The Energon Pub

[ScottyP]

Not live from Pasadena, CA, it's the Seibertron.com Twincast/Podcast Botcon 2014 edition! Part one of your early-July Twincast Doubleheader features on site analysis recorded on Botcon Saturday in Pasadena from Seibertron himself, Scotty P, Rotorstorm, and special guest Mkall, as they give their earliest opinions on the latest and greatest news in the Transformers world.

Stay tuned after that for post-mortem analysis of Botcon from your regular host and champion of champions, Counterpunch, who is joined by regular cast Razorclaw0000 and Scotty P.

Episode 95 "Botcon 2014" is available directly and in our RSS Feed and should appear on iTunes and Stitcher Radio within 24 to 48 hours of when this news post is visible.

(2:25)
Botcon 2014 has come and gone. Our crew at the show sat down to give some opinions almost immediately after seeing some of the latest product reveals. Find out what they thought about these plus Transformers: The Ride and the Universal Studios Fan Experience.

Quick Warning - the audio quality on this segment is pretty hit or miss, please jump to 51:11 if you want to skip this segment.

What most hotel room desks look like at Botcon

(52:15)
The regular show continues as we take a look at the TFCC's Figure Subscription Service 3.0 in more detail now that the dust has settled. Will the mixed opinions from the on-site recording continue?

It's a funny hat, Alex.

(1:05:45)
We then turn our attention to the boxed set as well as the souvenir figures. Was this year a home run or a foul ball for the cast?

Munky not Munky. Wait...

(1:32:10)
Our post show analysis then continues with the reveals of Hasbro's Generations toys. Is this the beginning of the end for third parties? How does the cast feel about combiners? Tune in to find out.

28 years later

(1:51:00)
We didn't totally forget that there are still new Age of Extinction toys coming down the pipe. Be sure to check out our thoughts on these redecos.

Money saved?

(2:04:37)
We wrap up the show with some final thoughts and "thank you" greetings to our friends at the convention.

Stay tuned very soon for our thoughts on the Age of Extinction movie coming out, well, right now!

Thanks everyone for listening and we appreciate the continued support! Don't forget, the show only gets better if you tell us how. Drop us a review on iTunes or Stitcher and be sure to tell us what you love, what you hate, and what you want to hear!

Not on the show to give your take? Probably not, so don't forget to keep the discussion going on the Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums by simply replying to this post!

Got a question for the Twincast? We take all of them, we just don't take them all seriously! Leave a question in the Ask the Twincast thread and, if it makes the cut, it may get read and answered on the show.

[Sabrblade]

The name "Nacelle", as far as Transformers is concerned, came from the Transformers: Exodus novel, in which Nacelle was one of the Seekers in that book, along with others like Bitstream and Hotlink.

The body Tarantulas had in the BotCon 2006 comic was a made up design. The Cybertron Ransack body he had was in the "Theft of the Golden Disk" episode the Club made a year later.

Regarding the Scorponok shoulder misassembly, I noticed it at the con. Once I got it home, the fix was fairly simple to do.

I was one of the lucky onces who got a correctly-assembled Cannonball.

[Seibertron]

I was one of the lucky onces who got a correctly-assembled Cannonball.

Thanks for the info about the other stuff. Nice to know that Nacelle is from something else at least, that it's not my cup of tea. The novels, while officially licensed, are just a step above fan-fiction in my opinion and should all be taken with a grain of salt.

As for Cannonball, congratulations! I thought it was confirmed that there are no correctly assembled Cannonballs, but if you managed to get one, that's awesome. By any chance can you provide an image of Cannonball with his legs properly attached so that we can let people know that there is in fact at least one correctly assembled one out there?

Mine was better than others I heard about ... upper legs/thighs were swapped on mine which you can't fix on this toy from what I've read/heard. If you didn't know it was incorrectly assembled, you'd really never know as it doesn't hinder anything. I also don't have any problems with the legs breaking, just one of the flat square pegs broke in the black backpack from his vehicle mode. I already bought and received a replacement Cannonball from eBay so I'm frankensteining them together to make the better of the two.

[Seibertron]

Thanks to the debacle with Cannonball, I realized that my TFP Ratchet is not only misassembled but has two of the same upper leg. Urgh. I'm surprised no one pointed this out before to me.

Arms Micron Ratchet ... CORRECT!!!



Transformers Prime RID Ratchet ... INCORRECT!!! Mine has two upper right legs. Urgh!!!

[Sabrblade]

As for Cannonball, congratulations! I thought it was confirmed that there are no correctly assembled Cannonballs, but if you managed to get one, that's awesome. By any chance can you provide an image of Cannonball with his legs properly attached so that we can let people know that there is in fact at least one correctly assembled one out there?

Mine was better than others I heard about ... upper legs/thighs were swapped on mine which you can't fix on this toy from what I've read/heard. If you didn't know it was incorrectly assembled, you'd really never know as it doesn't hinder anything. I also don't have any problems with the legs breaking, just one of the flat square pegs broke in the black backpack from his vehicle mode. I already bought and received a replacement Cannonball from eBay so I'm frankensteining them together to make the better of the two.

Well, this is a letdown.

I was originally under the impression that it was only Cannonball's knees that were misassembled on some people's figures. But when you mentioned yours having swapped thighs, I checked mine and lo and behold, it has swapped thighs too.

But, it seems that this sort of thigh issue isn't confined only to Cannonball, since I checked the Seibertron gallery for the original Ratchet figure to compare to my Cannonball, and saw that the Ratchet in the gallery has two of the same thigh.



The Takara one, however, seems to have lucked out on having two good thighs:



So I guess the thigh misassembly goes deeper than Fun Pub. But the knees issue I was thankfully without.

I can still post pics of a "good knees" version if you'd still like?

[Seibertron]

I can still post pics of a "good knees" version if you'd still like?

I'm pretty sure I have a good knees version. If you want to post a pic of it that'd be great. My gallery will be up later this week of Cannonball if you want to wait for comparisons to that.

[Sabrblade]

I can still post pics of a "good knees" version if you'd still like?

I'm pretty sure I have a good knees version. If you want to post a pic of it that'd be great. My gallery will be up later this week of Cannonball if you want to wait for comparisons to that.

I might wait.

But now I really wish people had been more vocal about the thighs at BotCon, so that we could have possibly gotten ours fixed or replaced with better ones at the con.

I'm glad the Scorponok shoulder issue was an easy fix, but between last year's Hoist shoulders and this year's Cannonball thighs and knees, I'm getting a little antsy about these QC issues showing up in future con figures. Granted, I'm far from a BotCon veteran (attended 2010 to 2014) so my knowledge of QC issues in previous years is limited, but just the cases of 2013 Hoist and 2014 Cannonball are enough make me concerned (especially since this year's exclusives were some of the coolest ones in a while, IMO).

[Seibertron]

I can still post pics of a "good knees" version if you'd still like?

I'm pretty sure I have a good knees version. If you want to post a pic of it that'd be great. My gallery will be up later this week of Cannonball if you want to wait for comparisons to that.

I might wait.

But now I really wish people had been more vocal about the thighs at BotCon, so that we could have possibly gotten ours fixed or replaced with better ones at the con.

I'm glad the Scorponok shoulder issue was an easy fix, but between last year's Hoist shoulders and this year's Cannonball thighs and knees, I'm getting a little antsy about these QC issues showing up in future con figures. Granted, I'm far from a BotCon veteran (attended 2010 to 2014) so my knowledge of QC issues in previous years is limited, but just the cases of 2013 Hoist and 2014 Cannonball are enough make me concerned (especially since this year's exclusives were some of the coolest ones in a while, IMO).

QC issues are a pretty regular thing with BotCon exclusives. Supposedly, it has more to do with the limited run nature of BotCon figures, but you don't see Lucky Draws and other very limited exclusives having these types of issues so I'm thinking it has more to do with the QC process somehow. Is there an extra cost involved? Are the issues not being caught early enough? Something with this process isn't right. Not sure what it is though.

I'm pretty sure all of the Cannonballs had an issue with the thighs whether it was two lefts, two rights, or swapped. I think it was an assembly error on all of them at the factory. If someone has correctly assembled or differently assembled thighs, please speak up so that we can get a better assessment of the problem. Considering that my Hasbro TFP Ratchet has a similar problem it might be an error with the assembly instructions or something silly like that.

[Seibertron]

QC issues are a pretty regular thing with BotCon exclusives. Supposedly, it has more to do with the limited run nature of BotCon figures, but you don't see Lucky Draws and other very limited exclusives having these types of issues so I'm thinking it has more to do with the QC process somehow. Is there an extra cost involved? Are the issues not being caught early enough? Something with this process isn't right. Not sure what it is though.

On this note, this is why I now do mini-galleries from the event of the figures. It's a way for me to QC my own figures to the best of my ability. I check for the obvious things such as two of the same hand, missing accessories, heads, paint problems, etc. As the con progresses, I try to find out from other people or on Seibertron.com what others are having problems with so that I can address those issues with mine by Sunday if possible. After the 'con, the situation to fix these problems is a much more challenging issue. I've been pretty lucky for the most part and usually only have had to deal with minor paint issues and missing accessories.

[ScottyP]

QC issues are a pretty regular thing with BotCon exclusives. Supposedly, it has more to do with the limited run nature of BotCon figures, but you don't see Lucky Draws and other very limited exclusives having these types of issues so I'm thinking it has more to do with the QC process somehow. Is there an extra cost involved?

From what I've overheard, which is as legitimate as bullcrap I'm sure, there is an extra cost for QC at the factory and Funpub does not pay for it.

[Seibertron]

QC issues are a pretty regular thing with BotCon exclusives. Supposedly, it has more to do with the limited run nature of BotCon figures, but you don't see Lucky Draws and other very limited exclusives having these types of issues so I'm thinking it has more to do with the QC process somehow. Is there an extra cost involved?

From what I've overheard, which is as legitimate as bullcrap I'm sure, there is an extra cost for QC at the factory and Funpub does not pay for it.

Actually I've heard this as well, which explains weird faced Astrotrain, inverted eyes pre-Beast Wars Megatron, tiny head Counterpunch, shrunken head Rampage, squished face with pouty lips Devcon, yellow beast mode eye Thrustinator, and several others as well as the various (and unfortunately regular) QC issues that BotCon and Club figures seem to have.

[mooncake623]

The name "Nacelle", as far as Transformers is concerned, came from the Transformers: Exodus novel, in which Nacelle was one of the Seekers in that book, along with others like Bitstream and Hotlink.

The body Tarantulas had in the BotCon 2006 comic was a made up design. The Cybertron Ransack body he had was in the "Theft of the Golden Disk" episode the Club made a year later.

Regarding the Scorponok shoulder misassembly, I noticed it at the con. Once I got it home, the fix was fairly simple to do.

I was one of the lucky onces who got a correctly-assembled Cannonball.

What is the Scorponok shoulder issue exactly? I haven't gotten my set yet, still waiting on the club to send non-attendees set.

[ScottyP]

The name "Nacelle", as far as Transformers is concerned, came from the Transformers: Exodus novel, in which Nacelle was one of the Seekers in that book, along with others like Bitstream and Hotlink.

The body Tarantulas had in the BotCon 2006 comic was a made up design. The Cybertron Ransack body he had was in the "Theft of the Golden Disk" episode the Club made a year later.

Regarding the Scorponok shoulder misassembly, I noticed it at the con. Once I got it home, the fix was fairly simple to do.

I was one of the lucky onces who got a correctly-assembled Cannonball.

What is the Scorponok shoulder issue exactly? I haven't gotten my set yet, still waiting on the club to send non-attendees set.

The pink parts on the back of the figure where the arms connect to the torso are switched. Just need a screwdriver to pop em off, swap em, and there you go. Five minute fix.

[Sabrblade]

What is the Scorponok shoulder issue exactly? I haven't gotten my set yet, still waiting on the club to send non-attendees set.

The back pieces of his armpits are each upside-down and on the wrong sides of the body.

To use Energon Scorponok for visual reference, it's the orange armpit pieces seen in these pictures, which are purple on the BotCon toy:




Notice how, in these pics, the pieces each have a slope that runs down the body. On the BotCon figure, since the pieces were swapped and attached upside-down, the slopes run upward on the figure instead of downward.

Thus, the big shoulder pieces are unable to fold outward all the way, making him look like he's constantly holding his shoulders in a mid-shrug position, as seen here:



Instead of like this:



The way to fix this is to simply unscrew both pieces with a small Philips head screwdriver, and reattach them on their opposite sides of the body in their correct positions.

But note that front half pieces of the armpits are NOT swapped (at least on mine, they weren't), so those may not need to be swapped either. Take note of their position in this pic (the blue pieces with the gold outlines behind the translucent yellow side cannons):



This is the correct position for these two pieces, and Ryan's figure seems to have gotten it right for these two pieces as well (which are now orange with a green outline):

[xRotorstormx]

I will need to go back and check my cannonball and scorponok... My friend looked at Cannonball and said he looked good but that may have just been the knee joints.. I hope I can figure out the fix on Scorponok

QC issues are a pretty regular thing with BotCon exclusives. Supposedly, it has more to do with the limited run nature of BotCon figures, but you don't see Lucky Draws and other very limited exclusives having these types of issues so I'm thinking it has more to do with the QC process somehow. Is there an extra cost involved?

From what I've overheard, which is as legitimate as bullcrap I'm sure, there is an extra cost for QC at the factory and Funpub does not pay for it.

Actually I've heard this as well, which explains weird faced Astrotrain, inverted eyes pre-Beast Wars Megatron, tiny head Counterpunch, shrunken head Rampage, squished face with pouty lips Devcon, yellow beast mode eye Thrustinator, and several others as well as the various (and unfortunately regular) QC issues that BotCon and Club figures seem to have.

It is a shame that they wouldn't want to pay for the extra QC, as it would probably make a lot of people happier to see that what they are spending on these figures is a quality figure .

[Seibertron]

Here's a pic of Pirate Cannonball from his upcoming gallery ...

[Sabrblade]

I guess we should consider ourselves fortunate to have each gotten a good knees version despite the swapped thighs.

Speaking of which, do your Cannonball's thighs continuously pop off of the ball joints that attach them to the pelvis every time you try to transform the legs? Mine sure do. Is that because of the thighs being on the wrong legs or it is just due to the ball joints being loose?

[Seibertron]

I guess we should consider ourselves fortunate to have each gotten a good knees version despite the swapped thighs.

Speaking of which, do your Cannonball's thighs continuously pop off of the ball joints that attach them to the pelvis every time you try to transform the legs? Mine sure do. Is that because of the thighs being on the wrong legs or it is just due to the ball joints being loose?

The legs on my Cannonball regularly pop-off oddly. I was worried about the ball joint cracking like I've seen on a few others but it doesn't seem to be an issue on mine with as many times as the legs have popped off.

[Counterpunch]

Cannonball is a huge disappointment for me. I was actually looking forward to this figure and the comic kind of pushed that sentiment to the forefront.

I may buy a second one and mail it to someone who is super handy with pin removal.

I've had good success in previous attempts, but the way the knees are constructed here sees them shatter or crack when you apply pressure.