Takara Releases New Images of Earthrise Figures Showing Interactivity with Bases

Interesting. Tying them into the Micromasters, it almost looks like the specific bots are being selected for this line to suit a practical narrative.

This line really looks quite engaging, and the updated G1 styling looks great. I wish I had room to display interconnected bases and such.

I think Soundbarrier (and the inevitable retools of him) is so lazy. Like, he doesn't even transform INTO the shield, he just... wears it on his back. It's like a shellformer, only there's nothing to actually hide the fact that there's a robot underneath.

Still gonna get it, but geez Hastak, get your act together.

Oh dear, that's a bit unfortunate - poor Grapple, I guess it was cold the days those pics were taken.

The random pic of Hoist with a silver faceplate is odd.

Soundbarrier looks awesome, pending the inevitable con repaint with purple clear plastic which will be a must buy.

Cant wait to see some con baseformers. The lack of weaponizers needs to be addressed on the con side.

-Crossfire- wrote:I think Soundbarrier (and the inevitable retools of him) is so lazy. Like, he doesn't even transform INTO the shield, he just... wears it on his back. It's like a shellformer, only there's nothing to actually hide the fact that there's a robot underneath.

Still gonna get it, but geez Hastak, get your act together.

I'm right there with you. It isn't like the other weapon battlemasters had amazing transformations or anything, but at least there is a little more than "fold the ramp in 1/2".

Dannshinigami wrote:The random pic of Hoist with a silver faceplate is odd.

I dont think its a silver faceplate but rather the light being reflected from both angled surfaces that make up his faceplate. I am selling a few of my TFs and when I post the pics I take, I realize that this effect happens sometimes.

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

-Crossfire- wrote:I think Soundbarrier (and the inevitable retools of him) is so lazy. Like, he doesn't even transform INTO the shield, he just... wears it on his back. It's like a shellformer, only there's nothing to actually hide the fact that there's a robot underneath.

I'm right there with you. It isn't like the other weapon battlemasters had amazing transformations or anything, but at least there is a little more than "fold the ramp in 1/2".

I agree as well. I noticed it when newsing, there is really not much to the transformation. And it's not a great looking shield.

I still find it so weird that Hoist stills has battle damage paint apps, but no one else in the line does. Definitely looking forward to Grapple though. And oddly, I kind of want a Hot Spot version despite there not being any reason for that to exist...

TF-fan kev777 wrote:

-Crossfire- wrote:I think Soundbarrier (and the inevitable retools of him) is so lazy. Like, he doesn't even transform INTO the shield, he just... wears it on his back. It's like a shellformer, only there's nothing to actually hide the fact that there's a robot underneath.

Still gonna get it, but geez Hastak, get your act together.

I'm right there with you. It isn't like the other weapon battlemasters had amazing transformations or anything, but at least there is a little more than "fold the ramp in 1/2".

That's the thing though, they don't need to have a great transformation, they just need to have A transformation. This is basically just Nap-Mode.

(Alright, I'll stop. :p)

Sentinel_Primal wrote:I still find it so weird that Hoist stills has battle damage paint apps, but no one else in the line does.

It looks like it is only around what ends up as the front of the truck hood, and a little on the top of the front fenders. That's not battle damage, its bug guts.

Oof that second picture of Grapple. Damn son.

william-james88 wrote:

A few things to note from these pics. First off, Grapple now seems to have yellow eyes (or perhaps they're just painted over in the same white as the rest of the face? It's hard to tell, honestly).

More importantly, this Optimus Prime is a complete mess. We're back to the look with the gray hands, yellow eyes, and unpainted cod piece. That means we should be seeing the version of the trailer with no blue plastic, because the hands are allegedly gang molded to the trailer parts. However, the trailer has the blue plastic parts like it did in the initial Hasbro renders, meaning the hands on Prime should be blue, but they're not! Furthermore, it looks like the bicep pieces are gang molded to the trailer too. They're ALSO blue on the robot mode! They've shown up as gray in all other stock photography and renders before. Did Takara mix and match different test shots of the figure for their stock photos? That still wouldn't explain the blue biceps and gray hands, though. Both should be one color plastic or the other.

The play feature for Earthrise is ramps.
The alternate mode of Battle Masters is ramps.

There's ... not a whole lot they could do. If you split the ramp parts up into smaller panels, you're certainly going to weaken the connection points that allow you to combine different ramps together, or even affect the tolerances within a single ramp when weight is applied.

I mean, yeah, it's lazy, but it's effective. Most Battle Masters are just parts packs, and I want functioning parts. If Soundbarrier worked better as a robot toy but didn't work well as a ramp, that would be a net failure.

I'm not really excited about EarthRise. I'm just getting bored with the same characters over and over.

Wolfman Jake wrote:More importantly, this Optimus Prime is a complete mess. We're back to the look with the gray hands, yellow eyes, and unpainted cod piece. That means we should be seeing the version of the trailer with no blue plastic, because the hands are allegedly gang molded to the trailer parts. However, the trailer has the blue plastic parts like it did in the initial Hasbro renders, meaning the hands on Prime should be blue, but they're not! Furthermore, it looks like the bicep pieces are gang molded to the trailer too. They're ALSO blue on the robot mode! They've shown up as gray in all other stock photography and renders before. Did Takara mix and match different test shots of the figure for their stock photos? That still wouldn't explain the blue biceps and gray hands, though. Both should be one color plastic or the other.

When I read that first line I was sure you would also bring up the fact that he has a 5 mm trailer port that doesnt hide away in robot mode.

These new Takara shots of Optimus heavily confuse matters. Not jusr the lack of the added blue paint apps, but also blue plastic instead of dark grey for the inner shoulder, bicep, wheel-on-back-hinge-piece, etc. Hopefully it turns out to be like the previous couple examples of all-over-the-place decos and plastic colors between different shows and sets of stock photos for some figures, and the end product turns out more like the leaked photos from a couple days ago.

Much like Siege, this is the perfect example of how one can have line-wide gimmicks which collectors can choose to ignore and thus won't endlessly complain about it 'ruining' a good toy, like with Titans Return mandatory headmasters. Mind you I like Headmasters but I know plenty of angry grognards who were mad at characters being turned into headmasters.

Wow looks pretty fun!!

william-james88 wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:More importantly, this Optimus Prime is a complete mess. We're back to the look with the gray hands, yellow eyes, and unpainted cod piece. That means we should be seeing the version of the trailer with no blue plastic, because the hands are allegedly gang molded to the trailer parts. However, the trailer has the blue plastic parts like it did in the initial Hasbro renders, meaning the hands on Prime should be blue, but they're not! Furthermore, it looks like the bicep pieces are gang molded to the trailer too. They're ALSO blue on the robot mode! They've shown up as gray in all other stock photography and renders before. Did Takara mix and match different test shots of the figure for their stock photos? That still wouldn't explain the blue biceps and gray hands, though. Both should be one color plastic or the other.

When I read that first line I was sure you would also bring up the fact that he has a 5 mm trailer port that doesnt hide away in robot mode.

Holy crap! How did THAT happen? All of the other pics we've seen show a much different assembly, with 2/3 of the hexagonal 5mm hole on the right leg and 1/3 on the left, creating a bit more symmetry and not making it look like some weird growth is sticking out of the right leg. That's the Hasbro renders, the NYCC at show pics, and the recently leaked pics with the new paint apps all follow this "split" design. Where did this Takara stock photo come from!? Nothing about it makes sense!

Also if they had kept the trailer parts blue and preserved the correct color of the inner calves of the robot mode, that split hexagonal port would be even less obvious. They could have avoided so many issues with this mold (gray hands, gray back of head, etc.) if they had just realized no one would be upset about blue parts on the trailer, since it's supposed to have some blue parts anyway, and they didn't interfere with the look of the alternate mode at all. Or, some smarter parts distribution among the molds might have helped too. Yeah, I know, "budgets and sizes and logistic and blah blah blah," but it's Optimus Prime, for goodness sake! Bend a few rules to get him right! It's not like he won't sell out!

Yikes, Prime does not look good from the back.



The weird torso proportions in that photo look like when girls try to photoshop themselves a thigh gap.

Also, the wheels and small hexagonal flight stand port give Prime a very surprised looking "butt-face". I can't unsee it now.