The Transformers Collectors Club have updated their member’s page with information on the 2010 registration freebie figure. Members registering or renewing between now and the cut off date in March 2010 will receive the exclusive members-only Elite Guard Dion. Dion in the Generation 1 cartoon was a friend to Orion Pax, the future Optimus Prime, and is here represented as a redeco of Universe Armada Hot Shot. Toy mock up images will go up on the main Transformers Collectors Club page within the next week or so, but members can check out the artwork – which will also be used in next issue of the club magazine – NOW by logging in at the Collector’s Club Homepage. Want to find out more about this new version of Dion? Pick up the Transformers Timelines Issue #4: Wings of Honor for a full profile!
MagnusPrimal
I saw a pic of Optimus Prime from this mold once. I would buy it, just like I would buy this.
Thundershot
Didn't Pete say in this thread that it's the Botcon 2009 Universe?
Foster
Well, the Elite Guard logo has only been used in Animated and the Botcon 09 set, which kind of narrows it down. Not that I care one way or the other.
UTK007
And I would like to point out that we have no confirmation that Dion will be from the Botcon 2009 timeline. He may be from another continuity all together. So let's wait and see before we jump the gun and proclaim what Dion is or isn't.
influence82
If this has not been done already, I would like to point out that this toy is Elite Guard Dion who is at the same level as Elite Guard Kup. This time period represents their younger more energetic selves. In th BotCon 2009 Comic, the Kup who was telling his story was the same Kup that we first saw in the 1986 movie. Millions of years before, Kup was in a different newer body as an Elite Guard member. This would help justify Elite Guard Dion having a different body than the G1 Dion we all know and love. Dion could have altered his body before the events in the cartoon and became a member of the Elite Guard in a similar way that Kup changed his form.
Edgewise
Ok, a Deluxe isn't suitable as a stand-in for a Scout. But then somehow a Legends figure is a good enough stand-in for a character the same size as Orion Pax/Optimus Prime?
This size/scale issue is probably one of the reasons I think Henkei Wheelie is in now way suitable as a stand-in for Dion. Maybe in a collection/display of legends figures, but not for the "standard" scale of Scouts/Deluxes/Voyagers…
RedAlert Rescue
I see Energon Scout/Basic class characters as the equivellent of the Past's small Characters like Cassettes, and Sparkabots, Axcelerators, & Throttlebots – I see Deluxes as the "main characters" of non leadership type.
So a character like Overkill as a deluxe is like say making Guzzle out of ROTF Bludgeon repaint.
I know Hasbro like to upscale small Characters into big characters but I don't always think it works personally.
So as I said I prefer to see Deluxe Overkill as part of the oddball nature of Classics repaints… along side all the other like Countdown he seems less weird.
But that does not mean that I'd not like to see older scouts/basics used as the basis of future characters.
It's sort of like how there's a Movieverse Beachcomber made out of Dunerunner but that does not mean that i'd still not welcome a repaint of the Hardtop as Beachcomber in the future – regardless of if that is Classicverse or as a Botcon toy character.
Such a Beachcomber would complement Botcon Huffer a treat.
I've always seen a very strong resemblance of Overkill with Energon Doomlock – and if such a thing was ever made I'd probably do what I do now anyway with Battle Ravage and let him hang out with Cybertron Soundwave.
I like the idea of a Overkill who is smaller than MP3 Player Soundwave is all.
And if Deluxe "Grimlock repaint" Overkill is a classic toy then I still see the worth of an Overkill that fits in the Movieverse, or A.E.C.
ORIO
Hope you're right!
Edgewise
Ya…. I'm not reading all that.
But if you're point is there's plenty of room for multiple Swerves & Swindles then there's plenty of room for Dion and Henkei Wheelie, two completely separate characters, continuities, names and decos.
If you're re-appropriating H.Wheelie for Dion, then you can certainly re-appropriate SE Overkill for whatever purpose a repaint of E.Cruellock as Overkill would serve.
Thunderthruster
I actually enjoyed the catoon, and it wasnt until the early ninties that i started to read the comics, so as far as i'm concerned the cartoon holds more prevalence than the comics!
I think Dion is a great idea, I'm not so sure about the mold from what i've heard, but i've not seen it yet!
RedAlert Rescue
SORRY THIS IS A BIT LONG… Continued….
Another idea i've pondered over a bit is slipping a character that is unique to one continuity into another with a slight repaint.
So Cybertron Downshift becomes Wheeljack, Energon Downshift becomes Slicer or Cybertron Blurr becomes G1 Blurr.
I'd strongly welcome a lot more Energon and Cybertron repaints as "new" classics 3.0 in 2010/2011 – as in many cases they have more suitable molds than the classics ones.
As I've said before i'd love to see a Universe Perceptor (made from Ultra Cybertron Defense Red Alert)…
And there must be a great many more Micromasters and Actionmasters characters who could be reembodied into molds form the last few years.
I guess Dion is Ok to me overall as what he is because he does not try to be Classics Dion so I can carry on happily using my Henkei Wheelie as such – he instead fits with Kup, Landshark and Co.
Personally I'd have liked to have had another Energon Autobot Deluxe so Thunderclash has someone to link with from the same time period.
I notice that Turbomaster Scorch is close to Energon Ironhide in someways – but he's the wrong size and not a very well liked mold.
I can't see Hasbro being comfortable using names like Flash and Boss but perhaps FP might be Ok with Autobot-Flash and AUTOBOT BOSS.
And if one of the other European characters was done as an Energon Autobot mold that would make a lot of sense to me.
I even like the idea further because Predator Planes could combine with SkyQuake to some extent and the idea that the Turbomasters could also do that in some way appeals to me too.
So I guess the point I'm making is that I didn't really so much feel the need for Dion when a Transforming Dion Toy already exists and he's only in one show anyway but we could do with some that have never got a toy yet like Staxus.
Not that I'm unkeen for other ideas I really enjoyed Banzai-Tron I'd say he's probably my favorite of the lot.
I understand why they are doing Dion and yet to me he was never really a priority – but that is because I'm not so keen on anything that adds further weight to the Orion Pax origin… as I think Orion is a bit of a dweeb really and not really worthy of being Optimus Prime (well maybe movie Optimus Prime).
To me Orion Pax is a bit like Anakin Skywalker he's something that damages the character they become retrospectively. So I prefer to think on it in a slightly different way to others and sort of push him off to the side in another "Continuity".
Perhaps that is because Beast Wars is so Comic based he seems all the more out of place as time progressed. and it's only more recently that somepeople have tried to shoe horn the cartoon back into it all. even though I feel it often creates more problems than it solves.
In more recent times we've had Sparks and primus etc.. and if you pretend the last 25 years never happened you have to except way to much contridictory and hokey stuff back into the franchises' evolutional path.
Dion is therefore to me an unfortunate reminder of the Orion Pax story and of other things I don't much like such as all Decepticons flying in robot mode, and problems like The Quintesson Origin, Primacron, Green skinned Nebulans and so many other things.
Heck I can see a place for some of it even Kremzeek but I see it as something that does not require to much over enthesis.
I will admit though that I think it's now fairer to follow the cartoon's lead on the Fembot issue as it's more consistant overall with the path that the stories have evolved through.
Saying the robots are genderless in the comics seems to in retrospect have been a mistake. and I look upon that as something best shuffled under the rug along with talk of Circuit boards, and hard drives in Transformers.
Beastbot X
REALLY don't think SG Galvatron will be the new club exclusive. There's no more focus on him than any other SG character that we know won't be getting a toy, they just based him on an existing design like so many other characters in the universe. We're just as likely to get him as we are to get a SG Hound w/ SG Ravage, Omega Doom, SG Beachcomber, SG Warpath, SG Soundwave, SG Sky Lynx, etc.
RedAlert Rescue
Sorry I got my mythical characters mixed up with an antenee.
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SORRY THIS IS A BIT LONG
I think I see Henkei Wheelie as a 'Classics' Dion sort of a modern version of the G1 wheelie version – the tone of tanish yellow is really similar and Henkei Wheelie is much closer in colors to the Dion G1 toy than it is to the Wheelie G1 toy.
What I'd see FP's one as is as equivellent to the Botcon Wings of Honor stuff.
and not a "classics toy" as such (i.e not representative of the character in any period between 1984 & 2400ad).
I don't see a direct contridiction as such in their being 2 Springers for example (or 2 Evacs in the movieverse line) as the time periods involved are supposed to be slightly different they don't step on each other toes so much.
That is why I see the idea of another Overkill as not inconsistant – the Overkill we have in Classics is a sort of "rebuilt" Overkill he's bigger and stronger and no longer a tiny minion of Soundwave… it's the Overkill of right now. It's a bit like the idea of Combiner characters that can no longer combine (Alternator swindle, Universe Onslaught etc…) they are just at a different stage in their life or it's a different continuity.
I use my Takara Mp3 Soundwave as a classics Soundwave instead of the G1 reissues Hasbro have branded as Classics.
I feel that certain Energon (and Cybertron and Armada toys) retain such a strong resemblance to specific other characters that even if that character already has a toy that is something to not be overlooked if applying it to a different continuity or time period for that Character.
Like Megatron might be a Tank or a Cybertron mode or a Hand gun depending on the time of his life the character is supposed to represent.
Perhaps to me a Doomlock repaint is ideal as a Pre-Beast Wars Overkill (as it complements Botcon Laserbeak and Buzzsaw so well). so it would be more of less around the period of the size downgrade seen with the Maximals or at least just prior to it.
I also see Universe Cheetor working as a modern version of Tripredicus Agent as well again such a character could either be or not be Ravage… and could be settled in one of many time periods. but the mold seems to work as it's a complementry reference to the 1996 japanese Shadow Panther Beast Wars toy.
Some might say that it's not needed but it seems worthwhile to me if only because it's not like Universe Cheetor's mold is going to get much else use and the only other thing that springs to mind is as Tigertron, a Snow Leopard or as a pre-Transmetal Cataclysm. or maybe even a previous body for Armada Cheetor ?
There's the character of "The Cub" as well and though it's very similar to the Wolf Takara made in their Beast Wars reissue there's still a temporal gap there too. and possible repaint potential… (Though I will admit that is rather obscure)… but i like wacky ideas sometimes that is why I keep saying I want a Airtron (TM2 Tigerhawk in Airazor colors) to complement Tigerhawk, or a TM Rampage repaint to complement Universe 1.0 DepthCharge.
So no I don't see an inconsistancy in asking for a Overkill made from Energon Doomlock as such a toy could fit into so many possible places be it pre-Beast Wars or even AEC or as a Movieverse scout (if Hasbro did it).
I'm not even suggesting it's something that FP would have to do i'd certainly welcome more repaint scouts from Hasbro too.
Just look how many "Swerves" or "Swindles" we have seen in recent years there's loads of them and most of the Swerves are not trucks and most of the Swindles don't combine. So it seems Hasbro are Ok with representing relatively minor characters in many different continuities.
Plastic Man
Easy pass for me, as I hate the Universe Hot Shot mold. Saves some money.
eisen
i'm not getting a galvatron vibe from that at all, it reminds me more of Octane though :\
ams
Great, isn't it? I do a good bit of writing, and probably check that site for various things twice a week, at least.
Add this to your bookmarks and you'll never fail. It will allow you to deflect a lot of fail, though.
Common Errors in English Usage
Edgewise
Ok… so Henkei Wheelie is almost an exact match, but it is missing blue. That makes Club Dion superfluous?
If that's your position cool… but it is then tremendously contradictory to want an Overkill repaint when Special Edition Overkill already exists, and there's not "almost" or "bar the lack of" in regards to him.
Jarodimus
You dreamed it. She was named "Ariel".
RedAlert Rescue
Did I dream this or wasn't Superlink Arcee called "Aerial" ?
I still think this is somewhat superfluous as we already have Henkei Wheelie who looks like The Transformers G1 repaint that was of Dion using the original Wheelie Mold.
Henkei Wheelie is an almost exact match to the G1 Dion toy (bar the lack of a little blue).
It would perhaps have been nicer if they'd used the Armada Powerlinx mold over the Universe mold – it could have been done as the M.I.A Battle in a box Smokescreen or whomever.
I still think there's a lot of obvious repaint potential in the Energon Basics as well such as Overkill (from Cruelock/Doomlock) or Bombshell from Insecticon.
Or even other Unicron Trilogy toys : E-Scattershot as G1 Scattershot, Energon Dumptruck Demolishor as Wideload, Cybertron Landmine as Scoop,
Not to mention the huge untapped variety of Legends ideas that could be made in full size (as they did with razorclaw)… such as Perceptor, Trypticon, Hungerrrr, Cybertron mode Skywarp, Cybertron mode Ramjet, Cybertron mode Sunstorm, Menasor, Hotzone, Voyager Blades (Orange & white deco).
No to mention various jet and car molds that would work as Stormtroopers, Turbomasters and Predator plane characters.
Or what I consider perhaps the most obvious repaint of all a Decepticon F-15 Skytrooper (as seen in the 80's TV show and Dreamwave comics) we got a PVC but it's ripe for a classics Starscream redeco as is indeed Sunstorm.
Thought I think Sunstorm made out of the Armada Starscream mold would be interesting too if we are dealing with a different time and place continuity it wouldn't step on any of Hasbro's toes then to use that mold.
We are also missing a "Dirge" from that mold or from Skywarp's mold too. (If you pretend Energon Voyager Starscream is actually Thrust).
At least a Skytrooper appears in more than a single show and comics as well.
Jarodimus
Getting back to Dion, I wonder if there's any chance we'll get the Henkei version of the mold. It'd be nice to have those launchers. And maybe Jolt's portions of the molds are gated so he can be left out.
Also, I'm digging Gryph's Orion Pax digibash. Sign me up!
How can it be that I'd never heard of that site? I love it! I've just spent the last 20 minutes reading various entries. I'm such a word nerd.