To the other side of that, immediate dismissal of a good figure as being "quality" because it lacks any or all of those listed features is also a very narrow frame of mind. Remember when it was discovered MP 12 didn't have rubber tires and people moaned as if it was the definitive end of Masterpiece because it had done away with one of the key Masterpiece features?

 

Diecast is mostly for the good feels but I absolutely love diecast ratchet joints. They feel and sound incredible. Can't really vouch for durability but I've had a few plastic ratchet joints give out on my stuff over the years while diecast ratchets have always held. Metal on metal friction joints or diecast pieces being with friction are just begging to give out in the near future though.

Really don't understand the appeal of rubber outside of nostalgia. Always paranoid that it'll degrade over time or tear if I miss with it too much. Hasn't happened yet but it never gives me a good feeling.

I didn't care much for paint in the past but it really makes or breaks a toy for me now. Just can't stand the bare plastic look. Unpainted stuff ends up looking incredibly cheap even if the actual construction (hardware, plastic quality, engineering) isn't. I really don't care if a toy has the greatest transformation of all time if it the alt mode looks like a tonka product and the robot mode looks like a hasbro product. I get that there are concerns with chipping but its a risk I'm willing to take if it means the final product doesn't look so toy like. A toy that manages to be engineered such that the transformation can be done with minimal painted surfaces rubbing against each other is my standard for what a well designed transformation is.

 

Dude most, if not all of these companies are only doing this 3rd party thing as a side gig. Usually, its just a group of people that have a passion for the fiction. Yes you payed for the product but there's no guarantee that it comes assembled correctly. These companies aren't massive behemoths like Takara that have their own factories and have much more regulated (and expensive) quality control. Heck, at least be grateful that so many 3p companies are lenient with sending replacement parts. Takara wouldn't give a rats ass about your broken toy.

I doubt replacement parts cost that much. Chances are that retailers just take a part off of an unsold copy or the company has bits and pieces lying around from copies that failed the qc check. Otherwise, making a few extra pieces isn't that significant compared to the profit they already made selling them to retailers.

And no, they're not going to go back to the factory and yell at the workers because they misassembled your toy because again, its not their factory. At most the 3p company would be looking for a different factory. And the factory wouldn't care either because again, this is just a side gig. These factories aren't sustained purely by 3rd party transformer toys.

 

Always funny, seeing someone posting in to the abyss, then turning on ignored posts. I was like 85% sure who it was  

 

I don't even think paint is subjective in some cases. I know a lot of people love metallic paint and want it on every figure, but for some characters it's just inappropriate. The characters 'bot mode colours and finish are designed around their alt. mode appearance and reflect how those alt. modes would blend in. Those that transform into military or construction vehicles, for example, should have matte paint, and/or bare bones plastic, which (to be fair) most examples we've seen to date have done. The only exception is FT, with their Aerialbot limbs, and Warpath... which I found particularly odd, as Brawn/Hunk and Astrotrain/Thomas were both given a matte finish, and looked just as good, if not better for it. Quality is attention to detail, and if details are being ignored or willfully overlooked in the pursuit of quality "markers", then that's just guilding the lily, which is just as unappealing.

With robotic beast modes it is more subjective... particularly as you can imagine scales or fur as both matte or shiny. I prefer matte, but was able to get onboard with with Cang-Toys metallic finish. I would love to see a set of Seacons with an incredibly metallic/reflective finish, though... like the re-issue the TFM Stunticons have.

 

Skalor with iridescent scales would be amazing...

 

That would be neat, but it would stick out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of them.

 

Just opened my Mammon...

First impressions weren't great. I have him in bot mode. Lower legs are fiddly and poorly designed. Sinnertwin's robot legs are engineering masterpieces compared to this.

I opened up MP Cheetor before this figure, and the re-issue of that is rock solid and everything felt amazing and tolerances were great.

I still have TFC's Nuclear Blast Optimus to open up. I saved that for last since I've heard so many amazing things about it.

Mammon is ok, but it just sucks that they still have the lower leg problems. Even with Poseidon bots, the bot legs always transformed poorly.

Really hoping the fish is better.

 

How can sushi be bad???  

Well they can actually be really bad.

 

By the way, the beast legs inside the bot legs are mistransformed out of the box. There's a way to lock those, but once you go to alt mode, you'll realize that there's no way to "lock" the hips in position.

 

I was in a zoom meeting  . I'll have to take another look.

 

Ok... I was harsh on this thing.

Its a solid release. Thanks @divinecomedy for letting me know about the legs. I flipped it to beast and back to bot and now its super solid.

A piece fell off during transformation and I have no idea where it came from, nor can I see anything incomplete.

Totally off topic, but my tinnitus has gotten worse, and i had a VERY short temper on Friday.im glad that i gave this figure another shot.

 

That’s weird -I don’t remember seeing that piece. I did have one of the leg pieces fall off while I was transforming mine. There seem to be a lot of small pieces held on by friction.

 

Still don't think this is a good release. So now we can add falling pieces to the list of issues?

I still don't like how wobbly the hips are in beast mode.

 

Yeah, there's a purple piece on the troll leg that fell off in the box. Little odd, but overall the figure is solid now.

 

I hope you do think FT Thomas is a bad release too, since Thomas also has pieces falling off him...

 

Immediate dismissal or praise based on a list of attributes minus the context of integration is a lot like premature ejaculation. It's messy and in the end no one's satisfied.

I don't know which one is MP12 or if he even has wheels to put rubber tires on. However, it wouldn't surprise me if folks made those claims in such an overly dramatic way.

 

Yeah, little thigh piece on mine. Easy to fix though. I've finally transformed mine and I am pleased, overall. He's a big chunky mutant thing in alt mode, as he should be. He and Sinnertwin look good side-by-side. Bring on Rippersnapper!

 

TFC's designers make use of a lot little pieces held on by friction, My Winged Dragon came with a panel that was loose inside the packaging, fourtunately I was able to found where it came from and pegged it back in.

 

It looks like a little filler piece from the neck underneath the beast head, it came off on me too but just slots back in.