Makes sense. If, and a big if, TT does Devastator, it’s success will lead to other combiners. 3P need to rush and make the other combiners before TT get to them. Superion, Menasor, and Bruticus are about to flood the bootleg market methinks.

 

Devastator before the diaclones?I think the diaclones, 86 movie bots and the minbots are most what I want them to finish at this point.I can kind of live if they never got to the other stuff. I'd be disappointed, but the car and moviebots I consider must haves...and Grimlock

 

Everyone does know that Devastator was originally a diaclone right...?

 

Mochiron desu!! Uh yeah I would be glad to have one if the diaclone were done. I would have less of a problem with what it's looking like,1 G1 MP a year. Thought dinobot was bad MP-45 masterpiece devastator 65000yen giftset

 

And so was Raiden.

 

I'd love to know the numbers. Looking at folk's collection pics though I see FansToys Skyfire pop-up more than, say, Road Rage or that Wheeljack repaint I forgot the name of. Sure, I'm comparing a major character with a non-character but that's where there's probably some similarity in numbers produced. No 3rd party is going to shift MP-10 numbers of course.

Even though the TT releases see a wider release the MP line attracts the kinds of collectors who can't possibly be oblivious to the 3rd party releases at this stage so companies like Fanstoys already piggyback off Takara's market and even the most stubborn of anti-3rd party collectors have to admit that some 3rd party releases look pretty damned good on a shelf next to the real things.

 

Don’t forget that as a group, this board is largely going to skew towards western folk, and 3P has a bigger presence amongst us. Also, while any cartoon character that hasn’t been done by TT is going to sell better, it’s also easy for a small number of people to dominate an online social community with content like photos, which can skew our collective perspective.

 

Oh for sure - though I still see 3rd party news coming across from Japanese or Chinese message boards regularly. If you're a big enough fan to spend MP cash on figures though I'm saying there's also a good chance you'd also follow TF/MP news and 3rd party news gets swept up along the way on many sites.

All fun conjecture of course.  

 

For those minor repaints, the numbers probably aren't too far off from the popular 3rd Party figs. If TT can do an easy repaint, it can still be worth their while to do a 3rd Party size run. But I don't think it's worth their while to do a new mold at those numbers.

Maybe...but more likely they're just trying to compete with Zeta and a current product. There's more to gain by releasing Superion and try to take sales from the competition. The competing Dev is already done and sold so anyone that's buying one or the other has already bought for the most part.

 

I'd buy the fuck outta that. I love my Diaclone Raiden.

 

Let's think about it, the first new mold MP (not counting MpMs) in the next year it's coming in July, literally half of the year.

 

What eases my mind is the fact that we've had a few periods where MPs were released in rapid succession, so fingers crossed it's gonna be a bitchin end to '18. Megatron and Dirge have kept me happy all year till Sunstreaker comes along, so Sunstreaker and Sideswipe+ should hold me over another 8-10 months. I think we'll see at least another + release, worst case scenario. I wonder if TT has some '86 movie MP figures planned for '19 in time for the Japanese 30th anniversary? Seems possible being that they celebrated Transformers 2010 (Japanese title for season 3) in 2010 and the BW 20th with Primal's release.

 

I think the Hasbro Asia exclusives have added to the rapid succession. Skywarp, Thundercracker, Ramjet, Thrust, and Dirge weren't part of TT's output including all the exclusive repaints. It feels like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel with MP15/16E Cassettes. I don't know what other on screen character could be a HA exclusive. They may just stick to obscure repaints.

 

No doubt they added to it, but looking at wide TT releases for G1 characters (not necessarily molds), there was the end of '13 for the Datsuns, end of '14 for Wheeljack, Bumblebee, and Ultra Magnus, early '16 for Ironhide, Hot Rod, Shockwave, and Ratchet, and even Inferno, Grapple, and Megatron were about five months apart, so we still had some release "flurries".

One of several unique things about Dinobot is his release date. I don't believe there's been a summer release for a unique mold since I've been collecting MPs going back to '13. I'm hoping it's due to a busy fall quarter for G1 MPs. Oooorrr... could be they needed to get him out before they're busy churning out BB Movie toys.

 

I think it was some more MPMs in the radar which is why I wasnt to optimistic for this year. Im hoping the news that japanese fans have became more open to 3P forces them to pick up the pace. I think management more so then the designers undervalued what the customers wanted to see in the line, as it has mostly centered around leader types and d iaclones. I think part of the problem is they havent seen anything outside of that formula as being successful especially in Japan. Im really hoping something gets fastracked to release either before or soon after Dinobot.

 

While I'm waiting patiently for MPM05 preorders at HLJ, I get handed family members' Christmas lists.

My brother wants PE Leonidas. Between this, the BIG upcoming LGs, MBs and Dinobot, I'm gonna be broke for a very long time.  

 

Wait, you and your brother collect??? That sounds awesome!!! Or potentially horrible...one of the two...

 

He collects more than just Transformers. I only collect Transformers. He's bought himself Transformers pieces he's seen and liked in my collection.
While I don't own PE Leonidas, he saw him on one of the etailers websites and really liked him. I'm hoping Leonidas will still be available somewhere on December 1st, my next big payday.

 

July: MP41 Dinobot
August: MPM6 Ironhide
September: MP42 Galvatron
October: MP20+ Wheeljack
November: MP43 Rattrap
December: MPM7 Bumblebee (Beetle)

Subject to change as always, but those are today's guesses.

In fairness, what is more interesting than leader types and Diaclones?

 

I'd be fairly happy with that lineup as I would pick up MP20+, Rattrap, and Beetle Bee for sure.

Agreed that those are the more interesting figures (although for me, diaclone > leaders)