The Energon Pub

Just wanted to toss my 2 cents in with those who thing MP-45 Bumblebee ver 2 is not that great. I love the first version despite a few flaws. Ultimately, I would have preferred to see a more cartoon accurate head, the interior sides of his feet painted yellow, and a mold improvement to give his inner forearms panels that could hide his hands in transformation. Other than that, I was pretty pleased with the first version.

One of the biggest charms of the Transformers is seeing how alt-mode parts get used in robot mode. I do not like when they fake out the Transformers chests, cockpits, etc. While I was bummed about Sunstreaker not using his real vehicle mode parts, I'll let it slide with him because he looks too damn good in robot mode and they did some clever things with him. However, I still stand by my original opinion that they've gone too far in the direction of the cartoon that they are just slavishly giving us cartoon accurate robot modes instead of just good Transformers toys. I would have rather seen an update to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker that could have accommodated both robots and vehicles along the lines of Universe Sideswipe and Sunstreaker that weren't exactly cartoon accurate, but were damn close enough that the impressive transformations to achieve both characters would have been a far greater accomplishment than all of the transformation cheats they had to do. The Beast Wars characters are also an exception to the rule, but when it comes to the mechanical vehicle Transformers, they've got to stick to using the alt mode parts in robot mode as much as possible.

I've been singing this song about the Masterpiece toys becoming too cartoonish for quite a few years, basically since Ultra Magnus (which was a great figure, just too cartoonish ... he needed some of the SIEGE detailing), and now I see that Takara Tomy has fully embraced this direction and we'll probably never get back to amazing figures like Wheeljack and Prowl, 2 of the best of this entire line.

I agree, I'd much rather see a good Transformer toy than and accurate to "X" figure. Half the fun is the car parts visible/making up the robot with the other half being the transformation. I'd much rather odd proportions and a fun transformation. It does feel that Takara has gone too far to get one thing right while ignoring the rest and sales of MPB2 may be a hard lesson learned. All we can really hope for is that the lesson is actually learned.

Nemesis Maximo wrote:As much as I like the look of MP-44, this...is just pretty bad.

But I do admit that Takara certainly achieved their goal of making Bumblebee look like some of the worst animated parts of the cartoon.

IF I ever decide to get an MP Bumblebee, it’ll be MP-21. He looks the way BB did in TF: The Movie, the pinnacle of The Cartoon.

Mp-21 is a great little toy. I've got him on my desk right now. Good pirce, and he comes with Exo-suited Spike. He's a lot better than MP-45.

As for MP-45... I thought toys were supposed to advance in engineering, not retreat! That thing's a piece of crap and shames the term 'Masterpiece'!

People complaining about just the back pack is incorrect. Just like the 2nd ver of Hot Rod, the entire torso is just a cluster F or pannels and parts. Front side is pointless if the sides or even rear are that bad. Ver 1 Bee is amazing and is truly a masterpiece from every angle except for the dome back pack. This however is just one step away from being a shellformer. Even the new Prime has alot of panel hiding in play but atleast the robot looks amazing

Why focus so much on Bee's backpack when his sides are messy as hell and his feet, that are in plain sight, is just garbage on top of more garbage?

Seriously, all the R&D wasted on this piece of crap could be used on other characters... and by more competent people.


Incredible when the SS and Siege series give us so many amazing miracles of engineering while the MP line is devolving under our very eyes.

-Kanrabat- wrote:Seriously, all the R&D wasted on this piece of crap could be used on other characters...

This.

This is what has me most concerned. If Takara has more plans to "reboot" or whatever you want to call it, It seems counter productive. Counter intuitive. Why waste time and energy back paddling? The water is clear, calm and wide open. With so many other characters that could be done, paddle forward Takara!

carytheone wrote:

Cyberpath wrote:And the face/head sculpt is one of the worst I've seen. It almost looks like a carnival balloon.

Why did you have to plant that idea....

Beeloon.jpg

But can anyone really spot the difference?

Ironhidensh wrote:Is anyone even considering buying it? I'm expecting this to follow in the footsteps of Tracks/Roadrage, and be found on clearance lists in a couple of years.

That's when I jump

william-james88 wrote:This toy is literally faking it from front to back

So is the new game making fun of MPB2?

at least this new face sculpt doesnt look like hes trying to take a dump like the previous one

I prefer mp-21 myself. I like the cartoon look. But this bee v2.0 doesnt look inspired by the 86 movie like optimus v3



I feel like takara may not have used the front of the car for his feet, because the car mode is "chibi" but bigger. So the front of the car may be more in scale too the other carbots than mp-21.


I dont see a reason to have spike sitting inside of bee either
Leave that out and just focus on making a better robot mode

carytheone wrote:

Cyberpath wrote:And the face/head sculpt is one of the worst I've seen. It almost looks like a carnival balloon.

Why did you have to plant that idea....

Beeloon.jpg

But can anyone really spot the difference?

It's weird, I almost can't believe it because I'm not used to seeing anything this bad from Takara, and in Masterpiece no less. Like you, I hope they get backlash for it, ideally from Japanese fans. Hopefully they'll shelf it before committing to Cliffjumper and others in this... "style." But unlikely.


It's okay if an area of the robot is a little bigger or different than it was in the cartoon, ruining an *entire* figure just to make the chest smaller was ridicules. Now it may even be too small compared to everything else.

And some of the gimmicks have no place in this line either as far as I'm concerned. Takara went thru all the trouble of making an Optimus Prime that transforms from a realistic-looking cabover to a super-cartoon accurate robot with no extra details from the truck only to stick a voice-box in his back?
And the ability to open the doors of the new chibi Beetle to
accommodate the Spike figure may have been another thing that compromised the toy.

IMO the looks of the robot-mode and alt-mode + articulation have to come first in this line, all those little surprises are secondary.

Courtesy of the Snakas Blog, we have images of the presetation video Takara showed at the Wonder Festival where the new Transformers Masterpiece MP-45 Bumblebee was revealed. The video is all about this new figure and We see the extra faces he will come with along with the inovation fo having his doors open (though we do not know if Spike can sit or not).
The toy has an MSRP of 13000 Yen (which is $120 USD). The images give a good idea of where the bulk of the alt mode end up since very little of it is used in the main figure's design, unlike the previous Masterpiece toy. We see a lot of the alt mode inside his feet and in his backpack. Takara has confirmed at the show to fans that the toy is not mistransformed.

He looks amazing.

Seibertron wrote:I still stand by my original opinion that they've gone too far in the direction of the cartoon that they are just slavishly giving us cartoon accurate robot modes instead of just good Transformers toys.

When it comes to MP-45, I completely agree here. When it comes to Transformers, there are too many budget shortcuts in the cartoon's animation and mechanical design to go this far. It's not a knock on the cartoon, it is what it is and we all love it. It's also simply not an ideal representation of those characters. Look at the TV episodes compared to the '86 movie - the movie looks exponentially better while doing more or less the same things, it just had the budget to do it!

I think MP-45 is going to be the first MP toy in a very long time that I'm not buying upon its release. That's not easy to do being very close to entirely complete on the MP line so far, but it's the only little thing I can do to tell Takara (and Hasbro since this reeks of Brand Awareness) that this toy isn't worthy of the money they want for it.

While I’m not a fan of the lines aesthetic divergence, from a hybrid of cartoonish and realistic, to trying to be slavishly screen accurate to the Sunbow cartoon, I do think Takara deserves a lot of praise for how gorgeous, and accurate these new MPs are. Please note I wouldn’t have any problem with the MP line if had just stuck to the hybrid style, or if it had been purely cartoon styled from the very beginning. It’s the shift in style so far into the toy line that bothers me.

Still, ‘Bee does look great. I think the backpack kibble was kept to a minimum, and folds up nicely by the looks of things. The feet aren’t perfect, but I think you can only do so much. They certainly appear passable from the front, and the sides. When viewed from the back they don’t look so hot, but seeing as how most people, my self included, don’t display their toys facing backwards, I think it’s a reasonable compromise.

I read a good point somewhere that I will paraphrase since it’s a great example of toon accuracy gone bonkers. The lines on this new Bee’s face are supposed to replicate the lines we see in the cartoon. However, in the cartoon, those lines exist to show us that his face protrudes and is not flat. The line is the edge between two surfaces at different angles connecting, that’s how those lines are created. But on this toy, those lines are long indentations/grooves along his face. That’s not what he actually had in the cartoon. It’s just a small example to show that by trying to make him look like a frame from the cartoon, they are doing things that the cartoon character doesn’t actually have.

william-james88 wrote:Courtesy of the Snakas Blog, we have images of the presetation video Takara showed at the Wonder Festival where the new Transformers Masterpiece MP-45 Bumblebee was revealed. The video is all about this new figure and We see the extra faces he will come with along with the inovation fo having his doors open (though we do not know if Spike can sit or not).
The toy has an MSRP of 13000 Yen (which is $120 USD). The images give a good idea of where the bulk of the alt mode end up since very little of it is used in the main figure's design, unlike the previous Masterpiece toy. We see a lot of the alt mode inside his feet and in his backpack. Takara has confirmed at the show to fans that the toy is not mistransformed.

Bolded that last bit for emphasis.

This thing is an unmitigated piece of junk and a serious step backwards in just about every way. SHAME on you, Takara!

Why do the headsculpts look way better here than on the actual thing? I really hoped that crazy mess of a backpack was mistransformed, but nope. Dropped the ball on that HasTak! I probably wouldn't mind this as much if it weren't for the freakin' 120$ pricetag!

Masterpiece my butt

ScottyP wrote:

Seibertron wrote:I still stand by my original opinion that they've gone too far in the direction of the cartoon that they are just slavishly giving us cartoon accurate robot modes instead of just good Transformers toys.

When it comes to MP-45, I completely agree here. When it comes to Transformers, there are too many budget shortcuts in the cartoon's animation and mechanical design to go this far. It's not a knock on the cartoon, it is what it is and we all love it. It's also simply not an ideal representation of those characters. Look at the TV episodes compared to the '86 movie - the movie looks exponentially better while doing more or less the same things, it just had the budget to do it!

I think MP-45 is going to be the first MP toy in a very long time that I'm not buying upon its release. That's not easy to do being very close to entirely complete on the MP line so far, but it's the only little thing I can do to tell Takara (and Hasbro since this reeks of Brand Awareness) that this toy isn't worthy of the money they want for it.

Got to agree completely. To me, what made masterpieces great were the perfect fusion of g1 toon and original toy, with clever yet fun transformation. They were high end sure, but they were still toys. I particularly dont like the fake chests. Makes for over engineered messes. That being said, I still love the beastwars ones, and the fake chests make a bit more sense there. In most cases. Megatron 2.0 ended up being the exception for me, hes still solid and fun, but its gotten to where i dont want these anymore. Not just because of the price point either.

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Courtesy of the Snakas Blog, we have images of the presetation video Takara showed at the Wonder Festival where the new Transformers Masterpiece MP-45 Bumblebee was revealed. The video is all about this new figure and We see the extra faces he will come with along with the inovation fo having his doors open (though we do not know if Spike can sit or not).
The toy has an MSRP of 13000 Yen (which is $120 USD). The images give a good idea of where the bulk of the alt mode end up since very little of it is used in the main figure's design, unlike the previous Masterpiece toy. We see a lot of the alt mode inside his feet and in his backpack. Takara has confirmed at the show to fans that the toy is not mistransformed.

Bolded that last bit for emphasis.

This thing is an unmitigated piece of junk and a serious step backwards in just about every way. SHAME on you, Takara!

You know something has gone horribly wrong when the toy company has to explicitly state that a figure isn’t mistransformed when showing it off, that’s about as big a warning light as they come

Magic Square or Transform Element should be along soon to make a better version of this.

Sabrblade wrote:

Nicely done. However, the drawing still looks way too compact and well-fitting than the actual item.

Glarryg

I've been looking for a reason to use this again, seems very apt looking at this "thing":

hausjam wrote:Magic Square or Transform Element should be along soon to make a better version of this.

I'll just play with my original and far superior MP Bumblebee.

Glarryg wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Nicely done. However, the drawing still looks way too compact and well-fitting than the actual item.

Glarryg

Hey, it's not like it's my art.

Hellscream9999 wrote:

RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Courtesy of the Snakas Blog, we have images of the presetation video Takara showed at the Wonder Festival where the new Transformers Masterpiece MP-45 Bumblebee was revealed. The video is all about this new figure and We see the extra faces he will come with along with the inovation fo having his doors open (though we do not know if Spike can sit or not).
The toy has an MSRP of 13000 Yen (which is $120 USD). The images give a good idea of where the bulk of the alt mode end up since very little of it is used in the main figure's design, unlike the previous Masterpiece toy. We see a lot of the alt mode inside his feet and in his backpack. Takara has confirmed at the show to fans that the toy is not mistransformed.

Bolded that last bit for emphasis.

This thing is an unmitigated piece of junk and a serious step backwards in just about every way. SHAME on you, Takara!

You know something has gone horribly wrong when the toy company has to explicitly state that a figure isn’t mistransformed when showing it off, that’s about as big a warning light as they come

Indeed. Takara, take the hint! If a large enough number of people are asking you if the figure is mistransformed, that means it looks BAD