As you know, Takara is known to make Transformers that fit the respective anime. An example of this is color anime accuracy. (ex: Micron Legend Shockwave) Also Takara modifies their figures as well to match the storyline. (ex:Micron Legend Hot Rod in which his hand lights up for the Star Saber where in the show, he was the wilder of it) Talk about any of Takara's accomplishments if you like.
Making Henkei Ramjet's pilot seat chrome, to accurately reflect the mirrored finish that real pilot seats have.
Henkei Grimlock's bitchin' bling pants. In all honesty, I don't own Takara figures except Thundercracker.
I can name some from the top of my head. Galaxy Convoy Sonic Bomber Vector Prime G1 Starscream (TFC #9) Superlink Galvatron G
Takara's Tidal Wave ironically was still not show accurate. The show deco was almost entirely blacks and grays, while Takara added some purple to make it more interesting. Look at the heads, animation is black around silver face, toy is purple around a dark gray face.
Despite the sarcasm already prevalent in this thread (there'll be more I assure you), I think Takara's main accomplishment is in producing TF that look great on display, have superior paint applications to their Hasbro counterparts and generally look/feel better for the adult collector, as opposed to mass-market toys aimed primarily at children (there's nowt wrong with that BTW, and I love Hasbro, but I prefer to collect mostly Takara). Binaltech was about a million miles ahead of Alternators, Henkei is ahead of Classics-Verse, Masterpiece ahead of the US equivalents etc etc. Yeah, sure, all opinions - but this thread is all about opinions (heck, pretty much every thread around here is!)
Boxes, instead of blisters for packaging. This is the main reason I only import Takara TFs. I have a bunch of Hasbro stuff, and I hate the blisters with weird shapes (movie toys) and boxes with million flaps (Animated voyager class). Henkei comes in blister packaging, but at least they're box-shaped making it much easier to store.
Here are a few more by Takara that deserves mentioning. Superlink Roadbuster Car Robots Gigatron Superlink Wing Saber Japanese reissue Black Arachnia
The Takara Movie Premium Prime, with its chrome, is by far the best use of that mold. I can admire the vehicle mode every day. The Beast Wars Reborn set featuring Primal and Megatron was also superb. New heads, great paint schemes, and a boxset to boot. And recently, Henkei Galvatron and Cyclonus. Can't beat those two. Galvatron looks great in person, with the chrome red abs.
oh you sick sick man and imho Hound, Optimus, Astrotrain, Megs and the Movie Prime are the best Takara has done Henkei wise and Micron Shockwave is awesome too but if it wasnt for that nasty chrome theyd probably all be awesome but the chrome on say Ramjet and Cyclonus (his color sucks too) just kills it for me
I actually kinda like the random chrome on henkei. It's not so in your face in person. The photos make it seem worse. Aside from Starscream, Takara's MPs have been better. Not to mention more G1 reissues, and the ones Hasbro did do, Takara did better with more chrome, firing missiles, and correct length missiles.
henei Rodimus' orange accents are great, along with the accurate Megatron. I don't really like the crome spoiler on Red Alert, but seeing as how there is no hasbro version right now I'm content. Oh yea, Smokescreen looks a million times better thanks to Takara.
About that. Hasbro's Tidal Wave figure was actually accurate. They just changed up the character's design to better fit the name "Shockwave" after the Hasbro toy had already gone through production. And since Takara doesn't introduce toys until after the character appears on the show, their Shockwave was produced later with a closer color scheme to that of the show. But about the question- Most of the time, the differences between Hasbro's Classics/Universe and the Henkei! Henkei! version are minimal. Not enough for me to care if this character's missing a line across his alt-mode or a slightly different shade of yellow or red. I really don't care that much. As long as the character is distinct and inarguably the character he's supposed to be, I'm fine. But there are exceptions. Out of the 28 figures (says so there on the left) on my shelf, 2 of them HAD to be Henkei- Megatron and Ratchet. Cyclonus wasn't a must-have necessarily, but the nod for one to be Cyclonus himself and to have the Hasbro version represent "his Armada" was irresistible.
I really dig alot of the BWII figures, especially the repainted combiners. Also really like how they don't use quite so unsaturated colors (compare Henkei and Classics Sunstreaker) on some figures.
