The Energon Pub

Site sponsor Robotkingdom has updated their facebook page with some comparison shots of Takara's "First Edition" Transformers Prime figures compared to their Hasbro counterparts. Take a look below.

Robotkingdom pre-orders for these figures can be found here, they expect to start shipping on December 28th.

Here you can see the colour of the material is darker for all the yellow part of bumblebee.

The grey colour on the body and his wings changed to black and it gives him a cooler look.

Darker colour on his head, Front panel become grey rather than white.
The Red colour of the arms also become darker and more metallic, but it is hard to tell from the picture.

The blue colour on the leg turns into a more purple tone.

The grey colour on his shoulder is now closer to white.

The grey colour on his chest is darker.

The material becomes more shiny by metallic and darker, but it is hard to tell from the picture.]

I guess I don't need to say anything about him right?

Bulkhead looks fantastic, but the rest? Meh.

well what do you know takaras versions are better, never could've seen that one coming

I assume the Arcee are the same since they didn't do a comparison?

I like the Bulkhead. I might have to pick him up to go with my animated Takara Bulkhead since I love metallic green. I hope they make a classics version of Bulkhead like they did for Lugnut in RTS. Something with the same jugganaunt look but without the animated look.

OMG. The difference between the two Bulkhead figures is night and day!! I like the figure and it's a great upgrade from Animated but i have no interest in it or the character.

If i were to want it then that Takara version sure would be the one i'd spend the extra cheese on cause it is fantastic!

I'll be sticking with my first thoughts and only getting Optimus and BB from Takara.

I prefer both of their paintjobs on the imports, and both look more show accurate to me.

While Bulkhead is cool, I prefer the matte look of the Hasbro version. It fits the show's look and the character better.

I'm still on the fence about Cliffjumper and the Decepticon drone.

cool all around
but unless one of them goes on sale, i wont be seeing the TT versions anytime soon

Just for once, unless Hasbro did a complete fail of a job, why can't Takara just keep their color schemes identical to the Hasbro version? They should only make better versions if absolutely necessary, instead of doing so as often as they do and thus shaming Hasbro's decos. I'm sick of theirs being better.Either have Hasbro get it right on their own, or don't have Takara keep doing them abundant improvements. Not all of us can easily afford import prices for the best version.

Can we just get Takara to paint all TF's?

Sabrblade wrote:Just for once, unless Hasbro did a complete fail of a job, why can't Takara just keep their color schemes identical to the Hasbro version? They should only make better versions if absolutely necessary, instead of doing so as often as they do and thus shaming Hasbro's decos. I'm sick of theirs being better.Either have Hasbro get it right on their own, or don't have Takara keep doing them abundant improvements. Not all of us can easily afford import prices for the best version.

Agreed. The oneup-manship is tedious if not a wee bit egregious.

I'm going to be the opposing voice and say that the Takara version aren't the better product. Just like Animated before it, I don't like the shiny metallic look. It is most apparent why with Bulkhead, as it usually creates something that doesn't match the show and I want the most accurate looking figure I can buy. As with the rest of the figure, I in no way feel that the tiny little differences will ever warrant the inflated price.

All in all, not a fan of the metalic look, nor am I a fan of bloated prices. The time when Takara used to do everything better ended a few years ago, and I'm glad the domestic releases are finally showing up Takara's, or at least matching theirs.

I'm happy to pick and choose between the lines for what I feel is the better paint job. Takara gets my money for the Voyagers and possibly CJ and BB. The rest look fine from Hasbro IMO.

With the exception of Bulkhead the differences are so very subtle and yet definately better, in my opinion. I usually don't settle for anything I don't consider the best but I've really got to ponder whether these differences warrent the higher price tag.

Most of them are just tweaking a color or too for visial punch, except for Bulkhead. Primus does the Takara one look fine. If the mark up wasn't insane I'd get him.

I'm feeling a little screwed. What if they make a RiD Bulkhead that has a better color scheme?

I'm getting the Takara Voyager Prime but i coulden't care less about the others.

Cool to finally see some definitive comparisons. I'm definitely skipping all of the Takara ones though, since the Hasbro ones are good enough and way more affordable.

Extra paint apps, higher costs. Pure and simple. Some want their cake and eat it too. I for one just ordered the Tomy Optimus fig and hopefully once available Megatron. Already expected the extra cost but then its our hobby, no use bellyaching (just limiting my options that is with my available disposable income). And the mark up on the imports is just that, imports by 3rd party online stores. If Hasbro'd import them, they could keep the cost down what with their humongous cargo delivery ships. Most of the time, online stores have to deal with the likes of FedEx, EMS etc so they tend to be marked up plus the bottom line of the importers.

I for one would wish that there be a single, "united" version but the toy market in Japan is quite different than the US of A. Aside from the metallic finish, some might have chrome applications( in general and not necessarily this line) so there'd be child safety laws to deal with thanks to the litigious business/consumer environment of America.

On the Q.C. portion of the debate, the Tomy versions do look great in presentation but given my recent experiences with their product, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my version would be free from defects.

I have a Takara deluxe Megatron in my pile of loot with BBTS.
I'm thinking of cancelling him in favor of the Takara CJ or another one as I'm thinking now that the deluxe Mega will not scale with anything but deluxe Prime, who I wont be getting as I have voyager prime which scales with the other deluxes. I'm having a hard time telling the differences from the pics aside from Prime and the obvious Bulk and Vehicon. Does anyone know how the Takara CJ compares to the Hasbro version?
Opinions welcome.

I have a TT Bulkhead to go into my Classics shelf and a Hasbro one to go onto my Animated shelf. I think Hasbro, for the most part, is doing a good job in keeping their figs show accurate.

Also, I see the difference in Megatron's shoulder as pointed out in the pics by the OP, but does anyone know if the grey/silver paint that covers most of his body is any different between the two?
Thanks.