Fiddled with mine a bit further. Currently neither emgo's or daniel's methods are working for me so far in terms of getting things to sit flush. So back to robot mode for now.

Speaking of which, I absolutely hate the how the neck stump isn't a few millimeters higher that Prime doesn't look like he has half of his neck sliced off most of the time. Maybe the face change gimmick has something to do with it... but from what I see the neck wouldn't even obstruct the gimmick much. (which I don't care much, he's having his mask on 98% of the time anyway, there's a reason I never considered the original Buster to be an awesome mold of the Leader Class.)

Also, would anybody kind enough to post a picture on how the arms are supposed to be tabbed onto the torso? Do they hook onto the protruding tab of the truck roof, or go under it?

 

That face plateless face is good for transforming , you know ? Just incase of paint chips on the face mask . 
As for the arms , truck roof ? That's the chest isn't it . Did you mean the leg bits ?

 

Haha! Very good!  

 

The fact that (other than weathering) these look so similar, yet one can transform, is immensely impressive.

 

Apologize for bad English, I guess. I meant the how the arms in robot mode are supposed to connect to the torso.

Also I like how MPM can hold onto (APS-01) Striker's swords & shield pretty well. The gun is a lost cause though.

 

Man, TakaraTomy's grey actually looks like a cheap Hasbro plastic for once. That's unfortunate. It looks like they made the gun out of the same horribly-coloured plastic.

MPM-04 can't seem to catch a break, between QC and design issues, and some weird deco choices here and there... It's a real shame how this has turned out, honestly, and it's put me off buying one any time soon.

 

That might not be the finalized figure, FYI...

 

Well for some reason coz of MPM-4, I kinda want to have ROTF LCOP, DOTM LCOP APS (Striker Optimus).
Before I was gunning for a DMK Optimus (since I'm into Gunpla Kits) but ditch the purchase seeing QC issues on some video reviews.

I hope the 3P Jetfire Armor parts have a sturdy and durable leg/attachment since MPM-4 have die-cast content hence, weight issues the could hound that 3P add-on kit.

 

Yah man, to think that this time round,

Yah man, the darker grey of Hasbro MPM-04 looks way better than Takara's lighter grey.

 

I doubt it. It's likely pretty final at this point.

 

I was taking a closer look at the figure ho pics in truck mode and it looks like the smokestakes are not fitting into the bottom pipes.
Ethier that or they are not aligned properly?

 

That's an old stock pic anyway - not the actual figure used for the bot mode pics.

 

We shall see.. one month to go!  :

 

I haven't seen anyone able to connect them on the Hasbro version. That seems to be a common problem, and I've seen many people complain about it.

That's my point though. One month. So it'd be finalised by now.

 

Here's a link to the set, I know nothing about this seller, but it was the first one I found.

You can see the little symbols on the lower left of the sheet. Unfortunately used my last one on my MPM-04

E Club Robot Decal Sticker FOR Wei Jiang MPP10 Diecast Optimus Prime New




And I did just find my free nano set from reprolabels, not sure if they sell these or not, but they work great.

 

Haha, strange. I must be the only one who really, really likes his plateless face. We see him without his battle mask on in a majority of the movies and it's the definition of Movie Prime.

Also, putting those two together really does highlight the proportion issues for me. The legs are definitely supposed to be bulkier and the truck chest pieces smaller. Again, it's because the inner robot could have and should have been much bigger.

Regardless, I think the Takara version is getting a little bit too much hate. Honestly, I do think that while the gray plastic is a little light, it does a pretty good job of blending in with the silver paint.

 

The few spots that I missed, I just paint over with a silver marker.

The number on his leg, correct? #C0893

Final thoughts: Too much fiddlin' needed just to get the vehicle to look right. All he effin' needs are a couple of tabs to lock the windshields closer to his arms!   Most likely will be transforming him back to bot mode and stays that way for a long long time. I love complex transformers; Mp-36 was complex, but fun. MPM-4, to me, seems to be missing "dem feels", if you know what I mean. SO CLOSE!

 

I'm with you. I had a hard time accepting it when the movies came out, but it grew on me. Now with MPM-04, I display it with the face, no mask.

 

Mine connect. I still have the gap in the front but the smokestack halves do connect.

 

Huh..wrong set of stickers linked...Id really like to get the one you got for my Hasbro MPP04..