Hmmm, I can't say I miss the Hasui era designs much. They were okay but never wowed me the way the later ones did (though I still prefer Bumblebee 1.0 to the terrible-from-all-but-one-angle 2.0). Yes, I do find the transformations of the current era stressful but if the QC was actually apparent and the materials used more robust, if they stopped being so completely metal-phobic when it's clear some areas would really benefit from that strength, I'd feel a lot more comfortable.

 

He's not alone. I look at my MP shelf and if I think about which ones I take down and fiddle with and they are MP-10, Prowl, Sideswipe, Ironhide and Wheeljack. They are fun, intuitive and don't take 20 minutes to transform and I have no worries about breaking them. I never bother to try and transform Sunstreaker and certainly won't touch Hound again.

 

I’ve transformed Hound about a dozen times without stress marks or breaks.

 

  

Fixed that for myself as well!

 

 

I feel bad for you but honestly i have a hard time believing that you are not at least a bit sad or angry. I imagine that you are someone who probably likes to handle your toys and not you are handcuffed from doing that again with the figure. And that’s not even to say that just by leaving him stationery won’t have the plastic crack from the strain already rendered.

 

And thats the point. I managed to get the most fun out of the figure before the problem happened, now he can be in bot mode as i simply posing him. Whats done is done. If he breaks more , so be it, i will play with him until he crumble then wait if tak ever reissue a better material version.

 

@Shunwei I’ve been reading your posts and I don’t understand what you want from the people here. We acknowledge there is a problem. Obviously we aren’t happy about it, but we are making the best of the situation. Do you want people to be mad? Are you asking us to renounce Takara and regret buying this toy? It’s like you want people to be upset or something. I don’t get your angle...

 

Just returned my Hound to AJP.

Shipping cost is just insane. It's basically the price of the item.

Basically AJP is losing 2 sales with each item returned.

Jeff Bezos will be pissing on his Japanese managers in no time.

 

Anyone know of a good color match for Hound'sface paint? Managed to scruff up the paint on his nose a bit  

 

@Shunwei wants a scandal.  

 

Another report of "So far, so good."

I preordered mine from Ages Three and Up. Got the delivery notice Monday, picked it up Tuesday, transformed it tonight. (It's like -30 here right now so I wanted to make sure he had plenty of time to warm up even after a quick jaunt in the car.)
Box code: J1719
Figure code: I2619

I gave him a good once-over through the plastic before even breaking the tape, then checked as many of the reported problem areas as I could before attempting it. Then I followed Emgo's video in excruciating detail (I really appreciate the detail he goes into, along with close-ups of the tiny tabs and stuff.) I needed a spudger to get the seats untabbed at the beginning, and I removed the spare tire, gun and gas can before transforming because I'm one of those people who keeps the boxes. The scariest thing was actually getting the tires to collapse; that took a bit more force than I'd expected, and there wasn't a lot of places to get leverage (or where I felt comfortable squeezing) to make those hinges swivel.

There's a tiny scuff on his right shin (on the front? I think I've seen others have the same scuff) and a few irregular paint blobs here and there, but otherwise he looks great.

On the weekend if I get time I'll try putting him back into vehicle mode, but - yeah, he's probably going to spend most of his time on the shelf in robot mode.

 

While I have been fortunate so far that I did not get a lemon with this release, I feel like I am on borrowed time. I just don't feel like this is the way for Takara to go if what is being said is true about this being done to fight leakers. Don't sacrifice quality for something that IMHO is not that big of a deal. If a handful of people get their hands on a figure a few weeks early, I honestly couldn't care less, hell it's actually like a teaser and gets me more pumped for a figure. Having a figure break, and watching fellow fans go through the stress of having to send something back, using all types of glue/lubricants just to transform a figure is the exact opposite of fun for me. If Takara is going to go for more ambitious engineering projects I humbly suggest they fix this problem before moving forward. Again it's just my opinion and I'm not sure about all the inner workings of a corporate structure, but leakers be damned.

 

And unfortunately it's not really on us to take the battle to Takara so to speak. If your retailers are receptive to feedback, by all means, it's good to relay any issues you had with MP Hound.

We still aren't the direct target market, it's our fellow fans in Japan. And they've turned up the heat. I wouldn't doubt it if Kobayashi or whomever designed Hound, is raging at Takara corporate for letting this shit happen because obviously it was never supposed to.

In the meantime there are guys who have Hound now and would rather fix issues than go through the hassle of a refund or exchange. Or, they want to know what to look out for and how to fix the issues in case something breaks in the future(like me who had an issue with my MP-01 that didn't develop until 15 years after buying it).

Yes Takara screwed up and this has tested the patience of even the people that always defend them.

I'm all for delaying whatever MP comes next until Takara gets their shit together. You guys that got yours through Pulse, let us know if yours breaks and if Hasbro customer service does anything. With brand unity they are now unified in the bitching they hear from us.

There's no excuse for the next run of Hound to be screwed up. Hound was already an inadvertent test of faith for the fandom.

 

Sent mine back to AJP today also via USPS. The cost was $39.50 registered and insured. The USPS clerk told me it should get there within 10 business days.

 

Not to mention(and this is what also makes what happened even more ludicrous, if everything happened exactly as stated), leaks have been happening for the better part of the last 20 years and they're JUST NOW doing something?

Then makes it so all the guys that got legit, unleaked copies might be potentially screwed if not now, then later? Just to make sure TonTon and __insert whomever else is on YouTube here__ can't get a leaked copy?

They're charging more for MP's. No one likes that. I've heard the reasons and even rationally understand some of them. If they really want to prevent factory leaks, move production back to Japan where they can keep a closer eye on it. If qc issues arise during production, it won't be a matter of flying a copy back to Japan from China or Vietnam to test out, it can be done in-house. We are already paying more, might as well make the higher costs WORTH IT.

Since shit plastic on expensive MP's is anything butt

 

Got my MP47 in the mail from AE yesterday. Had a snow day today so I took the time to go through the figure and did eventually transform him (for the very first time, I used a video review to ensure I was moving parts the right way).
Overall, it was a success with only one small crack in the typical neck/rocket launcher assembly hinge. I did loosen that screw quite a bit without it being too loose and the crack did not appear to grow between the 2modes. Unfortunately, I’m still concerned due to other people’s experiences so he will most likely live in bot mode from now on.
It’s rare that I consider this (and even more rare that a TF will stay in bot mode) but if a high quality KO is made, I may consider buying one for alt mode display, if the price is right.
Barring all of that, I’m overall quite happy with the figure and find the actual design to be outstanding (manufacturing/quality of materials being the only drawback of MP47).

 

That does seem like it would be a better solution. I wonder how much the additional shipping of parts and using separate factories accounts for the price increase.

 

It's a good question that we are likely never going to get an answer too. Unfortunately I suspect pricing would be substantially higher than what we are paying now.

Japanese products had a big reputation for quality and Japanese companies themselves have admitted that in some industries, they can't compete with the Chinese due to sheer manufacturing volume and how much cheaper products are from China.

However, MP's haven't gotten more affordable, they've progressively become expensive. If production goes back to Japan and the quality becomes the highest it's ever been, I'm willing to pay more.

 

Thats what has me puzzled. It doesn't seem cost effective at all to keep things in transit that much. Not to mention not doing quality checks, knowing this will potentially hurt your customer base. I'm sorry but it dosen't sit right with me. Don't get me wrong, visually Hound looks stunning, but the problems associated with this release are pretty bad. I don't want to get too far off topic, but with the advent of combiners like Raiden and the fact that his price tag is gonna be up there (minimum $600.00, and I am being very conservative). This is not the way to start off the next phase of things.

I would have to assume it has to be a factor.

 

Thankfully no issues here that I can see on my Hound. I really love this figure. Wasnt sure Takara could top Fans Toys. But once again they did.