Not in the instructions are these knee panels..

 

i do not think they are not knee panels,

 

Indeed. Those are to expose the peg you plug the gun into in vehicle mode and to cover up his thighs. Not knee panels

 

Yeah they're supposed to be closed in botmode, flipped open in alt mode.

 

Wow, that looks just like the CGI.

 

Step 7.

 

So LITERALLY in the instructions then  

Maybe the poster thought this thread was just for features hidden from them...

 

Has it been posted yet that Jetfire’s “SF-M2 Radiograph Boosters” can separate?

Adds a few new display options at least:

 

Not here but it was posted when Jetfire first released. In the Siege thread I think.

 

The other guns can split also the ones that go on his pack in robot mode

 

Ok, I've searched the thread and didn't see this posted, that being said, if this IS here somewhere, mods please feel free to delete this. Siege Bluestreak's shoulder cannons can combine into a single gun. While it's quite obvious, technically it's not in the instructions anywhere.

 

Dont think it counts as it was shown off in a render for the mold mate, barricade.

 

it still makes you think - do we have good examples of features which were available in previous versions of a mold, but only advertised later?
I can only think of RID Megatron, which in its non-Japanese release already has the tooling for modes 7-10

 

Im not sure of any recent examples. In the case of the siege datsuns, barricade render was shown before releases of any of the prowl repaints. So i dont think its a proper example of your description.

Actually ss jetfire has that storage for the prime piece but its not shown in the american instructions and was found in the later Japanese release instructions

 

Umm what?

 

What are you confused about? Maybe i can clarify

 

https://tf.takaratomy.co.jp/wpadmin/wp-content/themes/tf/img/products/tf_ss/item_tf_ss-26_manual.pdf

 

Hey look shockwave has pegs on his back just for laserbeak

EDIT: seems they are for the Paratrooper,

 

This might be at the very fringe of "hidden features" and more along the lines of shared engineering... but I can't help but think it was intentional given the nature of the release.

SS-49 Bumblebee (2007 Camaro) is an all new (and awesome) mold. Except for the head it turns out. The head is actually the same mold as as the 1977 Camaro Mold (SS-01) that's been released a dozen times, just with a piece of plastic glued over the face as a seperate piece to be the battle mask. In fact, I bet if you ripped off the mask part, the SS-01 mold face would be under it.

A consequence of this is that the neck peg of SS-49 is the same as SS-01 despite being a completely different part (the size requirement decided by the size of the slot on the head where it connects), which means that if you want a maskless Bumblebee in his 2007 body, you just have to do a simple head swap.



So what's the game here? Is this intentional? The use of the exacts same peg and head mold (with an additional piece for the mask) on an otherwise new mold (albeit with some similar engineering) with no other new parts makes me think yes. In the past when Hasbro always had entirely different sized parts for new molds of the same character, even if the final product is about the same size.

In this cause though I think Hasbro wanted to give the option of swapping heads between the SS-01 release and SS-49 release since they represent the two same "base" releases from the same film of figures that are supposed to be the same character at the same scale.

Lately hasbro has been very wink-wink-nudge-nudge about spreading accessories for figures across multiple releases to keep the base figure in one SKU while giving hardcore fans the ability to "complete" their character by buying the other releases too. (examples: every Studio Series Prime having different weapons to essentially complete the set that fits inside the trailer of the TF3 prime, Crosshairs and Spinsters Targetmasters being released separately in multipacks, the Lockdown remold having accessories for Lockdown, the TF2 chest for Prime with SS Jetfire). So yes, I do think it is intentional.

It is also likely they intend to eventually release a version of the mold without the plastic covering the face mask. But there is no reason to use the exact same peg size and head mold in two different figures that don't share any other parts, other than to allow for swapping.

It may also be a simple matter of the fact that they had had the SS-01 head mold already and recycled it. Thing is, it's such a small piece, there is no way that other pieces weren't on the same mold. And SS-49 is an all new mold.

One more thing... and this is certainly very coincidental and not a hidden feature, but the shoulder peg of SS-49 is the same size as SS-01, which means you could put SS-01's entire arm (actually both arms) from the shoulder down on SS-49 if you wanted a better gun arm than the black one. Because SS-01 and SS-49 have very similar engineering and the arms are non-integral to it, transformation wouldn't be changed at all. The SS-49 arms are better looking otherwise though. Not seeing another way to get the better looking gun arm on SS-01 on SS-49 though. Interestingly though... the stowage peg for them both is also the same size. So maybe there is some non-obvious parts swapping way besides this?

 

It's a very cool feature, I like to do this:



It's also in the instructions for Blowpipe.