs.

The parts that I have had fall off are most frequently the eye antennae and shoulder armor. The gun and tail don't stay firmly in the hands on one of mine. But that is all I have had actually "fall apart."

Nonono I was being dramatic. Ag was right the Eye antennae and shoulder armor falls off every time. which is not a big deal just real annoying. I'm thinking about superglueing them on.

So how does everyone display these guys? I have no quints so for now they go with my season 3 decepticons. not sure if that looks good though since they're not decepticons.

hmm maybe I'll make display with masterpiece rodimus or grimlock.

I have all the Quints and display them right in front. There's a few options, though. You could always display them with Kup, Hot Rod, and Grimlock.

I think the purpose of the antennas falling off easy is so that they dont break if you accidentally drop the figure. Tight thin things always snap when they hit the floor. Id rather have it pop off. I still dont have the Sharkys in hand yet. How bad could it be ?

Rated X wrote:I think the purpose of the antennas falling off easy is so that they dont break if you accidentally drop the figure. Tight thin things always snap when they hit the floor. Id rather have it pop off. I still dont have the Sharkys in hand yet. How bad could it be ?

It's a minor nuisance at best; nothing terrible. These guys are still worth it.

megatronus wrote:

Rated X wrote:I think the purpose of the antennas falling off easy is so that they dont break if you accidentally drop the figure. Tight thin things always snap when they hit the floor. Id rather have it pop off. I still dont have the Sharkys in hand yet. How bad could it be ?

It's a minor nuisance at best; nothing terrible. These guys are still worth it.

Yeah, i agree. It's most annoying when I transform one and discover the antenna missing and didn't know when or where it fell off.

They are made of a rubberized type plastic (like some Hasbro swords, Drift and Bludgeon come to mind) so if one were to superglue it in place, I don't think there's much risk of snapping it off by dropping the figure. Plus, there is very little mass to these guys.

I wish they offered singles to buy....

Chimungmung will likely break up the set eventually. They did that with Goldbug and Chip Chase. BBTS also might. If someone's Sharkies has a flaw they'll be obliged to open a set to offer a replacement part; the rest are likely to go up for sale individually. I think Chimungmung may be the better bet, though.

Girlfriend: "OMG these are so cute! Transformer them!!" "Wait what? They turn into midgets? Mehh" -_-

mooncake623 wrote:Girlfriend: "OMG these are so cute! Transformer them!!" "Wait what? They turn into midgets? Mehh" -_-

Tell her they turn into Dorfs...

Still waiting on mine. It usually takes weeks for something to get up here to Canada when i order from bbts. They shipped on the 10th and still haven't shown up. I was hoping they woulda showed up before or at least shortly after xmas. Oh well.

MGrotusque wrote:Still waiting on mine. It usually takes weeks for something to get up here to Canada when i order from bbts. They shipped on the 10th and still haven't shown up. I was hoping they woulda showed up before or at least shortly after xmas. Oh well.

Can you track the shipment? Does it come UPS?

Comparison c/o chimungmung...

That comparison shot is making me lean back towards iGear's version.

I like the aesthetic of the Unique Toys version better. But the Igear version has better proportions. The UT version has small legs and a rather large head. unfortunately, the Igear version has all that neo crap going on in robot mode and lacks the G1 accuracy of the UT version. I'm getting both sets anyway. Ill figure out which trio gets displayed in each mode when I get them...