The Energon Pub

Do you still plan on buying everything regardless of what HasTak releases in 2014 to 2015?

Or have you changed your mind on buying some 3rd party toys in favor of the cheaper priced HasTak 2014-2015 TF toys?

No doubt HasTak releasing all of those combiners in 2015 will kill the sales of some of those 3rd party combiners.

With such a accurate G-1 30th arcee on the way. Is there anymore need for 3rd party arcee toys?

How about that 30th Leader scale Megatron toy. Will a lot of fans now buy this and forget about buying all of those recently revealed 3rd party megatron tank-gun toys.

With 30th Chromia, those 30th arcee fembot repaints-retools & those windblade repainted retools, Will some not feel comfortable paying $70 to $80 for a 3rd party fembot and decide to pay $14 for the Hasbro USA version.

Since Hasbro is now doing transforming headmasters like 30th Brainstorm. Will this kill the sales for those 3rd party FP and TW Headmasters toys.

What about those SDCC G-1 Deco AOE Dinobots gift set. Will this makes some not buy some of those 3rd party exspensive Dinobots toys.

While not a 3rd party toy but high end KO's. Will some still buy those KO MP Voyager cars-bots. Or will they instead buy the Hasbro USA MP cars bots like Sideswipe, Datsun brothers and others.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Do you still plan on buying everything regardless of what HasTak releases in 2014 to 2015?

Yes.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Or have you changed your mind on buying some 3rd party toys in favor of the cheaper priced HasTak 2014-2015 TF toys?

No.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:No doubt HasTak releasing all of those combiners in 2015 will kill the sales of some of those 3rd party combiners.

Not at all . Hasbro combiners? come on now , every one is a fail thus far unless they look and combine like 3RDP i don't want to know .

Tsutsukakushi wrote:With such a accurate G-1 30th arcee on the way. Is there anymore need for 3rd party arcee toys?

While hasbros is G1 and i will buy it , i don't like the kibble and it's very rare for me but i will be buying it for the alt mode . I will still buy all of MMC offerings.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:How about that 30th Leader scale Megatron toy. Will a lot of fans now buy this and forget about buying all of those recently revealed 3rd party megatron tank-gun toys.

Megatron looks decent and will likely buy it , Optimus however looks all kinds of wrong and i was hoping he would be epic .

Tsutsukakushi wrote:With 30th Chromia, those 30th arcee fembot repaints-retools & those windblade repainted retools, Will some not feel comfortable paying $70 to $80 for a 3rd party fembot and decide to pay $14 for the Hasbro USA version.

I'm buying every Fembot that gets released hasbro and 3rdp . MMC fems are too good to pass .

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Since Hasbro is now doing transforming headmasters like 30th Brainstorm. Will this kill the sales for those 3rd party FP and TW Headmasters toys.

Brainstorm looks good and is a headmaster , well done hasbro but FP is killing it with the function X line i hope they make them all .

Tsutsukakushi wrote:What about those SDCC G-1 Deco AOE Dinobots gift set. Will this makes some not buy some of those 3rd party exspensive Dinobots toys.

Two different lines , i wish Takara released the G1 deco individually i would have snapped them up. Nobody is doing FOC apart from Planet X so yes there is still a market and who ever knocks out some G1 cartoon Dinos will also cash in .

Tsutsukakushi wrote:While not a 3rd party toy but high end KO's. Will some still buy those KO MP Voyager cars-bots. Or will they instead buy the Hasbro USA MP cars bots like Sideswipe, Datsun brothers and others.

Collectors buy what they like the look of and can afford

I largely agree with Auto-Gen.

Only real difference is with Megatron - I'll buy the Generations Leader version, but at this juncture, I'm still looking for a suitable Voyager Classics-styled version. The Generations figure looks too... simple... but we really haven't seen an in-depth look at him, just promo pics. So I withhold final judgement for now.

That said, I see no reason to cancel my Hegemon V2 preorder.

I no longer plan on picking up Toyworld's Bainstorm, so yes.

Doesn't effect me much, maybe I'll just end up buying the fembots, but 3rd parties still reign supreme for me.

Gonna have to start figuring out how to mod Chromia's front wheels to split into 2 like it does in the comics though And that giant backback better be a detachable shield.

Also Hastak combiners? Are they even confirmed? Until they start hitting the right notes or even come close to the early 3p combiners, they get a nope.

BUT...overall it's nice to see some actual improvements with new molds.

I'm still going to buy 3rd party, where applicable. While Hasbro really stepped up their game here, I'm still tempted by 3rd party, because there's usually quality to it. Take, for example, Unique Toys Soundmixer (Blaster) and Maniaking (Galvatron).

They're nearly Masterpiece quality, in a Voyager Class package. They fit well with Classics/Generations and they look fantastic. Well built, too. Hasbro hasn't made these two, at least not how they should be made.

Until they do that, there will always be a market for 3rd party. Heck, even their Brainstorm didn't sway me. FansProject's SmartRobin is the Brainstorm that's needed. That transformation, that sleek look, that solid construction...well worth it.

Think The Hasbro 2014 Botcon TF reveals will have more of a impact on the casual 3rd party toy buyers than the more hard core completist 3rd party toy buyers.

Think if your a Casual, you'd be more than satisfied waiting for those HasTak fembots, 2015 Combiners, SDCC G-1 Deco Dinobots and other updates. A casual only buys when he knows HasTak won't release stuff he wants.

I'm not expecting the Hard core 3rd party buyers to cancel any of their pre-orders or lose interest in upcoming 3rd party items.

I fall into the Casual 3rd party buyer category. I only have interest in buying those 3rd party items I know Hasbro has no plans to release. Bought Quakewave and Hexatron because of Hasbro's reluctancy to release gun-bots toys in the states. I see no immediate plans from now till 2016 for a HasTak Overlord new sculpt, So i'm going 3rd party with this one.

Autobot Genocide wrote:Not at all . Hasbro combiners? come on now , every one is a fail thus far unless they look and combine like 3RDP i don't want to know .

guarayakha wrote: Also Hastak combiners? Are they even confirmed? Until they start hitting the right notes or even come close to the early 3p combiners, they get a nope.

hard core fans Are way to fast to jump the gun by assuming Hastak will fail with every new venture.

Think HasTak has the tech and know how to create fan accepted TF combiners toys. Thought the Energon Bruticus, Superion and Devastator were HasTak's best work.

I have reason to give HasTak more confidence for their 2015 Generations G-1 Combiners. HasTak is putting more effort,higher budget and trying harder to please fans with their 30th toys. most of their 30th toys are all updates home runs.

HasTak is more than capable of creating high end success TF Combiners. Like those 1990's Beast Wars combiners. Cars Robots combiners, Energon Cuatro Combiners.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

Autobot Genocide wrote:Not at all . Hasbro combiners? come on now , every one is a fail thus far unless they look and combine like 3RDP i don't want to know .

guarayakha wrote: Also Hastak combiners? Are they even confirmed? Until they start hitting the right notes or even come close to the early 3p combiners, they get a nope.

hard core fans Are way to fast to jump the gun by assuming Hastak will fail with every new venture.

Think HasTak has the tech and know how to create fan accepted TF combiners toys. Thought the Energon Bruticus, Superion and Devastator were HasTak's best work.

I have reason to give HasTak more confidence for their 2015 Generations G-1 Combiners. HasTak is putting more effort,higher budget and trying harder to please fans with their 30th toys. most of their 30th toys are all updates home runs.

HasTak is more than capable of creating high end success TF Combiners. Like those 1990's Beast Wars combiners. Cars Robots combiners, Energon Cuatro Combiners.

Hasbro's track record with combiners speaks for itself. Their next attempt like the last will likely be hindered by some new gimmick they're looking to push rather then go that extra mile to make a good product. It took a fan designed 3p product to make hasbro's able to line up alongside all the 3p combiners and not look completely out of place.

Lord Raze wrote: Their next attempt like the last will likely be hindered by some new gimmick they're looking to push rather then go that extra mile to make a good product.

HasTak doesn't include gimmicks on their Classics-Generations toys.

Tsutsukakushi wrote: hard core fans Are way to fast to jump the gun by assuming Hastak will fail with every new venture.

Think HasTak has the tech and know how to create fan accepted TF combiners toys. Thought the Energon Bruticus, Superion and Devastator were HasTak's best work.

I have reason to give HasTak more confidence for their 2015 Generations G-1 Combiners. HasTak is putting more effort,higher budget and trying harder to please fans with their 30th toys. most of their 30th toys are all updates home runs.

HasTak is more than capable of creating high end success TF Combiners. Like those 1990's Beast Wars combiners. Cars Robots combiners, Energon Cuatro Combiners.

Untill Hasbro combiners see the day were 3rdp don't have to make multiple upgrades or new transformers to sort there mess out i will have little confidence in them wanting to do it the right way .

Here's the silhouette of Superion , i can tell from this now TFC Uranos is going no where .

Tsutsukakushi wrote:

Autobot Genocide wrote:Not at all . Hasbro combiners? come on now , every one is a fail thus far unless they look and combine like 3RDP i don't want to know .

guarayakha wrote: Also Hastak combiners? Are they even confirmed? Until they start hitting the right notes or even come close to the early 3p combiners, they get a nope.

hard core fans Are way to fast to jump the gun by assuming Hastak will fail with every new venture.

Think HasTak has the tech and know how to create fan accepted TF combiners toys. Thought the Energon Bruticus, Superion and Devastator were HasTak's best work.

I have reason to give HasTak more confidence for their 2015 Generations G-1 Combiners. HasTak is putting more effort,higher budget and trying harder to please fans with their 30th toys. most of their 30th toys are all updates home runs.

HasTak is more than capable of creating high end success TF Combiners. Like those 1990's Beast Wars combiners. Cars Robots combiners, Energon Cuatro Combiners.

"Hardcore" fans are more likely going by the "wait and see" approach than jumping the gun. "Hardcore" fans never doubted the fact that Hastak has their techs. "Hardcore" fans aren't blind.

The only question is if Hastak is willing to gamble on creating detailed combiners that match the 3rd party's offering. Sure they could put in more budget for this one super cool combiner project, I bet the designers would want to remake all of them; the problem lies with the board of directors/investors/shareholders who only cares for the numbers in their accounts.

EDIT: Answer to a question ninja'd by Auto-Gen

PS: Pls drop the hardcore/casual thing. It's already stupid in videogaming, definitely not needed here. We're all fans of transforming robots, and 3rd party existed mainly because the TF brand inspire its fanbase so much that we just can't get enough of it.

guarayakha wrote:Also, to re-iterate my question...did they actually announced generation combiners for 2015? Are there any links? I must've missed them.:

Check my post above

Tsutsukakushi wrote:hard core fans Are way to fast to jump the gun by assuming Hastak will fail with every new venture.

You're both generalizing and using labels. You should try to avoid both of those things... otherwise people will start jumping on you.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Think HasTak has the tech and know how to create fan accepted TF combiners toys. Thought the Energon Bruticus, Superion and Devastator were HasTak's best work.

And all required 3rd Party upgrades to make them acceptable to many collectors' sensibilities.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:I have reason to give HasTak more confidence for their 2015 Generations G-1 Combiners. HasTak is putting more effort,higher budget and trying harder to please fans with their 30th toys. most of their 30th toys are all updates home runs.

There's no question Hasbro has stepped up their game, very likely to combat the unbelievable growth of the 3rd Party market in the last 5 years. And we certainly will benefit from their efforts. The new legends class, the glut of awesome voyagers, and even the emergence of Generations leader figures are all awesome developments. But, Hasbro is still limited by their need to market to kids and their parents, even in a collector oriented line like Generations. So for the foreseeable future, it's natural for 3rd Party companies to beat Hasbro at the combiner game, for the simple reason that 3rd Parties don't operate under the same constraints. I suspect their upcoming Superion will be better than their past attempts, but not without need of a 3rd Party upgrade.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:HasTak is more than capable of creating high end success TF Combiners. Like those 1990's Beast Wars combiners. Cars Robots combiners, Energon Cuatro Combiners.

None of these are the same as 5-member gestalts, so I fail to see where the comparison holds. In addition to comparing apples and oranges, the most current example you offered happened 10 years ago.

No, the reveals haven't changed my 3rd party buying plans. I just may want to get a few Hasbro figures that I wasn't planning on getting such as Arcee and Chromia, and Brainstorm. I have FP Brainstorm, but Hasbro's version looks pretty sweet too.

Well, I've already passed on FP's version of Roadbuster and gone with the asbro version. But honestly, most of the stuff they're showing I already have a good version of.

As for their combiners? Please! Bruticus was a failure. The last good combiners they've done were the Robots in Disguise Rail Racer and Landfill. From fourteen years ago!

Im not changing any plans over Hasbro releases. You keep bringing up MMC fembots, but Hasbro is not giving us a Elita One or a Moonracer. so those two are a must buy. I had no plans to buy the MMC Arcee because I own delicate warrior which seems to be the inspiration hor the Hasbro Arcee. Ill buy the Hasbro Arcee just to have it for an alternate G1 movie display and delicate warrior will go with my headmasters. I'm probably the only one not really liking Hasbro Brainstorm. It's got weird wings, stupid waist/hip armor, and a weird nosecone kibble thing rising behind his head. Then theres the scale issue. It's gonna be another Springer sized figure, towering over all his teammates that were the same height in the G1 cartoon. (yes, cartoon scale not vintage toy scale) About the only thing it has going for it over FP Brainstorm is it has a faceplate. Other than that, nothing. Ill buy it for fun, but not to take seriously and replace the 98% perfect Smart Robin. I could care less about leader class megaton. First of all, it's a damn tank and not a gun. Second, it's huge and totally out of scale with all other figures including most of Hasbro's lineup. I never liked leader class scale anyways. That size is for child playability, not displays or dioramas that many collectors base their buying decisions on. Maybe I might consider the Armada version just to have it. But it's still way too big. And honestly, I wish they would give us a tailgate repaint of RTS Windcharger instead of a Windcharger repaint of the inferior legends Tailgate. And I would buy a Hasbro Superion and it's inevitable add on set to make it look decent. But Im not getting rid of Uranus. If Hasbro is smart, they'll do a G2 version of their Superion. I would be all over it.

Rated X wrote:It's got weird wings, stupid waist/hip armor, and a weird nosecone kibble thing rising behind his head.

All of which are fairly accurate to his IDW appearance, which is what Hasbro is going for.

Rated X wrote:Im not changing any plans over Hasbro releases. You keep bringing up MMC fembots, but Hasbro is not giving us a Elita One or a Moonracer. so those two are a must buy. I had no plans to buy the MMC Arcee because I own delicate warrior which seems to be the inspiration hor the Hasbro Arcee. Ill buy the Hasbro Arcee just to have it for an alternate G1 movie display and delicate warrior will go with my headmasters. I'm probably the only one not really liking Hasbro Brainstorm. It's got weird wings, stupid waist/hip armor, and a weird nosecone kibble thing rising behind his head. Then theres the scale issue. It's gonna be another Springer sized figure, towering over all his teammates that were the same height in the G1 cartoon. (yes, cartoon scale not vintage toy scale) About the only thing it has going for it over FP Brainstorm is it has a faceplate. Other than that, nothing. Ill buy it for fun, but not to take seriously and replace the 98% perfect Smart Robin. I could care less about leader class megaton. First of all, it's a damn tank and not a gun. Second, it's huge and totally out of scale with all other figures including most of Hasbro's lineup. I never liked leader class scale anyways. That size is for child playability, not displays or dioramas that many collectors base their buying decisions on. Maybe I might consider the Armada version just to have it. But it's still way too big. And honestly, I wish they would give us a tailgate repaint of RTS Windcharger instead of a Windcharger repaint of the inferior legends Tailgate. And I would buy a Hasbro Superion and it's inevitable add on set to make it look decent. But Im not getting rid of Uranus. If Hasbro is smart, they'll do a G2 version of their Superion. I would be all over it.

HasTak and TFCC will repaint and retool those 30th fembots toys of arcee, Chromia and Windblade into other G-1 fembots toys.

HasTak at various conventions and through on-line interviews have confirmed the Leader sized TF toys are being made for the older kids and adults fans.

2015 Superion stands a high chance of getting a G-2 deco. As Hastak did a G-2 Deco for FOC Bruticus.

Autobot Genocide wrote: Here's the silhouette of Superion , i can tell from this now TFC Uranos is going no where .

Thanks for the Pic. Your the best when it comes to stuff like this.

Most of the stuff that Hasbro showed off has little bearing on what I was looking forward to getting. In fact, it doesn't look like I'll be getting much of what was shown, with the exception of Arcee and Chromia, there wasn't much that peaked my interest. Sure there was a Superion teaser shown, and I suspect that'll be shown in full at SDCC, but for now I'm taking a "wait and see" approach. If it looks better than the FP Superion I have, I'll get it. If not, I'll pass on it.