You know what'll really suck is when Takara adopts the wave system too. That's a definite possibility if selling cheaper products doesn't pan out for them.

 

Do they not already do Waves?

 

Hasbro initiated the MP line? This is the first I have heard that

 

Eh...sortof...a better choice would be been "assortments." Or, as I like to call it, hostage-taking. Or suicide, depending on how far they go with it.

 

And posting this separately because it's a different talking point. I don't understand why Takara would make this choice. When Pennsylvanians, in aggregate, became too poor/cheap/disinterested to buy toys, companies stopped shipping them here. What makes poor/cheap/disinterested people elsewhere different? Why do they get repeated clearance sales or reworked products? Why aren't they just cut off like where I live?

Because if I switch jobs in the next couple of years, I want to move somewhere that I can demand the moon and have a dozen options bending over backwards begging me to pay 25 cents on the dollar for it.

 

Oh you can also add the G1 toon accurate Walmart Mp-03 Screamer to the list of superior Hasbro mp releases.  

As for Takara Mp-10 from what I've seen of my dad's G1 & Mp collection, I think Takara might be doing a toy deco or somesuch. The irony lol.

 

Oh, there are a bunch of times that Hasbro's version was better. Off the top of my head:

Takara's obsession with cartoon-accuracy mean't that CW Megatron was much nicer looking than Legends' version, similarly Legends Rewind had eyes awkwardly painted on his visor that ended up looking terrible, T30 Brainstorm was painted more accurately than the Legends version, the entire Animated line had ugly metallic paint, TR Brainstorm and Chromedome had the potentially more desirable IDW heads, Legends Ultra Magnus was painted better but had Alpha Trion instead of Minimus Ambus (which was probably more important), The Legend-class Megatron had all of his construction-stripes left unpainted for (again) obsessive cartoon-accuracy, the entire Prime line had stickers instead of paint and awkward Arms Microns instead of accessories and Legends Tailgate was awkwardly painted to be toy-accurate.

I'm sure that there are other examples.

 

CW Dragstrip is better than the super yellow UW version, and doesn't have the absurd black painted shoulders that are somehow meant to represent wheels like the old figure had. Like I get the thought behidnd it, but it just does not work.

 

You seem very young..because you mentioned your dad's collection. how old are you?

 

Oh, yes. Takara Menasor is actually uglier than Hasbro version.

T30 Arcee might not be cartoon-accurate, but black accents make the figure look more sharp and less boring than Takara's movie-accurate one.


Problem with slavish cartoon accuracy is that cartoon color schemes were simplified for faster production and put on simplified character models. They do not always look better on a 3d plastic objects.

 

My dad was born in late 70's. I was conceived in the early 2000s & grew up on the bayformers movies.

So I'm quite open minded when it comes to the Transformers franchise. Anything I need to know..just ask daddy.  

 

Ahh gotcha! Wow your dad seems like a pretty cool dude collecting transformers and such. How big of a collection does he have?  

 

....and to play devil's advocate here, paint schemes are ENTIRELY subjective. One person's trash is another person's treasure. I take a bit of offense when I see that phrasing, "ACTUALLY uglier." Says who? Your entirely subjective measure of opinion that you're subtlety trying to push off as fact? No thanks.

That being said I didn't like the Takara Menasor either. ONLY because of Dead End. I loved Dead End's racing stripe as a kid. Everyone else in the US set looks fine to me though.

Which is why I don't really give two shits about paint apps. I only care about molds and tooling.

 

Not big..mostly Mps & my Bayformers collection that's all. He used to have a number of the G1 reissue line..forgot the name..

 

I kind of liked Dragstrip on the basis that the black shoulders to represent non-existent wheels was so ridiculous that it was endearing.

 

I liked what takara did with there uw ark crew especially wheeljack

 

This is the first I've heard of it too - not that I'm "up" on that sort of knowledge. But I do know that Aaron Archer at least had a hand in designing 20th Optimus Prime, if not the driving force behind it - and which I thought was what led into the Masterpiece line, but Takara did release theirs first. So who knows, maybe Hasbro did initiate the line? I would need to see something a bit more concrete to determine that.

 

It has been referenced several times, I believe by Hasbro themselves as well. I most recently saw another mention of it just minutes ago on the tfwiki where they describe the Masterpiece line - specific mentions that it is distributed by Hasbro Asia for the non-Japan Asia market, and Australia.
I believe Takara has also mentioned that Japan is their specific market in some of the magazine interviews in the past. I don't remember where or when exactly, as I thought this was common knowledge and not a disputed point.
I don't think anyone is disputing that Takara products are available in Asia markets outside of Japan, just that Takara is not directly shipping to them.
I won't speak of the Legends line at this point, as my understanding of that was that it was the same as the rest of Takara with regards to Transformers - Japan only. I don't know or have not heard anything about them being distributed by Hasbro Asia, as this would compete with Hasbro product. I really can't say (anymore) that you're just seeing product being imported via the secondary market, or if in fact their marketing agreement with Hasbro allows them to sell in other parts of Asia. Given that whenever I see pictures of mass retailers (such as TRU) in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and even Malaysia, it's only Hasbro product and not Takara (other than Hasbro Asia distributed product, such as MP), I would still lean to the availability being due to importers, not Takara themselves.

 

This was for MP01, Hasbro was taking votes on this site for stuff on it. I apologize I wasn't as clear. I'm not sure if Takara did the same on Japanese boards/magazine prior to, but this was 15+ years ago. What I really meant to get at was the Kenner acquisition wasn't terrible for Transformers, it was quite the opposite. Look at everything we got during Archer and co's time in Hasbro, he and some others were from Kenner.

 

One of the reasons my CW Wheeljack will forever stay in car mode.