So Takara has now announced MP-48 as Lio-Convoy, a character from the (I want to say "obscure" but I'm sure fans of the show will take immediate offence at that ) Japanese only show Beast Wars 2.

This raises an important point for me.

I collect G1 MP's. That's my primary collection. I occasionally find myself being diverted off track with the odd random character but I always pull myself back to that core focus. I'm also a completionist in that I want pretty much every character from "my G1" (ending with Season three - I don't go past that for reasons that are unimportant here).

There has always been this naive ... I want to call it a "hope"... that Takara would, eventually, get around to releasing at least all the big-name characters from G1 in their MP line. We were never going to get everyone (some characters are just too obscure for that) but the hope was that we'd see a reasonably broad swathe. But it's become more and more clear that the MP "line" isn't ever going to be a complete "line of characters" from any continuity.

We started with G1, then they threw in some G2 and comic repaints. The writing was really on the wall with the decision to shoe-horn Star Saber in there (many of us tried to explain this away with arguments about "fan contests" and "special cases"). But then we saw Beast War's added to the line and now a character from Beast Wars 2.
I should say that I'm not opposed to MP's being made of any of these characters. Most aren't for me but there's clearly demand there for them. But I like the idea of the MPM line as a separate and focussed collection of figures. Ideally, the same strategy could have (maybe should have?) been employed with Beast Wars MP's.

But it's pretty clear now, at least to me, that we will never see anything even close to a "complete G1 MP collection" from Takara and I am highly doubtful that we will even see a "complete Beast Wars Season 1" cast, let alone a "complete Beast Wars" collection.

My feeling is that MP has now become just a "premium figure" line for Takara and as more figures are released, we will start to see more and more Takara designers petitioning to have their own favourite character given an MP makeover. There will be more figures from Victory, Beast Wars Neo or other Japanese only shows (that's obviously going to be a big focus for a lot of Takara's Japanese designers) We may eventually see stuff from Animated or Prime in there as well (depending on how Takara designers feel about these more international characters)

I don't think we'll stop seeing G1 stuff anytime soon, as there are still plenty of easy-pickings for Takara to do, but I will be very surprised if we see Triple Changers, Combiners or more obscure characters such as Devcon or the "Cybertron femmebots" (Arcee will probably get a shot and maybe... maybe Elita 1). Likewise, Terrorsaur or Scorponok, to say nothing of some of the toy only BW characters!

It's a very unpopular opinion to praise or be grateful to the third party companies in any official thread, but for collectors like me who want a collection other than "random stuff that Takara decides to lump together" the 3P's are utterly vital to my collecting goals.

What do others think?
Does anyone think that Takara intends to give us a "complete collection" for any of these lines (did anyone, really, ever think they would?)
Given this trend on Takara's part, just how vital are 3P figures to your collection?
How do "official only" collectors feel about Takara's trend away from a single unified line into a more random "premium figure" line?
Do you like the idea that MP is a collection of high-grade figures from all across the Transformers continuity?

 

If they can't get Porsche to sign off on Jazz, completing that season 1 cast will be difficult.

Definitely! Glad to see the line expanding beyond G1. The Transformers world is so much bigger, and there are so many great characters and designs out there.

 

At this point and in the immediate future the only way to make a full G1 cast is Official and 3P. Which isnt bad. I think some of the 3P figures do a better representation of certain characters and with TT prices going up. 3P is the cheaper way to go now. Remember when it was the other way around.

 

Cool. Do you have a specific "collecting goal" in mind or do you just collect cool figures?

I ask because I've fallen down that slippery slope a few times and ended up with a bunch of "cool figures" that really don't fit in with the rest of my collection.
I decided to scratch that itch by allowing myself a secondary collection of "high-quality" Optimus and Megatron pairings, separate from my main G1 cast. As those two generally get a shot in almost every line and they almost always get a pretty premium treatment, it's allowed me to scratch that "random cool bots" itch in a more controlled fashion.
Primal and BW Megs were given honorary positions in this secondary collection, but I'm afraid this Lio-Convoy guy won't make it past the bouncer at the door. Partially because I have no attachment to the character, and partially because one of those "cool random" bots I already picked up was the Evangelion repaint of the 3P version from Perfect Effect (actually the KO version... ) Frankly, that design looks a thousand times more interesting to me than this one... but again, that's because I don't care about this character.

 

Yeah, my collection is now more 3P than official (partially because 3P combiners rapidly increase the total).
The only thing that frustrates me a bit is that even aside from the non-G1 additions to the line, Takara keeps subtly tweaking the look of their G1 MP's, and I generally like this toonish direction, so the older 3P stuff starts to look out of place!! I was very happy with my FT Hound, but now I think I like Takara's (in bot mode at least) better!!
Really can't win either way and better to just embrace the madness and keep the collection fluid.

 

No. That’s hundreds of characters and toys.

A complete season 1 cast? Maybe.

 

At this point,I've given up hope. I'm out

 

As much as I would love to see any company complete a full line of cast of characters that G1 has, its what the market wants. There is a push for movie, Beast Wars, I'm sure RID and other series falls in there too. Personally speaking, I'm surprised its lasted this long with such a growth and interest in legends and CHUG line.

Add 3P and I still don't see it. HM's and TM's characters seem the difficult to get demand for them from what I've seen, whether it would be from FP, MT, KFC, and even FT. Time will tell on the last two companies though. Pretenders and micromasters probably wouldn't do well either.

Would be great to get up to Season 4 but with combiners seeming to take the longest to get any of the later ones out, I'm shooting for at least up to Season 2 at this point with some main characters from Powermasters line and Japanese like Raiden. This being a combo of 3P and official.

 

Hmmn, it is a lot, but given the MP line is already at 48, with a number of repeats and a bunch of non-g1 figures in there, it COULD have been doable with a bit more direction and focus. I mean, if you tie in all the 3P efforts done or at least announced, we're definitely past 50% of the complete cast? At least up to Season 3 or 4.

 

G1? not a chance. Beast Wars? Fuck if I know...I don't know what a complete cast is for Beast Wars. That said, I doubt it.

 

Barring a complete overhaul to their product planning, they will not complete G1 MPs before the main consumer group of G1 MPs goes through retirement and ceases to have the disposable income to afford their heinously overpriced products.

 

No, I don't think they'll finish something. There doesn't seem to be clear direction for the line other than what whomever in charge thinks will sell best that year. And since they change who's in charge, that direction changes.

This I think is best seen with the 'plus' variants. And that doesn't mean they don't put out good products or even products that won't sell, but every time they release a plus or redesign a character the line doesn't move forward.

Nothing with the line seems to make sense. They could have even started releasing leaders first: Optimus and Megs from MTMTE, then Roddy and Galvatron, then Metalhawk and Overlord, then Star Saber and Desaurus, then Optimal and BW Megs, then go down from there. It would have at least had a pattern to anticipate.

Where we're at now is they just jump around like House of Pain.

 

Trying to figure out where people got the impression they would ever try. You can break Takara releases into 2 categories popular characters and their repaints, and subsets ( diaclones cars and BW season1) as they're the only subsets designers have said they hope to get done. Honestly who in Japan would care about every G1 character when they have Gundam, and they don't even get all the suits as MG.

 

Haha, I'm definitely in the "cool figure" category; I don't care which generation/fiction the character is from. (Ie. the Bayverse films are complete garbage but some of the robot designs are cool.) My collection mainly is a mix of MPs, CHUG, Animated and Prime, with a few movie figures here and there.

Fortunately for my wallet, though, my tastes are random/picky enough that I only buy specific figures now and then. BW Megs is the first MP I've bought in years. I have zero interest in Lio Convoy (especially such a super-cartoony version of him; I'd rather have a realistic lion) but would be happy to see the line expand to other continuities as well, like Car Robots, or even the IDW comics. That said, I still like realistic/detailed alt modes that are actually part of the bot mode, so if Takara continues their current ultra-cartoony, maximum-faux-parts aesthetic, I won't be buying many official MPs in the near future.

 

Absolutley not.

 

In a word:
"NO"

 

The only thing I have hope for is them finishing is the s1 beast wars cast.

But yeah g1 fans are shit out of luck given Porsche are still being assholes and whatnot. Some of those characters having licensed vehicles bites takara in the ass since unlike 3ps they legally can't just make them.

Even if that weren't a factor its simply not possible we'll have takara versions of everything g1, never going to happen sorry. Go 3p or go without.

 

The good news, being that this in the 3rd Party forum, you're obviously open to buying such figures. With 3rd Party, you're getting damn close to a full 'in-show' cast...

 

They aren't even doing a coherent G1 collection. Even with the more toon look. Sunstreaker has metal engine parts and wheels. Prime has a metal grill, pipes and wheels. Hounds engine parts and wheels are made of bone?

 

I could see the finishing Season 1 of Beast Wars.
But by Season 2/3 watch them change the line size so They don't have to make Optimal Optimus as big.

G1 complete never, we might get the Season 3 bot eventually, but I don't expect Takara to ever finish as they haven't with any of their other specialty lines.