What a treat! I thought the interviews might be done. I am so anxiously awaiting what the year of the Decepticon means for characters in 2015. I can hardly wait.

 

Hope that last bit means that Jazz or Cliffjumper have a chance of showing up soon.

 

"I am hoping to present the next step of the development to the market between later this year to the next near."

I'm smiling.

 

Of course I still want a Megatron V2, but I still want an official Takara/Hasbro Shockwave. Despite how nice Quackwave is, I still could convince myself to buy it. Shockwave seems like such a no brainer, it's hard to imagine that they won't make an official version in the next couple of years.

 

disappointing there wasnt more to this article. was there?

 

My only gripes about MP-10 involve the trailer. The missiles don't fire and there's no spring launcher for Roller. I was really let down by that.

 

Its an interesting notion that the cars have made the MP series successful, there are some notable G1 cars left to make (Jazz, Tracks, Hound etc) yet they are suddenly going to stop making them or substantially reduce the number made in favor of large scale roll out of other types of Transformers. I am not sure that makes sense? I would imagine they would still do what is working while testing the water with select other MPs.

 

I laugh at this. The MP line flattened out because the designers sacrificed articulation and show accuracy for gimmicks on a lot of characters. And then they sold a ton of repainted MP1 Convoys. Of course people were getting tired of the line. I am glad that they redid the series with MP10 and went in a different direction.

I would love that as long as all three modes are perfect.

I have gotten into the boat wanting a new Megatron, now. I realize that a lot of folks would like a G2 Megatron. But after reading the translations from the designers, I think G1 Megatron could be done especially if they include the stock this time. I am sure there are lots of ways they could improve on the figure

I always thought that Jazz would be one of their first picks for an MP car (even before Wheeljack) because of his popularity.

 

What you read is the all of it, this one was by far the shortest of all the interviews.

Oh, I doubt they will stop making "Real Car" MPs altogether. Both Mr.Maeda and Mr.Kobayashi acknowledge how successful they have been. I really think this "next step" TakTom staff members keep on mentioning is another line of MPs, not based on licensed vehicles. No way they will give up real car MPs.

 

I am getting the feeling that the book won't reveal any hints on what the next figure will be, which I was hoping they would do.

 

Short, but happy to see it... thanks for the translations Syd.  

 

MP Jazzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I'm waiting for Jazz myself, but I imagine it has to do with difficulties getting the Porche license. His release would otherwise seem like a no-brainer to me due to (as you'd mentioned) his popularity, and the fact that they could use pretty much the same engineering as the Fairladies to do Jazz's transformation.

Plus they could repaint it as Stepper/Ricochet with a Targetmaster or whatever if they wanted to.

 

'' Although thanks to the successful movies '' this line really made my day,   Hopefully a combiner or v2 megatron is close!

 

I really hope Takara decides to go ahead and give us all the lineup of 1984.

 

Personally the only 84 characters I wanna see are Decepticons and maybe Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet. New Megatron and Shockwave need to be top priority as it looks like the new Leader Megatron won't even scale enough to be a filler.
Oh yes the interview; That idea of downscaling and materials does seem to make the MP line more affordable; brilliant move. Also interesting that the movies pumped money into the MP line (though I wonder if the higher standard of toy making set by Leader Prime to maybe have also had some influence on MP).
Also seems like that Car Lisencing thing makes it difficult on Takara; maybe Hasbro has to deal with that separately and that's why it's taken so long for us to get Autobot Cars here? I'm really enjoying these intervews; thank you SydneyY

 

.
Discounting the other dinobots and Shockwave (who I'm more than happy to settle for the FT representations of) and certain ‘less key’ members of the 'bot car line up and minibots like Tracks, Seaspray, Grapple et al, I’d say the MP line is approximately halfway through the basic cast of core characters we needs at this point. In other words, we now have:

Prime
Hot Rodimus
Grimlock
Sideswipe
Bluestreak
Prowl
Smokescreen
Wheeljack
Bumblebee
Ultra Magnus

===========

Starscream
Thundercracker
Soundwave
Ravage
Rumble
Ratbat
Frenzy
Laserbeak


We still need:

Sunstreaker
Hound
Cliffjumper
Ironhide/Ratchet
Trailbreaker
Huffer
Brawn
Jazz
Mirage
Skyfire
Springer
Kup

=============

Megatron v2
Galvatron
Cyclonus/Scourge
Skywarp v2
Reflector
Astrotrain
Blitzwing
Insecticons (3 pack?)
Devastator combiner project.


Approx. 18 down to 25 pieces still incoming (so long as Devvie's counting as a whole) . So yeah, roughly halfway. Verrrry roughly.

There's just no point, imo, holding out for Pretenders, Trypticon, Headmasters and the like. The scope seems very clearly set to core G1 and G2 up to movie continuity to my mind. And if you're thinking in that mindset: I mean, solely in terms of the line covering, say, what is most iconic, as opposed to what is ‘comprehensive’, then it makes sense a character like Devastator will preference Bruticus/Menasor, or Jazz and Hound will preference Hoist and Skids, and so on.

With the 2010 Unicron easily good enough in 'bot mode to be a decent stand in (come on, he's impossible to scale!), arguably Blur, Perceptor, Arcee and a new scale Hot Rod deserve a place in there to flesh out the movie line up. Wheelie, erm .... jury's out.

But IF – and that's a big if – the line were to cover that second half of core characters over the next five years or so, I'd be content to stick with it to the end.

Personally, I don't want it to drag on for another decade + and be collecting toys well into my late forties or fifties, thanks. Your parents start to age & die, the world rolls on, and you inevitably start to feel the cold winds of futility in clinging to a childhood dream …

Make hay while the sun shines.


.

 

Not a whole lot to write home about here, but thanks again to Syd for the work here  

 

I'd love to know more about business decisions around these products. So rare we get a glimpse into the innerworkings.