The Energon Pub

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:Question I have is, will they reveal Kingdom at Pulsecon. Seems weird to do the reveals via a con that only 2 countries worth of people can access online

That's nothing new. Hasbro (and Takara) only seem to think two countries exist anyway

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:It wasn't just that, but it was part of it. From the moment it dropped, there was a very divisive and dismissive attitude, basically "yep backing that" and "what the hell are they thinking; cut the size, price, parts count, etc. in half; shellformer". With the amount of complaints, coupled with those jumping off the wagon for the 3P one, which was shut down because of the jumping ship, and those who stayed off to wait out that figure to return, it made TF fans look like very spoiled children, made us look to use a term I saw in another fandom forum frequently, "pompous".

I will agree with Emerje that it was poor timing too, and harsh growing pains learned from it and Cookie Monster, and Sentinel put those lessons to good use, but the general attitude of the TF fandom was perceived as quite spoiled. No other Haslab project had anywhere near the fandom associated variables that Unicron did. It was honestly horrendously embarrassing.

Okay, I think I understand what you're saying now. It's embarrassing that fans were essentially spitting in Hasbro's face with this project by deciding to invest in an unlicensed competitor instead. Unfortunately, that's been going on for years with this hobby. There's a reason the knockoff Masterpiece market has been so lucrative. Some fans just want to get it all for as little money as possible and don't think about the impact of their actions on the hobby as a whole.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:

sol magnus wrote:I'd like some more Kingdom leaks. Thanks.

Question I have is, will they reveal Kingdom at Pulsecon. Seems weird to do the reveals via a con that only 2 countries worth of people can access online

I think it makes sense that Hasbro would release Kingdom info at Pulsecon, especially now that almost the entirety of the Kingdom line has probably been leaked. It doesn't matter so much that the convention isn't international, as after the announcement, the information and press materials for Kingdom will be spread all over the internet almost instantaneously. The official reveal of Kingdom is basically a given. What I'm more interested in is how Hasbro is going to handle the wrap-up of Earthrise in the next few months. Will they elaborate more on the "Galactic Odyssey Collection"? How will Earthrise Thrust and Runabout be distributed? Will we ever get a Micromaster Buzzsaw for Soundwave!? What about the Autobot Clones Fastlane and Cloudraker? Damn, I've got a LOT of questions!

I hope that we also get a reveal of the Studio Series 1986 animated movie figures. It would make sense if Pulsecon will be the launch of the "Quintesson Pit of Judgement" set to announce other upcoming figures from The Transformers: The Movie to go along with it.

Wolfman Jake wrote: Some fans just want to get it all for as little money as possible and don't think about the impact of their actions on the hobby as a whole.

You can also understand that when it comes to the 3P Market, it isn't just about the price either, but the selection. A friend of mine bought the equivalent of Masterpiece Monsterbots. Meanwhile HasTak keep wasting everyone's time milking the same (most lucrative) character selection ad nauseum.

It has been nearly 17 years since MP-1. Meanwhile in all that time they haven't completed a single season of any sub-line, especially G1. In fact, the MPM is probably the most advanced line to date, with BW in second place. Continuing to needlessly spin their wheels with these lines and someone will pick up the slack.

Not that I'm advocating 3P, as I think it is very odd that HasTak seemingly have rights to names but not likenesses But you can see where 3P found their niche.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote: Some fans just want to get it all for as little money as possible and don't think about the impact of their actions on the hobby as a whole.

You can also understand that when it comes to the 3P Market, it isn't just about the price either, but the selection. A friend of mine bought the equivalent of Masterpiece Monsterbots. Meanwhile HasTak keep wasting everyone's time milking the same (most lucrative) character selection ad nauseum.

It has been nearly 17 years since MP-1. Meanwhile in all that time they haven't completed a single season of any sub-line, especially G1. In fact, the MPM is probably the most advanced line to date, with BW in second place. Continuing to needlessly spin their wheels with these lines and someone will pick up the slack.

Not that I'm advocating 3P, as I think it is very odd that HasTak seemingly have rights to names but not likenesses But you can see where 3P found their niche.

Also with Kickstarters companies often listen to their backers and change/shape the product accordingly. Hasbro was asking for a lot of money for something that wasn't and still isnt screen accurate. If Hasbro had showed that the spiked fly paper strips were removable I'd have been yay but others would have complained of parts forming so it can be a no win situation.
Hasbro (and even some third partys) are losing customers trust by relasing the same things for two thirds more (coughs platinum Unicron, coughs Mil Falcon)the price later on that is either the same or had changes (that may be for the better, but dont justify the price hike) so customers look elsewhere which fortunately fans are able to do thanks to HasTak and third partys providing multiple choices (coughs Platinum, coughs Zeta).

I'm just gonna say that unicron was just too big, too heavy, and had too little time for people to come up with half a thousand dollars; it was easily the most expensive endeavor they've done; I would have liked it better if it was made to be the size and density of scorponok, since he will never scale with anything anyway, if he had been smaller, he would have been way more affordable. I think the sentinel was successful because it was more affordable, and it was in scale with the other legends figures, and that community seems to have some serious dime to drop for them the way some were army building the sentinel.

On topic, I can't wait to see what comes of kingdom, blackarachnia looks amazing, as does cheetor, I cannot believe these are the new scout class I am fully on board for an ark playset titan class figure, still hoping to get a selects artfire out of the line

Only Rattrap is the core class Cheetor and BA are Deluxe.

Wolfman Jake wrote:Will they elaborate more on the "Galactic Odyssey Collection"? How will Earthrise Thrust and Runabout be distributed? Will we ever get a Micromaster Buzzsaw for Soundwave!? What about the Autobot Clones Fastlane and Cloudraker?

Tune in next time to find out! Same Bat-Time, same Bat-Channel!

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Not that I'm advocating 3P, as I think it is very odd that HasTak seemingly have rights to names but not likenesses But you can see where 3P found their niche.

This is literally the way that toy rights work. Copyrights apply to names and logos but generally aren't applicable to a toy design. Aspects of the visual design may have some copy protections, but usually toy product IP for the physical object is based in patents, not copyright, and patent law works completely differently.

Counterfeit products that try to pass themselves off as genuine are illegal based on other laws, things like OSKOs may be produced using protected material, but original toys that share visual similarity to another toy or even a media property may not be violating any laws. Hasbro might be able to have a legal claim against a wide range of 3P manufacturers, but the risk of a legal loss is likely much greater than the actual harm of the status quo.

I'm generally not a fan of so-called 3P, but I find it fascinating as a topic at the intersection of fandom and corporate media. With very limited exceptions, there really isn't anything else like the 3P TF market out there.

Getting tired of having to remind people to stay on-topic, considering this is the second time in about a week, if it happens again, warnings follow.

I apologize, I should have known better than to go so far down a tangent.

ZeroWolf wrote:Only Rattrap is the core class Cheetor and BA are Deluxe.

That makes a lot more sense

Look! :3

Next review by TonTon

Now, Blackarachnia

https://www.instagram.com/p/CEtz4INgm0V/

Hrmmm, that Cheetor robot mode face is eerily reminding of the robot face of Universe Cheetor more than anything.

I think it's his grim expression.

As Prowl said once "Ask and you shall receive."

Cheetor looking tubular, literally he's definitely going to be a pass which rules out any redecos of him for me too. Hopefully tigatrons a lot better and a repaint into cheetor.

RacerCheetor wrote:Look!:3

Next review by TonTon

118674159_931676247313642_212564653662586627_n.jpg

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I'm still eager for the review, but that picture and angle doesn't make him look appealing to me.

Oh hey, blurry confirmation that Blackarachnia has her gun.

They almost look like mini budget MPs, and I like that. The actual MPs look great but those prices... too high for me to justify getting some, I just don’t have that much of a connection to spend that much.

I heard a rumour that both Inferno (Autobot and Predacon) are going to be in this line. That doesn't seem a very good idea

Ton Ton will be reviewing Transformers Kingdom Cheetor and Blackarahnia soon. Would be fun if they just did it without the teases and hoopla but alas here we are. In the review tease, we do get a nice picture of Cheetor in bot mode. We also see that Blackarachnia will get her typical gun accessory (unlike Cheetor).

We will be posting the review when they are out but in the meantime, here are the images I mentioned found on Instagram.

Let us know what you think of these new toys!

TonTon being earlier than PrimeVsPrime. Wonder how anyone aside from Hasbro factory leakers will beat TonTon's early reviews?

What if...TonTon was one of the factory workers

ZeroWolf wrote:What if...TonTon was one of the factory workers

They all seem to have, to my American ears, an English accent. Are they expats living in Hong Kong or China or wherever the factories are?

Regardless, that image of Cheetor looks good to me. Beast Wars figure with WFC-class engineering. I feel like there was a jump in quality between the Prime Wars and WFC trilogies and I look forward to seeing this figure in action.

Found this on Twitter