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Seibertronians, we have some huge news today about some brand new Legend Class figures from the Power of the Primes line!
Coming from Transformers Facebook fan page Planet Iacon, we have actual images of POTP Legend Class Tailgate, Roadtrap, and Battleslash! These figures were shown off previously at a Hasbro event in Australia, but were censored out of all photos from the event, so we never actually got to see them. Tailgate is clearly a remold of Windcharger, and Roadtrap and Battleslash, of course, are homages to the Duocon BattleTrap, except each piece now has it's own robot mode! They both appear to be new molds, but it's unknown if they truly combiner as the G1 version did. This obviously has reignited rumors of other Duocon, like Flywheels, so continue the discussion in the EnergonPub Forums!
Thanks to Seibertronian MaverickPrime for sending this our way!
Welcome back, Seibertronians! If you celebrate it, I hope you had a very Merry Christmas, you had a good time with your friends and loved ones, and that Santa left many robots under your tree. But let's forget about all the happy feelings we've acquired over the past few days and immediately throw them into a pit of despair and agony, because it's time again for Machinima's Titans Return!
Okay, I'm being overdramatic, because this series on the whole is still leagues better than any Transformer content we've gotten out of Machinima previously. It's when you start breaking it down and looking into the individual episodes when things start to fall apart. Let's do exactly that with the new installment, Episode 8: In Good Hands! This Episode of Titans Return sponsored by Allstate
We again find Super Combiner Victorion fighting Trypticon, and it's very Sentai/Classic Mecha inspired, and it's actually pretty cool. The one thing that detracts from this is Victorion's grunts. There's little variation to them, so they end up sounding like a video game character they only recorded one "Pain" sound for. It gets grating and annoying, but the scene changes fast enough so it doesn't get too much. That's really a nitpick, though, on an otherwise fun scene. AGH. AGH. AGH. AGH. AGH. AGH. AGH.
We cut back to Windblade and Fortress Maximus, who are both floating through the sky in a truly Studio Ghibli fashion. They analyse the situation before they arrive, and again it's a very nice scene. Michael Dorn is great as Fort Max, and even with his robotic lines, he packs in a lot of emotion. Some of Windblade's lines here are feel a bit disconnected from the scene, but, like I said a couple reviews ago, it's obvious that not all of these actors recorded at the same time, which makes it hard to match the emotion of a scene and make a conversation sound natural.
At the same time, the Chorus of Banes from the Dark Knight Rises-Sorry, the Chorus of Primes talks to Optimus about the threats currently gripping the city, and he decides to join the fight. The Combiners split from their super-combiner mode, and decide to attack Trypticon individually. There's some scale discrepancies here, but it's not that big of a deal. Energon Mains UNDER the city? They seem to be pretty on the surface to me, hence why your friend just fell in one.
Victorion finds some random energon shard (??) and decides to hurl it at Trypticon to make him fall into an Energon main behind him. Again, we get a weirdly long establishing shot to get across this idea. The shot lasts 9 seconds, when it could have easily been done in 3 and still have done it's job. It's the Cybertronian Olympics! All the way from Caminus comes Victorion, competing for the Gold in Javelin!
The lack of visible damage in this show is really bothering me, as well. Prime is just wailing on Trypticon's neck with his axe, and it's clearly hurting him, as Trypticon recoils and gets angry while he's doing it, but there's no visible damage or wear from the attacks. This is the same case as Metroplex back in the beginning of this show. He was apparently so damaged he couldn't continue to fight, but we didn't see any damage until his entire arm got blown off. Does about the same amount of damage as the actual toys would do to each other.
Victorion throws her spear at Trypticon but - shock! - she misses, instead hitting the Energon line behind him, causing a huge explosion, engulfing everyone around it. I would have loved to have been in the Metroplex City Planning meeting where they just decided to put extremely volatile rivers that explode at the slightest touch flowing through the middle of the city.
Trypticon actually transforms into base mode, and starts using his defense systems to hold his attackers back. He fires directly at Optimus, launching him across the city. Just as he's about to crash into the street, Fort Max comes down from the heavens to save him at the last second. Not sure how that landing was any softer, considering Fort Max is also made out of metal, just like the ground, but what are you going to do? Windblade comes to him and tells him to relax, because he's "In good hands". Roll cred-Hey! they actually did!
Overall, I think this episode is a solid "Okay". I mean, it's certainly not as laughably bad as the previous couple of episodes, but that's a pretty low bar. It is very nice to look at, though. I think they nailed the character models and set pieces. Surprisingly, the art style and animation are quickly becoming my favorite part about this series, when they were one of my biggest issues in Combiner Wars. The subtle improvements they made really did make a difference. Like I said in the previous review, the colors are really aesthetically pleasing, too. Most of the voice acting's okay, at least, if not better. Peter Cullen and Michael Dorn are particular highlights. It just feels like there's no weight to anything that's happening. No consequence. Maybe that's because of that damage issue I touched on above; no one is shown to physically get injured through all of these battles, so there doesn't feel like there's any desperate issues, even though there's a giant robot dinosaur attacking the city.
It'll be interesting to see how all of this wraps up in the coming weeks. Thanks for tuning in once again, and please keep the discussion going in the energon pub forums below. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Please tell me why. See you next week!
Courtesy of the Loopaza Megastore Facebook page, we have the scans of the Transformers dedicated pages in the latest issue of Figure King Magazine, issue number 239, and the focus is almost entirely on the Power of the Primes line - which as we have learned this far, is virtually unchanged from the Hasbro releases, and will be so going forward until contradicting news appears - and the various size classes in the line.
Featuring the likes of Leaders Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime (with Orion Pax and Hot Rod with their evolution gimmicks), Prime Masters and Matrix interactions, plus decoy suits for Liege Maximo, Micronus and Vector Prime, Deluxe class Jazz, and Legend class Slash, Beachcomber and Windcharger. Check them all out below!
Figure King No. 239 Transformers
This month's Figure King of Transformers covering the Power of the Primes series will kick off in Japan in coming May. Overseas fans may be disappointed as this series will be the exactly the same to the US version. Will Takaratomy consider another way to make their own Transformers or just "import" the US version instead in the future? That is nothing for sure right now.
We have a new teaser from Imaginarium Art and their official Facebook page, featuring another Decepticon to join the ranks of their extremely detailed and dynamic, officially licensed Transformers statues -and it's none other than the faction leader himself, Megatron!
Only teased with a grey prototype render, you can check out the smirk and fusion cannon below, as they were released on the page with the trademark motto 'Peace Through Tyranny'. Additionally, you can browse their galleries on the page (right here) to see what the status is with their Optimus Prime figure (as we already covered here), and the development process that went into the production of the Autobot leader.
Synopsis
NO TURNING BACK! Getaway has crossed one too many lines and made one too many enemies. Hunted down on his own ship, the master manipulator has one last trick of his sleeve—something so shocking, so audacious, that it would put the most evil Decepticon to shame. No one is safe as the Mutineers Trilogy reaches its jaw-dropping climax.
Self-awareness is good, I guess..?
Story
This week, we return to the Lost Light, and look at the ever-eventful continuations of the horrors contained within the mind, actions and direct respondents of one ship's new self-appointed captain. Welcome back to Getaway, Atomizer, and the Plotters' Club in the conclusion to the Mutineers' Trilogy - Lost Light #12. And, I feel the need to proceed with caution here, as I have yet to make my mind up about the issue. Bear with me.
I'm getting there
Looking at the things that work, then: the interlude and the main story, taken as their own beasts, are good frames within which the two threads operate, with a connection (or several, but one in particular) that is as obvious as it is likely to miss with everything else happening. They also both nicely set-up some more world-work that we are bound to see soon. Also, First Aid continues to delight, and the action sequences are, on the whole, placed down nicely.
well paced; painful, but well paced
Which leads me to the main concern: pacing. I've discussed this with staff, and there are wildly differing views, of no help at all, that the sequences are running to fast, too disconnected, and trying to gather together too many yarns and making a big knot out of them than a tapestry. There is undoubtedly a lot going on in the issue, and I feel like you can take that one way or another entirely, without necessarily discrediting the opposite view.
...basically
The better comments to reconcile the two parts of my appreciation for the book do not find their place in this review, for the simple reason that they are entirely based on the latter part of the book, and I do not wish to simply discuss plot. My concerns with pacing remain, however, and I will add a couple of extra, more potentially spoilery notes in the section at the end of this piece.
Art
The art on the issue is in the hands of two different artists, for a very specific in-plot reason too: Jack Lawrence on the main frame, and Andrew Griffith on the interlude section featuring the return of a fair number of characters. And where the first has no real criticisms from me, the latter's linework felt oddly out of place, compared to track record: it may have been just an issue of time, it may be the contrast between two very different styles, but it stood out in not the most positive of ways - that said, the layouts are excellent, and the scenes do play out well, the issue is almost entirely with the details.
I'm not sure why
Lending fuel to the idea that there may have been a time-constraint element to the issue's production, there are three colourists to look at for the art: Joana Lafuente, Priscilla Tramontano, JP Bove. The major contrast is only really to be found in the interlude vs main story, but even there something wasn't entirely in sync between lines and colours, and perhaps a darker palette on the Lost Light scenes may have helped consolidate some of the moments we're witnessing - though the hangar scenes looked really quite apt.
it's the little things
The lettering by Tom B. Long has some really nice moments, scattered through the book, that play with the more humorous moments (dark humour, at that) and the more action-heavy scenes, and never feel out of place - the dialogue is heavy, not helping with the density of the script, but placing flows well in the panels. The cover I thought most worked for this review is the Alex Milne/Josh Perez moment of frustrated anger (nicely cut at the thigh, too), but the other two main variants are definitely worth their presence, and the Ramondelli Megatron companion to the Optimus Prime one in a previous comic is nice enough as an RI. You can, of course, see them all in our database entry here.
Thoughts Spoilerish ahead
I haven't shied away in previous reviews and general comments on the series (and this arc specifically) from expressing my dislike of how plots are created and made to work - especially with some of the character build-ups (except for First Aid and Atomizer), and the over-the-top rounding off of Getaway after issue #10. That said, and as ScottyP reminded me in the email discussion we had, liking or disliking the story valid criticism is not.
Sums it up for me
I, personally, cannot say I enjoyed the issue that much at all, but I recognise that point as extremely valid. So here is my critical thought on the issue: it is dense, definitely so, and the pacing is very very rushed but that may be exactly what it is supposed to do - except.. the problems with the visual side of things drag this down further for me, and I really want to know what happened.
The action-packed sequences on the Lost Light mirror the action of the interlude, with two different feelings of horror and frustration, seen from two very different perspectives, but not well executed enough to fully land, for me. As a whole, where this is most definitely not a book for an entry level reader, longtime followers may equally react very well or very poorly to the story, depending on your interest in the wider picture versus the more immediate character and plot work of the arc. Your Mileage May (Very Much) Vary.
Many of our readers have come across Titans Return Figures on clearance at their local Target stores across the US. We have several images to confirm this, which we have posted below so you can see which items have been clearanced. Of course this may vary from store to store. It may be worth the trip if you'd like to get a good deal on Titans Return figures while Target stores make room for Power of the Primes. There are also some Allspark Tech, Rescue Bots and Robots in Disguise toys in the mix, so you never know what you may find.
Now Instock - TFSource Exclusive MakeToys - RM-09SP Bounceback w/ Targetwarrior Recoil LE500! This limited edition Make Toys figure features RM-09SP Bounceback and Targetwarrior! Limited to just 500 pieces worldwide, Bounceback transforms from a sleek black sports car to robot and back and features flame deco on his car hood! Bounceback stands approximately 8" tall in robot mode and is Masterpiece scaled. Order yours today!
Now up for preorder - Maketoys - MTCD03 - Thunder Manus + Divine Suit Boxset! This great set includes both Thunder Manus & the Divine Suit Set! Preorders up at TFSource here:
New Japanese Transformers Takara Tomy Power of Primes preorders up! You can preorder PP-01 thru PP-09 now! This includes Optimus Prime, Rodimus Prime and More!
Preorders available for Mister Moon - MM01 the Recorder & MM02 the Mic - Set of 2. The set includes two legends scaled figures. MM01 the recorder transforms from boombox/tape deck to robot and back. MM02 the Mic transforms from a microscope to robot and back. Preorder here:
Street Fighter 2 Transformers Preorders Up! Including official images, pricing and preorder information on this legendary mash-up are confirmed! Celebrating the 20th anniversary of Street Fighter, these remold/recolored figures exclusive to Takara Tomy mall can be preordered at TFSource here:
Have you signed up for Source Points yet? Earn points with every purchase towards Freebies! Accumulated points and want to redeem them? Click the following link to enroll or redeem your points today! Source Points - TF Source
Welcome to the latest Seibertron.com Twincast / Podcast episode, with this installment featuring our annual look back at the year that was. While 2017 still has about a week left to yield to the inevitable entropy that will consume us all, Scotty P, Seibertron, and Mr. Starscream chat about the past twelve months in the mean time.
Episode #191 "Champagne Wishes and Energon Dreams" is available directly and in our RSS Feed, and should appear on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher Radio within 24 to 48 hours of when you see this news post.
The latest Power of the Primes figures are appearing more frequently by the day, and the Voyagers in particular are now in the hands of some of the Twincast crew. A long and winding discussion about Starscream and Grimlock goes through the strengths and weaknesses of the figures in detail. Additionally, we ask the important question about accessories and the lack thereof. Would Grimlock have been almost perfect with a sword, gun, and no combination gimmick to worry about?
Someone learned photo angles on Myspace.com
While we keep dodging our year end retrospective, we take a look at the just released Till All Are One Annual. This one-shot series wrap up takes the tale of Windblade, Starscream, Elita One, Rattrap, Ironhide, the Combaticons, and many more into an unexpected future. A look awaits at what kinds of consequences the events from the issue could have on the IDW Transformers universe. One conclusion gained from all the discussion is clear, and that's how TAAO's Annual delivers one of the best Starscream stories you'll ever read.
Maybe he needs that good luck necklace
Our 2017 "Best Of" categories and topics kick off with a look at our favorites in the ever popular Transformers Generations lineup, comprised this year of Titans Return and a little bit of Power of the Primes. While there's certainly no consensus, some of the stand outs are also pretty clear, at least to us! Don't forget to let us know if you agree or if we left a piece out due to our diode blowin' dim wittery by replying to this news post.
Planet Micro is doomed!
What was your favorite part of The Last Knight? Maybe you love violence against fish, maybe there's a certain action scene you found especially exciting, maybe shirtless Wahlburgers are your thing. Whatever it is, this is the judgment free zone unlike that one gym, so the Twincast talks about what they actually liked out of a generally maligned piece of cinema. After that, we consider how Movie based Transformers toy lines just feel a little different, and this premise leads to our "Most Movie-y Movie Figure" category. Learn what figures embodied the spirit of explosions, sweat, and Miami Beach, FL more than any others for us this year.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Every year, there's That One Thing You Didn't Get Around To But Would Like To in the vast world of Transformers. The cast talks about the missed opportunities of the year, ranging from toys not yet bought to shows not yet watched. Try as we might sometimes, there's no way to experience every part of the huge world of Transformers, so see if you caught up on some of the experiences that we might not have yet!
Five of you watched this
Going in a different direction, we think about who the "Character Stock Market Winner" of 2017 could be. What long-standing Transformers character, or at least medium-term-standing character, had the best year? Maybe it was due to extra attention in various media or a new toy. Maybe for some of the crew, it was for other reasons entirely. One thing is for certain, and that's that Star Wars is forbidden.
Almost there
Given the serial nature of IDW's Transformers works, sometimes the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. This category is not for those cases. Instead, we talk about our favorite single issue of the entire year and why it was so effective with just 20 pages. With time going long, we don't get into the arcs and series that we encountered in too much detail, but listen in to find out what issues might be worth sampling to get a taste of the stories encountered in this year's Transformers comics.
No you're crying
We at least reach our picks for the best Transformers thing ever for 2017 - the hands down, best, most memorable, absolute favorite Transformers thing from this year for the cast members. Toys end up taking over due to a pair of choice Masterpiece figures that we still can't manage to agree on. Anything goes, except third party stuff, as we find out if ladder magic can manage to overcome the forces that waited an eternity for this.
One magical ride
Despite all the cool stuff that gets discussed, there are always the less-than-favorite parts of the hobby that are encountered. We take some time out to think about the bad stuff, whether that was a disappointing toy, terrible movie, or something else entirely. Yours truly also hands out the completely unexpected Second Annual Brian Ravage Memorial Trophy Prize Lucky Draw Award, and you'll never guess who wins! Actually, you will. It's... only human.
Coming never to a shelf near you!
Our last topic, or at least part of one, is for predictions. Each attending cast participant makes one layup, softball of a prediction for something realistic that we think will happen in 2018 for the Transformers. After those very super obvious jokes of predictions, we get into the realm of Wishful Thinking, a Seibertron.com speciality. Things there get outlandish but fun, and you never know what just might come true.
You make 100% of the shots you lie about taking.
Moreso than any other Twincast episode, we hope this one is a conversation starter - especially with that trainwreck of an ending! Join us on the Energon Pub Forums to discuss this episode, and be sure to look out for the written look back from the entire staff in the near future.
From the Twincast Podcast team to all of our listeners out there, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and get ready for The Road to 200!
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Amazon.jp has listed several of the Takara version of the Turbo Changers. As word of Takara and Hasbro both discuss "unifying the brands" continues, it is nice to see that some toys coming out in 2018 will indeed be different than the Hasbro versions. Granted, these toys are all for the 2017 film. Regardless, TakaraTomy is taking the Hasbro Knight Armor Changer molds and souping them up by adding more screen accurate paint jobs and better highlights for the Knight Armor pieces to make them stand out better. So far the set include Bumblebee, Grimlock, Megatron, and Optimus Prime. Click on the images below to pop over to Amazon.jp to see additional images and/or place an order for them.
Courtesy of Hasbro and HasbroToyShop, we have news of a small savings deal for the Top Toys of 2017 - which for Transformers only translates into Playskool Rescue Bots Flip Racers Optimus Prime Race Track Trailer (found here for $59.99) and The Last Knight Autobot Sqweeks RC (seen here at $79.99). The code TOYCHEST17 will reduced those prices by 20%, plus there is still free shipping on orders over $49.99!
The deals only just started today, and will last until the first day of the new year, so keep your optics tuned at Seibertron.com for more to come!
PROMOTION: Site Wide Free Shipping on orders over $49
Free standard shipping on most orders over $49, on HasbroToyShop.com. Discount applies to pre-tax and pre-shipping amount. Offer excludes purchases of HasbroToyShop.com exclusives. Other exclusions may apply. No rain checks. Not valid on previous orders. Offer valid in continental U.S. only. Subject to terms and conditions of use and HasbroToyShop.com policies.
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