The Energon Pub

This guy came packaged in a bag with some candy (fun-dip) and there were two variations available. The one I got has a red body, blue windows, and blue legs while the other one had the colors swapped. The head, grille, bumper, smokestacks, and gas tanks are all chrome which is a nice touch. He transforms the same as G1 Op except for a few minor differences: different head sculpt, his arms have been shortened and made into claws and his smoke stacks swivel around and double as guns. I guess the makers weren't worried about kids poking themselves in the eye. The front molding is slightly different because the spaces where the arms originally folded out are now filled in with four headlights molded in instead of two. Even though it looks like he has one big windshield it's actually two that fold around to the sides of the truck. On mines the arms are nice and tight but the left leg is a little loose. The figure is light weight which I heard is the norm for most G1 figures. He rolls pretty good despite the fact that all the wheels don't touch the ground at the same time.

Man, I'm normally hugely against bootlegs... but this is different enough from the original, and cheep looking enough to not to be mistaken for anything official... It falls into that so bad it is good category, and makes me kind of want one!

"G1 Optimus Prime found at Gas Station" made me think of something that I've always thought was a missed opportunity... Optimus has been happy to sell out before. Pepsi Prime. Nike Prime. That Prime who turns into a hat. The Music Label Prime is borderline, since he wasn't as far as I know licensed with Apple, but he clearly had iPod inspiration. You know what the world needs? Hess Truck Optimus Prime! The G2 Laser mold would be perfect, as he's a tanker truck. Just paint it white and green!

Yotsuyasan wrote:Man, I'm normally hugely against bootlegs... but this is different enough from the original, and cheep looking enough to not to be mistaken for anything official... It falls into that so bad it is good category, and makes me kind of want one!

"G1 Optimus Prime found at Gas Station" made me think of something that I've always thought was a missed opportunity... Optimus has been happy to sell out before. Pepsi Prime. Nike Prime. That Prime who turns into a hat. The Music Label Prime is borderline, since he wasn't as far as I know licensed with Apple, but he clearly had iPod inspiration. You know what the world needs? Hess Truck Optimus Prime! The G2 Laser mold would be perfect, as he's a tanker truck. Just paint it white and green!

I'd buy a Hess Truck Optimus Prime in a heartbeat. My great grandfather used to buy those, Hess Trucks I mean, for me every Christmas.

His head looks lot like Classics Inferno. I don't own Inferno myself, so could be wrong.

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:His head looks lot like Classics Inferno. I don't own Inferno myself, so could be wrong.

Was about to say - that's definitely an Inferno-inspired head.

Yotsuyasan wrote: You know what the world needs? Hess Truck Optimus Prime! The G2 Laser mold would be perfect, as he's a tanker truck. Just paint it white and green!

You know, that would be great for a Takara exclusive. We need more Beast Wars/Generation 2 repaints. Maybe they could even throw some late G1 molds in there as well. Bruticus has been repainted how many times? (Not counting KO's)

SkyWarpsGhost wrote:His head looks lot like Classics Inferno. I don't own Inferno myself, so could be wrong.

If anything, I'd say it looks more like Grapple

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Was about to say - that's definitely an Inferno-inspired head.[/quote]

I'm late lol, but here's an update on the head. Upon close examination, he appears to borrow the head design from a robot from the "Kinsman" line. (which probably borrowed from Diaclone/Transformers lol) Kinsman was an obscure 80's line of transforming robots. Here's the link. Just scroll down to the green Toyota truck: http://counter-x.net/footnotes/kinsman/