Head and facesculpt-wise, the Henkei still comes nearest to what I'd want from an MP. One of the few that has both the white face and red eyes of his 'toon self, ditching the visor look of the G1 toy. Plus there's a hint of IDW ...

 

Was my best attempt at satire on the matter, obviously all massive ludicrous steriotypes of how things often play out haha.

Seriously though I am curious as to who will be next in line to do him, I'd settle for any of the big three making him. I reckon MT might end up with a design I'll like most but MMC could probably do something very special too. FT I worry will play it too safe and he might end up as boxy looking as their Blitz (which I'm not terribly fond of).

Or maybe Takara's guys will get there first, eh. Takara seems to have a weird obsession with autobots still though, seems like for every con we get from them we get 20 autos, makes no damn sense.

 

I'm honestly surprised why no one can nail his size...

 

And when they do release a con he's usually a seeker mold and a tt mall exclusive.

 

That is a weird phenomenon and I do wish TT gave the same emphasis to 'con characters as the 3P's, who have taken on (and usually cross-party giving up 2-3 choices in most cases): Megatron, Galvatron, the insecticons, Reflector, Blitzwing and Octane all in the past 18 months.

The cumulative effect of that is it's becoming less exciting when a con' from TT finally drops and we have something to compare it to - often not in their favour. E.g: I'm pretty sure I would've accepted Laserwave's faults and bought it regardless had it not been for owning Quakewave.

Just had MMC/Ocular Max Jaguar drop in the mail and side by side with the official Ravage MP, it really seals the deal for me that the days of official products giving the definitive take on a character in MP form are pretty much over.

But hey, competition is healthy and if it makes TT up their game, we're all winners, tbh. They are still the pioneers of this line deserving of respect, and when Hasui returns, I genuinely think we're in with a chance for MP combiners and triple-changers.

Given that I often find something not to like about KFC stuff and my Apollyon is less than perfect QC-wise, my gut feeling with Astrotrain is that it'll boil down to Fanstoys vs official. But the former will appear first no question - even if it's a render or a prototype they put out in 2017 that doesn't go into production before I'm drawing my pension ...

 

While I disagree on Mmc ravage (just due to nostalgia and stuff) I agree with you mostly here. Also love the joke on ft. Seriously even if they do one we won't see it until 2020 at least.

 

Well yeah, tape functionality for MP13 clearly makes the official Ravage superior. My point was more about bot mode aesthetics when lined up in a display, I guess, in which Jaguar has the easy advantage by being out of scale (and lord, does he look perfect next to FT-15 Hound!)

Another random thought on 'cons, and I may be alone in saying this ... but after Astrotrain, another one I'd love to see done by FansToys or TT officially is actually Gnaw.

a) He's just one of those guys who instantly conjures up the spirit of the movie for me.

b) Like Reflector, and the insecticons, he's the ultimate little army-builder, especially for those who are gonna own the bigger FT Grimlock. Imagine a seething swarm of those fugly little dudes at his feet!

 

Shoot. Between stuff that's done or in the works mp cons seem to be almost done off the top of my head. (Save combiners) I guess it is about time for an awesome gnaw. I know I'm stoked for the new legends one but he ain't mp.

 

Yeah, the unique toys Sharky one seems an 'okay' stand in but more impressive in beast than bot mode, and a bit plasticky for my tastes.

I'm dreaming of him with the customary FT diecast or - even better - light up eyes!  

Detachable teeth!

Oh, the endless accessories, lmao.

 

Right? Jaguar really should end the debate on what is most important, alt mode or bot mode scale. Jaguar in bot mode is damn sexy and looks absolutely perfect in every way.

I pretty much agree with this, too. Good news is with any of the big boys that are left (sans XTB), I'm pretty confident that I'll get one that I like enough to scratch my childhood astrotrain itch. That was the toy I played with on the long trips to my grandparents house.

 

If KBB or Weijiang can upscale Transportation Captain, I would use that as my MP Astrotrain

 

Wow, thought this thread would disappear without a trace instead of people (mostly) voicing their love for the character. Fans Toys, please (pretty please?) take note!  

Was thinking today about what I personally always loved about the character, besides the cool movie scenes that he's a part of. I know the thing that always interested me as a kid about Astrotrain's two vehicle modes (besides the fact there WERE two) was the collision of old and new: a modern day space shuttle and an old Victorian stream train. It made me think his sole modus operandi should be infiltrating the past somehow, given that a vintage locomotive in the 1980's would still stick out like a sore thumb. Much less so in 1880, however ...

It's not hard to imagine a pretty damn scary/awesome cold-open for a Transformers movie, where THIS pulls into a station back in Victorian England somewhere, passenger carriages attached …



… and before you know it, some Victorian scientist or other whose work in the past will have a knock on effect on the Decepticons plans in the future is kidnapped, with Astro transforming to rocket mode and bombing back through time/space over a space bridge to bring him back to Megatron way, way in the future.

See, that’s another thing (excepting the way Bumblebee's plot was handled in the first movie, which smacked more of Spielberg) that pisses me off about the Bay flicks and what their asinine plots do with all that Transformers has to offer science-fiction plot-wise, especially the "… in disguise" part:

Cool cars, hot chicks, and no imagination.

.

 

Really. That and it's always the same base plot. Step 1, humans hate transformers. Step 2, bad transformers show up and fuck shit up. Step 3, humans need help and Autobots save the day. Step 4, humans like Autobots again. Rinse and repeat.
On a side note can we also get a tankor war? I hate that he almost always gets left out and so far he only has I think one version out there.

 

I'm guessing both KFC-Transbot and FansToys will announce one sooner or later, then it's just a matter of which one delays it less as to who will be first.

 

Yeah, I don't have many KFC bots, but they seem to recycle the same type of face that wouldn't fit for astrotrain (i.e: variations of the one they used for Blaster)

FT used to do that, don't get me wrong (the old Hound/Willis face looked a lot like their weakest face to date in Tesla/Perceptor with the pouty lips and bug eyes for example.) But since re-doing three of their Dinobots and Willis (who I have in person and has a face sculpt easily on a par with the best of TT's MP's) not to mention showing off near perfect sculpts for Galvatron and Skyfire, my worries on that score are much less now.

Even if something in the design of it wasn't great, they'd still listen to feedback and that's the main plus with FT, tbh.

 

For any third party that wants to make a MP Astrotrain one important thing to try to make is a train that is much smaller than the shuttle.

It's possible with some clever thinking.

Just look at Titans Return Sentinel Prime for some pointers and they're operating on a budget a fraction of what a MP will do.

 

Yeah. No chibi shuttle...

 

For the steamtrain, I think I'd rather a toy homage (and more real world, as above) combination of black and purple (i.e: more black at the front) than the all purple of the toon.

He looks more like a freaky ghost train, all purple.