Skywarp64 wrote:Funny how Hasbro's Shockwave is actually the one with the better paintjob this time around.
That's debatable. I actually find Hasbro's to be a bit too dark for my tastes so I gave the Takara version the weapon from the Hasbro version and he represents FoC Shockwave on my shelf. As for actual paint apps, there's not a lot of differences between the two other than on the wings.
As for the whole Takara vs Hasbro Rhinox debate, I have both and can be counted among those who prefers Takara's. The shiny paint isn't so shiny that it makes him look 'metallic' and the color is much closer to his brown appearance in the majority of episodes of Beast Wars. The Hasbro version is far too pale for my tastes and it didn't help that they didn't paint his weapons (though those could be easily swapped between them if you've got both versions, of course).
It bothers me though that Takara didn't take the extra step of painting on the two gold lines on his shoulders even though the mold has two bits molded in that end up placed pretty much perfectly for it. It would be nice to see the mold get the 'Telemocha' treatment with a perfect/near perfect show-accurate deco one of these days.
As for Waspinator, Takara's is definitely closer to the show, although it isn't perfect and I did do some painting and parts swapping with the Hasbro version to achieve the right look. His stinger needed to be black, he needed that gold turned yellow for the stripes etc., he needed black on his head crest thingy, he needed blue for his robot mode eyes instead of white, he needed the lighter green center torso/crotch bits from the Hasbro version and he needed the 'discs' in his shoulders to be painted yellow instead of being the same green as the rest of his arms. Once that was done, he became pretty much perfect and has now replaced my customized 10th Anniversary Waspinator on my Beast Wars Season 1 Predacons shelf.
We still need proper versions of the following though, so I can replace my kitbashes and customized versions:
Cheetor (season 1)
Airazor
Tigatron
Blackarachnia (season 1-2)
Terrorsaur
Scorponok (though when painted, he's pretty much perfect)
Megatron (Season 3, he seriously needs an update as he's the coolest version of any Megatron ever, but the toy is a real letdown primarily due to his aborted 'pilot' gimmick)
Tarantulas (season 1, though when painted, he's pretty much perfect, at least in bot mode)
Optimal Optimus (if they modded the existing toy to allow those cannons to fold back and be separate from the head similar to the Titanium version, that would go a long way to fix him)
The jury is still out on Rattrap until I get both versions (Hasbro's and Takara's) in hand, and while Henkei Dinobot isn't without its flaws, with a proper sword (a silver painted version of the sword from the original Dinobot mold) he's pretty much spot-on and sizes up well with Telemocha Optimus Primal, Basics Rattrap, Telemocha Cheetor (again, custom painted) and the rest of the Axalon crew from season 1.
Anyway, I got a custom 3rd party Shapeways head for Tigatron that pretty much fixed him (along with some modding of the figure itself to fix his bot mode chest) but I'd like to see more HasTak updates (MP pleeeeeeease!!!!) and/or 3rd party Beast Wars figures to flesh out the ranks with better, more show accurate versions of the characters. There aren't that many, so it wouldn't take as long as say, trying to complete the entire G1 cast or anything so I hope someone (official or not, though I prefer official) will take up the task of doing it.
Anyway, I'm glad to see the galleries getting filled out with some of the less current stuff/lines lately. It's awesome to have this invaluable resource that is Seibertron.com become more complete.
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I'll probably leave a few of the stickers off, but he is a really awesome figure. Can't wait to display him and Whirl side-by-side.
