The Energon Pub

I thought I would put to together a answer for a few question that people new to board seem to be asking.

1. Q: Why was classics discontinued?
A: Because it was supposed to be a filler line between the end of cybertron and the movie. But they will bring it back sort of in oct 2008 under classic 2.0/universe banner if you want to know about the universe line here is link to seibertron.com universe gallery: http://www.seibertron.com/toys/index.php?f_series=24

2. Q: Why was alternators discontinued?
A: Because hasbro didn't want to continue to pay lisenceing fees to
Auto manunfactors or at least that is what I got by reading the post from botcon this year. Although when the next movie roles around
I image we will get more lisenced cars.

3. Q: Why was the titainum line discontinued?
A: Because of poor quality control and lack of profit. But the good news is that we may see left over protypes include in the up coming universe line.

If anyone else has anything to add in terms of question and answer please feel free to include them in this post. If some of information is in correct please feel free to add the correct information to the is topic.

shortround wrote:2. Q: Why was alternators discontinued?
A: Because hasbro didn't want to continue to pay lisenceing fees to
Auto manunfactors or at least that is what I got by reading the post from botcon this year. Although when the next movie roles around
I image we will get more lisenced cars.

All of the Alts were licensed. Then Hasbro signed an exclusive agreement with GM to use all GM cars for the movie. I'm sure there would be a conflict if they continued putting out non-GM Alternaors figures.

The Alt line had also been going on for almost four years. That is a long time for any toyline. They are also a fairly expensive $20 toy.

Add to the mix that Hasbro was adding a lot of additional TF products (Fast Action Battlers, Cyber Slammers, Legends, the regular releases, games, etc...) and the first line to get axed was the older and more expensive one with licensing conficts - Alternators.

On top of all that, support for Binaltech figures in Japan has waned despite the injection of soft-porn anime figures to spice things up. Hasbro and Takara often shared figure designs, and with both companies moving on to other Transformers brand items (and Takara merging with Tomy may have changed the Hasbro/Takara relationship a bit) the Alts time had finally come.

Q:What is this Animated show, and when is it coming out?
A: Transformers Animated is the newest Transformers Series created by Hasbro, this time in conjunction with the Cartoon Network. It has no tie-ins with previous shows, and has been written and designed in America. It is the first new series since Beast Machines that was not a Dubbed version of a pre-existing Japanese series.
Hasbro have not yet confirmed a release date, but it is expected that it will debut in the 1st quarter of 2008.

i_amtrunks wrote:Q:What is this Animated show, and when is it coming out?
A: Transformers Animated is the newest Transformers Series created by Hasbro, this time in conjunction with the Cartoon Network. It has no tie-ins with previous shows, and has been written and designed in America. It is the first new series since Beast Machines that was not a Dubbed version of a pre-existing Japanese series.
Hasbro have not yet confirmed a release date, but it is expected that it will debut in the 1st quarter of 2008.

Additional info can be found here

publicvisage wrote:

i_amtrunks wrote:Q:What is this Animated show, and when is it coming out?
A: Transformers Animated is the newest Transformers Series created by Hasbro, this time in conjunction with the Cartoon Network. It has no tie-ins with previous shows, and has been written and designed in America. It is the first new series since Beast Machines that was not a Dubbed version of a pre-existing Japanese series.
Hasbro have not yet confirmed a release date, but it is expected that it will debut in the 1st quarter of 2008.

Additional info can be found here

It's still only a fan-site ( a bloody good one though) so nothing on there can be accepted anymore than wikipedia.

Lapse Of Reason wrote:
All of the Alts were licensed. Then Hasbro signed an exclusive agreement with GM to use all GM cars for the movie.

Couldn't have been THAT exclusive, Barricade is a Ford Mustang.

It doesn't get labeled as a Mustang because of it being modified by Saleen. I don't know specifics because I know nothing about cars, but a Saleen-modified Mustang is actually a Saleen. Weird, yeah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saleen

Chosen wrote:It doesn't get labeled as a Mustang because of it being modified by Saleen. I don't know specifics because I know nothing about cars, but a Saleen-modified Mustang is actually a Saleen. Weird, yeah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saleen

I understand that, I actually work at Ford on the assembly line. I also own 2 Mustangs:
My 2 Stangs

The Saleen is still made from the Mustang frame and body and reads as a Ford Mustang on the title(my cousin actually owns one).

The Mustang Saleen is basically made from six cylinder Mustangs. They come off the assembly line and Saleen trashes the six cylinder engine and installs their own 281 C.I. engine and all the other modifications(seats, gauges, stripes, etc).
It's still NOT a GM no matter what way you cut it, so it couldn't have been an all-exclusive GM contract.

iron maniac wrote:

Chosen wrote:It doesn't get labeled as a Mustang because of it being modified by Saleen. I don't know specifics because I know nothing about cars, but a Saleen-modified Mustang is actually a Saleen. Weird, yeah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saleen

I understand that, I actually work at Ford on the assembly line. I also own 2 Mustangs:
My 2 Stangs

The Saleen is still made from the Mustang frame and body and reads as a Ford Mustang on the title(my cousin actually owns one).

The Mustang Saleen is basically made from six cylinder Mustangs. They come off the assembly line and Saleen trashes the six cylinder engine and installs their own 281 C.I. engine and all the other modifications(seats, gauges, stripes, etc).
It's still NOT a GM no matter what way you cut it, so it couldn't have been an all-exclusive GM contract.

and optimus was a peterbilt. i think they might've made a few exceptions in the agreement?

Thanks to all who are giving all this information. As a newbie myself, I'm sometimes afraid to ask questions that may have been discussed many times in the past. I still can't get the Search to work (and I've tried) and there's only so many pages you can go back before your eyes glaze over and you fall out of your computer chair, chewing on your own tounge.

Bumblebee-otch wrote:and optimus was a peterbilt. i think they might've made a few exceptions in the agreement?

Probably exactly what happened. ^^^^

Susinko wrote:Thanks to all who are giving all this information. As a newbie myself, I'm sometimes afraid to ask questions that may have been discussed many times in the past. I still can't get the Search to work (and I've tried) and there's only so many pages you can go back before your eyes glaze over and you fall out of your computer chair, chewing on your own tounge.

Ask away, no such thing as a dumb question, and these boards are here to help. I would only advise avoiding threads about Movie 08' Bumblebee.

The Search functionality is currently not working, but should (hopefully) be back online in the not too distant future, once Ryan gets the Transtopia merger and a few other things sorted out.

Iron maniac. I heart your stangs. But enough of the jibba jabba

Q. What are Masterpeices and what do they offer?
A. Masterpeices are basically larger figures of a Generation 1 iconic character on a larger scale,made from plastic and some die cast metal the size of a leader class. Made for the adult collector in mind and should not be handled by kids, unless it's Prime and he can take a beating.

Q. Should I buy this Transformer?
A. Check out the Toy Galleries here and determine if you like the way the figure is made.

This turning out to be one neat topic I'm glad that people are helping out. Thanks for all the stuff about the movie I'm sure alot people did have question about that and were afraid to ask. Keep up the question and answer every little bit helps.

Here are two more I just thought of:

Q: What are different sizes that transformers come in?
A: Sorry if I only listed the price points for the united states those are the only ones I know I'm sure someone can list canada,aus,england, and rest of the world:
1. scout-$6.99
2. Deluxe-$9.99
3. Voyager-$19.99
4. Ultra-$29.99
5. Leader-39.99
6. Supreme-$49.99


Q: Why can't the remake my favorite g1 mold?
A: Here are the three answer I have been able to find floating around the this forum:
1. The mold is either lost or damaged beyond repair.
2. The toy no longer meets safety standared. An example is fortress maximus if it fell of a shelf and hit somone on the head it could kill them.
3. Hasbro licensed the rights to the figure from another company and no longer has them examples are g1 omega supreme, g1 jetfire, g1 shockwave, and g1 sky lynx. but in the case of sky lynx takara has gotten the rights to make him and will be releasing him

iron maniac wrote:

Lapse Of Reason wrote:
All of the Alts were licensed. Then Hasbro signed an exclusive agreement with GM to use all GM cars for the movie.

Couldn't have been THAT exclusive, Barricade is a Ford Mustang.

Barricade is a Saleen. Now we'll have to figure out the relationship of GM and Saleen, of which i do not know.

Auto Bot wrote:Barricade is a Saleen. Now we'll have to figure out the relationship of GM and Saleen, of which i do not know.

Read a few posts up, I already explained it. ^^^^

I work at Ford, the Saleen is still a Mustang for all intents and purposes and is labeled as such on the owners title.
Saleen is in no way affiliated with GM and has no kind of relationship with GM anyway even if it wasn't a Mustang.

Optimus Prime was a non-GM vehicle as well in the movie as a Peterbilt truck. Peterbilt has ZERO affiliation with GM either.

English prices are as follows:

Scout- £6.99
Deluxe- £9.99
Voyager- £19.99
Ultra- £24.99
Leader- £39.99
Supreme- £49.99

Alternators fall under the Voyager category, and so standard RRP is £19.99. But it greatly varies thanks to rarety and demand.

THS figures seem to fall under Supreme in price, so I will add one more price range:


Masterpiece- £49.99- £79.99

This includes THS figures, and the Masterpiece figures.

Real Gear figures fall under scout.
Role play prices I do not know, as they fluctuate greatly.
I'd steer clear of them anyway if I were you.




Q. Where can I post sightings for my area?

A. You lucky guy you! You can choose both/ either the sightings forum, where you can post your findings in the thread with the appropriately named state/country etc; or you can post your sightings in the sightings archive- accessible from both the task bar at the top of the web page, or the side task bar that appears above 'Forums' when you are already in the sightings thread.

Well I'm going to bump the thread to the top of page just to be safe.
masterpiece: $89-$100
depending on when or were you buy them the new wal-mart exlusive starscream will be $
59 and will be released in nov 2007.

- If you live outside the USA you will be ripped off.

- Wait some time for your movie figures to be restocked in stores, rather than go and spend twice as much or more for the same figure from ebay.

- Binaltech is the Japanese versions of the Alternators, and are mainly made from metal rather than plastic.

As an add on th Master Blasters point about the Sightings forum:
You can find the Sighting Forum here.

The Master Blaster wrote:Q. Where can I post sightings for my area?

A. You lucky guy you! You can choose both/ either the sightings forum, where you can post your findings in the thread with the appropriately named state/country etc; or you can post your sightings in the sightings archive- accessible from both the task bar at the top of the web page, or the side task bar that appears above 'Forums' when you are already in the sightings thread.

It's actually suggested you do both!

shortround--\"You call him Dr. Jones lady! wrote:Q: Why can't the remake my favorite g1 mold?
A: Here are the three answer I have been able to find floating around the this forum:
1. The mold is either lost or damaged beyond repair.
2. The toy no longer meets safety standared. An example is fortress maximus if it fell of a shelf and hit somone on the head it could kill them.
3. Hasbro licensed the rights to the figure from another company and no longer has them examples are g1 omega supreme, g1 jetfire, g1 shockwave, and g1 sky lynx. but in the case of sky lynx takara has gotten the rights to make him and will be releasing him

At this point in time, we have been told that lost G1 molds include dinobots, Mirage, Sunstreaker, and Wheeljack along with it is believed, several of the combiner teams.

Recent re-issue generation 1 toy lines include: Toys R Us Commemorative Series (discontinued), E-Hobby Exclusives (discontinued), Takara Transformers Collection (discontinued), and Takara-Tomy Encore (Currently Being Produced)...

Pricing for Germany: (Hey, why not ?)

Scout- € 10,99
Deluxe- € 15,99
Voyager- € 27,99
Ultra- ?? (None available)
Leader- € 49,99
Supreme- € 59,99

I thought of another commonly asked question:
Q: What are good place to shop on line for transformers or collectables:
A: Well one place I know of that has really good selection most of the time is:
1. Big bad toy store: http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/default.aspx
2. Action hq: http://www.action-hq.com/store/index.php
I'm sure your ask yourself are these place that good considering they advertise on this site and all. But as far big bad toy store goes I have bought a number of things from them and have never had a problem. Action Hq on the other hand I have no personly experense with but I read on the forums that people seem to love them. If anyone else knows of good places on line to shop transformers please list them and include a link. Because we are all in the together.

shortround wrote:I thought of another commonly asked question:
Q: What are good place to shop on line for transformers or collectables:
A: Well one place I know of that has really good selection most of the time is:
1. Big bad toy store:http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/default.aspx
2. Action hq:http://www.action-hq.com/store/index.php
I'm sure your ask yourself are these place that good considering they advertise on this site and all as big bad toy store goes I have bought a number of things from them and have never had a problem. Action Hq on the other hand I have no personly experense with but I read on forum that people seem to love them. If anyone else knows of good places on line to shop transformers please list them and include a link. Because we are all in the together.

I would say to add Digital Toys to that list as well, I have had nothing but good experiences with them as many others have on this board. Excellent selection too.
http://www.digital-toys.com/index.html

Can we make this thread a "sticky" by chance?

That would be great if they could make it sticky I think it would help alot of people new to the site and give a place to exchange tips and cover frequently asked questions.