Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

[ZeroWolf]

Greetings Seibertronians!

Fellow Seibertron user, D-Maximal_Primal, has let us know that over on Twitter, user @TFsquareone has uploaded an image that purports to show the box for the forthcoming Takaratomy Transformers Masterpiece Gattai MPG Shouki figure!



While the image of the box doesn't show any new images if the toy (it consists of a promotional piece wear already seen and a picture of the alt mode) the shape and size of the box does hint that Shouki will be packaged in its train alt mode.

Do you have Shouki locked into pre-order? Do you want to see other combiners given this treatment?

Shout out in the Energon Pub and stay tuned to Seibertron for all the latest news and reviews!

[TF-fan kev777]

I love when they are packaged in alt mode and you have to transform them first to see robot mode!

[TF-fan kev777]

I hate to think that if these don't sell well we may end up with a bunch of parts that we really can't do anything with. I mean this is how I would do things, I'm just that type of guy.

That's the flipside of leaving the important connecting part til last. If they don't sell in the numbers they are expecting, given the expense of a Masterpiece combiner, would they cut the line short? Just like the failed HasLab projects...

"Enjoy your 5/6 of an MP Gestalt."

I really don't see that happening, and the comparisons to Haslab aren't really a fair comparison. Halslab is an all or noting proposition. If it meets funding, it gets made, that simple. The decisoin to proceed comes after the fans have backed it. For MPG Raiden, they already made the decision to go forward when the offered pre-orders, and its really too late to turn back now without completely trashing their reputation as well as pissing off their online retailers.

Shouki is happening, I can't see them pulling the plug on him if they haven't already. With a combiner team, they should be able to bank on selling about the same numbers of all 6, as it really doesn't make sense that many people would only want one of the figures without the others.

My point is, they already should know whether they have the numbers to proceed just based on Shouki's pre-orders. Aside from financial ruin or death, I can't see someone who ordered Shouki not ordering the rest. On the flip side, they may pull in come customers in the middle of things who missed out on the first few bots, so there is a chance of pulling in some new customers to the line.

It just makes the most sense to me that if they were going to pull the plug, it would have been done already before production of Shouki and before preparing to announce the second bot. There are going to be far too many sunk costs they cannot recover if they pull things now and it will only get worse the further along things go.

[o.supreme]

I know a lot of comparisons are being made with Moon Studios release ( myself included). However I believe TT Raiden was actually in development first. I mean if you look at the first announcement, it was well over 2 years ago. It was so long ago that most people figured it had been abandoned, when in truth all along they were being very careful to take their time and get it right before revealing anything.

[Emerje]

The box layout is interesting. After nearly 20 years of a big Transformers logo on the front of MP boxes it's now overshadowed by a massive MPG logo. They really want to drive home the fact that this is something different from what we're used to, but still an MP. Feels like its own line with several possibilities in the future rather than just a one and done offshoot.

Emerje

[optimeow]

I love Transformers and I love trains.
Always wanted Raiden.
MPG Raiden hits it for me.

They are probably packaged this way because they each come with a piece of railway track?

Naturally, the train mode will make sense to save distribution costs. Easier for collectors to keep with the package too.

[o.supreme]

Getsuei Images from Amazon Japan. It is the very early morning hours of Thursday the 13th, so hopefully the pre-order should be going up sometime today.

http://figure.rash.jp/amazon_gallery.ph ... B09PYVWFLT



*edit* Found It

https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/dp/B09PYV ... &keywords=トランスフォーマー+マスターピース&qid=1642008710&sprefix=transformers%2Caps%2C79&sr=8-46

If the rest of the releases are only 3 months apart, we could be getting the complete Raiden sooner than expected ... Well not that much sooner. I initially predicted we would have them all by end of year (December 2023). If all are released 3 months apart, we could have the last one by October 2023, so 2 months earlier... .

Well if SS Devastator Fans can be patient and wait, so can I.

[Overcracker]

Pre-order for Getsuei is up on Ami-Ami with a lot pictures. With a release date of September 2022.
https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?gcode=FIGURE-135365

[william-james88]

Great news to those wanting some more MP Raiden news. Amazon japan has revealed the second of six trainbots today. This is MPG-02 – Masterpiece Trainbot Getsuei. You'll let us know what you think from the images posted below since it seems the alt mode was even more favoured than in the first trainbot. While it gives the bot some odd proportions with very tall legs, it does make one of the most gorgeous train modes ever seen on a Transformers toy. And it being revealed on Amazon means you get access to the preorder right away. The price is good news too. The original MSRP is 160000 yen, which is $140 USD. And what's great about this price is that it is lower than the first MP trainbot release, who's price went down to only $127 USD (image below for proof of current price decrease). So these trainbots won't all be the same price and this one is cheaper than the first and will only get cheaper if you stick to Amazon Japan. Other outlets will probably stick to the $140 USD mark.

You can click on any image to be brought to the Amazon Japan page.

[o.supreme]

Not sure how you got a price that low, but congrats.


Also, where are you seeing the MSRP for Getsuei as Y 16,000? Amazon Japan has him currently at Y 17,600. I understand the price will go down, I'm just not seeing these low prices you are. Everything I'm seeing matches what other sites are reporting. Maybe it's cheaper in Canada because of the Canadian Dollar/ Yen exchange rate?

[TF-fan kev777]

Not sure how you got a price that low, but congrats.


Also, where are you seeing the MSRP for Getsuei as Y 16,000? Amazon Japan has him currently at Y 17,600. I understand the price will go down, I'm just not seeing these low prices you are. Everything I'm seeing matches what other sites are reporting. Maybe it's cheaper in Canada because of the Canadian Dollar/ Yen exchange rate?

Emerje and I were trying to figure this out earlier, as he and I both got different prices than Will, and now you. I'm at 15888 for Shouki, I don't remember where Emerge was but it was lower than me. The Amazon Japan price will include whatever applicable taxes or import fees. I'm not sure if the US has any import taxes/fees that Canada does not, and I'm not sure if Amazon.jp counts as an extension of Amazon.com for purposes of adding any state taxes. the price difference above Will's for me doesn't match up with Illinois state sales tax, its a little bit higher that just counting IL tax.

Also the price shown in the amazon.jp listing includes Japan sales tax. So the price you get is that price, minus Japan tax, then plus whatever applicable fees they are assessing. As an example of this, MPG-02 is shown at 17600 but after ordering mine is at 17453 plus shipping. If I remember Shouki correctly, it went down even further a day or 2 after I ordered that was not a price drop, so they may still adjust things.

Edit: also forgot to add I believe Japan's tax is 10%, so MSRP of 16000 plus 1600 tax gets you to the 17600 list price.

[william-james88]

Also, where are you seeing the MSRP for Getsuei as Y 16,000? Amazon Japan has him currently at Y 17,600. I understand the price will go down, I'm just not seeing these low prices you are. Everything I'm seeing matches what other sites are reporting. Maybe it's cheaper in Canada because of the Canadian Dollar/ Yen exchange rate?

Same way you see the real price for the first trainbot, just add it to your cart and start checkout. 17600 includes tax for Japanese citizens, that's not the MSRP

And it's unrelated to exchange rates since everything is always in yen.

[TF-fan kev777]

Also, where are you seeing the MSRP for Getsuei as Y 16,000? Amazon Japan has him currently at Y 17,600. I understand the price will go down, I'm just not seeing these low prices you are. Everything I'm seeing matches what other sites are reporting. Maybe it's cheaper in Canada because of the Canadian Dollar/ Yen exchange rate?

Same way you see the real price for the first trainbot, just add it to your cart and start checkout. 17600 includes tax for Japanese citizens, that's not the MSRP

And it's unrelated to exchange rates since everything is always in yen.

facepalm, I just made the same reply on my own above.

[Emerje]

^ Yes, Japan's sales tax is now 10%. It's hard to get a solid bead on the the MSRP because retailers can't seem to be able to agree what it is and a lot of retailers that ship to the US stopped giving the MSRP or round it up.

It does seem that everyone agrees that Getsuei will be cheaper than Shouki which is great news! Currently the lowest price I'm seeing is $117.39 at Hobby Search.

It's really interesting to me how much of the leg he actually forms. I think most of us expected the entire thigh to be from Kaen, but now we know he's probably making up the bulk of the torso from hips to head with Shouki filling in the middle. Gives me hope for this being bigger than CW combiners, early info be damned. They used the same trick to get more height out of Titan Predaking and we know Shouki is going to be roughly Voyager size.

Emerje

[Lore Keeper]

Ugh! FOMO finally got to me. I stopped collecting Masterpiece a while ago, and really don't want to pay that much for a combiner. But.. I don't know if these will ever be made at the Generations level and would hate to miss a chance to own Raiden in some form.

[william-james88]

Ugh! FOMO finally got to me. I stopped collecting Masterpiece a while ago, and really don't want to pay that much for a combiner. But.. I don't know if these will ever be made at the Generations level and would hate to miss a chance to own Raiden in some form.

If ever there are some at the generstions level, I am certain the alt modes won't look nearly as good.

[TF-fan kev777]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if they ever mentioned the model train scale (or closest fit) of the train modes, or at least the tracks? It would be awesome if they were spaced for 1:64 train tracks. My dad is a train collector and that is his scale.

[o.supreme]

My father is a train enthusiast as well. He was mostly into Lionel (O gauge) , but then later went slightly smaller (HO gauge).

I don't think it's been expressly stated if these match any model train scale, but would be neat if they did.

[SpaceEagle]

They seem to be doing a pretty good job with the trainbots for Masterpiece, the train modes already look lovely and the 'bot modes look pretty dang good considering they still have combining duties. I don't collect Masterpieces myself, but it would be interesting if they decided to go with Generations "dumbed-down" versions

[Autobot N]

I keep wanting to cancel my pre-order for Shouki since shelling out $160 for each Trainbot is gonna be really expensive, but then they keep releasing images showing how awesome they look and I can't bring myself to do it

[Lore Keeper]

Ugh! FOMO finally got to me. I stopped collecting Masterpiece a while ago, and really don't want to pay that much for a combiner. But.. I don't know if these will ever be made at the Generations level and would hate to miss a chance to own Raiden in some form.

If ever there are some at the generstions level, I am certain the alt modes won't look nearly as good.

I'm just happy these guys seem to scale very well with current toys. They won't look out of place in a CHUG collection.

[First-Aid]

Ugh! FOMO finally got to me. I stopped collecting Masterpiece a while ago, and really don't want to pay that much for a combiner. But.. I don't know if these will ever be made at the Generations level and would hate to miss a chance to own Raiden in some form.

If ever there are some at the generstions level, I am certain the alt modes won't look nearly as good.

I'm just happy these guys seem to scale very well with current toys. They won't look out of place in a CHUG collection.

I think I missed the size comparison. Just how big are these guys again?

[Lore Keeper]

Ugh! FOMO finally got to me. I stopped collecting Masterpiece a while ago, and really don't want to pay that much for a combiner. But.. I don't know if these will ever be made at the Generations level and would hate to miss a chance to own Raiden in some form.

If ever there are some at the generstions level, I am certain the alt modes won't look nearly as good.

I'm just happy these guys seem to scale very well with current toys. They won't look out of place in a CHUG collection.

I think I missed the size comparison. Just how big are these guys again?

They're about 7 inches tall, which is about where you'd expect a CHUG scaled character that turns into a train to be.

[Emerje]

Which puts them squarely into Voyager size (yes I know MPs don't have scales) like the Constructicons and Predacons. There's no way they're forming a 12" Raiden.

Emerje

[o.supreme]

I've stated many times, I'd actually be ok at either size; however...this is a crude picture, but it kind of confirms Raiden will be about 12-13 inches when combined... So a little bit bigger than the standard UW/CW/PotP combiner, but not 18 inches like Dev or Predaking.

I'm ok with it. I've got my UW dev to go with Siege Omega, and my scaled down KO CW Dev to go with all my other combiners. Now all we need is someone to make a scaled down KO PotP Predaking.