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[Weltall Zero]

Ouch. Did all three of these companies start making their own Devys before HasTak announced theirs? Can't imagine them wanting to compete with it on purpose, let alone with each other. :S

For me the Takara Devastator is as perfect a rendition as anyone could hope for, especially if you like your Transformers being toys, as in, sturdy, pleasant to transform and handle. I love my Chogokins / Binaltech / Masterpiece, but they don't tend to be something you pick up from the shelf and transform now and then on a whim, without setting aside the time (and instructions!) for it.

Edit: And looking at all these three alternatives, I don't like how the combined form looks like in any of them nearly as much as Takara's.

 

[HammerOfThor]

Yeah I thought it was weird so many companies started doing Devy again especially once the HasTak one was announced.

Also, it annoys me that when one 3P company does a character, it seems like 5 others do it to.

 

[Drayco21]

Maybe they just weren't satisfied with the quality of the Combiner Wars Devastator; I know I wasn't.

Though I'd have to imagine that the time it would take third parties to produce molds and work this stuff out has a long enough lead time that it would require them to already be working on these before knowing what HasTak is up to, but I don't actually know how much work goes into the process, and maybe I'm overestimating it.

 

[Faiz]

I'm starting to soften on MP Ironhide and Ratchet.

Yeah didn't really need to commit another ~$180 to transformers right now....

 

[BattleMonkey]

Yea it takes alot of time to make these things, but there is clearly something stupid going on where they are trying to compete with each other as when one announces their plans, another announces one as well.

It's likely an issue similar to how movies with same plots or themes get released around same time. Companies have a bunch of projects planned or in works, a company goes and announces they are doing something similar, so the previous company decides to hurry up and push out theres, as they dont want to come later and be ignored. So the companies end up competing to get their products out, advertise, and hype up their version of a product.

Ideally they should be shifting their work around to give gaps in releases between companies, but most companies don't want to be last or left behind, so instead a company announcing plans to make X transformer, pushes them to ramp up their own version's production.

 

[Herbs]

Maybe they just weren't satisfied with the quality of the Combiner Wars Devastator; I know I wasn't.

Though I'd have to imagine that the time it would take third parties to produce molds and work this stuff out has a long enough lead time that it would require them to already be working on these before knowing what HasTak is up to, but I don't actually know how much work goes into the process, and maybe I'm overestimating it.

There's always market for another especially one drastically better than that derpy official one.

 

[MattKeil]

Third party Masterpiece scaled Menasor. The limbs are the size of the MP Autobot cars, Motormaster is MP-10 sized.

 

[Firemind]

Seems like they got some modified super cars going on.

No car licenses no sell.

 

[Mike M]

That's perhaps the first time Menasor hasn't looked like complete crap to me.

 

[Barrow Roll]

That's perhaps the first time Menasor hasn't looked like complete crap to me.

What abut FanProject's Intimidator? This one looks pretty similar to that one to me, but bigger of course.

 

[yami4ct]

I hate the way the cars attach on both the MP Styled and FP's Meansor. I understand why you'd do it that way, but cars stuck on the front of leg isn't the look I like Meansor to have. The HasTak Meansor has huge problems, but with a bit of creative transformation, it's closer to what I'm looking for.

It is one of the few instances where the 3rd party version have infinitely better head sculpts than the official one. I see what they were going for, trying to make Meansor more beastly, but it doesn't look good at all.

Edit: And looking at all these three alternatives, I don't like how the combined form looks like in any of them nearly as much as Takara's.

Yep. Most 3rd Party figures look like over detailed messes to me. Some get the look right, but most feel like they slap loads of panel lines and edges just to look more expensive. They also tend to be fragile in a way most official toys aren't (with noted HasTak fuckups like MP Rody excepted).

Some companies do get it really right, though. A lot of those 3rd Party MP Dinos are gorgeous. Too rich for my blood, but they've done great work.

 

[Faiz]

It's been a few months since I looked very closely at my TF cabinet. I haven't got any new releases opened in a while and things have been busy. I went to look over arrangement to consider placement for the MP Tracks I got for Christmas and the Asia release MP Sideswipe I treated myself to shortly after.

Smokescreen wasn't on the MP shelf, which is the top shelf in the cabinet (which is anchored solidly and does not shake even when banging on or closing the door hard). He was on the bottom shelf, in a sad state. Not broken, but clearly mishandled. Others were misplaced and mishandled as well, but it's Smokescreen that concerns me. It's apparent that when my father in law came over during our December vacation to care for the cats, he had my nephew with him. My extremely rambuctious nephew who has shown lots of interest in the cabinet when they have had him here previously.

There's only one way Smokescreen was removed from the top shelf, and that's if an adult removed it. I'm kinda beside myself atm.

 

[Haloid1177]

MP Ironhide shipped from HLJ today.

 

[MattKeil]

I hate the way the cars attach on both the MP Styled and FP's Meansor. I understand why you'd do it that way, but cars stuck on the front of leg isn't the look I like Meansor to have.

In this case it's because that's how IDW Menasor did it originally.

The HasTak Meansor has huge problems, but with a bit of creative transformation, it's closer to what I'm looking for.

Honestly if you stick the PE add-on kits on him, he's pretty fucking great.

 

[yami4ct]

In this case it's because that's how IDW Menasor did it originally.




Honestly if you stick the PE add-on kits on him, he's pretty fucking great.

I totally get that IDW did it, and FP did a pretty great job replicating that look. It's just not the Meansor look I want personally.

The PE kit does look good. The head still isn't quite right for me, but it's not bad.

For some reason, I really dislike the PE CW hands. The originals aren't good, but at least they have the excuse of having to do Scramble City crap. Not sure what it is about the PE hands that bug me. Maybe the fingers are too thin? Feet are great, though.

 

[MattKeil]

The fingers have a sort of "skeletal" look. I think it's because they end as cylinders rather than fingertips. Not ideal but it beats the hell out of the handfeet. It seems to be related to the scale they had to make them at, because the PE Devastator hands are not like that.

 

[BattleMonkey]

I love the PE upgrades, fixes almost every CW combiner to an acceptable looking gestalt. Limbs are so much more proportional, no more ape like bodies

 

[Weltall Zero]

Tempted to buy Takara Bruticus from Iacon Toys (the Spanish online shop where I got Devastator). On one hand it's 115€ which is not expensive at all, I was considering to get Brawl at least since it's a new mold, and I quite like the Japanese Blast Off (plus accurate four-bladed rotor on Vortex), but on the other, three of them are remolds...

 

[Herbs]

I love the PE upgrades, fixes almost every CW combiner to an acceptable looking gestalt. Limbs are so much more proportional, no more ape like bodies

It really is too bad they dropped the ball on the combiners.

 

[BattleMonkey]

Don't think they are bad at all, some of the best Hasbro has done. Only issue with CW to me besides the weak feet/hands, is how after the first few combiners, they reused way too many molds too quick. They were really lazy with reusing the Alpha Bravo mold. But first few releases were ace. The PE set is not too expensive and is a huge upgrade for the CW combiners. Everything after the first couple releases though has felt super lazy.

 

[MattKeil]

Alpha Bravo doesn't bother me too much, mainly because I only care about the G1 combiner teams and their original members, so he's only used twice as far as I'm concerned. It's not like G1 limbs were particularly unique, anyway.

Really I'm too happy about them finally making the torsos Voyager sized to care all that much about anything other than the awful handfeet. But PE solves that problem nicely, and the prototype shots of Victorion and Computron indicate that Hasbro is introducing new larger feet in the future.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Alpha Bravo doesn't bother me too much, mainly because I only care about the G1 combiner teams and their original members, so he's only used twice as far as I'm concerned. It's not like G1 limbs were particularly unique, anyway.

Really I'm too happy about them finally making the torsos Voyager sized to care all that much about anything other than the awful handfeet. But PE solves that problem nicely, and the prototype shots of Victorion and Computron indicate that Hasbro is introducing new larger feet in the future.

Do we expect any more CW-style combiners going forward, though? My impression from Titans Return is that they're pretty much done, silly cash-ins like the Beast Wars themed ones aside.

 

[yami4ct]

Do we expect any more CW-style combiners going forward, though? My impression from Titans Return is that they're pretty much done, silly cash-ins like the Beast Wars themed ones aside.

I would not be surprised if we got more weird remold sets like Computron well into Titans Return. There's also the rumor going that we're going to be getting at least 1 of the monster/beast combiners. Predaking is the main speculation, but I've seen other speculation and rumors.

 

[Drayco21]

Do we expect any more CW-style combiners going forward, though? My impression from Titans Return is that they're pretty much done, silly cash-ins like the Beast Wars themed ones aside.

I'd be surprised if we don't. They haven't remolded Sky-Lynx into anything (officially, anyway) yet, and Computron and Liokaiser have been pretty thoroughly leaked. I could easily see them putting the occasional combiner team out after that point even well into Titans Return; I could see a repaint of Bruticus into Ruination at some point.

I think Predaking is inevitable, they've seen the raving demand, it's just a question of budgeting it, and I could see them retooling his beastformer pieces into something like the Piranacons, even if that wouldn't be ideal, just for budgeting. I'd love to see Monstructor too, personally.

The combiners will probably make solid big item box sets that they could sell as retailer exclusives or as big items that aren't quite as "big ticket" as Titan class figures, instead of releasing them as deluxe waves from here on, though.

 

[yami4ct]

I'd be surprised if we don't. They haven't remolded Sky-Lynx into anything (officially, anyway) yet, and Computron and Liokaiser have been pretty thoroughly leaked. I could easily see them putting the occasional combiner team out after that point even well into Titans Return; I could see a repaint of Bruticus into Ruination at some point.

I think Predaking is inevitable, they've seen the raving demand, it's just a question of budgeting it, and I could see them retooling his beastformer pieces into something like the Piranacons, even if that wouldn't be ideal, just for budgeting. I'd love to see Monstructor too, personally.

The combiners will probably make solid big item box sets that they could sell as retailer exclusives or as big items that aren't quite as "big ticket" as Titan class figures, instead of releasing them as deluxe waves from here on, though.

I think any future combiners will be exclusives. A new mold Predaking would be the only exception I could foresee.

I fully expect G2 Repaints of the other applicable combiners, a Predaking, an Abonimus that is a combo of a heavy Sky-Lynx remold and Predaking remolds, Computron, and Liokaiser at the least. I would not be shocked to see more.

 

[Shin Kojima]

https://youtu.be/q0mwEh0MVrs

Masterpiece Ironhide. I think he looks really fun!

 

[MattKeil]

Do we expect any more CW-style combiners going forward, though? My impression from Titans Return is that they're pretty much done, silly cash-ins like the Beast Wars themed ones aside.

There's at least three more in the pipeline (Victorion, Computron, LioKaiser), and considering how well they sold I would be surprised if we didn't see some beast stuff after that.

 

[aparisi2274]

https://youtu.be/q0mwEh0MVrs

Masterpiece Ironhide. I think he looks really fun!

Looks nicer than I expected him too. Makes me wonder if I should pick him up...

 

[yami4ct]

Looks nicer than I expected him too. Makes me wonder if I should pick him up...

The way MPs go, if you want him then you should pick him up. He'll likely go out of stock really quickly and not get reprinted for quite some time. MPs pretty much only go up.

 

[aparisi2274]

The way MPs go, if you want him then you should pick him up. He'll likely go out of stock really quickly and not get reprinted for quite some time. MPs pretty much only go up.

Yeah, I know...

Right now amiami has it listed as 'orders closed'. Anyone know if they ever get more stock?

 

[Herbs]

Plenty of 'em on eBay.

 

[MattKeil]

Yeah, I know...

Right now amiami has it listed as 'orders closed'. Anyone know if they ever get more stock?

Not often. Your best bet now is TF Source, BBTS, or something similar.

 

[aparisi2274]

Not often. Your best bet now is TF Source, BBTS, or something similar.

I may order from Amazon japan and have my friend ship it to me. With the conversion rates, the figure would run me $62 and shipping around $14, which is still cheaper than going through BBTS

 

[yami4ct]

Yeah, I know...

Right now amiami has it listed as 'orders closed'. Anyone know if they ever get more stock?

AmiAmi probably won't get more unless Takara does a full reprint. HLJ still has them, but if you have a way to order from Amazon JP that might still be cheaper.

 

[aparisi2274]

Just ordered from amazon jp

$62 with the USD conversion. My friend will ship it which should be around $15.

BBTS wanted almost $100 with shipping

 

[Herbs]

Just ordered from amazon jp

$62 with the USD conversion. My friend will ship it which should be around $15.

BBTS wanted almost $100 with shipping

yeah, just got one on ebay for $86 from Japan. easy peasy.

 

[aparisi2274]

In case anyone cares, amiami has it in stock now as well..

Masterpiece Ironhide from amiami

 

[Weltall Zero]

I'd be surprised if we don't. They haven't remolded Sky-Lynx into anything (officially, anyway) yet,

Sky Lynx himself is a remold of Silverbolt, though.

and Computron and Liokaiser have been pretty thoroughly leaked.

It remains to be seen how much these two don't fall into the cash-in category I mentioned above. I mean, the leaked image for Nosecone is literally a regular tank with a drill stuck on its cannon.

I could easily see them putting the occasional combiner team out after that point even well into Titans Return; I could see a repaint of Bruticus into Ruination at some point.

Cash-ins.

I think Predaking is inevitable, they've seen the raving demand, it's just a question of budgeting it, and I could see them retooling his beastformer pieces into something like the Piranacons, even if that wouldn't be ideal, just for budgeting.

Same as above, if they make them as vehicles rather than animals, they might as well not bother as far as I and most people are concerned. An actual Predaking would be awesome, but at this point it seems unlikely to me.

There's at least three more in the pipeline (Victorion, Computron, LioKaiser), and considering how well they sold I would be surprised if we didn't see some beast stuff after that.

See above. I was referring about new molds, not recolors or very light remolds to make them fit entirely different characters (extreme case, vehicles standing for beast modes). So far none of the above seems to fall within that category.

 

[MattKeil]

I don't think they'd do all-new feet and hands if they weren't planning on something more. And the feet in the Combiner Wars Liokaiser art absolutely scream "Predaking." They might just be stylized versions of the old handfeet, though.

 

[Shin Kojima]

Sky Lynx himself is a remold of Silverbolt, though.

You sure about that? I watched a video review and he seems pretty different.

 

[NEO0MJ]

You sure about that? I watched a video review and he seems pretty different.

That's the beauty of Sky Lynx. If someone doesn't tell you about that you might never notice due to how extensive the retool is.

 

[Mike M]

Is it a retool, or is it a case like G1 Bumblebee and Clifjumper or those two F1 Armada Minicons where they were incredibly similar but different molds?

 

[NEO0MJ]

I think I read that it was a heavy retool.

 

[yami4ct]

MP Hot Rod looks infinitely better to me in the in-hand photos as opposed to the marketing shots. I can't tell at all why that is. For some reason, my problems with his chest feel much smaller on the new photos. Went from not excited at all to pumped to get him in.

Still gonna wait to ship him with Shockwave, though.

I think I read that it was a heavy retool.

The core block that forms the bottom of skylynx/chest of his combiner appears to be exactly the same as the block that for the body of Silverbolt. So much so that it does appear to be a retool as opposed to just shared engineering ideas. Not 100% sure, of course.

 

[HigXx]

Just won this auction

Finally gonna own a Masterpiece Optimus! Think its a decent price!

 

[Herbs]

Just won this auction

Finally gonna own a Masterpiece Optimus! Think its a decent price!

not bad at all. I prefer the Takara color scheme but regardless this mold is amazing.

 

[Aske]

MP Hot Rod looks infinitely better to me in the in-hand photos as opposed to the marketing shots. I can't tell at all why that is. For some reason, my problems with his chest feel much smaller on the new photos. Went from not excited at all to pumped to get him in.

He's still not scratching my itch. I much prefer the design of the Fanstoys version, though that's not slated to release for something like a year, and will be double the price if not more. However, it just seems to have that Hot Rod feel, and I absolutely love the alt mode. I never had the beef with MP 28 that others did when I saw the initial photos, but similalry, the new photos aren't swaying me towards a purchase.

MP 28 vs FT 17:

 

[yami4ct]

He's still not scratching my itch. I much prefer the design of the Fanstoys version, though that's not slated to release for something like a year, and will be double the price if not more. However, it just seems to have that Hot Rod feel, and I absolutely love the alt mode. I never had the beef with MP 28 that others did when I saw the initial photos, but similalry, the new photos aren't swaying me towards a purchase.

MP 28 vs FT 17:

You're comparing a digital mockup vs a real done product. We'll see how it shakes out. There are aspects of both I prefer.

Also, as you said, the FT one is going to be at least 2x the price. Absolutely not a fair comparison at that point. They're doing completely different things. Even if I slightly prefer the FT one overall (and from the models, it would be just slightly if at all), I'm not paying $200+ for a Hot Rod figure.

 

[Aske]

You're comparing a digital mockup vs a real done product. We'll see how it shakes out. There are aspects of both I prefer.

Also, as you said, the FT one is going to be at least 2x the price. Absolutely not a fair comparison at that point. They're doing completely different things. Even if I slightly prefer the FT one overall (and from the models, it would be just slightly if at all), I'm not paying $200+ for a Hot Rod figure.

And I'd not argue you should! I don't think anyone can beat Takara in terms of value. Just tossing out an opinion on the two forthcoming Hot Rods. The digital mockup is a CAD design, so it's what the mold will be based on. It's a design used in manufacturing rather than merely an artist's impression, but you're right that it's still thin air rather than plastic.

I really wanted to be on board with MP-28, but the heart wants what it wants. I resisted the allure of Fanstoys' Swoop due to its price and I probably won't buy their Grimlock for the same reason, but as much as I wish I could be satisfied with Tyrant, I'm definitely upgrading to the FT Galvatron and picking up their Hot Rod. It's not even just about cartoon accuracy, it's the vibe of the designs. The FT Hot Rod makes my inner child freak, while the Takara one leaves me cold.

Believe it or not, I actually feel the same way about the universally beloved MP-10. Something in the head sculpt and face doesn't quite feel...optimal. But that's just me, and clearly I'm in a tiny minority. In fact I don't think I've ever read anyone else voice that opinion.

 

[Faiz]

The main thing about MP Hot Rod that bothers me is how thin the torso and flat the chest is. Seeing him from the side... Just makes him look like there's no power there.