Henkei & Classics are the G1 of remakes. Hard to beat. United keeps it going and is just as cool, but will miss the chrome.
I wish I could say I voted United, but I went henkei, had a hard time picking as I do enjoy the 3mm clip system, the metallic paint and the lack of mold degredation found on henkei. Not to mention that United Megs looks ALOT better than Henkei Megs...the downside of the line being that the boxes are harder to store and that the metallic paint doesn't cover all of the toy, and it went a bit too far from the g1 goodness with the cybertron modes, the g2 prime, the g1 redundant prime and I'm still on the fence on Lugnut & Drift, which made me recent the line a little bit, it's money that could have gone into a United Blitzwing or Shockwave...I mean seriously...no Shockwave or Blitzwing but we get a Straxus figure??!? So what does henkei have to compete with? better hands in that they can hold on to things like sidearm, the chrome is a welcome addition to most of the toys. On the downside is all the ")(&¤"% remolds, 1 plane mold and 2 car molds makes up almost half of the line if you go g1 and disregard the beastwars bots. While it works, it feels like the figures could have been made better had they gone with seperate molds for Sunstreaker and Sideswipe for example. Just a bit too much compromising for my taste. So why did I choose henkei over united? beats me, ask me again and I'll say united, ask me one more time after that and I'll say henkei...too hard to choose.
Henkei was more expansive but I've enjoyed United more. The shiny paint chrome-y accents, like on Wreck Gar for instance, look amazing and better than merely putting chrome parts on an otherwise ordinarily painted toy. The United paint jobs are outstanding all the way through. The War for Cybertron versions are major upgrades over their US counterparts and the United version of Classics Megatron is superior to Henkei's, in my opinion. I also appreciate the step-up in design. If only Prowl could've been as well conceived as Jazz. While it's hard to judge just on what I've received, I've also had better luck QC-wise with United versus Henkei.
The only United figure that I think warrants immediate purchase is Megatron, I love it. I also have Grapple (or Grappel I guess), who's claim to fame is a yellow painted head, kinda lame IMO that they couldn't have added any chrome, etc to differentiate.
Yeah, grapple was lacking. LOVE blurr though. I havent whipped him out the package yet because my generations version is still unsold.
Henkei by far. United has some cool colorschemes and when used well the metallic paint can be awesome, but I enjoy Henkei more. The colors were a lot more creative and over all better looking then their Hasbro counterparts, whereas United has mostly just been a shinier version of the Hasbro figures.
I love both as I consider henkei smokescreen and united jazz as top of their respective lines.....but henkei edges out united by a thin, thin margin because of it's use of chrome IMO. Edit- shit do I ever love the action shots on the back of the united packaging
Can't vote, only have one United figure thus far (though there are a bunch in my POL). Megs is great, but I enjoy the whole Henkei line (atleast the 15-20 I own).
Henkei by a little bit. While Henkei was an improvement on almost every figure, United isn't as clear cut (though most of them are still improvements). Randy
Henkei - by far. I only have 2 United figures (Jazz of course & R/F is on the way) but IMO the rest of them just aren't worth it. What's the point of Kup & Perceptor having metallic paint? & why does Grapple have a yellowish head? Sure it's cartoon-accurate (for most of G1) but Hasbro's Grapple looks 1000% better. Henkei on the other hand really accentuated each mold with splashings of chrome (How nice do the Nissan & Lambo brothers look?) & the Henkei paintjobs actually made sense (Compare Henkei Megs & Astrotrain to United Bumblez who for some reason has now become Goldbug? WTF?). Yeah, Henkei > United. Not even close.
I went with Henkei far more often than United. It's largely due to Henkei having chrome weapons on figures that needed chrome weapons- Prowl and co for the most part. I like some of the United figures just fine, but Henkei has greater numbers.
i despise takara. so, neither. ...but if i had to choose, it would be united. chromes WTF, shiny metallic FTW.
United gets my vote. The shiny paint makes the toy stand out and look better. The only problem is the paint chipping
I voted Henkei. While the chrome placement was random at times, at least the color schemes were more pleasant then what United is going for, case in point being United Wheeljack and Kup. Wheeljack sports a totaly inappropriate mint green color for stripes, and Kup is half shiny and half standard (Generations Kup) blue color. Then there's also United Blur. While I really like the chrome face, the whole figure seems monochromatic.