I've been onboard for 'toon and G2 versions since each was announced, but at this point I've enjoyed the look of this team so much that I'd be on board for a third, toy-based set too. Toy colors and some remolding for toy-style tooling and detail thrown in.

It's probably a lot to ask and hinges on how successful at least the first, toon set ends up being, but given how much mileage TW is getting out of their Devastator (and they STILL haven't done Diaclone colors, right?), maybe redecos/retools of MP combiners from 3Ps isn't as much of a longshot as I would normally think.

 

Those test shots are just insane. I feel like XTBs style is what I wish Takara were still doing. It's like what I want Masterpiece to be.

 

Those are lofty names to be throwing around in the same company as XTB. And truthfully brings a fan tear to my eye as I've felt for years that XTB/KFC had the potential to be great. They just needed to up their QC game exponentially. I'm happy to see that this day has now arrived and that other fans are beginning to agree.

 

Hurry up x transbots! A man needs his plastic fix

 

Takara can suck it. The toon looks like shit.

 

I don't post much, but this made me curious. If you don't like the toon and takara "can suck it", what's your attachment to the G1 characters at all? comics? just like transforming toys?

 

Agreed. XTB and KFC are almost exactly what I want from MP Transformers, which is probably why I own more of their figures than any other 3p. I'd like to see them step up their articulation game a little (recent Takara figures have butterfly joints which is really nice) and they screwed up pretty bad on Savant's face (looking forward to the replacement) but their style is exactly what I want. Real world alt modes with dark windows (not blue!!!) and very much toon accurate/inspired bot modes but without going to the extreme of taking the toon too literally or emulating its mistakes (put the silver stripe on Optimus' truck mode and paint his thighs silver, dammit! Leaving the stripe off was an animation mistake and the thighs were white because that's how you fucking draw silver in a cartoon!)

I can't speak for him but for me, the cartoon was badly animated. My nostalgia isn't for the bad animation but for the overall look of the characters and for the stories (though I actually prefer the comic to the toon). That's why what I want from MP is real world alt modes (at least for those characters that had real world modes) and idealized bot modes - the character from the toon/comic/design sheet artwork but looking like that character brought into the real world. Takara has gone too far - they try to make the figures literally look like the animation cells, but that artwork was trash.

 

Takara made the toys. I believe you actually meant that Sunbow sucks.

 

That makes sense to me. and I agree with a lot of what you said. Part of the charm is retaining identifiable aspects of the character. so, while I agree the animation was awful. I still have to recognize it, and do want the additional details of an actual alt mode. I think there's a happy medium between where takara has gone and what they were. XTB has been killing it and I think they make up the majority of my collection.

 

At the end of the day, that's the crux of the matter. Sunbow cartoon was a derivative of the takara toys. 30+ years later, modern takara is making toys of an 80s cartoon which was a derivative of 80s takara toys.

I think at this point, they want to illustrate that their designers and engineering/tech have progressed to the state where they can make a "fully cartoon accurate" toy instead of the toy/ comic/ cartoon hybrids of the hasui era (which weren't constrained by any 1 source of material so ultimately easier to engineer if you took bits and pieces from a bunch of sources). Obviously the 3rd parties follow suit to capitalize on the trend.

Aesthetically it's a step back for many but it is what it is at the end of the day.

 

Never mind that, I want on my shelf shots!  

 

Well then at that point you could make any combiner not have limb bots but still look like they’re there. So at least they do exist on this.

 

I think Sunbow cartoon is good for what it is. For me, Takara sucks because they changed the style in the middle of the toyline.

Me too.

 

I never said I didn't like the toon, I quite like the stories for the most part. I said the toon LOOKS like shit. I don't want figures that look like a poorly and inconsistently animated 80s cartoon. I want an alt mode that is reasonably detailed and can pass for what vehicle it is supposed to be and an interesting bot mode that doesn't look like a walking crayon.

 

I blame Takara for going full toon. You never wanna go full toon.

 

Dragstrip looks very nice, I wonder how it would look like next to TFM's version...

 

Pretty sure you can take him out. but if you mount the gun on his car mode, wouldn't the gun barrel be pointing directly at the back of his head?

it would be a silly design if it did

 

I’m so excited for this

 

incentive not to move I'd say...