The Energon Pub

sol magnus wrote:

william-james88 wrote:So yeah, 0 indication of theft (unless you have solid proof) and this timeline fits exactly with when Siege wave 4 came out. I don't know why we are so quick to accuse people of crimes and ignore facts.

Well, there's plenty of evidence in other cases, but I agree this one seems legit. To which I say, 'great'.

As do I, and yes there is definitely plenty of evidence in other cases. If you don't see the box in the video, something's up.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Where is he BTW?

He left, he had enough of this.

Back to Tigatron, I will get him. I like the robot mode and the legs are much better. But that Tiger mode looks bad. Tigers are the biggest cats in the world (bigger than lions) and he just looks starving there. I do like that this is very faithful t the essence of the character. Same transformation (more or less) as Cheetor, but with a different cat mode and a bigger robot mode.

william-james88 wrote:But it being packaged proves that it is the case. Hasbro wont hold onto ready to ship product. We followed them every step of the way in their Unicron campaign, the packaging is the last step and they ship directly to distributors (which is probably who expedited the figure to PVP).

Packaging is the last step, but Hasbro will hold onto products before sending them out. This has been done for two main reasons in the past:
1-To delay a line for a currently-popular line (Animated was held back for half a year I believe because of the Live Action toyline's success), obviously this isn't the case here.
2-They need to amass multiple copies to send out in bulk and distribute.

Hasbro also doesn't plan on dropping Wave 4 in the next month because it hasn't even been announced (and their official Wave 3 shipments have yet to go out... being scheduled for September), if anything Wave 4 will hit retail September with Wave 5 hitting December to January. Unicron's packaging happened so soon to his shipment because he's an outlier, he's one massive figure with a shorter run as opposed to six-or-so unique figures with full runs that release simultaneously.

(Also if he obtained this legitimately through a store he'd mention it... and if it was free he'd legally have to mention it)

Again sorry I didn't mean to derail this topic!


Somewhat related, but have leaks slowed down since Hasbro employees acknowledged them in the SS86 Fan First? Maybe Hasbro plugged the assembly / quality assurance stage leak, but another leak opened further down the production line (we didn't get any Wave 4 Kingdom samples leaked).

Nuclearxpotato wrote:if anything Wave 4 will hit retail September

For it to hit retail in north america in September, it has to be in an asian shippers and distributors hands right now. That is precicely how PVP could have gotten it. He has a contact with an asian distributor, they got a batch of these and shipped him one immediately. That is far more logical than theft from a factory.
Once again, I have no clue why you are adamant about foul play here. This reviewer has bypassed standard retail by getting a copy directly from a distributor, the timeline (which you confirmed) checks out. That does not mean anyone stole anything. We shouldn't confuse unconventional with illegal.

Please only accuse one of theft is you are 100% certain.

Nuclearxpotato wrote: (we didn't get any Wave 4 Kingdom samples leaked).

Wave 4 Waspinator leaked a month and a half ago with no package shown. That one reeks of foul play for sure.
There will keep being leaks.

Nuclearxpotato wrote:Hasbro also doesn't plan on dropping Wave 4 in the next month because it hasn't even been announced

That is completely unrelated. We've had tons of pre reveal sightings that are completely legitimate this year. Something being found at retail before it being announced is indicative of nothing aside from incpompetence from hasbro's marketing team.

william-james88 wrote:

Nuclearxpotato wrote: (we didn't get any Wave 4 Kingdom samples leaked).

Wave 4 Waspinator leaked a month and a half ago with no package shown. That one reeks of foul play for sure.
There will keep being leaks.

I honestly forgot about Waspinator's leak tbh. I guess it probably slipped my mind since he wasn't like crazily "new" since the T30 figure was decent (in my eyes at least) unlike Slammer or Tigatron... though now that I think about it, either I'm misremembering a vague moment from a weeks-old dream or was Slammer also leaked? I seem to remember there being some conversation about his head design... EDIT: Just remembered I was thinking of the Box Art revealed. The head matched up to a leaker's early description of it (I believe they made a rough sketch).

There will never stop being leaks obviously, I was thinking that maybe Hasbro found a source (which was in the QA / assembly phase) but another one opened further down the line (at packaging).

I bet HASTAK allow leaks on purpose because free online advertising. They save and earn back MILLIONS this way.
And it's pretty damn fine by me.

-Kanrabat- wrote:I bet HASTAK allow leaks on purpose because free online advertising. They save and earn back MILLIONS this way.
And it's pretty damn fine by me.

That's my theory, gets around youtube's promotion rules if they can point to a lowly factory worker. Plausible deniability and all that.

Emerje wrote:
As far as being overly positive goes maybe he just thinks that's what will get him the most views, or maybe he just isn't that good at being critical.

Emerje

Yep, fair points you make. I've seen videos where he's looking back at past releases and they seem to be a lot more critical. I'd like to see the videos where he's had them for a few days and had time to reflect, but I know that does miss the whole point of being the first out there.

Anyway, I being was a little cynical. I apologise and am completely backing down. I prefer his over-positivity than the opposite, where people are nit-picking about the smallest things. Because when it all comes down to it, Transformers are awesome.

Something about Tigatron's upper body seemed off to me and I wonder if his robot mode would look better if he had some tiger stripes on the neck of his tiger mode

That and it seems like he doesn't have a neck haha

Overcracker wrote:So with Tigatron finally being revealed, I think that's everything that was pending for a reveal from Kingdom main line. Or is anything else still in the wind?

Have we seen Pipes yet? Or Slammer?

In toy form, I mean.

Overcracker wrote:So with Tigatron finally being revealed, I think that's everything that was pending for a reveal from Kingdom main line. Or is anything else still in the wind?

Also, anyone have a link to a Waspinator pre-oerder? Or has he not been put up for pre-order yet?

Waspinator still hasn't been officially announced by Hasbro or Takara, the pre-orders will go up shortly after that. We still haven't seen physical versions of Pipes, Shadow Panther or Slammer, even if the art work on the Kingdom website gives us a good idea of what they look like. There's also leaked store listings that are unaccounted for, a Blaster and some more Amazon exclusives, the "Golden Disk" range that supposedly includes a Terrorsaur.

Sabrblade wrote:

Overcracker wrote:So with Tigatron finally being revealed, I think that's everything that was pending for a reveal from Kingdom main line. Or is anything else still in the wind?

Have we seen Pipes yet? Or Slammer?

In toy form, I mean.

Nope, nor any of the rumored 5th wave

I was a little disappointed that Hasbro didn't do a FFF in July for TF, instead they just dropped SG Jetfire on a TF Tuesday, and the rest of SS in a facebook post . Anyway, I can't fathom that there wouldn't be some sort of TF event in August for the full wave 4 Kingdom Reveal.

We also haven't seen golden disk Tigatron
Rn it's just speculation as to whether hes the voyager mold with traditional tiger colors or a repaint of covert agent ravage

Pretty excited to find out

Overcracker wrote:Wasn't wave 5 moved to the next line?

I thought Wave 4 was the end of Kingdom, and anything else was in other or future lines or exclusives now.

The opposite. There were originally 4 waves, but a 5th wave of repacks and Blaster was added ,presumably because the line is doing well and retailers want more product.

Waspinator on Amazon
Tigatron on Amazon
Pipes on Amazon

The links can be used to add to a list and then the wishlist trick should work for preorders as that is how I got mine in three months ago.

Once the product is revealed the pages are filled with content. I ordered on April 10th and when Wreck-Gar, Slag, and Gnaw were finally announced that one Fan First Friday my order page populated with their images.

I must admit, giving Tigatron the gun was a nice touch. It helps him to stand apart from Cheetor.

Razorbeast88 wrote:We also haven't seen golden disk Tigatron
Rn it's just speculation as to whether hes the voyager mold with traditional tiger colors or a repaint of covert agent ravage

Pretty excited to find out

It'd be an oddball, but I hope that GD Tigatron is a Nightprowler redeco of Tigatron. The listing for Sideswipe's pack stated there was a Nightprowler (he was planned very early on), so maybe there's a chance he'll resurface?

No, you're right. Kingdom Rhinox doesn't make sense. The other toys are going for close-to-show robot modes. BA, primal, Dinobot, tigatron, scorponok, they look fairly close to their cgi models.

Rhinox looks like an entirely new take. The head hews closer to the of toys head rather than the show. It has ugly splotches. It doesn't seem to even have the same overall aesthetic and frankly, it's ugly.

T30 is a very good toy. It has a hip issue where they don't really lock into place where they should, and he can be hard to stand. But he's a terrific toy with a head sculpt that rules, better CGOD. And I LOVE that t30 actually transformers like his show transformation sequence --- the robot kind of coming "out of" the rhino mouth. T30 has the lower jaw become his chest, not some fake piece.

TL;dr stick kingdom Rhinox next to his character model and there are an easy dozen things off/wrong.

Sabrblade wrote:Kingdom Rhinox is based directly on his Forged to Fight design (which was itself a stylization of Generations Rhinox in the first place).
 
https://twitter.com/ThatJohnD/status/14 ... 1228989443
 

 
https://twitter.com/ThatJohnD/status/14 ... 7259732992
 

 
https://twitter.com/LumakenStudio/statu ... 3094188035
 

Sabrblade wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Kingdom Rhinox is based directly on his Forged to Fight design (which was itself a stylization of Generations Rhinox in the first place).
 
https://twitter.com/ThatJohnD/status/14 ... 1228989443
 

 
https://twitter.com/ThatJohnD/status/14 ... 7259732992
 

 
https://twitter.com/LumakenStudio/statu ... 3094188035
 

I was thinking this as well when I was looking back at Rhinox pictures while trying to figure what was off. I actually like a lot of the FtF designs, specifically Dinobot. Seeing them side-by-side really cements it though. I wonder if this was intentional since T30 was very accurate (Hasbro decided to make another design instead of trying to overwrite T30).

The only thing against this is that Waspinator (another T30 BW Alumni) isn't also based off his FtF design... which is actually pretty dope (I love his layered shoulders). Though maybe the designers considered T30 Waspy to not be "close enough" since a few smaller details are off.

Just a little fyi...
If you're like me and skipped Arcee, Walmart has her listed for $10!!
I don't think anyone can realistically ask for a better price. Got 1, and now will be looking into an upgrade kit for her.

I regret not getting T30 arcee instead of this one tbh
The transformation frustrates me
Definitely looking to get an upgrade for her though, she needs some swords at least

ZeroWolf wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:I bet HASTAK allows leaks on purpose because free online advertising. They save and earn back MILLIONS this way.
And it's pretty damn fine by me.

That's my theory, gets around youtube's promotion rules if they can point to a lowly factory worker. Plausible deniability and all that.

No. No, no, no NO! None of that is true, none of anything that has been said, about leaks, reviewers, or anything like that is true. I truly don't care if this gets me thrown off the site but I've had enough of the maddening ignorance that I'm reading.

Some years ago I had a podcast that allowed me to speak with former Hasbro designers, stress on former, there is NO WAY, NONE that ANYONE would be able to sit down with a current designer and ask the questions I was able to, most of which didn't make the air.

First, Hasbro DOES NOT condone or allow leaks, KOs, unlicensed homages, or whatever 3rd party transformers are. The problem is the rules in the country where the factories were and are, are muddy at best and it just isn't worth the expense legally to try and stop the leaks. It's NOT free advertising or something Hasbro is OK with. It's just bad laws in bad countries.

Second, HASBRO HAS NOT, DOES NOT, AND NEVER WILL GIVE OUT REVIEW SAMPLES MONTHS OR WEEKS BEFORE A FIGURE IS RELEASED TO MARKET. Read that sentence again and as many times you need to, to get it in your head. The last thing Hasbro wants is to reveal flaws, issues, and other problems with a mold before it's on a shelf and no longer their problem. Imagine a reviewer got a FULLY FINISHED READY TO SHIP AND SELL Tracks figure with those horrible legs and that review made it all over the net before Target and Walmart had the figures out to sell, most people would pass on it because they wouldn't want to bother trying to fix it and parents wouldn't want to deal with their children's complaints. If you see a review of a figure months early, or even before it's been announced without being found on a shelf somewhere, IT IS A STOLEN TOY, REGARDLESS IF IT'S IN A BOX OR NOT! Plenty of discarded figures are used as boxed samples to show how a toy will look and then the box and figure are DISCARDED! It's a shame that so many toys with a blemish here or there are tossed when they could be donated but it is what it is. Frankly, I've always believed that Hasbro rated out YouTube to the FTC and caused that whole COPA thing as a backhanded way to get rid of video reviewers, there's brand loyalty for you.

Finally, retailers DO NOT send out early samples UNLESS it's a new line that they have monetarily invested in. A small boutique toy line that BBTS would carry for example, that they may have pledged some money to. The most a retailer will do, and I mean a place like BBTS, is put a reviewer's order at the top of the list to be shipped out but that's ALL.

That's it. I've said my peace. This all comes from years of being in the hobby and speaking to people who would know. Hasbro doesn't care about you, me, your mom, or your cat. Don't think that highly of them. I'm not responding to any more posts on this because I don't want to pop another blood vessel.