Yeah you are probably right. I just hope someone makes and releases a good G1 Perceptor again one day...otherwise that’ll be a pretty big hole in my collection. Perhaps KFC/XTB secretly has one in the works...

 

Tesla's plastic is weirdly brittle. Even with minimal interaction it tends to stress and fracture. I too leave mine on the shelf and don't touch. It's actually really strange how bad the plastic is.
That said, I never really got the hatred for his design. Sure the face was off but he was pretty close to the G1. He suffers from FansToys occasional tendency to make the characters a little more buff and heroic than expected but he wasn't that bad. Honestly there are plenty of examples as bad or worse - BC and MMC Hoist, BC Warpacth, MP-11, MP-12, FT Seaspray, FT Shockwave...) Plenty of figures are way more off-model than Tesla.
But I have to imagine someone else will take a swing at him. He's too iconic a character to not get another go around.

Which neatly brings me back around to Transistor. Because, while I love Transistor, he's actually just as much off from the G1 as Tesla is. The waist, the feet/ankles, the abs and crotch. He's also far more heroically built than the G1's blocky shapes. But it works!! In large part because he looks so good next to MP-13.
The official Soundwave is a lot more accurate to his cartoon than Transistor is to Blaster. But Transistor works because he matches so well with MP-13. The toon representations of Soundwave and Blaster are actually not nearly so well matched, toon Blaster is a lot more blocky and awkward looking (probably thanks to the G1 toy) while toon Soundwave actually does have that more heoic build.
That's one reason that I worry about an official Blaster. I think if Takara does it, and adheres as closely to the toon as they have been, than an MP Blaster won't pair as well with MP-13. I may end of being mistaken, but I have a feeling that Transistor is going to be a better pairing against MP-13 than a future MP Blaster. So Transistor is almost certainly going to be a keeper, at least for me.

 

You might be right, and I think we can blame Takara's change in direction for that. Everything is now 'full toon' even where it doesn't make sense (the toon faction symbols are a particular bugbear of mine) so no doubt official MP Blaster and Perceptor will be lacking the level of surface detail Tesla and Transistor have, and probably be in drab colours too. Then they'll release a '+' Soundwave in flat deco to try and make them match a little better, but of course he will still have his intricate sculpt details so it doesn't fix the real issue.

I don't mind the faithfulness to the overall proportions and silhouette of the character model, in fact the increasing accuracy in that area are what keeps the MP line interesting to me. I just wish there was more continuity in the finish, detailing and deco to what went before. Tesla and Transistor are looking dated now... not because they're bad designs, but because they took more liberties in an age when -as you say- even official MPs often did the same (MP10 is the Prime example, pardon the pun) but now the pendulum has swung the opposite way.

 

KFC's emails for service are:

[email protected]
&
[email protected]

Ibot on the board here is Keith the owner of KFC / XTB but I wouldn't bother him with this myself. He has people who handle this stuff at those addresses (Miss Zhou is usually who I end up talking to.)

In my experience they're really good about helping people out with parts if they have them. I broke a finger on one hand of my Transistor (V1, Metallic paint) and they sent me two whole arms to replace them. I have nothing but good to say about their after sales support.

If you write them, I usually send to both addresses with a carbon copy and just be clear and concise what you're trying to get help with. Pictures always help. Usually they will want you to pay the shipping which in my few times with them, is like $3.50.

Hope this helps!  

 

Thank You So Much!!!!!!!

This Helps Alot!!!!!!

 

OH MAN I WANT THIS. NOT A BLASTER FAN BUT DAMN!

 

After taking the advice from @boomerdave , I emailed XTB/KFC regarding my issues with Transistor.

Miss Zhou from KFC/XTB service responded in about a day!! We traded emails for a couple of days to address the broken part, and the replacement.

For $5.00 USD a new arm and hand assembly was on its way!!



It was basically a "cake walk" to replace the original problematic arm with the new one.

The hand folds in fine... with no tolerance issues. I can confidently attach the speakers to the "nubs".



And the right hand folded back out as easily as the left... in fact, it's even better!!



To demonstrate the issues I had is challenging. Ultimately, what was happening was that the hand would get stuck on the back wall of the hollow forearm. This wasn't a problem for the left hand... though the tolerance is pretty damn tight. And it's not at all a problem for the new hand/ arm assembly!!

Overall, I am very happy with the service from Keith's Fantasy Club / X-Transbots!!! And Miss Zhou was very nice and helpful!!!

Now he's ready to deal with these guys...



Thanks @boomerdave for getting me the contact info for KFC/XTB!!!

Kudos to Miss Zhou, wherever you are for helping me to have a fully functional KFC Transistor!!!



Cheers!!

 

Hopefully I can get the rod replacement for Transistor's left ankle.

The info helps.

 

TFSource is taking preorders for an "Orange Movie Version" of Transistor.
KFC - EAVI METAL Phase Four: A - Transistor Orange Movie Version w/ Cassettes


To each there own but unless there are some noticeable qc tweaks from the already decent quality pure red/Doubledeck/SG versions I'm not sure if this barely noticiable orange recolor is worth the $$ if you already have the pure red version.

Orange Movie



Pure Red



Besides, and most importantly, Blaster looked pretty red to me in the Movie. In fact I don't ever recall ever seeing an orange version of Blaster anywhere in the G1 toon....movie or regular series. I can't even really consider this a true repaint. Sounds like a KFC cash grab move to me.

 

Ordered this, whilst I agree Blaster was red the pure red version of this always seemed too deep a red and didn't look right for me so I skipped.it . This more orangey red calls out to me more as the color I remember Blaster in the movie. So now I have Metallic Red "comics Blaster", "Twincast", "SG Blaster" and soon "Movie Blaster"

Man I'm a sucker for Blaster. Add to this that I'm sure we'll be seeing a TT Blaster in the next year or so, lol.

 

That along with it being $20 less and two mini-bots/cassettes.

 

If you own the pure red as well I'd like to know the comparison in quality.

 

Comepletly agree. I'd be in at about $80 but full price for a minor color change has me out.

 

Ugh! Although I was a fan of Blaster, I was looking for a reason NOT to buy Transistor (only because I would now have to buy MP-13 as well). But $20 less + two cassettes + orange color = my Christmas gift to myself.  

 

You go KFC!!! Milk that mould for all it's worth, and then milk it some more!!! 
Orange seems an odd choice, but as we often see with the talk about Hot Rod's Regenta or Cyclonus and Glavatron's Blurple the actual colours from the movie are super variable depending on how it's being viewed.
For me I already swapped out Metallic Red for Pure Red and I can't see watering that down any more for reddish orange. I kind of feel that the Pure Red version is already looking a bit less premium with all that unpainted plastic. Rather than yet another random colour, I would have loved to see KFC release Transistor with a nice glossy (non-metallic) red paint job, similar to MP Ironhide. Hopefully when Takara get around to it, they'll give him glossy bright paint( and it won't flake...LOL)
But at this point, Transistor has to be approaching MP-10 levels of re-colouring? The joints on my Pure red where just a little looser than on my original Metallic, and I'm sure I've seen people reporting that one or another of the other releases was a tad loose as well? Hopefully KF are able to account for any mould degradation and keep Orange-istor nice and tight.

 

I've been meaning to grab this figure for a while and the slight price reduction and dual Minibros was plenty of icing on the cake to jump on it. I will agree that the orangish-red is not a huge difference, or any better than, the pure red... but that also means it doesn't really bother me at all! All it needs to do is hold together... always a dubious assumption with a KFC product, but here's hoping.

 

Was pretty disappointed TFSource didn't have these at the show. I wanted to see this in person to see if the light is making it more orange or if the pictures they have is exactly what you get. As noted already, for the price and you get two vs one cassette, though I couldn't care less on the later as I'm hoping for MMC to fill that area, I may still pull the trigger on one. I sold my red one with the two cassettes already for above coast so I've got nothing to handle and don't see much on the horizon i.e. FT or official.

 

I never upgraded from the metallic one and this has me super tempted, but I don't need the cassettes and frankly the price is a little too high for me to justify double dipping.

It's amazing how much inner turmoil the words "limited release" can cause.

 

I'm planning on selling on the cassettes as I already have them too. Makes the update a little easier 

 

I have two metallics (one w/ toon head, one with toy head), the twincast and the SG, prior to the pure red being announced. I've still yet to pull the trigger on that pure red (although I was tempted to double dip on the twincast when BBTS had him for ~$50). That said, my hopes are for a slightly different blue on Eject (as I picked up KFC's initial offering w/ an autoscout a few years(?) ago, and why not have a different color). I'm probably in for this slightly orange offering... from Baba, w/ an eBay flash sale!
Hopefully shipping won't be too crazy by the time this is released; but either way, I'm still suspecting the aforementioned conditions will be lower than this preorder.