The Energon Pub

With the advent of the Prime Masters in Power of the Primes and their Pretender shell homages, I've decided to try and find suitable figures to pair them with. A few so far make very obvious pairings, such as Vector Prime with Titans Return Metalhawk...




...or BotCon 2012 Metalhawk...



...and Liege Maximo with Transformers Generations Skullgrin.




Quintus Prime seems to have his choice of partners, such as Revenge of the Fallen Bludgeon, TFSS Bludgeon, and even Robots in Disguise 2015 Bludgeon.






I've got an idea for Alpha Trion with Cybertron Landmine...




...with Energon Landmine being another possibility due to his better alt mode match...



...but I think the colors of Cybertron Landmine work a lot better with the original inner robot of G1 Pretender Landmine.



That's where I'm at so far. I'm looking for suggestions for and discussions on finding partners for the rest of the Prime Masters coming out. My preference is for robots that look like the inner Pretender robots of G1 so that their outer shells serve as their "Targetmasters." In some cases, though, like with Skullgrin and Bludgeon, I can settle for a "Classics" remake that blends the two together. For reference, here is the rest of the announced Prime Masters for whom larger robot "buddies" are needed:

Micronus with Cloudburst
Alchemist Prime with Submarauder
Megatronus with Bombburst
Solus Prime with Octopunch

Of course, there are potentially four more to come, though we only really have confirmation of Onyx Prime as a special edition bonus piece for Titan Class Predaking, which comes with a Matrix unit instead of a Pretender shell ("Decoy Armor").

I'm also looking to pair up the three Autobot Targetmasters coming out in Takara's Transformers Legends line: Pinpointer, Peacemaker, and Spoilsport. There's not telling when or if we'll get proper "Classics" updates of this trio, so I'm going to go ahead and do it myself for now. I've already got two contenders for Pinpointer's partner Crosshairs...



...those being Transformers Cloud Roadbuster...



...and Superlink Roadbuster (a.k.a., Energon Ironhide).



I still need good likenesses of Pointblank...



...and Sureshot

To get some ideas flowing and the conversation started, here are some pics of the Prime Masters with their G1 Pretender namesakes:

Micronus and Cloudburst:




Alchemist Prime and Submarauder:




Megatronus and Bombburst:




Solus Prime and Octopunch:




If anyone has any better ideas for the pairings I've already made, here are references for those G1 pretenders as well:

Metalhawk:



Skullgrin:



Bludgeon:



G1 Landmine is already depicted in the first post of the thread, if anyone needs that reference.

Just for the sake of completeness, here are the Takara Legends G1 Targetmasters (G1 versions pictured first) still without their official G1 partners (a.k.a., Crosshairs, Pointblank, and Sureshot, respectively).

Pinpointer:




Peacemaker:




Spoilsport:

The only one of the Legends Targetmasters I'll have is Pinpointer. I'm digging the Cloud Roadbuster you suggested for Crosshairs. Alas, not a figure I have. I was thinking Titans Return Orion Pax would work nicely, though.



Color layouts aren't quite the same... and a shame his head isn't black... but it could work!

Yotsuyasan wrote:The only one of the Legends Targetmasters I'll have is Pinpointer. I'm digging the Cloud Roadbuster you suggested for Crosshairs. Alas, not a figure I have. I was thinking Titans Return Orion Pax would work nicely, though.



Color layouts aren't quite the same... and a shame his head isn't black... but it could work!

Slap Titans Return Perceptor's head on there, and it's a very close fit to Crosshairs. Plus, he'd be a deluxe sized Transtector type body just like the other Targetmasters in the Legends line. If only the arms were blue and the transparent plastic cockpit were colorless instead of red, it would be perfect. (Okay, red thighs and black pelvis, hands, and feet would make it really perfect, but I'd settle for just the arms and clear windows.)

Wolfman Jake wrote:

Yotsuyasan wrote:...and a shame his head isn't black... but it could work!

Slap Titans Return Perceptor's head on there, and it's a very close fit to Crosshairs.

I actually thought Perceptor's head might be a good idea... Pity I don't have a Perceptor. (Well, not the Titans Return one.) Maybe someday I'll come across someone selling a broken one for parts that I can harvest the head from? We'll see...

It's probably not what you're expecting with this thread, but here's my perfect pairing :



The socket on the tanks is the exact size for the base of the suit, it really looks like it's been made for it.
It also attach perfectly on Skyshadow forearm in robot mode, and it gives a pilot for the tank.

ExciKaiser wrote:It's probably not what you're expecting with this thread, but here's my perfect pairing :

20171217_143647.jpg

The socket on the tanks is the exact size for the base of the suit, it really looks like it's been made for it.
It also attach perfectly on Skyshadow forearm in robot mode, and it gives a pilot for the tank.

Yeah, not quite what I'm looking for, but still very cool. I love when Hasbro leaves in little cross-play easter eggs (intentional or not) for fans to find. This has made me wonder too, what happened to the "C-joint" system Hasbro introduced for figures around 2010 or so? That was a neat idea to mix and match different accessories with other figures and forego the 5mm peg system, but it was here and gone in a flash, and were back to mainly 5mm and 3mm pegs and holes once more.

Well, here's Orion Perceptax as G1 Crosshairs with Pinpointer. Comments?

Wolfman Jake wrote:Comments?

My comment is that now I really wish I had that Perceptor head!

Trying to think if I have any other heads that might work... Maybe Ptero (Swoop)? I don't have Pinpointer yet, but I can at least try out the body/head combo later.

If it were colored right it would be fine, but with all that red and the bits of light blue it looks more like Pointblank.



Emerje

Emerje wrote:If it were colored right it would be fine, but with all that red and the bits of light blue it looks more like Pointblank.



Emerje

The blue is darker in person than on G1 Pointblank, but yeah, it's not that rich, saturated "true" blue that you see on G1 Crosshairs OR Transformers Cloud Roadbuster, which I think is still my ideal Crosshairs stand in. The Titans Return Orion Pax mold, though, does approximate the "pick-up truck" G1 alt mode of Crosshairs well (and quite a bit better than that of Pointblank, who classically looks more like a Cybertronian race care or dragster).

Any more ideas out there? We've still got a lot of ground to cover!

Here's a dreadful idea I once had. Then a better one.

Stuff.

Mr. O, those Skullgrin pics are absolutely adorable! It's like Skullgrin Jr. is giving his daddy a big hug.

Wolfman Jake wrote:Mr. O, those Skullgrin pics are absolutely adorable! It's like Skullgrin Jr. is giving his daddy a big hug.

Papoose mode!

You know, I do quite like that FoC Sideswipe as a potential Pointblank. Sideswipe's stylized head sculpt there is not a bad match for Pointblank at all. It's a shame that it will require a bit of paint work to really achieve the needed look, but I may be willing to give it a shot some time. I might just stop by my local hobby shot and pick up some teal paint. I'm assuming acrylic or lacquer is the way to go. Any brand recommendations?