The Energon Pub

I can't help but wonder why Takara hasn't released a Masterpiece Shockwave at this juncture. He's an incredibly popular character and it seems like people would buy it right up. I am intrigued by the 3rd party Quakewave but would love to have a Takara original.

Does anyone have an opinion on this? Or knowledge/theories about why it hasn't happened? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Honestly, it's all about production time and market conditions. Make figures of this detail/price too quickly and people will run out of spending money to buy them.

I think there's also something preventing the design as I don't think it was originally purchased by Hasbro, so it might not be useable by them these days?

I thought of that, the original Toyco design may not be accessible license-wise or for other reasons. Still though, it would be nice to know the deal from Takara.

It must be a licensing issue, because there've been a few Masterpieces they released that seemed much farther down on the fan-demand/popularity ladder than Shockwave, seems like he'd be one of the first MPs they would have done.

It's all the lawyers fault lol! iirc, some Tomy executive was asked the same question and they too are in the dark concerning the ownership of the original mold. They probably don't know who to pay the license to?

You bring up an interesting point... Toyco was the original patent holder, Radio Shack and Takara licensed the design from them....but I don't think Toyco is around anymore. I'd bet that Takara would LOVE to do a MP shockwave, but no one knows who has the rights or the molds so there's no one to license it from...sounds like a reasonable theory to me.

And the 3rd party companies reap the profits lol! Just remember when recently Hasbro released the "Skyfire" Skystriker and HG suing their pants off......imagine if Tomy proceeds and one "ambulance chaser" suddenly brings them to court.

Two reasons:

Reason Nr 1, Takara has stated that the strategy of the MP line from MP10 onwards is not only based on the cartoon, but also the release of the original toy. Shockwave was reelased in 1985, there are still a few characters to go till the 1984 set is complete.

Reason Nr 2, the ownership of the original desing is kinda up in the air at the moment. Tak would have to licence the design again, or at the very least ask for permission. However, nobody is quite sure who actually owns the desing at the moment. Even Toyco isn't sure anymore, they stated in a recentish interview that they are proud of the toy that is now known as Shockwave and what it helped to start and they would love to do something with it to do it justice, but they're not sure they even own it anymore. They've sold so many licences for it over the years that they believe someone of those companies might have actually bought ownership of it.

I'm pretty sure Tak is hard at work at figuring out the legal situation, might be part of the reason they chose to release the MPs based on release year.

Omg! 1984? Then we're all for a long wait.

fenrir72 wrote:Omg! 1984? Then we're all for a long wait.

It wont be that long a wait.

Here's the thing. If we take the releases this year as an example, we've had 6 Masterpiece releases this year (not including Tigertrack).

MP-20 and MP-21 only take us to the middle of next year and presuming the rumours are true (along with the re-shelling of Bumblebee into Cliffjumper), as of that point, all that remains of the 1984 characters, grouping by possible mould reuse, is:

• Ironhide & Ratchet (expect a similar price point to Soundwave)
• Trailbreaker (& Hoist - expect a price point between the Autobot cars and Soundwave)
• Hound
• Mirage
• Sunstreaker
• Windcharger
• Huffer
• Brawn
• Gears
• Reflector

Remember that Hasui has gone on record that he wants to hold off on Megatron for the time being and that Skywarp wont happen for a long time.

It's possible with that that we may in fact wind up getting MP releases of Minicars as 2 packs (in Fact Bumblebee may in fact turn out to be a 2-pack of him and Cliffjumper). Looking at all that - I give it 3 years tops before we see the 85 cast starting to make appearances - remembering that 85 characters who share a mold with 84 characters are being done at the same time as the 84 character - meaning that the roster should get worked through pretty quickly on that front.

It's a shame the legal troubles. Because Shockwave is pretty easy to update IMHO. His old G1 toy is already very accurate. And it's quite well-articulated for the day. Hell, if the shoulders could swivel up it'd have good articulation for today's standards.

Bowspearer wrote:

Remember that Hasui has gone on record that he wants to hold off on Megatron for the time being and that Skywarp wont happen for a long time.

I can understand holding off on Megatron. I see him being the most difficult of all the MPs to design, and I would prefer having something great over something soon. But I'm surprised that we won't be seeing Skywarp sooner. I guess this also means that we won't be seeing a Takara Thundercracker in the near future. Maybe they are spreading out the seekers to help recoup their tooling costs on years that they release figures with very little reuse.

Well, in the meantime, bring on Reflector.

I'm not so certain that Takara won't be doing Megatron a bit sooner. I just found this on BBTS and as I recall they did something similar with MP-04 or whatever just before creating and releasing MP-10 (just before the "last chance" MP-01 release).

Son of Carl wrote:I guess this also means that we won't be seeing a Takara Thundercracker in the near future.

Actually if you remember, Hasbro Thundercracker wound up being imported by Takara from Hasbro as a Toys'R'Us Japan exclusive over there.

xyl360 wrote:I'm not so certain that Takara won't be doing Megatron a bit sooner. I just found this on BBTS and as I recall they did something similar with MP-04 or whatever just before creating and releasing MP-10 (just before the "last chance" MP-01 release).

Personally I hope it doesn't happen. Megatron will be a legal nightmare to own over here if they go down the "G1 accuracy" route and I'd rather avoid that grief for as long as possible.

Bowspearer wrote:Personally I hope it doesn't happen. Megatron will be a legal nightmare to own over here if they go down the "G1 accuracy" route and I'd rather avoid that grief for as long as possible.

Agreed. I'd rather they just skip ahead to give us Galvatron. I mean, if Takara is planning on making characters from Armada and Robots in Disguise and whathaveyou (all Optimus all the time!), they could give us a Decepticon leader who'd fit right in with Coronation Starscream.

Bowspearer wrote:Actually if you remember, Hasbro Thundercracker wound up being imported by Takara from Hasbro as a Toys'R'Us Japan exclusive over there.

I just hope that that doesn't prevent them from eventually doing their own version of Thundercracker. I prefer the paint apps on the Takara seekers to those of the Hasbro seekers. And if/when they do get to Thundercracker, I imagine they will go with a different shade of blue than the Hasbro version. It will be interesting to see whether they go darker to match the G1 toy, or lighter for cartoon accuracy.

xyl360 wrote:I'm not so certain that Takara won't be doing Megatron a bit sooner. I just found this on BBTS and as I recall they did something similar with MP-04 or whatever just before creating and releasing MP-10 (just before the "last chance" MP-01 release).

Good find "X". That MP-05 re-issue must be for an Asian release. Been scouring and inquiring directly on some Japanese sites and he is not being solicited. Most likely, China is going to get their taste of some Destron Emperor of Destruction love just like the recent MP Grimlock release for their market. G1 is really burning hot in the land of KOs lol!

But if this is like the same stunt as Last chance Convoy before transitioning to MP-10, then this is a welcome news for a new, sturdier Megatron.

fenrir72 wrote:

xyl360 wrote:I'm not so certain that Takara won't be doing Megatron a bit sooner. I just found this on BBTS and as I recall they did something similar with MP-04 or whatever just before creating and releasing MP-10 (just before the "last chance" MP-01 release).

Good find "X". That MP-05 re-issue must be for an Asian release. Been scouring and inquiring directly on some Japanese sites and he is not being solicited. Most likely, China is going to get their taste of some Destron Emperor of Destruction love just like the recent MP Grimlock release for their market. G1 is really burning hot in the land of KOs lol!

But if this is like the same stunt as Last chance Convoy before transitioning to MP-10, then this is a welcome news for a new, sturdier Megatron.

I don't think it's an Asian Exclusive release. My guess is Takara likely offered a limited run to some key etailers/retailers to test the waters for demand and make a bit more off the mold (possibly to decide whether demand for a new Megatron would be sufficient, which we all know it would be if done right).

I agree that I too hope that's the direction they're going in. My MP-10 needs his nemesis already. There are several very good reasons I never did and will never buy MP-05, not the least of which is that he looks like crap to me in robot mode (the most important factor in my book) and almost nothing like he did on the show. If they do a new Megatron and it's anywhere near as impressive as the rest of the recent MPs, I'll definitely be buying one.