The Energon Pub

[partofmelp67]

Having re-played FALL OF CYBERTRON yesterday, I still think this game gave us plenty of characters re-modeling in their Cybertronian Mode.

I started collecting the Generations Line and got some toys of its line, including the Takara version of Soundwave.

My question is simple :

What is your favorite or/and worst toy off the line and why ?



I'd probably say Grimlock (as it is one of the most anticipated figures for me) and Deluxe Kickback (colours are just insane) for the best .


Jazz is a big letdown.

What about you ?

[GuyIncognito]

Jazz is the worst, there's no question about that.

Grimlock and Kickback are two of my favorites from the line, but just to be different, I'll suggest Starscream (or the seeker mold, in general) might be the best mold.

[partofmelp67]

I also forgot Takara's Soundwave, more game accurate than the hasbro one, but the WFC Deluxe still seems better .

Jazz really looks horrible, that's a fact. One of the few let-downs of the line alongside Hasbro's Bruticus.

[RiddlerJ]

A lot of the FOC figures were letdowns for me. Many seemed like good designs letdown by one flaw or another.

Grimlock, for example, has that gappy stomach and locked logs in dinosaur mode.

The data disks are severely hampered by relying on a silly autotransform gimmick.

Others like Shockwave or the Combaticons are just hit by the budget cuts that render them flimsier than they should've been.

My favorite might be Ultra Magnus which looks good in both modes and has no severe flaws. Ditto for the Seekers. Only that small gap in robot mode hurts them and it's easy enough to ignore that.

WFC Soundwave is more satisfying than FOC Soundwave for me. His vehicle mode is composed better. The only thing the Voyager Soundwave offers is the data disk compatibility which isn't as successful as it should've been.

[partofmelp67]

A lot of the FOC figures were letdowns for me. Many seemed like good designs letdown by one flaw or another.

So you'd consider Air Raid and Kickback being letdowns ?

I love the Kickback robot mode, even though the Insect mode is kinda average. Those colours really get my attention .

[RiddlerJ]

I want to like Kickback (G1 Kickback is one of my favorites) but yeah, his insect mode is kinda hokey. His back legs really should've been designed better.

In fact, I have two and one I intentionally bent the legs outward even though it meant bending the plastic just so I can see him with more proper grasshopper legs. His robot mode is alright though.

Air Raid just strikes me as a weak Shockwave figure retool. He really doesn't work as Air Raid for me. I repurposed him as my Classics Broadside.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

I;ll echo the Jazz hate. I look at that sorry piece of crap, then to the awesome HFTD mold and think, "Where did it go wrong?"

[partofmelp67]

I don't have any of the seekers for now, so I can't say anything about them .

But from what I saw , Takara's versions are by far better than the hasbros , except for Jazz,KickBack, and even Grimlock.

[fenrir72]

Jazz's face. He looks like a neanderthal man.

[shajaki]

if there wasnt a MP soundwave, id go so far to say this is the best soundwave out there. i might even say its the nicest paint job on a transformer to date. in person, that blue paint shines almost like glass. go buy him. at any price!

worst.... like everyone says is probably jazz. id like to throw BB and CJ in there though. those strange wrists really bug me.

[prjkt]

Having a mild obsession with the game... I have ALL the FOC deludes, Hasbro and Takara, and all of the WFC moulds... Like stated above, Takara's WFC Soundwave is probably one of the best, scale and colour wise beats Hasbro's FPC Voyager model, and comes with his hand weapon as well.

Am also a sucker for the Starscream/Seeker mould, have all seven iterations.

But I really like the Megatron mould, I only have the Rage over Cybertron and Darkside exclusive versions, so I can't comment on the retail releases, but that Darkside Megatron just screams evil.

Jazz was a letdown, Sideswipe even more so (harder to tab in) and Brawl is too small and too unstable on his own.

Out on a limb though, my favourite FOC style figure is Planet X' take on Swoop (even if it's not official)

[shajaki]

Am also a sucker for the Starscream/Seeker mould, have all seven iterations.

seven? correct me if im wrong but...
hasbros SS, SW, TC
takaras SS, SW ,TC
thats six. i know about the million pub infiltrator SS, but he's not out yet is he?

[prjkt]

he is indeed

[gavinfuzzy]

I dunno, i liked them all.

Id say the stronger molds are Optimus and Megatron from the 2010 generations line.

As for the current line, I like them all. Yes, jazz included.

But id say Magnus, starscream, sideswipe could be the stronger guys.

Platinium bruticus is great too. I own the takara one and i sorta regret not holding out for platinium just because of how much i paid.

[prjkt]

Looking at comparisons between Platinum and Takara, I still prefer the Takara shiny finish

[william-james88]

I prefer the WFC line over the FOC line myself. Nothing ever beat WFC Optimus deluxe.

[Twitchythe3rd]

Really the only truly bad mold is Jazz. The car mode is nice but the robot mode is terrible.

I don't think Optimus is that bad. He's just a little on the short side. Also looks so much better as Ultra Magnus.

Shockwave is probably the best version of the character we've gotten in a loooooong time. Looks great next to WFC Megatron.

[craggy]

WFC Optimus is miles ahead of the FOC one. Where he just a little bigger and he'd be my Classics Prime faction leader (well, honestly, without having the original Classics Prime, he kinda is any way). The FOC Magnus retool of Prime is pretty greata, but suffers from being fairly tiny and the neck/shoulder assembly is a bit Classics Ironhide-y. I'll probably repurpose Magnus as a pre-Earth Breacher.

WFC Megatron is great. Fairly simple articulation, but both modes look good, even on the retail release the colours are nice, he's big for a deluxe and pretty well sculpted. FOC Shockwave is a nice design too. Again, let down by the Deluxe size a little, but plenty of posing options and the alt mode is pleasantly reminiscent of his G1 iteration.

I've got both Hasbro and TakaraTomy versions of the Shockwave retool. The red one really reminds me of Cybertron Wing Saber, so that's who I've repurposed him as. The blue one has neon pink and orange out the wazoo, giving him a very late-G1/G2 vibe. He's my pre-Earth Rotorstorm, who, since he doesn't have rotors is named Bladestorm. These two look really good together. I'd recommend them if anyone is wanting some Knights Of Cybertron.

FOC Soundwave and Blaster are both decent enough, but sadly a lot of their bulk is taken up by a gimmick that's only really fun for the first 5 minutes when you get one of them for the first time. Their Data-Disk buddies are very good in theory, and with a couple the automorph gimmick works well enough, but sadly I feel that the idea was better than the execution. The big bots certainly fit well with either a pre-Earth or even a Classics collection though.

Grimlock is pretty good. I don't like the alt mode being so hollow, or the tail so...ugly. But I keep playing with him, so they must have done something right. Bot mode is big and imposing and his weapons are very nicely done. The light up gimmick could also be useful if you're trying to signal a rescue party from miles away too.

Starscream is okay. Cool gun. Can't think of any real plus or minus points to him. If you like the look, then get him. I don't have Jazz but I do have Sideswipe. Fairly terrible toy but at least the retool came with a gigantic (like, 90s Liefeld Cable gigantic) gun.

[Va'al]

I think my favourite from the FoC line has to be Grimlock (as the only other ones I bought and kept were Starscream and Shockwave), especially after some much needed add-ons.




The combaticons were interesting enough to make me try them out for a while, but I lost interest and sold them off again fairly soon. Same with Jazz (who did suffer from a bad case of the terrible-itis).

WfC Megatron is still my favourite from the two lines, though. Great little thing.

[Evil Eye]

I think my favourite from the FoC line has to be Grimlock (as the only other ones I bought and kept were Starscream and Shockwave), especially after some much needed add-ons.




The combaticons were interesting enough to make me try them out for a while, but I lost interest and sold them off again fairly soon. Same with Jazz (who did suffer from a bad case of the terrible-itis).

WfC Megatron is still my favourite from the two lines, though. Great little thing.

Oh wow that addon makes him look so much better. If I get FOC Grimmy I'll be getting that kit. Does it require partsforming for the transformation?

Also, I must admit, having seen the upcoming upgrade kit for FOC Bruticus that completely replaces Onslaught and heavily upgrades the limb-bots, I might have to grab the Takara versions of Brawl, Swindle, Vortex and Blast Off and splash out on the kit.

EDIT: huh. The platinum/Takara colour scheme is preorder bonus. Standard colours it is then.

Ah well, gives me an excuse to break out the paintbrushes and do a bit of custom work.

[shajaki]

speaking of grimmy add ons...

[RiddlerJ]

I think my favourite from the FoC line has to be Grimlock (as the only other ones I bought and kept were Starscream and Shockwave), especially after some much needed add-ons.




The combaticons were interesting enough to make me try them out for a while, but I lost interest and sold them off again fairly soon. Same with Jazz (who did suffer from a bad case of the terrible-itis).

WfC Megatron is still my favourite from the two lines, though. Great little thing.

Oh wow that addon makes him look so much better. If I get FOC Grimmy I'll be getting that kit. Does it require partsforming for the transformation?

Also, I must admit, having seen the upcoming upgrade kit for FOC Bruticus that completely replaces Onslaught and heavily upgrades the limb-bots, I might have to grab the Takara versions of Brawl, Swindle, Vortex and Blast Off and splash out on the kit.

EDIT: huh. The platinum/Takara colour scheme is preorder bonus. Standard colours it is then.

Ah well, gives me an excuse to break out the paintbrushes and do a bit of custom work.

That Grimlock add on from Iron Factory is so great. It really improves the figure and I like that you don't have to remove it to transform him. It just turns into wings. Sadly even that doesn't help the fixed legs in dino mode though one recourse is to just leave them out during transformation.

I should add that I really like WFC Megatron too. WFC Optimus is good though a little too complex. It takes good while for me to change him.

Oddly enough, one of my favorite WFC figures is Omega Supreme whose mold wasn't even designed to that line but is such a great retool.

[partofmelp67]

Am I the only one to actually prefer Kickback hasbro over the Takara one ?

Colors are more flashy,I actually prefer this purple over the purple+more dark of the Takara.

[xyl360]

Really the only truly bad mold is Jazz. The car mode is nice but the robot mode is terrible.

We are of the same mind. The car mode is nice in my opinion and that's the mode they (yes, they, I have both Takara's and Hasbro's. Takara's is better, at least for car mode) stay in.

As for best, if I'm limited to FoC (i.e. NOT WfC which puts Megs out, even though he's my fav of all WfC/FoC molds) then I have to go with the Seeker mold. It's outstanding and I love Takara's versions best (metallic paint+most game accurate) but even Hasbro's look really good (so much so that I bought them all ).

[Wolfman Jake]

The seeker molds for FoC are fantastic. I prefer the Hasbro paint jobs for a better IDW/G1 match. Plus, Starscream doesn't look right with "pinkish" red paint, even if it is more game accurate.

The FoC Optimus Prime mold could have been pretty good if it were Voyager sized. As it is, it's too small. The Ultra Magnus repaint is also very nice, though undersized. If the mold had been voyager sized to begin with, such a repaint could have easily been my definitive Classics Ultra Magnus.

I know a lot of people don't like the voyager Soundwave mold, or the data discs, but I like them and appreciate them for what they are, an actual update of the G1 cassette toys play pattern. Soundwave is a solid mold, and it's nice to have a Soundblaster repaint as well. The remold/repaint also works very well as Blaster. I prefer the paint job on the Hasbro Soundwave/Soundblaster for it's G1 detailing, though the Takara version is indeed more game accurate. I'm using voyager Soundwave as my Classics Soundwave right now, along with all of his data disc buddies. Same goes for Blaster, though I prefer the Takara version, which actually matches the deco layouts of the Hasbro releases of Soundwave and SoundBlaster. Plus, the red is deeper, the gray truer, and the Autobot insignia is actually red on Takara's Blaster.

As for the data discs, some of them work very well, like Laserbeak/Buzzsaw/Ratbat/Sunder. They require no additional fiddling to autotransform. I like to put them button down on the table in disc mode and then give them a tap to watch them "pop" into action. They're also the easiest to transform back into disc mode. Ramhorn works similarly well, though is slightly more difficult to fit back into disc mode. Rumble/Frenzy/Eject/Rewind work fine, but you have to manually complete the transformation. Getting the back into disc mode is easy if you do all the "folding" in the right order. Obviously, Ravage and Steeljaw are the worst cases. They autotransform about half way at best and they don't look all that great, considering. Plus, they're sometimes a nightmare to "mush" back into disc form. In general, I prefer the Takara releases for all the data discs, but just barely. The differences in plastic colors and paints used are very subtle and subject to personal preference, but most of the Takara ones have just a few extra paint apps, which helps the aesthetics.