The irony of where MP has headed

Discussion in 'Transformers Toy Discussion' started by FortressMaximus1976, Aug 13, 2017.

  1. StrangePlanet

    StrangePlanet G1

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    The cost of MP Sunstreaker is a legit concern.
    That's a hard pill to swallow no matter what and I can totally understand anyone passing on it.

    And I am not a fan of the new all-toon direction, aesthetically, and many aren't so, yeah, totally understandable how one might pass on it even if it were affordable.

    And I'd pass on it too, except... MP Ratchet happened. And I thought the Ironhide mold was a unholy piece of garbage, unworthy of the MP stamp. It looked terrible to me, even though Ratchet wore the mold a bit better. And then I got it in hand. And I love it. And I ended up loving Hot Rod too. Plus Cheetor is spectacular. So, it's not like Takara is making garbage now - they are just doing things differently. Different priorities. And even if the looks aren't always bowling me over, there is still a LOT to like with the new MPs.

    That's why I bought, fully pre-paid, MP Sunstreaker. Even at its ridiculous cost, I want what it's got, which looks like a nice car that is badly underdetailed in its deco, but a robot that is super crazy articulated and overflowing with personality, if a bit bland visually. We all gotta make our choices, but I am betting that I will be very happy with mine.
     
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  2. Crim

    Crim Well-Known Member

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    Ah, yes. The flood of Takara defenders telling a Canadian that if only he bought something in American dollars he wouldn't be paying so much bullshit.

    The Seeker mold is done. Takara has to make up that extra fool's revenue somehow so it makes sense they'd price hike the mainline MPs now.
    That is the dumbest thing I've read all day. If a business sees a drop in their sales and sees a market with KOs of their product, they don't fucking Charlie Brown it and decide to go home. They figure out what the hell it is that lead to their drop in sales and try to correct it. They're not an emo teenager when their crush flirts with someone else.

    Clearly there is demand for their product when someone knocks it off and it sells better then the original at a cheaper price point. Or, what we've seen recently, it gets knocked off and sells well because it had improvements made to it that Takara has refused to do for years or the KO maker gives it a better deco or oversizes it while making small, but major, improvements to it.
    I hate MP Ironhide, he looks nothing like the character, but MP Ratchet OWNS that mold. He looks awesome and made me decide to pick up him and Ironhide.... As KOs. Ironhide is a stand in for when a real MP is made for him, probably by some 3p at this point. I'll get a TT inferno or Artfire to make up for it but unless something major happens I'm out of buying Takara mainline MPs. Beast Wars is a different story, those guys ARE AMAZING! It's like Takara has the D team working the mainline now and switched the A team over to BW. Huge difference in design and quality. I feel like I'm actually getting my money's worth with them.
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2017
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  3. NGW

    NGW Rawr

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    I remember when Masterpieces were almost like a rare and special thing, they were few and far between and now..they're churning the fuckers out like nobody's business. It is ridiculous just how many have come out in the last few years.

    That said, I do REALLY want to pick up the Beast Wars masterpieces, that was my G1 and the two they've done so far look incredible.
     
  4. Zethrofax

    Zethrofax Well-Known Member

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    1vse94.jpg
     
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  5. Ramberk Magnus

    Ramberk Magnus Well-Known Member

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    LOL. You didn't explain how Takara can beat cheaper KOs, all you said was: "They figure out what the hell it is that lead to their drop in sales and try to correct it" So, what's the answer to that?

    KO companies win on price and Takara can't compete on price. If Takara can't sell a product, they terminate it. Here's an example of that:

    The Binaltech line started off really strong but fans quickly cooled off. Takara tried to keep it alive by revamping the toyline TWICE. First with Binaltech Asterisk and then later with Kiss Players. Clearly there was a desire from Takara to keep the line alive but fans were just not that interested in it. I doubt KO's were a factor in Takara's declining sales in this example but I bring it up to show that Takara is dedicated to a products success but if its not selling, they have to terminate it.

    If KO's significantly eat up Takara's sales, Takara can improve the product or call it quits. They have improved the MP line. The evidence is in the increase in add-on accessories that accompany the newer figures. But what-if these improvements are not enough?

    If Takara sees the MP line doesn't have enough sales to sustain it, they really only have one conclusion they can make: customers are no longer interested in it. And if customers are not interested in Takara product but continue to buy KOs-- what is Takara supposed to do? If more accessories can't keep the interest of buyers, there's really nothing much Takara can do. Pouting that Takara should do something is silly because they can't win a price war.
     
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  6. LeakinLubricant

    LeakinLubricant Well-Known Member

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    The price is still far too high though, here in the UK he works out at £80-£85 or there abouts, thats twice the price (give or take) of previous carbots.
     
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  7. Zethrofax

    Zethrofax Well-Known Member

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    I agree with you. MP prices, both official and 3P, are much more expensive than I would prefer to pay. And because of that I sold off a majority of my collection and am not trying to have a "complete" collection. I only buy a few now that I find particularly exceptional or have a lot of nostalgic resonance.
     
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  8. pokemonsdoom

    pokemonsdoom MadameVixen

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    agreed, i'm getting ones that will fill a hole in my collection, like Road Rage, G2 Bumblebee and my newest acquisition, Shockwave....who should be here by the end of the month
     
  9. supernova222

    supernova222 junkion

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    it does kill me that i love sunstreaker and when we get a MP of him, it looks like trash, head wise at least because of this screen accurate crap, which i usually am super for
     
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  10. zfarsh

    zfarsh Big Penguin Chief

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    Yes, i want the super Prestine look in my MP collection, with some details, but... i really also want MP Inferno, he looked really nice in person, eventhough he is too toon looking (lack of details). I missed out on good pricing from HLJ and similar as i didnt want an MP inferno back then, and didnt know it was gonna be such a good figure.

    MP Shockwave looks like a great mold, but... i am waiting on a painted premium version.... or an upsize KO version that is also painted IF (and only if) the quality is HIGH (at least similar to Takara, if not better), otherwise, if it is like many of the other same size KO, no thanks. I am tired of buying KOs and being burnt by lower quality than my original Takara ones of the same figures, or playing the lottery on quality for KOs. I know some figures do end up being better, but i had no such luck.

    However, i find that i usually prefer Beast Wars series being toon accurate, and G1 should be a mix of Toon / Toy / Realistic representation in a way to also look pristine.

    I am however very curious to see Takara MP representations of the femmebots, especially G1, and see how they turn out. Also, would like to see more minibots.
     
  11. RKillian

    RKillian http://www.rktoyandhobby.com

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    That's not how I saw it. It was a joint venture so Takara had Hasbro to deal with. Hasbro had American fans that couldn't fathom a line with half a dozen Autobot cars and were shrieking for Grimlock and Starscream and Fort Max and Princess Leia as cars. Those problems became Binaltech's problems by extension. It's a shame that the die-cast molds for Mirage weren't done before they let Frenzy, Ravage 2: The Revenge, and Alternators shrivel up and die like it deserved to.

    We've only received as many faithful updates of the Diaclone cars as we have because this is Takara's project and they're not forced to bow to weird demands from US collectors that can't find and don't buy the end product anyway.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2017
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  12. Ramberk Magnus

    Ramberk Magnus Well-Known Member

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    I think you're making a lot of odd assumptions. I agree Binaltech/Alternators was a joint project between Hasbro and Takara but I disagree with the notion that Hasbro's choices influenced and hurt Takara's ability to market and sell Binaltech-- which is what you seem to be implying. There are A LOT of examples of choices that Hasbro and Takara make that the other company simply ignores. For example, Binaltech ignored a ton of Alternator repaints.

    Are you saying that Shockwave and Grimlock were poor choices for the BT/Alt lines? I don't think either of those choices drastically hurt the longevity of the line. It's also impossible to say who made those design choices (Hasbro or Takara). Both designs appeared in Japan and the US. So even if you want to blame someone, who do you blame?

    You are also assuming American fans were shrieking for Grimlock, Starscream, Fort Max and Princess Leia as cars. Where was this happening!??! Lol, folks on these boards were more upset about Grimlock as a mustang. And folks on these boards were clamoring for Binaltech/Alternator jets for the seekers, not Starscream as a car. I don't know where you got that impression.

    I don't know why you're bashing Frenzy and Ravage 2. Frenzy was not an elegant design but I appreciated that we got another mold in the line but that's just my opinion. Ravage 2 is silly but I also liked that design and appreciated another mold-- but again, just my opinions.

    "they're not forced to bow to weird demands from US collectors that can't find and don't buy the end product anyway." I really don't get why you are bashing American fans because (a) a lot of us buy Takara product, (b) what weird demands? and (c) when has Takara ever bowed down to whatever the US is doing? Hell, if you want to be judgmental about "weird" ideas, just look at Binaltech Asterisk and Kiss Players.
     
  13. Crim

    Crim Well-Known Member

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    That's fucking ridiculous. Why would I need to do anything concerning Takara's business plan?
    Again, fucking ridiculous. No, KO's were not a factor in killing Binaltech. The fact that Takara was changing directions and moving to the brand new Masterpiece line killed it due to MP achieving what Btech was made to achieve.

    How is throwing more crap into the box "improving" over actual improvements like paint apps, molded details, etc?
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2017
  14. botfan

    botfan Quote this Avatar

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    I know where TT fans wish the MP line was heading....right here.

    [​IMG]
     
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  15. Crim

    Crim Well-Known Member

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    Personally, I'm fine with MP Grimlock being as tall as he was and wish TT would scale the rest of the Dinobots against him (with Sludge being FT big) instead of all of them being so huge. One of the very issues I have concerning scale is having a tiny dinosaur like Swoop, being as large as Grimlock, a godamn Tyrannosaurs Rex.

    Then again, with toon accuracy being MP's new thing, I expect Grimlock to be redone, his details dumbed down and everybody looking like playskool transformers.
     
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  16. JJohnson

    JJohnson Well-Known Member

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    And Grimloctane!
     
  17. JJohnson

    JJohnson Well-Known Member

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    That would be epic! Give me some authentic, G-1 Dinobot Masterpiece Transformers! Then release them in both G2 color variants! Blue and turquoise Grimlock, red and green Slag, green and red Snarl should all get some TT Mall exclusive releases.
     
  18. TigerBlade

    TigerBlade Prepare for extermination

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    You saying it's a bad thing? How can having more toys from (some) our childhood(s), hyper articulated in a sense of scale with todays engineering ever be a bad thing?
     
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  19. CigarJackal

    CigarJackal Cy-gar smoking beast warrior

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    What is annoying is that the Masterpiece aesthetic that many love (real world vehicle modes, interesting looks with molded detail) began in 2003. The standardized scaled MPs started up with MP-10 in 2011. This experiment of the new cartoon look only began in 2015 with Mp-22. So, we had 12 years of the original aesthetic and ~4 years of that was with the standardized scale.

    This new toon look has really only been around for about 2 years. The new toys just don't look right with the older ones unless you slap a bunch of reprolabels on them to get them to fit in.

    In essence, the new designs are like New Coke. We have a group of Pepsi drinkers who love them. The old Coke drinkers who have enjoyed the products for over a decade now are forced to buy Shasta (3P) if we want something that fits with our sensibilities (and fits into our previous collection).
     
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  20. CigarJackal

    CigarJackal Cy-gar smoking beast warrior

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    Last two years 16 new MP molds in total (not counting repaints and movie bots). Of the, 3 are just slight remolds of MP11 (which is really MP3), Ratchet (which is just a retool/repaint of Ironhide), Delta magnus (repaint of MP22), Grapple and Artfire (repaint/ retools of MP-33). 3 are Beast Wars (with 2 Primals). So really, in the last two years we have only seen 6 new molds that are based on G1. Not excatly flooding the market with new designs.
     
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