The Energon Pub

News Credits: 11 · Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:12 pm

I hope this gets a "Buzzsaw" remold.

News Credits: 5 · Fri Jun 11, 2021 9:49 pm

I really like Waspinator, I tracked down T30 Waspy about two years before Kingdom and he's fun, but he definitely suffers from the engineering of the time (much like Rattrap). I'd honestly say that this may be a perfect stand-in for anyone without T30 (especially since the robot mode is far more poseable).
The only thing Kingdom Waspy is missing is that wonderful geared wingflapping, but sadly geared or springloaded gimmickry is a thing of the past...

This figure looks nice enough for me to consider getting it as well... hopefully there's a Buzzsaw in the works so I can justify it to myself.

News Credits: 20 · Fri Jun 11, 2021 10:15 pm

william-james88 wrote:
First-Aid wrote:Get used to it. These things are made of plastic, and in the end plastic is an evil substance made from oil.

The priciest part in the toy making process are the molds and assembly, not the plastic. That's why you can buy a leader sized Cyberverse toy for half the price of a leader sized Kingdom toy. Same amount of plastic but half the parts (meaning half the human labour and half the mold casting), invalidating any argument that plastic is the main reason for making smaller toys.

Waspinator is smaller here for a simple reason, they are adhering to the sizes on the show and that's it.

Then why have figures been getting steadily less and less plastic for many years now, dispite HasTak only caring about scale for the last few lines? Figures aren't more complex now than they used to be. The molds and assembly are the biggest costs, yes, but the plastic each toy uses is still a significant cost that increases over time and that HasTak is going to try to reduce as much as possible. That's why figures have hollow parts, and it's why the use of hollow parts has been steadily rising. The cost of plastic, and by extension the size of the figure, still meaningfully impacts production costs, and saying it doesn't is frankly ridiculous. No offense.

As for the scale argument, that would make sense if Kingdom Waspinator were in scale with the other BW figures, but he's not. Unless my understanding of BW scale is wildly off, he should be about the same size as Cheetor and Blackarachnia, but (using Mirage as a measuring stick), he's notably shorter, just like Skorponok, invalidating any argument that scale is the main reason for making Waspinator smaller. Nevermind, scale is hard

News Credits: 5 · Fri Jun 11, 2021 11:28 pm

Tuned Agent wrote:As for the scale argument, that would make sense if Kingdom Waspinator were in scale with the other BW figures, but he's not. Unless my understanding of BW scale is wildly off, he should be about the same size as Cheetor and Blackarachnia, but (using Mirage as a measuring stick), he's notably shorter, just like Skorponok, invalidating any argument that scale is the main reason for making Waspinator smaller.

I'm just going to say there's no stable scale in BW and that TFW scale chart is wrong 50% of the time. In CGI, scaling and forced perspective are tools used to get the visuals you want. A famous example involves the scene from Toy Story where Andy throws himself onto his bed, unknown to the viewer Andy's model is actually hovering well above the bed.
I believe Hasbro has an internal scale they're basing this off of, but it really just depends on the designer's idea of the character.

Honestly I hate the whole scale argument.

News Credits: 20 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 12:00 am

Nuclearxpotato wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote:As for the scale argument, that would make sense if Kingdom Waspinator were in scale with the other BW figures, but he's not. Unless my understanding of BW scale is wildly off, he should be about the same size as Cheetor and Blackarachnia, but (using Mirage as a measuring stick), he's notably shorter, just like Skorponok, invalidating any argument that scale is the main reason for making Waspinator smaller.

I'm just going to say there's no stable scale in BW and that TFW scale chart is wrong 50% of the time. In CGI, scaling and forced perspective are tools used to get the visuals you want. A famous example involves the scene from Toy Story where Andy throws himself onto his bed, unknown to the viewer Andy's model is actually hovering well above the bed.
I believe Hasbro has an internal scale they're basing this off of, but it really just depends on the designer's idea of the character.

Honestly I hate the whole scale argument.

Wait, BW doesn't have a reliable scale?

You mean I may have just started another scale debate with my own ignorance?

News Credits: 5 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 1:53 am

Tuned Agent wrote:Wait, BW doesn't have a reliable scale?

The scale was the friends we made along the way.

News Credits: 12 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:01 am

The best scale in my opinion is how things feel. Bumblebee should feel smaller than Prime, but by how much is up for debate. It's not worth the effort in my opinion to spend hours comparing shots from cartoons to official scale charts to get "true scale". Especially since let's be honest, no one who made the cartoons cared for keeping consistent scale beyond the feel of their size until EXTREMELY recently. And even now it's not perfect as far as I know

News Credits: 1350 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:14 am

I feel that the scale guide from G1, was probably just that, a guide. They may have been told to use it as a starting point but feeling free to change things up if it made the scene better

Sat Jun 12, 2021 6:28 am

I just got an email from BBTS saying my Galvatron pre-order will be processing soon. Galvatron was supposed to be in September & titan Scorponok was supposed to be this month (and may still be). Anybody else order Galvatron from BBTS?

C'mon Scorponok old buddy, don't let me down!

News Credits: 4877 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 6:29 am

Tuned Agent wrote: Figures aren't more complex now than they used to be.

This is false. Articulation and transformation steps have increased on average for the deluxes. This waspinator is a great example to that as he has more articulation than T30. No one was using the term "mini masterpiece " 5 years ago but they are now. Even Hasbro is.

Also, regarding smaller toys, come on guys, WFC Optimus is the exact same height as Classics Optimus from 2006, which is the scale all CHUG collections have been trying to adhere to since the begining.

News Credits: 101 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 7:04 am

Nuclearxpotato wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote:Wait, BW doesn't have a reliable scale?

The scale was the friends we made along the way.

G1 said "hi".

News Credits: 174 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 8:36 am

Nuclearxpotato wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote:Wait, BW doesn't have a reliable scale?

The scale was the friends we made along the way.

New life motto :-D

News Credits: 19 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:13 am

Pfft G1 was mini maspterpiece, die cast parts at least one great mode and with all the transformations a figure should have, with the alt modes it should be

WFC hasnt had scale since day one but nothing new there. some WFC figures are great, some pretty poor but thats always been the same for most TF lines too.

News Credits: 462 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:21 am

BW had a ton of scales. Megatron, Dinobot, and Terrorsaur were covered in them.

News Credits: 12 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 9:23 am

Sabrblade wrote:BW had a ton of scales. Megatron, Dinobot, and Terrorsaur were covered in them.

tenor (11).gif

News Credits: 104 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 10:05 am

Yet another review of a most likely stolen toy.. And I will stick with my T30 Wasp.

News Credits: 2 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 11:28 am

Rodimus Prime wrote:
Nemesis Destron wrote:It is a shame if there is in fact theft involved. I for one would rather watch any other known YouTube reviewer rather than Emgo. I have personally seen enough reviews to prefer NOT to watch his for reasons of my own.

IMHO there is at least 1 fair reviewer (on the subject) currently over Emgo who get the job done I think with many more to come!

I'm not one that needs to see the freakin' box the figure came in, in fact to hell with it!
Yeah I watched a few of his reviews and got annoyed very quickly. The guy takes way too long and he's a condescending douchebag most of the time. Unless he's changed? I haven't watched his reviews in a long time.

Dude you are the freakin' man! :))

. I totally agree with every word on Emgo. You said EVERYTHING that needed to be said on him and that's that....'nuff said! ;)^

News Credits: 101 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 12:55 pm

Not to pseudo mod but Seibertron himself asked for this thread to be about the toys themselves. Talking about the "stolen toys" thing or the reviewers should be done in their own thread. I guess in the TF General Discussion forum.

Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:01 pm

What I don't get is this.

The figure has a massive lower waspbody hanging behind it as kibble.
How come they could not hide the legs in that (similar to BW original Tarantulas).
Rather than awkwardly fumbling it under the the middle waspbody?

News Credits: 174 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 3:32 pm

Sculyblast wrote:What I don't get is this.

The figure has a massive lower waspbody hanging behind it as kibble.
How come they could not hide the legs in that (similar to BW original Tarantulas).
Rather than awkwardly fumbling it under the the middle waspbody?

Probably because they legs wouldn't fold into it very cleanly because they are so bulky and the wrong color :roll:

Sat Jun 12, 2021 4:15 pm

Hellscream9999 wrote:
Sculyblast wrote:What I don't get is this.

The figure has a massive lower waspbody hanging behind it as kibble.
How come they could not hide the legs in that (similar to BW original Tarantulas).
Rather than awkwardly fumbling it under the the middle waspbody?

Probably because they legs wouldn't fold into it very cleanly because they are so bulky and the wrong color

That would depend on the engineering of the legs.
They have currently chosen bulky legs in the wrong colour.
those legs don't really go anywhere (despite already being hollow.)
The lower waspbody could be redesigned to facilitate thet legs on the inside, so the wrong colour does not show.
heck, Right now the robot waste has to be move to the opposite end to position the legs.
If you hide the legs in the lower waspbody you could arguably skip that step.

News Credits: 14 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 4:17 pm

Its funny seeing everybody complain about the robot legs not being hidden, when the original had them dangling behind the wasp mode:

Transformers Beast Wars (10th Anniversary) Waspinator (Waspitas) (Reissue) Gallery

News Credits: 5 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 4:38 pm

According to some people on Twitter, Galvatron is showing up at retail with fixed shoulders.
https://twitter.com/ShawFrost74/status/1403752516123119616

Maybe Hasbro caught this and e-tailer shipments will have the fixed shoulders.

News Credits: 20 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 5:58 pm

william-james88 wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote: Figures aren't more complex now than they used to be.

This is false. Articulation and transformation steps have increased on average for the deluxes. This waspinator is a great example to that as he has more articulation than T30. No one was using the term "mini masterpiece " 5 years ago but they are now. Even Hasbro is.

Modern figures may devote a few more parts to articulation than before, but that doesn't mean they have a higher parts count overall. To use these Waspinators as an example again, Kingdom may use an extra part in each ankle (for ankle tilts) and an extra part in each shoulder and hip (for universal joints rather than ball joints), but it doesn't have T30's wing flapping mechanism (a difference of probably ~4 parts), transforming gun (an extra part), or multi-part lower legs that hide hollowness (which T30 has). All things considered, they probably work out to about the same parts count.

As for being "mini masterpieces", I've always understood that that term is used in reference to current toyline's attention to accuracy compared to years past, not because they use more transformation steps to achieve that accuracy (which I don't think they do). People's use of the term is subjective though, so I could be wrong.

william-james88 wrote:Also, regarding smaller toys, come on guys, WFC Optimus is the exact same height as Classics Optimus from 2006, which is the scale all CHUG collections have been trying to adhere to since the begining.

Nevermind that Classics Optimus was on the short side for a voyager at the time, while WFC Optimus is pushing the upper limit of modern voyager size. And that doesn't even compare the two by weight.

But if we're comparing modern figures with figures from 15 years ago, than compare the average WFC deluxe with the average Classics deluxe, or the average SS deluxe with the average '07 movie deluxe, and the size difference is obvious.

News Credits: 20 · Sat Jun 12, 2021 6:07 pm

Hellscream9999 wrote:
Nuclearxpotato wrote:
Tuned Agent wrote:Wait, BW doesn't have a reliable scale?

The scale was the friends we made along the way.

New life motto

I can get behind this. ;)^