I'm pretty sure that is just Takara's Groove (as he would've been in prototype phase at the time of that picture). It's why everything else is an existing mold with additional prototyped parts.

Somebody mocked this up for Hasbro as an internal demo for Computron. I'm assuming because they had a time frame for release they needed to hit and odds were the Takara Blast-Off/Strafe shuttle wasn't going to be available fast enough they went with the quicker Air Raid retool rather than a completely new mold.

What I find most interesting is if the idea was always Cosmos -> Scrounge or if they grabbed an existing mold that could be added to the combiner with minimal (if any) changes necessary to ensure they could ramp up production in time to hit the release window.

 

isn't the prime wars a continuation of classics? which if I remember correctly was giving fairly g1 looking bots with modern versions of their original altmodes.

there are some collectors who only collect the movie line there are some like myself who only buy the classics/generations/prime wars, there are some who only collect the masterpiece line etc etc

my point is not everyone can buy every thing and it costs more to pay import charges etc when buying from takara.

I am collecting based on the designs of characters I recognise I prefer faceplate brainstorm because he is cool in idw, I prefer combiner wars ultra magnus because im a big movie/season 3 fan, I like having powermaster prime on the same shelf as my standard prime because Im a masterforce fan.

so when something comes out I want it to look like the character I collect I don't care if its an outdated mode or the design doesn't make sense its how I want the character to appear on my shelf

I like computron but prefer the takara design (well apart from the white bits on the chest) and the fact that takara who, in fairness get the stuff after Hasbro, have changed it from repaints to remolds its easy to see why people prefer it

 

Honestly other than Nosecone, I still prefer the Hasbro version. Needs some third party heads though

 

I've gotten the CW toys so far, but am considering UW Computron. The main thing holding me back is the paint. My only Takara figure, MP Wheeljack, has poorly applied paint. It's high gloss, which highlights all the flaws. So I'm wondering:
Is high gloss paint a Takara wide thing, or just for MP?
Are UW fully painted, or colored plastic with paint applied only where needed?
Does the paint/coloration on UW figures look out of place among CW figures?

Thanks for any info.

 

I've got uw grand galvatron and uw bruticus, both look fine alongside my cw figures

 

Replacement feet/hands already ordered, can't wait for this guy to complete my CW combiner collection! It's the only one I sprung for the UW version. Happy that we have options, it's great that some people like the CW version better, but to my eyes it's been UW all the way and the latest comparison pictures make me glad I made that choice.

 

MP Wheeljack doesn't have White painted base coat, he is bare White plastic. The only painted white is where other color parts needed to be painted white. All copies anyone has ever posted pics of or posted about is bare plastic. In fact, he's the only MP car bot not painted a base coat in alt mode, unless Exhaust isn't painted either.

And no, no main line figures are high gloss to my knowledge except maybe a random color here and there like Hasbro has done...matte colors, but some reason a high gloss Black is used...odd.

 

Most likely it's Hayato Sakamoto. He does IDW TF work every now and then.

 

Erm...No?

UW Computron's chest has been retooled so the PE upgrade kit wouldn't work on him.

It works for Hasbro's CWs version though.

 

https://twitter.com/TFYUKI/status/768741256562216960

 

I'm kinda sad they didn't keep the white tampos and replaced them with metallic whatever, but its a minor gripe.

 

Just got payment request from AmiAmi! Stoked!

 

I already have the hands and feet.. Waiting for this bad boy.  

 

Same here, bday is Sunday so I'm hoping to get some cash from friends

 

Yup, I've got my PE hands and feet all ready for this guy as well. 

 

My KO PE hands/feet will be shipping today. These will be a closer match to the burgundy PE-11 head and gun. Looks like I'll have a few display options between G1 toy and animation.

 

I think that's my favourite box art so far, even better than Lynx Master's. Looking forward to him hitting my POL. Hopefully he comes out early today like Delta Magnus apparently did.

 

LOL, truly a Happy Birthday!

 

Yeah shipping from there has gotten really bad.   I wish I could cancel but AmiAmi has some seriously stupid practices regarding that and I have far too many items pre-ordered right now to want to risk my account being banned (... which in a way is still bad because of inevitable horrid shipping but I really want all of it and orders are closed most places).

Will definitely need to try and keep this in mind when placing orders in the future.