There u go lazy style

 

Damn it! Been looking at MP10's shortened rifle for so many years now, that I forgot how long it's supposed to be. This looks very long to my eyes. Have to relearn the truth.

 

Interesting photos from the museum. I think the different looks we have of the S1 head isn't from articulation but how it's sculpted. It's another one of those cool MP moments with the sculpt that makes you revisit the 30 year old show. I think the view straight on and looking down on him will show the top of his facemask and more of his cheeks. I never really realized it, but the S1 head is very close to the very first image we had of Prime from the season 1 intro.



But when Prime is looking up or if you view him from the worm's eye view, we won't see the top of his face mask and I think it'll look very close to his head in the character model sheet pose. I tried comparing the model sheet with the profile drawing in the generations book at a rotated angle. That's some crazy attention to detail they're putting into this and I think it's the kind of thing the target audience likes to see.


It's a shame though that most of the photos we're seeing from the museum have been in poor quality or don't really show us views that show off the product. It's like a lot of the wonderfest and toyfair photos where everyone's playing photojournalist by trying to "expose" compromises like the backpack or 45's feet kibble. We got a ton of photos with maybe an arm or leg of the other figure, but not one good shot of the 2 of them next to each other. TT should start bringing a professional photographer (not the guy doing the linoleum background shots!) to each show that shares a few good shots of the products before the masses get to play the media. That's one area where TT is behind Bandai in the adult collectibles market. THey are way ahead of the curve when it comes to engineering, but are behind the times in marketing.

 

@RetroElectro , great analysis and attention to detail, but I don't think it's about the angles in this instance. The s1 face from the show actually does seem to have a hair more distance from the eyes to the mouthplate than in the straight on product shot, showing more cheek and even the tip of the nose.

 

As DML says, there's definitely a difference between the height of the mouth plate in the initial shots, and from this recent test shot. It's very subtle, but if you compare where the bottom of the plate and the top lines up with the sides of the helmet it's a sliver lower











One other change they seem to have made is the diamond crest inside his helmet only has two horizontal lines instead of three. Wonder if that's final? Doesn't look it, since the lines don't even appear printed straight.


You're completely right RetroE about the difference in angles. It's why Hasui originally gave MP-10 a straight mouth plate, since it would look pointed from a lower angle anyway. That was the compromise he chose to make, before alternate head sculpts were a common thing in the MP line.

You're totally right about people not trying to take great photos, too. Although the lighting combined with the paint they use on these initial prototypes is often unflattering too. TT's stock photography has also steadily gone downhill since MP-36, not sure why. Particularly for repaints.


For all the talk of Wheeljack being the first on-screen Autobot, it's true that thanks to the intro it's actually five Autobots all at once. We're only Trailbreaker away from completing them!




The more I look at the S1 face the better it looks. The straight (actually downward pointing) top to the mouth plate sets it further apart from the S2 head. These MPs have a habit of becoming the definitive version in my head, so much that when I look at the cartoon I think 'the MP was how it was supposed to be drawn', since they're actually functioning toys.

 

You guys could be right. The head crest is definitely different. I think the face plate will be a separate assembled part to give the painted face better definition but I not sure it'll move like MP1. We could be seeing a slightly misassembled part or everything we're seeing could also just be... a matter of perspective.  

 

Yup, it looks like it'll be a separate piece either way (it was on MP-10, too, even though it couldn't move).

I'll definitely have a go at taking apart the S1 head on one of my copies and try and move the plate up a little bit. So I can imitate him 'talking' between photos if nothing else.

It's also possible that the light is hitting the bevelled angle at the top of the mouth plate in a way that it looks lower, and the light on his nose is making his nose look elongated:



Would need to draw some lines on top to actually compare. But the bottom of the plate looks lower than the sides of the helmet, instead of in line with them.


One thing I'm noticing from the latest photo is how deep his inner wrist pivot can go:



Think that's deeper than Megatron's, all thanks to the hand folding in for transformation. I wonder if that's why they didn't bother adding in a separate wrist pivot join like Sunstreaker's, since it can already be approximated really well in one direction.

Still a shame he doesn't have the reverse wrist flex, it's one of the very small disappointments I have with this figure. The whole more than makes up for the (lack of) part, though. August can not come soon enough.



Getting there!

 

I wonder if could swap MP 10 head with this animation model?

 

WTH they changed the crest? 

 

I seem to remember a factoid from somewhere that the very first airing of the first episode of the Sunbow series had a cold open. No intro. So Wheeljack actually IS the first on screen TF ever. The into played on season 1 episode 2. Wish I could find where I knew that from :/

 

Hype is real ppl. Hype is real.

 

I think we’re over examining one of the early prototypes. This looks completely unfinished to the point where it’s even missing paint apps. If you look at the promo pics on most of the sponsored sites , that’s where you’ll find the more finished products .

 

Agreed, this has to be an earlier/less refined prototype. The sample in the sales ads seems much more fine tuned. The crest on this sample bothers me as much as the lower faceplate. If these are late changes, they definitely aren't for the better.

 

This. I mean Takara needed something to put on display asap right? Lol.

 

Nothing is certain yet, but it is definitely not the same one on the last pictures.

 

Great post! There is definitely plenty to consider when translating 2 dimensional drawings into 3D. Your image reminded me of one of my heroes, Burne Hogarth.
I'm still amazed that many seasoned comics pros continue to mess up even a view from the front, let alone an extreme perspective.

 

I REALLY hope they fix the S1 head. I just recently rewatched S1 and the head they have doesn't represent the animation model. The mouthplate is FAR too low. I was planning on only having the S2 or movie damaged head on my V3, but for this price point the S1 head should scream sunbow and it doesn't. Great that they are including it but I sincerely wish/hope/pray they turn it around before release.

 

It's unlikely to change before release, although it probably won't be as low as it is in the recent test shot shown (it seems to have fallen even further).

I agree that it's only about 80-90% of the way there, compared to the S2/movie head which is 100% spot-on. I think there's two factors, the small size of the eyes, and the flat top of the mouth plate, which differ from how he is most often drawn. There's still plenty of instances where it's very accurate, most notably every single S1 episode in the first three seconds of animation:
















There's quite a big range of eye size and point to the mouth plate, though.


It's spot-on to how it was drawn in City of Steel:



Since most of the head is removable, maybe that's the reason they went with the City of Steel reference. To be able to most accurately recreate these scenes:



They explicitly mention Bumblebee being able to hold the head like in this episode (which was a huge hint at MP-45, since MP-21 can't hold anything in front of him! Can't remember who 'discovered' this, @jackisking? @Xaxis?).









It's not the way it was most commonly drawn, but I still think it looks pretty damn awesome.

 

It wasn’t me.  

 

I think the S1 one mask looks more like a "ninja"mask while, personally I've always seen the S1 face as more like knights jousting plate over his mouth, a little more rounder and wider.

Vs this