I find starscream quite good tbh, but overall i sorta hate the mpm series.

I hate mpm ratchet with a burning passion

Oh and ofc mpm7

 

It really just looks like an upscaled version of the studio series with better paint and a little more detail. I don't have either figures but that's what I see from pics and videos. And the only thing that counts as "weathering" is a bit of airbrushing.

 

RIGHT???

 

Well it looks like mine will either arrive tomorrow or Saturday.

 

Heh same, I nearly did it too but held off. Then when I saw the BMB KO version with better paint I thought "this must be the best version of Beetle Bee we'll get" and nearly bought that. But then this figure was teased and made me feel silly for ever considering MPM7  

The way that figure was rushed out I assume it was HasTak completely forgoing any redesigning in favour of timing it to release close to the movie. Easily their worst effort of any MPM or MP figure.

 

He arrived today (got delivered a few minutes ago).
First impressions:

He is definitely lighter than I was expecting but feels great in hand.

Joints are the right amount tight and the paint looks so much better in person.

The box foam and the presentation is one that I’ve greatly missed on 3p figures.

Long work week so I’ll mess with him more tomorrow but I’m loving it so far!

EDIT:
Minor nitpick, the shoulders not really locking anywhere is slightly SLIGHTLY annoying but easily manageable.
The battle mask head is easy to install. Just a slight rotation on the head screw, pop it on, screw it back, done.

 

What do you mean by not locking anywhere? Are you mistaking it for the butterfly joint?

 

Well no and yes I guess? I’m aware of the butterfly joint, but definitely correct me if I’m wrong. It’s mainly this one hinge that moves the entire shoulder out of the torso area. The circled in red is the butterfly from my understanding but the circled in blue is another rotating hinge that bends the arm so far forward that it breaks the sculpt and has no locking “click”. Again just a nitpick, I’m totally in love with this thing!

 

i really cant unsee the weathering as someone just smudging it with dirty fingers

 

Me too, I hope they release a clean version or a version with better weathering

 

I was thinking the same... Someone painted it with the fingers.

 

It’s literally hand painted  

 

I just really don't like how it looks like it has a pattern to it in, but I think it'll look better in person. In up close photos it's really apparent, but only up close. Although I REALLY wish they also did weathering on the waist pieces. If I'm correct they don't show in beetle mode. The bare plastic really stands out.

 

I guess someone can custom paint to show how good the mold is.

 

That's the impression I got.

 

Ooh. This guy was waiting for me when I got home today.

He's mostly awesome! A little fiddly during the first transformation, but everything lines up pretty well. His instructions aren't great, so grab a transformation video from Youtube for help. That said, the black magic is strong with this guy. Watching as the various bits of the beetle reveal themselves when you move the parts around is fantastic. Even having watched transformation videos a couple dozen times while the hype was building, I still found myself marveling at some of the finer points now that I can see them up close.

The weathering doesn't bother me nearly as much in hand as it does in pics. I still wish they'd done just a clean version, but I can live with it. It gives him a kind of muted coloration that is actually quite striking from intermediate distance, and is really only "dirty" up close. It's still weird that the vehicle mode is the cleaner of the two, but I'm not unhappy.

He holds together quite well once everything is lined up and tabbed in. Rolls quite easily (actually better than my MPM version, by a lot) once you get the wheels in their proper places. But he really does have a panel-y alt mode. It's never going to bother me, because he's so much fun to transform, but if that's something that has bothered you in pics, it's not going to get any better in hand.

My copy appears to have a small misassembly, which I don't imagine will be a common issue. The front bumper is made up of four bits, the two ends attached to each wheel well, and two middle bits. The middle bits actually have a left and a right piece, one with a tab and the other a slot. I got two tabbed pieces. Which is ALMOST completely harmless (even less so if I snip off the two tabs as they don't affect transformation at all). But a quarter of his front bumper will forever be upside down unless I can come across a replacement piece. If anybody out there gets two of the female pieces (with the slot), let me know and maybe we can do a swap.

I have to say, I'm pretty happy with this guy. He's not as intuitive as some of the UT engineered designs, but he's really a strong take on VW Bumblebee. The bot mode is exceptional, and even the weathering doesn't drag him down as a display piece in my mind. And he's honestly just fun to transform. Maybe not something I'm going to leave on my desk and fiddle with like Kingdom Cyclonus or SS86 Hot Rod, but satisfying and worth the time. I look forward to seeing what TC puts their energies to next.

Edit: And in case anybody is wondering, in alt mode he is almost exactly the same size as the MPM version. By eye, they appear to be exactly the same width, and the two cars will line up perfectly wheel to wheel. TC's is a tiny bit shorter, vertically, but it's a matter of millimeters.

 

Agility is not an expertise trademarked to MPM09  

 

mine has a unpainted part in his battle mask head, im not sure this is a mistake or not
anyone have this problem like me?

 

That looks so much like a wasp head it's not even funny. Wow!

 

Did you decapitate a wasp? LOL