The Energon Pub

[Altertron]

for toys like the masterpieces, is it a very hard and brutal construction for the engineers to make days and months. i read somewhere on the web stating it took the designers 5 long years to make a optimus prime convoy. does it take that long? i mean it took 5 years for sony to develop a ps3. so what's so special about the masterpieces that made the designers to spend longer years? if that the truth, all the masterpiece collectors out there, your collection has great values and prestige

[Ravage XK]

As far as I know Masterpiece Prime took 3 years to develop. I doubt that this was 3 years of solid development. Chances are they knew the anniversary was approaching and wanted to get something ready, so it was 3 years of knowing it was needed.

Subsequent releases have been announced and released much faster. Masterpiece Megatrom is way more complicated than Prime and his turnaround time seemed very short.

[Sign Of The Cross]

It used to take car designers five years to design a new car. Probably still does. I doubt it takes that long to design Masterpieces. Sure resources are different, but come on five years! That is a bit much. I'd guess it took them one year.

[prowlstreak]

i can see the whole 5 years thingy true because i have the figure and the detail/transformation is astonishing so i agree that it would take that long prlly went through many different phases with that one

[Altertron]

when do you think the masterpiece serie will come to an end?

[Ravage XK]

when do you think the masterpiece serie will come to an end?

Hopefully never. Why would it, there are 1000's of designs out there that could be Masterpieced up. Its a slow burner, 1 or 2 figures a year, I think its the right way for this line to continue.

[Thanatos Prime]

when do you think the masterpiece serie will come to an end?

Hopefully never. Why would it, there are 1000's of designs out there that could be Masterpieced up. Its a slow burner, 1 or 2 figures a year, I think its the right way for this line to continue.

Plus if they ever decide enough with G1 (which will be what 30 years from now ) I wouldn't mind a Masterpiece Optimus Primal or BW Megatron...

[tentagil]

As far as I know Masterpiece Prime took 3 years to develop. I doubt that this was 3 years of solid development. Chances are they knew the anniversary was approaching and wanted to get something ready, so it was 3 years of knowing it was needed.

Subsequent releases have been announced and released much faster. Masterpiece Megatrom is way more complicated than Prime and his turnaround time seemed very short.

Your assuming that the figure's design work starts at the announcement point. Most likely they already have at least early prototype work done by the time they announce a figure. After saying that they are going to put out a figure in three to four years would end up with anticipation over kill. People would stop caring. Part of advertising is ensuring that you get just the right amount of build up to keep people interested without long lapses in information that cause them to forget and stop caring about the product.

Personally I'm going to guess around a two year production cycle from the original sign off on a project through design sketches, prototyping, Q/C and correction work, to actual full runs for shipping.

Figure the average time spent on main stream lines is roughly six months to a year the Masterpeices are going to take longer.