I'd want to get that custom head but I'd imagine getting it shipped to England would be expensive, never mind the cost of the head itself. Also if it's painted is that to match the official or this KO?

 

I was thinking of buying it but you reminded me that it's made to go on the official. I can't be bothered to find the same paint and redo the head for the KO.... looks like I'm keeping the base head  

 

If they can do one with paint to match the Honey Badger KO, I'd be interested. I'm getting rid of my official because it is basically unpainted.

 

Looks like you can requests the color scheme for either. I requested the "iron grey" as they are calling it.

 

dam it man, now I have to buy it.....

btw, anyone know if you have to pay upfront or when he can actually send em out?

 

Well in that case... I really hope shipping and customs go easy on me. It's just a head  

 

They gave me the option to pay everything up front or just a $10 deposit. I did the deposit  

 

Added some slightly lighter silver paint to the teeth as they seemed to get a little lost if not in direct light.

 

Looks delicious! Wouldn’t be white even better? Or where they silver in the movie?

 

Sorry I think you left out a word, do you mean why not white, like the official?

If so, I just prefer metallic silver since in my mind a big robot would have metal teeth.

Edit: and looking at the cgi you would be correct they are white in the movie, shit, well I'll see if the Mrs. has some metallic titanium white lol.

 

Your slight paint jobs make him pop a bit more, good to hear you're enjoying him!

 

Thanks man! I understand that some people dislike the movie 1 Megatron, but hot damn he is my favorite incarnation of movie Megs and such a fun figure to pose now that he is more balanced.

 

That was my biggest issue with the official, so it's great to hear that this version is better balanced. I think taking out that diecast in the torso was a good idea.
I know the original had diecast in his front toes.
Is there more diecast in the feet, legs area?

 

As far as I can tell the dicast has been moved to only the knee guards and forearm plates.

 

It can definitely hang with the best of em now.

 

Has anyone's ShowZ order shipped yet?

Edit: They sent a message to them earlier today saying: 'Just got it, will get tracking in two days'. Looks like those who ordered from ShowZ will be getting him in a few weeks

 

I ordered through show z but haven’t gotten shipping notice yet

 

Finally got Honey Badger in hand and side by side with MPM-8 Megatron.


MPM-8 Megatron on the left and Honey Badger on the right.

Comparison:

• First off, just to clear up ANY doubt. Honey Badger IS a pure 1-1 KO. It is not up-scaled or down-scaled in any way shape or form. There have been no changes to the mold at all which is a bit unfortunate because I really would like them to have completely re-engineered the hip ratchets (EDIT: @Hexatron has confirmed, in a post below, that the hip ratchets are indeed completely re-designed) and improved the smaller fingers (the cluster of joined fingers) on the hands. It would also have been nice if the had remodeled the side head armor to be film accurate though it doesn't look bad as is.

Packaging:

• MPM-8 comes in the usual spectacular exterior box with lots of promo shots and is very classy. The interior packaging is pretty chintzy with just a vac molded clear plastic tray and the product strapped in with the typical annoying plastic straps. No clamshell top so once the product is removed, it just flops around in the box.
• Honey Badger comes in a brown shipper made from very fragile recycled cardboard with the Honey Badger logo. Mine arrived pretty beat to shit and partially ripped opened. No internal box. Just a plastic tray and clamshell top. Considering mine was partially opened, I was very surprised that nothing was missing or broken. If you are the kind of collector that keeps boxes either for display or storage, this will be disappointing. The packaging is pretty shitty, even the clamshell. I just threw it away.
• Takara wins this hands down even with the short comings of the interior tray. So that should attest to just how poor the Honey Badger packaging is. Just be aware.

Accessories:

• MPM-8 comes with the figure, blaster, one (1) flail extension and instructions. The instructions are pretty shitty cardstock with small images and NOT indicative of the main G1 MP line instructions.
• Honey Badger comes with the figure, blaster, two(2) flail extension and instructions. I thought the Takara instructions were poor, these take the cake. The only saving grace is that the paper quality is nice and glossy. The images are even smaller and harder to follow than Takara and are complete garbage.
• Honey Badger wins out only in the fact that the instructions are not that important and it comes with 2 flail extensions.

Hardware:

• Most of the hardware on MPM-8 is pretty solid and usual fair. However there are some major flaws that make this a very disappointing release. The neck joint and knee armor joints detach at the slightest touch and are very frustrating when transforming or posing. The ankle joints, unless seated all the way into the shins, are floppy and loose and make standing very difficult. If seated all the way you lose the ankle rocker. The hip joints are the worst. The ratchets are gummy and have only a few valid detents with a LOT of play in between. All this makes the figure very difficult to stand on it's own and really take away for the MP feel. The figure cannot stand up straight. PERIOD. It either leans forward A LOT or leans backward (more likely) A LOT. The knee, shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger joints are all pretty decent. The blaster transforms nicely and the connection is smooth. Not much else to say. The flail extension is also a smooth connection.
• Honey Badger does a lot to correct all the flaws in MPM-8 but is still not perfect. The ankle joints are now solid and tight and can support the figures weight but the knee ratchets are not quite as strong and will give and topple the figure with a slight tap. The hip joints move MUCH better and no longer feel gummy and about to break BUT there is still a lot of play in between the detents and the same number so this is only slightly improved. They have improved the neck joint so it doesn't come off as easily and I can even suspend the entire figure by the head and it doesn't separate. Additional, instead of the very loose friction clips for the knee armor, they are now pinned. They have removed the "thoop" joint in the ankle rocker so it is now functional for anything other than 90 degrees. The only joints that are worse are the hip spikes. The hinge that they are mounted to is very loose and the ball joint is also loose. The spikes no longer tab into the hips as either the tab is too small or the port is too big. They just kind of rest there and tend to flop around during posing or transformation. All other joints are rock solid. However, most of smaller joints used for transformation, such as the locks for the elbows, are a little looser than I'd like and many of the tabs for alt mode are either just a little too tight or a little too loose. Tolerances are not as on target as MPM-8 but they are not significant enough. The blaster transformation is a bit stiff and often the barrel extension is not straight. A little futzing with it and it can be straightened out. All the hinges are pinned just like MPM-8. The pegs for the compressed mode are very tight and I thought I was going to break the damn thing. The flail is identical in construction to MPM-8 and both the flail and blaster are a smooth connection.
• All that said, Honey Badger wins out by a narrow margin as it has at least partially solved the stability and hardware issues.

Materials:

• MPM-8 has a fantastic hand feel and a great deal of heft. The plastic quality, as is typical with Takara, feels crisp, sleek and solid. There is a fair amount of diecast that make up the front half of the feet as well and a major chunk of the back pack. Over all this is one solid figure. However, they have made some decisions that I do not entirely agree with. The large diecast back plate makes the figure pretty top heavy. Combine with crappy hip and ankle joints, and as mentioned prior, he will never stand up straight and will have a tendency to topple backwards. A large portion of the chest plate is made of translucent red plastic and is very gaudy. I understand that they are trying to convey the molten metal effect from when the Allspark cube is shoved into his chest in the movie but it looks very tacky and is very visible in both modes. The other issue I take is with all the rubber parts. I understand that this is in part due to child safety laws as well as to prevent breakage, but I hate it and it looks (I'll get to this when I talk about paint) and feels chintzy. The blaster is pretty standard fair ABS and the hinges are pinned. The flail connections are plastic but the length of the flail is rubber and maybe a bit too floppy once a claw is attached to the other end. They both serve their purpose well.
• The plastic that is used for Honey badger IS cheaper. It may be the same thickness but it feels very light and has a slight oily surface feel and is ever so slightly more flexible than the typical ABS. It does NOT feel as good in hand as MPM-8. While they have used diecast, they are only using about half the amount and have redistributed what they are using to the knee armor and forearm plates. While this redistribution does not make sense to me, it does seem to contribute to the improved stability so, I'll take it. They have replaced the translucent chest plate with opaque as well as replacing ALL the rubber (for better or worse) with hard plastic (again, I'll get to this more when I talk about paint). Unfortunately, this means that they have removed the light piping for the eyes as that part was most likely on the same tool/mold as the chest plate. The blaster has the same lighter feel as the rest of the figure but is very sturdy. No real changes here. The flail, on the other hand, while constructed the same, replaces the rubber with hard plastic. It is a little flexible but not much. It is defiantly going to hold a pose better but I feel that this is over compensating a bit. I assume that this is swapped because it is on the same tool/mold as other rubber parts. It is ok, but I think I prefer the more flexible rubber for this.
• There is no clear winner here as MPM-8 is using far better plastic but Honey Badger makes better use of diecast and, subjectively, doesn't have the tacky translucent or rubber components. Where one has flaws, the other doesn't so, they kind of cancel each other out.

Paint:

• The paint decos for MPM-8 "look" great from a distance. The silver "looks" bright and shiny. But once you get close, the illusion falls apart. There is actually very little paint on the figure. The majority is bare metallic grey plastic that has just the slightest amount of paint airbrushed across the highlights and the application is very uneven. My right forearm has highlights painted and my left is completely bare and unpainted. There are the occasional applications of gold/copper details which are done well enough but do little to hide the use of metallic brown plastic. The rubber parts are unpainted and a slightly darker tone that the rest of the figure. The diecast toes are painted but are a much brighter silver than the rest of the figure. The dicast back plate is completely unpainted and after owning the figure for little over a month, has already begun to tarnish and flake. Then there is the tacky red translucent parts peeking out from the chest plate. This all contributes to an over all patchwork and inconsistent deco that just looks horrible up close. The paint decos are very half-assed and do not warrant the $160 retail price tag. SHAME ON YOU TAKARA!. The blaster is slightly painted. Again, just silver highlights on the top hatch and some gold/copper trim on the sides. The barrel is completely unpainted and boring. The flail is completely unpainted.
• Honey Badger is painted to the nines. Nearly every part is painted. I can only see that the inner parts of the elbow joints (which are part of the ratchet joint) are not painted. The silver is a bit darker than MPM-8 and since the whole thing is painted and not just the highlights, the silver reflects some shading too which gives the surfaces more contrast and contributes to the darker look. There are gold/copper and gunmetal accents ALL over and the deco is much more representative of the movie model. Since there is no longer light piping for the eyes, they are painted red and as such, show up better than MPM-8. Also, since they are no longer using rubber parts, all those parts are now fully painted and match the deco. The blaster is fully painted silver with a nice amount (but less than MPM_8) gold/copper trim. They have added a really nice metallic blue to some of the recessed details of the barrel. I doubt it is accurate but it does look nice in hand. The flail extensions are both fully painted. The connectors are silver instead of metallic brown plastic and there is gunmetal painted in between the chain links of the flail which serves to add a bit of depth.
• Honey Badger wins this no contest.

Over all:

• Aside from the hip ratchets, my complaints about MPM-8 are purely subjective an my own opinion. I feel that for the price, MPM-8 just isn't worth it. It is little better than a main stream 2010ish leader class and just does not live up to the standard that is MP and should be MPM. Honey Badger, on the other hand, takes the mold above and beyond in presentation. The hand feel might not be as good but it is not all that much less than the official. Where Honey Badger really shines is presence. Not only can it actually stand or take a pose and there are no more warped rubber parts but the paint is absolutely breath taking. It is a real shame that it take a KO to turn an official MP into an MP and they have done it for 2/3 the price. It is unfortunate that there isn't any sort of packaging to match.