The Energon Pub

CHUG translates to Classics, Henkei, Universe, Generations.

Zero?

Low level?

Medium level?

High level?

My level Is Zero, As I think the CHUG characters toys scales are all over the place. HasTak was not trying to create a correct ultimate update uniform scale for the lines. HasTak gave whatever toy sizes to each character they felt the kids would buy more and the Economy at the time could support.

The only reason why CHUG has so many deluxes. Is for Two main reasons. The TF Deluxe toys is Hasbro's favorite due to it selling the best in stores. When the Economy went down hill in 2009, The Voyager and Ultra scaled toys got cancelled for a few years because Hasbro felt buyers at the time couldn't afford to buy more exspensive CHUG toys.

I would have to say it has a high effect.

I'm always on the lookout for what makes the best representation of the character, official or 3P. That is always my personal criteria. I don't only buy 3P if HasTak has not filled the slot.

In that sense, Hasbro and Takara are 2 possible vendors among the suppliers of characters. Their advantage is that they are typically the least expensive and, arguably, easiest to obtain since I can hit the local WalMart and buy Hasbro products.

Roadbuster is the perfect example of how they influence my buying.
The Hasbro Roadbuster is OK. Not perfect, but he's pretty cool. He can also be had for $20.

I like FP's Roadbuster more, but I still find flaws with it. I don't like that it is a Half-track, for example. But since he runs about $100, I chose Hasbro for my Roadbuster. I don't like FP's take on the character $80 MORE than I like Hasbro's.

I dunno, there's not really a whole lot of overlap. We'll see what Combiner Wars holds. But even then I already bought FP's Menasor and TFC's Superion. The excitement for those toys has been neutered.

For now I'm very into the 3rd party scene. The recent release I'm looking forward to most is Takara's Arcee, but even with that I was pretty happy with Delicate Warrior and Motobot. I think I'll clear a small space and have a small Arcee display for a while, there's enough to make a decent one now.

Gauntlet101010 wrote:For now I'm very into the 3rd party scene.

I really believe if it wasn't for the 3P scene making figures I actually want, I'd have stopped collecting TFs years ago.

Right around the time of the Herc vs Giant debate my interest in TFs was falling, but that issue really kept me interested. I still get Hasbro releases, but I am much more selective in what I buy now.

rpetras wrote:I would have to say it has a high effect.

I'm always on the lookout for what makes the best representation of the character, official or 3P. That is always my personal criteria. I don't only buy 3P if HasTak has not filled the slot.

In that sense, Hasbro and Takara are 2 possible vendors among the suppliers of characters. Their advantage is that they are typically the least expensive and, arguably, easiest to obtain since I can hit the local WalMart and buy Hasbro products.

Roadbuster is the perfect example of how they influence my buying.
The Hasbro Roadbuster is OK. Not perfect, but he's pretty cool. He can also be had for $20.

I like FP's Roadbuster more, but I still find flaws with it. I don't like that it is a Half-track, for example. But since he runs about $100, I chose Hasbro for my Roadbuster. I don't like FP's take on the character $80 MORE than I like Hasbro's.

Pretty much this. My main goal is to get as many neo-G1 figures with it, but if Hasbro or Takara puts out something that's not bad, I'll take them almost every time.

My goal is to assemble an entire G1 cast that scales in harmony (or as close as possible) Since so many gaps have already been filled by third parties, I find myself not so excited about hasbros upcoming releases like brainstorm or the combiner wars. Its like hasbro came late to the party. Im up for any figure I want bad enough regardless of the price. Like many, I skipped FPs roadbuster for hasbros. It wasnt the price that really played a factor, it was FPs bad timing. But I happily worked FPs version of the roadbuster mold into my collection as rack n ruin. And when I get hold of takara arcee, my delicate warrior will be moved into my rebirth shelf with the FP headmasters since she is a little bulkier and was a headmaster in the series. I can do without the whole "neo" part of chug, because ive always felt the updated alt modes were just a marketing scheme to attract todays kids. I dont believe kids would want a boombox, microscope or a VW beetle. So I put up with the neo alt modes. I display my collection in robot modes anyways. So as long as the robot mode is fairly cartoon accurate, im happy. I havent been a fan of the MP line because I dont like large barbie doll sized figures, plus Im so over season one characters. I like the obscure characters which seems more suited for the chug lines and scale.

Rated X wrote:My goal is to assemble an entire G1 cast that scales in harmony (or as close as possible)

Too bad you don't like the MP line

whats there to choose from? 3P serves generations, MP, and themselves.

my 3P is 95% put towards generations. i dont collect 3P MP's (so far). and by 3P serves themselves, i mean they conform to nothing. those oddball pieces, if really good, ill buy. so far all ive got in that category is mania king (whos too big for generations).

When you say "what level does CHUG effect your 3rd party purchases" I take that as asking: "does the presence of 3rd Party figures affect the amount of CHUG figures you buy?"

My response is: they don't. I buy almost everything Generations-related (AoE doesn't count) that Hasbro puts out. And in the case of troop builders like Tankor, I'll buy up to 12 (and perhaps a 13th who'll stay in the box). 3rd Parties supplement my collection, either as rockin' add-on sets or hole-fillers. But I still really love official product, and will support the brand where I'm able.

As a general rule of thumb, all my third party figures are there to supplement and mingle with my Hasbro/Takara figures, rather than serve as their own line. So CHUG not only affects my purchases of 3rd party, it very nearly dictates it.

With very, very few exceptions (Quakewave in my MP display), my 3rd party purchases are all for CHUG in one form or another. Green Giant serves both as a Devastator display piece and my CHUG Constructicons. Mania King is my current Galvatron. The Planet X Dinobots are joining Grimlock in my FOC display to take on Bruticus (soon to be supplemented by Microblaze Military Titan as my new Onslaught).

Though there are certainly instances of my preferring a 3rd party figure to its Hasbro counterpart, at no time do they ever outright replace a Hasbro purchase. I'm still planning on getting Hasbro's Stunticons, despite having the Fansproject ones. I'm still getting a Leader Megatron, even though Hegemon is my current Megs in display. And as aforementioned, Hasbro Roadbuster was good enough for me that I saw no reason not to wait for him and skip his 3rd party counterpart.

I only collect Classics figures, so it affects me completely. I passed on FansToys Shockwave because it was MP scale, for example.

I'm not as OCD as others are about scale. I have Ultra Powerglide and Voyager Seaspray and I'm probably not going to replace them because I like them that way.

my primary collecting interest is classics/neo G1 and I want the best rendition of the character, the one that speaks best to my personal aesthetic. I will buy 3p or Has/Tak based upon what fits in best with my collection

In RBs case, I opted for the official. Price was the factor, plus it, FP didn't have functional treads (even a pseudo wheel would suffice).

fenrir72 wrote:In RBs case, I opted for the official. Price was the factor, plus it, FP didn't have functional treads (even a pseudo wheel would suffice).

I went the other way. The Wreckers are some of my most favourite Autobots, and Hasbro's Roadbuster just didn't look as good as he could. The half-track doesn't bother me one bit.

Mkall wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:In RBs case, I opted for the official. Price was the factor, plus it, FP didn't have functional treads (even a pseudo wheel would suffice).

I went the other way. The Wreckers are some of my most favourite Autobots, and Hasbro's Roadbuster just didn't look as good as he could. The half-track doesn't bother me one bit.

I would have considered buying FP Roadbuster but I know they will probably never a do a Whirl with matching aesthetic. Still bummed FP never did a more cartoon accurate Sandstorm like the little one that came with Assaulter.

Rated X wrote:

Mkall wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:In RBs case, I opted for the official. Price was the factor, plus it, FP didn't have functional treads (even a pseudo wheel would suffice).

I went the other way. The Wreckers are some of my most favourite Autobots, and Hasbro's Roadbuster just didn't look as good as he could. The half-track doesn't bother me one bit.

I would have considered buying FP Roadbuster but I know they will probably never a do a Whirl with matching aesthetic. Still bummed FP never did a more cartoon accurate Sandstorm like the little one that came with Assaulter.

I don't want to derail the topic, but this Whirl is pretty damned close to G1. I'm not sure how you feel FP could improve upon it.

Though Whirl was never in the cartoon anyways.

Mkall wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:In RBs case, I opted for the official. Price was the factor, plus it, FP didn't have functional treads (even a pseudo wheel would suffice).

I went the other way. The Wreckers are some of my most favourite Autobots, and Hasbro's Roadbuster just didn't look as good as he could. The half-track doesn't bother me one bit.

The halftrack aesthetic doesn't technically bother me, it's the useless treads. At least a wheel to facilitate movement. For the cost of FP, I expect better from them.

And X, I don't think, given how good the official Sandstorm came out, it might not be an incentive to make 3rd party version. Though the original helicopter G1, though brick and bulky sausage appeals to me over the Hindesque (Mil Mil-24) style modern version

fenrir72 wrote:

Mkall wrote:

fenrir72 wrote:In RBs case, I opted for the official. Price was the factor, plus it, FP didn't have functional treads (even a pseudo wheel would suffice).

I went the other way. The Wreckers are some of my most favourite Autobots, and Hasbro's Roadbuster just didn't look as good as he could. The half-track doesn't bother me one bit.

The halftrack aesthetic doesn't technically bother me, it's the useless treads. At least a wheel to facilitate movement. For the cost of FP, I expect better from them.

And X, I don't think, given how good the official Sandstorm came out, it might not be an incentive to make 3rd party version. Though the original helicopter G1, though brick and bulky sausage appeals to me over the Hindesque (Mil Mil-24) style modern version

I'm not a big fan off the official Sandstorm. While it may be a heavy retool, it's still a retool. Just like Springer, he has long frog legs and is out of scale with most CHUG figures. Plus I need that helicopter, that flying rotor-hover thing didn't cut it for me.

I don't really segregate my collection by toyline, size class or whatever, mainly because I don't have the space or the money to do so. Most of my TFs were bought when I was a kid, and I maintained my collecting habits (buy anything I like and can afford regardless of aesthetic, scale or continuity) to this day. My "seekers" consist of Armada Starscream and 2007 Movie Thundercracker (I don't have a Skywarp, but I'm planning on getting Animated Skywarp to keep with the tradition of them being totally different aesthetics and continuities, albeit all being the same size).

That said, a lot of my figures are suffering from age, and once I get the space I might give them a display case to preserve them somewhat, and buy some "replacement bodies" (read: different toys) to take over active display/fiddling duty. In termsof scale I tend to prefer vehicle scale, and I'm tempted to get a trio of seeker consisting of either the MP03 "Kawamoriscream" mold (possibly with the USA edition for Starscream as even though I like the Takara version's military colours I have heard it's more fragile) or the iGear Raptor Squadron. Both scale wonderfully with deluxe cars, and they look like fantastic toys, so they would be prime candidates.

i want to eat the souls of every designer who makes a toy that ends up even an eighth of an inch shorter or taller than how i personally have decided it absolutely must be.

craggy wrote:i want to eat the souls of every designer who makes a toy that ends up even an eighth of an inch shorter or taller than how i personally have decided it absolutely must be.

edit and erase

Rated X wrote:

craggy wrote:i want to eat the souls of every designer who makes a toy that ends up even an eighth of an inch shorter or taller than how i personally have decided it absolutely must be.

edit and erase

ewok and excalibur?