I'll go out on a limb and say that it's miles ahead of anything you could ever even hope to achieve... But you're more than welcome to come up with your own transforming design and prove me wrong.

 

To be honest with you , with the amount of panels as well as parts in general will be a son of a gun for a KO company to replicate. I’m sure they will be able to mimic everything but to make it form flush and plug / stay together using cheaper products will be a challenge. It could be even more frustrating to transform then the official. Though if your talking an upscaled version where everything gets reengineered and tolerances are torqued specifically for that particular version , that could the better route.

 

It Puts the KO'lotion on it's Skin

 

KO companies are gonna butcher this thing, like they did Sunstreaker.  After seeing how bad that thing was, I was actually happy I spent the extra.

 

Clearly someone 's very proud of his own ignorance.

 

I think the KO might just be worth having. However, I'm gonna go for the Magic Square!!

 

Jeezzzzzzzz that's a brutally complex but utterly beautiful ingenious transformation scheme for Convoy Ver 3.0..

 

Did u ever get your hands on the IT Megatron !?

 

With respect, it's worth remembering - and reminding everyone again - that Japan is Takara Tomy's primary market, and that the primary target audience for this product is the Japanese hobby and collector market who remember growing up with that voice with all the same fondness and nostalgia and love that we have for Peter Cullen's voice. For them, this is not at all random, but the iconic voice they want. For them, Peter Cullen's voice would sound just as "random" as this does to someone who has only ever heard Cullen's Prime.

The MP line, except when it gets dedicated western releases - which has unfortunately been a somewhat rare and limited occurrence - is exported overseas, but is undeniably a domestic Japanese market product first and foremost. If we're lucky, we may eventually see a dedicated western release as well. Maybe then we'll get Cullen recordings (or no voice at all for all we know. People's hope of a somewhat less expensive version with fewer accessories may come true, we'll have to wait and see if he gets a non-import release at all.)

 

I'm consistently floored by the sheer amount of ingenuity Takara's been bringing to their MP transformations. Prime here is no exception. While there are a few panel folding sequences present, they don't seem to overwhelm the whole transformation so as to make it a finicky experience, and they always coalesce into solid geometric shapes, so it's not as if they just hang around as flappy kibble. I'm quite impressed!

 

I needs to get that 2019 Generations book ASAP. Time to hit my local Kinokuniya bookstore.  

 

That’s it! I’ve had enough of this sort of drivel!

“Panelformers. Shellformers. Origamiformers.”

Whatever. Fine! You can have your silly and completely inane opinions.

But to compare this absolute wizardry and genius to Hasbro’s shitshow of an era called ‘Pretenders’??!!!! Jesus in the garden! That’s literally the worst part of my childhood.

That’s too much.

 

I find it interesting that this protracted reveal over this year has had the unintended result of rekindling my love of the G1 cartoon. No, it's not on the story level of anime of the same era, but it is what it is. Some of you are of course welcome to and will repeat your views on the direction of the line. This figure encapsulates everything that Transformers fans and non fans have always been quick to dismiss. Whether it is the strong and simple, yet elegant designs or the fact that it wasn't just a half hour commercial. Sure, Inferno/Grapple could have at least had rear lights, but the end results are jaw dropping nonetheless. I remember some stating that no other 3rd party, nor Takara would ever surpass "Polly". Well, to each their own, but MP-36 was a milestone to me.

I've been on a G1 soundtrack kick the last two months, so it sucked to hear about the composer passing away. When the first color photos were revealed, the attached song is what played in my head. I can not put a price tag on that. I don't need a voice chip with Mr Cullen. The figure is the embodiment of that character, our beloved surrogate parent, brought forth into the world by an extremely humble and talented voice actor. Thank you to HC and Cheem for the newest photos!

 

Lol. MP44 is practically calling out to you...

 

I think this still looks best among the three upcoming G1 prime despite some facepalm design decisions but the backpack got to be the worse of them all. This backpack is so HUGE he looks like hunchback of Notradame from the side.

 

given how he transformers i am even less interested in it now. they could of easily put in the vehicle accurate front smaller windows and still have the larger robot chest windows

 

They are the same windows!! Just flipped around backwards!

 

Still can't get over how they nailed the rounded S1 styled head. Love it!
Both screen caps from "City of Steel".

 

Which is actually a Season 2 episode, but animated by AKOM so using the older animation model!