Because he probably only fits like luggage... stuffed in... vs posable or presentable. I mean with the whole seat/headrest area obviously occupied... why does it even matter anymore besides a technicality? We know it won't LOOK GOOD sitting in there. The MP-44 seating position already looks like crap.. this is clearly going to be much worse. It has no usable interior... so posing will just be pointless.

The gappy alt mode makes me think this bot will never be in alt mode on my shelf. Love the toon style of the bug, but man it just looks freaking terrible.

 

Do you mean this?



It really doesn't look that bad to me - I suppose you can see some gaps, but I guess he'll be quite small (and this is a painted prototype so maybe the final version will be tighter). Not as tight and seamless as something like Sunstreaker, I agree, but no worse than MP-21 to my eye. I really love the alt mode. My only fear is that the Transformation is going to be no fun, given how it seems to require him to explode like something from BadCube.

 

I'm not worried about gaps either the tolerances on that prototype was pretty bad, I guess they figured most people seeing it would know that's what it was.

I don't know about Badcube, it looked pretty straight forward and most of what we guess was going on with it, appeared to happen in the video. I'm actually looking forward to it because it looks pretty fun. Did we ever confirm if the tires are rubber or not, would have been a cool nod if they had Dunlop on them if they are rubber.

 

That was one of my 'wants' of a Masterpiece Bumblebee, back when all we had was MP-1! Rubber tyres with Dunlop on them, those square shoulder pauldrons and those interesting ribbed biceps. I even thought they could've made those biceps out of a rubbery bendy plastic (you know, the kind that has little holes in them), to allow articulation.

 

While it would have been cool to have a rubbery bendy pipe (I always thought that would be great too), it's nice to see that MP-45 does have articulation there anyway. I'm not sure if it's for animation (I assume so), but I like the way those ribbed parts can bend forward below the shoulder part. Whereas the same is a little awkward on the Datsuns, on Bumblebee it's consistent with the way that part sometimes bent forward, even on the model sheet:

 

That's a really good point, it's a cool extra joint that was probably just designed for transformation but works great!

I was dreaming up this bendable pipe back when I figured Bumblebee would be in scale to MP-1.

One thing that's missing from the initial prototypes is the pegs that are present on the outside of his arms (outie on the left, innie on the right).



Really no excuse not to make a little communicator that could slot over the peg on the outside of his left forearm!

 

I'm not sure if this was asked, but can anyone cypher what type of ankle joint is connecting the foot to the leg? If the feet can be popped off relatively easily, than upgraded feet (either transformable or not) could be used as replacements. I know having non transforming feet would be a non-starter for many, but I wouldn't mind it, if such an upgrade kit were made.

 

A rubbery pipe would disintegrate over time like the one on the 6 in IG-88 fig. But agree it would look awesome

 

Yeah, and this


None of those says 'masterpiece' to me...  

 

It does look a bit worse in that picture. I do love the shape of the vehicle, though. Fingers crossed the final production piece is a bit tighter.

 

Anyone want to speculate if those rear tires will actually touch the ground and roll? I worry this little guy will end up like MP Hot Rod.

 

What is the best MP Hot Rod? Not a fan of rodimus prime at all, only Hot Rod. But I would like to eventually have the movie cast

 

I don’t know if I missed it anywhere, but I don’t think anyone has brought up his rear tail lights. I haven’t seen any images where they are painted red. All the stock images shows them being yellow. You would think that for a figure this expensive, they would have painted them properly. Let’s hope that the production version gets that treatment.

 

Well, that's because that's just a fan coloring--the tail lights are supposed to be the same yellow as the rest of the car:

 

Beat me too it, more times than not they are uncolored. When he first transforms when they meet Carly they are painted, but I think that was more of a coloring hiccup.

 

There is no way they are not hiding the majority angles of his feet. Yea, they show him farther back in an action spin. But definitely hide them more then they show them. I wasnt hating on it, i dont hate toys period but this one im looking forward to. I was just joking around the obvious truth. & its very obvious that they are hiding the up close unflattering angles. Im still getting mine & i still have it prepaid preordered.

 

That rear bumper section is on some kind of hinge:



My guess is it was a little loose on the prototype, which is why it looks like it's dragging on the ground in the side shots. Should be stiffer on the final version and he should be able to roll.

There seems to be clearance here:

 

Ah, I may have missed this up-thread, but I think I see how Spike will fit inside now. Those parts on his thighs are small seats (as was postulated from the start), and his lower legs are hollow with the front lifting up on a hinge so that you can place Spike's legs inside in vehicle mode:



EDIT: I just noticed how his neck is a little odd - it's like his neck is behind his actual head. Weird!

 

To allow him to look down and around I guess. It was originally looking like he didn't have much head articulation

 

It looks as though he should be able to look up quite away given the cut in the back of his neck for the ball joint: