The Energon Pub

Obviously, there are a lot of factors that can cause us to like or dislike a Transformer. Scale, articulation, transformation and character backstory are just a few examples.

What about colors? I guess the latest pic links on WFC Bruticus got me thinking on that, but it would be far from the first time a bad (or good) color scheme totally changed the way I felt about a figure. Sometimes, it can be something really subtle, such as the blue eyes on SG Megatron. Other times, it's pretty obvious, such as the infamous "Hasbro doesn't know what red is" lingering debate.

What are some figures that you feel have been greatly enhanced (or brought down) by their color schemes?

The classic BGTR (Black, Grey, Teal and Red) combo for any Black Repaint or Evil Clone comes to mind. So overused yet so iconic.

I'll be the first to mention Action Master Thundercracker, whose colors are so loud, they're cool. They make you ask "what were they on when they were deciding on colors?" over and over again.

Energon "Shockwave" would have found his way to my shelves long ago if he had the original's colors. Many G1 toys had great, rich, colors; I don't get why they went the way they did with Shockwave.

The first classics Megatron had awful colors too. What were they thinking?

As for a toy with great colors ... believe it or not I got Classics Magnus for his colors before getting classics Prime. Maybe part of it's nostalgia (I used the white Prime that came with Magnus as OP for a long time), but I dug it.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:The first classics Megatron had awful colors too. What were they thinking?

Haha, yes, pretty bad when his G2 colors were arguably less obnoxious.

Delicon wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:The first classics Megatron had awful colors too. What were they thinking?

Haha, yes, pretty bad when his G2 colors were arguably less obnoxious.

You can blame gun laws for that one

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Delicon wrote:

Gauntlet101010 wrote:The first classics Megatron had awful colors too. What were they thinking?

Haha, yes, pretty bad when his G2 colors were arguably less obnoxious.

You can blame gun laws for that one

No way I'm blaming gun laws on that one. I can blame the futuristic alt mode on that, but not the colors.

Movie Ratchet's colors are generally horrendous. That's why the only movie Ratchet I own is DotM Specialist Ratchet. RotF Skids and Mudflap had some really bad colors too.

Ruined? The whole movie line suffers fom the lack of paint, so I can say that "plastic grey" ruined the whole line.

Made? Any black-based Skywarp figure. His paint scheme looks the best from all Decepticons.

Grey ruins Jazz. It doesn't matter which one. Grey damns him.

I've never really cared for bumblebee or cliffjumper toys. I have no problem with yellow at all. Red is actually like, my favorite color. They've just never done it for me. However, ever since wasp in animated, I've longed for green repaints of bumblbee/cliffjumper toys. If they did a few in green, maybe I might start picking those molds.

http://i44.tinypic.com/211l2xe.jpg

Chaoslock wrote:Ruined? The whole movie line suffers fom the lack of paint, so I can say that "plastic grey" ruined the whole line.

Made? Any black-based Skywarp figure. His paint scheme looks the best from all Decepticons.

I'm in agreement. Lousy paintjobs on many of the movie figures really makes sub-par lines and lackluster toys even worse.

As for Skywarp, I love the colors of all the Seekers. It really makes them stand apart from each other, even Ramjet and Thundercracker who are both primarily one color. But I'm a Seekr fanatic, so maybe I'm too biased.

The Camo repaints of Bruticus/Ruination come to mind. Genius color schemes, them both.
As for paint ruining a figure? Id'e say Most of G2. There are a few good ones, but mostly, it's all eye searing.

Geewun Smokescreen has great colors. I always loved the blue, white & red on that guy. Perfect.

Most brown transformers are just awfull. Robots should not even be brown.

For me, certain molds just look better in certain colors, and it often depends on what the alt mode is. I didn't much care for Drift, mostly because the character is a Marty Stu if I ever saw one, but i really liked the Blurr repaint. Partly because of the sniper rifle, admittedly, but the point is that color scheme fit the mold better than Drift's.

On the other hand, the Allspark Blue shouls pretty much NEVER be on the mechanical parts of a bot. As the base color for the body work of, say, Blurr, yeah. But on the robotic parts not visible in alt mode? NEVER. There are those that manage to move past the hideous color, like DOTM Skyhammer (it almost fits, being an alternate middle ground between the white and the slate blue), but for the most part it just was absolutely terrible.

And finally, there's those molds that start with a nice looking color scheme (whether or not the paint apps are any good, they at least had colors that fit), and has at least one variant that is excellent, and one variant that blows donkey dung. Case in point, the Classics + Seeker mold. Thundercracker is excellent, as are Skywarp, and the second Starscream, but Acid Storm's "camo" paint job is remarkably bad - mainly in my military mind, as it's wearing what would be a ground based camo pattern, not an aerial one.

Masterforce Grand Maximus. All that red makes him so hideous. I know it's mostly show-accurate, but the toy just looks so ugly to me. At one point I planned on owning all 3 versions, but then decided to skip on the Grand Max, because for the price he is sold, it's just too visually off-putting.

Screamfleet wrote:I've never really cared for bumblebee or cliffjumper toys. I have no problem with yellow at all. Red is actually like, my favorite color. They've just never done it for me. However, ever since wasp in animated, I've longed for green repaints of bumblbee/cliffjumper toys. If they did a few in green, maybe I might start picking those molds.

http://i44.tinypic.com/211l2xe.jpg

I like Cliff and Bee, but yes, I too want Wasp. I had a green and yellow BB in WFC multiplayer and would love the mold in those colours.

repaint that made the figure animated blurr hes just perfect
repaint that was disgusting animated cheetor

RotF Sideways's bright red crotch "ruined" the figure for me, though the Dead End repaint made the figure (I'm a sucker for red-black-gold(en yellow) color schemes).


The excess of plain gray plastic is also a sour point with a lot of DotM molds, especially since the "core" body of the TF (i.e. everything that isn't part of the vehicle mode) tends to be entirely gray. Simply breaking up that gray with some of the kibble colors would've done wonders.

I HATED the inclusion of Allspark blue to the first movie line. Hated it. They went out of their way to try to make the toys as screen-accurate as they could and then screwed it up with the "premium" line.

Nothing but hate for that blue.

The only colour scheme that really ruined a figure for me was Classics voyager Megatron.

The red notches on the feet of RotF leader Prime drive me crazy. The mold is sheer genius but I can't stand looking at those bright red toes. I'll get around to painting him someday.

Also, I really think DotM deluxe BB is the best of the BB movie molds, even better than Battle Blades BB. But, damn, aside from the black racing stripes, I don't even think this figure has any paint apps. I'll get around to painting him, too.

Looking back on the G1 line, I remember how much I loved all the crazy day glo colors that the movie characters sported, all the way to the Headmasters and beyond (Seacons). As a kid, I thought the initial 84-85 looked dull in comparison. I loved the neon green eyes, purple legs, sky blue arms, and chrome teeth of the Sharkticon. Awesome.

Recently, I was pretty wowed by Generations Skyshadow. The new paint scheme really makes him stand out as whole different character from Thunderwing. And unlike a lot of recent Hasbro TFs, it's just an all-around great paint job. Black and any variety of colors do tend to make a figure stand out.

A great example of a bad vs. good paint scheme - Armada Unicron and Amazon Unicron. I was reluctant to buy him originally with all the clear plastic and purple bits, but with the new color scheme I'm all over it. I would have loved it even without the new head.

As for schemes that ruin figures, I'm going to agree with the consensus that the pale light grey so prevalent in modern TFs is pretty horrible, along with a lack of detail.

And a particularly ugly paint scheme was of course Classics Voyager Megatron.

the new head and chest probably help Skyshadow too.

Colors that made a figure:
Club G2 Ramjet
Club G2 Sideswipe
SG Goldbug


Colors that ruined a figure:
SG Jazz

I thought the original colour scheme on Classics Starscream was hideous. It was just so bland and unbecoming of his character. Plus, my one had a very badly painted helmet. I would have sworn off the mold had I not taken a chance on Acidstorm as I love new Seekers.

I've since gotten the more cartoon accurate Starscream, Thundercracker and the Coneheads. I've sent my first Starscream to be repainted as a purple Air Warrior. However, someone recently said that Starscream's colours were similar to G1 Tornado so now I'm uncertain about the repaint.

ROTF Dead End was very bland but I love Nightbeat. The head mold is too alien but his car mode looks fantastic.

I love ROTF Breakdown but I can't decide whether I like Oilpan. Pity they didn't give us Wildrider.

Machine Wars Mirage and Prowl are very bland but Robotmasters Mirage and RID Skidz are awesome.

Cybertron Clocker is garish but interesting. Swerve is cool because he reminds me of Hot Rod in the G2 comics. I have a Custom in Hot Rod's Movie clours and it looks nice.

I reacquainted myself with G1 Snarl recently after 2 decades. The stegosaurus mode with the gold paint is a work of art.