New Flame Toys Model Kits Include Arcee, BW Megatron, Gilthor and More

Ok, that Arcee will be preordered as soon as she becomes available, I still need to build my Windblade though

That Megatron looks AWESOME!

That Arcee is bought the second the preorder goes up! Can't wait for her to be delayed for another year because puritans complain about her!

That shockwave is a pass.

That Gilthor looks awesome, I don't really do model kits but I am interested in picking it up because I don't think there'll probably be any other merch of it that goes for such a deep cut! I've always loved the design and was sad there wasn't something of it.
The dynamic styling already works super well for a character from a very stylised art style for its design.

Kinda wish that one was up for preorder already but I also don't mind delays to make sure it's perfect. Selling generic-anime-girl-body Arcee first is a pretty wise choice at getting the extra funding, heh.

grimdragon2001 wrote:Ok, that Arcee will be preordered as soon as she becomes available, I still need to build my Windblade though

I'm in the exact same boat. That Arcee is a must. Very anime style and will looks amazing with Windblade. I expect a Nightshadow to pop in as well sooner or later.

I also have to get off my lazy ass and build both my Bumblebee and Windblade already.

Arcee reminds me a lot the female androids from "Phantasy Star Online".
Gilthor/Guiltaur is a strange proposal.

Arcee looks both interesting yet problematic at the same time. I'm surprised the full design, as-is, was greenlighted, considering that a significant amount of the community were unhappy with similar designs prior.

primalxconvoy wrote:Arcee looks both interesting yet problematic at the same time. I'm surprised the full design, as-is, was greenlighted, considering that a significant amount of the community were unhappy with similar designs prior.

If by "The community" you mean Twitter Warriors who wouldn't have spent a dime on Transformers of any kinds, you're right.

She's sooooooooooooooo problematic.

Like ham for a Muslim or shoes for someone with no legs.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:Arcee looks both interesting yet problematic at the same time. I'm surprised the full design, as-is, was greenlighted, considering that a significant amount of the community were unhappy with similar designs prior.

If by "The community" you mean Twitter Warriors who wouldn't have spent a dime on Transformers of any kinds, you're right.

She's sooooooooooooooo problematic.

Like ham for a Muslim or shoes for someone with no legs.

This just tells me that Windblade sold exceptionally well. More than likely all the talk of her being "problematic" pushed her to everyone's view, even those who either were uninterested or never heard of Flame Toys' works and got them interested. Controversy does sell after all. I have a feeling if Arcee gets as many people talking as Windblade did, she'll sell gangbusters and Flame Toys knows it now.

My thing with Arcee is, she's looking very armoured really.

man that megatron is looking dope. been thinking of some non transforming bots i might get after i stop collecting. this may make the list if price was right

griftimus prime wrote:man that megatron is looking dope. been thinking of some non transforming bots i might get after i stop collecting. this may make the list if price was right

I might get that Megs along with the more 'normal' looking Prime kit along with the Gilthor figure, they'd look pretty cool together methinks.

Really liking the Arcee. Just got Windblade today, coincidentally. Only thing is I think her eyes are kinda dull in color. Could really use like a silver sticker or something in back to make ‘em pop.

Megatron looks pretty good, and Gilthor is a very interesting inclusion that I really like, way to go

grimdragon2001 wrote:Ok, that Arcee will be preordered as soon as she becomes available, I still need to build my Windblade though

Ditto.

That BW Megatron looks really cool; very primal and bestial.

Also very pleasantly surprised by Gilthor. Maybe we'll get him as a Selects too if this sells well? Hopefully this also means they'll start betting on other, more obscure characters. I'd love to see their take on Autobot X, Halonix Maximus and Transmutate, for example.

grimdragon2001 wrote:

-Kanrabat- wrote:

primalxconvoy wrote:Arcee looks both interesting yet problematic at the same time. I'm surprised the full design, as-is, was greenlighted, considering that a significant amount of the community were unhappy with similar designs prior.

If by "The community" you mean Twitter Warriors who wouldn't have spent a dime on Transformers of any kinds, you're right.

She's sooooooooooooooo problematic.

Like ham for a Muslim or shoes for someone with no legs.

This just tells me that Windblade sold exceptionally well. More than likely all the talk of her being "problematic" pushed her to everyone's view, even those who either were uninterested or never heard of Flame Toys' works and got them interested. Controversy does sell after all. I have a feeling if Arcee gets as many people talking as Windblade did, she'll sell gangbusters and Flame Toys knows it now.

I can actually point out a few issues I had with the original Windblade announcement, which I think this Arcee managed to avoid:
- Silhouette is very important to make a character distinctive by shape alone (for reference, try to picture a shadow of Batman withouth the cape or the cowl ears), and a big part of Windblade's is her wings (there's a reason why even in Cyberverse, where the wings are usually retracted, every promotional material has them deployed). So when the original model had them so minimalized, it was pretty clear they were more concerned with making a sexy robot than a (sexy or not) Windblade. Meanwhile, Arcee already had minimal kibble, and this model is perfectly sized and shaped to her usual design; the only way it could be misrepresented would be if it were smaller than her torso.
- Posing is extremely important to establish a character's personality. If I remember correctly, the male characters in that announcement all had a single generic "hip-thrust" power pose, while Windblade had two poses...a daintly walk and a literal boobs-n-butt Escher pose. So, the guys were generic strong guys, while the girl was basically eye candy. Arcee, on the other hand, has a variety of poses and while some are sexy others are clearly combat-ready, especially when using the guns, so even when emphasising her sexuality they don't ignore her capacity as a warrior.

I'm not too happy with Arcee's price. Windblade is $50. Arcee is $65. Arcee can easily be repainted into Paradron Medic & Nightbird. Or if you just want a bunch of sexy gynoids you could repaint her into any colors you like. But at these prices buying more than 1 isn't a good idea.

I'm a huge fan of Hajime Sorayama's Sexy Robots. I've been wanting figures like these for decades. Now we finally have them & they're unaffordable. No way I can buy a bunch of them to repaint. If somebody made an entire line of sexy robot girls I would drop everything else & only collect them. But not for these insane prices.

These things don't transform which means they have less parts & less engineering. There is no reason to be charging so damn much. And they're only around 7" tall, the same size as a Masters Of The Universe Masterverse figure which are only $20-$30.

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:These things don't transform which means they have less parts & less engineering.

I take it you've never built a model kit before because if you had you'd know this isn't true! Model kits are their own kind of engineering feats that can't be compared to off the shelf figures. The parts counts are incredibly high because they tend to break down the colors into parts rather than paint ops. Your average Transformer figure head is two or three pieces if they have light piping, but model kits like these tend to have several pieces for the face, eyes, front and back halves of the head, and any additional ornaments like antennae and fringes. Some have multiple heads or multiple faces to swap. Even unarticulated hands are often two parts. That Arcee model probably has as high or higher of a parts count as any Titan.

Emerje

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:I'm not too happy with Arcee's price. Windblade is $50. Arcee is $65.

Blame the price increase on the current gaz price. Our hobby will be exponentially expensive. That's a fact.

So we'll have no choice but to become selective in what we buy.

Emerje wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:These things don't transform which means they have less parts & less engineering.

I take it you've never built a model kit before because if you had you'd know this isn't true! Model kits are their own kind of engineering feats that can't be compared to off the shelf figures. The parts counts are incredibly high because they tend to break down the colors into parts rather than paint ops. Your average Transformer figure head is two or three pieces if they have light piping, but model kits like these tend to have several pieces for the face, eyes, front and back halves of the head, and any additional ornaments like antennae and fringes. Some have multiple heads or multiple faces to swap. Even unarticulated hands are often two parts. That Arcee model probably has as high or higher of a parts count as any Titan.

Emerje

You Transformers collectors will say anything to justify your addiction. You'll make a million excuses so you never have to admit that you're getting ripped off. The 1 thing a Transformers collector can never do is admit they're getting ripped off. But no matter what you say, the end product is not worth the absolutely *STUPID* prices they're charging. If these were $200 or $300 you would still defend it.

If we were kids right now & asked our parents to buy one of these kits for $50 or $60 most of us would get laughed right out of the room. Because our parents had sense. Something most adult toy collectors these days do not have.

These prices suck balls if you want to buy multiples & repaint them. And a $15 price hike between Windblade & Arcee goes way beyond "inflation". Normal inflation doesn't jump that high that fast.

Where do you draw the line? $50 for Windblade. $65 for Arcee. $80 for the next one? When does it ever stop???

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:Where do you draw the line? $50 for Windblade. $65 for Arcee. $80 for the next one? When does it ever stop???

You are only "ripped off" when you buy a thing for an absurd price that you could have bought elsewhere for way cheaper. Best example, buying a thing from an eBay scalper when you could just have bought it from BBTS or Amazon for example.

If a thing is at regular price in store and everywhere it's that price, you are NOT being "ripped off". It's it's price. Even if the thing is a smelly used diaper for 1000$. You want that smelly used diaper? Pay the 1000$. You don't want it? You don't buy it.

It's simple economics.

And beside, value of a thing is in the eye of the consumer. If in YOUR eye the thing is not worth the asked price, you don't buy it. But it doesn't mean that someone else shouldn't buy it.
That's a simple rule you, and we, apply to everything that cost something.

That's why a guy buy "overpriced" collectible while he won't buy any clothes outside the bargain bin. Or vice-versa. It's a matter of preferences VS your wallet.

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:

Emerje wrote:

Nemesis Reformatted wrote:These things don't transform which means they have less parts & less engineering.

I take it you've never built a model kit before because if you had you'd know this isn't true! Model kits are their own kind of engineering feats that can't be compared to off the shelf figures. The parts counts are incredibly high because they tend to break down the colors into parts rather than paint ops. Your average Transformer figure head is two or three pieces if they have light piping, but model kits like these tend to have several pieces for the face, eyes, front and back halves of the head, and any additional ornaments like antennae and fringes. Some have multiple heads or multiple faces to swap. Even unarticulated hands are often two parts. That Arcee model probably has as high or higher of a parts count as any Titan.

Emerje

You Transformers collectors will say anything to justify your addiction. You'll make a million excuses so you never have to admit that you're getting ripped off. The 1 thing a Transformers collector can never do is admit they're getting ripped off. But no matter what you say, the end product is not worth the absolutely *STUPID* prices they're charging. If these were $200 or $300 you would still defend it.

Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it wrong. The price they charge is in line with similar model kits and is what people are willing to pay. News flash people like to build models! Gundam has been going strong in that market for 40+ years with no sign of slowing down despite having any number of action figures representing the exact same bot designs. Some of those models cost hundreds of dollars and there isn't a single fan that thinks they're being ripped off.

If we were kids right now & asked our parents to buy one of these kits for $50 or $60 most of us would get laughed right out of the room. Because our parents had sense. Something most adult toy collectors these days do not have.

My parents would have been THRILLED if I asked for a model instead of an action figure. Most parents prefer their kids build something with their own hands, there's a whole multi-billion dollar STEM industry built around it. My parents were always buying me building toys, Playdoh, hobby kits, science kits and, yes, lots of models.

These prices suck balls if you want to buy multiples & repaint them. And a $15 price hike between Windblade & Arcee goes way beyond "inflation". Normal inflation doesn't jump that high that fast.

She's $55 MSRP. A lot of places sell Windblade for $60, but if you're going to complain about prices at least stick with the MSRP.

Where do you draw the line? $50 for Windblade. $65 for Arcee. $80 for the next one? When does it ever stop???

We've already exceeded the $80 mark in this line.

Emerje

In response to the price point and parts count, I explicitly went looking for these photos of my Megatron ($50) and Devastator ($85) kits, both of which are fantastic and absolutely worth the price I paid and the time I spent.

This past weekend at Wonder Festival 2023 [Winter] as part of the AmiAmi Hobby Camp display Flame Toys showed off an early look at a new addon for their 2020 take on IDW G1 Optimus Prime from their Kuro Kara Kuri high-end figure line. The "Jet Power Armor" set is very similar to what we saw in the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie and even features scratched up silver Decepticon symbols. Flame Toys doesn't do movie figures so this is probably more of a homage than anything. There are no details given like price and date, though it should be pointed out that Optimus himself goes for around US$450 and stands 210mm or 8.27". While these figures don't transform there is a chance that the jet armor can be reassembled into a jet mode similar to what they did with their Victory Leo figure.

Images below come from Dengeki Hobby Web and Flame Toys on Twitter.

This looks like a huge mess for me. It's over-saturated with so much details, I have no idea what I'm looking at.

Also, I've yet to build both my Bee and Windblade kits.

I am firmly convinced the guys designing the Kuro Kara Kuri figs are compensating for something. #GiantCodpieceSyndrome

Seriously, if a patient came in to my office like that, I'd tell him to ice that package until the swelling went down....

Yeah, if the article hadn't said it was some sort of IDW-G1/ROTF mashup, I'd have guessed it was a TF/Gurren Lagann crossover...that wasn't Dirt Boss.

That is awesome looking. Glad it finally got revealed

I finally, finally went and built Windblade.

And oh boy, it was NOT fun. The instructions were hard to read. It's full of tiny, tiny parts that are not butter-fingers friendly. Some parts required crazy glue in order to not pop off. I fuktd the connector ring in her left harm so I had to do some serious customizing to fix the mess. The stickers are too tiny and too fragile. I had to improvise with a cutter knife and some Reprolabels leftovers to fix things.

And for what?

FOR WHAT?

The most tiny...
And detailed... and beautiful... and posable Windblade figure ever!







To optimize her posing, she need a stand.
Overall the final results were worth the trouble.

Now to build my Bumblebee.

Yep, fiddly but worth it.

Agree about the stand, I got another waiting for Arcee.

-Kanrabat- wrote:I finally, finally went and built Windblade.

And oh boy, it was NOT fun. The instructions were hard to read. It's full of tiny, tiny parts that are not butter-fingers friendly. Some parts required crazy glue in order to not pop off. I fuktd the connector ring in her left harm so I had to do some serious customizing to fix the mess. The stickers are too tiny and too fragile. I had to improvise with a cutter knife and some Reprolabels leftovers to fix things.

And for what?

FOR WHAT?

The most tiny...
And detailed... and beautiful... and posable Windblade figure ever!

20230702_133203.jpg

20230702_133302.jpg

20230702_133343.jpg

To optimize her posing, she need a stand.
Overall the final results were worth the trouble.

Now to build my Bumblebee.

Pretty much my experience building her too. Slow process, tiny parts, frustratingly small stickers, some parts broke due to my giant hands, instructions not clear got my d**k stuck in the ceiling fan. But the final product is something that I still have on my desk. It turned out really well and for my first kit from them it made me want more. I've eyeing up their Devastator and really want to track one down, I love what they did with Hound, and I am DROOLING for that Leo Prime. The Arcee is a little disappointing because it's the same base body so it means the same frustrating build process, but I still want her.

Devastator is a very good kit. He is my favorite of the kits released so far, despite strong competition from Megatron.

I decided to look at this thread from the beginning and there's several comments from years ago that have not aged well.

Kurona wrote:To be quite honest, if there was any character to get this treatment, Tarn is the perfect choice as I doubt a character as defined by, uh... ahem, violent acts as him would ever get an official transforming toy from Hasbro.

In all fairness, at the time I would have agreed but I'm glad this turned out to be wrong.


Anyway, I'm not sure if I ever shared my Leo Prime build, but a few months back I picked up IDW MEgatron (the decepticon version admittedly, because it's what they had) and just got around to building him. Fun set! I'll post pics later. I'm eyeing the devastator but having a hard time committing to it..... but my birthday is coming up...

Thanks to Flame Toys on Facebook, we have a new poster for their newest release as part of the Kuro Kara Kuri line: Shattered Glass IDW Bomber Megatron!

This new Megatron figure is a redeco of the IDW stealth Bomber Megatron figure they did, but now in the beautiful white, blue, and red of his Shattered Glass self. He cuts quite an impressive figure, and the blue glowing effects will certainly look great in person.

This figure will be limited to 1,200 units, and will likely sell for around $400.

Check out the image below, and let us know what you think!

Freaking glorious, but that price ain't for everybody.

I could and would never buy these Kara Kuri figures, but with this being one of my favorite updates to the G1 style Megatron right behind the Animated version and being a big Shattered Glass fan. I'm at least glad to see this.

Just noticed one of his weapons is G1 Megatron in his 2001 Collector's Edition black repaint, but with even more addons to configure it into a sniper rifle.




Emerje

He looks like a Gundam.

Maybe they'll be nice and send Don a copy of the figure since neither IDW or Hasbro paid him for the design...

Emerje wrote:Looks like we've got a few more Flame Toys Furai Models coming on the horizon. While not shown at Toy Fair this past weekend, scans uploaded to MyFigureCollection.net from what appears to be a Flame Toys catalog that might have been available at Toy Fair revealed a pair of familiar repaints. First is the Bumblebee with heli-pack kit in red coming in June. We don't get a whole lot of red recolors of Bumblebee that aren't Cliffjumper, but the repaints are pretty standard all the same. Next is our perennial Optimus Prime repaint, this time into "inner" Ultra Magnus. It's a good looking kit, but probably not quite the IDW representation most were hoping for. He'll be out sometime in August.





So what do you think about these newly revealed recolors? Good, bad or indifferent be sure to sound off in the Energon Pub forums!

I'm still going through the archives and it's kind of amazing how long some of this stuff has been in development, and has only recently come out (Windblade, Leo Prime) or hasn't come out at all (Red Bumblebee here, Optimus Primal, Big Convoy, Hound).

I'm especially surprised at this Red Bumblebee, because it's a simple recolor, and they had a sample ready for photography here. They've even made a Bug Bite in the interim of all characters. I'm really curious what the delay is.

King Kuuga wrote:I'm especially surprised at this Red Bumblebee, because it's a simple recolor, and they had a sample ready for photography here. They've even made a Bug Bite in the interim of all characters. I'm really curious what the delay is.

There's high chances that Bee didn't sell enough so its repaint was cancelled.

-Kanrabat- wrote:

King Kuuga wrote:I'm especially surprised at this Red Bumblebee, because it's a simple recolor, and they had a sample ready for photography here. They've even made a Bug Bite in the interim of all characters. I'm really curious what the delay is.

There's high chances that Bee didn't sell enough so its repaint was cancelled.

Maybe, but they did Bug Bite. He seems like a more obscure choice, even if he had a contemporary appearance in Earthrise.

Anyway. I saw their tease for Beast Megatron and I want. Give me all the Beast era characters in as many lines as possible.

And as promised here's a picture of my two kits so far: Leo Prime and IDW Megatron (Decepticon version, because it's what they had at the store, it was an impulse buy)