The Energon Pub

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Overcracker wrote:As much as I like Star Saber and Deathsaurus, that's not something Hasbro is likely to do. Nor would they have been considered for a Hasbro line at all.

Except, both were in the fan poll for Power of the Primes. Now, maybe that was it, just a tease from Hasbro knowing (praying) neither would win, but they were at least on the radar of the design team in some form. They were also the only 2 that haven't gotten a toy since then, so maybe their absence since then is as close to confirmation they are out of the picture as we will get directly.

As you say, likely just a tease. Though Star Saber was a dead ringer for the Evolution gimmick in PotP. Deathsaurus not so much.

The last time we got a nod to ol' Deathy was the Botcon retool by FunPubin 2005:



I just don't see them being given slots by Hasbro now.

Overcracker wrote:They are Japan only characters, and Hasbro has not been very interested in those.

Combiner Wars Liokaiser, Titans Return Sawback (Lione), Titans Return Shuffler, Titans Return Stripes, Titans Return Twinferno's Titan Master Daburu (based on White Leo), Titans Return Blaster's Titan Master Twin Cast, Titans Return Soundwave's Titan Master Soundblaster, Titans Return Sixshot's Titan Master Revolver (based on Jack), Titans Return Sky Shadow (Black Shadow) and his Titan Master Ominus (based on Mega), Titans Return Overlord and his Titan Master Dreadnaut (based on Giga), Titans Return Metalhawk and his Titan Master Professor Go, Titans Return Grotusque's Titan Master Fengul (based on Platinum Tiger), Special Edition Titans Return Repugnus's Titan Master Dastard (based on Hedgehog), Power of the Primes Vector Prime's Metalhawk Decoy Armor, Siege Micromaster Road Police, Siege 35th Anniversary Soundblaster, Earthrise Scorponok's mid-sized Headmaster, and Selects Black Roritchi were all Hasbro-initiated toys of Japanese-originals.

I am torn about Rodimus... Although for the most part, I am leaning towards getting him, I'm with those who are considering the steep price.
And for me personally, I don't see keeping an $80 figure sealed, and at the same time, that trailer is going to be kept in the box (or a container of some sort with other sealed figures) 99% of the time. I already know that thing will never ever be displayed.
As always, the possibility of this purchase is tied to how many other figures I'm going to be buying in the near future (summer and into fall).
There are at least a few such as Sweeps, Wreck-gar, Gnaw, and even ER Sideswipe that seem likely...
But passing on 2, 3 or more of those- since we haven't seen them yet-- and I'll buy Rodimus in a heartbeat.
At this point I'll say he tops my "Maybe List"... I'll probably get Kingdom Inferno when I see him, and keep him sealed until we see more from my Maybe List.

Oh, and I thought, why 10 blast effects? Give us 6 and paint those wheels!!

I don't see the justification of Commander class with this Rodimus Prime.
I think they need to stop trying to fit Hot Rods Vehicle mode in there as well. If you wanted to have him separate, make him some sort of truck. Either a low riding pick up truck or a flat bed.

I want to know what his robot mode's height is in scale with the Hot Rod toy.

Roddy's not bad. Overall I like him. But, yeah, it looks like Hot Rod's pulling a trailer and not one complete vehicle. Still, it's a good job.

I guess parts count is why this is a commander class figure? Because it's definitely on the small side for that price point.

Sabrblade wrote:

Overcracker wrote:They are Japan only characters, and Hasbro has not been very interested in those.

Combiner Wars Liokaiser, Titans Return Sawback (Lione), Titans Return Shuffler, Titans Return Stripes, Titans Return Twinferno's Titan Master Daburu (based on White Leo), Titans Return Blaster's Titan Master Twin Cast, Titans Return Soundwave's Titan Master Soundblaster, Titans Return Sixshot's Titan Master Revolver (based on Jack), Titans Return Sky Shadow (Black Shadow) and his Titan Master Ominus (based on Mega), Titans Return Overlord and his Titan Master Dreadnaut (based on Giga), Titans Return Metalhawk and his Titan Master Professor Go, Titans Return Grotusque's Titan Master Fengul (based on Platinum Tiger), Special Edition Titans Return Repugnus's Titan Master Dastard (based on Hedgehog), Power of the Primes Vector Prime's Metalhawk Decoy Armor, Siege Micromaster Road Police, Siege 35th Anniversary Soundblaster, Earthrise Scorponok's mid-sized Headmaster, and Selects Black Roritchi were all Hasbro-initiated toys of Japanese-originals.

Most of them are easy repaints or retools of existing figures, or Titan masters. some were even exclusives not main line. None were brand new 100% original molds for the specific character outside of Overlord and Skyshadow. Also most of those were in the previous set of lines, not the current trilogy.

The only original mold is Overlord, and only because they could get Skyshadow out of the mold too.

If they can do it cheaply I'm sure they'll want to.

Producing a brand new mold for them with one potential use, because what else are you going to use a Star Saber and Deathsaurus mold for outside of them, not so much.

Heck not even Takara chose to make new molds for their own characters, and instead just retool existing ones. And a well designed Star Convoy could have easily been retooled into Armada Prime for extra use.

They'll throw in characters if its easy and cheap to do so. Devoting a Commander Class figure to a Japan only character without any obvious potential re-uses not so much.

I could certainly do with a Commander Class Overlord.

sol magnus wrote:I could certainly do with a Commander Class Overlord.

Titans Return Overlord is already a perfect option. Its as good as an update as you could hope for.

Granted you need to buy an extra set to get both of his power masters, but such is life.

I think Hasbro can easily re-issue Overlord and include both of his power masters and it would fit in nicely with the current lines of toys.

Overcracker wrote:

sol magnus wrote:I could certainly do with a Commander Class Overlord.

Titans Return Overlord is already a perfect option. Its as good as an update as you could hope for.

Granted you need to buy an extra set to get both of his power masters, but such is life.

I think Hasbro can easily re-issue Overlord and include both of his power masters and it would fit in nicely with the current lines of toys.

I have it. It's not "perfect."

The chest guns don't open, the 'factory' doesn't open, and it has exactly one weapon. That said, I do enjoy him for all those 'flaws.'

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Overcracker wrote:As much as I like Star Saber and Deathsaurus, that's not something Hasbro is likely to do. Nor would they have been considered for a Hasbro line at all.

Except, both were in the fan poll for Power of the Primes. Now, maybe that was it, just a tease from Hasbro knowing (praying) neither would win, but they were at least on the radar of the design team in some form. They were also the only 2 that haven't gotten a toy since then, so maybe their absence since then is as close to confirmation they are out of the picture as we will get directly.

I still hold to the theory that Hasbro wanted Deathsaurus to win, and that's why he was listed as the interesting "Unknown Evil," and that they invented a Wild Card spot for him because he lost in the first round.

Overcracker wrote:Also most of those were in the previous set of lines, not the current trilogy.

It's still the same Hasbro team who did both trilogies.

Sabrblade wrote:

Overcracker wrote:Also most of those were in the previous set of lines, not the current trilogy.

It's still the same Hasbro team who did both trilogies.

Same team yes, but different mandates probably for the included figures.

The point being, its unlikely given what we have seen so far, that the Commander Class spot was considered for anybody else.

I think it was Rodimus from the beginning, and neither Star Saber nor Deathsaurus were considered. So no this Roiddy did not take the space for anyone else.

That's not to say, they won't do it after the trilogy is concluded. They may still want to release other figures in this general aesthetic, just not within these 3 lines.

Its also entirely possible they may be letting Takara do those instead of them.

Overcracker wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Overcracker wrote:Also most of those were in the previous set of lines, not the current trilogy.

It's still the same Hasbro team who did both trilogies.

Same team yes, but different mandates probably for the included figures.

It was this original claim that I was responding to:

Overcracker wrote:They are Japan only characters, and Hasbro has not been very interested in those.

Redecos/retools or not, the 21 toys I listed illustrate that this Hasbro team has absolutely been interested in Japanese-originals, and that they know there is a time and a place for them.

In this particular case, this time was Rodimus's time due to the anniversary of TFTM. Right now may not be the time for Star Saber and Friends, but never say never.

Sabrblade wrote:In this particular case, this time was Rodimus's time due to the anniversary of TFTM.

This. Pretty much everything done in this trilogy is about the 35th anniversary. You had the start of G1 in 2019 and this year is the movie. Kingdom happened because BW started 10 years after the movie in 1996 so its 25th lines up with the movie's 35th.

Sabrblade wrote:In this particular case, this time was Rodimus's time due to the anniversary of TFTM. Right now may not be the time for Star Saber and Friends, but never say never.

The "Japanese continuity" may be the focus of the next trilogy.
Mainline Titan Black Zarack anyone?
And I'd really love a Pretender revival. Especially for Metalhawk.

Sabrblade wrote:In this particular case, this time was Rodimus's time due to the anniversary of TFTM. Right now may not be the time for Star Saber and Friends, but never say never.

Agreed. I dont think Rodimus took a spot away from another CC. I'm sure it was always planned that way, but it wasn't a great plan IMHO. Star Saber & Co would have been a better way to go this year.

I mean TF:TM is my single favorite story of Transformers Anything EVER..., but as discussed on another thread, I don't think it needs to be celebrated every 5 years at this point. Also anniversary celebrations by Hasbro are dubious at best. As a result instead of focusing on finishing the WFC trilogy with as many updated versions of classic original series characters that have yet to be updated, we get only a "few", and a few BW mixed in. Next year wont be BW 25th anniversary anymore, but does that mean we stop getting characters of them? I hope not. My favorite toys are actually represented in seasons 2 & 3 of the show, as well as BWII.

If whatever comes next decides to split the Generations line between Original Series and BW I'm ok with that, but for some reason I feel 2022 is going to have a drastic change I'm not going to be fond of.

o.supreme wrote:Next year wont be BW 25th anniversary anymore, but does that mean we stop getting characters of them? I hope not. My favorite toys are actually represented in seasons 2 & 3 of the show, as well as BWII.

If whatever comes next decides to split the Generations line between Original Series and BW I'm ok with that, but for some reason I feel 2022 is going to have a drastic change I'm not going to be fond of.

The current rumors are that the next line after Kingdom will be half G1 and half non-G1, depending on how successful Kingdom is. And that the next Walmart reissue line after Retro Headmasters will be Vintage Beast Wars featuring reissues of the Deluxe and Mega class Transmetal 1 toys.

Having seen the pictures bigger it looks like Rodimus Prime's gun folds at least in half for storage and the sword has one of those Siege weapon peg thingies.

2 comments from me on Rodimus:

1) the main bot looks real nice, and I love the sword, but the $50 extra chunk of plastic to get him to Commander class is not at all worth it to me. I'll pass.

2) Commander spot really should have been Magnaboss or Tigerhawk

-Kanrabat- wrote:I can bet my left AND right nuts that those will never appear at my local Walmart.

Do you want me to get you some if I find both of them? Going on a hunt tomorrow.

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:2) Commander spot really should have been Magnaboss or Tigerhawk

Why would Tigerhawk merrit a commander class instead of leader class? With the amount of people not thrilled to be paying 80$ for what they deem to be a leader class package, we'd get the same reaction for Tigerhawk.
I truly hope not to have to spend $80 USD when Hasbro releases him.

o.supreme wrote: Next year wont be BW 25th anniversary anymore, but does that mean we stop getting characters of them? I hope not. My favorite toys are actually represented in seasons 2 & 3 of the show, as well as BWII.

Tarantulus is on the internal list of 2022 releases. Anything can happen of course (polar claw, alpha trion, brawn and gnaw were all characters that were also on previous release schedules and then postponed or removed).

sol magnus wrote:I could certainly do with a Commander Class Overlord.

What happened with people being sick of getting the same toys over and over? We got an overlord, a good one, in an imposing size and a good price point, we even got a Takara version to suit whatever needs one may have. No need for commander class.

o.supreme wrote:If whatever comes next decides to split the Generations line between Original Series and BW I'm ok with that, but for some reason I feel 2022 is going to have a drastic change I'm not going to be fond of.

This is also my fear...
That Hastak will think that ER & SS86 provided enough figures that emphasized G1 screen accuracy (no matter how many characters didn’t make it into these lines).
So the next batch of G1 characters will have some sort of gimmick that compromises robot (& possibly alt mode) likeness. & what bothers me most about this thought, is if a lot of characters who never were made for ER or SS86 get an “update” that includes _______ gimmick.

I’m really hoping that Hastak sees value in the quality of the figures from the SS86 line (as well as figures from Kingdom that could’ve been in SS86) enough to make a sub-line or devoted number of wave slots to keep that aesthetic & quality going.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Mainline Titan Black Zarack anyone?

Hate to burst your bubble, but the Ark will be the final Titan. News has it that next year we'll have two Commanders instead, with a slight price increase. Not gonna stop TakaraTomy from attempting an exclusive though.

Jelze Bunnycat wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:Mainline Titan Black Zarack anyone?

Hate to burst your bubble, but the Ark will be the final Titan. News has it that next year we'll have two Commanders instead, with a slight price increase. Not gonna stop TakaraTomy from attempting an exclusive though.

I heard about the dual commander. And if two commanders will replace a titan, I hope it would be Victory Saber and Leo. Thus creating Titan Victory Saber!

-Kanrabat- wrote:And I'd really love a Pretender revival.

Yes please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seibertron wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:And I'd really love a Pretender revival.

Yes please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hell yeah!
Just imagine a proper action figure with a Core sized bot inside. Those could be perfect voyagers. Then as leaders, the Mega transformable like Leader Thunderwing................ and Leader Vroom!