Seibertron wrote:
I'm not sure you do get what I'm saying. For the most part, until now, the Masterpiece line has been this hybrid line that meshed the G1 cartoon look with the G1 toys and some updates along the way. Only recently has the line taken a turn to go more after the cartoon look. I'm just voicing my opinion that I'm not a fan of the overly cartoon look, which has been cropping up more and more since Ultra Magnus. Not a fan. I want the cartoon look but with the detail of the toys.
They've included details from the toys when it's
supplemented the cartoon detail but not when it's contradicted it. MP Prowl has some additional detail over the cartoon, but his eyes are blue, not silver. Alert's head is red. Wheeljack actually has eyes. Smokescreen gets the cartoon head and missile launchers, even when it meant everything being retooled. Ironhide has a head.
Toy Sunstreaker has angled head vents. Cartoon Sunstreaker has curved, plain yellow horns. Changing the horns to vents wouldn't be expanding on the cartoon design, it would be replacing it, which would go against what the MP line has done throughout.
There is a definite increasing trend towards large undetailed areas on the surface of the figures like Inferno's legs, and I can understand and empathize if that's not your bag, but that's where the evolution of the MP line is at. And I can totally agree with that evolution because if your plan is making the figures look like they stepped out of the cartoon as the top priority then it might not be everyone's taste but it's a concrete plan. If you go off that track and change the plan to make the figures look like the best possible interpretation they can be then you've opened the worm can because Johnny does like the cartoon look, and Timmy likes the wide buffalo horns look of the G1 toy and Peter likes the narrower, extra-pointy Milne horns and Tanaka digs the spiky Binaltech horns and Shoji likes his F-15 jets to have perfectly clean undercarriages which is why MP-03 keeps his tailfins on hip scabbards.
Designing MP figures is an increasingly risky proposition for Takara both as they move away from (relative) A-listers like Optimus, Starscream and Soundwave and as the market gets undercut by unofficial releases. And auteur-designed figures can't fit into that model. MP-03 is the easy example of where auteur design ended up screwing the pooch, but you can see the same issue every day in the world of third-party, where particularly "individual" designs can wind up in the bargain bin. The one place Takara can't be challenged in is making figures that are EXACT interpretations of the characters that only they (and Hasbro) own the designs to, and any time they deviate from the design strategy they risk auteurism and give up some of their safe ground.
And now as usual I've both thought and argued way too hard on a teeny tiny issue that wouldn't rustle the jimmies of anyone besides me, but if I can't waste an evening discussing the decision to make a figure of a popular cartoon character look as much as possible like he does in the cartoon then what's freedom of speech for?
Finally Sunstreaker graces the Masterpiece line to go along with his Brother Sideswipe! I love that We get Chip too he'll go great with Spike but I find myself needing Sparkplug and Carly now. It's nice to see that Takara's going back to the 84 Autobot cars for masterpieces and hopefully soon we'll get an official Hound, Trailbreaker and Jazz to finish the 84 guys. I hope the mask will be compatible with Tracks though! 
