The Energon Pub

My fellow Seibertronians, lend me your audio receptors!

One of the major stories coming out of this past weekend's Hasbro Media Day at New York Toy Fair is the launch of Hasbro Labs (HasLab for short), a crowdfunding platform intended to deliver oft requested and long sought after 'grails' to the various communities in Hasbro's fan ecosystem. Their initial project is the largest Star Wars vehicle ever: a 3.75" scale Jabba's Sail Barge from Return of the Jedi. With all crowdfunding projects comes a degree of risk: HasLab requires a 5000 unit commitment at $500 apiece for the project to succeed.



What does this have to do with us, the Transformer community? Well, if you haven't seen or heard the group interview with the Transformers Brand Team, some saw HasLab as a path to a no-holds-bar update to the Chaos Bringer himself: Unicron.

Would fans want to see a crowdfunded HasLab Unicron? What kind of pricing? Point fans to HasLab, talk about it, read about it, podcast about it. Talk about what you want to see, we’re listening. #Unicron

What does the Seibertron community think? Should the Transformers Brand Team use HasLab as a vehicle to bring us the Chaos Bringer? Or would you rather see Hasbro's crowdfunding platform directed to create something else entirely?

Share your thoughts in the comments below, and let's get this discussion started --- the powers that Has-be are listening!

I feel like this gave Hasbro a very bad idea. I would have been more than happy with a Titan class Unicron for $150, since they could never make a Unicron big enough to interact with existing figures. He's always been a figure you could just accept will always be out of scale (except with Primus). But now a handful of fans with seemingly large bank accounts have planted it in Hasbro's head that we'd be willing to pay $500 for 3' Unicron. I could never see that reaching its goal, at most I'd pay $250-$300 for that. And what worries me more is I feel like Hasbro logic would dictate it meaning we aren't interested in a Unicron figure, not that they've priced fans out of buying one. The Sandcrawler isn't comparable since it'll be to scale and need to be able to interact with the figures, two things that would be impossible for a Unicron figure. Aside from the novelty of a 3' Unicron is there really any good reason for it to be more than 2' Titan size?

Emerje

I’ve got my old Armada Unicron from when I was a kid. It’s dated, sure, but I think it’s as good as we’re gunna get. Anything bigger would probably be overkill.

I’d rather see this being used to create Titan-class Scorponok or Omega Supreme.

I would like him to be more than a transforming ball planet, possibly with some base/battle mode and loaded with minicon ports, a removable or extra head that could possibly be opened up as a small play set. Also loaded with homages to characters he has been involved with (like some crunched pieces of Thrust in some plating) and possibly even including a deluxe Sideways. But I think $500 is too much, possibly somewhere in the range of 300-350 and being twice the size of a titan would be cool.

Graviton wrote:I would like him to be more than a transforming ball planet, possibly with some base/battle mode and loaded with minicon ports, a removable or extra head that could possibly be opened up as a small play set. Also loaded with homages to characters he has been involved with (like some crunched pieces of Thrust in some plating) and possibly even including a deluxe Sideways. But I think $500 is too much, possibly somewhere in the range of 300-350 and being twice the size of a titan would be cool.

This would definitely be for G1 animated movie Unicron, not Armada Unicron so no Armada references and Mini-con ports here. Definitely no extra modes not from the movie.

Emerje

They should make a mega battle set featuring primus and his remaining primes going against Unicron and the Fallen...and a custom battlefield that doubles as a display...

Boo this article! Boo this man!* We want Tidal Wave!



*Don't actually do that part, he's cool

I would definitely be in for a Haslab Unicron. I really want to go in on the sail barge but $500 by April is a bit short notice for such a high price. I don't think Unicron would be anywhere near that price though, I think $250 would be more realistic. Sure it'll be big but not 4' big, I think 3' would suffice. This is Unicron he NEEDS to be bigger than Metroplex.

Need Unicron to be at least 7ft. tall, complete with a brain and gut smelting pool play-set built inside of him, plus head must be detachable. But seriously, I’d settle for a Unicron’s head play set and call it a day.

steals_your_goats wrote:I would definitely be in for a Haslab Unicron. I really want to go in on the sail barge but $500 by April is a bit short notice for such a high price. I don't think Unicron would be anywhere near that price though, I think $250 would be more realistic. Sure it'll be big but not 4' big, I think 3' would suffice. This is Unicron he NEEDS to be bigger than Metroplex.

I think thats a bit on the dreamer side. Unicron at almost any size is going to be a far more complex toy than that Sail Barge.

Me, personally, I would love a Titan Class Unicron, but I don’t have 500 to pledge up front for something like that. I sincerely doubt it would be less than 350, and I fully expect them to throw out the 500 number

ScottyP wrote:Boo this article! Boo this man! We want Tidal Wave!

One of my favourite bosses from the most underrated Transformers game.

Anyway, I've had negative history with crowdfunding so I don't rate it's value (no pun intended)as a platform, especially in this instance. Wherein it let's Hasbro off the hook to make such TF's as part of their default lines and purely overpriced collectors items.

As for Unicron's scale, using Titans Return Fort Max as a guide, he should be 1-2 inches taller than Fort Max, but no more than that. Anything substantially bigger than that is purely ridiculous and infeasible for shipping and/or sale.

It all depends on the height and size whether Id be in or not. Its gotta be big enough to dwarf metroplex but small enough to transform. Id rather spend $500 on a reissue of the lucky draw green unicron of light. Those 5 people who won it (and sold it) have been exclusive long enough. Mass produce the damn thing.

Rated X wrote:It all depends on the height and size whether Id be in or not. Its gotta be big enough to dwarf metroplex but small enough to transform. Id rather spend $500 on a reissue of the lucky draw green unicron of light. Those 5 people who won it (and sold it) have been exclusive long enough. Mass produce the damn thing.

He can still dwarf them in Planet Mode (in contrast to City Mode) without his Robot Mode being too much taller than Fort Max. That also depends on whether this will be G1 "Fat" Unicron or if they will get creative with tucking the Planet mode inside his body.

I'd possibly be in for an investment of around 200$ to get a G1 accurate Unicron, tops. Otherwise, I'll stick with the Takara retool/repaint released in 2010 thank you very much.

As for other potential figures that could come out of this:

- Titan Class Targetmaster Seacons
- Titan Class Armada Tidal Wave (in animation colors)
- Timelines CW-like Nexus Prime giftset with new molds for each character
- Leader class Beast Wars Torca w/o GPS
- Leader class Sky Lynx (that's not a combiner)
- Three-pack of Voyager-class Monsterbots (no Titan Master/Headmaster gimmick)
- All six female Autobots from the Search for Alpha Trion with brand new, unique, molds.

And some other stuff I'm not thinking of right now.

Not interested in Hasbro crowdunding, they do not even offer international shipping through it and even if they did it probably wouldn't be EU friendly, but it would at least be a start. Hasbro should should be a safer bet than kickscammer but it would probably just lead to Takara doing the same, making more exclusives and harder to get stuff (and Takara seem to be leaning towards crowdfunding already with their grand fortress pre-order target bonus thing they did).

i want a 2 foot or taller version to go with my cityformers. and the unproduced beast wars version for sure. would be interested in more info on this.

I'm what you would call a casual TF fan. All of you will run circles around me regarding knowledge of the line. Because of that, I'm not sure I would fund a Unicron. I love the idea, I just don't know if I love it enough to shell out the high dollar amount this would command. But if it is movie accurate (and why wouldn't it be?) I could find myself doing it.

Regardless of the possibility of a Unicron, I love the idea of the HasLab program. Many have criticized it because "multi-billon dollar corporations shouldn't be crowd funding, it's for the little people". That is where some have misunderstood this process. They don't need the money up front, they need to know people will commit to this and they won't take a loss. They are a business, they aren't there to do us favors. So many people have said "I would buy [really expensive item], they just need to make it." But then when it is released they say they don't have the money or the dreaded "I'll wait for clearance." That is exactly what we don't want if we really do want big, cool things.

I am a Star Wars fan and while I was not clamoring to get a sail barge, I love the what they have here. It's a really cool item, it will be really limited, and supporting this can lead to a lot of other great things. So I funded this one. If you are a big Star Wars fan, you should consider doing it too.

$500 for a 4 foot UNICRON that sizes right with Headmasters/Prime Masters/Titan Masters sounds good to me.

Targetmaster Kup wrote:$500 for a 4 foot UNICRON that sizes right with Headmasters/Prime Masters/Titan Masters sounds good to me.

It's a planet. It would have to be four miles before it scaled properly with any normal figures.

I vote for the G1 Autobot Ark or the Decepticon Nemesis as play sets.

Think about how heavy a four foot Unicron would be. Go pick up a TR Fort Max and imagine something twice as heavy as that. I Can't imagine a toy that cumbersome being very fun to transform and play with.

Lore Keeper wrote:Think about how heavy a four foot Unicron would be. Go pick up a TR Fort Max and imagine something twice as heavy as that. I Can't imagine a toy that cumbersome being very fun to transform and play with.

You hang it from the ceiling. It's a dwarf-planet after all.

I would honestly rather have Primus. I have always felt the Cybertron toy was way too small.

Since Titan Class became a thing with Generations Metroplex I've wondered if we would ever get a Titan Class Unicron but the potential with HasLab seems to bring it to the next level. As an "ultimate dream item" I would love to see how a potential project like this would come to fruition. If Hasbro is truly using fan feedback to determine the figure then here are some points I think they should hit...

-Largest Transformers figure ever made. If they can make Jabba's Sail Barge 4ft long then I don't think it's too much to ask for a figure within the 3-4ft range in height, especially for a planet sized character.

-Inter-changeable heads; One battle damaged and one not with attachable green laser beams for the eyes.

- A Legends Class figure eating gimmick similar to Trypticon's titan master gimmick for bot mode and plant mode. A planet mode maw that can open and close would be cool.

- Lights and sound... not something I typically strive for but if Unicron's planetary ring could light up that would be awesome. Light up green eyes and red abs as well would be nice. Now when I refer to sound... I'm not looking for your typical "pew pew" noises... I refer more to something akin to high quality sound clips of lines from Orson Wells as Unicron from the animated movie.

-Quality materials and paint applications. A figure that large will obviously be fairly heavy so good plastic and parts are a must. We don't need him breaking at the knees (AKA strong ratchet joints please). Also solid paints apps and tampographs. (Absolutely no stickers Hasbro...)

-Solid transformation and poseability; Fully articulated fingers, ankle tilt, the works. Don't skimp on the parts count or be cheap and leave out potential accessories. Make this a figure where no one feels the need to buy a 3rd party add on kit.

- A figure stand to support him in plant mode.

-Classic 80's packaging is a must but please... leave off the Decepticon symbols.

-The ultimate rendition of G1 Unicron. If this is our chance to get this figure as the "ultimate dream product" then go all in. Make it happen Hasbro. I'll support it.

Three words:

Animated Omega Supreme