by Paik4Life » Mon Apr 07, 2014 9:50 am
While I'm definitely not as educated on the entire history of the MP line or the designers as some of the other members, I'd definitely like to chime in.
On MP-1 (not 01) and MP-10:
While MP-10 is my absolute favorite transformer toy (I mostly collect MP), let's give credit to MP-1 where it's due. A LOT of the transformation of MP-10 took cues or are directly based off MP-1's design. The rotating sides/wheels is from MP-1 and is probably one of the most clever ways to make OP's mid-section look good and hide the wheels in robot mode. Similarly, the use of matrix chamber/bumper and dual grills is directly from MP-1 as well, albeit slightly updated. Again this contributed immensely to both robot and alt mode. MP-1 also did a better alt mod as far as hiding the head behind (an inaccurate) car seat. Rotation at the wait and collapsing legs are pretty standard nowadays but MP-1 did it first.
MP-10 improved a lot on the design and did introduce a universal MP scale. While the head sculpt is less cartoon accurate than MP-1, I prefer it (I never liked his antenna angling outwards either). The MP-10 alt mode is clearly superior to MP-1 in terms of cohesive look. I would find it hard for anyone to argue that. I mean look at that weird flap used to cover the gaps in MP-1 alt mode. That is just hideous!
Overall, MP-10 is better, but again, it took a LOT from MP-1. While we can't say for sure whether Hasui could have done such a good job without Koba's initial design, the fact that Hasui kept so much from MP-1 is a testament to how good MP-1 was/is in many respects.
On gimmicks:
Overall I like them as long as they don't impact robot or alt modes. Having a random button on the top of the cab for the light button is stupid. The suspension I liked. Was it useful? No. Was it cool and give it a feeling of high-quality and add some realism to what was being touted as a "masterpiece" figure? Hell yes! People also complain about MP-10's gun storage gimmick and how it creates a smaller, inaccurate rifle. I like that gimmick. I think it's a clever use of space and an homage to both the movie and Dreamwave comics. MP-8 gimmicks are all pretty useless and don't do anything to add value to the figures with the exception of the color changing eyes and maybe the faction symbol reveal.
On Koba vs Hasui:
I also have my reservations about Koba as well. As others have stated, some of his designs have been very fragile (MP-5, MP-9 in particular). That said, I think that frankly Koba had much harder characters to design.
MP-3/6/7/11. We already talked about Koba's original design essentially being MP-11 so no need to rehash that, but overall I think the seeker mold is fantastic with some minor issues with the chest locking mechanism.
MP-5, in my opinion, was his weakest design, but that's because turning a gun into a robot while maintaining accuracy of both is NOT an easy task. Hegemon is the only G1 style Megs that is widely regarded as an acceptable design that didn't make too many sacrifices in terms of cartoon and G1 toy accuracy. Was MP-5 fiddly and have a weak robot mode? Hell yes. But the alt mode was really accurate.
MP-8 was fantastic. I loved the accuracy to the cartoon and G1 toy. I think it was a simple toy overall and it felt a little flimsy, but I don't think I could be that much happier with any other design. Get rid of the useless light, head turning, and jaw gimmicks and provide better hands, and I'm good.
MP-9 was also not a simple figure, particularly since Koba chose to include options to display as Hot Rod or Rodimus Prime in both robot and alt modes. I'm sure if he tackled one or the other, the overall design would have been better. The elbows, knees, thin plastic areas, etc. were major problems, most of which were improved with V2. Those were more QC issues than overall design since transformations remained the same in V2.
MP-13/15/16. Hasui did a great job on this figure, in particular I think his cassettes are the standout more than Soundwave. This had great modes and was very cartoon and toy accurate. Really not much in terms of negatives to say about the overall figure.
MP-12/14. Love these figures just because the Countach was a dream car of mine as a child. Both modes looks great and had great transformations that weren't too complicated. Big fail is the lack of Sunstreaker! Get out of my face Tigertrack!
MP-17/18/19. Love these figures as well, in particular Bluestreak. Again, love both modes, but the hollow legs are a bit disappointing.
If you look at Koba's figures, he's design a very eclectic set of characters with totally different alt modes. There's a truck, jet, handgun, dinosaur, and hot rod/weird truck. None are even remotely the same in terms of alt modes. Conversely, Hasui has done a truck (which I already talked about taking a LOT from MP-1), jet (again this was essentially Koba), Lambo, cassette players and cassettes, and Datsun.
With the exception of MP-13, Hasui just worked on cars of similar size. The transformation, while really great, are mostly intuitive and similar in execution. Arms and head stored under the hood. Legs that fold up and form the rear. Mid-car/windshield form the back. Just to be clear, I'm NOT complaining about this. This is how they should be; I'm just saying that engineering-wise I feel that these are simpler than say MP-5 or MP-9 (particularly with trailer).
Conclusion:
Reservations about Koba aside, I'm sure the MP line is still going to be great. To be honest, I'm still confused as to who is designing MP-20+. I read that Hasui's designs ended at MP-19, but I'm not sure since he still does interviews and tweets about MP-20/MP-21 and their design process.
Long rant (FINALLY) over!
~Paik
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