First Color Pictures of MP-12 Lambor/Sideswipe

Is that the shit hitting the fan that I hear? Not handled that very well have they!

Laserbeak was pretty much a given.

Well I guess I should have seen this coming.

Thanks for the heads up - Red Leader you are the man!

EDIT: Removed now on the front page.

And let the feeding frenzy begin... in 3....2.....1......

Man, Takara is just going to make me break the bank this year!

That said, this is an awesome awesome lineup we're getting for the Masterpiece line.

Pass on MP14 but the other two are musts for me, now to find the money

Soundwave at that price with one single tape triggers my "Seriously?" reflex.

Betting on Ravage or Frumbly with the Soundblaster repaint. It's properly mercenary.

Current exchange rates put Soundwave at $199. Let's see if BBTS honors their $139 pre-order price.

Definitely will be interesting to see.

If they don't raise the price on the original $139 preorders, a $60+ dollar retail loss on each figure is HUGE.

The almost have to raise the prices now.

Edit: They probably won't lose $60 plus dollars on each figure per se because their cost to buy each figure from Takara is still below $199. But they're sure to take some type of loss on each one depending on what their markup normally is based on what they actually pay. $139 has to be pretty close to cost for them.

Damn, MP-14 being Alert means they'll probably use two MP slots for the upcoming Skywarp and Thundercracker.

Soundwave's price increase isn't welcome but it looks like Lambor and Alert prices have been lowered to $58,50. Last time I checked they were $78 or something.

Hmm...so what exactly was TCracker hinting at since MP-14 has turned out to be the Red Alert that we've known was coming for a while...?

Soundwave will be mine. Don't care about Sideswipe or Red Alert.

I'd like to get all 3 of them but dang I know it won't happen in purchase till next year when my sub for MOTUC ends this year.

I think things are going to turn bad if they back out but that is a deep discount.

I agree I think he was thinking of another figure when he said

And this is why you wait for solid info from the people who are actually making the things.

Wow, at that price the third party one has a chance again.

And if Red Alert really is MP-14, then that sucks, big time.

pas on red alert but 100% getting the other 2

TakaraTomy,thanks for the news,what a news.....

If you preordered SW at $139 and they honor it, you look like a genius. I don't see the problem with preordering early with BBTS.

MP13 is a welcome for me,who will not want a MP Soundwave

soundwave and red alert are just a must for me.

This is great news maybe the VW group will give Takara permission to the Porsche and Volkswagen license for a MP Bumble & Jazz.

Just got my order in at BBTS- still $139.99! I guess I will need to cancel my RK order, assuming that BBTS does not raise prices!

I knew $139 was too good to be true. Hope BBTS honors it. Also thats lame about MP-14, but we do get 5 MPs this year if the release date is accurate.

Well, I'm going to look at the bright side. We ARE getting Soundwave and Sideswipe, so are we really in a position to bitch about Takara's MP line?

Wow, really do hope that BBTS honors their preorder prices. It would be extremely bad PR if they backed out of it at the last minute and raised them after the fact what with their preorder discount promotion. But I have faith in BBTS in keeping their word.

Pricy Soundwave is pricy considering he only comes with a single minion, Laserbeak. He better darn well be taller than the Seeker mold and detailed/articulated out the wazoo with MP3 playability to make up the difference. FT-02 Acoustic Wave may still have a chance at this point but we'll see. I definitely wouldn't mind owning two MP-level Soundwaves.

MP-14 being Red Alert is a bit of a letdown. A lot of us figured TT would simply designate repaints/redecos as the original MP number followed by a letter much like MP-11S but I guess Sunstorm was just an odd duck seeing how it was an exclusive figure.

That's why it's good to not count your eggs before they're hatched.

Can't blame TakaraTomy. Retailers were just trying to jump the gun on preorders and either were fed misinformation or presumed the numbering based on the most recent MP exclusive.

Randy

What's wrong with Red Alert? Personally I love Mr. Fire Chief I don't get why fans can skip him so easily?

200 bucks for MP Soundwave, and it comes with ONE tape?

It's not a complex transformation, it's probably not going to be that large, so unless there's some feature or other i can't think of, what reason have they to charge that other than blatant money grubbing?


Promises Promises.

I decided to throw down a BBTS preorder on soundwave just in case they keep their low price. Not sure how I feel about the new price and only one cassette - I was really expecting two casettes (one of Laserbeak/Buzzsaw and one of Rumble/Frenzy). I guess it's a given now that the eventual MP-13B will be Soundblaster w/ Buzzsaw. Or maybe they'll throw us a curveball and give us Garboil or Sundor. I hope Laserbeak is on his own sprues so we can eventually get all the redecos. Laserbeak (and any other future cassettes) do interest me in that I wonder if they'll be able to pull them off with no additional chrome parts. With the large size and budget, it'll be interesting to see them fit the entire thing into the basic cassette.

As I've said before, I'd love it if we could get some cassettes on their own, probably as 2-packs.

For now, I've only got sideswipe ordered. Don't have the money at this time to get two of them, plus he might go on sale and/or get a US version eventually. That being said, if they make a G2 Sideswipe (see sig) he bought on the spot.

At that price I say MP Soundwave better have at least an audio dock or a video screen. MP3 players are dirt cheap.

My thoughts exactly, what a clusterfuck.

I am with you. Red Alert is the only one of these three that I am interested in.

That's what I've been waiting for to list these, too. Jumping the gun with partial info has a bad way of backfiring. I would much rather list the items and not play games.

I was just thinking this. I wonder if the price increase is because there's some electronics in it we're not privvy to....

I don't get it... Why would a redeco/remold gets its own MP slot?
I know it's a rumor but this is just silly!

I was wondering why I didn't see the other 2 on your site. A shame that Soundwave costs so much. Does this mean that the online stores that have the Lambo's up already will drop prices even more??

Should have read the rest of the page before posting, however repaints into new characters have always gotten their own numbers until sunstorm. The first releases of Skywarp and Thundercracker got their own numbers as well.

this. Hmm..wait I thought Red Alert was MP-12A?


yeah...now that you mention it... where's TCracker when you need him, huh?!!

The same reason as MP-2 Ultra Magnus, MP-6 Skywarp and MP-7 Thundercracker.

Masterpiece figures with an alphabetical suffix have been exclusives.

MP-1B Convoy Black Version - e-Hobby exclusive
MP-3G Ghost Starscream - e-Hobby exclusive
MP-4S Convoy Sleep Mode - e-Hobby exclusive
MP-8X King Grimlock - e-Hobby exclusive
MP-9B Black Rodimus Convoy - e-Hobby exclusive
MP-11S Sunstorm - Amazon Japan exclusive

^ Ah, makes sense.

Guess TT is still holding true to the alternating Bot, Con, Bot, Con rotation for MP releases, starting with MP-10. If MP-14 is Red Alert, MP-15 should be a Con then (Megatron v2? maybe Skywarp v2 or Thundercracker v2).

MP-8X Grimlock was a Toy Hobby Market Exclusive. Not e-Hobby.

MP-4S was not an exclusive to any store, he was just limited to 2010 pieces in Japan and another 2010 pieces outside of Japan.

Randy

Well, looks like June 18th is a day to look forward to now.

I wonder if more cassettes will be sold separately in the states, like the Voyager Soundwave has.

As with all of the Masterpieces I own, I'll hold out to see if Soundwave gets an American release. Red Alert and Sideswipe aren't really a big deal for me.

Well the price increase sucks on MP-13. I think they are shooting themselves in the foot considering a very nice looking 3rd party Soundwave is on the way for what will most likely be a cheaper price point. $200 for a MP Soundwave is a bit ridiculous considering how simplistic the overall design of Soundwave is. Laserbeak is a decent choice, but I would like to see Rumble/Frenzy and Ravage included for the $50 bump in price.

I wonder how many preorders BBTS will lose ( like mine )if they mark Soundwave's price back up now? I'd hope they would leave those SW's already preordered at their "discount" price and just increase their remaining preorders to save face but I really don't see that happening.


I'd love to be wrong though.

There is no pattern. Grimlock, Rodimus and Prime v2 all followed each other out of the door and, as has been stated, the sheer number of autobots compared to deceptions means this pattern won't last as its probably little more than coincidence based on only a few releases.

Well, I just put in my pre-order for SW - we'll see what happens.

hedge your bets and pre-order at multiple places

I just put an order in at tfsource for another soundwave