I appreciate what Tomykara is doing - bringing the Classics toys to the Japanese market, and making more strongly cartoon-based decos for those who prefer that kind of thing. I've got a few of the Henkei toys now, so here's a few minor opinions:

Mirage/Ligier
Pros: Chrome spoilers look nice in both modes, and a good throwback to the G1 toy
Cons: blue seems too dark to me, and Hasbro version has more paint detail in some ways (around the head and the sponsor logo stuff) I ended up transplanting the chrome bits to the Hasbro toy.

Optimus/Convoy
Pros: Chrome bumper and grill is very striking. The Autobot symbols on the shoulders are very welcome.
Cons: Red paint and red plastic match poorly. Blue 'wrist guards' are so dark they don't stand out well on the black hands. Overall I find the Hasbro version more visually interesting, and much better looking in vehicle mode.

Megatron/Megatron
Pros: undeniably far more G1 in color scheme than the Hasbro version. The color scheme looks especially striking in gun mode.
Cons: having only the center body of the robot mode painted silver (and chrome) looks odd to me. Chroming the entirety of both shinguards and then painting over 95 percent in black just looks 'tarded.
Neutral: It looks good for what it is, but I can't say I like it better than the Hasbro Megs. I think they both look great in their own way, and they both look like Megatron, so in the end it comes down to how important a G1-based color scheme is to you.

I'm looking forward to getting Henkei Astrotrain, as a more G1 cartoon color scheme appears to help the mold quite a bit IMO. On the vast majority though, I haven't seen enough to interest me beyond the Hasbro classics toys I already have. For those who either don't have the Hasbro toys yet, or if 'anime accurate' color schemes are very important, they are great toys. ('cept maybe Grimlock)

 

The only henkeis I've gotten is BB (missed hasbro's just to see them re-released again...) and Astrotrain. ABSOLUTE love for the space choo choo! Love the chrome that's not too garish and still fits well in my classic shelf.  

Megs? Meh I say to both version, keepin' my (yet-to-be) repainted KO instead.

 

I'm really enjoying the ones I got. The only thing I did was switch Starscream launchers with Hasbro's, because I think in his case the chrome clashes a little too much. Other than that, Megatron is the perfect update, Prime is just great and Grimlock with red torso is awesome. The chrome looks pretty good on him, a nice homage to the G1 figure.

 

I have Henkei Astrotrain, Bumblebee and Prime. I have to say the chrome does nothing for Astrotrain or Bumblebee, although to be fair it's far from an eyesore on either of them. The use of chrome on Prime seems more appropiate, but the robot grill is painted silver rather than being chromed like the truck grill.

I don't mind the more conservative paint apps of Prime and BB, but I don't regard them as being either worse or better than the Hasbro versions, just different. I do really like Astrotrain's deco though so much more than that of the Hasbro version, I always prefered Astrotrain's purple and grey colourscheme.

 

I have Henkei Starscream and coudnt be happier got him at 26.99 against the classics who is running for 50 and more nowadays. Also ordered Henkei Astrotrain, lets see how he looks in person.

 

I've got Prime and Starscream, and my Astrotrain is in the mail as I type this. Prime is really cool, I like both versions for different reasons, but the Henkei version takes the cake for the bot logos on his shoulders.

Henkei Starscream is worlds better than the classics version. I'm not big on the chrome on the blasters either, but the con logos, painted face, and painted air intakes/wheels look sooo much better. I am going to sell or trade my classics one.

I'm still on the fence about Megatron though.

 

I've got my Henkei Meg and it kicks ass. Next is gonna get... Astrotrain.  

 

Astrotrain is already waiting for me at home, one of the many toys I can't wait to see after finals week, when I go back.  

Because there's so few of them and I usually prefer Decepticons - not like Deceptigtar, but there is bias - I'm thinking that I might just collect all of the Henkei Decepticons. It also helps that they are so radically different from their Classic counterparts. But if I do that, I'll get them from somewhere like HLJ or some other place that doesn't have extra markup due to being imported. Especially Megatron. Might as well be scalping, for what I've seen him cost in some place.

Not sure about the Autobots yet. Originally, I wanted to get even pairs of Henkei Bots and Cons, but that's too hard to do when figures like Bumblebee are so horribly plain, and others just aren't different enough to warrant importing them. Grimlock so far is the only one that's been seriously tempting me.

 

Henkei Megatron is the first Transformer I bought at Botcon this year. Once I saw all his chromy evil badness I knew I had to have him.

 

It's gonna be awhile before I can afford any of these...

 

...but it's cool if people wanna tease me with shots of theirs...

 

 

Yeah this thread needs more pics.

I have Megs and Screamer so far, both I like better than the Classics versions. I've got Astrotrain on the way, and I broke down and got Mirage and Grimmy with him. I figure they're different enough to get. Bumble and Prime didn't see that different. Hot Rod is (of course) on preorder and looks like he'll be extra sexy. I'm just glad the packaging isn't that exciting, I couldn't do a MISB set of Henkei on top of a loose set like I did with classics.