The Energon Pub

I was wondering the decision making as to how Takara/Hasbro chooses the scale of the figures. The skywarp and starscream (hasbro us versions) are much smaller than Prime. I don't own Grimlock but he looks accurate to G1 toy which is sweet. As for Megatron (which is the one i'm clueless too)... yeah it's sweet as i've always thought the walther gun was prob the coolest toy I've ever seen as a kid; but why did they make him a "masterpiece" that looks just like G1 toy... instead of going for G1 cartoon acurate like Prime. I don't know the scale of the Megs but i'm not interested owning him so I didn't research it. Man... G1 cartoon accurate Megs would be so much better.

Don't get me wrong going G1 on some toys (if and when made to masterpiece scale) looks great... Grimlock for example.. or if they did Devastator... he would prob be the most amazing toy ever. But if Prime was done that way... blah 12" of G1 Prime ok.. but G1 cartoon; as you all know is the sweetest toy.

As Megs is my issue... I immediately thought of a possible answer. It being Masterpiece Megs is prob like at least 6 inches tall... so when converted to walther gun... it's close to actual hangun size. ??? Sweet... but couldn't they have made hime cartoon acurate and still convert to gun?

MP Megs is pretty toon accurate. He looks much closer to the toon than he does the G1 toy. And he's the same size as Prime in bot mode.

samsworkshop11 wrote:As Megs is my issue... I immediately thought of a possible answer. It being Masterpiece Megs is prob like at least 6 inches tall... so when converted to walther gun... it's close to actual hangun size. ??? Sweet... but couldn't they have made hime cartoon acurate and still convert to gun?

I don't think there's an actual set scale for the Masterpiece line. The problem with Megatron is that his original toy already was a (close to) 1:1 scaled item, as that was Microchange's gimmick (the line Megatron came from). So they had to "cheat" with the design of the Masterpiece by making him larger than the real life item, in order to have him be as tall as Optimus. The animators of the cartoon also cheated by using the concept of "mass-shifting", the ability to change size. The same could go for:

- Soundwave
- Blaster
- Perceptor
- Reflector

MP Megs is actually about 1 1/2 times the size of the real weapon, whereas G1 Megs is about 2/3 the size.

They decide the actual scale based on the number of moving parts, amount (if any) of die-cast, and so on, but are willing to "fudge" numbers to fot their vision. For example, MP Megs is as tall as Prime, but has a LOT more complex transform and is not as massive; MP Grimlock has about the same difficulty of transform as Prime, nowhere near as difficult as Megs or Screamer, and not as much die-cast as Prime, but includes numerous add-on widgets.

Personallly, I think they should have been made all about the same height or so - yes, in the cartoon Screamer is SLIGHTLY shorter than Megs, but not that much, and Grimlock is taller than Prime, but it seems to vary.

I've only purchased an MP Starscream, and judging from how it measures up with my 1/60 scale Macross VF-1's, I'd say the Screamer's around 1/60 scale, but probably a bit larger.

To be honest, though, I don't think any of the TF's (MP or otherwise) are in scale, nor would it be feasible for them to be. Imagine how small Soundwave would have to be if he was in scale with, say, the current MP Starscream. On the other hand, characters like the Seekers would have to be ginormous to be in scale with Optimus, nevermind Megatron.

IMO, Takara designed the MP line to be as accurate to the sizes of the bot modes in the 1980's cartoon rather than real-life versions of their alt modes, the latter being nigh impossible to accomplish.

While the original animation is notorious for its mass-shifting, even Bayverse figures, which were based on a movie that supposedly paid so much attention to mass-accuracy, weren't all in scale with each other. One would think that the deluxe class Arcee triplets would be in scale with the other deluxe and voyager figs, but in truth only the HA figs looked scale-accurate next to them, and even then, they still too large for Sam or Mikaela to ride on them. So much for my plans on making a diorama of them chasing Sideways down an alley...

SKYWARPED_128 wrote:IMO, Takara designed the MP line to be as accurate to the sizes of the bot modes in the 1980's cartoon rather than real-life versions of their alt modes, the latter being nigh impossible to accomplish.

I disagree. In the cartoon, the Seekers are usually only a fraction smaller than Megs, maybe half a head, while Grimlock is usually a head TALLER (or more depending on the episode) than Optimus Prime.

Valandar wrote:I disagree. In the cartoon, the Seekers are usually only a fraction smaller than Megs, maybe half a head, while Grimlock is usually a head TALLER (or more depending on the episode) than Optimus Prime.

Now that you mentioned it, yeah. It's been such a long time since I've watched the 1980's animation, that I kind of forgot how the original TF's measured next to one another. I do remember the Seekers being around the same height as Megatron in the animation, but I didn't quite notice the difference in the MP figures since I only have MP Starscream, and I haven't seen any pics of the Screamer's and Megs' MP toys side by side.

Kibble wrote:MP Megs is pretty toon accurate. He looks much closer to the toon than he does the G1 toy. And he's the same size as Prime in bot mode.

Not to be argumentative but this is closer to what I mean...

Masterpiece:
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... 141/1/161/

Reissue: (couldnt' find G1 orignial in TF toy gallery, but same thing for sake of discussion)
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... 1601/1/88/

Revoltech ( I know it's revoltech but it's G1 Cartoon acurate to me... maybe i'm missing something)
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... 1189/1/23/

Masterpiece, G1 and Revoltech Prime and Megs (n Magnus)
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... 189/1/109/

The revoltech and MP Prime look G1 toon accurate as opposed to G1 Prime toy, but Megs is opposite.. I find him to be very far from G1 toon accurate and nearly identical to G1 toy Megs.

not a big matter as this:
http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... 1601/1/52/
IS STILL AN AMAZING TOY, I'm just now getting into MP and think Megs MP while STILL AMAZING I truely only prefer him in gun mode. As I assume nearly all that own him have him on shelf in Walther Gun mode and for that reason he is very tempting to own.

oh ... and as for scale. I'm cool with what they've decided. I just hope when the day comes and a Devastator is made he is fairly to scale; like 28inches! Devestator can be the G1 toy as he is very accurate to toon, but spruce him up a bit for MP. (Ga!!! like a $300-500 MP DEVY would cost! Time to save as he should be made...ONE DAY FINGERS CROSSED!)

And if they make Bumblebee... well if they do 6", 8" or even 12" of Bee i'm ok with it, just as long as it's the close to toon toy. Which is fairly close with the G1 bugs and up to new classics head sculp. He is all head sculp and that's all that needs to be made perfect. The rest of bee would be accurate either way they go. (or so it would seem) I'd prefer like 5 to 6" of Bee so Prime can hug him or even make a Mini Masterpiece Bee someday that you could set by OP, Megs ect would prove to show his scale as 7 foot bot as opposed to 2 to 3 story tall leaders.

p.s. I don't know the actual Bot to "real world" scale. Just remember Prime stating 2 stories tall in cartoons and bee being barely taller than Spike.

samsworkshop11 wrote:Not to be argumentative but this is closer to what I mean...

I suppose it's somewhere in between. There are definitely bulk sacrifices to make the alt mode look realistic, but I still think it looks more like the toon than the toy version. Maybe it's because the barrell wang on the G1 toy is so distracting and they were able to get that right on the MP... Actually I think they got the whole torso area and head right on the MP.

yeah. come to think of it the legs are prob the issue I have most with it. The head could be a bit better I think but still nice. torso up nice. The scope though...while bada$$ I would think it would extend a little past the shoulders all the way past his right hand. It's huge. But needed for the full Walther look.

For Megatron, the legs and arms are as large as the space they fit in could accommodate, sliding panels make them seem a little thicker, and the placement of the trigger adds a bit more dimension to the legs. While not totally toon accurate, you gotta give them points for being able to engineer a robot mode that comes pretty close, stands as tall as Masterpiece Convoy, and still folds up into a gun.
Why they decided to make Grimlock and the seekers so small is baffling to me, probably some measure they had to use to keep costs down, or maybe the designers were using Alternator/Binaltech robot modes for comparison, who knows? Whatever the case, I'm excited to see the next (non-repaint) MP down the line.

- Sam