None.

 

Very much that. I love Animated and most of those shiny paint applications made me wonder what was going on.

Virtually all of the time if it's a minor difference or I'm not a big fan of the character, Hasbro is going to win for me. Only a few times have I felt that Hasbro really dropped the ball or I really prefered the Takara version that I go the other route (this is, of course, excluding molds and outright versions that aren't available in the US; such as Animated Blackout or the WFC Darkside set); such as Henkei Smokescreen. Hasbro's version to me just felt insulting next to Takaras, so I spent the few extra bucks and got the Henkei version.

 

generations warpath

the different colors on his weapons stand out better than the united one,
also the autobot logo blends better with his alt mode.

 

In some cases... the paint differences are minor... in others they're quite drastic.

Like take Tracks. Both versions are near identical minus the Flame decal. If you have him in bot mode all the time... you can easily ignore the goofy tribal flames on the Hasbro version.

Sometimes it's a matter of bot or alt mode tho too... Looking at Henkei and Classics Prime... Henkei Prime's Chrome looks verrrry nice in alt mode... but Classics looks better to me in bot mode.

Other cases you get major app differences. Jazz comes to mind... His United version is unquestionably better. There's too many missing paint apps on Hasbro's version. No lights, no grill, no wheel paint. Also a duller white.

All in all... I'll say what I usually say in these threads... If the gap between a Hasbro and Takara figure weren't at least twice the initial cost... I would opt for Henkei/United versions more often.

 

Gens Warpath and Thundercracker.

 

I can think of only 3 figures that surpass Takara versions and they are Generations Thundercracker,Thrust,and Dirge.Tho honestly they are almost neck n neck terms of awesomeness but slightly more for Gen since they are more G1 accurate,but the rest of Takara's stuff beats out Hasbro the most.

 

Generations/RTS
Perceptor
Warpath
Thrust
Dirge
Thundercracker
Wheeljack
Blurr
Darkmount

All of Animated, not one of them looks good shiny

henkei/classics/universe
Sideswipe, the chrome spoiler sucks imo

the rest, i don't have a strong opinion one way or the other, or the takara version wins

 

I actually own both of em, thats how much I liked the mold. However it's the old style paint job they did on the Hasbro one that won out, guess I am a sucker for muted colors LOL!.It is certainly not the worst I have ever seen, however there seems to be too much going on in that Takara one.

 

Most of the Universe Decepticons, for one. The Autobots typically made out alright with the chrome (except Bumblebee and Grimlock), but the Henkei Decepticons are just a mess. From "why bother" with the Seekers or Megatron, to just plain hideous, like Cyclonus and Galvatron.

The entirety of the Animated line also counts. Good god, talk about missing the point. And United follows in its footsteps, although the shiny paint was perhaps a tad more appropriate there, for the most part, it's just gaudy and sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of any Classics collection. Especially for those figures that only got patchwork paint coverage (like Soundwave), especially when there was no attempt to match the plastic colours to the more vibrant paint colours.


As far as individual figures goes, Cybertron Megatron cleaned up the colour palette of the figure considerably as compared to Master Megatron, reducing the various shades of colours into something a bit more coherent.

I usually find myself in the minority on this one, but I find Energon Downshift to be superior to Superlink Wheeljack. The tan warms up his colour scheme significantly, and makes him look more vibrant. Wheeljack's grey just makes him look dull and almost monochromatic.

 

Let me add Thrust and Dirge since the paint job on their Takara counterparts is painful to look at with all those random stripes and candy colors...ugh, and United Lugnut suffers from the same problem so that makes RTS Lugnut better with the darker, more Decepticon fitting colors.

 

The whole Animated toy line.

 

Same here, but I'll name three just to be sociable.

1) Jetfire: A good representation of his IDW design. The faux canopy on the Henkei release just looks ridiculous.

2) Optimus Prime: Although less cartoon-accurate than the Henkei version, I find that the more abundant use of blue and yellow adds more variety to a character whose palette is the three primary colours.

3) Walmart Powerglide: White arms. 'Nuff said.

 

I actually prefer the Takara Thrust and Dirge. I favour the Classics-styled wing decoes, as opposed to the G1-styled ones.

Not that the Hasbro versions are bad by any means, either. They're quite attractive. But the Takara ones fit my collection better.

 

I like the Universe 2 Silverstreak better than it's Henkei counterpart. I like the red in the wheels, and feel the paint apps just work better on it.

 

RTS lugnut > United lugnut. I know the takara deco is more anime correct, but I think the RTS colors works much better for the alt mode.

 

Classics/Universe/Generations/RTS:
Bluestreak/Silverstreak
Sideswipe
Mirage
Wal-Mart Legacy or RTS Bumblebee
Wreck-Gar
Kup
Wheeljack
Wal-Mart Powerglide
Perceptor
Jetfire
Blurr
Thrust
Dirge
Lugnut
Straxus/Darkmount
RTS Cyclonus
Amazon/Toys 'R Us Canada Unicron

All of Animated except Arcee (despite her brown midriff and biceps)

 

Human Alliance Jazz. Orange Visor just doesn't work with him. Plus I like Hasbro's blue windows.

 

I thought I'd bump this cause I want to restart this discussion and there's been a slew of new Takara stuff.

I prefer pretty much all the Hasbro Prime stuff over the Takara ones, for fairly obvious reasons. Don't care much for United Warpath either.

 

Generations Thrust

 

Transformers Prime Ratchet. The Hasbro one doesn't require you to sticker him up just to look like his TF self. The Takara one is practically all white without the stickers.