The Energon Pub

first time I've been quite underwhelmed by an MP release. I try to keep an open mind, cos they've delivered the goods on many occasions. Mp44 is pretty frightening price wise but I can see why he exists. The head does look like the proportions are off, I'm pretty happy to stick with the older versions of both prime and bee.

Now hound... that's high on my list of must haves.

As an aside, I did think the pins on Hound's head looked like he was a Headmaster.



Then I realised I was confusing him with Hardhead and the pins were probably to do with the face change gimmick.

Back on-topic...

The masterpiece line has been moving towards a more cartoony look lately yes, but at least there’s some hybridization. I mean look at Hound, he’s pretty damn cartoon accurate but sacrifices next to nothing to achieve that. I think it would be a great shame if the line completely moved away from actual scale car models, I feel like that’s what it’s for, to capture a pretty damn good G1 look while being the actual car they were transforming into. This... this is just weird, like some yellow goblin. My OG MP Bee laughs from his place on my shelf.

Zobovor wrote:

ilikerobits wrote:...the company is saying "%^$# you" to all of the people who bought their previous products.

Not understanding this. Did your previous Bumblebee toy just vanish in a poof of smoke? Did Takara come to your house and steal it? If you still own the first version, then how does the existence of the second one somehow invalidate it?

...when Takara releases another figure of the same character that we all purchased just a few years ago, it's like telling us all that we have to spend more money on the same character.

What happened to just buying the products you enjoy and have a desire to own? Who is forcing you to spend money on things you don't want? Nobody's going to kick you out of the clubhouse if you choose not to buy a toy.


Zob

Kind of beat me to it.

I do like the increased posability on 2.0. Can't deny it. I like the Chibi VW, but I don't display my figures as cars. I could maybe make a case for keeping it in that mode, but it goes against a lot and it would be hella expensive to purchase just for that.

So, in a nutshell, I will probably wait it out, but I don't hate it. See how I feel after release. I'm not against "kibble" since people are engineering these things the best way available and obtaining amazing, if not "cartoon-ideal" results.

Why is this new MP Bumblebee priced at $120!? That's nearly what we paid for Sunstreaker just over a year ago! MP-45 Bumblebee is going to be about half the size and is nowhere near the level of engineering and aesthetic beauty that MP Sunstreaker has achieved.

I have a hunch this MP was rushed through production to capitalize on the Bumblebee movie and the nostalgia for the VW Beetle form of Bumblebee. The sad thing is, I can put up with the backpack, since those rarely ever bother me on Transformers toys, but the "heels" of the feet just kill it for me.

Also, Masterpiece Hound when, Takara? You announced him over half a year ago and have shown off nearly finished, fully painted samples, but Bumblebee 2.0, announced just in the past week, is coming out FIRST!?

Wolfman Jake wrote:Also, Masterpiece Hound when, Takara? You announced him over half a year ago and have shown off nearly finished, fully painted samples, but Bumblebee 2.0, announced just in the past week, is coming out FIRST!?

Blackarachnia is coming out before Hound too

william-james88 wrote:

I have to admit that the nicest looking thing to come from the MPB2 announcement is that sweet wood paneling.

Hmmm... I wonder why this is retailing at $120 when the new Bluestreak and other figures larger but of the same scale are going to retail around $75

william-james88 wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Also, Masterpiece Hound when, Takara? You announced him over half a year ago and have shown off nearly finished, fully painted samples, but Bumblebee 2.0, announced just in the past week, is coming out FIRST!?

Blackarachnia is coming out before Hound too

Really? What has gone wrong with Hound to delay it this much???

william-james88 wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Also, Masterpiece Hound when, Takara? You announced him over half a year ago and have shown off nearly finished, fully painted samples, but Bumblebee 2.0, announced just in the past week, is coming out FIRST!?

Blackarachnia is coming out before Hound too

Which is also weird, but at least Blackarachnia is a brand new Masterpiece character AND from Beast Wars, so her skipping the line a bit isn't as hard to take. What's even weirder, though, is how much of a gap we're getting in between the release of Beast Wars Megatron at the end of March and Optimus Prime 3.0 at the end of August. The only thing we know that's coming in that 5 month span is a repaint of Bluestreak. That gap would have been even longer too, had BW Megatron not been delayed an additional two months!

If Takara is going to be releasing their Masterpiece figures in numerical order, then Bumblebee 2.0, Blackarachnia, and Hound won't be released until much later this year. We're going to have a glut of new (and expensive) Masterpiece toys all releasing in the fall and/or winter when budgets are tighter due to the holidays. Why didn't Takara spread their 2019 releases out more? Hound could have easily been MP-44 and shown up in the spring or summer to shorten the gaps between releases and break up some of the cost to customers over the course of the year. I've got this weird feeling that something happened and threw a wrench into the original plans, and this is the mess we're left with right now.

Wolfman Jake wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:Also, Masterpiece Hound when, Takara? You announced him over half a year ago and have shown off nearly finished, fully painted samples, but Bumblebee 2.0, announced just in the past week, is coming out FIRST!?

Blackarachnia is coming out before Hound too

Which is also weird, but at least Blackarachnia is a brand new Masterpiece character AND from Beast Wars, so her skipping the line a bit isn't as hard to take. What's even weirder, though, is how much of a gap we're getting in between the release of Beast Wars Megatron at the end of March and Optimus Prime 3.0 at the end of August. The only thing we know that's coming in that 5 month span is a repaint of Bluestreak. That gap would have been even longer too, had BW Megatron not been delayed an additional two months!

If Takara is going to be releasing their Masterpiece figures in numerical order, then Bumblebee 2.0, Blackarachnia, and Hound won't be released until much later this year. We're going to have a glut of new (and expensive) Masterpiece toys all releasing in the fall and/or winter when budgets are tighter due to the holidays. Why didn't Takara spread their 2019 releases out more? Hound could have easily been MP-44 and shown up in the spring or summer to shorten the gaps between releases and break up some of the cost to customers over the course of the year. I've got this weird feeling that something happened and threw a wrench into the original plans, and this is the mess we're left with right now.

But what is that "something" that "happened"

ZeroWolf wrote:But what is that "something" that "happened"

Y'all do know that Stack did Magnus before he did that show, right?

Sabrblade wrote:Y'all do know that Stack did Magnus before he did that show, right?

"Dat's the joke."

Sabrblade wrote:Y'all do know that Stack did Magnus before he did that show, right?

Indeed. Yet they are both equally synonymous with Robert Stack, in the eyes of many.

Sabrblade wrote:Y'all do know that Stack did Magnus before he did that show, right?

That is one of the main reasons why he did not make it to this list: https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... ory/32819/

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Y'all do know that Stack did Magnus before he did that show, right?

That is one of the main reasons why he did not make it to this list: https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... ory/32819/

An old list, but I do totally agree with number one. It did raise an initial eyebrow when I saw Orson Welles was only number three, yet by the end of this list I could see why.

Wolfman Jake wrote:joke

william-james88 wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:Y'all do know that Stack did Magnus before he did that show, right?

That is one of the main reasons why he did not make it to this list: https://www.seibertron.com/transformers ... ory/32819/

Uh, you do understand that Robert Stack was a celebrity and well-established Hollywood actor decades before he did the voice of Ultra Magnus in The Transformers: The Movie, right? Neither Transformers, nor Unsolved Mysteries, started his career. They did keep him relevant in the latter years of his life, though.

Wasn't The Untouchables his big break?

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Wasn't The Untouchables his big break?

He was Elliot Ness!

sol magnus wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Wasn't The Untouchables his big break?

He was Elliot Ness!

Yup
You don't get much bigger in The Untouchables than that. Perhaps even a bigger role than Al Capone.

ZeroWolf wrote:But what is that "something" that "happened"

I suspect they wanted to release Hound first but pushed him back to make sure the new MP Prime doesn't miss the 35th anniversary + they probably threw together that new Bumblebee in time for his solo movie.

This just makes me sad...I guess I've fallen out of love with the Masterpiece line and haven't bought any since Sunstreaker.

It's not that it's bad: it isn't. And, if I didn't already have a Masterpiece Bumblebee, I'd probably be psyched by this. But I do, and the increasing cost, and endlessly recycled versions of the same character (I don't care if it's animated or 'real world', I just want cool robots that transform into cool things) are killing this line for me.

I may be in the minority here too, but this line has been running for well over a decade and each new figure is constricting, not expanding or enhancing the line, and I don't think we'll ever get anywhere near a full set of anything. My dreams of a Masterpiece Arcee or Blaster will never be realised, and the chance of even getting a Braun or Mirage or Hound or [insert name here] are slim to none.