Either one? lol. It's clearly a modded Rodimus Prime MP-09/
It's really well done, IMO.

 

It's Power of the Primes Rodimus

 

Whoops.  
I was kinda debating if it was either MP-09 or POTP Rodimus Prime.

 

Oh i can see POTP Rodimus now that you said that.

 

Takara tried back in the 2000's. That's how we got MP King ExKaiser and Dragon Kizer back in the mid-2000s. The former was still available for less than $100 shipped as late as the holidays in 2017 when, I think, they finally dried up a bit.

They also reissued Might Kaiser toys in anime colors around that time. And those were also on clearance for years. I bought Might Gaine for around $50 shipped off Amazon, IIRC.

And then there were the Sonokong offerings in the 2000's being sold for pennies on the dollar.

It's really not surprising companies are skittish about Brave. Stuff gets made and then sits on clearance for a decade or more. Bandai has at least tried doing Super Minipla recently but I'm personally not invested in it when a single kit cost the same as what the original DX figures went for at retail. I know reissues would cost about twice what they used to...but I'd rather pay $100 for a GaoGaiGar DX reissue versus $50 for a 5" model plastic kit.

 

Im aware of MP Exkaiser and Dragon Kaiser made by Takara way back then.
Hey..I guess MP Diaclone seems to be selling fairly decently. Or else Takara wouldnt continue to churn those out. Poor Brave though...left in the lurch and forgotten. Maybe its not as nostalgic enough to boost overall toy sales in Japan. Oh well...

 

That J Decker custom is awesome, my favourite Brave design.  
One day brave fans will get some real love, one day, right now I'm enjoying Diaclone reboot though.

 

Takara probably sees that as more profitable, since they aren't required to deal with Sunrise to release them. When the IP is your own, that cuts out a lot of overhead and requires fewer sales to make a profit. If Brave is only kinda "meh" in terms of a fandom in Japan, the risks are simply just higher. And while there are some fans in the States, it's still fairly niche over here thanks to the anime being pretty much MIA.

I do think Brave would have been bigger if the internet and e-commerce was more widespread in the 90's. Many vehicle-inclined Transformers fans would have jumped ship from Beast Wars, I think.

 

Given how some fans back then treated Car Robots like the Second Coming, there's probably a lot of truth in that.

 

You mean it wasn't?

 

It was just a role of the dice and hope for the best tactic by Takara to counter the flagging fortune of Transformers going into the 90s. Somewhat mildly successful...but of course never reached those heights of crazy cult following like Gundam.

 

I think he means Car Robots.

I know I was only vaguely aware of Brave at the time. It wasn't until, I think, 1999's Botcon that I actually saw Brave product for the first time in person and at that point was quite pricey for me when I had other exotic Japanese Transformers I was more interested in. Eventually, at a later show, I was taken in by buying a Sonokong Hiryu (Sonic Bomber) for $45. A Transformers Sonic Bomber would cost in the range of $100-$150 at that point, so Hiryu seemed like the safer bet for the exact same figure but in red. The only disappointment was the accompanying Micromaster which felt very knockoff in quality. I think had I realized that Brave was a valid product and not some cheap knockoff of Transformers, I would have invested more. And I eventually did, when BBTS got their warehouse find of Sonokong figures about ten years ago. Now I have a decent little collection...but I missed out on some good stuff being late to the party.

 

I was absolutely one of them. Car Robots brought me back big time, to the point where it made me go back and learn about Brave etc. I never had any of the Brave toys because I was 13 at the time and accordingly had little money (to the point where ordering a Car Robots Wildride from Action Ace felt like a big friggin' deal) but I would have had they made their way stateside or been cheaper somehow. Were Brave more easily accessible or somehow got an American release, I absolutely would have jumped ship to that instead of buying the occasional Beast Wars/Machines figures to tide myself over until RiD hit full saturation.

 

Not quite that special. But it certainly did hit a cord with fans who had turned away during the Beast Era, and was a consolation prize for many to experience a bit of that Brave aesthetic without most ever realizing it.

 

Ahh. My bad. Car Robots was pretty solid imo. The toys and show got me hooked back to collecting and falling in love with the TF franchise after losing interest. The nostalgia feels was real. Lol.

 

Indeed. I remember how hyper excited I was for Fire Convoy after thinking Beast Wars/Machines was going to be the new norm for Transformers for the foreseeable future.

 

I got back into active collecting with RiD. I remember getting Scourge and feeling like it was a big deal because I think he was a Tru exclusive.

 

I know Hasbro, according to a panel at Botcon back in 2001, approached Takara about filling out Robots In Disguise slots with Brave toys but was turned down due to licensing issues regarding Sunrise. Quite a shame because that would have been awesome. Instead, we got Machine Wars and G2 line filler. While not bad, it certainly was disappointing that it was merely repaints. I do think there was some missed opportunity, though, to not drag out some late 80's Takara Transformers toys if Brave was on the table. Rounding this discussion back to Dai Atlas, Big Powered would have made for some great RiD toys. Even better would've been SkyGarry with the drop containers - those would have been ideal for the Spychangers.

 

RiD was the last "new" line I collected, then I stopped. Tried Armada, but I couldn't continue the Trilogy. Only G1 reissues and casual MPs. RiD is amazing still.

 

Holy cats, me walking into a KB Toys in 2002 and seeing some big ol' Dai Atlas repaint in those ridiculous Y2K-style RiD boxes would have given me some kind of joy-aneurysm as a kid, let alone seeing HyoRyu and EnRyu with Autobot symbols.