This is all going on the assumption that hybrid means what people is saying it means. In the original post, it mentions a simpler transformation. That could be part of the hybrid meaning. The current aesthetic direction with a return to a simplified transformation with less of the problems people had with OP, Hound and Bumblebee. That's what I'm taking away from the hybrid portion of the message. Everyone just jumped on that one possibility and decided thats what "hybrid" meant. I can see that the line art deviates from the animation art pretty obviously, and that could be a minor part of it, but there's been no real, clear message of what they meant by that. I see jumping to conclusions as a set up for disappointment a lot on this site. Let's wait to see what the next round of info brings before decidedly trying to figure out all of the facts.

 

Gotta disagree with you on this. If there’s any MP - or set of MP’s in this case - that was just too toon it has to be those two; even with those swappable parts. A true hybrid MP Inferno is still a dream of mine.

 

I can understand your thoughts on this and think that many would agree with you, thus it would be divisive in the fandom.

I think that the Fuso brothers are a little different as they are still pretty similar to each other in comparison to the Hilux brothers as depicted in the toon (toy is not a problem obviously). Trailbreaker really was quite different in the toon to the toy source whereas Hoist and the Fusos, being series 2 characters, they kept the toon design closer to the toys.

I believe that Trailbreaker and Hoist would have to be two different figures or you would be compromising either figure too much for the level of Masterpiece figures. Others may disagree.

I don't think that either Trailbreaker or Hoist would sell in big enough numbers to justify individual moulds, especially at the toon only price point. I also don't think that there's a successful enough repaint of a full toon Trailbreaker. Although, toy style Hoist has no lack of repaints I also think that those same repaints can apply to a toon Hoist, unlike Trailbreaker.

So, that's my speculation, time will tell if I am way off.

 

Certainly possible but those Skids pics certainly indicate a hybrid style (that could change before release of course). That's what sent everyone down this track. Will that style apply to any other future figures? We can only speculate.

 

Being they planned on quickly revealing a toon accurate Thundercracker right after Skids, think its more of a nothing burger and will apply when needed. They literally just toonified 4 of their biggest characters in the last 2-3 years(Megatron,Prime,Bee,and Starscream), they aren't just going to up and change plans after that.

 

I wouldn't read anything into Thundercracker myself, it's a straight repaint of Starscream, it would be planned way back I would imagine and with the way Takara viewed seekers previously, I expect that a straight toon repaint of the seekers was always the most viable option.

To me, it certainly is possible that they do view these MP as standalone figures rather than a gotta catch em all line up as envisaged by Hasui all those years ago. So, they have may have no issues mixing styles between releases. With that in mind, it shouldn't be a surprise that they would release Megatron, Prime, Bee, Starscream as 100% toon figures. The other more minor characters (especially the vehicles) may come down to the team working on them as to which way they go or indeed licencing and engineering considerations.

Just my thoughts. Time will tell.

 

Don’t forget ... Scale.
 

 

I was...summoned...

 

I still hope there will be an MP announcement relating to the movies 35th anniversary this year. Albeit that's for western audiences, so maybe they'd only celebrate the anniversary of the Japanese release.

What I'm saying is Rodimus v2 needs to happen immediately and would fit the bill of being divisive to the fanbase seeing as lots of people hate him.

 

I get that people are torn on this. And while I’ve been sort of pegged as a toon ‘only’ guy I gotta say I’m absolutely STOKED to own Skids. Toy or toon or whatever. The way the doors perk up. The way he’s streamlined and stands up straight, and he’s very slim. I love it, and I can barely wait for more pics.

 

Oh, I have to disagree. 90% of what make Hoist and TB unique is the height difference that could be addressed with a hinge modification during transformation and a modified mold on Hoist’s hood/front end. The rest is just set dressing and a face.

 

Can't say I agree, not saying it's impossible but they are quite different, much more than Grapple and Inferno! We will have to see what Takara does I guess.

 

Nah, there's only one scale: Sunbow, as applied to robot mode.















Fight me
 

 

I think most people here would be happy with a Rodimus announcement, both the MP line and the upcoming Generation one. Still think it would have to be something like a color change, no matter how good he'll probably look ,a Takara color Galvatron will cause debate. On the other hand them doing a Dinobot not called Grimlock or Insecticons would cause issue, simply because so many people have paid outrageous prices for them, just to have a set. If people are upset about replacing seekers, thats chump change to a FT dinobot set. We would likely get, what seems to happens a lot now, the "its trash, now watch me jump on the first KO" which seems to happen a lot more now.

 

Just got my Kingdom Cyclonus in the mail and he is amazing. Truly a mini-MP. I'm really hoping they eventually use that design for an MP version. QC is really good on it as well. Tight joints etc. Very very nice figure for the price.

Anyway I'm really hoping that the SS86/Kingdom '86 movie figures are all previews for MP versions. Especially Kup, Cyclonus and Grimlock.

 

Some people just like to watch the world burn lol. It’s the one word in our fandom guaranteed to start wars.

In all seriousness, I REALLY hope that isn’t the divisive opinion. That could be worse then MP Jazz being announced with ONLY a single option of having door wings/no wings, and not the option for both.

 

That is true, but I was thinking about the hollowness and that things we usually see in CHUG figures

 

I really like how his hood is tilted down, looks great. I really doubt I'll buy him and I'm interested enough to see how he turns out anyway, so long as he isn't indicative of a change in direction.

 

If MP Jazz doesn't have doorwings, tables will tremble in fear  

 

You keep using 3P as a reference for things and I don’t know why. If people are upset that TT is doing something a third party has already done and they paid a lot for it (insecticons for example) TT doesn’t care about that. They could care less how much people paid for FT figures or whether or not releasing a dinobot someone else has done is going to upset someone. And why should they? I just think it’s a really bad comparison and it doesn’t make any sense. If you are upset about that, that’s up to you, but just because you already have something doesn’t mean all of us do and I don’t really care how much people paid for 3P insecticons. I care about what I’d pay for a possible TT set.