The Energon Pub

[Ironhidensh]

So, with this thing dropping next month, have we heard any updated news?

[Cyberpath]

December 28, 2017.

[Cyberpath]

Transformation spoilers:

[Ironhidensh]

I guess I will put Surgio on ebay. That is mighty impressive.

[shajaki]

I guess I will put Surgio on ebay. That is mighty impressive.

I'll say. I wasn't thrilled to begin with, but every new pic of him I'm warming up. To the point where I'm actually thrilled now.

Could this be the new ladder magic?

[Evil Eye]

I must be one of the few not overly impressed. The car mode is a bit of a mess and the headsculpt looks apalling. Plus the price is obscene.

[steals_your_goats]

I must be one of the few not overly impressed. The car mode is a bit of a mess and the headsculpt looks apalling. Plus the price is obscene.

How is the price obscene? It's only $20 more than the 3rd party ones, is officially licensed by Lamborghini, comes with more accessories and has functioning doors, headlights and hood.

[Evil Eye]

I must be one of the few not overly impressed. The car mode is a bit of a mess and the headsculpt looks apalling. Plus the price is obscene.

How is the price obscene? It's only $20 more than the 3rd party ones, is officially licensed by Lamborghini, comes with more accessories and has functioning doors, headlights and hood.

He's also only the size of MP Sideswipe, and yet costs a lot more, and he looks...questionable, especially in vehicle mode. He definitely doesn't fit in very well with MP-12.

[steals_your_goats]

I must be one of the few not overly impressed. The car mode is a bit of a mess and the headsculpt looks apalling. Plus the price is obscene.

How is the price obscene? It's only $20 more than the 3rd party ones, is officially licensed by Lamborghini, comes with more accessories and has functioning doors, headlights and hood.

He's also only the size of MP Sideswipe, and yet costs a lot more, and he looks...questionable, especially in vehicle mode. He definitely doesn't fit in very well with MP-12.

I don't see what's so "questionable" about his vehicle and his price is more than Sideswipe because his transformation is a lot more in-depth which requires a much larger parts count.

[Ironhidensh]

He is about 85 or 87 bucks on HLJ. Only about 20 or so more than others in his size class. I can stomach that. It's not like the ridiculous 40 dollars more than Ultra Magnus for a far smaller toy that Dinobot is.

[Emerje]

I don't see what's so "questionable" about his vehicle

For comparison, here's what the real one looked like.

74651_1.jpg

The exposed engine isn't a stock option, it's something Takara likely came up with on their own. The only really noticeable new panel lines I can see are the ones over the front wheels and before the back wheels, and maybe one under the doors, all of the others are accurate and no more than what the "third party" versions have.

And if you import him the price is actually less than the "third party" version. You can pre-order one off AmiAmi right now for about $82. And since he's a car the shipping should be under $10 via SAL.

Emerje

[fenrir72]

R &D eats much of the cost! But hey, just 9140Y! 29% tax free off retail price! Compared to Dinobot costing 21340Y, still 29% off SALES TAX, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper.

Sunstreaker needs to move a minimum of 10000 to make a profit. Takara is probably taking a hit and will compensate by bulk (Kind of like a PS4 sells cheaper than actual cost of manufacture (offset by software sales)

[steals_your_goats]

R &D eats much of the cost! But hey, just 9140Y! 29% tax free off retail price! Compared to Dinobot costing 21340Y, still 29% off SALES TAX, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper.

Sunstreaker needs to move a minimum of 10000 to make a profit. Takara is probably taking a hit and will compensate by bulk (Kind of like a PS4 sells cheaper than actual cost of manufacture (offset by software sales)

Can you please stop with the whole tax thing? It's unnecessary and everyone knows why you keep bringing it up. It's pretty and childish.

Also where are you getting these numbers from? As far as I know Takara doesn't release p&l for every figure they sell so you're just making it all up. Your failed attempts to get people to sympathize with a toy manufacturer under the false pretense of bankruptcy are just becoming cringeworthy. If you want to buy it then great, but it. But stop trying to force it down everyone else's throats.

[Emerje]

R &D eats much of the cost! But hey, just 9140Y! 29% tax free off retail price! Compared to Dinobot costing 21340Y, still 29% off SALES TAX, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cheaper.

The others were right, your immaturity isn't going to stop and you can't accept that you don't know what you're talking about. Whatever, it's obvious you'd rather act like a child and I don't particularly like kids that much. Black listed.

Emerje

[fenrir72]

from poster "arbit" of http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/4 ... facturing/

Finally some figures to grab on in the JP setting so food for thought nice to know.

According to arbit:

"I thought that we could share our real data here to get to the bottom of it.

I will start with these responses I received from a premium toy manufacturer that is often discussed on this board. I wont name them for confidential reasons, but suffice it to say they are a medium level premium brand, not the best, not the worst:"


"What is the licensing fee: For the licensing cost, it will be ~4-6% of selling price in Japan.

What is the manufacturing cost: Depends on item, but ~55% of selling price will be the production fee (including prototype charge)

How many units have you manufactured of different items? MOQ 3,000-5,000 pcs. If too cheap item, 10,000 pcs is necessary.

How many units do you need to sell to be profitable? if over 3,000 pcs, nearly all items we can start to get profit"

Obviously nowhere near Hb and Takara levels.............

[shajaki]

Fen, it's enough already.

[william-james88]

Fellow Seibertronian Cyberpath sent us some scans of the newly released Japanese Transformers Generations 2018 book which feature the upcoming Takara MP39 Masterpiece Sunstreaker.
We see multiple angles of his vehicle mode as well as how it converts into its super countash mode.

We also get a detailed look at the transformation. However, as detailed as it is, it still isn't fully clear how certain elements take form, such as his fake chest, with his chest changing from a real windshield to a fake one from one picture to the next.

The scans also show us concept sketches of Sunsteaker and his accessories such as his alien head.
This toy is to be released December 28, 2017.

The scans were from 北马伊斯力's Weibo page. Enjoy the images below!

[sol magnus]

Looking good.

[MGrotusque]

I'm stoked it has the same head reveal as the generations figure. That figure had the perfect reveal with his head rising up from his chest and the ears popping out like rays of a rising sun.
Now we just need a 3rd party to make a way better head than this official version.

[Hoffrod]

I like the look overall with the transformation and body in both modes, but I HATE the head sculpt. I lean towards more detailing in the Masterpiece series versus the 'cartoon' look. To me, the original toy had the best head for 'Streak by far. I never understood people wanting a cartoon look to a character. Animation back then was deliberately simplified to reduce time and money in the cells, but wasnt meant to be an exact image of each character. Masterpiece means just that....a masterpiece. The detailing should be crazy intricate in every aspect.

[Corsair]

I don't have any of the G1 MPs, just Optimus Primal and Cheetor from BW, but I really, really like the look of Sunstreaker, also I had the episode "Hoist Goes Hollywood" on tape when I was a kid so that alien mask really takes me back.

[chuckdawg1999]

The figure is looking good but I'm really missing the gun hand, yes I'm aware it wasn't in the cartoon.

[Seibertron]

I like the look overall with the transformation and body in both modes, but I HATE the head sculpt. I lean towards more detailing in the Masterpiece series versus the 'cartoon' look. To me, the original toy had the best head for 'Streak by far. I never understood people wanting a cartoon look to a character. Animation back then was deliberately simplified to reduce time and money in the cells, but wasnt meant to be an exact image of each character. Masterpiece means just that....a masterpiece. The detailing should be crazy intricate in every aspect.

100% agree!

[TK415]

I agree too. I want MP to look like real G1 Transformers. Sunstreaker looks like a cartoon. I can't stop seeing a 2D cartoon. Fun for Transformers Animated, but this is MP. Exact, beautiful realistic, off the screen to real life (but minature) G1 figure, not exact cartoon figure.

[william-james88]

I like the look overall with the transformation and body in both modes, but I HATE the head sculpt. I lean towards more detailing in the Masterpiece series versus the 'cartoon' look. To me, the original toy had the best head for 'Streak by far. I never understood people wanting a cartoon look to a character. Animation back then was deliberately simplified to reduce time and money in the cells, but wasnt meant to be an exact image of each character. Masterpiece means just that....a masterpiece. The detailing should be crazy intricate in every aspect.

I agree with this whole heartedly. And what is odd is that they do exactly that... in car mode. So you have this gorgeous looking real life car with intricate details which of course ends up in several parts of the robot mode but then you have a deliberately cartoony head that just clashes with all the more detailed alt mode parts.