That's pretty cool,didn't know that but I hope this new MP Starscream comes out good or better then this prototype.

 

This actually looks good.

I'm a defender of both MP-44 and MP-47, with both designs being S Tier in nature, or at least in my opinion. Takara is just unable to handle their own designs. I was heavily disappointed by the scans of MP-53, with the side profile leaning a bit too heavily into the toon look. But I can now say, I like this figure. Don't get me wrong, this thing is leaning into the whole panels on the back look, but the overall look is excellent. That one aerial pose reminded me of Movie Blitzwing's first scene, with the somewhat jagged edges of the back adding a certain charm to it all.

I'm optimistic, but not naive.

 

Yeah, it's time for the proper bells and whistles unveiling now. 7 days out at most, I'd wager. Simply not good business from their end to have him and all their potential pre-sales be represented by a faceless prototype.

They'll be fine with that prototype in Fig. King for a few days, but no way will they leave those unfinished images as the go-to publicity placeholder for such a massive release for weeks.

 

It is OK to want things a certain way. But when this has been going on for the last 20 releases or so, and shows zero signs of ever slowing down it just makes those "wants" a simple thing of the past. Is gone. Never coming back.

And I personally couldn't be happier.

 

GOD TIER INTERNET BREAKING if the 3D modeling gurus come up with a transforming render before Takara.

 

It's the same reason that people whine about how a lack of molded surface detail is also somehow "lazy" or "cheap": They just don't like it! And are themselves, in fact, being lazy with their weak arguments. It almost sounds just like parroting of what they heard elsewhere, or what gets repeated way, way too often, instead of actually trying to learn why things are the way they are.

There's no denying that the designs were streamlined for repeated hand drawn animation! But people act like the designs, or animators just spend 2 minutes drawing these off the tops of their heads, on the back of a napkin or something. Lets just ignore the fact that: The designs are very reminiscent and right in line with Anime robots of the time, and it's clear thought, personality, and *gasp*, artistic skill actually went into their creations.

I think a number of fans also forget how many "details" from the G1 toys are actually stickers, and not sculpted details. There are exceptions, of course, (Inferno and Grapple's legs, Sunstreaker's lower legs) but most of the Autobot cars' limbs, and especially the Seekers actually had incredibly sparse, if any, sculpted detail at all.

The vast majority of all the extraneous sculpted details on the earlier MP's molds are purely made up, accurate to nothing details, purely for the sake of "added" details. Nothing else.

But no no, let's just continue with "Flat panels are cheap and lazy..durrrr" because everyone knows, it actually costs TT money to add each and every panel line to the mold.

As has been noted so far, the parts of the F-15 that are visible are incredibly accurate and realistic. I believe even moreso than the previous versions, and certainly more than Meteor. It's also worth mentioning, again, that TT STILL continues to create highly detailed, realistic vehicle modes. Sunstreaker is a more real world accurate Countach than the MP-13 mold, Hound was a fully detailed, accurate Jeep, MP-44, despite being an unlicensed, "made up" truck is arguably more realistic in overall details and proportions than previous Primes, etc.

And there's the kink! TT (and some 3P's) are giving us the best of both worlds, with creative, smart, and highly effective faux parts. I was also highly against these when they first started creeping in, but I can absolutely see the value now.

I just don't see it as cheating, because it's actually MORE work, the way TT is going. This isn't a case of a mainline deluxe Movie figure having a faux chest and a giant roof hanging off their back, because it's simply not cost effective at that scale.

 

Heh, there's still plenty of time for something to put me off but I don't look at this and think 'nooooope" like I have the last 3 or 4. I did think Hound looked ok but a combination of having no real connection to the character and very much feeling like a dodged the bullet when the QC issues came flooding in kept me away. There are a handful of things I don't like about this but nothing I feel is a deal breaker... it's gonna come down to deco and price for me.

I was WAY more 'psyched' for Lio Convoy at first and I ended up doing a u-turn when the price and what I see as a lack of finesse/artistry for that price became apparent.

 

Well looks like i will atleast be updating my mp11 starscream for this one. I like the way it looks and as someone that really only displays there figures on a shelf and not really transform them this is perfect for me.

 

This was FANTASTIC TO WAKE UP TO! And sucky to read. I’ll never get over the arrogance of people who see one photo and come into the thread spouting random proclamations as if they know everything and were the first to have an original thought.

With that out of the way, this is looking good! Wishing it had been more faithful to the original CAD drawing, but for a rough prototype I’m very pleased. Articulation up the wazoo and loving how expressive those hands are! Very much looking forward to transforming this guy. SHOULD BE VERY FUN TO TRANSFORM!

 

No no no, it comes with all five of the ruined military vehicles that he turned into the combaticons, two burnt legs from the knee down with a pile of ashes and a crushed crown with real rubies, and a hologram projector that lets you project his ghost on the upcoming MP Scourge figure.

 

The back isn\'t flawless but it is actually pretty clean given Takara standards.
Why\'s his bloody head so big though. 
See the real fun thing is predicting how overpriced this thing will be. My guess is between 300 and 400.

 

As someone who had to animate by hand for a class years back, it would’ve been hell to animate Starscream had the stabilizers not disappeared into the legs or elsewhere in the cartoon. The animators were already having trouble animating the Seekers from different angles in jet mode, it would’ve faired much worse with the stabilizers folded against the legs in robot mode. Oddly enough, I’m surprised people think Takara is basing the designs off the cels where the proportions were off when the MP designs are based off of the design sheets the animators used, not the actual cels. If Takara were using the inbetween cels/frames(and those were disproportionate/distorted even in the 1986 animated movie) MP Starscream’s F-15 mode would look like the New Age Seekers in F-15 mode, which I definitely wouldn’t want.

The added benefit of having the stabilizers mounted to the back on MP Screamer 2.0 is not compromising leg articulation nor breaking the sculpt.

I hope so. I don’t mind the MP-03/11 transformations. However, I do with they took less time and the trend recently is longer transformations. Not expecting this to take less time than MP-03/11 but I’d be thrilled if it did.

 

That figure really needs more lines. Dont go crazy with it like Siege did, but give it something. Why cant Takara understand the difference between looking like THE CARTOON and looking like A CARTOON ? Cartoon accuracy is supposed to be about shape, engineering, and transformation, not making a 3D piece of plastic look like it was drawn by hand in 2 minutes from every angle. 
 

 

The head it's probably big because they want to test how much space they can use.

 

Lazy animation comments are lazy.

Also, I'm not sure if everyone commenting is realizing this is an early stage prototype? The back of MP-36 Megatron's instructions give some insight into the development process, showing that this Starscream prototype can be thought of as step 2, with step 1 being the general schematic drawings, transform scheme, articulation points, and parts assemblage (likely Kobayashi's work). Step 3 is Yuki Ohshima's cartoon aesthetic guide drawings, step 4 is an updated/refined CAD model incorporating the aesthetic guide, step 5 is an updated grey prototype, and step 6 is the final painted figure.

Again, what we're seeing here with these Starscream pics are an early prototype, pre-Ohshima incorporated aesthetics. Looking at the back of Megatron's instructions shows us that the Starscream proto is akin to Megatron's proto on the top right, while the line drawings we got a few weeks back could fit between the Ohshima aesthetic guide and the CAD model.

 

Agreed. Assuming this one follows the trend of recent MPs, as far as transformation, I'd be delighted if they packaged this in robot mode so I can just remove it from the box and pose it for the display shelf.

Just not in the mood anymore to study 45-minute transformation videos on how not to stress/crack/break the toy, which may stress/crack/break anyway during transformation.

 

What kibble do you mean? The flaps at the back of the wings fold the same way as MP-11. The extra big flap is the underside of the wing. In alt mode that will just sink back into wing and the only sign will be a slight lump under the front edge of the wing for the hinge.

 

Sort of off topic, but I think lazy is whatever passed for voice acting work on that new Netflix Siege show. Almost no distinguishing between the male voice actors and barely any real emotion put into it. That’s lazy to me if we’re going to discuss animation. My experience as a kid was wishing my toys looked more like the cartoon. This was G1 btw.

I’m over the moon with excitement about this guy. Even though this is only a rough prototype we’re seeing, it’s definitely showing off the features a lot of us were curious about. Posability, ab crunch etc. it’s such a drag when people come into a thread to bitch and brag about how the 3rd party version is so much better, or they would never buy this because it sux or whatever. That ignore button is pretty rad.

 

I just wonder how we'd put it going from this to release in terms of time...