Windcharger and the other minibots (with the exception of Sea Spray perhaps) should be in the same scale as Sideswipe, Prowl, and Smokescreen. The Windcharger was a 1980's era Pontiac Firebird, which was longer and wider than the Datsun/Nissan Z. It would look stupid for this not to be the case since Takara seems to be trying to keep the cars in relatively accurate scale to each other now. BB and Cliffjumper would naturally be physically smaller as they are both based on smaller vehicles. I can live with BB and Cliffjumper looking like 'generic" hot hatches if VW refuses to budge, but I sincerely hope TT manages to score with MP Jazz. Worst case scenario would be retooling the Smokescreen mould into Jazz. But I'd rather they didn't have to do that.

 

And it is these concerns regarding the minibots that makes me like the Miniwarriors for my display MORE. They are NOT MP worthy, but as their own unique line (which the minis were), I think they'll look great with the MPs. MPs are about realism (at least to a point) but the minibots CAN'T be too realistic. The Miniwarriors have a distinctive cartoon feel to them which will really seperate themselves from their MP counterparts and properly attract attention to their adorable charm.

IF Takara makes official ones, then I'll sell the Miniwarriors. I'm just not going to hold my breath for an MP Gears tho.

 

The funniest thing I have seen all night

 

Maybe that is what they are going to announce during the Tokyo Toy Show,hope the announcement has got to do with new MP figures.

 

I haven't read much of what's going on in this thread but, I decided to throw in my OPINION..

As far as licensing the VW Bug for Bumblebee here I my take on it. I'm not too sure about other countries but, I know at least in my little part of the world, when you see a VW Bug in a movie or on TV or driving down the street, most peoples first general thought has some relation to the 60's and the "Love Bug". What I mean by this, is they think of "free love" and hippies and such. This vehicle was a big part of that movement, which was saying pretty much, "Make love not war", an anti-war movement. Even the newer bugs were marketed as "flower power" and marketed a lot to girls. Including a Barbie vehicle. Which is so far away from war as possible.

If they decide to license out their vehicle or, any of their products, it will not be for something that is associated to war and, what is Transformers ENTIRE story line based around? War, the war between Autobots and Decepticons. It doesn't matter what type of war, or if it resembles any other war. It's war, period, point, blank. That will directly effect their reputation, more so for that product line but, it will contradict their whole "Make love not war" thing they have been going on.. It is what the Beetle/Bug is known for. This will cost them money. Lots of money.

So as far as getting anything owned by VW, in the VW line, I doubt will be licensed to Has/Tak for any amount of money.

However I believe they might just let the Porsche be licensed due to it not having a VW on it. More people than you believe doesn't know one has anything to do with the other. So, letting a non-VW branded product be used, might not hurt them at all.

This is my $.02.

Now onto the minibots and my opinions about them. I never pictured the minibots to be micro sized bots. As in toy sized. I always pictured them as being normal car sized vehicles not dwarfed or odd sized vehicles. BB, CJ, Brawn, and the rest of them, should be been normal sized. Their bot size stayed the same. I never understood why until some time in this last 2 years when I read up about them.

So, if they were going to be MP's they should match up in size to the rest of them, since Sideswipe and Red Alert are out, the should be in scale with them in vehicle mode. In bot mode, shorter. The only ones I knew mass shifted were, Blaster, Soundwave, Shockwave, and Megatron. (At least, that I can think of off the top of my head). The reason why they are scouts are because, they are smaller beings, just like in real life, the small guys are tunnel rats and scouts. It's just easier to get around. I never thought about the minibots being toy sized vehicles. IDK Maybe it's just me..

Hopefully I don't sound too dumb right now..

Erland

 

I do wonder if they could just get VW's permission to use a similar but deformed bug (which BB is), without it being explicitly licensed and labelled a VW?

As to the minibot sizes, I do think for many of them (Windcharger, Brawn, etc), they could scale with the other Autobot cars in vehicle mode and still be much smaller as robots. Just think about how stretched out Sideswipe is in robot mode from a much smaller car, just make the minis more compact robots.

 

As above, make the mini-bot vehicles scale with the standard Autobots.

Now, Side Swipe's robot mode is actually pretty big next to his alt mode (he stretched out pretty well) so having the mini-bot ROBOT modes be, say, a cm or a couple of cm shorter should work out fine. They might look a little stocky but for someone like, say, Brawn, that fits.

Edit: Wow, zappatton2 said exactly the same thing at the same time! I was actually just replying to Erland.

 

Dumb.

J/K.  

You make a good point about VW. In a relatively short time, they've gone from "last time I saw one of those I was throwing a grenade into it" (line from Mad Men) to (in some markets at least) all but synonymous with '60s free love, hippies and the peace movement.

Quite a feat when you think about it. Not sure if they'd want anything to do even Cybertronian war...

iGear, get your shit together. Or else FansToys, whatever.  

 

I seriously wonder how MP Bumblebee will be handled.

Licensing issues aside, just how will his robot mode be pulled off? Ever since MP-10, MPs have been strictly following cartoon models. The problem is, with Bumblebee's cartoon model... well his robot-only black parts cover much more surface area than his yellow alt mode parts. How are the black parts gonna store/close up in alt mode? Will there be 'cheats' to create some robot mode parts out of alt mode parts? Will the robot mode simply suffer too much from being so disproportionate?

 

Since he was brought up, Windcharger also presents some interesting challenges. His bot mode face and chest are basically on the bottom of the car in both the toon and the G1 figure. Should a MP Windcharger follow the G1 toy transformation, the bot mode would be completely visible in car mode if you turn it over. Is that MP quality...? There are others who are like that, too, like Brawn. I kind of feel it should be more complex than that, but honestly I can't think of any other way to do it.

 

Completely agree but we are in the minority.

Saying that, my Henkei Bumblebee is the perfect size for MP.
If TT just did the other minibots like BB for Generations then I won't need MP minibots.

Jazz however is a must.

 

If TakTomy really do ask VW's permission,might as well licensed & produce an exact model of VW instead of just a similar VW car.

 

That's all well and good...but what is Star Wars all about? Empire vs the Rebel Alliance...even having 'war' in the name. Funny that it didn't stop VW from associating themselves with that...

And I can't confirm it because I haven't paid a ton of attention to the movie shit, but I thought I recall reading that one of the TF4 cars is a VW. Post could have been making shit up for all I know, but if so... ... ...

 

briiing iiiittt oooonnn!!!

 

Well... I am not a fan of the Star Wars series.. so I had no clue, that VW had anything to do with it.. May I ask how they were associated... Eh.. nevermind, I just looked it up... and it seems that the Beetle is directly associated with Star Wars.. so looks like my theory is completely out the window... damn..

 

Damn? That's a good thing...a sign of hope! Dare I say, A New Hope?  

 

Looks like a Bugatti Veyron is in TF4...Bugatti is owned by VW

 

That doesn't matter, though. Its VW make cars that are important. We've already seen VW license their subsidiary brands.

That said, VW's association with Star Wars is a good sign and definitely good news.

 

Like, say... Lamborghini.