The Energon Pub

Welcome to our annual post-BotCon episode, recapping all the reveals from Hasbro, Fun Publications, and even a quick sneak in from Takara Tomy at Tokyo Toy Show! Who won the weekend? Find out with host ScottyP, and guests Counterpunch, Megatronus, TigerTrack24, and Razorclaw0000.

Episode #119 "One Hour BotCon" is available directly and in our RSS Feed and should appear on iTunes, and Stitcher Radio within 24 to 48 hours of when you see this news post.

Topics Include (you can see all of our BotCon coverage here and galleries here):

Voyager Sky Lynx


Transformers Subscription Service 4.0 - Mayhem Attack Squad


Are the new Combiner Wars Heritage characters replacing their classics counterparts?


Upcoming Legends figures, including Shockwave!


Combiner Wars Bruticus (and the weird running torso change?)



Hasbro Devastator


Club Exclusive Universe Ramjet and Skywarp


Tokyo Toy Show
Masterpiece Optimus Primal


Masterpiece Ironhide


Takara Tomy's Devastator


Finally, we flip back to BotCon and talk about the leaked Titan Wars concept art.



Don't forget, the show only gets better if you tell us how. Drop us a review on iTunes and be sure to tell us what you love, what you hate, and what you want to hear!

Not on the show to give your take? Probably not, so don't forget to keep the discussion going on the Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums by simply replying to this post!

Got a question for the Twincast? We take all of them, we just don't take them all seriously! Leave a question in the Ask the Twincast thread and, if it makes the cut, it may get read and answered on the show.

There are a handful of other GPS culprits after the Universe Aerialbots too. Scorponok and Preview Starscream from the 07 movie are also victims. BW Anniversary Dinobot is too. I think was Blazemaster from ROTF was confirmed as well. Yes, as recent as 09/10, GPS was still an issue. Still searching for confirmation.

Flux Convoy wrote:There are a handful of other GPS culprits after the Universe Aerialbots too. Scorponok and Preview Starscream from the 07 movie are also victims. BW Anniversary Dinobot is too. I think was Blazemaster from ROTF was confirmed as well. Yes, as recent as 09/10, GPS was still an issue. Still searching for confirmation.

Yeah, that 06/07 era was kind of the last with widespread GPS like that. I'll have to go check Blazemaster, not anytime soon though because it's in a storage box now, but whenever it does come out, well, it's not exactly packed in carefully so that'll be a good tell

No one agrees with me but I also think that Botcon Cannonball will suffer from it, as well as something else newer that I am totally blanking on. Feels like one of the toys around the design team transition looked to have it or the potential for it.

Are you guys sure the movie toys have GPS? I've gotten those figures in pretty rough collections from kids and garage sales that I've purchased for the Seibertron.com store and I've never seen those figures broken, plus mine have survived despite all the transformations over the years for comparison galleries. The last figure I know for a fact that has GPS is Star Wars Chewbacca who's pretty bad. Mine broke, he's broken in most collections I've bought, etc. Scorponok is another one that is always intact (other than missing some of his scorpion legs).

Wow. Kool flowchart of Fullstrength Motleypuss!

What we need next, is, a massive Scorponok.

I'm a little surprised everyone forgot to mention the retractable visor on Devastator from Takara revealed at the Tokyo Toy Show. That plus elbows and individual guns clinched it for me.
Ironhide looks incredible.
MP Optimus Primal is magical.
Busting nuts isn't obscene. How else are you supposed to get at the nutty goodness of wall, brazil, or coconuts?
I'm pretty sure boner killing is a sin though.

Seibertron wrote:Are you guys sure the movie toys have GPS? I've gotten those figures in pretty rough collections from kids and garage sales that I've purchased for the Seibertron.com store and I've never seen those figures broken, plus mine have survived despite all the transformations over the years for comparison galleries. The last figure I know for a fact that has GPS is Star Wars Chewbacca who's pretty bad. Mine broke, he's broken in most collections I've bought, etc. Scorponok is another one that is always intact (other than missing some of his scorpion legs).

I'm going off of first hand accounts on the movie toys. I can't say from my own experience. Although Scorponok is a different type of rubbery plastic. It drying out is what causes the breakages. I can tell you with certainty the Anniversary Dinobot is a real case.

Flux Convoy wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Are you guys sure the movie toys have GPS? I've gotten those figures in pretty rough collections from kids and garage sales that I've purchased for the Seibertron.com store and I've never seen those figures broken, plus mine have survived despite all the transformations over the years for comparison galleries. The last figure I know for a fact that has GPS is Star Wars Chewbacca who's pretty bad. Mine broke, he's broken in most collections I've bought, etc. Scorponok is another one that is always intact (other than missing some of his scorpion legs).

I'm going off of first hand accounts on the movie toys. I can't say from my own experience. Although Scorponok is a different type of rubbery plastic. It drying out is what causes the breakages. I can tell you with certainty the Anniversary Dinobot is a real case.

Yah I know Dinobot is, but he's also pre-Chewbacca if I've got my years right.

Seibertron wrote:Yah I know Dinobot is, but he's also pre-Chewbacca if I've got my years right.

Both are 06. Dunno which was first.

Oh and uh...this upcoming Ramjet is rad. Finally an iteration of that body in toy form that I like. Armada Starscream was and always will be an easy pass for me. I had the Universe version in my hands at Botcon for an incredible price because I collect characters featured in TFCC fiction. I was happy to be surprised by that reveal. I gladly left the other.

Flux Convoy wrote:Oh and uh...this upcoming Ramjet is rad. Finally an iteration of that body in toy form that I like. Armada Starscream was and always will be an easy pass for me. I had the Universe version in my hands at Botcon for an incredible price because I collect characters featured in TFCC fiction. I was happy to be surprised by that reveal. I gladly left the other.

Now we just need Armada Thundercracker and I'll be a happy camper! Wouldn't be surprised if he's the 7th mold.

Seibertron wrote:Now we just need Armada Thundercracker and I'll be a happy camper! Wouldn't be surprised if he's the 7th mold.

I would think he's one of the ones left to reveal. I think he kind of has to be. At least going by the Hasbro statements about completing the three if SW or TC are put into play. I'm okay with it. I do really enjoy the mold. Very curious who the final is. I have my fingers crossed for G2 deco Jhiaxus.

Flux Convoy wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Now we just need Armada Thundercracker and I'll be a happy camper! Wouldn't be surprised if he's the 7th mold.

I would think he's one of the ones left to reveal. I think he kind of has to be. Af least going by the Hasbro statements about completing the three if SW or TC are put into play. I'm okay with it. I do really enjpt the mold. Very curious who the final is. I have my fingers crossed for G2 deco Jhiaxus.

Now that would be really awesome. I'm surprised Takara hasn't jumped on that bandwagon yet.

I have the storage problem too... As in so much is u tubs that I don't interact enough with the figures anymore to have my own experiences with gps and these more modern figures

I'll have to check my Chewbacca. I hadn't noticed anything last time I saw him, and my SW TF toys happen to be in a box close by.

Armada TC would be excellent, and a G2 Jhiaxus would be excellent. But that's a lot of uses of a so-so mold.

Oh well. It was fun to be on again, maybe another time with a longer episode so I can get a little bit more back into it. Fun to be on with Megatronus, hadn't been on together before.

A lot to say because I was busy during BotCon and didn't get to post this stuff sooner.

Do you guys really think they'll make the seventh figure another Deluxe? Seems like a tall order with a Voyager in the mix. We don't know what's coming from 3.0, but 2.0 had to pad its set with a second Scout and a bunch of Arms Microns to make up for the lack of a big figure and a Basic in the regular six figures. The sixth figure 4.0 is likely Armada Thundercracker, and if not we'll likely see him as a BotCon souvenir, but the seventh will probably be a Legends figure to go with the Mayhem Attack Squad since all of the combiners have had legends partners. Obvious choice would be Six Shot (or maybe Scattershot) out of the new Shockwave. Then again, I could also see them going with Crankcase out of Swerve to round out the Triggercons, or maybe Mayhem team member Roadblock out of (from left field) Metroplex's Scamper figure. Seriously, they're both multi-wheeled cars with double barreled guns on top. Heck, we don't know what Ravage/Stripes look like yet, maybe they'll make Carnivac or Catilla out of that mold without the humanoid bot mode.

I agree about Blast Off, I think they were going to give him a different name and make him someone else, but after the backlash towards Alpha Bravo and Off Road (and to a lesser extent, Rook) they went and named in Blast Off. I'm fine with Blast Off being a jet, but he really does need a new head. I agree that Firefly would have been a better choice.

FYI, all of the 2016 stuff we saw in the presentation and later PR photos was CGI models. Usually they only do this with Construct Bots and Kre-O, but it looks like they're using it for Combiner Wars now.

Wheeljack is actually one of my favorite remolds. Sure I wish they could have give him wings, but at least they properly redid his chest. I am surprised they did Trailbreaker, especially when that Red Alert with the Ratchet head never surfaced. At least he has a gun hand.

I actually didn't notice that Bruticus is getting a chest variant until William pointed it out to me recently. I didn't realize because the photos sent out by PR was just the gray one while the display figure was the brown one so I just assumed the PR images were older. I think I would be fine with the brown one if it looked like the TV design, but looking like the toy I really need it to be gray. I hope it's painted gray and not molded because it'll effect Onslaught's bot and truck modes as well. Still think they should have made his chest plate a Legends figure.

On Ironhide I think the sled is just an accessory. If you look closely you can see how the arms make the top of the van and the legs form the bottom. Not to mention the sled is wider than the van and doesn't seem to have any hinges.

Titan Wars probably wont feature a bunch of Titan class figures, but I looks like a lot of the larger figures will turn into bases and whatnot for the smaller figures to interact with. Blaster clearly has a base mode by dropping down the speakers and opening the chest door. He also looks like a fairly large figure, at least Leader class. That "Astro Prime" design is really interesting since it's something we haven't seen before and actual new characters have been pretty rare lately. I don't think it's Astrotrain mainly because the head is wrong and it's a Headmaster. Speaking of which I think this might be a very large figure. Did anyone else notice that Spike has the same arm shields that Brainstorm's Arcana has (which makes Cerebros somewhere between Deluxe and Voyager), but this guy's Headmaster doesn't? I'm thinking the head might be roughly Legends scale which could but the figure at Devastator size. Of course I could be way, way off. Also the little vehicles shown with drivers make me thing we might be seeing the return of Micromasters. Titan Wars is feeling like '90s G1 all over again.

They confirmed the seventh is a deluxe at the panel. They were mum on the unrevealed sixth.

Flux Convoy wrote:They confirmed the seventh is a deluxe at fhe panel. They were mum on the unrevealed sixth.

Interesting, hadn't heard that since I was distracted by the pictures. I think that might decrease the chances of it being Thundercracker since that's a figure they could easily sell more of at BotCon.

I suppose that could mean six might still be a Legends figure. Heck, why not two Legends figures? The other thing is that this is the first SS set that hasn't had a single retool in it. Heck, they're not even repaints of retools like 1.0 Breakdown or 2.0 Fisitron. So maybe number six will be something retooled?

Emerje

Tigertrack wrote:Armada TC would be excellent, and a G2 Jhiaxus would be excellent. But that's a lot of uses of a so-so mold.

I'm actually quite fond of that mold. He could (should) have been a voyager, but still crams in a lot of fun for such a small package.

Tigertrack wrote:Oh well. It was fun to be on again, maybe another time with a longer episode so I can get a little bit more back into it. Fun to be on with Megatronus, hadn't been on together before.

Thanks!

It was fun being on with you as well. It's always great interacting with members of the 'old guard'.

Next time Tigertrack comes on, i'm going to start a rumor that during his absence he died and Scotty replaced him with a sound alike.

Emerje wrote:

Flux Convoy wrote:They confirmed the seventh is a deluxe at fhe panel. They were mum on the unrevealed sixth.

Interesting, hadn't heard that since I was distracted by the pictures. I think that might decrease the chances of it being Thundercracker since that's a figure they could easily sell more of at BotCon.

I suppose that could mean six might still be a Legends figure. Heck, why not two Legends figures? The other thing is that this is the first SS set that hasn't had a single retool in it. Heck, they're not even repaints of retools like 1.0 Breakdown or 2.0 Fisitron. So maybe number six will be something retooled?

Emerje

Bludgeon is the Onslaught retool of Combiner Wars Hot Spot. Head looks new too. I suppose its possible that it could be a Legends figure or two. Although I don't see why they'd emphasize the final figure a deluxe if they were going to make the sixth a disappointing Legends.

First of all, Legends is far from disappointing.

Second, they'll probably do TC or another Seeker. Each of the 7th figures so far have been redecos.

megatronus wrote:First of all, Legends is far from disappointing.

Second, they'll probably do TC or another Seeker. Each of the 7th figures so far have been redecos.

I expect the 6th figure to be a Legends figure because the 6th figure of all previous Combiners have been Legends. What I'm curious to see is whether or not the 7th figure, which is a deluxe, is actually part of the Mayhem Squad or not.

megatronus wrote:First of all, Legends is far from disappointing.

Second, they'll probably do TC or another Seeker. Each of the 7th figures so far have been redecos.

First, it is opposed to a getting a deluxe. Opinions vary.
Second, you're basing your redeco statement on 2.0. The first sub had six figures total. No bonus. Sub 3 is a Legends, again no redeco. There's been no pattern to follow.

Flux Convoy wrote:Bludgeon is the Onslaught retool of Combiner Wars Hot Spot. Head looks new too. I suppose its possible that it could be a Legends figure or two. Although I don't see why they'd emphasize the final figure a deluxe if they were going to make the sixth a disappointing Legends.

Whoops, slipped my mind with Onslaught being such an extensive retool. And yes, Bludgeon does have a new head. TFWiki said it was a repaint, I should have just checked myself.

Emerje

Flux Convoy wrote:

megatronus wrote:First of all, Legends is far from disappointing.

Second, they'll probably do TC or another Seeker. Each of the 7th figures so far have been redecos.

First, it is opposed to a getting a deluxe. Opinions vary.
Second, you're basing your redeco statement on 2.0. The first sub had six figures total. No bonus. Sub 3 is a Legends, again no redeco. There's been no pattern to follow.

For whatever reason, I thought one of the two Seekers in 3.0 was the 7th figure... Hence the (perceived) pattern, so my bad.

Mileage may very, but the recent Legends-class figures have been great, subjectively speaking. If the 7th figure isn't related to the Mayhem Squad, I can see the 6th being a deluxe also. I guess we'll see.