Just remember 1 thing when it comes to 3rd party Combiners,to me it's like a like a payment plan to complete the Combiner one piece at a time vs paying $500+ right away/all in one. Yes @ the end of the day that will be the grand total or so but that's how I always look @ combiners in general. I'm in on the FT Stunticons and it Personally doesn't bother me if may end up being $500+ bc it's a like a payment plan per part/limb. If price is an issue,I highly advise you to go a different route on Combiners in the 3rd party route.

 

That's a fair point. One of the reasons I havent dipped into many, if any third party products is price. I might still buy one or two of these. I'm pretty interested what the pants turn out, bot wise. The other bots we have a general idea, but the gorilla has no pretense for it.

 

Same here---it may come down to "how easy is it to separate the parts, and paint into a scheme closer to what they originally showed us".

 

Just thought of this but another option is just sit it out and buy it second hand but we're talking years from now lol. I paid around $550 for Feral Rex 6 years ago and now you see him go for about $200-$300. Sucks to see the value drop but that's the game we all in I guess. Part of me won't miss that once it's time to wrap up this hobby lol.

 

Unless you choose to wait to purchase it. Then it sells out quickly and is never seen for less than triple retail price on the second-hand market…

 

Nah. Not for me. Prefer to get them new in hand. Good for some, just not my solution. And since only 1 of 6 even seem close in release, hopefully it'll be easier to buy. Especially if they're connected to toyworld as noted

 

figure it will take at least 6 months between releases (averaging times from other companies) it shouldn't be hugely difficult to save up in between releases. Figure most US sellers are putting the first release at $120 so if that price stays consistent and they put a new one out every six months that means you'd only have to save up $20 a month to have the money to buy one once they are released.

 

From my perspective, it's not the initial outlay that's the problem. If I want to spend that much on something I'll make sure that I can. It's the fact that AU$900 (potentially more with such a spaced out release schedule) is a very, very large amount to spend on something which lacks a direct practical function. Even if I spend that money over the course of 3 years (6 months between releases) it's still same amount in the end. And that's a very useful amount of money.

By a "very useful amount" I mean I paid less than that to have the valve seats hardened in my engine so I could keep driving after leaded fuel was discontinued, and that's no small operation. This is the kind of thing which really has to be paid for, outside of a very few people who might have the appropriate knowledge, equipment, and time to do it themselves.

This is in contrast to, say, a $450 commitment (after all, you're not going to be able to buy just one or two of a combiner). Sure for that amount I could have my master cylinder rebuilt, but I can do that myself for substantially less. That's convenience levels of money, and a little inconvenience is a reasonable sacrifice for my hobby.

Not that I expect a near-Masterpiece quality, titan-sized combiner for AU$450 (though wouldn't that be great?). Just using the numbers as something of a point of reference.

 

@Thalyn no, of course, I didn't mean to make you feel like I was calling you cheap, hell, I won't give what they want for Constructor because of that initial outlay of cash. Maybe I am trying to convince myself more than you that it wouldn't hurt that much to go in on it, lol.

completely off topic, but when did you have the valve seats done? I can remember before my dad started restoring/hot rodding his "72 Chevy pickup that he had to put lead additives into the gas since the original engine couldn't handle the unleaded gas. of course, at the time I was only old enough to clean parts, hold the flashlight, or be the tool go-for, lol. now I get to build cotton bailers for John Deere, guess all those years in the garage helping my dad stuck with me, lol.

 

Never thought you did for a minute. But this is a broad forum and doubtless there's going to be some people for which the outlay is the main problem, rather than the total. That it's coming out in instalments is going to be good news for them. Just offering a different perspective, is all.

Like you I can't help but feel like I'm trying to talk myself into it as well. I don't like buying doubles of the same mould (MP10 is so far my only exception) and neither JB's Nero Rex nor the G1 Predaking are scratching that Predaking itch for me. But yeesh that's a bitter pill to swallow....

Just off the top of my head I'd say maybe 9 years ago, give or take. Previous owner (my uncle) was running the additives, but I knew I'd forget and didn't like the prospect of potentially shelling out for a whole new engine. I'd seen what a low compression 2.0l VW engine could do when it dropped a valve, so I dread to think what would happen if the torque of a 225 slant got put behind that sort of thing.

 

TransFans

 

One mini Nitpick I have to say is that I wish the eyes weren't orange,feels like it doesn't "Pop" enough and sorta makes him look generic'ish. I would rather have seen him with red eyes but then again his head is already red in both modes.. Hmmm it's tricky situation,I wonder how a bright Chrome red would look? I've always been a fan of MT Despotrons eye which were Chrome Red. Possibly a Metallic Gold for his eyes?? Whatcha guys think??

 

A

all I know is that the sword looks like a play school knife

 

The whole figure looks cheap.

 

Actually can pass for a piece of American cheese lol. Looking forward to the formed Swwwwooorrrd!

 

So when's it releasing? Hoping it releases in March or now, cause cny is going to be as usual, a mess

 

I like the blade mate color. The hilt sculpt could be better though... But not a deal breaker.

But the figure is not cheap by any means, and judging by their previous designs: TFC seacons, TFC terrorcons, the plastic will be strong and durable, the articulation will be top notch, the engineering will be amazing and the part count will be high.

The way a figure looks might be deceitful. Some Takara and FT fully painted figures may look "premium" at first glance, but when they start chipping the paint off they look even cheaper than "cheap looking" not painted figures. ZT Superitron does have a coat of shiny paint, but they are still the low budget combiner that it has always been. A nice paint job wouldn't fix a "real" cheap figure. Just my opinion.

 

Wait are these guys related to TFC or Toyworld? This thing has been giving me TFC Ares vibes from the get-go.

 

It was first teased as a toyworld product. Now it's a toy under the cang toys label. Apparently they're doing it. The designer however, seems to be the same designer from tfc. This I believe was noted during the Shanghai convention

 

Yep, I'm out on this for the individual bots. If the combiner turns out well I might go in for the set. But I definitively wont be getting the individual bots.