My bad. MPs Seaspray and Beachcomber  

 

I feel the super deformed look makes him look like, a toy. He currently won't cost toy money. His head looks off and I'm just gonna stick with the first bee. I almost don't want an official Mirage, Jazz, Trailbreaker, Cliffjumper or any others in this style. Hound does look good though along with all their beast wars stuff. also



PANEL LINES!!!!!!!

 

I’m hoping for Waspinator or Inferno as well - I’m surprised Waspinator doesn’t receive more love. In the meantime, I am pretty happy with what we have seen of Blackarachnia so far. Now where are the preorders?.

 

At least not yet.

 

I feel better about 45 having seen those video pictures. Originally I felt he was a strong buy, then I saw him at the show and wasn't so sure about him anymore, now I'm getting sure about him again.

I tell you, though, I was sweating about Cliffjumper yesterday, seeing the apparent mess 45 was.

 

I want Takara to just stop, and go back to the original designer. Or at least tell the new one to get his shit together. I still don't think hound is coming out this year.

 

There are many designers that work not just on the line as a whole, but on each figure individually.

If this isn’t your style there are other options. Accuracy to the source material sells.

 

While everyone is giving their loves or hates on the latest MP Bumblebee's design. My concern is why Takara is moving from such realistic car design to chibi compressed version. Obviously, they are preparing MP Cliffjumper and Jazz without going through licencing deadlocks by using toon accurated vehicle mode. Just my two cents.

 

Thanks for that @Prime135 & @Goldimus Prime

Like I said I was willing to bet anything it was just mistransformed/misposed.
Looks absolutely incredible with the different face... the door opening gimmick and vehicle mode look amazing.
This reminds me of the Bumblebee my 4-year-old self wanted to see, staring at my Goldbug toy and the Action Master Bumblebee robot mode in the euro toy catalog.






If anyone has a spare non KO exosuit Spike to sell me, please PM me.
Just put in my preorder today for MP18+ w/ Kapow... already got MP20+ on its way, MP45 is getting preordered ASAP!

I'm predicting MP19+ and Red Sunstreaker reveals soon.

Sorry @GearsRollo I didn't share that digibash, I knew there was almost no point as I was confident something would surface soon  

 

Quite simply- it goes along with the cartoon accurate direction of MP. If we're being honest with ourselves- the real direction is cartoon accurate MP and a separate toy inspired MP. See Megatron. I can almost guarantee you that we will get a toy inspired MP Optimus Prime in a year or so too.

I think the feedback Takara was getting was either- MORE CARTOON ACCURATE! or MORE TOY ACCURATE! from us. So they basically said- we'll do one of each and a lot of people will probably buy both.

 

It’s not really an option to go back. The line has moved toward an actual premium one, and that means targeting animation accuracy and features to please the primary Japanese market.

Even when Hasui was the main guy with the idea of the “unified ideal representation” thing, he had a team working under him. He, and others are still kicking around in the background for sure too, but the reality is that the dominant fandom has spoken again and again for more features and greater cartoon accuracy.

 

I'd love MPs of those two, especially a G2 Beachcomber.

And MP-45 is still a licensed Volkswagen, so I'm not sure if a chibi alt mode would circumvent a Porsche license.

 

Bee's face looks like it got stung by, well, a bee.
 

 

Interestingly enough, the current head designer (Kobayashi) is the original designer. He designed everything up to MP-09 Rodimus Prime. Hasui jumped in and did a few bots, starting with Prime and ending his run with Bumblebee.

They have both designed some amazing figures in my opinion. The overall direction of the line isn't dictated by a single designer and it seems to me that TT is simply following the trends in their own market.

Luckily not all upcoming figures seem to be as compromised as the little Bee. Hound uses a lot of his actual vehicle kibble and will have a real life accurate alt mode (albeit perhaps with a simplified paint scheme).

 

I think if they didn't do the doors things would have turned out differently, they would have pulled off better what they were trying to do, but I'm starting to come around too it, cause I love that alt mode.

 

Then again, they still had to license the chibi g1 Bumblebee for the walmart reissue (you can see the VW symbol on the box), so i think just deforming the car mode wouldn't be a different scenario.

Plus, Jazz's alt mode it's NOT too different form the real car's proportions.


I'm sure this new Bumblebee v.2 will have the VW license too.

 

They mention it in the listing.

 

It will - they showed the logo on the promotional poster yesterday

 

@Gamerlingual asked a Takara rep yesterday and posted a pic of what it was supposed to look like. The difference, if any, is trivial

 

Then, they still have to obtain the license even if they go for the chibi route.