The Energon Pub

The new third-party company behind the upcoming NOS combiner upgrade for the BotCon Animated Stunticons and the Firemaster upgrade for Animated Optimus Prime have revealed themselves. The company calls themselves G1UPPERS, and they have set up a blogspot that can be visited by clicking here. No new details regarding either set at this time, though they do mention revealing some images at TFcon:

We are planning on having some pics for the guys over at TFCON

G1UPPERS are a group of Transformers collectors that work hard to create awesome upgrade kits for your already awesome official products.

Sounds fancy.

Lets hope its not just a trailer for Motormaster but a whole combiner kit for Menasor. All the molds have been around for a while so as soon as all 5 stunticons molds were announced these guys probally went to work.

Rated X wrote:Lets hope its not just a trailer for Motormaster but a whole combiner kit for Menasor. All the molds have been around for a while so as soon as all 5 stunticons molds were announced these guys probally went to work.

They will combine.

glad to see animated had a big enough impact that fans want to keep it alive

Sweet, animated was dope fo sho... I don't collect the figures much though, just Blackarachnia and Oil Slick so far, and those don't really need upgrading.

MINDVVIPE wrote:I don't collect the figures much though, just Blackarachnia and Oil Slick so far

What's wrong with you? jk

Also, G1UPPERS has to be the funniest name for a third-party toy company ever.

Never got the Botcon set and this won't make me splurge on it .... but hopefully it'll inspire someone to make a Classics version.

The Dude wrote:

MINDVVIPE wrote:I don't collect the figures much though, just Blackarachnia and Oil Slick so far

What's wrong with you? jk

Also, G1UPPERS has to be the funniest name for a third-party toy company ever.

Haha, I only collect figures that can fit into my classics, "realistic" theme... nothing with obviously cartoony (asymetrical) faces and overly wierd limb propotions.

Ha ha, "keep animation alive", I love it! Heh, referring to animated, heh

MINDVVIPE wrote:

The Dude wrote:

MINDVVIPE wrote:I don't collect the figures much though, just Blackarachnia and Oil Slick so far

What's wrong with you? jk

Also, G1UPPERS has to be the funniest name for a third-party toy company ever.

Haha, I only collect figures that can fit into my classics, "realistic" theme... nothing with obviously cartoony (asymetrical) faces and overly wierd limb propotions.

I was thinking that there's nothing unrealistic about asymmetrical faces and overly weird limb proportions but then again I suppose I have been spending entirely too much time wandering around Wal-Mart lately.

Seriously though, I know what you mean about the look of the figures which is why I only have a few myself and those I waited til I could get them discounted. I enjoyed the cartoon but the figures just didn't win me over after having collected the regular one for all these years.
I will admit that I'm curious to see what they do with the combiner set. Every other line has had a combiner of some type and all they offered up for animated was a short lived run with the 2 'Bots that formed the jet and I'm not certain that all regions got to even see that one.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:Never got the Botcon set and this won't make me splurge on it .... but hopefully it'll inspire someone to make a Classics version.

I am the opposite, as soon as I heard about the upgrade I bought the box set. Probably wouldn't have done it otherwise.

G1 hope this guys can pull the rest of the dinobots thats g1uppers for the animated fans. n a animated optimus trailer. now that i think about it wat about some fire power " WEAPONS" all 3rd paties do r up-grades which r great but how many up grades can animated need????? unless they want to make thier own figures like dinobots n (OMEGA SUPREME) any up-grade i can think of galvatron up-grade,sound waves cassettes (guitars) other than that its all been done in the animated world .

The Dude wrote:Also, G1UPPERS has to be the funniest name for a third-party toy company ever.

No, funny is how their two products are aimed at upgrading Animated ... not exactly G1 ...

Burn wrote:

The Dude wrote:Also, G1UPPERS has to be the funniest name for a third-party toy company ever.

No, funny is how their two products are aimed at upgrading Animated ... not exactly G1 ...

You're missing the pun.

I bought my Botcon 2011 boxed set FOR this upgrade. It's such an obvious seller, I KNEW someone would produce it. I will be buying this set, and anyone still on the fence about this years boxed set better get it now. You think Shattered Glass got expensive? If this kit is done right, we might have just received the most expensive Botcon set ever to hit the secondary market.

If it does not combine (which El Duque has informed us it will) then not too many people will pick it up, me being one of them.

-

[DECEASED] wrote:Panic $pending i$ illogical...
KOToy$ & it$ U.$. di$tributor Ace$toy$tore will have a batch ready for the one$ not intere$ted in Botcon.
$hame on you GetRight, you $hould know thi$ game by now.

I'm so embarrassed....

[DECEASED] wrote:Panic $pending i$ illogical...
KOToy$ & it$ U.$. di$tributor Ace$toy$tore will have a batch ready for the one$ not intere$ted in Botcon.
$hame on you GetRight, you $hould know thi$ game by now.

Buying from Krazy Owner Toy$ i$ illogical.
$upport the IP owner.

=

There's no guarantee that KO makers will make the Animated Botcon set. Dragstrip seems like a foregone conclusion, but the rest? Not so much.

Heck, just making blue Classics Prime took about a year, didn't it? From confirmation of intention to actual product? And, if not a year, then still a very long time for a simple recolor.

And there's no guarantee a KO will work well with a fanmade trailer. The CC armor doesn't work with the KO so well and the Coronation set does not fit the CMS Seekers (although it works fine with the cheaper KO Seekers).

Very well thought out Gauntlet.

III

[DECEASED] wrote:Very well thought out Gauntlet.

A few things to consider though.
No protos were shown from G1Uppers yet. No release date has been issued.

Mike @ KOToys is in business (shady or not) to make money, and this has cash grab written all over it.

The SG Prime KO was successful.

And finally, never underestimate the patience of an avid collector with limited funds.

By no means am I degrading your logic; in fact, it is completely sound. However, both you and I have seen these things play out before - especially with "exclusives". Why should any practice of successful capitalism cease when there is a market for such frivolous items? As CM Punk says, the wheel will just keep on turning.

I don't buy Knock off's. Yet, I LOVE 3rd party, original items. It's six in one hand, half a dozen in the other and I get that. I don't care who makes what or for how much. So long as blatant KO's don't bring the legal hammer down on superior companies like Fan's Project and shut THEM down, I'm good.

One more thing off topic x2, DECEASED, I like you. You seem to have the ability to discuss without arguing. Not enough of that around here.

[DECEASED] wrote:Mike @ KOToys is in business (shady or not) to make money, and this has cash grab written all over it.

The SG Prime KO was successful.

There is one problem in the immediate though; TFCC destroys all the new molds used to make their unique heads. Now it's entirely possible that the KO people can and will reverse-engineer them, but that will take a bit of time.

Mike may have made SG Rodimus and Optimus, but that's hardly the entire set. And it took him a very long time to make SG Optimus and Rodimus .... Rodimus isn't even out, is he? Cash grab or not, I think it's wrong to assume that there's no limit on what they'll KO. It still costs $$$ to copy these molds, after all

With the Seeker mold, they'll just run with it until people stop buying. And G1 seems like it'll be KOed forever. But I don't see them running with the classics Mirage mold that much, or even Animated Arcee's. The guy who made the City Commander KO has also stopped, so we won't be seeing more of that, cash grab or no. So you won't see a KO SG City Commander set or a KO Toxitron City Commander set.

So, if you want to make use of this trailer set ... I wouldn't count on it being totally KOed just for a cash grab. Just look at how long it's taking them to KO the Dinocassettes. Those are even less complicated that making copies of four deluxe molds and (maybe) a trailer.