Voted Airrazor. The original toy isn't close to the cartoon, and I think Takara would make an awesome MP of her.

 

I'd say Tarantulas is the most likely candidate to be next since Takara could reuse atleast the spider legs from Blackarachnia. Personally though, I would much prefer Terrorsaur!

I feel like Rattrap, Rhinox, and Waspinator will simply get a pass b/c of their T30 toys unfortunately since Rhinox should be bigger than Primal and Rattraps toy wasn't the greatest.

I also feel like a MP Scorponok would not sell that well. Nothing against Scorponok but he's the weakest character out of the cast for a MP toy. He'd be about Cheetor's size. Sure he'll have the Bee drone but still kinda of a "meh"

Takara COULD sell a MP Rattrap WITH a MP Scorponok!

or better yet, MP Scorponok and Waspinator as one set, then MP Rhinox and MP Rattrap as another!

 

none given the current quality and price policy

 

Man, hard to say! With the next 2 releases being Maximals (Lio Convoy and Burning Convoy) I could see another Predacon next. At the same time, Burning Convoy is a TT Mall exclusive so TT might not count him..

Y'know what, I'm gonna put my money on Rhinox!

Too bad you don't care for them, given your name. They truly are works of art so hopefully you'll get to enjoy them at some point  
The quality is pretty great actually.

 

Quickstrike

What? There's no rule saying they have to go in order season by season. I want my high-end goofy two-headed Scobrapian.

"Well lookit that. LOOK AT 'EM NOW!"

I'd much rather have him than plain old Scorponok. I don't think Takara has to do an MP of every character, just the best.

 

Like I posted before this is what we are looking at:

MP-47 Hound - Dec 2019
MP-19+ Smokescreen - Jan 2020
MP-48 Lio Convoy - Feb 2020
MP-32+ Burning Convoy - Feb 2020
MP-49 Black Convoy - Jul 2020
MP-50 [unspecified non BW release] - ??? 2020

That pretty much wipes out Feb-Jul for all but plus/lettered repaints. MP-50 is rumoured not to be BW(Raiden?), so even if it comes out as early as August we won't see anything Beast Wars until the month after. Given the general length of 'gestation' of these things we might have something to get excited about soon though.

 

Oh it's back! YAY!

So yeah I voted Terrorsaur as he's the one I'd be most surprised and pleased to see. For me it was a huge shame he was killed off at the end of season one. He filled a nice 'Starscream' shaped gap in the Predicon roster that never really got properly filled again...Yes I know Taratuals took that roll to some extent but he was far more sinister and machiavellian(which I loved btw) but there was something endearing about Terrorsaur's rather dumb compulsive insubordination. I also really dug the design, I love red transformers for some reason and both modes were really cool looking. He'd also pair very well with Megatron.

That said I'd be happy if any of the above were announced, indeed I think its only a matter of time before we get a Rattrap, Rhinox and Waspinator. With much of the engineering being there for Tigatron and Tarantulas in the form of Cheetor and Blackarachnia it seems likely we'll see them somewhere along the line, the rest are a little more harder to imagine...but not out of the question of course!

 

Honestly, I think the figure that would get me most hype right now would be... Scorponok.

Hear me out!

Yes, he's the most boring character in the show. While I personally like his design quite a bit, I know it isn't for everyone. But not only am I really hoping his cyber bee can attach to Primal's chest (I just rewatched Gorilla Warfare, and it is so brutal. I love it).

But even more important, if Scorponok gets announced, we are getting every season 1 character. There isn't a character too unpopular for release if Scorponok gets released. If we see him, we are getting a full season 1 cast. And that. Is. Hype.

Just for the sake of having knowledge of a full season 1 cast, I really hope we get Scorponok.

Plus, with the longer wait I think it's perfect timing. BW fans will be so desperate for ANYONE at that point.

 

I mean yes Scorponok's announcement would put the entire season 1 cast on the table...but it wouldn't guarantee it. TT would have to see how he sold, in a funny way he could kill any chances of a full cast if he were to bomb  

That said, yes it a roundabout way it would be both the most and least exciting announcement. I'd have a real dilemma about buying him though... I'd want to skip him, because he's boring and ugly, but there would be a strong irrational need to have him for competitions sake....and then TT would drop a 20,000+ yen price tag on him and kill it for me.

 

But who would be less popular than him? Basically any other figure is goign to sell better.

 

I got your point the first time  

My point is if he were to bomb TT would likely re-assess and go back to putting out the big guns and likley never go near the likes of Airrazor, Terrorsaur, Inferno or Tigatron. Yes they might sell better, but better might not be good enough. Look at what they've done recently, they are clearly playing it safe. I find the likelihood if Scorponok extremely low right now.... unless this MP Raiden is real because that would be evidence of TT taking risks.

 

How is Inferno not a big gun? He's definitely a series favourite.

It also depends on what their marketing strategy is. As I've explained before, "Collect them all!" is a powerful marketing strategy. By having the complete cast available for sale will encourage people to get all of the figures. If people feel as though the entire cast may never be available, they may choose to just get their favourite characters since a complete cast will never be in the cards anyway. If they buyers feel as though all characters will eventually be released, the complete collection appeal will encourage people to buy figures they may be less excited about to have them all. Takara and Hasbro are not unfamiliar with the "Gotta get them all!" strategy.

If they release scorponok, I'd take that more as a sign they are going to use the "Get them all!" strategy than a testing of the waters for less popular characters. If they want to test the waters, they would go after more middle ground characters to see how they do, then maybe go down the list. They wouldn't start at the bottom.

 

He certainly has a big gun   but he's not on a par with Megatron, Primal, Dinobot, Blackarachnia, Rattrap, Rhinox or even Waspinator in terms of popularity. He's more of a niche fan favourite, and that's in the west, who knows how much of an impact he made in Japan? I'd personally put him in the mid tier of characters and thus far TT have only gone upper tier as far as Beast Wars is concerned.

I don't dispute any of this but its all conjecture(as is what I'm saying of course). Based in the evidence we have (the entire MP line so far) TT have shown no sign that they are going for a "Collect them all!" marketing strategy. We can argue that Beast Wars is different than G1 because smaller cast, because better developed character etc etc (please don't) but the fact remains that they have thus far played it safe for the most part. We are on our 3rd Prime, 2nd Megatron, Hotrod and Bumblebee and likely to see a Starscream V3 soon.

Yes, like I said above, I agree announcing Scorponok would provide some evidence that the rest of the season 1 cast is on the table I just don't agree it guarantees they'll happen.

 

Fair enough, I have no idea the impact he made in the Japan. In the west, I'd definitely say he's just a tad behind the top tier characters. Definitely a tier 2 instead of a bottom tier in terms of popularity.

I don't really look to G1 MP as a comparison. It isn't just about the number of characters, but the density of popular characters that changes the marketing strategy. G1 has a LOT of characters, even in Season 1. But more than that, in season 1 only a few characters were fan favourites with the rest of the cast being a bit more obscure since the show didn't do much to develop the characters. Basically, if you watched G1 a while ago, you'll probably remember (from season 1) Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Bumblebee, Jazz, and Ironhide. These are also the characters that made it to the movie and got significant screentime, so they have had more reinforcement. There are a LOT more characters in just season 1 though, so in order to "collect them all" not only do you need to buy more, but you need to buy more figures that are less memerable to you. There are 30 characters that can be given MP toys from the very first episode.

On the other hand, if you watched Beast Wars, because of the smaller cast and more development, the list of characters you are likely to forget is probably Airazor, Scorponok, maybe Tigatron. I think Terrasaur was given enough screentime to be memerable, and Inferno was big enough in personality to be memerable. This is of course speculation, but I feel the density of memerable characters is a lot higher, so the number of characters you need to buy to collect them all outside the big names is much smaller, making it a far easier and more desireable process.

The G1 vs Beast Wars structure just differ so strongly. If they get Scorponok out the way, there are only like, two truly forgetable characters left, and one of them will share a lot of transformation themes with Cheetor, probably costing less in R&D.

You mean by... 2021? There is no way that's happening. Without any announcements for 2020 yet, we are getting at most one figure next year. We still have 9 characters left. That'd mean 8 characters would need to be released in 2021.

I honestly hope they don't do that, I cannot afford to buy 8 characters in one year. Holy smokes.

 

Agreed, but for now TT haven't touched anything below top tier.

As for your thoughts on G1 comparison, it's all very interesting and well reasoned but a bit academic. Yes BW and G1 have different dynamics that may or may not influence what TT do in the future, but it doesn't change that these are all part of the same line and the history of that line doesn't suggest an appetite from TT to 'complete' any particular sub group. It's not my belief but to play devil's advocate for a moment they may not be treating Beast Wars as a separate entity to G1 within the line, it could be they're are just a collection of IPs to them and they are cherry picking the most profitable.

 

But they already broke from their treatment of G1 by having 5 new moulds in a row all being season 1. With G1, the first five original moulds have three season 1 characters, one season 2, and one season 3.

If we truly expect them to use the G1 MP model on Beast Wars, the next MP will be Optimus Primal V2.

 

That has a lot more to do with G1 being an ongoing show and Beast Wars being just season 1 in Japan than anything else (not to mention they are now dipping their toe in into BWII now). It also doesn't disprove any of my points or prove any of yours.

My point has always been there is no evidence to suggest they will finish season 1 and although a theoretical MP Scorponok would seem to increase their likelihood it doesn't guarantee it. The comparison with G1 is just an example of evidence we have to the contrary, I never claimed they are following the same model just that that's the only model we currently have for reference.

 

Burning Convoy is a March release so that only leaves April, May and June.
I have a feeling we might see the next Beast Wars character in 4th quarter 2020, just like Blackarachnia this year. Would love to get them sooner though!

Megatron was indeed delayed by 2 months but I'm fairly certain Dinobot was never actually delayed. I believe it was just Amazon adjusting their estimated release date from mid- to end-July. TT always release their figures at the end of the month so there wasn't really any surprise there.

Geting the entire S1 cast by the 25th anniversary would be terrific! I like your optimism  

 

Really? It says February on AE, did they delay it? Anyway MP-49 being in July rules out any new moulds between Feb and Jul.

 

I guess this debate is gong to happen every year until Scorponok is announced, released and deemed to have met expectation.
We’ve had one original mould released per year since they started right? Nothing new for 2020 would suck arse. BWII is a separate entity so doesn’t count.

‘A full S1 cast by the 25th anniversary’ is what I expect too- if the 25th anniversary is of the start of Beast Wars MPs!
I love TT for what they’ve made but hate the prices and the release-rate beyond belief. 3Ps could easily start taking advantage of our impatience but it’s cool that they’re mostly focused on S2/3 or legends scale.