The Energon Pub

Immortal Starscream wrote:in all seriousness, this could be an indication that these are waaay behind schedule. Given that they will be shipping well into the new lines first couple of waves, but be "last year's model" they may be reducing the price to try and sell as much as they can to help recoup any possible losses from kids and collectors that have "moved on"

While the first 2 GO sets from ER arrived late in 2020, the last 3 were well into 2021, the last ones being in March and April IIRC. These first 2 have an approximate release date of March 2022. If sets 3 and 4 come out in April, the time tables would be about the same.

AcademyofDrX wrote:I wouldn't read that much into Amazon's multipack prices. There was that whole weird think with the Sideswipe two-pack price, too.

But that is a completely different issue and a pretty easy to understand one-off oops. Amazon mistakenly had the wrong price for Sideswipe/Skywarp (2 deluxes) priced the same as the Grimlock/Mirage (voyager/deluxe). Comparing the price on Pulse versus Amazon showed it was an easy mistake and one Amazon fixed at the time of shipping.

Amazon and Pulse are aligned on the pricing for the first Golden Disk 2 sets. They are just lower than expected. Now, Pulse themselves have a pretty good history of putting up mistake prices ($9.99 Siege wave 2 deluxes ring a bell), so that is one possibility here. The other is that they for whatever reason are letting these go out cheaper than expected.

Oh, I guess we're seeing all of these this week possibly? Cool to see my prediction of Jackpot's "lore" was right, the deco looks great, and the addition of Sights makes me a lot more willing to pay $23 for a Deluxe. Interesting that there's no explicit cliffhanger/hint of who's next, but the mention of hostile beasts after the Nemesis would make me assume Terrorsaur next.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

Immortal Starscream wrote:in all seriousness, this could be an indication that these are waaay behind schedule. Given that they will be shipping well into the new lines first couple of waves, but be "last year's model" they may be reducing the price to try and sell as much as they can to help recoup any possible losses from kids and collectors that have "moved on"

You might be onto something. These are weird when compared to the GO sets last year. They are being announced at about the same time, or even earlier, but the first sets aren't due until March versus December when the GO sets started shipping.

Keep in mind those dates may be inaccurate especially due to Covid-based shipping delays, they might be putting them up with a later-than-usual release date just to give themselves a safety net for if they are going to take that long, and then release them earlier if they can. Hasbro's done that will multiple exclusives before, Amazon and otherwise.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:($9.99 Siege wave 2 deluxes ring a bell)

Did that happen for Wave 2 as well? I know I got my Hound and Flywheels for that price, I didn't know/remember it happened/happening for Wave 2 as well.

Nemesis Primal wrote:

TF-fan kev777 wrote:($9.99 Siege wave 2 deluxes ring a bell)

Did that happen for Wave 2 as well? I know I got my Hound and Flywheels for that price, I didn't know/remember it happened/happening for Wave 2 as well.

Yes, Siege wave 1, was actually the last wave that was from HasbroToyShop at the $9.99 mistake price. When Hasbro Pulse went live, it was with wave 2, at the mistake price.

That mistake price was the only way I was buying that Chromia mold, and I still sold it off (at $13 for a small profit after eBay fees).

It was just yesterday that we got an official reveal of the first set in the Amazon exclusive Golden Disk subline of the Kingdom toyline, in the form of Puffer and Road Ranger. But today, we get another reveal. Feast your optics on Jackpot and Sights! Jackpot is an Action Master from 1990, and Sights is his partner/Targetmaster. This marks the first true update for this character in 31 years, though his Transformers Animated counterpart did have a figure in the Transformers Subscription Service.

Much like that Animated counterpart, this Jackpot is also based on a previously released figure of Jazz, redecoed and with a new head sculpt, specifically, Studio Series Jazz. Sights, while retaining a flying robot mode, switches from being a bird to being a redeco of Siege Pteraxodon. The description notes that while being caught up in the same time vortex that Road Ranger and Puffer were, it gave Jackpot the ability to transform, which Action Masters never did.






















Jackpot and Sights are due in early March of 2022, and you can preorder them at Amazon by clicking any picture of them above, and though their listing at Hasbro Pulse is up, it is currently sold out.

What do you think of this latest set? Excited to see an Action Master get some love? Surprised that this mold didn't get made into Ricochet first? Let us know what you think in the Energon Pub Forums!

Up on Amazon too

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08TQ ... UTF8&psc=1

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Up on Amazon too

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08TQ ... UTF8&psc=1

Yep! Just click on any one of the pictures above, and it's linked to Amazon's listing.

That looks nice. I've been debating buying Jazz for a while, but between Wheeljack, Ratchet, Prowl, Magnus, Red Alert, half of Arcee, about a quarter of Sideswipe and later this week (the set shipped today) Mirage, there's a lot of white on my G1 Autobot shelf, so I don't really want to add any more primarily white Autobots to my line-up. This figure could be a decent alternative to Jazz, I don't know all that much about Action Masters but I do like how Jackpot looks. I also like the little storyline that's going on with these sets, it's clearly been thought out a lot more than the Galactic Odyssey storyline was, and I don't mind the cute little "Bunch of obscure nobodies team up to save the day and stop the bad guys from using the Macguffin for eeeeeeevil" plot. It's simple enough to follow.
Perhaps I missed something when Road Ranger and Puffer were announced, but I didn't realise they were revealing the Golden Disk Collection all in one go with one new reveal each day. So it looks like Golden Disk Tigatron will be revealed and go up for pre-order before normal Tigatron after all.
Unless of course wave 4 is being officially revealed on Friday, the day after the fourth Golden Disk set, then I'll maybe let them off with it.

I was looking at my collection just yesterday and wondering what other possible uses they could have for the SS Jazz mold. I guess I got my answer.

I've love a G2 Jazz from it, though. Maybe Stepper, too, though I'm happy with the Selects version.

Not sure if they will reveal all 4 on consecutive days. It would be kind of neat, but I don't think anything has come out to confirm that. I guess we will find out tomorrow.

Looks good other than the yellow peg wheel. A bit steep at £30 so I'm undecided if I'll get it or not.

o.supreme wrote:Not sure if they will reveal all 4 on consecutive days. It would be kind of neat, but I don't think anything has come out to confirm that. I guess we will find out tomorrow.

The Facebook post revealing Jackpot said the next set is going to be revealed tomorrow at 1pm Eastern Time. So it seems like daily reveals are what they're doing.

Munkky wrote:That looks nice. I've been debating buying Jazz for a while, but between Wheeljack, Ratchet, Prowl, Magnus, Red Alert, half of Arcee, about a quarter of Sideswipe and later this week (the set shipped today) Mirage, there's a lot of white on my G1 Autobot shelf, so I don't really want to add any more primarily white Autobots to my line-up.

Interesting you brought this up, as I was just thinking the other day that my shelf has a lot of red on it.
Prime, Sideswipe, Cliffjumper, Warpath with soon to be Ironhide. So for me it's 50/50 of red and white so it's nice to add bots like Tracks, or in this case Jackpot if a person is interested in it, Which I'm not.
Cool looking figure though.

Awesome. Thanks, as I'm not on any major social media. Looking forward to Tigatron or Terrorsaur...??

AcademyofDrX wrote:

sol magnus wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:

AcademyofDrX wrote:If you're using "identical" narrowly to refer to counterfeiting, that's fundamentally different. But honestly, even the original designs could probably be remade, because the patents are expired, but I don't know why anyone would want to do that.

In context, though, I'm talking about reengineered Generations-style updates. There are no toy rights restrictions to something like that.

Like I've said, there's no clear answer for this. It's why Apple and Samsung have gone to court over reverse engineering, and many other similar lawsuits. I daresay Hasbro doesn't want to suffer any potentially legal or financial problems linked to it.

Not too long ago, Bandai released new neo-generations style Machine Robo toys, so there's definitely something to the 'can't make toys in the likeness of the Bandai figures' thing.

No, there isn't. Just because Action Toys can make Machine Robo toys under license from Bandai doesn't mean that Hasbro can't make Go-Bots. There are two different sets of IP. If Hasbro's IP didn't include the likenesses, and Bandai's rights work the way people claim here, then the IDW comics series would have infringed on
Bandai's rights, but that's not how any of this works.

Firstly, the comics included a rough approximation of the Gobots characters. Secondly, they were never explicitly stated as Gobots either.

Anyway, Jackpot, eh? Nice. I wish they had used a mold closer to a Ferrari Testarossa though, but I can't think of which current mold that could be.

For those unfamiliar with this character:

- https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Jackpot_(G1)

primalxconvoy wrote:Firstly, the comics included a rough approximation of the Gobots characters. Secondly, they were never explicitly stated as Gobots either.

Uhh, it's in the title of the series:

Sabrblade wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:Firstly, the comics included a rough approximation of the Gobots characters. Secondly, they were never explicitly stated as Gobots either.

Uhh, it's in the title of the series:

Oh yes, sorry. I forgot about those ones. I was referring to the background characters in the previous comics.

Hmm, well, perhaps it's back to the "everything but the fully realised toy depictions" argument?

I would be in favor of the getting back on topic argument and pushing any further IP/copyright discussion for its own thread. (Not trying to mod, just wanting to discuss the Kingdom and Golden Disc figures, but the thread keeps getting derailed.)

I'll even try to provide a segue. Remember when the Earthrise GO sets were first announced and everyone was certain we would be getting Gobot repaints for the Botropolis set? Anyone else wonder if Hasbro saw all the speculation and realized we would want some of the others and not just Bug Bite?

And here I was hoping for a Ricochet or G2 Jazz repaint of that mold.

I really wish they'd write down that "fiction" from the listings and online bios somewhere in the box, or at least include as an insert or as part of the instructions. Otherwise, it's lost as soon as the listing is done. I know it's very silly, but I like those little pieces of context for figures very much.

Rtron wrote:I really wish they'd write down that "fiction" from the listings and online bios somewhere in the box, or at least include as an insert or as part of the instructions. Otherwise, it's lost as soon as the listing is done. I know it's very silly, but I like those little pieces of context for figures very much.

Oh right so my Grimlock/Mirage and Sideswipe/Silverbolt Skywarp sets came in. Sideswipe is exactly what you'd expect, this mold has been done a million times over the last few years. Only quibble is a small gap on his abs due to the different shape of the car fender from the siege mold but that's barely noticeable. Skywarp is a good update, good use of the mold, but I wish he was combiner compatible. Grimlock is great, and a very special grab for me since I had Beast Wars Grimlock as a kid long before I ever saw the cartoon or knew who Dinobot was. Traded him to another kid for.... I wanna say Claw Jaw. Biggest mistake of my life, even knowing that he has GPS and probably wouldn't have survived to my adulthood. I'm impressed with this update on the whole, although I would have preferred Dalmation spots over the bland looking black stripe running down the back. Also, would have liked for them to color in the faux eyes on the chest, I really don't understand why they didn't except maybe there were already too many paint apps, but they had the green and it's a really small area. I don't fully understand the decision-making in these sorts of choices so I won't try to speculate. The new headsculpt is really nice too. Considering the original was just a pretty straight redeco of Dinobot, they could have gotten away with using his head again but they made one that looks more like the toy and the character of Grimlock, and I appreciate that.
And then there's Mirage. He's trash. I didn't like the Siege mold much but this one is somehow worse. I'll be selling both and getting Classics Mirage.

Super happy to finally have an updated Jackpot! If I was going to make one complaint it's that they didn't give Sights a new bird head, but he's going to be spending all of his time in gun mode on the shelf so it's fine.

And for extra authenticity you can even pop Sights' feet off and lose them just like the original, awesome!

Emerje

Rtron wrote:I really wish they'd write down that "fiction" from the listings and online bios somewhere in the box, or at least include as an insert or as part of the instructions. Otherwise, it's lost as soon as the listing is done. I know it's very silly, but I like those little pieces of context for figures very much.

The wiki could include them, but they're more interested in cracking jokes than document actual content.

sol magnus wrote:

Rtron wrote:I really wish they'd write down that "fiction" from the listings and online bios somewhere in the box, or at least include as an insert or as part of the instructions. Otherwise, it's lost as soon as the listing is done. I know it's very silly, but I like those little pieces of context for figures very much.

The wiki could include them, but they're more interested in cracking jokes than document actual content.

Oh really?

After the quantum surge caused a time vortex, Autobots Pipes and Huffer were fused into Puffer, and alongside GoBot Road Ranger, were pulled to prehistoric Earth.[1] Despite their rather bizarre origin, they can still tussle with the best of them.



References
↑ 1.0 1.1 Amazon product description: "CHAPTER 1: THROUGH THE VORTEX: The quantum surge causes a time vortex, intercepting the GoBot Road Ranger and the Autobots Pipes and Huffer, pulling them through time and space. During the wild journey through the vortex, Huffer and Pipes fuse and arrive on prehistoric Earth as Puffer"