The Energon Pub

Mindmaster wrote:Had hoped Road Rage would have retained some Tracks-ier features so I could slap an SG Autobot label and repurpose it as SG Tracks. Guess I’ll be looking into the BotCon Invasion set...

I think the only thing that's been remolded is the head. You could just swap the head from a Tracks, add a repro and you're golden, right?

primalxconvoy wrote:

Mindmaster wrote:Had hoped Road Rage would have retained some Tracks-ier features so I could slap an SG Autobot label and repurpose it as SG Tracks. Guess I’ll be looking into the BotCon Invasion set...

I think the only thing that's been remolded is the head. You could just swap the head from a Tracks, add a repro and you're golden, right?

He'd also have to repaint the Tracks head, though.

Still not really a fan of the fake-parts in the name of "cartoon accuracy", but I think Road Rage looks better than Tracks.
I just hope it's not another REDcard exclusive...

I know it gets confusing, but over the past 2-3 years of all the Target Exclusives , only Redwing required a Redcard correct? (And was a double-whammy as it was Selects on top being a Target exclusive). Whereas all the others are technically part of the main Generations line, but can only be found at Target in the United States. We've seen T-Wrecks in Kingdom packaging, so it would make sense that Road Rage would probably be the same.

Emerje wrote:
Is it just me or is it strange that the one thing that looked the most like a Lambo on the Siege figure, the entire back end of the car with those big vents behind the doors, also got replaced on this figure?

AHA! I know you had told me that those vents were on an earth lambo but for some reason the way Hasbro had made them on Sideswipe they seemed overly big to the point where I thought that's what made it "cybertronian". I guess Hasbro thought the same.

I will join the club in those that are baffled by the unpainted/unpaintable piece. That piece has been sticking out like a sore thumb on most releases. None of the hypotheses make sense aside from hasbro having messed up somewhere. It's the same colour as other piece on the car, so why not either 1) paint it like the other painted piece or b) put it on the same sprue as the other pieces?

It looks extra dumb when looking at these two:

They could have change her forearms and hands. You know give a little something to the figure.

Damn. I wanted the Ark really bad, but something about that plastic color is just throwing me. Road Rage is expected, but also frustrating; everything is right except the head. Seriously, Hasbro? You had one job with this figure.

Tigerhawk7109 wrote:Road Rage is expected, but also frustrating; everything is right except the head. Seriously, Hasbro? You had one job with this figure.

What's wrong with the head? It looks pretty spot on to the MP figure.

Autobot N wrote:

Tigerhawk7109 wrote:Road Rage is expected, but also frustrating; everything is right except the head. Seriously, Hasbro? You had one job with this figure.

What's wrong with the head? It looks pretty spot on to the MP figure.

I think we need a better picture of the head sculpt before making a judgement. I too think it looks really close to the MP but also something is off like maybe it is too wide of a face.

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:
Is it just me or is it strange that the one thing that looked the most like a Lambo on the Siege figure, the entire back end of the car with those big vents behind the doors, also got replaced on this figure?

AHA! I know you had told me that those vents were on an earth lambo but for some reason the way Hasbro had made them on Sideswipe they seemed overly big to the point where I thought that's what made it "cybertronian". I guess Hasbro thought the same.

I will join the club in those that are baffled by the unpainted/unpaintable piece. That piece has been sticking out like a sore thumb on most releases. None of the hypotheses make sense aside from hasbro having messed up somewhere. It's the same colour as other piece on the car, so why not either 1) paint it like the other painted piece or b) put it on the same sprue as the other pieces?

It looks extra dumb when looking at these two:

Polyoxymethylene (POM) is the main plastic used for structurally important pieces because of its strength, resilience and slipperiness (read: lack of resistance) and can't be painted with the stuff Hasbro uses. Had that off-colored piece on Sideswipe been made of regular ABS like the rest of the figure (read: moved to a different sprue), chances are we'd have seen reports of breakage before long. That plastic is restricted to one mold/color per tooling.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:
Is it just me or is it strange that the one thing that looked the most like a Lambo on the Siege figure, the entire back end of the car with those big vents behind the doors, also got replaced on this figure?

AHA! I know you had told me that those vents were on an earth lambo but for some reason the way Hasbro had made them on Sideswipe they seemed overly big to the point where I thought that's what made it "cybertronian". I guess Hasbro thought the same.

I will join the club in those that are baffled by the unpainted/unpaintable piece. That piece has been sticking out like a sore thumb on most releases. None of the hypotheses make sense aside from hasbro having messed up somewhere. It's the same colour as other piece on the car, so why not either 1) paint it like the other painted piece or b) put it on the same sprue as the other pieces?

It looks extra dumb when looking at these two:

Polyoxymethylene (POM) is the main plastic used for structurally important pieces because of its strength, resilience and slipperiness (read: lack of resistance) and can't be painted with the stuff Hasbro uses. Had that off-colored piece on Sideswipe been made of regular ABS like the rest of the figure (read: moved to a different sprue), chances are we'd have seen reports of breakage before long. That plastic is restricted to one mold/color per tooling.

This comment warms my product designer heart. It's not necessarily what actually happened, but it's a good guess among all the strange theories people post all the time.

Yeah, I'm also not happy with the lack of effort in Roadrage. They knew this Tracks was going to be used to make her, they should have pretooled some extra parts to keep her from having the exact same male body. It's not like they haven't done it before at this scale, they did that whole Torchbearer set and that wasn't even preplanned. Hasbro could have put a lot more effort into this, especially when there are male versions of Roadrage out there. It's a very confusing figure that I'll still end up getting.

Emerje

Rtron wrote:

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:Polyoxymethylene (POM) is the main plastic used for structurally important pieces because of its strength, resilience and slipperiness (read: lack of resistance) and can't be painted with the stuff Hasbro uses. Had that off-colored piece on Sideswipe been made of regular ABS like the rest of the figure (read: moved to a different sprue), chances are we'd have seen reports of breakage before long. That plastic is restricted to one mold/color per tooling.

This comment warms my product designer heart. It's not necessarily what actually happened, but it's a good guess among all the strange theories people post all the time.

Some people just don't believe in "necessary evils" It's not that whatever happened Hasbro actually wanted, but it was either that or waste time redesigning some aspects of the figure. We've seen what happened with PotP Jazz with its clear MABS car shell, so...

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

Rtron wrote:

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:Polyoxymethylene (POM) is the main plastic used for structurally important pieces because of its strength, resilience and slipperiness (read: lack of resistance) and can't be painted with the stuff Hasbro uses. Had that off-colored piece on Sideswipe been made of regular ABS like the rest of the figure (read: moved to a different sprue), chances are we'd have seen reports of breakage before long. That plastic is restricted to one mold/color per tooling.

This comment warms my product designer heart. It's not necessarily what actually happened, but it's a good guess among all the strange theories people post all the time.

Some people just don't believe in "necessary evils" It's not that whatever happened Hasbro actually wanted, but it was either that or waste time redesigning some aspects of the figure. We've seen what happened with PotP Jazz with its clear MABS car shell, so...

Yeah. I get where people come from, though, because there's Siege Sideswipe here, but then you get the case you mention, or Studio Series Jazz, or the Earthrise Datsun mold.

But sometimes there's so much things to balance that you are forced to make a choice that may end up being a bad one in the long run. Like having to give the car mode clear plastic windows, but not having enough of a budget to make them a separate piece, so because of the transformation scheme you're forced to have clear plastic on knees or transformation hinges.

I don't own any version of Sideswipe, but another possible explanation (assuming they are actually paintable plastic) could be that moving those pieces just isn't on the budget, or maybe it would force them to also modify a paint mask. Who knows. His ankle joints are also black, so are his fists and his "spine and shoulderblades", so it's possible you're correct.

Edit: After comparing both Siege and Kingdom Sideswipe pictures, it seems like the remold only affects the red parts of the toy. So it is very very likely that they said "Okay, this toy gets ONE new die". So the mold they changed was obviously the red one, because that's the one that holds most of the parts that are relevant to the look of the car mode. Thus leaving that tiny black part out.

Road Rage looks pretty great to me. That color scheme is killer.

Let's wait to judge the figure until there's more pictures? I have a feeling the lighting, angle, and even the pose could be a bit misleading at this point, since we're only have one photo to go off of for now.

We BW fans will never forget what happened with Kingdom Grimlock...a really great image of "Kingdom Grimlock" was "leaked" and then it turned out, that wasn't an image of the figure at all, and Hasbro had flipped the script on us big time...so...give it some time, because chances are this photo of Road Rage is a total fake, too.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:Polyoxymethylene (POM) is the main plastic used for structurally important pieces because of its strength, resilience and slipperiness (read: lack of resistance) and can't be painted with the stuff Hasbro uses. Had that off-colored piece on Sideswipe been made of regular ABS like the rest of the figure (read: moved to a different sprue), chances are we'd have seen reports of breakage before long. That plastic is restricted to one mold/color per tooling.

I think you are right on. Selects Deep cover is where things stand out the best because I think there are actually 2 sets of black molds for Sideswipe/Red Alert/Tigertrack/Netflix Deep Cover, one POM and one ABS. On Selects Deep Cover, the black ABS stays black like all the other uses of the mold and the POM switches to blue. This would also explain why something like the gun or launcher can be completely painted, or the rims being painted, those are black ABS.

It looks like the same POM plastic is used for the ankles, shins, crotch, abs and head along with the fists and shoulders. The plastic can be painted, but it looks like they can only do details/battle damage and not coat the entire piece. Of the parts that are painted, most of the paint is on area that wouldn't typically be handled much if at all.

I am hoping a kind of "undocumented configuration" is discovered (once in-hand) that lets the car backpack sit even a tiny bit lower than the photos show, thus allowing the shoulder-mounted weapons to sit a little lower on the figure, closer to the head. Right now they seem less like shoulder-mounted guns and more like some kind of silly radar device on top of a tall backpack (IMHO).

My #1 favorite thing about G1 'bots was their tendency towards overdramatic shoulder-mounted rockets and guns, yet the WFC toyline has leaned heavily towards tiny guns (Datsun bros, Primal) with sort of goofy placement (Tracks...too high up) or no placement at all (Kingdom Mirage...sigh).

I may just have to wait til a future toyline to get my toys with big ol' shoulder guns.

Edit: Just took a look at some of the in-hand Tracks pix and I might be wrong...the guns up top do look pretty good.

I agree with Will, definitely skipping her.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:Polyoxymethylene (POM) is the main plastic used for structurally important pieces because of its strength, resilience and slipperiness (read: lack of resistance) and can't be painted with the stuff Hasbro uses. Had that off-colored piece on Sideswipe been made of regular ABS like the rest of the figure (read: moved to a different sprue), chances are we'd have seen reports of breakage before long. That plastic is restricted to one mold/color per tooling.

That doesnt explain why they didnt pick the right colour for that unpaintable plastic. Clearly, we see that Hasbro could mold that piece in blue or black and yet they did not.

Someone messed up somewhere in the planning phase for plastic distribution/alocation.

At least, since they were releasing 2 deep covers the same year in the same assembly line, they could have uses the black part to go with the black car and the blue part to go with the blue car.

Regardless of any reason put forward, the end result looks dumb all around.

If Road Rage is in the Kingdom series and NOT an exclusive, I will buy her.

just_aCloud wrote:Road Rage looks pretty great to me. That color scheme is killer.

Let's wait to judge the figure until there's more pictures? I have a feeling the lighting, angle, and even the pose could be a bit misleading at this point, since we're only have one photo to go off of for now.

We BW fans will never forget what happened with Kingdom Grimlock...a really great image of "Kingdom Grimlock" was "leaked" and then it turned out, that wasn't an image of the figure at all, and Hasbro had flipped the script on us big time...so...give it some time, because chances are this photo of Road Rage is a total fake, too.

She may be a prototype, judge her when she's finished.

william-james88 wrote:At least, since they were releasing 2 deep covers the same year in the same assembly line, they could have uses the black part to go with the black car and the blue part to go with the blue car.

Unfortunately the blues don't match on the Deep Covers. The all black one would look fine, but the blue one would be worse than ER Sunstreaker on the color match by far.

AcademyofDrX wrote:

Emerje wrote:Is it just me or is it strange that the one thing that looked the most like a Lambo on the Siege figure, the entire back end of the car with those big vents behind the doors, also got replaced on this figure? I guess they wanted it to match Sunstreaker, but that's dumb because he isn't supposed to have those to begin with (MP Sunstreaker had them as an option, but they weren't exactly character accurate).
Emerje

Thank you for saying what I was thinking! I love those vents, they're the only part of the new figure that is a downgrade. They're so iconic! I assume it's licensing/legal-driven rather than an aesthetic choice, and it's not a deal breaker, but it is disappointing.

The reason this Sideswipe and ER Sunstreaker have vents like that is because they aren't based on the production Countach, but rather a prototype Countach (from '71 I believe), almost certainly for legal reasons. More differences can be seen on the door windows, hood, the shape of the fenders, and the spoiler (or lack thereof). Sunstreaker does have production Countach wheels and both toys have the Countach's side intakes, though, so they are a bit of an amalgamation of the two, but the basis is definitely the prototype.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:
Is it just me or is it strange that the one thing that looked the most like a Lambo on the Siege figure, the entire back end of the car with those big vents behind the doors, also got replaced on this figure?

AHA! I know you had told me that those vents were on an earth lambo but for some reason the way Hasbro had made them on Sideswipe they seemed overly big to the point where I thought that's what made it "cybertronian". I guess Hasbro thought the same.

I will join the club in those that are baffled by the unpainted/unpaintable piece. That piece has been sticking out like a sore thumb on most releases. None of the hypotheses make sense aside from hasbro having messed up somewhere. It's the same colour as other piece on the car, so why not either 1) paint it like the other painted piece or b) put it on the same sprue as the other pieces?

It looks extra dumb when looking at these two:

Polyoxymethylene (POM) is the main plastic used for structurally important pieces because of its strength, resilience and slipperiness (read: lack of resistance) and can't be painted with the stuff Hasbro uses. Had that off-colored piece on Sideswipe been made of regular ABS like the rest of the figure (read: moved to a different sprue), chances are we'd have seen reports of breakage before long. That plastic is restricted to one mold/color per tooling.

Then why not make it the same (one) colour as the rest of the toy?

Those unpaintable black plastic parts are most likely from the same sprue as Sideswipe's head and other black robot mode parts. It's the same for every other version of the mold. Those same parts are also black on Tigertrack and Netflix Deep Cover, red on Red Alert and Covert Clone Sideswipe, and blue on Selects Deep Cover. If those parts in vehicle were the same color as the rest of the vehicle mode, then those same parts on that sprue would all be the wrong color in robot mode. We'd be stuck with an all-red Sideswipe, an all-yellow Tigertrack, an all-white Red Alert, an all-black Covert Clone Sideswipe and Selects Deep Cover, and an all-blue Netflix Deep Cover. Sure, they'd all look nicer in vehicle mode, but as the sacrifice of each of their robot modes' secondary color.