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February's Patreon @tfwiki pic update is on 2004's ENERGON, the awkward middle child of the Unicron Trilogy. Caught in the early stage of explosive franchise growth and pulled in too many directions. But there's good stuff in there. ROADBLOCK remains a solid, fun toy, turning from robot to crane-truck to heavily-armed half of a two-robot combiner.

The Autobots' two-bot-combiners gimmick was certainly an interesting attempt, but TOW-LINE really took the gimmick to more interesting places than most. He's his own combiner, with the lower half of his vehicle mode turning into a mobile battle-sled-thing separate from his robot mode.

Store exclusives were rare in Armada, but by Energon, Hasbro was ready to start pumping them out again, and boy did they. CHECKPOINT, a rededo of Rodimus, came in a Kmart "SWAT" 2-pack with a similarly deco'd Prowl. Back when Kmart was still a thing.

The Decepticons, rather than combining, got "hyper modes" and alternate vehicle modes that deployed more weapons. SIX SHOT, a redeco of Shockblast, is one of the better attempts, having a considerably-different "satellite" mode on top of his space-tank altmode.

Oh lawd he comin. OMEGA SENTINEL, a redeco of Omega Supreme, splits into a "construction vehicle" and "cruiser", each with a "platform" mode. The two can also join to for a "Cybertronian Armored Supertrain" but that wouldn't fit in the lightbox. Plus he can merge with Optimus Prime! Okay mainly he's a suit Prime wears, but there's attachment points for all of Prime's drone-vehicles as well.

With the franchise taking off, Hasbro looked to fill out Energon with more stuff. This Deluxe version of the Mini-Con HIGH WIRE came with a figure of human ally Kicker, rendered in the style of the then-current G.I.Joe toys. This set seemingly was not engineered by Takara, and it kinda shows.

Speaking of... oof. This set. Not to editorialize too much, but... the MEGA-DINOBOT set of GRIMLOCK and SWOOP is... well. Bad. Originally intended for the Universe line, it got shuffled into Energon, and similarly wasn't engineered by Takara. The result is a floppy, awkward mess. One of the very, very few Transformers toys in its 40-year run I'd call "bad".

(Also... yes, I re-did the Grimlock pic. Back in October, I used archive imagery for that update because, frankly, I'd forgotten I still owned this set. Upon discovery, I decided to redo the pic so it's crisper and better positioned. Still not a good toy though.)

Mind you... it's not like things were all roses on the other hemisphere. Takara made SL GRAND CONVOY, a smaller version of Optimus Prime without any of the good points of the larger figure. What IS that torso mode?! (This is the shinier "SL Grand Convoy & Kicker" 2-pack version. And it broke. Super-tight ankle joints made from clear-plastic? A recipe for disaster.)

Didn't mean to end on a down note. Here, have a pic of one of the line's absolute highlights, the Omnicons and Terrorcons, and their buildable energon weapons.

Energon was kind of all over the map, trying a lot and maybe lacking a strong cohesive theme because of it. Some damn good stuff, but also some genuine misses.

If you enjoy these runs through Transformers toy history, please consider tossing a coin into my Patreon ("gregstfwikipics" at patreon dot com). More support means I can devote more time to bigger updates with more images each month. There's still loads to do!

Because I’m a playlist nerd, you can find all of these tracks below compiled into a YouTube playlist here.

(Please do note that the playlist is arranged in the order they are in below, and not in chronological order!)

I have also included the album art for each track/OST so that you can find the right album if you would like! 

TRANSFORMER (トランスフォーマー) Scramble City Intro by Satoko Shimonari for G1 is extremely and wonderfully 80s, and would absolutely make an amazing Future Funk remix. Reminds me somewhat of Sailor Moon theme tracks! Pro Tip, this one is also great for karaoke.

1986 Movie Theme by Lion - We all know this one’s obligatory.

Transformer V: Victory Opening Theme ( Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (戦え!超ロボット生命体 トランスフォーマーVビクトリー) by Koji Kaya is so completely slept on by the entire fandom, but it has the perfect mix of 80s vocals and 70s big band flavour which makes it a definite all-time great. Has a very 80s Voltron feel to it, almost. 

TRANSFORMERS EVO. by JAM Project for Transformers Animated isn’t particularly my style, but I know it’s extremely popular amongst the wider fanbase so I’m including it here. It’s very high energy! 

The Headmasters (トランスフォーマー ザ★ヘッドマスターズ ) by Hironobu Kageyama is another delightfully 80s track, with a touch of 70s big band but with the addition of power guitar which gives it an extra dramatic, powerful flair. This also has an 80s Voltron vibe.

Tamashii no Evolution (魂のエヴォリューション, "Evolution of the Soul") from Beast Wars Metals is interestingly also by Hironobu Kageyama and evokes early 2000s rock, which reminds me of early Fullmetal Alchemist theme songs. That’s a good thing. (It was released as one of the several Beast Wars albums; Please check the track lists, as the above album cover may not be 100% correct.)

Transformers Prime Theme by Brian Tyler does a lot to establish the mood of the series right out the gate, and matches the tone of the series. Love a good orchestral opening in a Western series.

Arrival to Earth by Steve Jablonsky for the first live action Transformers film is probably the best thing to come out of the Bayverse live action Transformers films. (If you like the movies, I’m not hating on them or you, I’m just saying the soundtrack is great and I’m still personally mad about the rest of it.) 

Q-Transformers: Mystery of Convoy Returns (キュートランスフォーマー 帰ってきたコンボイの謎  Theme - Physical by OLDCODEX is so wildly funny, mostly because it is a heavy metal track for a series that is essentially about little chibi versions of the characters. It rocks though, so if you’re into metal, here’s the track for you. I have no idea if this ever got released as a single anywhere, because I can’t seem to find it if it was, but above is the series logo.

TRANSFORMER -Dream Again- by Psychic Lover for Transformers Armada is another metal track that manages to also feel like early 2000s rock music, and it’s pretty solid. If the Q-Transformers track is too much for you, this one is the perfect medium. The album this track is on includes a bunch of the other Japanese theme songs across all shows, which is also pretty cool and is probably why they went with the G1 Autobot/logo design here.

Back to Life (80s Remix) · Hailee Steinfeld for the Bumblebee live action movie is an interesting combo of current 2020s pop music with a replica-retro vibe, which makes it fit in nicely with a lot of the classic Transformers tracks.

Honō no Overdrive ~Car Robot Cybertron~ (炎のオーバードライブ ～カーロボットサイバトロン～, "Blazing Overdrive ~Car Robot Autobots~) by Koji Wada is the opening for RID. It’s another high energy rock theme, very late 90s/early 2000s as was the trend. It’s a good track though, and I feel like it should be included primarily because the vocal performance is great. 

CALL YOU... 君と僕の未来, "CALL YOU... The Future of You and Me" by Shinji Kakijima for Galaxy Force is yet another rock/metal track, but a little softer than some of the other Transformers metal tracks and very much an early 2000s metal revival type rock song. (Lots of these in modern Transformers.)

Taiyō no transform!! 太陽のtransform!!, "Solar transform!!" by Hiroshi Kitadani for Super Link is great because it evokes the 80s power guitar and keyboard with very 90s (and almost cheesy feeling) vocals and beats. It’s refreshing after all the metal and rock music to get a little bit of a throwback theme. 

The above is not a fully comprehensive list, but they are the tracks that first come to mind when I think of pretty solid Transformers jams! 

Here’s the link to the playlist again so you don’t have to scroll through this whole mess lmao.

BONUS: Album Recommendation! 

Transformers History of Music 1984-1990 produced by Colombia Music Entertainment contains what is as far as I can tell every single piece of Japanese Transformers music created between those dates. It is an absolutely fantastic album, and if you can find it, I would recommend you get it, because every track is a banger. 10/10

Digibash: Unreleased Energon Megatron Colors