While most people know it's important to reiterate that the brand unification for Transformers toys between Hasbro and Takara also includes Masterpiece releases. No more waiting years for a Hasbro release, you will get the same toy the same year. And now we know that by "same toy" they really mean it. Takara has been adding voice clips to their Masterpiece figures recently and we were unsure what that would mean for the Hasbro releases of these toys. For instance with MP-44, while buying it at EB-Games Canada for $600 CAD might seem daunting, the fact that it may have English voice clips instead might have swayed some fans. Imagine Peter Cullen voice clips on a Masterpiece Prime.
However, Hasbro PR did confirm with us that the upcoming MP release will not differ in any way across markets. The toy
you can now preorder at EB Games (and Entertainment Earth) is the same as the one offered in Japan by Takara, Japanese voice clips and all.
While speaking of MP-44, we have some more news for you. These are images of the production prototype of this toy, where we can see the different plastic used. We do see some die cast on his crest. These were posted by
Takara on Twitter.