Dave's Transformers Energon Rant: Roleplay Weapons Megatron: Energon Sword Optimus Prime: Energon Blaster Where Armada's "roleplay" toys (Laserbeak and the Sabers) were pretty puny, Energon has gone ahead and busted it up to $20 to be able to make some weapons with heft. CAPSULES Energon Sword: Nice and big, good sounds, and you can seriouly injure someone with it (so, like, probably not a good idea to give to kids if they don't get along). Suffers a bit from lack of paint apps, and the 'hit' sounds require excessive hitting to work. Still, recommended. $19.88 at Wal-Mart. Energon Blaster: A trifle bland, and the stock is weak, but it's otherwise a very cool Nerf gun. Recommended. $19.88 at Wal-Mart. RANTS Packaging: Boxes are 17" (43cm) wide, 10" (25cm) tall and 3" (8cm) deep, making for an odd size. The front and top are mostly clear window, and the toys are twist-tied down in an oddball fashion that I have never seen used before (new packaging factory?). In the lower right of the front is a drawing of the relevant character holding the weapon, which is also reproduced on the top. The left side has different art of the character. Co-sell pictures on the bottom show Prime, Megatron and the other weapon. The back shows photos of the prototype weapons (including paint apps not present on the real thing), showing the action features, such as they are. Transformation difficulty is correctly pegged at 1. The lower left of the box front proclaims that there's a comic inside, but neither of mine had the comic/catalog. They did come with small instruction sheets, though. The sword's is two-sided with one covering how to replace the batteries and bulb and going over the FCC regs. The gun's is single sided. Megatron's Energon Sword This is packaged in two pieces, and requires two C-cells (not included). The blade is a telescoping assembly made from three pieces of semi-rigid clear yellowish green plastic. Unlike almost all collapsible sword toys, the cross-section of the blade is not circular. Instead, it's more like a blunted real sword blade (although a bit thicker near the base than a real sword, since the parts have to fit inside each other). There is no paint on the blade, which is a shame, since the prototype looks really good with its purple paint applications. The hilt has a circular cross-section, and is actually a little large for my adult hands, so kids probably have to hold it in both hands. The actual grip part is 3.5" (9cm) long, with an oversized pommel just as long that holds the sound chip and speakers. Between the hilt and the blade is a sort of hex-kite-shaped piece that holds the crosspieces. All of these parts are made from dark purple plastic. There's black stripes on the hilt, and details in neon green and darker green painted on the central chunk. None of the neon purple paint from the prototype is present. In the center of the middle chunk is a white disk 4cm in diameter with a molded Decepticon symbol. One of them is rigid, the other is a button to make the crossguards pop out. On the pommel is a warning sticker that says, "DO NOT poke or jab with sword. Sections are made to stick together in the extended position and will not easily collapse if jabbed into an object, individual or animal." So, of course, this will be a child's favorite tool for oppressing younger siblings. The overall length of the sword when it's extended is 33" (84cm), although it can be collapsed to 22" (56cm) and further disassembled into pieces that will fit in the box (although the batteries won't stay in if you take it apart). Closed, the maximum width of the sword is a hair over 6" (16cm). Pressing the central white circle opens the crosspieces and increases the width to 14" (35cm). Um, the crosspieces will not stop a sword stroke, however...they're rigged to pop off when more than a pound or two of force is applied. Pressing a reasonably well concealed button on the pommel will turn the toy on or off. It will not work during a powerup/powerdown sequence, though. All sounds come from the base of the pommel. Powerup and powerdown have appropriate sounds, and while the toy is on there's a fairly loud thrumming sound that's always on unless another sound is activated. Extending the crosspieces (for Hyper Power Mode) while the toy is on causes a classic transformation sound effect. Hitting the sword fairly hard against something will generate one of two or three impact sounds, which are sometimes physical clangs and sometimes energy vrrrms. The instructions say that these can be activated just by swinging the sword, but I have to REALLY crank it to make it do the sounds without hitting anything. I doubt a child would have the strength or patience for it. There is no sound effect for closing the crosspieces. While on, the blade is lit by a 2.5 Volt incandescent lightbulb. It's hard to tell that it's on unless you're in a dimly lit or unlit area or you look straight down the center of the blade. The light flickers in different patterns when a strike sound is going off (pattern depending on the sound) and turns off during the transformation sound. Overall: Somewhat hazardous, I think, and might end up on a recall list eventually, but I like it. It kicks the skidplate of the Star Saber and Dark Saber toys, and is almost as good as the Granblade (from Webdiver). Optimus Prime's Energon Blaster In addition to the gun itself being twist-tied down, the three Nerf projectiles (and yes, they are EXACTLY Nerf, remember that Hasbro owns that brand too) are blister-bubbled to the main card. This weapon has not yet appeared on the Energon cartoon as of early August 2004, but I presume it will show up eventually. Unlike Megatron's sword, it bears no resemblance to the weapon held by the Optimus Prime toy (although I suppose it could come with the Deluxe-sized Prime). [Late note: it apparently showed up for an eyeblink in "Starscream The Mysterious Mercenary", coming out of an Energon Star. I don't recall seeing it myself, but I might have been looking away at the time.] Unlike the sword, the colors on the blaster are exactly like those shown on the prototype pic on the box, although a bit darker (which might just be a photographic artifact). The main body is white with red, black and dark gray-blue paint apps. The front section is red plastic, and the extendable stock is dark gray-blue. A sticker on the muzzle says, "CAUTION: Do not aim at eyes or face. TO AVOID INJURY: Use only darts designed for this product. Do not modify darts or dart launcher." Sounds like a challenge to me. :) As packed, the gun is 16" (40cm) long and 9" (23cm) tall, with grips that will accomodate my hand easily. It fires standard 7cm suction-tipped Nerf darts, so no worry about resupply if you lose the originals (there's three included, with storage for two atop the gun). Fully extended, it's 21.5" (55cm) long. The collapsible stock is kinda puny-feeling, being mostly thin plastic intended to cover part of the main grip when collapsed in. The front section is nicely solid, however, and will extend on its own if you do a "whip it out and point at the enemy" motion, tres cool. It's be cooler if the trigger was at the back of the gun and not on the forwardmost grip. The sliding part is the inner barrel, the front grip and a collar that slides around a rod along the bottom of the blaster. But here's the really cool part about the blaster. It's pump-action. Slide out and back in to prime the gun. Slide out again and it locks in position, so you can't double-pump. It's possible to one-arm pump it as well, the main body will slide down on its own if you hold the gun up by its front grip, then push against your chest to pump. Firing is standard Nerf air-puff tech, with an internal (and un-mess- with-able) membrane being plucked so that it sends a small puff of air down the barrel and into the projectile. Firing level, I got a 1 meter drop over a 5 meter distance (all measurements very approximate), suggesting a muzzle velocity of around 20 miles per hour. Probably a little higher, since Nerf slows down pretty quickly. I'm tempted to take this to work and use a motion detector to get a more precise number, but that may be excessive even for me. Overall: While the collapsible stock is lame, the rest of the toy is cool. And you can even pump it for +1AV...sorry, Feng Shui RPG flashback. Dave Van Domelen, does kinda wish you could store all three darts on the gun and not have to leave it loaded, though.