The Energon Pub

With Masterpiece Bumblebee coming out soon, I realized that the figure was announced nearly 1.5 years ago, which seems to be on par for new MP molds. At this rate, we are not going to be seeing a new MP mold for a while after Star Saber. Is this a sign that the series is slowing down, or that 2015 will be filled with MP repaints?

Don't forget Ultra Magnus.

Takara seems to plan ahead by about 3~5 MPs at a time. We had Optimus, Starscream, Sideswipe/Red Alert and Soundwave. The next round was Prowl/Bluestreak/Smokescreen and this latest round consists of (so far) Wheeljack, Bumblebee and Ultra Magnus.

Of course I'm not counting the Ehobby exclusive releases, Hasbro's domestic releases or Star Saber (a special edition MP for the 30th anniversary and whatnot), just the primary Takara retail releases.

I assume that around the time Ultra Magnus gets released we'll start hearing about the next round of MPs, which hopefully/likely will be a few Decepticons to bolster their ranks a bit, although for season 1 that's tough without doing a new Megatron, a Shockwave (might not be possible due to licensing) or combiners so we might instead get Iron Hide/Ratchet, Hoist/Trailbreaker and Grapple/Inferno, which would be nice since those are all repaints/retools but would mean that 3 new molds/releases almost instantly become 6, which I'm sure Takara is pleased about since it's far less expensive and time consuming to do a retool/repaint than it is to do an entirely new/unique mold/figure.

I would think MP-25 would be a nice number for Megatron 2.0. I am sure we will hear more toward the end or first of the year.

I'm expecting Jazz and Ironhide/Ratchet soon enough but what I really want is an Arcee. It could come with a Daniel in exosuit the turns into a non-combining head. Plus, Paradron Medic repaint potential.

I just want Jazz. Period.

xyl360 wrote:Hasbro's domestic releases or Star Saber (a special edition MP for the 30th anniversary and whatnot), just the primary Takara retail releases.

Hasbro is releasing Star Saber? Did I miss something?

dukefett wrote:

xyl360 wrote:Hasbro's domestic releases or Star Saber (a special edition MP for the 30th anniversary and whatnot), just the primary Takara retail releases.

Hasbro is releasing Star Saber? Did I miss something?

You misread: xyl did not count the Hasbro releases, nor Star Saber, nor the exclusive repaints.

Oh sorry I read the 'or' as 'of'. I was shocked there for a minute haha.

I wouldnt worry, Takara releases only a handful of masterpieces a year so it makes sense that we dont know so much in advance. Like Cobotron Said, Ultra Magnus is coming. There is even rumours of an updated Megatron due to their recent reissue of the mold (which should also count as an ligitimate upcoming masterpiece release regardless of the fan reaction). And there is also Star Sabre, making this 3 known upcoming Masterpiec releases besides Bumblebee. So from the way I see it, things are the same as usual.

Edit: There is also exhaust coming out, so yeah, plenty of masterpieces.

I imagine we'll hear news about a new MP sometime after Ultra Magnus is released.


Maybe even sooner.

Robogeek1973 wrote:I imagine we'll hear news about a new MP sometime after Ultra Magnus is released.


Maybe even sooner.

Sooner

Yeah I here that a Skywarp repaint is comming out for takara. I'd really like to see some insecticons or constructicons

A Reflector would kick all sorts of ass. You know, an actual transforming one with 3 separate bots and even a toy accurate version. Not a small accessory for a pimp pistol.

skynet1O1 wrote:Yeah I here that a Skywarp repaint is comming out for takara. I'd really like to see some insecticons or constructicons

Actually, Skywarp is a Hasbro Asia release, not a TakTom release.


That's why he's so damn pricey.

Robogeek1973 wrote:

skynet1O1 wrote:Yeah I here that a Skywarp repaint is comming out for takara. I'd really like to see some insecticons or constructicons

Actually, Skywarp is a Hasbro Asia release, not a TakTom release.


That's why he's so damn pricey.

Why would that be pricier than Takara? The Hasbro asian rerelease of MP 10 is at least 100$ cheaper than the upcoming TakTom rerelease of MP 10.

william-james88 wrote:

Robogeek1973 wrote:

skynet1O1 wrote:Yeah I here that a Skywarp repaint is comming out for takara. I'd really like to see some insecticons or constructicons

Actually, Skywarp is a Hasbro Asia release, not a TakTom release.


That's why he's so damn pricey.

Why would that be pricier than Takara? The Hasbro asian rerelease of MP 10 is at least 100$ cheaper than the upcoming TakTom rerelease of MP 10.

I'm not sure why that makes it pricier, but if you'll look at the Asian reissues that have come out recently (Starscream, Sideswipe, Red Alert) you'll notice that not only are they more expensive, but they weren't sold at Japanese sites either.

The Asian rerelease of Prime is of the TRU version (in the U.S packaging), and is around $20-$30 more than when he was initially released over here.

Robogeek1973 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Robogeek1973 wrote:

skynet1O1 wrote:Yeah I here that a Skywarp repaint is comming out for takara. I'd really like to see some insecticons or constructicons

Actually, Skywarp is a Hasbro Asia release, not a TakTom release.


That's why he's so damn pricey.

Why would that be pricier than Takara? The Hasbro asian rerelease of MP 10 is at least 100$ cheaper than the upcoming TakTom rerelease of MP 10.

I'm not sure why that makes it pricier, but if you'll look at the Asian reissues that have come out recently (Starscream, Sideswipe, Red Alert) you'll notice that not only are they more expensive, but they weren't sold at Japanese sites either.

The Asian rerelease of Prime is of the TRU version (in the U.S packaging), and is around $20-$30 more than when he was initially released over here.

I knew he was slightly more expensive than his initial release in america (which I cough up to import costs) but I was simply comparing him to the takara release. Also, the examples you are giving are not of Habsro asia reissues, they are of Takara releases. That Starscream was a takara release, not a hasbro one, so obviously it costs more, I think you are confusing the two. And of course the Hasbro Prime wouldnt sell in Japan, he is for the asian market only, not Japan, they get the takara release. (and Japan is independent of the Asian market)

I think we are confusing people here so let me write it out below all clear:

In most cases (there are exceptions, like Prowl) the Takara release is the most expensive while the Hasbro release is cheaper. Hasbro releases in America are cheaper than Asia market Hasbro release due to the import fee to buy them elsewhere than asia.

Hence why Takara MP 10 costs more than Asia release Hasbro MP 10 which costs more than America released Hasbro MP 10.

I got some news from a friend of mine stationed in japan... he is not a real big transfan but he gets me stuff and ships it to me... he has heard rumblings about galvatron. lets not take this as a fact, but we can hope.

I don't see why Star Saber wouldn't count as an upcoming. Sure it was the result of a fan poll, but it was still made to MP scale with a unique MP number. That would be like saying Windblade isn't a Generations Deluxe figure because it was fan designed despite being sold as one.

There is no "import fee" for Hasbro's Asia exclusives, they're made right in China just like everything else. If anything they should be cheaper. But that's not how pricing works. Prices are determined by what the local market is willing to pay for something. The Japanese market is willing to pay a lot more, the American market a lot less. The Asian market sits somewhere in between.

Gold Megatron is an Asia exclusive that won't be sold in Japan so it shouldn't count as a Japanese MP any more than a Hasbro release would be. I also wouldn't read too much into its release indicating anything about a new Megatron since Transformers Asia is a third party distributor (basically a big fan club) separate from Takara and Hasbro that commissions exclusive pieces from both companies. They would be the ones that came up with the idea of gold Megatron in the first place. Think of them as being a lot like the Transformers Collectors Club, but with more freedom to use popular characters since their market doesn't impact sales in the US or Japanese market.

Takara Tomy seems to typically do MP releases at the beginning and end of the year with an exclusive in the middle. They have Exhaust and Star Saber ready for early 2015, I'm thinking we'll see Goldbug and/or Cliffjumper this time next year. We've been a bit spoiled with all of these MP releases, there was a time when we would only get one or two a year.

Is there a new Takara Tomy MP-10 reissue coming, I might have missed that news. Honestly I wish they would do an MP-10 without the trailer like they did with MP-10B. I don't need another useless plastic box that takes up too much space on the shelf and will just end up back in the package.

As far as what else we might see announced I'm thinking a Powered Convoy out of Ultra Magnus will happen since 2014 will be the 35th anniversary of Diaclone. It would make up for skipping all of the other anniversaries (which they barely celebrated the 20th with the reissue Ultra Magnus repaint).

Emerje

Emerje wrote:
Is there a new Takara Tomy MP-10 reissue coming, I might have missed that news. Honestly I wish they would do an MP-10 without the trailer like they did with MP-10B. I don't need another useless plastic box that takes up too much space on the shelf and will just end up back in the package.

Yup, next year in April, it was in this news post

Actually, that post is perfect for this thread since it pretty much answers it. Here are the 4 upcoming Takara reissues of 2015:

Emerje wrote:There is no "import fee" for Hasbro's Asia exclusives, they're made right in China just like everything else. If anything they should be cheaper.

Just to be clear and you don't think of me as a dufus, I was talking about a fee when these are purchased in the states. I said that Asia market releases sold in the states cost more than US releases sold in the states. Since asia market exclusives are not sold in the US (by definition), they must be imported, hence an extra cost that raises how much it costs in the states. Was this clearer?

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:
Is there a new Takara Tomy MP-10 reissue coming, I might have missed that news. Honestly I wish they would do an MP-10 without the trailer like they did with MP-10B. I don't need another useless plastic box that takes up too much space on the shelf and will just end up back in the package.

Yup, next year in April, it was in this news post

Oh, that's right, I did completely forget about that.

Emerje wrote:There is no "import fee" for Hasbro's Asia exclusives, they're made right in China just like everything else. If anything they should be cheaper.

Just to be clear and you don't think of me as a dufus, I was talking about a fee when these are purchased in the states. I said that Asia market releases sold in the states cost more than US releases sold in the states. Since asia market exclusives are not sold in the US (by definition), they must be imported, hence an extra cost that raises how much it costs in the states. Was this clearer?

OK, I get it now. I thought you were saying the Asia exclusives were more expensive because they were being shipped in from somewhere else which obviously wouldn't be the case for China at least.

I forgot to point out something else:

Robogeek1973 wrote:

skynet1O1 wrote:Yeah I here that a Skywarp repaint is comming out for takara. I'd really like to see some insecticons or constructicons

Actually, Skywarp is a Hasbro Asia release, not a TakTom release.


That's why he's so damn pricey.

No, it's a Takara Tomy release, says so right on the box. Transformers Asia gets their exclusives from both companies.

Emerje

william-james88 wrote:

Emerje wrote:
Is there a new Takara Tomy MP-10 reissue coming, I might have missed that news. Honestly I wish they would do an MP-10 without the trailer like they did with MP-10B. I don't need another useless plastic box that takes up too much space on the shelf and will just end up back in the package.

Yup, next year in April, it was in this news post

Actually, that post is perfect for this thread since it pretty much answers it. Here are the 4 upcoming Takara reissues of 2015:

Emerje wrote:There is no "import fee" for Hasbro's Asia exclusives, they're made right in China just like everything else. If anything they should be cheaper.

Just to be clear and you don't think of me as a dufus, I was talking about a fee when these are purchased in the states. I said that Asia market releases sold in the states cost more than US releases sold in the states. Since asia market exclusives are not sold in the US (by definition), they must be imported, hence an extra cost that raises how much it costs in the states. Was this clearer?

@wj88

I posted a query about that report. One of the mods in Cybertronphils who goes by the name Protoform-S stated that aside from MP-10, the rest of the report is fake.

[quote author="@admin" source="/post/559180/thread" timestamp="1401284300"][quote source="/post/559171/thread" timestamp="1401264084" author="@bigisland"]Does anyone know if Takara has any plans to release the MP-11 mold as Thundercracker and Skywarp?

Do I need to start hunting for that Hasbro (MP-11 mold) Thundercracker?[/quote]as of now, no news.

Takara's plans for next year changed drastically. It is the reason why so many Grimlocks are getting reissued.

also, some not so good news. the picture showing the supposed reissues of starscream, lambor & red alert are fake. the only reissue happening is MP10 and it will be released in the Taiwan market.[/quote]

So which is true and false?