The Energon Pub

[Meantoy]

Bot mode looks awesome..... but why do they keep makeing his alt mode a Marmon when he was a Freightliner?!?

[jtanimator]

Call me blasphemous, but I've been burned by overpaying for MPM Starscream. Then the more reasonably priced KO come out with a better paint job and it's butt-flap fixed.

So THIS time, I'll definitely wait for the improved KO of that Optimus.

Here’s the thing. I’m all for 3rd party figures and KOs, I’ve been collecting both 3p and official figures for years. And while I’m not trying to preach to you or tell you what to do, I’d strongly recommend that if you are gonna buy a straight KO of a hasbro product, perhaps be willing to support the designers at hasbro for being the ones to create the engineering by purchasing the official toy before you go for a KO. Obviously you like the design, so not giving credit and support to the company who spent the time and money to make it is pretty sideways. The only reason these KO companies can make the exact same figure for so much cheaper with better QC is just because they stole the design and engineering from Hasbro and they only have to pay for materials and improved refinement/paint. it’s different in the case of original 3rd party designs, because they created their own designs with their own budget and their own ingenuity. But going out of your way to purchase the KO of an official product without being willing to support the company that made the KO possible is just kinda messed up. And who knows, there’s a good chance that if you buy the official to show support, it will have great QC like MPM ratchet, and it’s a win win. But hey, you do you.

[-Kanrabat-]

No discount on Amazon Japan. ¥21,100 + ¥2,127 shipping with the tax removed. Meanwhile AmiAmi is asking ¥15,400, but the shipping will certainly be higher, but I doubt it'll be more than ¥7,827. Going to wait a few days and see what the prices do.

Emerje

Amiami would certainly not charge any taxes in advance too so expect some hefty custom charges.

At least it will be available in Canada and even Québec via Toys R Us for 170$CAN plus taxes and free shipping. I would tolerate those cat ears only in I can get it at 33% off at the very least. I'll bid my time.

[-Kanrabat-]

Call me blasphemous, but I've been burned by overpaying for MPM Starscream. Then the more reasonably priced KO come out with a better paint job and it's butt-flap fixed.

So THIS time, I'll definitely wait for the improved KO of that Optimus.

Here’s the thing. I’m all for 3rd party figures and KOs, I’ve been collecting both 3p and official figures for years. And while I’m not trying to preach to you or tell you what to do, I’d strongly recommend that if you are gonna buy a straight KO of a hasbro product, perhaps be willing to support the designers at hasbro for being the ones to create the engineering by purchasing the official toy before you go for a KO. Obviously you like the design, so not giving credit and support to the company who spent the time and money to make it is pretty sideways. The only reason these KO companies can make the exact same figure for so much cheaper with better QC is just because they stole the design and engineering from Hasbro and they only have to pay for materials and improved refinement/paint. it’s different in the case of original 3rd party designs, because they created their own designs with their own budget and their own ingenuity. But going out of your way to purchase the KO of an official product without being willing to support the company that made the KO possible is just kinda messed up. And who knows, there’s a good chance that if you buy the official to show support, it will have great QC like MPM ratchet, and it’s a win win. But hey, you do you.

You misunderstood a bit here. I'd never but a "straight-up" KO of an official product ever. That's just worthless. But if the KO fixes some design errors from the original AND it's as a better price, I'd go for it.

I've got burned by a few too many times with horrible QC and prices randomness.
I imported MP-11 for a whopping nearly 300$ at the time and it was complete garbage. Then it came out without the coronation kit at Canadian Toys R Us for 70$CAN. It got scalped to hell and back but still.
Then AGAIN with Starscream but this time the MPM, I bought it for nearly 200$ while Target basically paid their customers to take it away 3 weeks after it came out. Plus that bot have a huge unsightly picnic table on his butt that is visible from the front. The KO fix that.
So if I buy a modded KO, it's also a bit of a revenge against them. But honestly, I'd be hesitant to get a slightly modded KO. When I said I did, it was mostly my grudges talking.

But a HEAVILY modded KO that is more 3P than anything else? I see no problem. Like AoE Hound that have been oversised and heavily modded my WeiJiang or the Combiner Wars Devastator that is a perfect copy of the original, but undersised to be the same sized as the normal Combiners from CW. Each times I bought those, I already bought the original. I kept my AoE Hound but I sold my CW Devy because he was too big. My friend bought the CW Devy Undersised but kept his because he love both the undersised and the original.

Anyway, TlDr; I'm not a KO fan but if I'm hesitant or dont even want to buy the original because there's too many points that get on my nerves, a KO that fix all the "problems" would be the thing that will get my money. Even if that KO is ironically MORE expensive than the original.

[Emerje]

No discount on Amazon Japan. ¥21,100 + ¥2,127 shipping with the tax removed. Meanwhile AmiAmi is asking ¥15,400, but the shipping will certainly be higher, but I doubt it'll be more than ¥7,827. Going to wait a few days and see what the prices do.

Emerje

Amiami would certainly not charge any taxes in advance too so expect some hefty custom charges.

No customs in the US for personal purchases.

Emerje

[-Kanrabat-]

No customs in the US for personal purchases.

Emerje

Lucky you.
The fees in Canada are atrocious and I heard it's as bad for the U.K.

Is that a Commonwealth thing?

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Man, I wish the alt mode was cleaner, and I wish that this Prime design had a nicer midriff, it's just ugly. But I still like it enough to get

[-Kanrabat-]

Greetings Seibertronians!

MPM Optimus Prime is just around the corner. Seibertron user MadProject pointed out that Prime VS Prime made a video review of this soon to be widely in store Masterpiece. The rather controversial truck mode that is heavily sacrificed for the bot mode and a simpler transformation is shown in all it's "cat hears" and "legs on the back" glory. Then on to a surprisingly simple transformation that is no harder than the voyager to transform and we finish with a pretty solid bot mode.

You can watch the review down below:



What do you think of this Masterpiece? Is the imperfect vehicle mode a deal breaker or is it forgiven for that nice robot mode and that user friendly play value? Please let us know!

[Cliffjumperprime]

Things i dont like about this figure
CAT EARS
NO LEDS
DOORS ON ARMS
LEGS AT BACK OF TRUCK LOOK STUPID AND
WHY DOES OPTIMUS HAVE A HUGE CROUCH PIECE
AND RUBBER EAR ANTENAS ON HEAD THAT ARE RUBBER
im sorry NOT SORRY but hasbro failed massivly on this figure
Tw optimus is way better and better colors that match the movie
Hasbro is showing there true colors being cheap and nasty AGAIN while suckers are buying into this heap mess

[Dominus Prime]

I also submitted this video hours ago

[jtanimator]

I wanted to like this figure since day 1. I really did. Up until now, I was one of the few advocates of this figure. But never freaking mind. there’s WAY too many “buts” when watching this review. His monkey arms are too long, his head is too big AND too thin, the color mismatching is completely unacceptable for a premium figure, those hands look freaking ridiculous (I’ve seen better looking articulated hands on WFC leader and voyager figures), the articulation is worse than most deluxe class WFC figures I own (seriously?? A single jointed knee???), the loose wrists, the MASSIVE gaps in the truck mode bed, the cat ears, the lack of diecast, cheaper plastic, and I’m ashamed to say the list goes on and on. I’ve liked most of the previous MPM releases thus far, but this certain figure has SO many issues and “buts” to the figure that everyone is bound to find at least a couple things that get on their nerves about him. And the worst part is hastak has absolutely no reason why they couldn’t have knocked it out of the park with this one. They have the MPM budget, the CAD design files, the groundwork example laid from several 3p companies, some ingenious hastak designers who’ve been giving us fantastic mainline figures and some great past masterpieces, so what the heck went wrong? What a dang shame. It takes quite a lot to make me consider not buying an MPM, but this is genuinely doing that for me.

[-Kanrabat-]

Unless I land on that MPM at heavy clearance, it's a hard pass. I'll stick with the SS voyager or I'll go the 3P route.

[Emerje]

The way I look at this he's like the mullet of Optimus Prime figures. Earth trailer truck in the front and Cybertronian truck in the back. Still getting him, I have no choice since Amazon Japan doesn't allow cancellations after a few weeks from your order.

Emerje

[TulioDude]

We can do like Cyberverse and say it's his cybertronian mode.

Day 527 of waiting for Transformers Armada Masterpiece news.

[-Kanrabat-]

We can do like Cyberverse and say it's his cybertronian mode.

Day 527 of waiting for Transformers Armada Masterpiece news.

In that case, it's missing the fancy hubcaps.

Regardless, I'm sure a 3P upgrade kit will come soon enough to fix the most glaring issues.

[chuckdawg1999]

The way I look at this he's like the mullet of Optimus Prime figures. Earth trailer truck in the front and Cybertronian truck in the back. Still getting him, I have no choice since Amazon Japan doesn't allow cancellations after a few weeks from your order.

Emerje

You could remove your card from your account.

[Emerje]

The way I look at this he's like the mullet of Optimus Prime figures. Earth trailer truck in the front and Cybertronian truck in the back. Still getting him, I have no choice since Amazon Japan doesn't allow cancellations after a few weeks from your order.

Emerje

You could remove your card from your account.

Moot point now, Amazon Japan canceled my order because there was an error in the listing stating it came with a trailer. Why they would do something that extreme I can't understand. When something like that happens on regular Amazon they ask you to confirm if you want to keep the order or not, but Amazon Japan just assumes you placed your order based on their description and no other knowledge and just cancels it outright. And it's out of stock so I can't even reorder it. Can't really understand why its out of stock since realistically every order placed should have been canceled therefore meaning stock went back to 100%.

Emerje

[-Kanrabat-]

Well, that was random.

But no matter, if you're an American, Target will have that MPM and will put it on clearance for 14$ after 3 weeks.

[chuckdawg1999]

The way I look at this he's like the mullet of Optimus Prime figures. Earth trailer truck in the front and Cybertronian truck in the back. Still getting him, I have no choice since Amazon Japan doesn't allow cancellations after a few weeks from your order.

Emerje

You could remove your card from your account.

Moot point now, Amazon Japan canceled my order because there was an error in the listing stating it came with a trailer. Why they would do something that extreme I can't understand. When something like that happens on regular Amazon they ask you to confirm if you want to keep the order or not, but Amazon Japan just assumes you placed your order based on their description and no other knowledge and just cancels it outright. And it's out of stock so I can't even reorder it. Can't really understand why its out of stock since realistically every order placed should have been canceled therefore meaning stock went back to 100%.

Emerje

Good thing you said something, they canceled my order too, no notice or anything.

[-Kanrabat-]

Emgo posted his review. Upon seeing this, I'm warming up to the official MPM. I'm pretty sure a 3P upgrade will fix the truck's cat ears sooner or later. So I'll wait for a sale.

BTW, wait for the comparison between the MPM and the Toyworld version.

[Emerje]

Guess who's in stock on Target.com. Well, I'm sure you can guess by the topic.

Emerje

[-Kanrabat-]

Guess who's in stock on Target.com. Well, I'm sure you can guess by the topic.

Emerje

Don't tell me they sell it at the NORMAL price!
Well, let's wait a week and it will be on clearance for 20$.

[D-Maximal_Primal]

Mine should be here Thursday, excited to see him!

[D-Maximal_Primal]

So the MPM Optimus Prime arrived, let's have a look shall we?



First off, let's start with the strongest part of the figure, and the part that really got me excited right out of the box: the robot mode. The robot mode on this figure is stunning. The detail is incredible on the mold. The wash effect across portions of this figure contribute to the detailing and molded in greeble, and produced a pretty spectacular effect the whole way around. It is a gorgeous looking robot mode, with a ton to look at.






The articulation department is frustratingly close to being spot on. The main issue is the head: it can basically only swivel, there isn't a lot of up and down motion to be had, and coupled with the darker eyes means it's hard to get him really looking at something above his chest level. He also really needed a knuckle joint on his pointing finger, but that's a more minor complaint in the grand scheme. Outside of that, the articulation is solid and he can pose it up pretty good.

The gun is pretty big and pretty neat, but it does have an issue where it can only be held in the normal hand to forearm position, otherwise it is not tall enough to clear the forearm for poses like the 2-handed gun pose, but you can still make do with the way the hands function to loosely hold the gun.





The matrix included is a nice touch, if a bit out of place considering Prime wasn't shown to have something like this. But it is neat and a nice touch to the overall package.



Transformation isn't too bad on this, it is mostly straight forward, and things are mostly going where you expect them to. The grill becoming the movie accurate back was neat.

But you can definitely tell this figure really focused in on that robot mode and not the alt mode. The alt mode is definitely the weakest point on this figure. The back seems too long, the wheel base feels too long from front to back wheels, and the area from the smokestacks on back just isn't that good. The alt mode definitely feels like a victim of budget cuts or trying to avoid over-complicating things. The gun storage is also pretty weak, but it is what it is.






So overall, this figure ain't bad. The robot mode is a rockstar that I would say is pretty near perfect, a 9 out of 10 at least. He just needed a little more in the head and hand position. Transformation is pretty involved but not stupid complicated. But the alt mode lets it down.

Overall, I'd say this is maybe a 7 out of 10? I don't want to be too harsh, but the alt mode is pretty disappointing in the back despite the badass robot mode.

I would recommend him though. The design is pretty good, and the robot mode has some mass to it and really plays the part.

[-Kanrabat-]

It's really too bad that the vehicle mode was so botched. I'll stick with my completely out of scale but completely awesome in all mode Weijiang Metal Dition Commander Leader. (What a name!)