I agree with you.
A carbot over 90 is absurd.
TT is always expensive.
After their succes with inferno and grapple, TT thinks they can higher their prices again.

While FT makes better figures then TT, i hate to see their prices being almost the same as TT.
That's why i think FT arcee shoudn't go over 100.
That springer goes over 100 is a different story. He is a tripple changer and a lot bigger.
Their dino's are big and i woudn't wanna pay more then 160 euros for it. But i paid over 180 for grinder.

 

I keep wondering if I should be reasonable and buy one, and try to get different molds, ie from several companies, or should I skip on one and get two of these, one with one chest plate and visor and big gun, and other with other chest, no visor, and two small guns.

 

Get them all damn it

 

I agree about Sunstreaker's price being absurd but I'll raise you one: a carbot being more than $60 is absurd. That's the price the Hasbro Tru releases have been and it's perfectly reasonable.

That said, I have bought a few carbots for more: ft Willis and Mt downbeat, but I caught them both on eBay flash sales so it still wasn't too bad. And I get all my official carbots as KOs so that helps too. I'll pay more for Arcee as well just cuz I want a nice Arcee that much (enough that I've spent months working on my own custom).

 

But those have diecast and look better than takaras

 

Ehh... Takara can be hit and miss. On one of their better days, I think they could make a better jazz than downbeat. Hell, on a really good day they could probably make a better Willis. Laying odds based on their average performance, though, I think their jazz would look almost as good as downbeat but be more playable but their hound probably wouldn't look as nice as Willis (but would be easier to transform).

As far as die cast, it's nice and it does make it feel like a higher quality figure in your hand but once it goes in the display case, die cast is basically meaningless. If I could choose to pay $60 for a figure with no die cast or $90 with, all other things being equal, I'd choose without.

 

@Snaku -

I don't agree personally. I think the only reason Takara has "topped" some 3P versions of our beloved characters, is because they had a 3rd party reference to look at and "improve" upon.

Look at their absolute shit take on the original Megatron. Look at Tracks (and his whobbly knees) in all his hollow glory. Look at Hot Rod (and whilst we're at it, their garbage take on the quality that was MP-09).

Their Sunstreaker is ... better I guess. I like it well enough. But they had Sunsurge to go by. At first glance I thought it WAS a picture of Sunsurge.

They made better legs, and added some bells and whistles to the alt mode. Their face is ... not necessarily better, but more " 198X toonz accurate, yo." I still think Sunsurges face is more handsome and more along the lines of of the old MP car bots (minus Smokescreen).

 

Omg yes. When someone posted those mp-39 pics in the sun surge thread I thought it was photoshopped pics of sun surge in a takara magazine

 

With a worse face/head. As if Fans Toys created a new head for Sunsurge.  

 

Seems like the face ft would make. But their ears would be bigger and detailed

 

I'm convinced that TT will absolutely destroy Downbeat with its weird, swirly grey plastic and all that hideous kibble underneath the alt-mode, it is irrefutable, when I look at downbeat, I think it's mediocre at best, but you know this fandom, hey, it's the only one available so it must be the best one!?

What the hell are you smoking and, no, I don't want any, haha. TT make their products regardless of what third parties are doing, what next, if TT makes a Grimlock whose dino chest opens to form 'wings' on the his back and his dino legs become his arms in robot mode, you're gonna say TT is copying FT's grimlock, that is so ironic on so many levels it makes my head hurt?? They are based on the same character so the transformation is going to be somewhat similar as that is a telling point in MP's to make them homage the cartoon in terms of looks and transformation.

But improve upon Sunsurge, TT did, and with some aplomb, mind you with that MEH alt-mode, Bucky O' hare feet and the Urkel proportions, let's not forget that craptasitc transformation that Sunsurge had, BC had set the bar very low for TT, haha, so it wasn't going to be exactly difficult!

 

MP-05 was made in only 12 days and it still is on par with most of the third party figures in terms of quality. As for MP-09... I can't defend it but the way some of you people that chant 'offishial onry' pile on this figure and yet you turn around and hug figures like Crapollyon and Ollie to sleep at night is beyond me!? But hey, different strokes!?

Again...What the hell are you smoking and, no, I don't want any, haha!

Whilst TT misses the mark with Sunstreaker's face sculpt, at least to me, by making him look rather sinister than handsome/ narcissistic like toon Sunstreaker, it is an infinitely better looking face sculpt than the BC version. It is irrefutable.

 

You know I'd love to see an MP IDW Arcee be made one day. After all since we're getting MP figures of G1 Arcee there's no reason why we can't explore other Arcees in the MP style.

 

You really think takara is taking notes from 3p companies? Do you have any evidence of this cuz from what I've seen in similar comments from other people, it seems to be based on the fact that the character transforms in a similar way. Well freakin' duh! There's only so many ways they could transform. SS' hood is gonna form his feet. His chest is either gonna be the car roof or some kind of fake car roof. When there's only one or two ways a thing can be done at all, it's not a stretch to think that two people could arrive at the same one without either "stealing" the others' idea. Also, SS looks great and the only thing I'd change about him is the stupid toon insignia.

I love my downbeat but there are a few areas of his transformation that takara would never do, such as the shoulders sliding forward on the metal pins. His whole arm transformation is just a little messy compared to what a takara figure would do and that's exactly my point. Willis is a great figure but he's the same way: his arm transformation is a little difficult in a way that I doubt takara would have done. Takara figures tend to feel more like they expect you to play with them while many 3p figures feel like they expected you to transform them extremely carefully and forget about playing with them.

Obviously there are exceptions. Mp5 was crapped out in less than two weeks and mp09 had some serious problems. My mp08 can be a little floppy, and takara MP's in general are notorious for losing chrome. But as a rule, takara releases just feel better in hand and I don't feel like I need to be overly careful with them. Also, I don't see the appeal in ft hot rod. He looks like a slightly altered takara version wearing Springer's face. Takara's hot rod is great aside from his backpack. And takara's Megatron is amazing: showing that when they really want to, they can still blow the competition out of the water (and all without "stealing" anybody else's ideas). Their shockwave is a dead ringer for the cartoon which is great but Shocky is one of the characters where I prefer his comic look so I got cloud 9's version (the price certainly helped as well).

That said, takara lately is losing one of the main things they had going for them: the price. Megatron was $230 and Sunstreaker is $120: those are prices that would be ridiculous for a 3p to charge and we're seeing that 3p's are maintaining roughly the same pricing structure despite takara's insanity: ft carbots remain in the $90-100 range rather than takara's greedy $120. I still think $200 for the dinos is insane (which is why I don't own any of them) while the $500 total price for omega is just laughable.

I guess i was all over the place in this post but my point is, I believe takara is better overall than any of the 3p companies though they haven't always shown it. Ft is certainly the runner up in design and build quality (seriously, the other 3p's should take lessons from ft on how to not make their figures so damn fragile and/or fiddly). So yeah, if takara decided to do jazz or hound, I think they'd do a damn good job and theirs would be nicer. Not sure they'd be able to pull off Arcee better than ft though (she'd probably get a better headsculpt at least). Oh and yes, tracks was crap: there's no denying that.

 

just not the Milne Arcee.

I'd rather see the newest incarnation done.

 

Wow, I'd love to see all four of those ladies get made. 

 

I certainly wouldn't mind that. Heck I want to see all four of the IDW ladies pictured there to have MP figures in the future.  

 

$60 for a Takara carbot would really be nice but recently only 3P MP size minibots are around that price. We've seen Takara's overpriced seekers including their coneheads. I just picked up FT Phoenix from Taobao for about $157 shipped. There's no way I would pay $200 + for TT Megatron. Plus you don't even get any after care support from TT for missing, spare or defective parts/accessories like you do with most 3P cpmpanies like FT. Takara's high prices leave them wide open to be capitalized on by high quality KO companies like Yes Model/BB7 and now THF and Robot Heroes (Soundwave/Sounblaster KOs).

 

Megs kos are on the way now.
Of.course it was as while ago but still probably happening

 

Hell, yes. ^^^^^

 

News like that would certainly make some official TT fans gnash their teeth, hiss and howl in protest..