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RAcast wrote:What's the assembly flaw?

The shoulders are switched. Just checked mine. Same problem.

Sabrblade wrote:

RAcast wrote:What's the assembly flaw?

The shoulders are switched. Just checked mine. Same problem.

So the pins that attach the wheels to the shoulders face out?

Does it mess with the transformation in any way?

Mindmaster wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

RAcast wrote:What's the assembly flaw?

The shoulders are switched. Just checked mine. Same problem.

So the pins that attach the wheels to the shoulders face out?

Does it mess with the transformation in any way?

It's that his left shoulder is on his right and his right shoulder is on his left, leaving him unable to put his arms straight down in a relaxed position, making him constantly have his arms spread outward.

The transformation is unaffected, but the robot mode is still awkward.

So... the final verdict.

I bought Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Megaplex, Obsidian, Sandstorm, Mirage, and the Rainmakers. That's ten of these pricey convention exclusives. I'm now giving serious thought to buying Strika as well, so I can make it an equal four on four battle, and have a nice, complete Machine Wars display.

When this set was announced, I knew I'd buy Skywarp, and by extension, his inevitable Thundercracker redeco. After the five members of the box set were announced, I felt a wave of relief. There was no way I'd spend much money. Obsidian and Strika may have looked cool, but they weren't characters I had a great deal of affection for. Megaplex didn't have a new Megatron head, and was thus skippable. I never had any interest in Hoist at all.

And yet... as the months went on, my opinion changed. I would consider getting Megaplex, to lead his Decepticons. He looked less and less like a repainted Dreadwing as time went on. Obsidian's color swap made me realize I would buy him, which brought the total to three. When I saw the production sample of Megaplex and especially the paint detail added to his "helmet", I knew I'd get four.

Surely nothing else would capture my attention...

...until I saw the rumored list, and Starscream using the Terradive mold. Having never owned the original Skyquake or the Machine Wars redeco, I had no need for Starscream to be a titan. And a clone of Megatron would need his reliable traitor. No Decepticon force is complete without its Starscream.

And finally, when the show came around... I saw the Rainmakers and Sandstorm. I fell in love with the former, and bought the latter because I saw him available for a great price, and thought he fit the Machine Wars aesthetic better than the other Autobots.

Though I found good deals on most, I still spent way, way more money than I'd intended. And I am euphoric for what I have received in return.

I bashed this set for months. I was wrong to have done so.

I'm sure this set still has many detractors, but it absolutely shattered my expectations and I am grateful to bear witness. This is a great, really self contained set, and one I can't wait to really play with. These being very expensive pieces of plastic, I'm less likely to run around pretending Obsidian and the Decepticons are engaged in a vicious dogfight, but I'm really enjoying actually sitting down and playing out battles, rather than putting my convention exclusives on a shelf to display.

I don't know how it happened exactly, but something about this set turned me around completely.

^ Great post! I derided this set initially as well, but holy moly, I put everything together with my original Machine Wars toys and, well, they pulled it off. I now have a bigger Machine Wars display and it looks great. Only Strika feels a little out of place, but that's probably because she's the only purple bot in there.

And if anyone hasn't read the Burcham comic that goes along with the set, pick up the Diamond version when it hits. It's super fun and it made me want to keep the Megaplex head that came with my set attached and put the Renderform one away in a pile of parts.

I'm getting ready to work on the BotCon 2014 galleries later this week. I compiled a list of each mold along with its mold counterparts. Can you guys take a look at this list to see if I left off anything needed for comparison pics?

"Machine Wars" and "G2" refers to this year's BotCon set. While I own Arms Micron Dreadwing and I think I own United Warpath, I didn't include any other Japanese variants other than the ones that are on this list, because I only own variants that are noticeably different than the U.S. version.

Machine Wars Skywarp
Machine Wars Thundercracker
HFTD Jetblade
ROTF Dirge

Machine Wars Strika
Machine Wars Blastcharge
Generations Warpath
United Warpath

Machine Wars Obsidian
HFTD Highbrow
Generations Powerdive

Machine Wars Megaplex
Arms Micron Dreadwing
TFP Dreadwing
TFP Skyquake

Machine Wars Hoist
G2 Electro
Generations Swerve
United Kup
United Battle Damaged Kup

Machine Wars Mirage
Classics Mirage
Movie Fracture
Universe Drag Strip
BotCon Hologram Mirage
Henkei Mirage
Henkei Electro Disruptor Ligier

Machine Wars Sandstorm
DOTM Skyhammer

Machine Wars Starscream
Club Depth Charge
HFTD Terradive
DOTM Space Case

Rainmaker Bitstream
Rainmaker Hotlink
Rainmaker Sunstorm
… and 27 other uses of this mold

I think you've got everything accounted for, as far as base molds go. Are there comparisons of the original toys each exclusive is based on (dumb question)?

Mindmaster wrote:I think you've got everything accounted for, as far as base molds go. Are there comparisons of the original toys each exclusive is based on (dumb question)?

That is correct. For example, Machine Wars Mirage will have a comparison shot with the other 6 versions of this mold. Maybe I'll even do Fracture's gallery at long last while I have her out.

Seibertron wrote:

Mindmaster wrote:I think you've got everything accounted for, as far as base molds go. Are there comparisons of the original toys each exclusive is based on (dumb question)?

That is correct. For example, Machine Wars Mirage will have a comparison shot with the other 6 versions of this mold. Maybe I'll even do Fracture's gallery at long last while I have her out.

Alrighty then. I shall patiently wait for the galleries to be pumped out.

Seibertron wrote:Machine Wars Hoist
G2 Electro
Generations Swerve
United Kup
United Battle Damaged Kup

What about Generations Sergeant Kup?

Hey sabrblade, you know allot more about the inner workings of Funpub than most of us here; isn't there some kinda agreement they abide by that states the wont use previously used molds for new exclusives? like they shouldn't have been able to use the classics seeker and mirage molds for the rainmakers and machine wars mirage because they already used those molds for Botcon thundercracker and BotCon Hologram Mirage. Because i remember you or JelZe GoldRabbit saying that there is something like that in their terms of service with hasbro.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:Hey sabrblade, you know allot more about the inner workings of Funpub than most of us here; isn't there some kinda agreement they abide by that states the wont use previously used molds for new exclusives? like they shouldn't have been able to use the classics seeker and mirage molds for the rainmakers and machine wars mirage because they already used those molds for Botcon thundercracker and BotCon Hologram Mirage. Because i remember you or JelZe GoldRabbit saying that there is something like that in their terms of service with hasbro.

I think with their having used the Seeker mold and Mirage mold more than once means that they can reuse molds.

But, I'd imagine they wouldn't make a habit of it.

Then again, this past BotCon showed quite a demand for even more uses of the Seeker mold, so... who knows?

SW's SilverHammer wrote:Hey sabrblade, you know allot more about the inner workings of Funpub than most of us here; isn't there some kinda agreement they abide by that states the wont use previously used molds for new exclusives? like they shouldn't have been able to use the classics seeker and mirage molds for the rainmakers and machine wars mirage because they already used those molds for Botcon thundercracker and BotCon Hologram Mirage. Because i remember you or JelZe GoldRabbit saying that there is something like that in their terms of service with hasbro.

There's no such rule in place. It was something that the fans brewed up in their imaginations after seeing The Club pass over some really obvious ideas (in the fans' minds anyways) in favour of something that used a different mold. There are many reasons that influences what characters The Club can use - availability and condition are the primary factors. Basically if it works for the character they want, and they can use the mold, they'll go for it.

Mkall wrote:There's no such rule in place. It was something that the fans brewed up in their imaginations after seeing The Club pass over some really obvious ideas (in the fans' minds anyways) in favour of something that used a different mold. There are many reasons that influences what characters The Club can use - availability and condition are the primary factors. Basically if it works for the character they want, and they can use the mold, they'll go for it.

I knew condition and availability were factors, so thanks for clearing the "reuse" factor up . I won't lie, i wouldn't mind knowing what factors play into the availability for non-licensed figures, because hasbro has to put a cap on molds of certain age right?

SW's SilverHammer wrote:Hey sabrblade, you know allot more about the inner workings of Funpub than most of us here; isn't there some kinda agreement they abide by that states the wont use previously used molds for new exclusives? like they shouldn't have been able to use the classics seeker and mirage molds for the rainmakers and machine wars mirage because they already used those molds for Botcon thundercracker and BotCon Hologram Mirage. Because i remember you or JelZe GoldRabbit saying that there is something like that in their terms of service with hasbro.

I remember reading somewhere that Fun Pub wont reuse molds in the box sets but will reuse them for souvenir sets however that is a personal rule and not an agreement with Hasbro. I also could be wrong about it but I seem to remember that.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:I knew condition and availability were factors, so thanks for clearing the "reuse" factor up . I won't lie, i wouldn't mind knowing what factors play into the availability for non-licensed figures, because hasbro has to put a cap on molds of certain age right?

My understanding is, either the mold is in use by Hasbro or Takara, or the mold has degraded/been damaged/been lost. That's why A/E/C molds are no longer used by The Club as, if you believe what The Club says, they have degraded beyond use.

HOWEVER, I should point out that the Classics Starscream mold was used, which was made in 2006, at the peak of Energon/Cybertron figures. If A/E/C molds can't be used, then why Starscream, who is of the same mold-age?

Oh the conspiracies.

Mkall wrote:
HOWEVER, I should point out that the Classics Starscream mold was used, which was made in 2006, at the peak of Energon/Cybertron figures. If A/E/C molds can't be used, then why Starscream, who is of the same mold-age?

Oh the conspiracies.

Yeah that was one of the things i was thinking, that the Classics 06-07 should be near the same quality degradation as cybertron. Unless there's a loophole in that they can use reissues, like they aren't using mirage, they're using dragstrip or they're using acid storm and not 06 starscream. The only thing is i've heard Dragstrip and the subsequent seekers have suffered from degradation soooo i have no idea at this point

The Classics Starscream mold has been updated time and again, whereas the UT molds haven't all gotten such treatment.

Those BotCon 2013 galleries... why not include comparisons with the original Machine Wars figures, where applicable?

Hoist, Sandstorm, Mirage, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Starscream, and Megaplex side by side with their 1997 incarnations? Especially the former three, as the original toys no longer seem to have any reason to exist.

Sabrblade wrote:The Classics Starscream mold has been updated time and again, whereas the UT molds haven't all gotten such treatment.

Maybe so, but I don't think the Mirage mold has been.

Besides, all we're really doing is throwing around speculation. Such speculation easily turns into so-called facts. Maybe Classics molds were just made from sterner stuff?

Then again, who cares? The rainmakers look awesome!

Mkall wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:The Classics Starscream mold has been updated time and again, whereas the UT molds haven't all gotten such treatment.

Maybe so, but I don't think the Mirage mold has been.

Besides, all we're really doing is throwing around speculation. Such speculation easily turns into so-called facts. Maybe Classics molds were just made from sterner stuff?

Maybe. Though, the Seeker mold's been used ans abused to death, whereas the Mirage mold hasn't, so it may not have worn out as much over time. Or, it might have been reinforced when it got used for Drag Strip in 2008. HasTak only knows.

Either way, pre-2006 molds (minus odd cases like G1 reissues, the Platinum Edition TF: Energon molds, or TCC FSS Ultra Mammoth) seem to be too old to use nowadays.

Wait, didn't the club say back then that they weren't going to use Unicron trilogy stuff anymore since they used molds from that era so much that it got old and boring?
That the molds are detoriated was never brought up, it was more along the lines of yea we're sick of them.

Dead Metal wrote:Wait, didn't the club say back then that they weren't going to use Unicron trilogy stuff anymore since they used molds from that era so much that it got old and boring?
That the molds are detoriated was never brought up, it was more along the lines of yea we're sick of them.

I read that the molds were deteriorating, and were too damaged to use. Which is a shame: I really liked the use of the Unicron Trilogy molds.

Mindmaster wrote:
I read that the molds were deteriorating, and were too damaged to use. Which is a shame: I really liked the use of the Unicron Trilogy molds.

Indeed. They had some really fun figures that came out of those eras. I enjoy some even more than many of the newer Generations molds.

Mkall wrote:

Mindmaster wrote:
I read that the molds were deteriorating, and were too damaged to use. Which is a shame: I really liked the use of the Unicron Trilogy molds.

Indeed. They had some really fun figures that came out of those eras. I enjoy some even more than many of the newer Generations molds.

Here's the question, how the hell did they manage to deteriorate? I mean most of them haven't been used that much, plus the production numbers on the UT weren't as high as current lines.