Dead on!  

 

A lot of folks on this forum will take any chance they can get to bash 3P stuff, same with a lot of 3P fans doing the same with Hasbro products.

Best to just ignore them, these sort of folks never contribute anything to the conversation anyways other than just stirring up shit.

 

We finally get the gorgeous MP Shockwave we've always dreamed of and TFW still finds a way to complain. Never change TFW.

 

I'm starting to wonder if the colour choice wasn't a deliberate decision to further differentiate the Toon based Shockwave from any potential darker Toy/Comic based versions that they may have planned. There's really only 3, maybe 4 opportunities for reuses of this figure after this Toon based turn. Toy accurate dark purple with silver, Grey Astro-Magnum, Actionmaster, and whatever Hasbro comes up with, if they even release him at all.

I can't really see an Actionmaster version ever being made, likewise a Hasbro version is a big maybe, leaving just Astro-Magnum and a Toy accurate version as the most likely redecos for this figure. It may be that they felt that a darker purple would look too close to the Toy, making it a less viable option and reducing their opportunities to make more money from the mould. If they make him more Toon coloured for his initial release, then they can sell him based on the fact that almost everyone wants a Toon Shockwave, and sell him again in the darker colours knowing that there are folks like me who will buy both if they are significantly different in appearance and get the people holding out for a darker purple Toy/Comic accurate figure.

If I'm correct I think we'll see more than a few early adopters selling off Captain Lavender here later on after Takara does what they did with Streak/Silverstreak/Bluestreak. Based on history, there will be redecos, and grey and dark purple are the two most likely to sell. For me it's just a question of whether Hasbro or Takara themselves will be doing the honours for the Toy based variant.

 

Did MP Shockwave release today in Japan? I see no reviews or anything online.

 

It's been shown that the size is absolutely dead on accurate. I'm interested to know though do you own QW and where exactly does the size look off in relation to the cartoon and scale chart?

 

It will be released next Thur 31 March.

 

I think Shockwave is the correct size. It seems to fit with the scale chart and the cartoon. But in my mind, Shockwave should be bigger. This of course because the G1 toy was rather large and in the Marvel comics Shockwave was a badass who deposed Megatron and beat the crap out of him. Thus to me Shockwave should be about the same size as Optimus, but I readily admit that this is a personal opinion without bases in fact.


I have Quakewave and he will remain my Shockwave. Not that this official one isn't good. Save perhaps for the colour, he's the most accurate looking Shockwave. In comparison Quakewave fails miserably. But I really like the feel of Quakewave: the sturdy, thick plastic, the smart use of diecast, the lovely sound of his ratchets. Besides, as a Marvel fan, Shockwave is my Decepticon leader and always will be. And Quakewave more than the MP, radiates the power I think Shockwave as leader should have.

Besides, my girlfriend absolutely loves the look of Quakewave, while she frowned at the pic of MP Shockwave. And that's the best reason  

Definitely agreed with this.

I think that's the main difference between the design esthetics of Hasui and Kobayashi. To me it seems that Hasui had a more uniform approach: cartoon + toy + real life.

In contrast, to me it seems that Kobayashi alters his focus between releases: some are very cartoon accurate (MP-1 and 9 for example), while others are more toy based (MP-8 the best example) and some have a mixture of different sources (MP-3/11 and 22). With MP Tracks I more and more (thanks to you, btw) get the impression Kobayashi based him primarily on the G1 box art: you noted the leg details while I myself am struck by the similarity between the chest of the MP and the G1 box art:both are small with a big canopy, while the animation model or toy had a wider wider chest with a small canopy.

I also agree with most of this, although I do feel that they're not at the expensive kids toys (yet). I still see them as more high-end collectables.

 

My MPs all feel like collectables, and nothing like expensive kids toys. I have CHUGs as kid toys, and MP are far and above that despite how some wish to perceive them. Somehow it's in some people's minds that cartoon somehow equals kids toy... It just doesn't.

 

Are you referring to paint jobs/finishes or color schemes? I agree that Hasui's figures seemed to start off with deeper, darker, maybe more muted color schemes compared to their cartoon appearances, but then Hasui's Bumblebee turned out to be a vibrant orange-y color instead of the canary yellow we were all expecting. The carbots started off with fully painted alts until Hasui's Wheeljack came along. My opinion is that Kobayashi's Tracks and Ironhide have two of the best finishes in the line. Glossy, consistent, resistant to wear, and minimal qc issues compared to the widely reported problems with Hasui's Sideswipe (mine has several smears and smudges) and Bumblebee's paint jobs (my Bumblebee's coloration is uneven throughout in alt mode). Tracks' deco is consistent with Smokescreen's bombastic s2 deco. Ironhide's red is definitely very vibrant, I can understand if it's off putting to some, but I love it.

There's a lot of complaining about consistency, but I guess I don't feel the line's any more inconsistent now than it was back when Hasui was on the line. Hasui's interview regarding Bumblebee was revealing in that it became apparent he and the rest of the team didn't seem to operate under a lot of hard and fast rules, they really designed these guys on a real case by case basis, that they were willing to try new things. I still think this line since the reboot is one of if not the most consistent lines in TF history. I'm cool with them trying new things here and there. I chalk it up to the bots having some individual variation, just like people. They stick close enough to the scale chart, the character models, and the real world alts to keep me happy. There are still plenty of nods to the toys and other media in their designs where opportunities allow.

I agree that Kobayashi's work is more inconsistent in approach, execution, and production/qc (though who knows how much control he has over this). QC issues aside, I don't see this as a negative, though I understand why others might. I find it pretty exciting, to be honest. When his figures are successful I feel like they're home runs and end up as some of my favorites. Even when they're more problematic (MP-09) they're still interesting and ambitious. I love Hasui just as much, but while his work might be more consistent some of his work suffers from being a little bland. Pure opinion, though, and it's possible I'm being unfair (this could be a result of budget limitations, character choices, etc).

I can't wait to see how Shockwave feels. How does he handle? What kind of joints does he have and how are their tolerances? Stuff like that. At least we don't have to worry about chromewear with this release!  

 

Not sure if it has been pointed out yet or not in the dozens of pages over the last day or two, but that main supporting bar looks like it is painted die cast to me - you can see the shininess and slightly different colour in the bottom of the top photo and far left on the bottom photo.

 

Thanks guys, haven't been paying attention to that thread.  

 

Huh, you might be right there, that does actually look like painted metal rather then plastic.

 

Yeah, I don't see it myself. To me the color is a deep, vibrant purple, and the size is spot on. It really shows in this pic:




Just having some fun, guys. In case that weren't obvious.  

On a more serious note on the topic of finish: does this look like paint to anyone else, rather than just plastic?

And yeah that part DEFINITELY looks painted, and yes, quite possibly die cast. That'd be a nice twist.

 

It's almost too bad the whole figure isn't painted like that. Shiny.

 

Hrm...to be honest, looks like the translucent did get a dab of yellow paint there. Though, can't tell for sure unless we see the back of his head since he had lightpiping. I hope it's yellow translucent plastic but if not...oh well, the eye still looks pretty good IMO.

 

Soundwave isn't painted and I don't recall many if any complaining about that. Hasbro's MP-10 isn't, Magnus isn't, Seekers aren't (?), Wheeljack isn't. Mainly MP-10 and the Car Bots besides Wheeljack are painted.

The only true issue I can see set in reality is the color, and people not being happy with that. But size, price and aesthetics I just don't see any of that.

He is the right size, his price in his country of origin is on par with Soundwave and he is Shockwave, plain and simple and his details are spot on toy and toon mix, as are his proportions.

Color, I can see it...people would have preferred a darker Purple, while I'm fine with it, I can see that argument. As far as no paint, he's hardly the first, and certainly not exclusive to Kobayashi. And the Lambo Car Bots and Bee under Hasui, the paint is very inconsistently applied, sadly.

 

LMFAO !! That scale is perfect !

 

And I 100% agree with you . I think some people are just bitter for reasons I won't mention because well , the dead horse an what not.

 

The lack of paint never bothers me and honestly means less upkeep on the figure which is reassuring, especially with the chrome wear lately.

But I am still genuinely curious what determines which figures get paint and which don't. As I said in an earlier post, it doesn't strike me as being purely a cost issue since if that were the case, I'd expect only carbots to be painted. But we've had unpainted carbots, painted carbots, unpainted large bots, painted mid-size bots like Ironhide, unpainted bots the size of Soundwave, and both painted and unpainted versions of MP-10 (though in that case it's a difference between Hasbro and TT of course.)

Is it just an artistic call?