DevastaTTor wrote:These are a lot better looking that I thought they'd be but still such a weird release; a tiny, hybrid model/figure of a vehicle design that's entering it's 8th year of production.
I've theorized that Takara may have created this as part of a contract negotiation with Toyota to secure the licensing rights to do a figure or two which are based on older model of Toyota's, namely the Hilux (Hoist & Trailbreaker) for their Masterpiece line. Basically, Takara creates a figure to promote a vehicle which Toyota is currently selling so that they (Takara) can create licensed reproductions of a vehicle which they are not currently selling (the Hilux).
I'm really bummed. Both about the small stature of this (I thought it was going to be Voyager size at least) as well as the QC issues. This figure looks awesome and I was totally planning on buying at least one (probably multiple if BBTS could get their hands on the dealer exclusive colored ones), but with these serious QC issues, it's just not worth it I don't think.
Ryan, is there any chance that if I bought one of these, assembled it, and posed it in bot mode without ever transforming it into vehicle mode and just stood it up on my shelf that it would hold together OK, or is it so fragile that doing even that would be likely to cause breakage?