Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

[Webz]

My only humble request is that people who don’t like it stop attacking those that do like it, or vice versa.

Well, don't think we're not here reading along. Honestly I feel like everyone is behaving inline with our rules. There are just some very strong opinions. I mean some folks seem to really just want to argue, boardering on trolling, but as long as nobody resorts to name calling or belligerent asshatery, the debate can continue, and should.

It's hot topic!
There's a lot to discuss.

Oh, I know you guys are lurking in the shadows with your Squeaky Mallets of Censoring™️ , and so far, the discussion here has been overall pleasant compared to other places online. I just like reminding people how awesome we have things right now... and it’s so easy for passionate people to take a comment wrong and spiral downwards. The backpack and price seem to be instant ignition rocket fuel in many places I’ve been reading discussions,

[Nathaniel Prime]

Honestly, the proportions of Optimus' window-pecs and grill-abs varied so much from shot to shot of him over the course of the show because of the animation being modest-budget-at-best hand-drawn and usually rushed too that using faux-parts to try and mimic the cartoon is a fool's errand that just adds pointless unnecessary complication. There are thresholds where reaching for high cartoon accuracy is like trying to grab smoke. It's impossible no matter how hard you try, and the harder you try the more of a fool you look.

Which raises another point of intrigue. If you need so many faux parts in the bot mode, is it not just a glorified shell-former?

He looks sharp to me, I don't see any shells hanging off him.

He sure doesn't look sharp in truck mode!

I would say MP-44 is just as much a shellformer as much as AOE Evasion Mode Prime is. It's just faux parts that fold and twist around to reveal the bot and truck modes in a clean, kibble free way. The truckbed might not be the cleanest, but like MP Primal and Cheetor, it's mostly forgiving because it's mainly for the bot mode.

[william-james88]

So I'm a but confused on this pricing thing. Didn't we just have an article on here that told us that the 400 plus cost was due to the cost of places such as BBTS and TF Source having to purchase them from a third party in Japan in order to get them and import them here?

So shouldn't this figure be less money or is Hasbro or Entertainment Earth just looking at the pricing of the imported versions and charging that much?

Yeah, its mega confusing. Its like the importers (like BBTS) still havent coordinated fully with hasbro's new MP distribution, so we are getting the same toy from different companies and retailers i the US.

But here is what is going on, since we have seen it in the past with Hasbro MPs. They are simply pricing it at Japanese MSRP. If you look at Bumblebee, Bluestreak, and MP 10 rerelease, their last TRU MP, it was all priced around the Japanese MSRP and not the price Japanese retailers are selling it for.

So basically, Takara told Hasbro MSRP is 50,000 Yen (which it is) and Hasbro said "sounds good, lets go" without looking at what the toy is actually retailing for in Japan.

Its the same case with Anime Prowl, Beast Megatron and any other MP from now on.

[AgeEighty]

And the reason Optimus Prime seems so complex is that they can have a super-accurate robot mode, with a more realistic truck. Different grills, different windows, different fuel tanks, lights, air intake, studs, wipers, etc.

A complete transformation. I think the smoke-stacks may be the only obvious truck parts shared by both modes.

Based on the seams in cab mode, it seems like this is the first MP Prime whose transformation sequence won't generally follow or resemble that of the G1 toy.

Feels strange to me to have a figure whose chest looks kind of like a cab face but none of the actual parts form any part of the actual cab, but then again, that always bothered me about G1 Powermaster Prime, too.

[AgeEighty]

Honestly, the proportions of Optimus' window-pecs and grill-abs varied so much from shot to shot of him over the course of the show because of the animation being modest-budget-at-best hand-drawn and usually rushed too that using faux-parts to try and mimic the cartoon is a fool's errand that just adds pointless unnecessary complication. There are thresholds where reaching for high cartoon accuracy is like trying to grab smoke. It's impossible no matter how hard you try, and the harder you try the more of a fool you look.

This is why the drive for "cartoon accuracy" confuses me, because there is no such thing. Same with colors: there was so much variation/error that how can you ever really say the cartoons had a canonically different color scheme than the toys? They made MP-36 grey, but wasn't the cartoon's grey only ever just an approximation of silver that was easier to paint?

It seems especially silly with the differences in the Autobot and Decepticon symbols. Why differentiate between them when the cartoon ones were only ever approximations of the toy ones?

[Webz]

Anyone seeing any mention of Carly in new orders?

Starting to think it’s Spike and Sparkplug only.

[ZeroWolf]

Anyone seeing any mention of Carly in new orders?

Starting to think it’s Spike and Sparkplug only.

Was she supposed to come on this set? I always assumed it was spike and sparkplug.

[Webz]

Anyone seeing any mention of Carly in new orders?

Starting to think it’s Spike and Sparkplug only.

Was she supposed to come on this set? I always assumed it was spike and sparkplug.

The original Amazon listing had “Curly figure x1” along with Spike and Sparkplug. Many were saying it was actually Carly (probably season 2 version)

[Cyberpath]

She's still listed on TakaraTomy Mall.

コンボイ本体（1）、コンテナ（1）、スペシャル高射砲（1）、ローラー（1）、エナジーアックス（1）、ビームエフェクト（2）、レーザーライフル（1）、マトリクス（1）、エネルギー補給パイプ（1）、スパイクフィギュア（1）、カーリーフィギュア（1）、スパークプラグフィギュア（1）、ロケットブースター（1）、スタースクリームヘッド（1）、スタースクリームインテーク（1）、アダプター（1）、ラウンドヘッド（1）、ダメージヘッド（1）、ダメージウェスト（1）、キャラクターカード（1）、取扱説明書 (1)

[ZeroWolf]

Ah fair enough maybe she's not finished yet, hence no pictures of her, I mean there's still 8 months till release

[hausjam]

What I don't understand is why they are going for toon look in robot mode, but with a (relatively) realistic alt mode. If they do a toon look bot, I think they should do a toon look alt mode.

Maybe they are saving toon alt mode for V4.

[Webz]

What I don't understand is why they are going for toon look in robot mode, but with a (relatively) realistic alt mode. If they do a toon look bot, I think they should do a toon look alt mode.

Maybe they are saving toon alt mode for V4.

Alt mode is right out of the 1986 “you got the touch” scene with Prime. No stripe, same angles to the front of the cab. Just really close.

[AgeEighty]

What I don't understand is why they are going for toon look in robot mode, but with a (relatively) realistic alt mode. If they do a toon look bot, I think they should do a toon look alt mode.

Maybe they are saving toon alt mode for V4.

If they had, they could've just used the same windows in both modes. The cab already has taller windows than MP10.

[Jeddostotle7]

Which raises another point of intrigue. If you need so many faux parts in the bot mode, is it not just a glorified shell-former?

He looks sharp to me, I don't see any shells hanging off him.

This is a tad off-topic, but because of this thread, I now know MP-10 can bend at the waist. I just tried doing it on mine, but it doesn't seem to want to do it easily, at least via just simply pulling it forward. Can anyone explain how to do it? I'm fine with the reply being via PM if y'all feel like this would clog up this thread.

You mean an ab crunch? MP-10 can't do that.

You can try faking it with his waist rotation and the right camera angle.

...Well alright then. I thought based on thr fact that people were saying MP-01 "didn't bend at the waist", in contrast with both MP-44 and seemingly MP-10, that the figure had an ab crunch I'd never known about before, but I guess I was just misreading or misinterpreting.

[DeathReviews]

Like I said afore, unless this figure is made of solid gold, it ain't worth no four hundred dollars...

[Emerje]

Anyway, I TOLD you all. Hasbro aint gonna do you no favours. This toy is expensive, aint no way around that.

You didn't tell me.

There will be a Hasbro release, but it's going to be exactly the same as that's their new MP MO. Beast Megatron in Japan is 35,000JPY ($309 USD, though you can get it much cheaper) while Hasbro's is $320, so doing the math Hasbro's release of Optimus would be around $450, same price as TFSource and BBTS are asking

That was November 28. Expect the worst and hope for the best and it's hard to be disappointed.

I have to ask, though...



Does the repair drone doubling as a stand look super unstable to anyone else or is it just me?

Emerje

[Bucky]

I’m a little surprised, and disappointed that for all the money it costs it doesn’t look like you can recreate the truck’s rocket boosters moment from the 1986 movie.

B04D9316-0105-4667-8CC4-D065000557C9.jpeg (30.09 KiB) Viewed 13182 times

The drone stand he comes with, while not looking quite as heavy duty as BW Dinobot’s and BW Megatron’s stand, looks like it could hold the weight. Maybe he can, and we just haven’t seen it yet? He does come with the booster affect for his jet pack. I think it would have been an awesome addition for this figure.

He’s also got electronic components for sound, right? I assume those make up part of the backpack. Do we know what he sound clips are yet?

I weirdly really want those Sparkplug, Spike, and Carly mini figures. I so wish they were sold separately. I’d buy them in a heartbeat. They give these toys such an awesome sense of scale. I also want a Doctor Arkeville and Shawn Berger. I’d be legitimately ecstatic if they ever started making human minifigures of the Marvel comics villains, like Robot Master and Circuit Breaker.

[Coptur]

I weirdly really want those Sparkplug, Spike, and Carly mini figures. I so wish they were sold separately. I’d buy them in a heartbeat. They give these toys such an awesome sense of scale. I also want a Doctor Arkeville and Shawn Berger. I’d be legitimately ecstatic if they ever started making human minifigures of the Marvel comics villains, like Robot Master and Circuit Breaker.

I'd love it if they did a full range of human figures GIJoe scale though.

I have convention ones already done. Snake, Marissa Faireborn, Human Rodimus Prime & Human Arcee.

[Amelie]

Part of me thinks the whole reason we are seeing the "realistic" cab mode on Prime is that because they've had to license the cars for Sunstreaker, Bumblebee, Wheeljack ect - that a completely anime looking Optimus Prime cab would look bizarre next to them. They couldn've have used the animation models for the cars and I doubt very much that the car companies would want the slightly deformed shapes of the animation models representing their brands, either.

Hotrod had the advantage of not having to look like anything real and I think the toy really benefited as a result. Ultra Magnus, too, with the anime-styled trailer.

[nycPrime]

So is anyone getting this?! I placed a pre-order through Amazon JP. Right now the all in price about $320 but that's based on current exchange rates. Not sure if I'll end keeping it. I have until August to decide.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Amelie. the cab mode for this Optimus is neither realistic nor cartoon accurate. It's a hideous trainwreck with laughable nigh-2D details pretending to be fuel tanks and a bunch of exposed robot kibble on the bed. Those don't align with the real Freightliner FLT (which, by the way, NO version of MP Optimus has a license for! The only licensed depiction of Optimus' Freightliner mode is the Jada model) nor do they align with the cartoon model!

[Bucky]

Part of me thinks the whole reason we are seeing the "realistic" cab mode on Prime is that because they've had to license the cars for Sunstreaker, Bumblebee, Wheeljack ect - that a completely anime looking Optimus Prime cab would look bizarre next to them. They couldn've have used the animation models for the cars and I doubt very much that the car companies would want the slightly deformed shapes of the animation models representing their brands, either.

That sounds perfectly plausible to me. I’m sure a simplified and stripped down version of the cab would have been a pretty stark contrast. A more realistic/detailed alt mod, with a cartoon accurate bot mode is actually appealing to me personally.

[Nemesis Maximo]

Amelie. the cab mode for this Optimus is neither realistic nor cartoon accurate. It's a hideous trainwreck with laughable nigh-2D details pretending to be fuel tanks and a bunch of exposed robot kibble on the bed. Those don't align with the real Freightliner FLT (which, by the way, NO version of MP Optimus has a license for! The only licensed depiction of Optimus' Freightliner mode is the Jada model) nor do they align with the cartoon model!

I’m calling bologna on that trainwreck comment. If it doesn’t resemble the Classics Deluxe Class O.P. Vehicle Mode, than you can’t call it a trainwreck.

And realistic does not have to mean fully licensed; wouldn’t you say that RTS Lugnut has a more realistic plane mode than Animated Lugnut? Or how about the fact that Brawl from the 2007 film transforms into a vehicle an actual physically altered real life tank that was also used in one of the Triple X films that even in real life isn’t a fully licensed anything?

And the robot kibble’s gotta go somewhere, so it may as well be the LEAST CONSPICUOUS SPOT on the toy which will (a) be facing a wall at least at a 45-degree angle if you display it in vehicle mode, (b) hardly ever seen because it will be in robot mode 90% of the time, and (c) probably covered up by the trailer in vehicle mode anyway.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Amelie. the cab mode for this Optimus is neither realistic nor cartoon accurate. It's a hideous trainwreck with laughable nigh-2D details pretending to be fuel tanks and a bunch of exposed robot kibble on the bed. Those don't align with the real Freightliner FLT (which, by the way, NO version of MP Optimus has a license for! The only licensed depiction of Optimus' Freightliner mode is the Jada model) nor do they align with the cartoon model!

I’m calling bologna on that trainwreck comment. If it doesn’t resemble the Classics Deluxe Class O.P. Vehicle Mode, than you can’t call it a trainwreck.

I can and I did. This one is marginally better because the front of the cab at least meshes, but it's still second-worst.

And realistic does not have to mean fully licensed; wouldn’t you say that RTS Lugnut has a more realistic plane mode than Animated Lugnut? Or how about the fact that Brawl from the 2007 film transforms into a vehicle an actual physically altered real life tank that was also used in one of the Triple X films that even in real life isn’t a fully licensed anything?

Realistic doesn't have to mean licensed, but I was just pointing the lack of license out as an additional detail. My main point was that the truck mode
IS. NOT. REALISTIC. Here is an actual Freightliner FLT cabover. Note how, being a real truck, the fuel tanks are three-dimensional objects. Nice big cylinders in fact.
It is also not cartoon accurate insofar as that's achievable (as can be seen, the proportions are so inconsistently drawn that aiming too hard for the cartoon is foolish):
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Masquerade_prime_vs_mmaster.jpg
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:PrimeProblem_Twin_primes_rev_up.jpg
https://tfwiki.net/wiki/File:Optimus_ram.jpg
Whenever seen from the side, Optimus' tuck mode was always drawn with proper, three-dimensional fuel tanks that were cylindrical or at least trying to be.
As I have said umpteen times by now, this overengineered waste of plastic's truck-mode fuel tanks are laughable. They're almost 2D! A couple of flat barely-protruding oblongs with a couple or flat barely-protruding straps overlayed on them.

And the robot kibble’s gotta go somewhere, so it may as well be the LEAST CONSPICUOUS SPOT on the toy which will (a) be facing a wall at least at a 45-degree angle if you display it in vehicle mode, (b) hardly ever seen because it will be in robot mode 90% of the time, and (c) probably covered up by the trailer in vehicle mode anyway.

It is NOT the least conspicuous spot, you can see it whenever you look at him from even slightly above him, even with the trailer on. As can be seen from the pics in this very thread. And even if you can't see the mess of robot kibble, the laughable fuel tanks are still visible from the side. And as for "the robot kibble's gotta go somewhere", there wouldn't BE any conflict between the truck mode and the robot leg kibble if the overthinking designer hadn't added needless complexity and instead just had the bed of the truck made from the legs directly.

[galvatron00]

Alt mode is right out of the 1986 “you got the touch” scene with Prime. No stripe, same angles to the front of the cab. Just really close.

What's funny, Webz, is in a conversation I was having with Cobotron and carytheone the other day I mentioned "The more I look at MP-44, the more I hear 'The Touch' playing in my head." And I hate it and love it for it!! I don't WANT to spend this much money on an MP Optimus Prime, but why wouldn't I want to complete the set of MP1 (TRU version), MP10 (first TRU version) and now MP44?!