The Energon Pub

Tracks suffers from an overly complicated leg transformation that is really fiddly combined with bad QC on the same legs.

william-james88 wrote:Let me know though. I know what makes MP tracks bad, but what makes Kingdom tracks so bad?

Kingdom Tracks isn’t bad. My only problem with it is that it needs more paint apps. It’s not just missing some toy sticker details, but a bunch of animation character model details too. As a figure, it looks the part in both modes. I think the transformation is clever. The legs aren’t bad at all. It’s just a newish mechanism that takes some time to learn. You have to manipulate two pivot points at once. It isn’t hard. The legs are pretty loose, though, so it’s a pain if you want to play with the figure, but if all you want to do is display it, there’s really no issue. A lot of people are just very averse to clear plastic too, just for fear of breakage, but I think it’s an overblown issue.

Being the weakest figure does not make him outright terrible. The legs are a big issue in both modes as both the tabs and the pegs are too shallow for any type of secure purchase.

Pushing the pins in helps but does not solve the issue entirely.

The Windshield roof section is super thin translucent plastic and the tightness with which it pegs into the hood pieces is concerning.

The MP just suffers a bit from over engineering. The transformation is a bit awkward.. But both modes are excellent and hold together fine. It's also interesting that they share a similar lower leg transformation with the floating foot. Though MP works much much better than Kingdom.

The simplicity of the G1 figure has yet to me matched.

The Reveal the Shield version is just fine.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Let me know though. I know what makes MP tracks bad, but what makes Kingdom tracks so bad?

Legs issues as I heard.
Still haven't transform it yet?

I have, hence my controversial statement(not that anyone loved the MP)

TF-fan kev777 wrote:Tracks suffers from an overly complicated leg transformation that is really fiddly combined with bad QC on the same legs.

I think 3 things are helping me here:

1. I got Rhinox first and those legs are waaaay more complicated to the point where they should have just stuck with the standard transformation of having his Rhino feet be his robot feet.

2. My Tracks comes from wave 4. Could it be that there was indeed a running change? True, the leg side panels don't tab in much but the friction on mine was ok enough that it didn't really cause a problem and the ankles are good and tight (but the hips are not)

3. I don't think I ever expected less from a Transfomer after reading all the criticism, so my expectations were low low low.

william-james88 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Let me know though. I know what makes MP tracks bad, but what makes Kingdom tracks so bad?

Legs issues as I heard.
Still haven't transform it yet?

I have, hence my controversial statement(not that anyone loved the MP)

I love mine. Maybe not as much as others, but I still have him when I sold off the majority of my Masterpiece collection. Then again, he is one of my sentimental favorites in the 'get the ones I had as a kid' department.

3. I don't think I ever expected less from a Transfomer after reading all the criticism, so my expectations were low low low.

If you ho by that, why are you buying anything at all?

sol magnus wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Let me know though. I know what makes MP tracks bad, but what makes Kingdom tracks so bad?

Legs issues as I heard.
Still haven't transform it yet?

I have, hence my controversial statement(not that anyone loved the MP)

I love mine. Maybe not as much as others, but I still have him when I sold off the majority of my Masterpiece collection. Then again, he is one of my sentimental favorites in the 'get the ones I had as a kid' department.

3. I don't think I ever expected less from a Transfomer after reading all the criticism, so my expectations were low low low.

If you ho by that, why are you buying anything at all?

I really love trying out new molds, I want to experience as many as I can. So I was always gonna get tracks

william-james88 wrote:

sol magnus wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Let me know though. I know what makes MP tracks bad, but what makes Kingdom tracks so bad?

Legs issues as I heard.
Still haven't transform it yet?

I have, hence my controversial statement(not that anyone loved the MP)

I love mine. Maybe not as much as others, but I still have him when I sold off the majority of my Masterpiece collection. Then again, he is one of my sentimental favorites in the 'get the ones I had as a kid' department.

3. I don't think I ever expected less from a Transfomer after reading all the criticism, so my expectations were low low low.

If you ho by that, why are you buying anything at all?

I really love trying out new molds, I want to experience as many as I can. So I was always gonna get tracks

Tracks turned out to be fine (for me), but he does have 'flaws.' The Masterpiece better captures his svelte form, whereas the Kingdom version seems a bit squat. Not enough for me to dislike it, but I see it every time I handle him (or Road Rage cuz yes mine showed up in the mail on Friday).

sol magnus wrote:Tracks turned out to be fine (for me), but he does have 'flaws.' The Masterpiece better captures his svelte form, whereas the Kingdom version seems a bit squat. Not enough for me to dislike it, but I see it every time I handle him (or Road Rage cuz yes mine showed up in the mail on Friday).

Tracks is supposed to be a bit squat. The MP got his cartoon proportions all wrong by making him slim and lanky.

Sabrblade wrote:

sol magnus wrote:Tracks turned out to be fine (for me), but he does have 'flaws.' The Masterpiece better captures his svelte form, whereas the Kingdom version seems a bit squat. Not enough for me to dislike it, but I see it every time I handle him (or Road Rage cuz yes mine showed up in the mail on Friday).

Tracks is supposed to be a bit squat. The MP got his cartoon proportions all wrong by making him slim and lanky.

Another point to the Kingdom toy!

My Tracks isn't bad. The pin on one leg is right where it should be and the other leg is just barely not in far enough, not enough to make me want to fix it. Everything is fairly tight.

Road Rage on the other hand is terrible. The pins on both legs need to be pushed in but are already showing some stress marks. While Tracks transformation is a little finnicky, Road Rage is downright frustrating. I'll be trying the fix as soon as I can find another in store near me just in case.

william-james88 wrote:Another point to the Kingdom toy!

That make the Kingdom deluxe superior to the MP.
I remember my MP Roadrage. Not only her legs were annoying, but that backpack was a total scrapyard.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Another point to the Kingdom toy!

That make the Kingdom deluxe superior to the MP.
I remember my MP Roadrage. Not only her legs were annoying, but that backpack was a total scrapyard.

I have some major beef with that MP. While I don't mind a backpack, the MP tried to do something where the backpack was integral to the character's build. So instead of it just being a backpack (like it is on the kingdom toy or on any other toy), that's where the robot arms were, and they connected to the body from the back with hinges on clear plastic. That would give 0 integrity to the figure and it was prone to just undo itself. It also made the figure look like it was just made of air, it made for a super weird effect.

The Kingdom one has gaps too, but at least the majority of the robot exists on the same plane/axis instead of not being clear on where his center of gravity should be.

william-james88 wrote:I have some major beef with that MP. While I don't mind a backpack, the MP tried to do something where the backpack was integral to the character's build.

The true Masterpiece tracks does not have a backpack!

Sculyblast wrote:The true Masterpiece tracks does not have a backpack!

Only missing the wings for the flight mode.

Sabrblade wrote:

sol magnus wrote:Tracks turned out to be fine (for me), but he does have 'flaws.' The Masterpiece better captures his svelte form, whereas the Kingdom version seems a bit squat. Not enough for me to dislike it, but I see it every time I handle him (or Road Rage cuz yes mine showed up in the mail on Friday).

Tracks is supposed to be a bit squat. The MP got his cartoon proportions all wrong by making him slim and lanky.

I wouldn't call that exactly squat, but he's even squatter on the Kingdom version. Again, it certainly isn't a deal breaker.

william-james88 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

william-james88 wrote:Another point to the Kingdom toy!

That make the Kingdom deluxe superior to the MP.
I remember my MP Roadrage. Not only her legs were annoying, but that backpack was a total scrapyard.

I have some major beef with that MP. While I don't mind a backpack, the MP tried to do something where the backpack was integral to the character's build. So instead of it just being a backpack (like it is on the kingdom toy or on any other toy), that's where the robot arms were, and they connected to the body from the back with hinges on clear plastic. That would give 0 integrity to the figure and it was prone to just undo itself. It also made the figure look like it was just made of air, it made for a super weird effect.

The Kingdom one has gaps too, but at least the majority of the robot exists on the same plane/axis instead of not being clear on where his center of gravity should be.

I'm sorry, what?

I think you are misremembering the MP. Nowhere do the arms connect to the backpack, and there is no actual translucent plastic on the arm hinges at all.

The arms connect to the a plate that has the hinge and rod that holds the backpack. Also, the robot arms are on the bottom of the car.

The one that had the arms inside the backpack, was the Reveal the Shield version.




Transformers Masterpiece Tracks Gallery

Overcracker wrote:The arms connect to the a plate that has the hinge and rod that holds the backpack.

Yeah thats what I was referring to, thanks for exllaining it better. Amd man, those pics give me PTSD, what a garbage connection that was.

Lol, found this short review of Tracks online:

I dunno which Tracks figure I was unhappier with: this one or the MP.
Well, I got rid of the MP.
This one? It’s a piece of crap, but it’s still better than the MP.

william-james88 wrote:

Overcracker wrote:The arms connect to the a plate that has the hinge and rod that holds the backpack.

Yeah thats what I was referring to, thanks for exllaining it better. Amd man, those pics give me PTSD, what a garbage connection that was.

But it makes even less sense. Both do a very similar thing with regards to the backpack.

The only difference is the rod on the Kingdom backpack is fixed in place and only rotates, and the MP has a hinge that lets it move up and down.

But the in the end they are pretty much the same thing.


I think this is a case of simply wanting the Kingdom version to be better than the MP with no actual basis in reality.

What's the deal with Tracks always having bad figures

If the imperfect Generations deluxe is pretty similar to the MP and the MP is no better than the flawed deluxe, then the MP is clearly doing something wrong... Or the deluxe took its inspiration in the wrong place.

Autobot N wrote:What's the deal with Tracks always having bad figures

Tracks clearly have a bad... track record!

Just because a figure isn’t the best of its peers, that doesn’t make it a bad figure. Kingdom Tracks is the best G1 Tracks figure available for a modern Generations style collection or display in terms of looking authentically like the character’s Sunbow cartoon model in both robot and alternate mode. However, if you only want a better toy of the character, the previous Reveal the Shield/United release of Tracks is the way to go.

Overcracker wrote:

william-james88 wrote:

Overcracker wrote:The arms connect to the a plate that has the hinge and rod that holds the backpack.

Yeah thats what I was referring to, thanks for exllaining it better. Amd man, those pics give me PTSD, what a garbage connection that was.

But it makes even less sense. Both do a very similar thing with regards to the backpack.

That's cause I aint just talking about the backpack, but the whole back section which is seperate from the front.

On the MP, the arms are seperate from the chest and end up attached during transformation. So they have a chance of being detached when handling him
But on the Kingdom one, the arms are fastenned to the chest with a pin, they are part of the main body, no risk of dtachment.
The MP is disjointed into segments that you attach together during transformation.

So no, the Kingdom one is definitely better made in that regards. The MP can go jump off a bridge.

My personal beef with the Kingdom Tracks mold is the wings being attached to the arms. I tend to prefer figures where the wings can be posed separately from another part that can be posed (arms in most cases, legs in others). Plus, I think the paint used for the faux windshield looks too off, and the red flame section, while Sunbow accurate, just looks awful to me