Do you have Ironhide? Is he about the same level of articulation?

 

I have him on Pre-order, but from videos it's pretty much the same except the van bros have ball joint elbows while Soundwave's got a fixed bend.

 

I have ironhide...he's good. I like him better than soundwave. He has a ball joint elbow and it gives him a little better articulation than SW in the arms But SW has fists that can rotate.

They moved the thigh swivel higher up on iron hide so he can rotate his thigh and bend his knee at the same time.....No ankle tilts on either one but ironhide has a kind of waist swivel.

 

How much does parts count have a large effect on prices? I think that I was reading something in MAAS BB/GB thread about paint and parts being a limiting factor in production.

Just trying to decide how much more I'd be willing to spend for more articulation. I guess there isn't a way to know, but it would still be interesting to know, say what they could do if raised their standard price from 17 to 25 dollars, or if to really up the articulation they would haved to go to 30-35.

 

I'd pay five or ten bucks extra for ankle tilts and/or waist swivels. But I'm happy with how these guys are as is

 

Yeah, agreed. I'd pay more for a little more, but their Soundwave is great desk toy.

 

Parts count definitely plays a big part. I know HS is aiming to stay cheap, but for $10-15 more you can get DX9's Soundwave who comes with three tapes and better articulation.

Not trying to start a this v that discussion, but you asked about the impact of parts count on price and articulation and I have both of those Soundwaves.

 

Looks good. I'd guess he will be between 35 to 45 shipped just based in their other releases...

 

The arm thing is true, but mine stands fine. I know we all have our preferences, but I think that Soundwave is awesome and I'll be getting more just because of it.

 

Me too. I like it so much I bought all four versions  

 

No worries, didn't take it as a v thing. I have the DX9 Soundwave in my stack, but haven't shipped it yet. But yeah, probably easier to engineer and assemble at larger size, so they may have some wiggle room to add more articulation.

 

I'm really tempted to do that actually lol.

 

I agree - in fact that's where my Mech Planet gang live... on my desk at work. I'm really looking forward to adding Iron Hide as I don't have any autobot representation at them moment and I fear my coworkers might think I'm a rotten 'con and want to bust my decepti-chops.

As far as articulation / price goes...

These guys are about $15-$25 depending on where you get them. If we bump that up another level of parts / price you're in direct competition with DX9, Iron Factory, and all the other 3p legends lines. Right now they've got this price point all to themselves, and imo the figures while imperfect are a fantastic value.

 

the HS Soundwave is really tall btw. He towers over all the IF figures as well as the GT prime and megatron. He rivals the dx9 dinobots. I'm hoping the dx9 fits better in the line up, but Soundwave is my fav of all time, so I have no issue owning every version.

 

c/o MechPlanet机械星球原创设计

 

Just in case there was any doubt guys, he's going to have a head.  

 

That's a cool little update. The head design goes nicely with their four other figures.
I guess Mech Planet has quite a ways to go before they are ready to release this guy, but they seem to have plenty of other projects to keep their fans happy. Once they release their Optimus he should have a decent little army to back him up.

 

Some colour ones from both MechPlanet and SpikeArt's Weibo pages:



(From what I can make out from Google Translate, the design on the right is the older one, and the design on the left is a more cartoon-accurate designed by SpikeArt that they are now using. That might be wrong, though, as the translation was a bit garbled.)

 

Typical, I like the old design more. I get the new one is more cartoon accurate, but yeah.

 

Where do you guys buy your THS models from? I've been getting mine from tfsource. Is there a better/cheaper place?

Absolutely love the MechPlanet line. I'm super excited about them making an Optimus and the Lambos. I hope they release a few different colored versions of each, like they did with Soundwave and the tapes.