The Energon Pub

by **kiwijinxter** » Fri Dec 07, 2018 5:37 pm

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:What about the stupid exposed toes in altmode?

Haha, that too but that doesn't bother me as much as the chest/arm articulation...

News Credits: 9 · by **Hip-Hoptimus Rime** » Fri Dec 07, 2018 8:58 pm

The big flat panels on the arms are unfortunate, but Movie Ironhide is one of my favorite characters/figures, so he's a buy.

by **kiwijinxter** » Fri Dec 07, 2018 10:21 pm

Hip-Hoptimus Rime wrote:The big flat panels on the arms are unfortunate, but Movie Ironhide is one of my favorite characters/figures, so he's a buy.

True, they could've done what they did with Masterpiece MPM-4 Optimus Prime like this:

: MPM Optimus Prime arms.jpg (26.35 KiB) Viewed 130330 times

by **ZeldaTheSwordsman** » Fri Dec 07, 2018 10:56 pm

They could have... if there wasn't so much of the sides Ironhide's cabin there.

by **kiwijinxter** » Fri Dec 07, 2018 11:13 pm

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:They could have... if there wasn't so much of the sides Ironhide's cabin there.

I think Takara Tomy / Hasbro should just hire the Unique Toys engineers...!

by **ZeldaTheSwordsman** » Fri Dec 07, 2018 11:43 pm

Honestly, their own are fully capable. I just think they phoned this one in, maybe over-relied on DOTM Leader Ironhide as a reference and in all the wrong ways.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Sat Dec 08, 2018 2:14 am

Most likely they didn't think he was popular enough to already be such an expensive figure so they cut a few corners in the engineering to save some money on the back end. They were probably right.

Emerje

by **ZeldaTheSwordsman** » Sat Dec 08, 2018 2:52 am

IMO they cut corners to the point of this being a waste of their investment.

by **kiwijinxter** » Sat Dec 08, 2018 4:47 am

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:Honestly, their own are fully capable. I just think they phoned this one in, maybe over-relied on DOTM Leader Ironhide as a reference and in all the wrong ways.

You may be right there

by **kiwijinxter** » Sat Dec 08, 2018 4:50 am

Emerje wrote:Most likely they didn't think he was popular enough to already be such an expensive figure so they cut a few corners in the engineering to save some money on the back end. They were probably right.

Emerje

Nah I think their engineers dropped everything to work on the $450 MP-44 Optimus Prime... :ic$:

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Sat Dec 08, 2018 7:15 am

kiwijinxter wrote:
Emerje wrote:Most likely they didn't think he was popular enough to already be such an expensive figure so they cut a few corners in the engineering to save some money on the back end. They were probably right.

Emerje

Nah I think their engineers dropped everything to work on the $450 MP-44 Optimus Prime...

You know, I'm not even sure if the same people that do MPM are the same that do MP. :-?

There's a lot of figures at that level being worked on at the same time so it feels like there'd be two teams. Either way, I'm pretty sure Ironhide was in the works before Prime was as his release schedule was thrown all out of whack by MPM VW Bee.

Emerje

by **kiwijinxter** » Sat Dec 08, 2018 1:23 pm

You know, I'm not even sure if the same people that do MPM are the same that do MP. There's a lot of figures at that level being worked on at the same time so it feels like there'd be two teams. Either way, I'm pretty sure Ironhide was in the works before Prime was as his release schedule was thrown all out of whack by MPM VW Bee.

Emerje

I was just kidding

News Credits: 25 · by **Ironhidensh** » Sun Dec 09, 2018 10:19 pm

So.....not really hearing good things about this guy with folks starting to get him in hand.

I think he is being moved to my "wait till next years black Friday sales" list.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Mon Dec 10, 2018 8:49 am

kiwijinxter wrote:
You know, I'm not even sure if the same people that do MPM are the same that do MP. There's a lot of figures at that level being worked on at the same time so it feels like there'd be two teams. Either way, I'm pretty sure Ironhide was in the works before Prime was as his release schedule was thrown all out of whack by MPM VW Bee.

Emerje

I was just kidding

I wasn't.

I know there's people out there that are certainly going to think MP-44 pulled resources away from other MPs. There are examples of that happening in lines with waves and series, but those things don't exist in MP. I really do think it's the character itself that influences how much effort they put into it these days.

Emerje

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Mon Dec 10, 2018 7:33 pm

Ironhidensh wrote:So.....not really hearing good things about this guy with folks starting to get him in hand.

I think he is being moved to my "wait till next years black Friday sales" list.

I've seen a few people talk about him as well, but I really don't put much stock in a few of the people anymore, they are particularly very fiddly with these toys.

Still looking forward to him. Maybe he'll be my January MP since Megs is now in April. Hmm, wonder what happened to HTS selling him in August?

by **kiwijinxter** » Tue Dec 11, 2018 1:24 am

Emerje wrote:
I wasn't. I know there's people out there that are certainly going to think MP-44 pulled resources away from other MPs. There are examples of that happening in lines with waves and series, but those things don't exist in MP. I really do think it's the character itself that influences how much effort they put into it these days.

Emerje

Well for what it's worth after researching much I noted that people are complaining about it not coming together, tabbing doesn't 100% connect everywhere, so I think I'll give this a miss and go for Unique Toys' Peru Kill.

News Credits: 3595 · by **Seibertron** » Tue Dec 11, 2018 1:57 am

kiwijinxter wrote:
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:What about the stupid exposed toes in altmode?

Haha, that too but that doesn't bother me as much as the chest/arm articulation...

Exposed toes in alt mode takes away the "Masterpiece" aspect of this toy for me, which is a bummer because it's a good looking toy aside from that.

by **ZeldaTheSwordsman** » Tue Dec 11, 2018 2:26 am

Seibertron wrote:
kiwijinxter wrote:
ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:What about the stupid exposed toes in altmode?

Haha, that too but that doesn't bother me as much as the chest/arm articulation...

Exposed toes in alt mode takes away the "Masterpiece" aspect of this toy for me, which is a bummer because it's a good looking toy aside from that.

It looks especially godawful and phoned-in on a Bayformer

News Credits: 127 · by **Counterpunch** » Mon Dec 17, 2018 12:16 pm

So, reviewing a lot of footage from the films...

+The arm kibble is mostly screen accurate.
+The shoulder orientation being mostly behind the wheel assembly also seems to be accurate, but in some shots it's definitely more on the side. Hard to tell. I'm assuming they had the models to work off of.

I don't think the transformation is hard at all. I was really surprised to see so many people griping over it online. This is no MPM-4 by any stretch. I'm not sure how anyone was missing the lock points in the shoulder assembly...

He does the whole squat-boi look of Ironhide well and his head articulation is top notch for expressiveness.

I like him but I don't love him and I really wanted to love this toy. I very much fear that a KO of this dude will hit in a few months that drastically improves the build quality and makes slight improvements that resolve all of the problems the figure had, much like MPM-4.

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Mon Dec 17, 2018 7:27 pm

I'm still looking forward to him. And I'm glad to hear someone had some good luck with the Transformation. I discredit several people consistently who claim the transformations are hard (mainly cause they hate movie figures/toys and they are whiny) so it's good to hear positive things.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 8:40 am

D-Maximal_Primal wrote:I'm still looking forward to him. And I'm glad to hear someone had some good luck with the Transformation. I discredit several people consistently who claim the transformations are hard (mainly cause they hate movie figures/toys and they are whiny) so it's good to hear positive things.

Transformers reviews on online stores are some of the worst things to read. Check out this Power Charge BB review. It's ridiculous what some people consider difficult transformations.

Emerje

News Credits: 25 · by **Ironhidensh** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 9:04 am

I enjoy a difficult transformation, hence why I just bought Unique Toys Challenger a few minutes ago. I worry more about tabbing issues with these MPM figures. Glad to hear this one sounds okay.

I still want it, but I want to wait for a good deal on it. I was mad as hell at myself when I saw Barricase going for sub 50 bucks.

News Credits: 1642 · by **D-Maximal_Primal** » Tue Dec 18, 2018 8:28 pm

Ironhidensh wrote:I enjoy a difficult transformation, hence why I just bought Unique Toys Challenger a few minutes ago. I worry more about tabbing issues with these MPM figures. Glad to hear this one sounds okay.

I still want it, but I want to wait for a good deal on it. I was mad as hell at myself when I saw Barricase going for sub 50 bucks.

I'm waiting too, as we have yet to hear word on the Hasbro release, which will surely be around $100 as that was what he was originally listed at.

And Emerje, I've seen the reviews on the toy, there was one on HTS too. It's amazing to me that a giant sturdy Bee toy with big moving parts is such an issue for people.

by **wilcosu35** » Thu Dec 20, 2018 12:55 am

Ok, so i've had mine since yesterday evening. I've transformed it twice now. The first time i couldn't get the front to come together at all. The second i had Emgo's transform video on for assistance. I had it almost finished, but the hood sections wouldn't come together at all and whenever i put a peg in, another one springs loose again. I've done MP-36 multiple times and even on the first go, i didn't have any issues with him.
In bot mode, there's the floaty-shoulders thing, but i'm more annoyed by the forearm panels not tabbing in. There's a peg, and you can push it in, but it doesn;t click or stay in place.
Also, the attachment pegs of the cannons are quite loose, there's not much friction.
He looks cool in bot mode and will stay that way because he's not good at being a transformer.
Awesome figure in concept, flawed in execution.

A far as the instructions go, they're at least better to read than the dark print on dark paper that we got for Bee.