Waiting for Raiden!

 

Yep, same here, until Galvatron, Rodimus, the Seekers and Jazz get here I'm officially done as well. When you actually realize that Magnus, MP-22, was just £8 pounds more than what you got this guy for and a far more impressive figure in almost every way it really puts things into perspective.

 

Nah Raiden would have arrived on time!  

 

Magnus was my most anticipated release before he came out. However he has a lot of flaws. The butt flap, the shin gap, the limited articulation, his elbows broke on mine and a few other people's, and if we're being nitpicky, he was very hollow and light. I would argue Hound has far better paint and articulation any day.

 

I love MP-22 but I’d still kill for a new UM. Light, though? At over 3lbs I believe he’s the heaviest figure in the line.

 

My bad, to be specific, I meant the cab. It's essentially just a hollow shell that felt off to me considering it was so close to MP-10.

 

My Hound should arrive on Tuesday! My shock oil should be here by then too. I'll be looking at him on Wednesday hopefully, temperature-acclimated and lubed up. Assuming he's not cracked out of the box of course!

 

I'll take a prominent character in the series any day of the week who is slightly less articulated and can transform into a trailer and a cab going for a £120 with a buttflap which can be folded out of sight over some B/C list character less than half his size with not an equally impressive transformation going for £113 who comes broken out the box or damaged after a couple of transformations.

 

Oh god please not the buttflap wars again. I thought they ended the same time as the Cuba embargo

 

Actually I do ponder as to whether there’s a direct correlation between buttflapgate and the problems that we’re seeing with Hound. I personally have no problem with pieces of kibble like that (the Ironhide hip skirts also spring to mind) but some people really hate them - a feeling they ruin the aesthetic and especially the silhouette. While it doesn’t bother me, it’s a POV I can respect and have sympathy with.

Anyway I wonder if the vocal negative reaction to such things - I mean even MP27’s Wiki entry moans about the hip skirts - is part of what’s driven the move towards having every part fold away somewhere. Sunstreaker, Prime 3 and Bumblebee 2 all had big old rucksacks for precisely this purpose - but there’s nothing on any of them that looks like it shouldn’t be there. And by the looks of it, it’s the same for Hound, perhaps even more so - several people on this board saying it’s the most accurate-looking MP yet. But to engineer that level of clean lines on the robot mode, it takes more R and D, more panels and more parts - and more complex transformations. And maybe - just maybe - this has bitten them with Hound.

 

The problems with Hound come down to defective materials. The design and engineering is excellent and if it weren’t for shoddy plastic It’s my belief that there wouldn’t be any problems with this mold and Hound would be hailed as the best MP yet.

 

Whatever is going on, I don’t think anyone can fault TT for pushing the envelope and innovating. If they can take what they learned from the mistakes of 44 -47 and can produce something amazing later down the road, take my money. As we say in r&d break it fast and break it often.
Staying safe leads to nothing but outdated toys.

 

True, but like you say - in R&D! Let's break it fast and often during prototyping and test shots next time, please - not main production!  

 

All the more reason to believe it’s defective materials. If these breakages were a design/engineering issue it would have been resolved during those phases.

It would be in TakaraTomy’s best interest if they would publicly acknowledge this issue and offer replacements like Lego did when they had a materials issue. To have this plastic issue happen with MP-44 is unfortunate as it really is an outstanding figure.

 

A week or so in, the rest of the joints on mine have lossened up enough to not be scary, so I'm leaning towards going through the Amazon JP return process to get one where both seats stay intact. As time goes on, I'm less worried about things being a time bomb, and think that if I can get everything past the first day or two, it'll be good for the long haul.

 

Have you not heard though? It's LITERALLY a ticking TIME BOMB that even when left undisturbed will DEFINITELY eventually just EXPLODE on the shelf KILLING you, your loved ones and your pets.

 

So......... Should I wait or bite the bullet and hope?

 

Woah wait, what!! MP Constructicons confirmed!!!  

 

Flip a coin! Really. He really is a neat design...just hampered by what appear to be manufacturing defects. If you can wait, I think I’d recommend getting a reissue version. If you get one now, though, you really need to be prepared to deal with some warts. You might get lucky, though.