The Energon Pub

megatronus wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

megatronus wrote:I have said this many times, but MP10 is not Sunbow Prime. It is Japanese Headmasters anime Prime.

What's the difference? G1 Seasons 1-2 and The Headmasters were animated by the same company using the same character models for all but a number of the 1987 characters.

They look significantly different. If I have time (I prob won't) I'll grab screenshots.

Make sure to avoid Season 3 or any Season 2 episodes done by AKOM or the unknown animation studio.

Apparently there's some hardcore MP Sideswipe fanbase that I've offended
Look, I have no issues with him, and subsequent variations and releases. But he (NOW) lacks a certain level of refinement that becomes painfully obvious when next to his newly released brother. Is he still completely serviceable and could I happily still have him standing with the most current MP's? Absolutely. But I'd love a new one, and would be very curious to see what they could do to make him better.

What I'd like to see is his hood chest compress together to make him... less of a rectangle chested dude. ALSO, nowadays, they put more effort into their subsequent releases. Like, if they made a Sideswipe V2, and followed it up with a Red Alert V2, I'm positive they'd remold him to have the doors on the arms and such to make him as cartoon accurate as possible. And I'd love to see that.

shajaki wrote:Apparently there's some hardcore MP Sideswipe fanbase that I've offended
Look, I have no issues with him, and subsequent variations and releases. But he (NOW) lacks a certain level of refinement that becomes painfully obvious when next to his newly released brother. Is he still completely serviceable and could I happily still have him standing with the most current MP's? Absolutely. But I'd love a new one, and would be very curious to see what they could do to make him better.

What I'd like to see is his hood chest compress together to make him... less of a rectangle chested dude. ALSO, nowadays, they put more effort into their subsequent releases. Like, if they made a Sideswipe V2, and followed it up with a Red Alert V2, I'm positive they'd remold him to have the doors on the arms and such to make him as cartoon accurate as possible. And I'd love to see that.

No, I'm in full agreement with you. Sideswipe is a great figure, but when put side by side with Sunstreaker, he is very clearly a dated model, in need of upgrade.

RE: Sideswipe, I guess the fandom HAS shown its appetite for higher parts count / higher priced MPs...

Megatron, Sunstreaker, Dinobot... my wallet, we hardly knew ye.

How odd that this would pop up when we're talking about a new Sideswipe

(this is a custom BTW, click the pics to find the whole series, showing transformation)

So who is next for G1 this year? I already have a pre-order out for Dinobot & Shadow Panther yet there doesn't seem much information out there for the future outside of Beast Wars.

I mean I think they have milked the Seeker mold to completion now
Theoretically there is still one more Optimus variant (Powermaster) for that mold too. I mention this as HasTak does have an annoying habit of filling this line Primes and Starscreams. Obviously it will most likely be an Autobot as most TF lines are flooded with a disproportionate ratio of Bots to Cons.

Finish the Dinobots, maybe?? Why has Grimlock been the only MP Dinobot for nearly 10 years

MP Blaster is long overdue. He should have accompanied MP Soundwave. Given he would essentially be a retool of that mold.

I understand licensing issues still hold back some of the more iconic characters such as Jazz, so better to skip them and move on to those without such issues.

I don't see them moving on to Gestalts. Which leaves all of the Decepticon Car Bots out of the line, except Runabout and Runamuck. Who are probably too niché, like the Reflector Trio, for the MP treatment. Plus, they would have to be sold as a Twin Pack.

What I would really like to see moving forward is a bit of consistency from HasTak. They haven't even filled out the Season 1 & 2 roster from G1, one single character from The Movie and yet they've already moved onto Beast Wars and even the Takara Series has an entry. Where is the planning behind this line?

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:So who is next for G1 this year?

Takara confirmed they are currently working on trailbreaker and hoist.

Beast Wars & G1 are being released alternately since both parties are in different purchasing demographics seperated by age and so on. The release pattern has been thanks to you. We have managed to capture the age that was playing at the time of the show being broadcast and would like to keep the fever of waiting away by releasing more Beast Wars.
I want to distinguish between the 4x4 designs of Hoist and Trailbreaker in the meantime for the G1 fans, which will be troublesome.
I think Megatron and now Sunstreaker really suprised the fans & designers even!
I hope that Hoist can be realised with a few of these suprises.

Also, Beast Wars Megatron will be next for Beast Wars.

Don't forget that the iffy Movie Masterpiece line will be taking release slots away from G1 Masterpiece figures as well.

Yeah, sometimes its easier to forget there are Bayformers in this line...

william-james88 wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:So who is next for G1 this year?

Takara confirmed they are currently working on trailbreaker and hoist.

Beast Wars & G1 are being released alternately since both parties are in different purchasing demographics seperated by age and so on. The release pattern has been thanks to you. We have managed to capture the age that was playing at the time of the show being broadcast and would like to keep the fever of waiting away by releasing more Beast Wars.
I want to distinguish between the 4x4 designs of Hoist and Trailbreaker in the meantime for the G1 fans, which will be troublesome.
I think Megatron and now Sunstreaker really suprised the fans & designers even!
I hope that Hoist can be realised with a few of these suprises.

Also, Beast Wars Megatron will be next for Beast Wars.

Thanks for the reply. I did hear about BW Megatron. Really looking forward to him. I do wonder where they will go with BW. MP Bat Primal & Gator Megatron? Or will they stick exclusively to the series roster??

That quote doesn't really apply to Star Saber though, the Takara Series oddity that he is.

FFS MORE Car Bots!?! They do realise other more interesting altmodes exist within G1 Autobots? Even among the early cast there was Warpath, Powerglide, Hound, Seaspray etc

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:That quote doesn't really apply to Star Saber though, the Takara Series oddity that he is.

He was a fan vote, so he would not count, no. Just like this years Gen Optimus Primal doesnt in any way mean that Hasbro has plans for more beast wars toys.

FFS MORE Car Bots!?! They do realise other more interesting altmodes exist within G1 Autobots? Even among the early cast there was Warpath, Powerglide, Hound, Seaspray etc

And yeah, you'll get more carbots. Takara is really into them for G1. Plus, the others you mention that arent cars are minibots and they have only done BB so far, which is also a car.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:So who is next for G1 this year?

MP-40 Targetmaster Hot Rodimus.

Ah yes, I'd almost forgotten Hot Rod is another mold they are starting to overuse now.

william-james88 wrote:He was a fan vote, so he would not count, no. Just like this years Gen Optimus Primal doesnt in any way mean that Hasbro has plans for more beast wars toys.

Still he was an incredibly random character to even garner a vote in the first place. But he is now a shoe in the door for the Takara series, which they could return to in the future via Overlord, Deszaras etc We haven't even had all the Decepticon leaders represented in this line so far and we have characters out there that are chronologically ahead of them that are.

william-james88 wrote:

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

FFS MORE Car Bots!?! They do realise other more interesting altmodes exist within G1 Autobots? Even among the early cast there was Warpath, Powerglide, Hound, Seaspray etc

And yeah, you'll get more carbots. Takara is really into them for G1. Plus, the others you mention that arent cars are minibots and they have only done BB so far, which is also a car.

I don't get their obsession with Car Bots. They are the least interesting designs in the entire series. Why not finish the Dinobots or start off the Wreckers? Impactor or someone weird like that? Unique designs that made Transformers stand out, not just a car...
This is also what I was referring to before. Takara being so into Car Bots pushes the Cons out completely. It's not like they could release MP Swindle, Motormaster or Scrapper as one-offs. They are part of teams and I doubt they want even test the water when it comes to Masterpiece Gestalts. The Triple Changers look equally doubtful. But, according to Takara, that's ok because all Decepticon fans want is another palette swapped Seeker

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:This is also what I was referring to before. Takara being so into Car Bots pushes the Cons out completely. It's not like they could release MP Swindle, Motormaster or Scrapper as one-offs. They are part of teams and I doubt they want even test the water when it comes to Masterpiece Gestalts. The Triple Changers look equally doubtful. But, according to Takara, that's ok because all Decepticon fans want is another palette swapped Seeker

They want to finish season 1 teams, it seems. So yeah, more cars coming for sure.

And they confirmed that MP combiners are not part of their roadmap for the line.

william-james88 wrote:They want to finish season 1 teams, it seems. So yeah, more cars coming for sure.

And they confirmed that MP combiners are not part of their roadmap for the line.

Yeah, I assumed as much. Which is ok, in a way. Because if they were to make MP Combiners, it would always have be another Devastator. The Constructicons are almost as overdone as the Seekers.

However without the combiner teams, yet again that means most of the Season 1 & 2 Cons will be absent.

If they were to consider MP combiners some day, I would hope they would mix it up, like IDW did when they first used the gestalts. They made Monstructor The First, which did surprise me at the time. To one day see MP Piranacon, Monstructor etc would impress me.

One potential character I was thinking about the other day was Beast Wars Ravage. Hasbro/Takara are clearly stating they want cartoon accuracy throughout the MP line. Which means, instead of being a mere Cheetor palette swap..


This guy, will Transform into..



That is a very interesting prospect.

There's a good chance Blaster will happen this year since Steeljaw's mold is done. You need to understand that some things are just out of their hands as far as what they'd like to do. Using real world licenses is a big part of the line which makes some figures bit trickier compared to a generic radio or futuristic car. Runamuck and Runabout would require licenses from Lotus/Geely and GM respectively. Same issue with the mini cars making them harder to justify the cost of making since so many didn't have much more than a single episode cameo. You also need to remember that Takara's only going to make figures that will be popular in Japan (or easy repaints). If they do Perceptor, Reflector, or for that matter a number of Decepticons, it'll have to be because they're popular with Japanese fans. Don't like Star Saber? That's none of Takara Tomy's concern.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:There's a good chance Blaster will happen this year since Steeljaw's mold is done. You need to understand that some things are just out of their hands as far as what they'd like to do. Using real world licenses is a big part of the line which makes some figures bit trickier compared to a generic radio or futuristic car. Runamuck and Runabout would require licenses from Lotus/Geely and GM respectively. Same issue with the mini cars making them harder to justify the cost of making since so many didn't have much more than a single episode cameo. You also need to remember that Takara's only going to make figures that will be popular in Japan (or easy repaints). If they do Perceptor, Reflector, or for that matter a number of Decepticons, it'll have to be because they're popular with Japanese fans. Don't like Star Saber? That's none of Takara Tomy's concern.

Emerje

I have talked about this elsewhere but I've always felt certain characters should be released simultaneously EG Metroplex & Trypticon, Megatron & Optimus, Blaster & Soundwave, Rodimus & Galvatron etc

Noted rival sets. Blaster should have been MP-14 or 15, immediately following Soundwave. Considering they have no problem throwing out all the Seeker and Car Bot palette swaps or the 15th edition of Optimus, a mere retool of Soundwave shouldn't have taken this long. I imagine a retool can't be much harder to produce than a repaint. I did see Steeljaw pop up out the blue recently, which did make me think positively about his upcoming appearance.

I did make mention of licensing issues before. In my view, they should skip those characters and return to them at some future date. Most of them only lived in canon until The Movie anyway.

Perhaps it's just my ignorance but I never realised Runabout & Runamuck were based on real cars They were always so weird looking I just assumed it was a generic "car" design.

As for popularity. One of the first things the Takara Series did was correct the mistake Sunbow made and kill off Optimus almost immediately. Replacing him (briefly) with Rodimus Prime once more. Which would lead you to believe Rodimus was more popular than Optimus in Japan.
Now Galvatron, Scorponok and even Sixshot were the three main Decepticons throughout the first series. So I'd assume they were popular characters. Where are they in this line? Outside of Beast Wars and The Unicron Trilogy, G1 Scorponok has been completely absent from the Toy line since 1988???

He was the direct counterpart to Fortress in the Takara Series, so he must have been popular?? Unless I'm completely wrong and in fact, as opposed to my view of the TF lines being inundated with too many Autobots, that there simply are little to no Decepticon fans in Japan?

I seriously got into TF through the Movie, so what I dislike is the boring Earth Based altmodes. The animals, the future vehicles, I love all that. Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps were far better designs than any Season 1 & 2 Seeker.

I don't dislike Star Saber. Although I haven't seen all that much of the Takara Series, I like his design at least. Hopefully one day Victory Leo will be made part of this line too and we'll get our first/last (unintentional) MP combiner. The Head/Targetmasters were all main characters in the Takara Series, so surely Highbrow, Apeface etc should be part of one of these popularity polls too?
The point I was making with him is (by vote or not) why a character from Victory was made a selection to be part of this line before anyone Post-Movie, other than Hot Rod/imus...

Considering how much of G1 (cartoons and comics) revolved around him, surely Galvatron is popular enough to have been made part of this line by now??? To a lesser extent, Cyclonus, Scourge, Kup, Blurr etc

A friend of mine wants to recreate The Movie in Masterpiece form. With the seemingly random character selection at play here, even excluding Devastator, I don't think he's ever going to get there.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I have talked about this elsewhere but I've always felt certain characters should be released simultaneously EG Metroplex & Trypticon, Megatron & Optimus, Blaster & Soundwave, Rodimus & Galvatron etc

When dealing with a high end line like MP they can't always do things this way. First off in Japan hero characters are always more popular than villains so that's where the money is. It actually isn't common for Japanese toy lines to make figures of the bad guys, especially robot series. Transformers are a very unusual franchise in Japan for giving nearly equal shelf space to both sides. It's really no surprise that Takara Tomy puts so many Autobots into the line. Rivals make sense, but money makes more sense. Problem with Blaster is you're not just designing one figure, but a small army of them. And besides, it's hard to argue that Soundwave is far more popular than Blaster.

Noted rival sets. Blaster should have been MP-14 or 15, immediately following Soundwave. Considering they have no problem throwing out all the Seeker and Car Bot palette swaps or the 15th edition of Optimus, a mere retool of Soundwave shouldn't have taken this long. I imagine a retool can't be much harder to produce than a repaint.

WOW! You couldn't be more wrong about this. First off the only thing Soundwave and Blaster have in common is that they both can hold tapes in their chests. That's like saying Bumblebee can be remolded into Jazz because they're both cars. There is a world of difference between a remold and redeco. One just needs different colored plastic in an existing mold while the other requires an entirely new mold (or destroying an old one). The second problem is it's more than just molding when it comes to Japan, there's an entire engineering process to make sure everything goes together and moves the way its supposed to. It isn't nearly as simple a process as you seem to think it is.

I did make mention of licensing issues before. In my view, they should skip those characters and return to them at some future date. Most of them only lived in canon until The Movie anyway.

Which is why the pre-movie lineup is still incomplete. If they could make Jazz, Mirage, or Hound they would have long ago.

Perhaps it's just my ignorance but I never realised Runabout & Runamuck were based on real cars They were always so weird looking I just assumed it was a generic "car" design.

Yes, even post-movie we were still getting characters based on real cars like those two, Punch/Counterpunch (another Pontiac like Runamuck), the Duocons, all of the Throttlebots and many more. Really there are examples all the way through to 1990.

As for popularity. One of the first things the Takara Series did was correct the mistake Sunbow made and kill off Optimus almost immediately. Replacing him (briefly) with Rodimus Prime once more. Which would lead you to believe Rodimus was more popular than Optimus in Japan.
Now Galvatron, Scorponok and even Sixshot were the three main Decepticons throughout the first series. So I'd assume they were popular characters. Where are they in this line? Outside of Beast Wars and The Unicron Trilogy, G1 Scorponok has been completely absent from the Toy line since 1988???

First you need to remember that Masterpiece is working its way through the years with only a few exceptions being made. Then you need to remember that the line isn't over yet. They need to save those guys for when they start diving into the late 80s characters full force. Except Scorponok, they'll never make MP city bots.

He was the direct counterpart to Fortress in the Takara Series, so he must have been popular?? Unless I'm completely wrong and in fact, as opposed to my view of the TF lines being inundated with too many Autobots, that there simply are little to no Decepticon fans in Japan?

Somehow you've started talking about the Generations/Legends line which is entirely unrelated to MP. This line is headed by Hasbro with Takara Tomy following their lead. We could have had Scorponok last year when Hasbro put it up to a vote, but we got Trypticon instead. That's on us, not Hasbro or TT.

I seriously got into TF through the Movie, so what I dislike is the boring Earth Based altmodes. The animals, the future vehicles, I love all that. Cyclonus, Scourge and the Sweeps were far better designs than any Season 1 & 2 Seeker.

You just need a little patience, they'll get there eventually.

I don't dislike Star Saber. Although I haven't seen all that much of the Takara Series, I like his design at least. Hopefully one day Victory Leo will be made part of this line too and we'll get our first/last (unintentional) MP combiner. The Head/Targetmasters were all main characters in the Takara Series, so surely Highbrow, Apeface etc should be part of one of these popularity polls too?

The point I was making with him is (by vote or not) why a character from Victory was made a selection to be part of this line before anyone Post-Movie, other than Hot Rod/imus...

There's only been one popularity poll and it was specifically for which Autobot/Cybertron leader to make a figure of next. It wasn't random either, every leader from Fort Max up through Cybertron Optimus Prime (Galaxy Force Galaxy Convoy) was in the pole and Star Saber won by a decisive 31.2% of the votes (nearly a third). On the other end, Fort Max came in dead last with only 0.3%.

Considering how much of G1 (cartoons and comics) revolved around him, surely Galvatron is popular enough to have been made part of this line by now??? To a lesser extent, Cyclonus, Scourge, Kup, Blurr etc

Again, the line just hasn't gotten there yet.

A friend of mine wants to recreate The Movie in Masterpiece form. With the seemingly random character selection at play here, even excluding Devastator, I don't think he's ever going to get there.

It really isn't that random at all when you know what they're doing. And if you want an MP Devastator then get the Takara Tomy Constructicons, they're far better than Hasbro's two in every way (including articulation and weapons) and painted up cartoon accurately. Bot modes fit well with MPs and Devastator towers over everyone at 18" tall.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:

Noted rival sets. Blaster should have been MP-14 or 15, immediately following Soundwave. Considering they have no problem throwing out all the Seeker and Car Bot palette swaps or the 15th edition of Optimus, a mere retool of Soundwave shouldn't have taken this long. I imagine a retool can't be much harder to produce than a repaint.

WOW! You couldn't be more wrong about this. First off the only thing Soundwave and Blaster have in common is that they both can hold tapes in their chests. That's like saying Bumblebee can be remolded into Jazz because they're both cars. There is a world of difference between a remold and redeco. One just needs different colored plastic in an existing mold while the other requires an entirely new mold (or destroying an old one). The second problem is it's more than just molding when it comes to Japan, there's an entire engineering process to make sure everything goes together and moves the way its supposed to. It isn't nearly as simple a process as you seem to think it is.

I'll give three images here to make my point:


Classic G1 figures. Clearly a difference between them.


The new Titans Return variant of each.


Masterpiece Soundwave next to 3rd party "MP" Transistor/Blaster.

Post-G1, aside from different head sculpts, shins and tape deck button layouts they are virtually identical. The casettes wouldn't really be an issue either as, with Soundwave, they would most likely release them piecemeal. In my view a comparison could be made between Cheetor and Tigertron.

Emerje wrote:

He was the direct counterpart to Fortress in the Takara Series, so he must have been popular?? Unless I'm completely wrong and in fact, as opposed to my view of the TF lines being inundated with too many Autobots, that there simply are little to no Decepticon fans in Japan?

Somehow you've started talking about the Generations/Legends line which is entirely unrelated to MP. This line is headed by Hasbro with Takara Tomy following their lead. We could have had Scorponok last year when Hasbro put it up to a vote, but we got Trypticon instead. That's on us, not Hasbro or TT.

In all honesty, the Generations/Legends City Bots are the closest thing to an MP line bots that size will ever see. As I said to someone else, Scorponok losing to Trypticon might have bugged me but that was a poll result and I didn't participate, so I can't complain at the result. Although I don't think Scorponok should have been a part of that poll to begin with.
But like you say, I underestimated the popularity of half the roster of this series in Japan.

Emerje wrote:

A friend of mine wants to recreate The Movie in Masterpiece form. With the seemingly random character selection at play here, even excluding Devastator, I don't think he's ever going to get there.

It really isn't that random at all when you know what they're doing. And if you want an MP Devastator then get the Takara Tomy Constructicons, they're far better than Hasbro's two in every way (including articulation and weapons) and painted up cartoon accurately. Bot modes fit well with MPs and Devastator towers over everyone at 18" tall.

He exclusively wants it MP only. He's already made a diorama using MP-10 Optimus and MP-36 Megatron and their final battle. He's about to buy MP-40 Hot Rod to finish the scene. He made another one of MP Soundwave carrying Megatron away, with Rumble carrying Megatron's Fusion Cannon. Although that's leading to no one anyway, given Astrotrain and the rest of the Triple Changers have as much chance of an MP appearance as a Gestalt.

It's why personally, although I do hold out hope of MP Galvatron, I'll stick with MP Beast Wars. I have more interest in that roster than in what Hasbro/Takara are currently selling as G1.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:I'll give three images here to make my point:

Classic G1 figures. Clearly a difference between them.

The new Titans Return variant of each.

Masterpiece Soundwave next to 3rd party "MP" Transistor/Blaster.

Post-G1, aside from different head sculpts, shins and tape deck button layouts they are virtually identical. The casettes wouldn't really be an issue either as, with Soundwave, they would most likely release them piecemeal.

Except that Masterpiece isn't post G1, it's G1 proper which means it'll get the dedication it deserves. The only time they reuse a mold is when it makes sense like the three Datsuns (which all had different car parts, heads, and weapons, not just repaints) and the jets. They aren't going to turn a tape player into a boombox just because they both play tapes. Your examples don't help your argument in the slightest. The original figures were entirely different in every way. The Titans Return figures required making Soundwave a boombox, but the MP line isn't gong to turn Blaster into a tape player just to pump one out. Your third example isn't even an official release so I have no idea what that's supposed to prove.

And the tapes do play a part since they're designed and released alongside the larger bot. In Blaster's case they have three additional figures to design: Steeljaw, Ramhorn, and Eject/Rewind. It's both time and budget consuming, and do you know how they pay for that? Easy repaints and retools like the jets, Loudpedal, Soundblaster, and all the Bluestreak variants.

In my view a comparison could be made between Cheetor and Tigertron.

That's been argued to death. Takara Tomy doesn't hate us or the characters enough to try to force them into the same mold. Shadow Panther is our Cheetor repaint, not Tigatron.

He exclusively wants it MP only. He's already made a diorama using MP-10 Optimus and MP-36 Megatron and their final battle. He's about to buy MP-40 Hot Rod to finish the scene. He made another one of MP Soundwave carrying Megatron away, with Rumble carrying Megatron's Fusion Cannon. Although that's leading to no one anyway, given Astrotrain and the rest of the Triple Changers have as much chance of an MP appearance as a Gestalt.

Why MP-40? That's the "animation error" Targetmaster from Rebirth. He should go with the more accurate MP-28.

Emerje

Emerje wrote:Except that Masterpiece isn't post G1, it's G1 proper which means it'll get the dedication it deserves. The only time they reuse a mold is when it makes sense like the three Datsuns (which all had different car parts, heads, and weapons, not just repaints) and the jets. They aren't going to turn a tape player into a boombox just because they both play tapes. Your examples don't help your argument in the slightest. The original figures were entirely different in every way. The Titans Return figures required making Soundwave a boombox, but the MP line isn't gong to turn Blaster into a tape player just to pump one out. Your third example isn't even an official release so I have no idea what that's supposed to prove.

The point of the third example, is to give an interpretation of how MP Blaster could scale and compare to MP Soundwave. It all depends what Takara/Hasbro will be going for with MP Blaster, toy accuracy or show accuracy. Tape player or Boombox, Cartoon Blaster wasn't Jetfire in comparison to Soundwave and an MP toy should reflect that.

Emerje wrote:

In my view a comparison could be made between Cheetor and Tigertron.

That's been argued to death. Takara Tomy doesn't hate us or the characters enough to try to force them into the same mold. Shadow Panther is our Cheetor repaint, not Tigatron.

No, no, no you misunderstand. I may only take interest in the latter half of G1, but when it comes to Beast Wars I know my stuff. Tigatron visually, is the same build as Cheetor, in bot form. Arms, legs, altmode layout etc Beast Wars made it clear that Cybertronian group molds were still in play EG the Spiders and the Cats. Much like the Seekers, Insecticons etc before them. The distinction with Beast Wars is that the dimensions of those bots in the same mold are dependent on the Beast Mode. Black Arachnia was a Spider Bot, like Tarantulas, however her overall size differed significantly due to an alternate Beast form. Tigertron is of the Cat Bot mold but due to being a white Tiger, dwarfs Cheetor in every way.

MP Tigertron and Black Arachnia won't be mere repaints, that wouldn't work anymore. It didn't really work with the original toys. However they should retain a basic level of design and structure with their base counterparts. In Bot Mode, Tigertron should look like an Oversized Cheetor, as he did in the show. His overall altmode will hopefully be retooled this time to match a White Tiger and not a "white Cheetah with a Tiger Face".

Same basic structure, varied altmode. That is what I was referring to. The comparison I was making. Shadow Panther/Tri-predicus Agent is the repaint, Tigertron should be a retool.

Emerje wrote:

He exclusively wants it MP only. He's already made a diorama using MP-10 Optimus and MP-36 Megatron and their final battle. He's about to buy MP-40 Hot Rod to finish the scene. He made another one of MP Soundwave carrying Megatron away, with Rumble carrying Megatron's Fusion Cannon. Although that's leading to no one anyway, given Astrotrain and the rest of the Triple Changers have as much chance of an MP appearance as a Gestalt.

Why MP-40? That's the "animation error" Targetmaster from Rebirth. He should go with the more accurate MP-28.

Emerje

He constantly alters these dioramas with the Newest toy. MP-5 Megatron and MP-9 "Hot Rod" were still used until very recently. He appreciates the MP collection is getting better and more intricate with each new release, so he adapts with little concern to colour scheme.

Isn't it past time for us to get a new prototype picture leak?


Of a real MP figure I mean, not one of the Movie bots.

AllNewSuperRobot wrote:

Emerje wrote:Except that Masterpiece isn't post G1, it's G1 proper which means it'll get the dedication it deserves. The only time they reuse a mold is when it makes sense like the three Datsuns (which all had different car parts, heads, and weapons, not just repaints) and the jets. They aren't going to turn a tape player into a boombox just because they both play tapes. Your examples don't help your argument in the slightest. The original figures were entirely different in every way. The Titans Return figures required making Soundwave a boombox, but the MP line isn't gong to turn Blaster into a tape player just to pump one out. Your third example isn't even an official release so I have no idea what that's supposed to prove.

The point of the third example, is to give an interpretation of how MP Blaster could scale and compare to MP Soundwave. It all depends what Takara/Hasbro will be going for with MP Blaster, toy accuracy or show accuracy. Tape player or Boombox, Cartoon Blaster wasn't Jetfire in comparison to Soundwave and an MP toy should reflect that.

It's a pretty safe bet that MP Blaster will be the same height as Soundwave. The MPs have been show accurate instead of toy accurate since Wheeljack in 2014 and they've gone back and repainted a few figures to be more cartoon accurate.

Same basic structure, varied altmode. That is what I was referring to. The comparison I was making. Shadow Panther/Tri-predicus Agent is the repaint, Tigertron should be a retool.

We're in agreement here, but it wont be as simple as a retool. It's what we like to call "shared engineering" since they'll have the same basic transformations, but require considerably different parts given the size discrepancies in both height and bulk. Thinking about it they might actually have to change the torso transformation entirely since Tigatron could probably get away with using the actual tiger head as his chest instead of a "fake chest" like Cheetor.

Ironhidensh wrote:Isn't it past time for us to get a new prototype picture leak?


Of a real MP figure I mean, not one of the Movie bots.

We don't usually get leaks from Takara Tomy, probably because they aren't afraid to announce things or show off prototypes early like Hasbro is. Wonder Festival 2018 Winter is Feb 18 (Toy Fair weekend) so we might get a teaser then. As Will mentioned earlier we know Hoist, Trailbreaker, and Beast Megatron are on the horizon.

Emerje

Ironhidensh wrote:Isn't it past time for us to get a new prototype picture leak?


Of a real MP figure I mean, not one of the Movie bots.

In less than 2 weeks we are getting new reveals at the biggest toy show in japan. There will probably be an MP there. Takara has waited to reveal MPs at toy shows in the past like Primal, Ratchet, Hot Rodimus and Shockwave.

william-james88 wrote:In less than 2 weeks we are getting new reveals at the biggest toy show in japan.

The Biggest toy show in Japan is Tokyo Toy Show in June. Wonder Festival is like the New York Comic Con of Japanese toy events. Takara Tomy didn't even start attending until a few years ago since WF is more of a collectors show and TT didn't fully embrace collectors until recently. I can't remember if Bandai has started attending WF or not, they usually hold their own Tamashii Nations event later.

But yes, they'll most certainly show something then.

Emerje