Transformers: Energon & Beyond

Hey guys.

Leader SS is by far my favorite toy from this new line. I love that figure. Straight up bad-a.

Drift comes a close second. I had to order him off of TRU.com, and it was definately worth the wait. He's not perfect by any means, but he is an awesome toy. He looks great fighting against Bludgeon.

I like the PCC 2 packs more than I thought I would. Huffer is my favorite of the 3 sets.

I have all the new stuff I want for now, except Legends Ravage. That mean little kitty has been tough to find here in the early going.

I also preordered HA Jazz and the new scouts off Hasbrotoyshop. I don't wanna have to waste a bunch of time and gas to find those.

I admit I haven't read anything posted here recently but talked to JT on the phone about LC Starscream.

I opened both of mine and suffice it to say, he (they) are my favorite purchase of this YEAR that I can recall as of right now.

Wow! Starscream is good. I'm loving this figure!

There's another BOGO sale at TRU this week!

It says you can mix and match Hasbro brands so you should be able to get a TF and a SW toy.

Picked up Battle Blade Bumblebee after learning it was a new figure. Very surprising item, much skinnier than previous dlx BBs, and a different take on where the various kibble elements go, some a bit inaccurate. The flip-out axe is ok, the fold-over gun doesn't quite deliver, the battle mask working is a nice addition. This definitely feels more like an ROTF figure than a repurposed m1 figure. The face though is a weird sculpt, they took liberties with the lower face making it more creepy skull than before.


On dlx Ironhide, I overlooked 1 thing until last night. The weird tripod turret's feet can lock into Ironhide's alt mode bed, then fold down so it's flush against the roof of the cab between the pipes, clearly designed just for that. But what's the point? Is it just doing a thing for thing's sake or are the 2 smaller boxes on its top supposed to be guns as well or what?

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Originally Posted by Chaddymac

Confession: Never seen a picture of Drift from the comics. Now that I have, you're telling me you AREN'T ridiculously impressed with how well Hasbro interpreted that? For real? That's just... wow. Am I insane for loving this figure so much? Because I do. Right down to the Kanji on his sword, which I can't read, but I'm told says "Bad Motherf*@#%"

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Yes, I am telling you I am not ridiculously impressed. The comics character is distributed well, the figure is skinnier and then uses too much bulk at the lower legs, it's not hard to twist a skinny bot skeletal into this sort of thing. It's an ok figure, but it's not blowing me away on its own, and as a comparison to the comic art it's good but not astounding.

The text on his sword means "peerless under heaven", apparently.

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Originally Posted by El Chuxter

If anything, I was not harsh enough. Even aside from totally tossing the previous continuity out the window, that series was one of the worst comics I ever read.

Ever.

And, yes, I'm counting all those Rob Liefeld books I bought as a stupid youngster.

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Ouch, what about the Dreamwave Pat Lee Transformers thing?

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Originally Posted by JetsAndHeels

Hey guys.

Leader SS is by far my favorite toy from this new line. I love that figure. Straight up bad-a.

Drift comes a close second. I had to order him off of TRU.com, and it was definately worth the wait. He's not perfect by any means, but he is an awesome toy. He looks great fighting against Bludgeon.

I like the PCC 2 packs more than I thought I would. Huffer is my favorite of the 3 sets.

I have all the new stuff I want for now, except Legends Ravage. That mean little kitty has been tough to find here in the early going.

I also preordered HA Jazz and the new scouts off Hasbrotoyshop. I don't wanna have to waste a bunch of time and gas to find those.

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Glad you dig Starscream and got your figs. Surprised you like the PCCs, do you have all 3 2-packs?

Tycho says the new scouts are out, so I'm hoping to find them soon. I'm tempted by the HTS preorder on Jazz, but between tax and shipping it's going to be quite expensive. I am hoping to get on Amazon.

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Originally Posted by JediTricks

Ouch, what about the Dreamwave Pat Lee Transformers thing?

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Well, I don't consider those comics. They're toilet paper in bound form with the scribbles of a severely demented moron in dung.

I'd actually done a fairly good job of blocking those out of my mind. There have been four times total I've considered dropping Transformers comics: the first Dreamwave series (hated the awful writing and nonexistent character knowledge--Grimlock would never go 'Con), the Dreamwave ongoing (at which I did drop everything but The War Within series), All Hail Megatron (where I decided to give the new ongoing one collected volume to redeem this mess), and the new ongoing (which I decided to drop after reading the godawful first volume that showed characterization that would make Pat Lee proud).

I plan to get The Last Stand of the Wreckers, since it seems pretty universally well-accepted, but, otherwise, I think I'm done for a while. AHM was too nihilistic and depressing, not to mention amateurish and it simply didn't fit in with the previous continuity. Love or hate the series that preceded it, the jump into AHM was sort of like immediately continuing the 1960s Batman series with The Dark Knight Returns. Except DKR was good.

I stopped by TRU for the BOGO sale, hoping some of the Cybertron Primes that were there yesterday were still available.

No such luck so I decided to get HA Barricade (not sure if he'll still ship in that HA Jazz assortment plus I had passed him up many times already) along with the Huffer PCC set.

TRU Los Feliz had 1 each Hubcap and Brimstone. I bought them both. Hubcap was mis-assembled, a pin jammed the right rear wheel at an angle which affects rolling, but otherwise I dig both figures for vastly different reasons.


Hubcap's alt mode is a a 1930s coupe with hot rodder pipes, although this modification could have been found on era coupes, it was more common to find them on '50s hot rods. The look is simple but effective, I don't recognize the grille, I think they squared it off to make it unrecognizable but the squared lines suggest more Buick than Ford. There's a small gap at the front of the pipes behind the front fenders below the line of the hood, since there's a little at the headers anyway it gets away with it. Aside from the rear end not holding tight on the seam, there isn't much here that screams Transformer (aside from the black painted Autobot logo hood emblem), no kibble to speak of. Oddly, the wheels are sculpted without hubcaps, which is more of an authentic hot rod thing, but defies the character's name. The color is red, but a little more on the orange side than one would expect which is more like the '30s coloring than the '50s rods. The pipes, grille, and bumpers are silver; the windows black. Unfortunately, a tooling change to a roadster isn't possible, there's bot mode stuff inside that's too high up the roofline to work, so any reuse will have to be a coupe.

Transformation is as standard as it gets for post-'96 figures, a classic shellmaster. You won't need instructions for this. It's not bad though, it pegs in places and holds well, the head pops through the hood in an elegant way.

Bot mode is a nice-looking shellmaster, the only complaint I'd give is the visible screws holding in the shoulder articulation. The shell parts don't get in the way and are distributed evenly enough to not seem too horrible, although the legs get a bit more than their fair share. The hood chest with the bumper, grille, and headlights is a nice touch. The rounded head doesn't speak to me much, it's not bad or anything but pretty standard styling, reminds me of classic minibots in that way. The forearm shell part on each arm has the pipes, and they beefed up the pipe just before the curve to accommodate the new weapon C-clips so even though he has sculpted open hands, he can still use other figures' weapons. Coloring adds a lot of gray and dark "titanium" gray plastics, plus a little orangy metallic on a few spots; the eyes are painted in a metallic blue that's not found anywhere else . There's sculpted detailing here and there, even in the shell parts, but it doesn't especially stand out, so he looks like a basic... basic. The articulation is pretty good, the elbows are ball joints, but everything else is swivel-hinged and it works, even a mid-thigh swivel; he can clap his hands together thanks to wide range on the shoulders. The feet are hinged for transformation but they're loose and kinda crappy, it's the biggest drawback of the figure IMO, and since the shell is almost floor level at the heel anyway, often you'll find yourself looking at the inside of a hollow foot.

All in all, I like this figure. It's not flashy or in any way revolutionary, but it's not too movie-verse so it gets points for being a nice, simple classic '90s kind of TF. And it's a cool car and inside the shell is an attempt at detailing, so it's not phoned in.


I'll get to Brimstone a little later.

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Originally Posted by El Chuxter

Well, I don't consider those comics. They're toilet paper in bound form with the scribbles of a severely demented moron in dung.

I'd actually done a fairly good job of blocking those out of my mind.

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So what you're saying is I'm right? ;)

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There have been four times total I've considered dropping Transformers comics: the first Dreamwave series (hated the awful writing and nonexistent character knowledge--Grimlock would never go 'Con), the Dreamwave ongoing (at which I did drop everything but The War Within series), All Hail Megatron (where I decided to give the new ongoing one collected volume to redeem this mess), and the new ongoing (which I decided to drop after reading the godawful first volume that showed characterization that would make Pat Lee proud).

I plan to get The Last Stand of the Wreckers, since it seems pretty universally well-accepted, but, otherwise, I think I'm done for a while. AHM was too nihilistic and depressing, not to mention amateurish and it simply didn't fit in with the previous continuity. Love or hate the series that preceded it, the jump into AHM was sort of like immediately continuing the 1960s Batman series with The Dark Knight Returns. Except DKR was good.

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What are you looking for in a TF comic then? I mean, it's got to go somewhere, it cannot stagnate and nor can it throw Pat Lee ideas at the wall again. I'm not trying to defend AHM per se, just temper your reaction with a little dose of reality. IDW has kept Transformers out of the kid-accessible range for a while now, they go with violence and adult themes even on stuff like Hearts of Steel, then they also write extremely simplified stories that fizzle out in an attempt to not write over the readers' heads. AHM at least tried to be adult about a mature theme. Did IDW screw up the new canon timelines with it? Absolutely. Is it just a comic book? Yup. Is it something we haven't seen tackled lately in TF? Sure.

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Originally Posted by figrin bran

I stopped by TRU for the BOGO sale, hoping some of the Cybertron Primes that were there yesterday were still available.

No such luck so I decided to get HA Barricade (not sure if he'll still ship in that HA Jazz assortment plus I had passed him up many times already) along with the Huffer PCC set.

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TRU Los Feliz had a WFC Prime this morning around 11am. Sorry to hear you didn't get it, although the savings is nearly the same.

I don't mind "mature" themes, and I like originality. However, AHM was bad. Not because it was mature--it was, in fact, the opposite, the sort of "let's throw some gratuitous violence in and call it 'mature'" dreck that seems too common in comics the past several years. It was immature, tons of violence for violence's sake with little or no character development.

Granted, there seemed to be a touch of an attempt at showing that the Decepticons have never won the day for a reason, but it was weakly done and thrown in almost as an afterthought. Without that being properly conveyed, it was just a bunch of Constructicons running over human civilians, which got old after a few panels.

The ongoing is such a jumbled, deconstructed mess that it bordered on unreadable. And not a single character is consistent with how they were portrayed previously, either in AHM or the series of miniseries before it.

All I want is a well-told story of consistent quality. The property having its third soft reboot in as many years smells of IDW just tossing anything they can think of against a wall.

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Originally Posted by El Chuxter

I don't mind "mature" themes, and I like originality. However, AHM was bad. Not because it was mature--it was, in fact, the opposite, the sort of "let's throw some gratuitous violence in and call it 'mature'" dreck that seems too common in comics the past several years. It was immature, tons of violence for violence's sake with little or no character development.

Granted, there seemed to be a touch of an attempt at showing that the Decepticons have never won the day for a reason, but it was weakly done and thrown in almost as an afterthought. Without that being properly conveyed, it was just a bunch of Constructicons running over human civilians, which got old after a few panels.

The ongoing is such a jumbled, deconstructed mess that it bordered on unreadable. And not a single character is consistent with how they were portrayed previously, either in AHM or the series of miniseries before it.

All I want is a well-told story of consistent quality. The property having its third soft reboot in as many years smells of IDW just tossing anything they can think of against a wall.

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Like a monkey!

Brimstone has a "chopper", a stretched custom motorcycle. This is not remotely the bike that Mikaela was working on in Transformers:ROTF though. This is about 1:20th scale, too small for Star Wars figures, too big for Human Alliance figures. Great care was taken to make this bike more authentic than ever, putting authentic details like more accurate double-peg footpegs, a transfer case, bologna cuts on the short exhaust pipes, rivets on the seat, sculpted brake cables, even the kickstand is sculpted like it should be. The bike's only kibble would be the robot head behind the sissy bar, and it's facing into the seat so it looks like a spare helmet. The front fork and triple tree and controls are on stiff ball joints (bot shoulders), it can't turn but you can change the rake of the bike, which is great because I don't care for quite as much stretch as Hasbro put the stop at. The front fender is a stretched shape which helps fill in the gap between the front wheel and down tubes. The seat is actually a high-rise single-seater with a sissy bar, which is something found mainly only in the '70s and doesn't quite match the rake or the shapes of the fenders, but custom bikes are sometimes mixed up like that. The tins are a slightly metallic medium-blue with green flame paint, it looks decent, but if not for the Decepticon logo on the cover on the triple-tree, it'd be more of a "good guy" paint job IMO. The tube frame, engine, and other metal bike bits are cast in milky gray plastic, and it doesn't do this sculpt justice, silver would have been far more rewarding, as is found painted on the 6-spoke wheels (their design also reminds me of '70s choppers), but I'll take what I can get.

Transformation is decent for a scout-class, not entirely original for a bike-bot but does things his own way, and the rear wheel ending up as the middle of his torso is a neat twist. The figure's fender-forearms are mistransformed in package, and tabbed into the their tubes pretty well. I would have liked to have seen the sissy bar, seat as a back, and shoulders lock into position. The tiny hands are so odd and hard to flip out that I wonder why they bothered. Transforming back is good, some stuff requires doing in order, but is mostly a clean process of positioning and rotating over, and the air cleaner covers actually have a little friction bump to lock onto the gas tank undersides. There is a small clearance issue between the exhaust pipes and nearby air cleaner cover though.

Bot mode is clearly a wicked, evil, nasty cool thing. Brimstone is slightly hunched and has skinny bent legs, wide shoulders with thin arms and lower torso, it's little bit of Igor, or maybe they were going for a robot tweaker. The head is a very nasty fellow, a little swept back helmeted head with evil red beady eyes and a silver toothy grin with no lower jaw - or much of a lower head at all - it reminds me of '70s underground art styles (yes, more '70s themes). The majority of detailing comes from being a motorcycle, the shoulders add a little new tech detailing which helps make it something more. The forearm/hand things made from the front wheel and fender are confusing at first, each has portions of the front wheel that are now spinning weapons, and at the end of the fender half is a tiny flat 3-fingered hand angled down away from the line of his forearm which at straight pose reach beyond his knees. The arms straight look really odd, but rotating and bending the arms makes it far less bizarre. The legs are folded out motor elements, and it works pretty well thanks to smart use of the kibble as legs and blocky elements for the underlying leg sections, offsetting the tubular arms. Colors remain the same, although the balance has shifted to more gray, and the head area adds some red which helps things pop. Articulation is decent if not outstanding, a lot of range on the ball-jointed neck, the shoulders have decent range although it's easy to accidentally de-transform the shoulders when posing, and the legs have ball-jointed hips and hinged knees.

All in all, Brimstone is a fascinating character and a cool transformer. The bike is something we don't see very often, and one of the better bike designs in general. Transformation is decent. Bot mode is a cool, wicked, nasty fellow. As scout-class figures go, this one is a winner in my book.

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Originally Posted by El Chuxter

I don't mind "mature" themes, and I like originality. However, AHM was bad. Not because it was mature--it was, in fact, the opposite, the sort of "let's throw some gratuitous violence in and call it 'mature'" dreck that seems too common in comics the past several years. It was immature, tons of violence for violence's sake with little or no character development.

Granted, there seemed to be a touch of an attempt at showing that the Decepticons have never won the day for a reason, but it was weakly done and thrown in almost as an afterthought. Without that being properly conveyed, it was just a bunch of Constructicons running over human civilians, which got old after a few panels.

The ongoing is such a jumbled, deconstructed mess that it bordered on unreadable. And not a single character is consistent with how they were portrayed previously, either in AHM or the series of miniseries before it.

All I want is a well-told story of consistent quality. The property having its third soft reboot in as many years smells of IDW just tossing anything they can think of against a wall.

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I don't think TF is really strong enough from a storytelling perspective to tell broad concepts within a single continuity. Ultimately, it's not Star Wars, just because they're both Hasbro and both popular toy brands doesn't mean they can both hold up to the same level of scrutiny. That said, aren't you perturbed by the SW EU right now as well? Maybe it's just that you have high expectations which the brands that cater to the larger fandom simply cannot tell stories like those within the framework of their larger brands. AHM was a new idea and expanded on it, it gave the bad guys a win and then explained why that doesn't work. It's a valid concept, "what if the Nazis won?" sort of thing, and obviously there was character development, even in Drift, and look at Thundercracker's story. Is it brilliant? No. Is it consistent with the existing brand? Yes.