I don't think he was saying he's unpopular, he said he's "unpopular", meaning mostly less popular than other characters.

Obvious it's very difficult to say how popular they are in Japan, but based on the first handful of MPs that came out, it sure feels like Japan seems to be roughly in line with the West in terms of character popularity.

 

"Unpopular" (in quotes) only in the sense that he's less popular than Rhinox, Rattrap or Waspinator, who would ordinarily seem odds-on favorites to get MP figures before him.

 

gotcha

 

I think shared parts or not (and I gotta say this carefully because I had to say it 20 times in 20 diffrent ways the Tigatron thread before I was understood) MP Tigatron exists at least partly because MP Cheetor already does. The design work done on Cheetor had to inform the design work on Tigatron. You don't design an MP Tigatron from scratch when you have an MP version of his traditional mould-mate with an almost identical robot mode and a similar enough alt-mode fully developed and sitting there on your hard drive. He wasn't "conveniently already half-designed" but he almost definitely had a bit of a head start.

That they've put so much work into making Tigatron his own thing however is very encouraging indeed... and he's big and pricey, it's a risk for sure so maybe TT are testing market's appetite for the less popular characters after a slew of 'safe' option? and what better way to do it that with one that has less of an outlay due to the work already done on Cheetor?

 

I'm going to say right now that as much as I've been convinced that Cheetor's digital files likely helped get the work started on Tigatron, I think we are going to see a drastically different Tarantulus from Blackarachnia. Their robot modes are completely different shapes, even if things end up in roughly the same places, compared to Cheetor and Tigatron which are far more similar.

If Tigatron can get a new transformation, there's no reason to expect Tarrantulus will be even remotely like Blackarachnia. Tarrantulus will be a completely brand new mould, and maybe the spider-mode will get a little bit of help from Blackarachnias digitally, but probaby less than Tigatron.

 

it'll be a retool because they'll obviously just use the hands/claws and spider legs from blackarachnia and completely reshape them. probably the spider eyes too (this is sarcasm btw, i legitimately dont know how to do blue text  )

 

Indeed. I now don’t expect Tarantulas to transform even remotely like Blackarachnia which is probably going to be for the best in most people’s view considering how criticised her beast mode is.
In a way TT have set themselves up here to have to pull off yet another miracle and do more work than we otherwise would have settled for.
Tigatron has shown that they are willing to go well above and beyond to produce brilliance that no one was expecting but now we will be expecting Tarantulas to be done differently to BA and have a superior beast mode because of it.

 

Oh, Tarrantulus will definitely be better overall. His bulkier robot mode will allow to properly deal with his beast bits, his transformation was far less magic. I'm still pleased with what we got with Blackarachnia, but only because her show model is literally impossible. My expectations are much higher with Tarrantulus, and Takara really set up expectations for that now.

 

I don't disagree, but I still think there's enough similarity to reuse the some stuff. They mostly have the same scuplting on their arms and legs and the claws and gun will likely be roughly the same. I really do hope Tarantulas has a different/improved transformation to Blackarachnia because I really wasn't a fan of what they did with hers.

 

In a similar vein, I could see them space out the release of figures such as Terrorsaur and Inferno. Both big, both red. The colours of the figures released thus far have been quite different, so Tarantulas would be in a similar boat, not wanting to clash with Megatron.

 

Yet, going off of mass, he’s twice Primal’s size. (Assuming they’re not also inflating his price with another God damned stand) And far, far more complex, so when you put it like that it’s not quite as outrageous.

I don’t see. How he couldn’t. His boobs, for example, can’t just slide right through his backpack.   In fact if TT were smart they’d take advantage of the fact that, unlike BA, Tarantulas’s pecs are the same colour and texture as his thorax, so they could easily be used to fill it it out and cover the robot parts BA didn’t have the mass to hide.

In fact I bet that was a contributing factor in doing BA first. She has so much robot mode to hid in so little spider mode, if they could get her working then Tarantulas is going to be a breeze in comparison. Also FWIW, I actually really enjoy Blackarachnia’s transformation because of how solidly everything pegs together, with the sole exception of the anchor missile pegging underneath. The tabs and tab holes are just too shallow for a sturdy connection, and I wish something more sturdy had be used, such as a clip or something less reliant on minute plastic tolerances.

Just as an aside, I freaking love these toys. I have all five in beats mode right now and they looks so, so good, even Blackarachnia. Having even just the ones I have is like a dream come true, and I feel genuinely gutted that anyone felt priced out of these things. The prices are gradually getting harder and harder to bear, and I honestly consider myself lucky the stars have aligned and I’ve managed to afford each one of them so far. I don’t begrudge anyone who bailed on this line, because these five have easily cost me almost a grand. A grand. One thousand dollars. It was a milestone I knew I’d hit with BW MPs pretty fast, but it’s still almost astonishing that it’s only taken four years instead of, like, six or seven.

 

I really want to see if they can pull of a Masterpiece Scorponok! He practically morphs during transformation on the show lol.

On that note, has Scorponok ever gotten an update? All I’ve ever had was the old original one from when it first came out.

 

There’s the original, McDonald’s transmetal, theft of the golden disk animated short used a repainted cybertron short round as pre earth scorponok, funpub used t30 scamper for pre earth scorponok and paralon from rid15 has the bw scorponok head

 

Blackarachnia had nothing to work with, but Tarantulas does. I imagine they’ll just use the 3D model they have for BA’s beast mode as a starting point, and totally tweak it from there... the compromises they needed to make for her should no longer be a problem for him. I would be shocked to see exposed robot arms under the body and robot legs sticking out of the abdomen, ESPECIALLY since he has smaller legs and a fatter ass than her (it also helps that his knees are purple)!

 

i can't seem how scorponoc and terrorsaur won't get made. They were season 1 characters which was popular in japan, plus they both have at least 2 additional repaints each; terrorsaur has way more. its a cash cow that hastak loves to milk.

 

You think? Really? Im not really seeing it. Looking at both the photos from Wonder Fest and the unofficial scale chart which he appears to match quite well he looks less than a head taller and slightly slimmer... how is that twice the size/mass of Primal?

I hope you are right!

I have to wonder if there something wrong with my copy because I hate how non-solidly everything plugs together. Maybe it's due to that broken tab I have, although I have 'blu-tacked' it to see if it improved stability and that aside I fine it a loose mess, the ball joints on the legs, thefact those sections they legs connect to don't connect to the body, the way the head/body 'connects' to the abdomen...it's all frustratingly loose. If they weren't so expensive I'd by a second one to se if I got a dud, thankfully she holds together very well in robot mode but after two transformations i doubt I'll do it ever gain unless its for a group shot of beast modes or something.

I'm glad we agree ob the anchor, that is mindbogglingly badly thought out.

I love them too. Having been a G1 MP collector since the line started I've been hoping for them to have a crack at Beast Wars for years, Im so happy they finally did, for the longest time I was sure it would never happen. It's just a shame it has coincided with the price hikes,. Primal and Cheetor were well priced, they felt worth what I paid for them, I even bought a second of both when they were reissued because they were affordable... I can't say the same for anything past that.

Were they popular characters in Japan? Or are you just saying the show was? The show was 'popular' in Japan but how popular... popular enough that 25 years later people want/will buy expensive high end figures of the entire cast? I'd like to say yes but I'm not sure i can prove it.

 

So due to the laws of scaling, he only needs to be about 25% larger by height to be twice as much mass. I don't think he's quite there, but he's probably close to that.

 

You think he's close to 25% bigger? I didn't think he was but looking images that comparing both with Dinobot and Cheetor ...hummm.. MAYBE you are right?


As I stated before (see below) I was pleasently surprised by his price and even more so by Arcee's, I might now be rolling that back to include Tigatron.

 

Even a 20% increase in size (1/5th increase) would give us a bit more than 1.7 times more mass, which is getting close to 2. I suspect Tigatron isn't quite twice as massive as Primal, but he's probably in that sort of range.

 

Agreed... He's still IMO overpriced and he's a tad more expensive than he should be but it's not the normal outrageously blatant daylight robbery we've seen form TT in recent times. I'm hoping this is a sign that the tide is changing.