The Energon Pub

Which characters did you think were really cool but had a toy way below your expectations.

For me it has to be Armada Blurr. I never really watched Armada but I always though Blurr was one of the best looking Transformers in either form but his toys is basically a crappy little brick like most of the Armada stuff. So I always keep him in his car mode out of shame.

I'd have to go with G1 Metroplex. No where near in scale with the rest of G1, and had almost zero poseability.

Grimlock, the head on the toy sat too far back it ruined the whole look.
Megatron, his robot mode wasn't great in all honesty was it?

Kronos wrote:I'd have to go with G1 Metroplex. No where near in scale with the rest of G1, and had almost zero poseability.

Yeah, I think everyone feels Metroplex should be bigger.

BW: The Gathering made me feel this way about alot of characters. The designs of the characters were great but made the toys seem alot worse by comparison. Best example I can think of is Torca, his toy's too damn small and in general he just ain't anywhere near as good as his comic incarnation.
Retrax is the same, admittadly (sp?) I don't have any first hand experience of the toy so I could be wrong but from what I've seen of it it looks absolutely terrible

Armada Scavenger and Starscream

Heh... let's see... Armada Sideswipe?

I thought the character was positively hilarious, but... he's gotta be one of the worst Armada toys out there.

A. Hotshot, too. I like his car mode, but when it comes to his robot mode... ugh. Oh, and Armada Smokescreen. He could use some knees. Bad. XD

Energon Hotshot was another. His shoulder apparatus and the way his head connected (not to mention that scary bug-eye'd head sculpt...) gave him little articulation. D: E. Prowl could've been a bit better, too.

And don't get me started on A. Scavenger...

Generation 1 Rodimus Prime. Hot Rod is sooooooo much better as a toy.

G1 Scourge. I love the animation model, but his toy lacked, as far as I was concerned. I'd love a Classics version.

And Rodimus Prime, was, sadly, a let down.

Targetmaster Slugslinger - not only does he look nothing like his cartoon incarnation, but his posability sucks and the whole toy is just lacking that special something.

id have to say g1 cyclonus. the head doesnt look right

Easily G1 Ironhide. One of my all time favourite characters reduced to a stick man with an odd sticker-face behind the windscreen

Wheelies Executioner wrote:Easily G1 Ironhide. One of my all time favourite characters reduced to a stick man with an odd sticker-face behind the windscreen

Oh, yes! And Ratchet, also.

Bludgeon. His toy didn't do his comic form justice. It didn't even come with a sword. And let's not get into that horrible "RID Destructicon" rip-off.

Jhiaxus. Another casualty of RID.

Arcee. We got a questionable Blackarachnia repaint, we got a motorcyle with dippy hands, but we never got the real deal.

Galvatron. We got a grey brick with a sandcastle for a head. Takara would later promise fans a show accurate version. So we got a lilac sandcastle instead of a grey one. Thanks, Takara! Galvatron goes great with my Glade potporri basket!

I always thought reissue Galvatron was the wrong colour. He always looked to pastel-pink, which is why I stuck with the original.

Joey_Macaroni wrote:BW: The Gathering made me feel this way about alot of characters. The designs of the characters were great but made the toys seem alot worse by comparison. Best example I can think of is Torca, his toy's too damn small and in general he just ain't anywhere near as good as his comic incarnation.
Retrax is the same, admittadly (sp?) I don't have any first hand experience of the toy so I could be wrong but from what I've seen of it it looks absolutely terrible

I totally agree with all of that. The ones that stood out the most with me were, besides Torca, Sonar, Skyshadow, Injector (or Aquasting, whichever you prefer), and, truth be told, Grimlock. The comic design was so much more intimidating than the toy. I mean, the toy was the same size as Dinobot, and Dinobot was no were near as big as Grim in the comic.

Nemesis_Apoc wrote:

Joey_Macaroni wrote:BW: The Gathering made me feel this way about alot of characters. The designs of the characters were great but made the toys seem alot worse by comparison. Best example I can think of is Torca, his toy's too damn small and in general he just ain't anywhere near as good as his comic incarnation.
Retrax is the same, admittadly (sp?) I don't have any first hand experience of the toy so I could be wrong but from what I've seen of it it looks absolutely terrible

I totally agree with all of that. The ones that stood out the most with me were, besides Torca, Sonar, Skyshadow, Injector (or Aquasting, whichever you prefer), and, truth be told, Grimlock. The comic design was so much more intimidating than the toy. I mean, the toy was the same size as Dinobot, and Dinobot was no were near as big as Grim in the comic.

I just found it awesome that Grimmy was able to transcend time and avoided having his spark stolen from BM Megs. I mean he must be incredibly lucky.

The Gathering designs were great and made me appreciate a lot of the BW molds and hate others. (Looking at you Torca.)

I agree that Pretender Bludgeon was a let down

G1's were all bricks...let's face it. Most of (98.5%) the toys were crap til RID...

Then again, I compare everything to 1/48 valks and Gundam MG/PG kits so if doesn't have 4,386,787 points of articulation, cost a ridiculous amount of money, and have all writing in japanese which I cant read (when translated probably says "look at stupid american pay 200 dollars for kids toy!" I just ain't interested.

One specific figure that stands out in my mind however is G1 Hotrod. Couldn't even move his arms above the elbows.

The bricklike nature of many of them is part of their iconic appeal.

Nemesis_Apoc wrote:

Joey_Macaroni wrote:BW: The Gathering made me feel this way about alot of characters. The designs of the characters were great but made the toys seem alot worse by comparison. Best example I can think of is Torca, his toy's too damn small and in general he just ain't anywhere near as good as his comic incarnation.
Retrax is the same, admittadly (sp?) I don't have any first hand experience of the toy so I could be wrong but from what I've seen of it it looks absolutely terrible

I totally agree with all of that. The ones that stood out the most with me were, besides Torca, Sonar, Skyshadow, Injector (or Aquasting, whichever you prefer), and, truth be told, Grimlock. The comic design was so much more intimidating than the toy. I mean, the toy was the same size as Dinobot, and Dinobot was no were near as big as Grim in the comic.

As a result of the comic (as u know joe) i am the proud owner of an Injector-now what the hell am i gonna do with him!!! his head is frickin huge!!!!

Oh and all time worst tf, treadbolt and Energeon Ultramagnus, seriously if magnus has time to deal with nothing else-make some frickin time to destroy whom every designed that mold! -they are both on my shelf of shame!

G1 Hot Rod and Blurr. Although the Mega SCF version of Hot Rod/ Rodimus makes a nice 'Actionmaster' version that looks well with the likes of G1 Prowl and Hound who he seemed to pal about with in the background of the G2 comics.

The Actionmasters. Kick Off, Axer and Slicer deserve a Diaclone mold. Retool Sideswipe's head and give him a spoiler and he'd make a cool 'proper' G1 Hot Rod.

Skyfall and Banzai-tron should get Armada Skywarp and Energon Divebomb's molds repainted for them.

Actually, Cybertron Clocker/Swerve would make a cool Hot Rod. And make Strongarm Roadbuster.

The Predacons should have been remade by whoever made Robotmasters Victory Leo.

All the G1 combiners were too damn small. Thankfully I have oversized Bruticus and Superion.

Same thing with Robotmasters Wrecker Hook and Wingstun. Thankfully I have the oversized versions of those too. If only they'd do the oversized KO's of these guys in their Machine Wars colours.

The Autobot Headmasters were too big. Thankfully I have Kabaya Brainstorm and Highbrow who look nice with other G1 guys.

All the Armada Autobots. Shame as it's only the size that bugs me about Sideswipe.

Actually, any car that's larger than a Basic annoys the Hell out of me.

G1 Ultra Magnus. Lack of legs annoys me, though as kid, I love how he'd wheel into battle, like an attack tower or something.

Arcee, she never had an actual toy version.

BW Rattrap, both S1 and TM. Both were back-heavy and could hardly stand, unless if you use S1's tail. I really didn't like TM Rattrap's lack of weapon, the Castlevania mood doesn't fit the character, and the wheels should have went behind his shoulders and be removeable, like in the show.

BW Depthcharage. The toy was pretty crap in terms of articulation, and that bigass discshooter wasn't worth ruining the figure over.

Most G1 Combiners. Devastator isn't so scary-looking when his legs fall off when you move him...

I'll post more later.

Basketball Jones wrote:The bricklike nature of many of them is part of their iconic appeal.

Huh?

I don't get it.