Manterax Prime wrote:To which I say, once again, discounting the metallic, there is absolutely no difference in paint apps between the TG-24 set and their Hasbro counterparts.
Yes, you're absolutely correct. With regards to the paint apps, aside from the additional metallic paint used by Takara, there is no difference. But then once the different color plastics are factored in for both the solid and clear bits, standing them side-by-side I'm certain they look like quite different figures indeed. I've done so myself countless times throughout the past few years because for a long time there I was collecting both the Hasbro and Takara versions of nearly every Classics/Henkei Henkei/Reveal the Shield/United/Generations figure released and I can say that once you look at them in hand, even those with only seemingly "minor" differences usually look as different as night and day. That's why I've finally stopped getting most of the Hasbro releases for this line and have decided to stick mostly to Takara's (the exceptions being those which are so wildly different that I'm compelled to get both, like Generations Air Raid
).
But hey, it's your toy shelf and no one can tell you what's best for your collection. If you want the Hasbro versions and don't want to drop the extra money on the imports for the sake of such differences then no one's going to compel you to do so, but just realize that some of us here such as myself DO see MAJOR differences between them and choose to pay the massive import costs to get these versions of the figures on our shelves. As fenrir72 said, it all boils down to tastes. I know that my wallet would prefer your tastes, but my compulsion to get what I see as the "best" versions of the figures just wouldn't let me go for the Hasbro versions. Then again, I'm certain there are just as many folks (possibly even some in Japan) who actually prefer the coloration of the Hasbro versions. I'm just not one of them.