The Energon Pub

Courtesy of the Maketoys/TFW2005.

Maketoys wrote:The Milestone of Battle tanker series – Battle Sentinel

Years ago, Maketoys released the Battle Tanker Add-on kit. However, the Kit was only an add-on set without the core figure. With the core figure developed from Hypernovae, We are finally able to complete the product, as well as the character himself – Battle Sentinel.

The core figure “Gento” has great articulation. The advanced shoulder design allows a wide range of arm movement. He can even wield the sword with both hands. Ratchet mechanism was applied to the thigh and knee joint to provide excellent support.

He is fully compatible to the MT-02 Battle tanker add-on.

This will be made available as a stand alone figure fully compatible with the original Battle Tanker add-on kit, and with the Tanker add-on plus extra weapons (such as the new orange sword shown) which is scheduled for release around November time.

Thanks to TFW2005 board member LazyAza.

Battle Sentinel is basically a repaint of the Hyper Novae cab section with the replacement Battle Tanker head and a new sword!

Thats kind of lame. Especially after the 2nd run of takara united G2 prime. I prefer nova prime to have his own unique mold.

yep. useless.

Indeed. This makes little to no sense to me.

Kinda defeats the entire purpose of the Battle Tanker adon. It was supposed to make him closer to the original G2 Prime, this distances itself even further.
I agree, the Generations G2 Prime mold is fantastic and one of the best molds there is (certainly the best Deluxe Optimus), but this is moving more and more into KO territory, the Nova Prime was already an odd thing to do, but this?

This is superfluous.

I like the look of it. But I already have the Generations guy in the Battle Tanker armour and this doesn't look like enough of an improvement in bot mode (and it looks worse in vehicle mode) so I'll pass. Still, can't blame them since they already had the mold. Make a Magnus or SG version (OR MOTHERFLIPPIN' SCOURGE!) and I'll be interested again.

I like that MT are giving customers the option to buy the standalone figure. Now for those who do not have a G2 Prime already then the problem is solved. Plus, this figure (as stated above) has better shoulder articulation and a few other design upgrades. I already have G2 Prime (and the 1st Battle Tanker add-on) so I'm likely not going to pick up the standalone, but if this were not the case I'd be all in.

And let me just say, having Hyper Novae in hand, that is a tight figure!

craggy wrote:Make a Magnus or SG version (OR MOTHERFLIPPIN' SCOURGE!) and I'll be interested again.

From MakeToys' catalog, it looks like "Scourge" will be later this year (as opposed to the previous April 2014 date that was listed on their site).

Gotta say as much as I love the battle tanker, even I have to scoff at how much they're trying to keep re-hashing this one over and over to the point where they're just going back to they started with it. If they want me to keep buying their Optimus Primes I suggest they start working on a new mold altogether, preferably one that doesn't retread old ground.
he lies through his teeth, as I for one would like them to completely outshine that terrible toyworld abomination with their own rendition of that design. Still, anything's gotta be better than seeing this mold forever.

While I'm sure this figure is much more solid in the BT armor, I have no need for it.

Didn't buy the first release and i'm not buying other resculpted releases.

Oh, Maketoys, I am so full of the disappointment with you. You started off with such promise. I enjoyed Battle Tanker, and (with apologies to Hercules fans) Giant Type-61 is, in my opinion, the definitive Devestator! So full of awesome!

Then you released Hyper Novae. A Battle Tanker remold that... came with a cab? Hold on, what's all this then? Yes, it is pretty much using mostly original parts, but there is no denying that that mold was created based directly on the engineering that went into Has/Tak's RTS Laser Prime mold. Without the Laser Prime mold, there'd be no Hyper Novae. Perhaps not technically a knock-off, but dangerously close. It was in the grey area between original third party product and knock-off, and definitely leaning into the darker parts of grey.

So now you take that cab section and re-release it as a Laser Optimus Prime? WTF! Forget the grey, I'm calling it black. This is putting Maketoys into bootleg territory. Yes, it is a high quality and heavily remolded version of a figure, but it is still at the core the same figure, and being sold in competition with an official figure. (The reason I was willing to let Hyper Novae stay in the grey, albeit dark grey, was that it wasn't in direct competition with a corresponding official product.)

I am strongly of the opinion that third party companies should only ever accessorize official figures or supplement collections by providing figures that have not officially been done.* And that third party products should be original molds, not recolors and / or remolds of bootlegged official molds. This product violates all of that, to which I say, "Bad form, Maketoys. Bad form."

* A third party Devestator gets a pass as Devestator needs to be a six member gestalt. This is not something that Hasbro had provided a "Classics" version of. The individual members are just as important in a collection as their combined form. (In fact, I currently have my combiner teams on my shelf as their individual robots.)

Hmmmm, those last two slots:
[*]Ghost of Prime (clear)
[*]Shattered Glass Prime
[*]White Prime - Ultra Magnus
[*]Evangelion Unit 01 Prime (but would look a lot like SG Prime)
[*]Burning Guts Ginrai

>:oP

Autobot Genocide wrote:

I may bite on this set again if one of the two slots yet to be mentioned is an Ultra Magnus. That would be cool!

I like it. I'm getting the inevitable Nemesis repaint and possibly the Ultra Magnus version.

Diaclone black and blue maybe, hopefully some new homages with retooling the kit. Dont let me down maketoys!

Toxitron or GTFO.