The Energon Pub

[GuyIncognito]

I just started collecting recently, after not having paid any attention to TFs since I was a kid 20 years ago. So I don't have a lot of experience with all the series'. But based on my experience so far...

I think the Energon line is the worst. For the most part, they look like Fisher Price toys to me. I hate the color schemes and models. And based on my limited experience with them, it seems like they were also made more "cheaply" - loose joints, lots of "soft" plastic, etc. And those clear Energon weapons look like something that belongs in a KO or a cheap toy from the dollar store.

I also have a strong dislike for the old Beast Wars figures. The designs seemed lazy. It's like they couldn't come up with creative ways for an animal to tf into a robot, so they best they could come up with was "Well, the animal's legs become the robots arms and legs, and um... the animals body opens up and just sort of hangs on the robot's back."

Some of the later Beast Wars figures (Transmetals?) are cool, though. I got Depthcharge and I think he's awesome. Longhorn (the longhorn sheep one, not the bull) is also really cool.

And I have to say, as cliche and predictable as it may be, I think the Movie line is the best. While there are exceptions (like Swindle's design or Brawl's faulty shoulders), the movie figures are mostly well-designed and well-built, and have cool designs both in robot and alt mode.

[schizophrenica]

I have to disagree with you. I think Energon is a very good series and apart from a few most of the toys are great. Megatron, Shockfleet, Mirage are all great toys in the energon line.

edit:
Whooops! I meant to say Shockblast. Shockfleet and Mirage is the same character.

[Agent 007]

Best: Beast Wars
Worst: Cybertron

[Cascadia]

Best: this is up to one' s personal opinion..for me, I am enjoying my Alt/BT
Worst: Cybertron or Armada

[Counterpunch]

I have to disagree with you. I think Energon is a very good series and apart from a few most of the toys are great. Megatron, Shockfleet, Mirage are all great toys in the energon line.

You know what's up.

+1 Rep.

I think the Energon line is the worst. For the most part, they look like Fisher Price toys to me. I hate the color schemes and models. And based on my limited experience with them, it seems like they were also made more "cheaply" - loose joints, lots of "soft" plastic, etc. And those clear Energon weapons look like something that belongs in a KO or a cheap toy from the dollar store.

First off, thank you for at the very least, giving good reasons why you dislike the line.

Flaming defense of the Armada/Energon/Cybertron toys aside, I will attempt to instead give some reasons why these toys are great.

To the "Fisher Price' comment. It might be warrented if we're talking about Ironhide, hell, perhaps even Prime, but overall, this isn't the case. Energon, in my opinion was the "sleek" line. Everything was edgy and sharp. Look at Mirage, Shockblast, and even Bulkhead. All the designs are detailed with 'tec' stuff.

I think it might be hard to hate the color schemes too much there. Energon was like the G1 Homage King. Hate those schemes and you pretty much hate Transformers. As to not liking the models? Eh, to each his own. Still, Energon is recognized as having some of the best figures in the past few years.

Cheaply made? Compared to movie toys? No. You are wrong. There's no way around it. Energon toys are amazingly sturdy for the amount of articulation and such that they have.

Energon weapons...yea, I can see how you might hate them. But then again, Prime and Megatron had them in G1. Movie Prime busts one out in grand fashion. They aren't all good, but they are 95% good.

Besides, who wouldn't want Unicron's troops holding these?
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=HAS10028&mode=retail&picture=out

I swore I wouldn't buy Energon when it was announced. I was a douche.

three cheers for impulse buying!

[Dead Metal]

I'm with CP on this, AEC were really good lines just a shame I never got a real pic of Energon and Cybertron.
Energon was the best homage to G1, some Designs are closer to G1 than Classics!

The worst in my opinion was Beast Mashines, while the best was, I don't know I'm standing between alt, RID and Beast Wars here.

[Nekoman]

Best: Energon
Worst: Animated (and it will probably maintain that title for a very long time.)

[GetterDragun]

Needless to say G1 is the best in my opinion, but since that's the obvious, I'll go with this:

Best: Energon
Worst: Beast Wars

[GuyIncognito]

Maybe I'm wrong about Energon. Like I said, my collecting experience is pretty slim, so I'm basically going off my first impressions.

As for the Energon Mirage, I DO like that one; it's the only Energon figure on my "wish list". Otherwise, I find the Energon designs to be a little too "toyish" in their alt modes. If a TF is going to transform into a truck or tank, I want it to look like a real truck or tank, not like a brightly-colored Tonka toy. It's probably the coloring that bothers me the most; too many bright or pastel colors. I guess I shouldn't say they're "the worst", rather they're my personal least favorite.

[thedistinctroom]

I can say I enjoy every series except Beast Machines and Robots In Disguise.

[Hip-Hoptimus Rime]

Best- Energon or Movie
Worst- Beast Wars

When I say Worst, tho, it's relative. I'm not a fan of animal TFs, and GuyIncog's description of their transformations is pretty spot on much of the time, from what I've seen- I admit, I don't have any BW TFs for first-hand comment. Plus, a giant robot animal does not seem to be much of a disguise, but I guess that depends on your environment- among giant mechanical animals it'd prob be a plus. Nonetheless, my general dislike of animal TFs will keep this line in the basement for me.

I really do like Energon, despite GuyIncog's relevant comments- yeah, they do look a litle cartoony, such as E-Cliffjumper, but I love the Powerlink feature, it's a great way to change up your colelction by combining them in different ways. And the Movie line has the benefit of modern design techniques to give us unique transformations and improved playability. and I happen to like the movie "look". FWIW...

[DISCHARGE]

Best: e-hobby
Worst: Beast Machines


e-hobby is da bombdizzy. There are unique figs from Starscream's ghost to diaclone inspired Insecticons to the first Sunstorm.
It's always exciting to see what comes out next. I know it's a company and not an official line, but there is none produced
as an official line dedicated to one series, so I count it as
an ongoing line. Kind of like a more expensive version of Universe.
Beast Machines is just *shudder* bad('cept Tankor and Jetstorm).
Energon does rock with most everything it does and I DO like the energon weapons.
Oh, Hip-Hoptimus Rime, if you haven't actually watched
the Beast Wars and dislike the toys, you don't know what you are missing. If you have seen/watched all the Beast Wars and
still dislike them I guess you are justified. I admit, the original run of Beast Wars made me despise what Transformers had become. Then I saw and bought Tripredicus and realized
what I was missing out on.

[Blurrz]

Best- Armada

I love Armada. No, not because of the articulation, or the colouring of the figures, but because of the quantity of the figures. There's so many different mini-cons, different figures, and all mini-cons are compatible with all Armada Figures! There were some great homages in Scavenger, and Armada was the only time I can recall that had all the seekers in it. Headmaster homages in Overload and Sideways, while there were Targetmaster homages in Deluxe Prime.

The way the Japanese were able to put so many countless mini-cons in booster packs makes me feel that i'll never ever finish my Armada collection. And that's great.

Worst- Beast Machines

When your toys don't look like anything like the cartoon, then something is wrong. Sure, the Beast Machines production company gave Hasbro the early toy production images, but that's no excuse to still release those toys into the main line.

[zemper]

Best: Beast Wars
Worst: Cybertron

nooooo! don't break my heart on Cybertron there...these are two of the best lines in TF. (i thought...i thought...we were on the same page...)

well anyhow, Cybertron is more toyish than Energon, but those these 2 lines simply rock hard because of all the homages, articulation and the durability they provide.

Beast Wars? hey, some of the transformations were a little uninspired, but for the crazy-arse amount of articulation and detail (not to mention durability also, with a glaring exception to Transmetals due to chrome), nothing post-RID compares. the "ugly" factor? well, it's an acquired taste, but the movie toys are far more uglier face-wise to these critters.

worst overall? i have to say Movie. bad plastic, Automorph that easily malfunctions, poor QC, buttloads of repaints. though noobs might defend the TFTM franchise (and i respect that), if you've been around for sometime you'll know that TFs were made far more better (and with much better QC) than what is Hasbro churning out right now.

don't get me wrong now, i have my TFTM figs too, and i like some of them, but for the reasons mentioned, and comparing them to BW/RID/AEC, i'd stick with the latter.

Animated? can't say much, but so far from what i've seen i really like the designs, with the exception of the Autobot (and SS's) faces. all i can say is that i'm glad Earth-mode Prime has a facemask. and if the plastic and construction quality is on par with the AEC, this might end up to be one of my fave lines yet.

[AlienQuiksilver]

I didn't like Cybertron until I got some of the better figures in my hands. The 1st few figs I got happened to be Armada repaints,(blurr, runamuck) so be sure that you're judging the line on actual Cybertron figures.

-Sideways( )
-Evac
-Prime/Wingsaber
-Cyb. Def. Scattorshot(bot mode=perfect)
-Jetfire/Sky Shadow(pics don't do it justice)
-Cannonball/Red Alert
-Megatron/Galvatron
-Ransack GTS
-Armorhide

Buy those figs, and THEN tell me that Cybertron sucks! The last 2 are scouts, but are better than a lot of deluxes out there.

Energon. Yes, the clear weapons are kinda silly.

- Mirage/Dreadwing are pretty awesome, but I am not a fan of the kind of plastic they used for the legs. It would've taken a lot more than that to ruin the figure for me.

- Landmine/Landquake ... umm, holy @#$%!!! Pure awesomeness.

- Bulkhead/Quickstrike ... a mech walking helicopter, C'MON!

- Towline ... repainted into Botcon Ironhide/Ratchet.

- Sharkticon ... awesome

[Auto Bot]

The best series for me is the Classics. It's like reliving the G1 era again. But with tons of improvements.

[microclone]

thats difficult due to the variation of toys within a line (esp gen 1) but id say the lines that I find the least inspring are the movie toys (i find them dull, over detailed, lacking character and in the main really ugly, i do however really like the target jazz repaint) and also cybertron, these feel like a generic continuation of A/E and at least A had the minicons which were fun for kids and E has the superlink idea and some pretty decent gen 1 homages, tough as boots too. Cybertron toys arent ugly by any means but just seem to lack individuality, something that the animated line (for eg) has in bucketloads. If i was to choose one id say the movie line is my least favourite TF series ever but i will say that i feel the legends and FAB's are the more endearing toys from the line.

favourite series, overall gen 1 esp for the ex diaclone/microman toys but i can say that the animated line is looking so fresh compared to the movie that its running a close second.

[DISCHARGE]

Can someone tell me what is the appeal of the Legends class and FAB. I just don't see it. The FAB just look like dumppy versions
of a deluxe class.
The legends class are small like Gobots, yet in my opinion don't look as good. At least Gobots were made of metal and had rubber wheels. The transformations are weak on those things(legends)
and the movie versions look the worst. Why do people
like those things so much?

[Sowndwave76]

I grew up with G1, so the Classics is the best imo.
And especially with what is and what may be coming out in the next waves...
I know the movie line has issues, and it's starting to get a little played-out, but overall I think it's pretty solid.
I'm excited about the Animated figures, and think that it will be much better than most people are anticipating.
So those are my top 3.

Worst?
I'm not a fan of the BW, and whether or not this is a legitimate gripe, the colors of the Armada, Energon, and Cybertron lines are such eyesores to me...
I can understand wanting to do some different stuff, but come on, some of those color schemes are ridiculously ugly.

[Auto Bot]

What about the BEST and WORST in a series?

[schizophrenica]

What about the BEST and WORST in a series?

We'll need a whole new thread for that.

[Foallen]

My favourite is Beast Wars. It's tough since I grew up with G1 and love those toys and characters for nastalgia reasons, but Beast Wars has some really cool designs, nice posability and the best fiction to date to go with it. I really like how their weapons can all go somewhere on the alt modes, which is something I disliked about G1. Too many parts to loose, especially on the early figures like the seekers.

My least favourite is the movie line. I have quite a few of the figures, but really there's only two designs I *really* like (Barricade and Blackout-who is too small). In addition to not overly liking the design of the figures the more I see the movie the more I think it's too long (there's parts they should have cut out to make it a tighter story), and the Transformers themselves (minus maybe Prime, Bumbleebee and *maybe* Megatron) have little personality showing up in the movie. It negatively impacts what I think of the toys when the characters don't have a good fiction behind them.

[Auto Bot]

That's really the biggest problem with this Movie. Lack of character development. It's just eye-candy. Major character developments went to the humans.

[zemper]

Energon. Yes, the clear weapons are kinda silly.

only bad thing about Energon. these weapons develop hairline cracks over time! my friend's E-SS's sword literally snapped into two even though he was taking relatively good care of it. and the Energon Sabers! my friend had no choice but to superglue it, much to his chagrin.

the toys rock major arse though.

[Defcon!]

The best. The line that started it all G1! No matter how you look at it you can't beat the toys innovation and evolution through the whole G1 series. The worst i would have to say is Beast Machines.