Moot point anyway, because we're not talking Unicron in this thread.

 

Says who. I would argue Unicron is the pinical of Hasbro engineering. It might not have "mp" in the name but but it's no different than the new mp44 or bumble bee that both have ugly as sin back packs with over inflated price tags. For you it might not be a mp but for a lot of collectors it ticks all the right boxes to be "mp" quality. The thread was about 3rd parties hurting development and my answer is still no, Hasbro isn't being rushed or forced to release flawed models.

 

This. The only thing that happened with MPM-7 Bee is them rushing its release close to the movie's release date. Also it's a weird point to rush development with crappier products because of 3P.

 

Hasbro are like every other greedy corporation. They will charge the most they can get for the lowest quality product they can get away with.

They have no interest in their ‘competition’, or at least not in the sense that they see them as a call to step up their game. More like a threat of them calling out their inferior product, as “you know who” did.

 

Says the title. We're talking movie figures, specifically the live action versions and their comparison between their MPMs and their 3P counterparts.

And yes, Hasbro is rushed. They have deadlines. Higher ups who sit around a golf course all day generally say "get it out before the movie/show/etc."

That's how it works.

EDIT: In addition, your entire post flip flops. You're calling Unicron an MP, but say it's vastly inferior to 3P. Don't speak for others, speak only for yourself when you post. If you don't think it's an MP, then why post that others consider it one to make a point that isn't even on the topic anyway?

 

Don't Takara only make toys for the Chinese to improve upon ?
I have no reason to buy the inferior Takara version when I can get a cheaper better Chinese one, I'm happy for those purists to keep buying though they can prop the system up - personally I only buy official masterpieces when they are cheap and mostly as a curiosity piece.
I was actually a bit annoyed withmyself for buying an official Loudpedal when I could have got the KO with rubber tires instead - perhaps I'll still buy that and I can retire the Takara one to box.

 

...no, haslab unicron was neither concieved, designed, nor executed in the masterpiece style: he was intended and presented as a CHUG figure through-and-through, albeit a very large and expensive one...

 

I thunk people tend to vastly overestimating the influence that 3p have on Hasbro and Takara. As others already said, if a product is rushed to market is likely because executive want it on the shelves at a specific date because marketing, not because they feel pressured by 3p.

 

Ah I see you are still in the prime and AOE days.

 

You might want to reread the title ... It never said mp or mpm. it said movie accuracy. And unicron in the 1986 movie didn't have giant shells. This would also include studio series figures. There are plenty of 3p making them as well. They make OS and heavily modified versions that often improve on the original

 

At the risk of sounding stupid, I genuinely don’t understand what you mean.

 

Yes, because when I was in college and wrote papers and documentation for NASA as an intern, the thesis statement was always in the title.

Read the first post. It's discussing MPM and their 3P Masterpiece equivalents.

The entire point was 3P MP and how HasTak is in fear of having their sales taken away so they rush out MPM figures. Everyone on this forum knows that Studio Series figures are OS'd and improved on. Studio Series doesn't apply because they're lower end movie figures that probably have a parts count requirement (explains why everyone is going camping with those backpacks) and aren't the hundred dollar Masterpiece figures that don't have such a strict requirement. Unicron doesn't apply because it's an anomaly and it's NOT getting rushed to stores to beat 3Ps, which was the original premise of the topic.

 

Was mostly a joke but that was the period where the quality was at its worst. The plastic was extremely light and flimsy, bots were small and the sculpting was bad. Tbh stuff has been improving since then thankfully.

 

Mo' trash fo' mes then.  

 

i don't think 3p is the reason for that. the inacuracy is mostly due to deadline and budget.
deadline, because hastak has stricter deadline, a schedule that they need a certain figure to absulutely released before certain time limit, particularly so, when the said toy is related to a new show or movies that is about to be aired. meanwhile, 3p company like FT for example, can take their sweet time, to teased their next product, and then just release it for who knows how many years later.
and budget, because they have to keep their figures at certain price point, since their main aim is still the general markets, not just collectors, at least for stuff that appears on retail stores. even $5 increase on their price can cause a noticable uproar. meanwhile, 3p figures are strictly aimed at collectors, which is more than willing to pay almost 80$ for a deluxe sized figures.

 

My 2% Sense

- Haslab Unicron is CHUG
- Zeta Core Star is an undersized MP
- MP-44's backpack is as big as a mountain, but it's not a steaming pile of trash, while MP-45 has a literal trash heap on it's back
- No, Hastak could care less, besides the moment where they shut Zeta up

 

Takara will only care if and only when 3p figures are sold alongside movie MP's at the big brick & mortar/e-tailer shops.

MPM figures may seem lacking in quality for a few reasons that were never outright stated/admitted to. However, there is some information you can glean by reading between the lines. We know for a fact that this was a joint effort by Hasbro and Takara, not the usual Hasbro "oh hey look Takara made a new MP, let's bring it over!", but joint effort in the actual design aspect. It's possible that the Hasbro designers were new to MP-level engineering. In addition, from what I remember in interviews, due to the production and international distribution, the MSRP wasn't as high compared to G1 MP's.

However I do think they did rush the MPM line to have the 1st figures out in the 10th anniversary year(2017) and there was a rumor that the MPM04 tooling broke in Vietnam.

On a personal note, my 1st 2 Hasbro MPM4's had various issues with the 2nd one misassembled so bad that it should've never left the factory. My 3rd one was largely free of issues.

In addition(and Takara isn't alone in this), I have noticed some Japanese companies(not just for toys which is surprisingly how I came to this somewhat conclusion) from at least 2017, releasing products ahead of when they ought to be released and not having the kinks worked out beforehand. While this is all in the name of higher initial profit(while cutting back on dev time and labor costs), it doesn't inspire confidence to customers.

There are also design decisions made on the MPM figures that led me to believe they weren't completely designed by senior designers. Stuff like the way MPM Prime's head is asymmetrically constructed, bees cannon that splits in half with an obvious seam for the cannon barrel, the way MPM04 struggles to connect flush in truck mode with the windshield to the nose, soft plastic ratchets for Megatron's knees, et al.

 

IIRC, an interview about the Haslab Unicron, (perhaps it was Warden, or one of the japanese designers) stated that it was designed with the intent to appeal to both mp and chug fans. So you could say that it is a chugsterpiece. I would try to look up the quote, but I'm just on my short break at work and don't have the time.

In my opinion, that figure is more chug than mp. But I can see how some collectors might want to display it in an mp collection.

First, scale... Unicron will never be in proper scale. So the compromise is to just have it be large enough to convey how massive he is.

Then, he has all of the greebles. He had a lot of surface details shown in the cartoons, so you could say that it is cartoon accurate.

And about his pringles kibble. It's ugly af. But his planet mode looks good.

 

Was 3P to blame for Hasbro not painting half of MPM Optimus and having an the alt mode that couldnt tab in properly? If so, shame on you 3P! Why would you do that? *wags finger at 3P*

 

...i think that was PR spin, nothing more: there's absolutely nothing masterpiece about haslab unicron other than the price and target demographic...

...mind, it's still a very cool CHUG figure!..but it is a CHUG figure, without reservation...