Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Cobotron wrote:So if P/CP has an estimated arrival of Sept 19th, that means he'll be here in like a week!

My birthday's in a week, so if anyone happened to order one more of him than they need...

$20 more to PO Primal is a steal. HTS will charge tax and shipping, which basically makes it a wash.

Thanks to a heads up from several different Seibertronians, first of which was Agamemnon, we have news that Takara Tomy's release of the Power of the Primes Throne of the Primes set is now up for pre-order at several of our sponsors! The set appears to be retailing at American based stores such as BigBadToyStore and TFsource for $89.99, which compared to the $69.99 plus tax and shipping for the Hasbro SDCC exclusive release form HasbroToyShop is a very reasonable deal indeed!

The set include Optimus Primal, the Optimal Optimus armor complete with blasters, crown, and Staff of the Primes, and the cardboard insert Throne, which depicts the 8 characters that failed to win the Fan Voted Prime award, and can hold 12 Prime Masters. It also comes with the final 4 Primes, Nexus, Amalgamous, Prima, and the 13th legendary Prime. It is set to come out in January.

Check out the list of pre-orders below.

So are you guys happy that the world is getting a Takara release, and one very nicely priced compared to the Hasbro one? Are you still gonna try and get the hasbro one here in 12 days? Let us know in the comments section below!

BigBadToyStore: https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/ ... ails/77969

TFSource: https://tfsource.com/power-of-prime/tra ... he-primes/

The Chosen Prime: https://www.thechosenprime.com/TakaraPP43

Placed a Pre-Order just in case

Cobotron wrote:

o.supreme wrote:

Nemesis Primal wrote:Unpopular opinion: I like the HFGs better than these Prime Armors.

I actually do too

Yup! Me too. While the ankle tilt on the new feet is great, and the ability to beef up the feet by adding the hands is awesome. I still think the creativity in finding a reasonable solution with the CW HFGs trumps all that. I don't know if I like HFGs better, but I never had a problem with them, and am still able to get my Combiners into some great poses.

The Hand-Foot-Gun (or "HFG" for short) idea was pretty brilliant back in "Combiner Wars." It solved the problem of how to package individual "Scramble City" style combiner limbs that could function as either an arm or a leg by including just one piece that could be either a hand or a foot. So, you need only one additional accessory for any Deluxe class figure to make a Combiner out of any other three Deluxe figures and one Voyager figure of your choosing. This also eliminated some of the issues that I'm sure Hasbro saw with their "Fall of Cybertron" Bruticus experiment, building in integrated hands and feet to eat limb bot to cover either need. Not doing so probably allowed Hasbro and Takara to design better toys with smaller part counts and cleaner transformations to make much more appealing looking figures overall. The second stroke of brilliance was making the had and foot convert into an accessory that could be used as a weapon in robot mode or as an extra piece of the alt mode (if not a weapon there too). This solved Hasbro's other major fear: losing important pieces of a figure or set! Now, instead of storing away the hands or feet your not using when your figures are not combined, they can wear them in robot mode or alt mode so you can keep track of them without worry. Unfortunately, this all worked better in theory than in execution, as the hands were too big and the feet too small in proportion to the rest of the gestalt form of most combiners. Also, the usefulness as added weapons for most robot modes was dubious, as it was still mostly a big chunk of monochrome (or sometimes two-toned) plastic that made for oversized, cumbersome accessories for most figures. There are a few instances, such as with Sunstreaker, where the HFG works perfectly as his engine booster in alt mode and his iconic booster backpack in robot mode, but such instances are certainly the exception, not the norm.

With "Power of the Primes" refreshing the combiner gimmick, Hasbro obviously tried to tweak the HFG idea a bit, both to introduce a new play pattern and to better address some of the shortcomings of the Combiner Wars system of combination. Relegating both combiner feet to the Voyagers and giving the Deluxes left/right switchable hands was a better idea, giving us somewhat better proportions for each, but still not perfect, as the hands are still a bit big and the feet not big enough, though connecting the spare hands to the feet helps a lot. That was inspired engineering! Unfortunately, this still doesn't help the fact that as accessories, even when integrating the Prime Spark power-up gimmick, these accessories still don't integrate well into most bot or alt modes of these figures. The "foot-gauntlets" of the Voyagers work out just a bit better than the "hand-chestplates" of the Deluxes. Overall, the change up for PotP's Combiner kibble was just a lateral move from what CW did.

In reality, the best solution for most people, logistically and aesthetically, is dedicated hands and feet. Of course, this is hard to implement for individual releases, but works fine for box sets, like Combiner Wars Computron and Victorion, or Unite Warriors Megatronia and Baldigus. Most adult collectors (and probably older kids too) have a place to store excess accessories when not needed, so the prospect of losing these pieces is a non-issue for a majority of the audience who will receive these toys (at least in my opinion). It is a little "partsformeresque" to relegate the combiner hands and feet to separate pieces, but it's still a far cry from the G1 days when combiner sets also expected you to slap on extra pieces of armor and the head to complete the gestalt form of any combiner team. Two hands and two feet, by comparison, isn't too much to keep track of.

Wolfman Jake wrote:

Cobotron wrote:

o.supreme wrote:

Nemesis Primal wrote:Unpopular opinion: I like the HFGs better than these Prime Armors.

I actually do too

Yup! Me too. While the ankle tilt on the new feet is great, and the ability to beef up the feet by adding the hands is awesome. I still think the creativity in finding a reasonable solution with the CW HFGs trumps all that. I don't know if I like HFGs better, but I never had a problem with them, and am still able to get my Combiners into some great poses.

The Hand-Foot-Gun (or "HFG" for short) idea was pretty brilliant back in "Combiner Wars." It solved the problem of how to package individual "Scramble City" style combiner limbs that could function as either an arm or a leg by including just one piece that could be either a hand or a foot. So, you need only one additional accessory for any Deluxe class figure to make a Combiner out of any other three Deluxe figures and one Voyager figure of your choosing. This also eliminated some of the issues that I'm sure Hasbro saw with their "Fall of Cybertron" Bruticus experiment, building in integrated hands and feet to eat limb bot to cover either need. Not doing so probably allowed Hasbro and Takara to design better toys with smaller part counts and cleaner transformations to make much more appealing looking figures overall. The second stroke of brilliance was making the had and foot convert into an accessory that could be used as a weapon in robot mode or as an extra piece of the alt mode (if not a weapon there too). This solved Hasbro's other major fear: losing important pieces of a figure or set! Now, instead of storing away the hands or feet your not using when your figures are not combined, they can wear them in robot mode or alt mode so you can keep track of them without worry. Unfortunately, this all worked better in theory than in execution, as the hands were too big and the feet too small in proportion to the rest of the gestalt form of most combiners. Also, the usefulness as added weapons for most robot modes was dubious, as it was still mostly a big chunk of monochrome (or sometimes two-toned) plastic that made for oversized, cumbersome accessories for most figures. There are a few instances, such as with Sunstreaker, where the HFG works perfectly as his engine booster in alt mode and his iconic booster backpack in robot mode, but such instances are certainly the exception, not the norm.

With "Power of the Primes" refreshing the combiner gimmick, Hasbro obviously tried to tweak the HFG idea a bit, both to introduce a new play pattern and to better address some of the shortcomings of the Combiner Wars system of combination. Relegating both combiner feet to the Voyagers and giving the Deluxes left/right switchable hands was a better idea, giving us somewhat better proportions for each, but still not perfect, as the hands are still a bit big and the feet not big enough, though connecting the spare hands to the feet helps a lot. That was inspired engineering! Unfortunately, this still doesn't help the fact that as accessories, even when integrating the Prime Spark power-up gimmick, these accessories still don't integrate well into most bot or alt modes of these figures. The "foot-gauntlets" of the Voyagers work out just a bit better than the "hand-chestplates" of the Deluxes. Overall, the change up for PotP's Combiner kibble was just a lateral move from what CW did.

In reality, the best solution for most people, logistically and aesthetically, is dedicated hands and feet. Of course, this is hard to implement for individual releases, but works fine for box sets, like Combiner Wars Computron and Victorion, or Unite Warriors Megatronia and Baldigus. Most adult collectors (and probably older kids too) have a place to store excess accessories when not needed, so the prospect of losing these pieces is a non-issue for a majority of the audience who will receive these toys (at least in my opinion). It is a little "partsformeresque" to relegate the combiner hands and feet to separate pieces, but it's still a far cry from the G1 days when combiner sets also expected you to slap on extra pieces of armor and the head to complete the gestalt form of any combiner team. Two hands and two feet, by comparison, isn't too much to keep track of.

i prefer the HFG too,the hand is really good but i wish that they would have somehow made the foot mode a bit bigger

Wow, I guess I'm not as in the minority about the HFGs as I thought, cool.

In other news, my Repugnus showed up today, and I finally found a Cutthroat in stores (still no Blot though). Repugnus is absolutely great. He looks good to me in both modes, I actually like his toy-accurate head and he's definitely a step-up from Doublecross Twinferno in that his legs actually tab in properly/stay together in bot mode. Plus, Thew would love him, his swords and bug head feature light-piping functionality, so he has bug wing lightsaber daggers. Also, I just now realized writing this that his bug mouth moves.

As for Cutthroat, I might actually like him better than Swoop. I like his wings better, his color scheme better, his head sculpt better, and my Cutthroat doesn't have a weirdly crooked head like my Swoop does for some reason. I remember the general verdict was that his bird head was super loose and came off easily, but mine has yet to come off once. Maybe I got lucky QC-wise? Either way, I'm 3 for 3 on loving these Terrorcons.

Robot furries...I mean Battle Beasts

also I just need counterpunch to come to finish this image off and make it even

Nemesis Primal wrote:Wow, I guess I'm not as in the minority about the HFGs as I thought, cool.

Yay! You're in the "in crowd!"

Nemesis Primal wrote:In other news, my Repugnus showed up today, and I finally found a Cutthroat in stores (still no Blot though). Repugnus is absolutely great. He looks good to me in both modes, I actually like his toy-accurate head and he's definitely a step-up from Doublecross Twinferno in that his legs actually tab in properly/stay together in bot mode. Plus, Thew would love him, his swords and bug head feature light-piping functionality, so he has bug wing lightsaber daggers. Also, I just now realized writing this that his bug mouth moves.

I am pumped! I got the notice from Amazon earlier this evening that my Repugnus would be arriving on Thursday!

Nemesis Primal wrote:As for Cutthroat, I might actually like him better than Swoop. I like his wings better, his color scheme better, his head sculpt better, and my Cutthroat doesn't have a weirdly crooked head like my Swoop does for some reason. I remember the general verdict was that his bird head was super loose and came off easily, but mine has yet to come off once. Maybe I got lucky QC-wise? Either way, I'm 3 for 3 on loving these Terrorcons.

POTP-TR.JPG

I didn't really have any big trouble with Cutthroat's bird head either. It fell off once or twice during transformation initially, but once I figure out how to properly hold the head when moving it, I had no more issues. It'll stay on solid as long as you apply the right pressure to those friction joints to keep them in place.

So had Repugnus pre-orderd since he first popped up on Amazon, site still says it hasn't shipped despite saying it will be here Friday. hopeing i have some of the luck ya guys are having.

My Repugnus somehow ended up in the same shipment as Blastoff and is expected tomorrow, despite me not having Prime

it finally showed as shipped at like 4am lol and still expected to be here by 8pm tomarrow, so let's see if it does

*grumble, grumble* Repugnus was scheduled to arrive today and never showed up. Tracking still insists he'll be here by 8pm, but that's come and gone now. Good thing it shipped early...

Emerje

Man, I sure hope they didn't lose him...


Emerje

Transformers Power of the Primes Inferno has been out for a while now in various markets around the world to very little fanfare. That is perfectly in line with the initial reaction to this toy existing. While combiners were back for Power of the Primes, the line was filled with new molds for combiner limbs and torsos but Inferno was the only one using the same mold from Combiner Wars with the only thing different being his head (and just the robot mode head, the combiner head is the same as Defensor's). He wasn't planned to interact with the Prime armour, which is one of the play features of the line, and now this old mold was getting the POTP deco treatment of replacing tampos with stickers. So he was disregarded and seen as a cheap way to pad out a line that was already short on new toys. And, what seemed worst of all to fans, he added an unnecessary torso that had no dedicated limbs.

So he seemed an easy skip by many including me. However, I did get him eventually, and I think he's pretty great and I am quite happy to have him as part of my collection. I took images below, to share with you what I see in this toy and to give you an idea of all he has to offer.























Firstly, while he is a redeco of Combiner Wars Hot Spot with a new head, I feel he owns this mold and has as much right to it as Hot Spot did. Neither of them ever had a firetruck mode in G1 resembling what they have here, which is vague enough to also be considered Cybertronian if you wanted it (it's as Cybertronian as any other alt mode in the upcoming Siege line). And with design nods to both the RID Hino firetruck and Sentinel Prime's airport firetruck, red really suits the alt mode. I much prefer the fully white ladder.














What I like best is just how different the paint scheme is. Different parts are highlighted with paint to give him a very different look. Like the little black rectangles on the shoulders with a bit of red plastic within it. Same with the alt mode where we get some nice silver on the ladder area which was unpainted on Hot Spot. Plus the combiner head has extra paint on the helmet.












As for the Power of the Primes gimmick integration, I am impressed with how creative they went to find compatibility. Instead of the the combiner legs being gauntlets, they are turned into a back pack of sorts to allow Inferno to have shoulder mounted guns. And they are stored just as well in vehicle mode as compared to any other voyager in the line (I would even say those feet look better mounted on the firetruck than on any other voyager alt mode).





















Inferno fits really well with a classics G1 crew and even works in a lost light crew (that would also include Hot Spot).







The colours look great, that red is perfect. Very vibrant (better than the red used on the Classics Inferno). And it makes a cool red and white combiner torso. The plastic also feels better on Inferno than Hot Spot and I like how they painted the light bar. It just works and it makes me enjoy the hot spot mold more than when Hot Spot was wearing it. Plus they fixed that silly knee issue Pyra and G2 Onslaught had. The red and white torso works really good with lots of different limb bots.





Here are more examples of the possible combined mode from the fan community.





So there you go, a bunch of reasons why I feel Inferno is a worthy addition to my collection. In the end I feel he has as much right to this mold as Hot Spot and simply looks just as good.

I can't help but feel there's a word missing from the article title?

RotorstormNZ wrote:I can't help but feel there's a word missing from the article title?

lol, took me a second

Obvious Guard City homage is obvious to everyone except OP.

Nice write up on Power of the Primes Inferno, BillyJim! I like him quite a bit, especially as a combiner. I really wish we would get a nice CW/PotP Deluxe Red Alert to go with him. How could they NOT be together in the same combiner team, right?

Amazon delivered (get it?) on their promise. I got Repugnus this evening! They did just drop it off in front of my apartment door, though. When they delivered Blast Off less than a week ago, they delayed delivery for a day when they couldn't get me at the door. The following day, the courier called me to confirm I was home and handed it to me personally. Weird.

I love Repugnus so far. It's nice to have another team complete now. I swapped his standard head for the Takara one that came with Brawn. I would like to actually switch the face plates so that I can have the Takara one on the new mold Hasbro Battle Beast Titan Master. While it was easy enough to remove the screw on the new Hasbro Titan Master, the Takara one is imoveable and may have stripped immediately to boot! Anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed?

Nemesis_Apoc wrote:Obvious Guard City homage is obvious to everyone except OP.

Not when the only thing the deco of Inferno's torso mode has in common with Guard City's own torso deco is the base color being red.

Guard City's torso has a very unique deco that this Inferno torso makes no real attempt to replicate.

Speaking of which, it would be fun to get official Guard City and Battle Gaia repaints at some point. Takara seems to be reissuing some of the Unite Warriors sets now, so they're clearly not finished using those molds. Here's hoping they decide to do a few more "EX" releases in the not too distant future.

I'm just glad I can finally do this!



Crappy old dollar store KO Defensor!
Or, DefEYESOAR as I like to call him.

I think Inferno is great, even if just for simply being more ingredients to add to the scramble.

That's a good pictorial on Hotspot/Inferno, Willy J. Makes me want to get Inferno for sure. It reminded me of the one thing I can't stand about the mold: I wish the lower legs were reversed so that the tires were on the outside and the toes pointed the other way.

william_james88 wrote:

You know that you have to turn the combiner head a 180° for truck mode?

Cobotron wrote:I'm just glad I can finally do this!



Crappy old dollar store KO Defensor!
Or, DefEYESOAR as I like to call him.

I think Inferno is great, even if just for simply being more ingredients to add to the scramble.

Nice use of Groove's guns