Ha ha the funny thing is that post was full of praise of Hasui's genius!   Back then we didn't even know Kobayashi had taken over the MP line and that UM was his design! Poor Kobayashi! Such fail  

 

I think Kobayashi's best and worst trait is the same - he is not afraid to be daring. He loves the challenge and does not shy away from trying to get the most out of something, whether it works perfectly or not. Sometimes this leads to amazing results and other times it can lead to flaws. MP-22 reminds me a lot of MP-9 in how daring it is and how much folding is required to make things work. Both of them needed bits of engineering never before imagined and that others may have approached in a simpler way.

Hasui, to me, is a much smoother designer but less daring and bold. His toys are easier to handle and more functional and crisp, but they are not as amazingly dreamt or engineered. This is not to say they aren't amazing. But he has shown a willingness to compromise on the details for the sake of less complication to the function.

Yuki is harder to pin down only having worked on 2 so far but I greatly look forward to learning more about him.

At the end of the day they all work for TakaraTomy under a line that now has a pretty strict design theme so the differences, though noticeable, are not really that great. I think they all do a great job.

 

I dont have any shipment info but i don't care, it's going to be a great January i have incoming Mp Magnus, Skywap and Nemesis prime

The wait will be worth it!

 

Well, Devastator gets my heart racing but I've no desire for Unicron or citybots - guys who'd be impossible to make to scale. If they made a 24" Omega Supreme, now that'd be cool.

 

I think you're mostly right. But I also think the complexity of the transformations in Hasui and Kobayashi's MP work is just a reflection of how difficult it is to engineer any given character and less a reflection of their personal style. Hasui said something about this in an interview, about how figures whose G1 toy closely match their G1 character model are relatively easy to engineer (I believe he was talking about Prowl). Characters who have greater disparity between their G1 toy and G1 character model are much more challenging (he was talking about Wheeljack, whom Hasui said he almost gave up on - thank God he didn't!). I think one of the big differences to keep in mind is that Hasui worked on relatively "easy" characters compared to Kobayashi's Rodimus and Ultra Magnus. Don't forget, Hasui did work on Ultra Magnus but for whatever reason it did not work out. Like I mentioned, I think Kobayashi's intricate engineering on MP-09 is jus a reflection of how challenging that design is. Rodimus/Hot Rod was created backward from the season 1 & 2 Diaclone/Microchange based TFs - he was first created by Floro Dery for the purposes of animation with little regard for an actual working transform scheme. He had a sleek humanoid bot mode whose only car parts were a hood/chest, shoulder wheels, arm pipes, and a spoiler on his back. That Kobayashi figured out how actually turn an accurate Hot Rod bot into an accurate Hot Rod car is something of a miracle. The result, of course, is a very fiddly, finicky figure with lots of delicate panels. Compare that to his work on Grimlock, whose character model was closely based on an already existing, functional toy. The only real bit of clever engineering required was figuring out how to hide the tail kibble in bot mode, the rest is extremely simple and straightforward. So I think it's fair to say that Kobayashi is as ambitious as the figure requires and doesn't back down from seemingly impossible designs but knows how to keep things simple, too.

I used to think the main difference between Hasui and Kobayashi was that Hasui took more care in making sure his figures locked together nice and tight, whereas Kobayashi was content to have more "floating" pieces. Based on reviews of Ultra Magnus, though, I'm relieved to see MP-22 tabs together firmly and that Kobayashi has not only risen to the challenge of a very difficult design, but grown as a toy designer.

Of course, the dream would be to have Hasui, Kobayashi, and Yuki all working on MPs simultaneously. Please make this happen, TT!

 

My UM will arrive today! I told the other MPs in the detolf to get it into ship shape in preparation for the arrival of the city commander.

 

Good for you man! Mine will be arriving next week, together with MP Skywarp.

 

They need to brush up on the Autobot Code, there is going to be a pop quiz. Only 34872 randomly chosen questions.

 

ah man, now I want to do a pose with UM and his shouting face as a drill seargant inspecting the ranks!

"AND WHAT DO WE FIND WORT SMIRKING ABOUT THERE CADET BUMBLE?!"

Sorry if that term is incorrect, I don't know the army well!

 

My ultra Magnus is at the package valet downstairs! Going to eat some oatmeal, watch a few season 3 eps, then pick him up!

 

Got mine today... f**k is he a beast.

He reminds me of not a Transformer MP but the sadly short lived MP Brave series. He has the same textured plastic and non-gloss finish.

Really loving everything about him he's just so nice and chunky.

 

Great post. As a vocal doubter of this design from day 1, I look forward to holding it in hand to see for myself how it holds up. I'm still unhappy with the butt flap, the lack of waist articulation, and the overall bot scale, but the new reviews and pictures are encouraging.

I'm also happy that it has so much diecast. Something I wasn't expecting.

 

I can see why some might not like him. He really does not blend into the newer MP toys. But I like that. Not because its different, but because the same can be said for Powered Convoy. Compared to the other Diaclone toys PC stood out as being more of a fantasy design and MP Magnus really captures that as well.

If I wanted to to add one thing it would have been a flap to cover his thighs in truck mode just a simple fold out panel that I'm sure a 3rd party could make.

Edit: thinking about it we now have more MP spikes then actual transformers.

 

Woo mine is finally Processing at BBTS   Will probably be a week or two before I can have him in my hands though... arrgh...  

 

Um. I'd totally run down stairs, get him, then eat, then watch the episodes. Your patience, it's amazing.

 

Mine from Nippon Yasan has made San Fransisco, so probably another day or two and they should be here. Kind of curious how big the package will be with three of them.  

 

Really? I usually get my BBTS orders in 2-3 days.

 

Takes around 10 days to get to me. I'm not in the US. But even then I wont be shipping till in January. So I might have him by mid Jan.

 

Next week seems so far away for us waiting on Anime Export. Lesson learned though. I now have an account with HLJ.

 

Mine was processing in New York last night. Might sound dopey to some, but I just want to get him while we still have our Christmas stuff up. That kind of shit is like getting to relive your childhood.