I have been eagerly anticipating the E-Hobby variation(s) of the encore 11 seekers. In the past, the only E-Hobbies I've been interested in enough to get in the past were the Sunstorm and Hauler set and anime color Astrotrain, so you can imagine how long I've been waiting to hear this news.

However, with Skywarp and Thundercracker due this month, it seems a bit late for news of E-hobby repaints. Is there now no chance of any, or is there still some hope. I thought for sure there would be an anime recolor of Thundercracker (though I'd prefer an unnamed seeker repaint over it), and was hoping it would come with an unnnamed seeker repaint from the G1 series just like Sunstorm was. I was really hoping for the dark, army green color scheme of the seeker with Shockwave when Spike goes to Cybertron after Sparkplug in a 3-parter from the series. But now it looks like we won't get anything. Has anyone heard any hints about a possible release, or were these probably just skipped, falling between monster repaints of Omega and possibly Metroplex?

 

Nothing? I know a lot of people are excited about the Omega Repaint and are hoping hard for a Metroplex repaint, but is there really indifference across the board for seeker repaints?

Speaking of Metroplex, do any Season 1 or 2 standard sized autobots fit in his compartments, or is it mini bots only?

 

I'm not sure if the seekers will see E-hobby repaints. So far Omega Supreme is the only one seeing a repaint

 

The Rainmakers set or The Coneheads set?

 

I don't know why this typically penny-pinching fandom would be at all interested in eHobby's Omega Supreme or their hypothetical recolor of Metroplex. I wouldn't mind more seekers or other Diaclone era recolors, but the fandom's got something of a two-faced attitude that makes it awesome/necessary for new toys but grounds for lynching otherwise.

Anyway, Metroplex is for minibots and combiner limbs only. He's kind of so-so as a city, but the battle platform isn't too bad.

 

They might release a further Encore release that contains Thrust/Ramjet/Dirge. And possibly associated with those we'll see a Sunstorm reissue from eHobby.

 

So Omega is the only Encore recolor from E-hobby so far? I can't think of any others now that I have to. With TFC, every reissue or set of reissues triggered an E-hobby repaint, so I guess I just had the expectation that reissues had repaints. Too bad, I really wanted to beef up the Decepticon air force with real jets. Right now I have two recolors only; Sunstorm and Cloudstrafe (Starscream black/silver repaint).

I have the Hasbro reissue of Dirge, because he wasn't subject to any child-safety regulation alterations, but would really like a Thrust and Ramjet release. Back during TFC, when extra parts were included in the reissues, I was hoping Dirge and Ramjet would also come with missle launchers like the other seekers to mimic the cartoon and just because they're cooler. If something like that happened with Encore, which seems more interested in changing the actual figures than adding additional parts, I'd pick up Dirge again.

Since I already have Sunstorm, I wouldn't be too thrilled with a reissue E-hobby (and I don't think exclusives get reissued), but think it would be cool for any seekers fans who missed out on him as he's a cool figure and "hidden" feature of the G1 cartoon. Not sure why everyone hates him, but any stories he's involved in through comics or other contiuums can be ignored.

 

Does E-hobby only do repaints in response to reissues, or do they sometimes come about on their own?

 

I still say that given the out-of-the-ordinary 2-pack release of Skywarp and Thundercracker, an E-hobby two pack of the purple drone seekers would be perfect. Hell, I'd buy two or three..which I probably wouldn't do if we got 'the green one' and another one.

Omega isn't the only Encore to get the E-hobby treatment; there was also Black Diaclone/'Movie' Ironhide. And I'm not sure if the 'Movie' Ratchet was E-hobby or if the magazine mailaway angle qualifies as something else. Tis still another avenue for Encore recolors at least. I don't remember when any of those were announced in relation to the release of the regular Encores though. Seems like we knew about Guardian Omega before the regular one actually shipped.

 

I'd buy a purple seeker, but not multiples. I'd make a character out of him. I forgot about the Ironhide and Ratchet E-hobbies. Makes me wonder why there aren't E-hobbies for the most recent Jazz and Bumblebee reissues. We definitely knew about the Omega recolor well before Omega was released.