AllNewSuperRobot wrote:Indeed. But even the new mold cassette shares the same engineering, via alt mode, as the rest. The alt mode is in fact identical in size, shape and structural design. My rationale has always been, that some of these characters are rival pairs that should have been made with the other in mind. There shouldn't have been 34+ figures between these two.
But it's not a retool. Not even close. You're defeating your argument.
Putting their mold variation aside for a moment and focus on the rivalry aspect. Compare them to Optimus Prime and Megatron. Within the original MP line, they were separated by FOUR figures (MP-1 to MP-5). Even the "definitive" MP-36 to MP-44 is only eight. Would fans have been happy if they were 20 or 40 figures apart, regardless of popularity?
Since Takara's numbering system has no real rhyme or reason to it, I'm not sure it makes a difference.