Really looking forward to seeing this one and what they do with Superion before taking the plunge with Zeta's.

 

FT is very smart and these figures are expensive. If you look at the designs they have nailed them like XTB. FT has had to master quite an engineering feat of getting this to scale properly with alt mode and have a larger bot mode. Roadking is proof that they practice alchemy in making the entire trailer disappear into the legs. This is a $500+ combiner and a big risk for FT. They are not going to screw it up at the finish line by bowing to pressure from some fans not wanting partsforming or the OPTION for both. They NEED all three modes to work and the competitors have proven on this combiner that the shell looks the part and can solve stability. A wide and thin car as an arm is simply not flexible and doesn't look right. Same with a thin and wide leg. The cartoon utilized imagination and not physics. FT is not going to be a slave to any concept when physics is required to produce a working product.

Another combiner where this will become apparent is Defensor. Like Bruticus and Menasor there are unique problems. A car and a patrol bike is a calf. They will need solid solutions. Bruticus proves that a helicopter can be an arm and the ambulance as an arm can hide a lot of flexibility similar to Blast Off as a shuttle. Having a long fire engine like Hot Spot with other partsforming provides that solution. Next you probably see something for Predaking similar to the conversion Tigerblade did with Feral Rex with the Constructor like waist. Look at how bad the Power of the Primes version looks to understand why these things are necessary. When you venture into Abominus and Computron these same issues are going to be there with similar solutions.

I think from combiner to combiner, like Zeta, you are going to see independent solutions. Zeta has proven this system works (Devy, Bruticus, Superion, Menasor) and even for the small crowd that doesn't like it they have to accept the majority prefer these solutions. There will be other options out there like Ocular Max Bruticus that cater to less partsforming. We have a mountain of previous evidence from $500+ CHUG scale combiners that this nonpartsforming concept is not stable or durable in all three modes. For that amount of investment, it's just unacceptable. Collectors and companies are taking risks in these purchases and there is clear evidence of why Zeta's concept eventually won out. FT can beat Zeta in the design, materials, paint, fit, and finish of the individual bots and overall look of the combiner using the same core design concept. FT would rather compete there with something they know rather than having to overengineer something already incredibly complex. As has been proven, the more complex something gets the more it compromises FT's design quality. We can say that about any company because it's an inherent fact.

 

So this is gonna be a MP Menasor from FT correct?

 

Did the title of this thread not give it away?

 

Heyyyyyyy mannnn I just wanted to be sure lol to be honest it sounded too good to be true but I got my pre-order up now on TCP. He's my second favorite combiner now if we can only get Masterpiece Predaking...I'm wondering if I should even invest in MMC or just be patient. Any combined pics up yet?

 

No combined pics, they are being very coy on both their combiners in "combined" mode.

 

I believe it's only the front half of the trailer. The rest is likely to be for thighs or something, maybe storage for feet and hands?

 

I would too. A little bird told me that some kind of supergluing will be required  .

 

Be patient, Zeta just teased their Predaking.

 

No earthly idea if someone has already done this, but here's a digibash of both Magnum and Spoiler:

 

I will be getting this set, probably for combined mode, unless I like their bot modes better than XTB's. It's one of those things that I have to wait & see how it goes, same with their Aerialbots. Getting them for bot mode, unless combined somehow beats out Zeta's. But I prefer the bot modes of FT's over Zeta's, but it'd probably be better to use FT's Stunticons in bot mode next to their Aerialbots. But I really like the XTB's bot modes, and I like their scale better next to Megatron.
 

First world problems...

 

I love my mmc ones but they are far from masterpiece sized sadly, so they will eventually have to leave.

But not yet, not yet.

 

I'm in a very similar predicament.

 

Im still hoping for the best but won’t be disappointed if in combine mode all the paint chips off or it takes 5 hours to combine it.

 

The small figures in this set look amazing. Too bad motormaster is such a dud.

 

Not a fan of what appears to be bare gray plastic arms. Nothing makes an MP figure look cheaper than swaths of unpainted bare gray plastic. If nothing else, there are plenty of details on them that could be painted to help it seem more worthy of a masterpiece grade product while still being "toon accurate".

 

They probably thought that having the entire trailer and cab compress down to slightly larger than the MP-10 bot would be a pretty impressive feat.
What on earth were they thinking?

 

Too bad they couldn't do it and keep the canonical G1 aesthetics. I guess that's too much to ask for the biggest figure in a $600 set, huh? We should instead be grateful for their compressed, stubby, blocky rendition for reasons of brand loyalty.

 

I'm sure I read that this guy partsforms for combined mode so I wonder if those bits will come with Motormaster on day 1?