Transformers: Energon & Beyond

[darthvyn]

That is the 6 inch Titanium WWI Prime that came out about a month ago. He's ok, arms are kinfa floppy. ( NO where near as terrible as his casemate Megatron though!) http://tfkenkon.com/collection/act415/

i might have to track that one down... i'd heard about it, but hadn't seen anything closely... looks pretty good, it would make a nice work desk item... thanks for the link!

[figrin bran]

. That's the best sense I can make of the back story, but it's far easier not to try and just pretend like Beast Machines never happened.

i hear ya on that! optimus primal was such a weakling in that show and it's still hard to accept tankor as being rhinox.

[figrin bran]

i found some of the new 3" titaniums this morning at target. namely, Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Smokescreen. i bought all of them except for smokescreen.

[Dominic Guglieme]

That Titaniums Prime is awful. I reviewed it a few pages back, and I ignored some problems just to save space.


What was wrong with Tankor as Rhinox? My problems with Beast Machines stem largely from the fact that Bob Skir used faulty science, both in context with Transformers as a franchise, and with what we know about fossilization. (As both the latter point was a majoy part of the theme and plot, it is especially irksome.)

[El Chuxter]

i found some of the new 3" titaniums this morning at target. namely, Bumblebee, Optimus Prime and Smokescreen. i bought all of them except for smokescreen.

Thanks for the heads-up. I will have to keep my eyes peeled. (Eww, that's a nasty cliche.)

[darthvyn]

picked up 6" titanium WW prime at the times square TRU. pretty cool lookin'. will definitely make a nice desk accessory. i see what you mean about the "floppy" arms, but most positions are not a problem. only a few trouble spots.

[JediTricks]

I'll save my movie design comments for the Movie thread, but I will say I think they're very sucky.

In other news, BBTS preorders for Wave 1 of classics now oddly states they are coming out next month. And the voyager 2 wave with Jetfire is supposed to arrive in October. I know that BBTS preorder dates aren't always accurate, but they previously DID say November.

I'm not that surprised, a Hasbro November street date often means "Holiday reset shipping" so it hits store warehouses way way early. If it were a December street date though, that generally is late December or even January (same with January and February street dates though, very odd). I just want them to get here now, I want 'em!!!

I like where El Chuxter is going with his theory.

Machine life could not have just begun. It must have been created by an organic at some point: perhaps Primus was an organic that transferred himself into a robotic planetoid and then decided to reproduce other machine life so he wouldn't be alone in the universe?

That's presumptive, "it MUST have been organic" why? Because that's how we humans understand the nature of the universe, from our own egotistical little comprehension? We're machines too, just using different materials. As I understand it Primus and Unicron are natural Universe elements who have always been mechanicals.

I bought Alternators and the MPE Prime because I thought I might want some Transformers when the movie became a reality - and that the movie products might be crap. It looks like I was right.

I did warn this would happen, and boyyyyy did it!

Now I'm pretty sure I'll stick with MPE G1 style / Alternator style toys. I'll need:
a black Pickup Ironhide (just change Nemesis Prime and release him with a new head!)
a yellow Camarro BumbleBee - they have the Chevy license from Tracks already.
-something Alternator-style for Ratchet, in orange, tan, or yellow.

I don't expect any of these, I expect Alternators to be dead and buried by '07 though.

What's with half the Decepticons' names starting with "b" anyway?

Well, it's from Michael Bay, he's an egotistical little jerk.

Look at all those pictures of Optimus Prime in red and blue, and next, look at Michael Bay's black semi-truck that's the wrong style. Why is he the only one that can't figure out that he's doing this wrong?

Could the money we all spend on Transformers treat Michael Bay for dyslexia?

It's essentially his plan to "own" Transformers, he thinks by revamping the entire look of the TFs in this movie, he'll have some measure of control over the audience he wants to have come back to what he's planning to be a "family movie franchise".

That Titaniums Prime is awful. I reviewed it a few pages back, and I ignored some problems just to save space.

Well, that's why I have your Titanium 6" WWi Prime now. I actually think he's ok, he's for sure floppy but otherwise alright, nothing to go out of one's way for the way a lot of folks are though, he's a $10-sized figure with metal so $15 is no stretch, but a penny over that is a waste.


BTW, check out Remy's photos of Titanium 6" Prime in vehicle mode, notice how the cockpit doesn't seat correctly? It's been bugging me ever since I got this figure from Dom in the mail last week, so I tapped out the pins holding the cockpit piece in place and there's this bump/line across the upper portion of the plastic arm which is holding it out of position in vehicle mode, so after making sure it wasn't a question of incorrect assembly (it doesn't work any better facing the other way) I shaved the bump/line off and put Prime back together without it, it now seats pretty much correctly - it's flush with the front of the truck but not FULLY seated so it can be pushed down and have the back raised up again, but it's much much better than before. Still, I dunno why Hasbro did this at all.

[Tycho]

[QUOTE=JediTricks;494567]

That's presumptive, "it MUST have been organic" why? Because that's how we humans understand the nature of the universe, from our own egotistical little comprehension? We're machines too, just using different materials. As I understand it Primus and Unicron are natural Universe elements who have always been mechanicals.

Then they must be False-Life. Yeah. My egotistical comprehension knows no boundaries or modesty, so...

I don't expect any of these, I expect Alternators to be dead and buried by '07 though.

Well, there's still Rumble and Hasbro has not shipped enough Mirage, or repainted it (or Skids) to make their tooling profitable (by their standards). So I could see them reaching for the last pennies to be made on these.

I also wouldn't kill Alternators as it stands either - I think it was a fairly successful line except for Rollbar and Ricchochet - which pushed the envelope on repaints too far - and with very minor uninteresting characters.
Alternator versions of the movie's Ironhide and Barricade are already done - though of course the movie will make them look more like Bionicles. However, repaints / new headsculpts from Nemesis Prime (which did not see wide-release for casual buyers who aren't convention go-ers) and Wheeljack (into Barricade) would work really well. A new sculpt for BumbleBee would be all they'd have to invest money into for the Autobots. The Decepticons will be a lot more trouble - but they're supposed to be.

It's essentially his plan to "own" Transformers, he thinks by revamping the entire look of the TFs in this movie, he'll have some measure of control over the audience he wants to have come back to what he's planning to be a "family movie franchise".

Well, doesn't he need a cute talking frog character then? He should take his cues from George Lucas on how to make family movies. The Phantom Menace was such a stirring hit with die-hard fans.

[Adam]

Wheelie is our Jar Jar.

[JediTricks]

Well, there's still Rumble and Hasbro has not shipped enough Mirage, or repainted it (or Skids) to make their tooling profitable (by their standards). So I could see them reaching for the last pennies to be made on these.

That reminds me, Rumble is not in EE's case listings yet, the last wave they have listed is wave 15, Camshaft wave (1x Camshaft, Mirage, Optimus, and Meister), and mind you that wave is out now so they should already have had another case listed, they don't so I'm wondering/fearing if the "final 2" they mentioned were Mirage and Camshaft.

I also wouldn't kill Alternators as it stands either - I think it was a fairly successful line except for Rollbar and Ricchochet - which pushed the envelope on repaints too far - and with very minor uninteresting characters.

Part of the problem is that the cost of making these, the prototype development and the tooling, is now twice as expensive since Takara isn't using them, so the line's "mild interest success" probably doesn't see enough profit to cover the budgets anymore. You're right though, the line has too many repaints and uninteresting toys (I'm not calling them "characters" at this point).

Well, doesn't he need a cute talking frog character then? He should take his cues from George Lucas on how to make family movies. The Phantom Menace was such a stirring hit with die-hard fans.

Michael Bay doesn't really do "cute", he prefers "edgy"... come to think of it, that may be Michael Bay's solitary good point.