I'm not really sure I understand why people are saying he looks like he has less articulation than other recent MP figures. Granted, maybe I just don't know what to look for, but as far as I can tell it looks to have about the same range of motion as the MP-49 sitting on my desk. Butterfly shoulders are the only things that really seem to be missing as far as I can tell but I doubt those would really add very much here with that huge Honda City-shaped rack in the way.

 

Less than recent , but still above-average I do think the hands are a step back from recent MPs, which I guess qualifies as articulation, I would probably put him at Inerno level. Factor in the lack of real posing in photos, it's kind of hard to gauge if the articulation he has is even useful. With them bringing the Kiss guy on board they been able to maximize and create a more natural looking articulation with recent bot, they're a lot easy to pose doing "human-like"motions and looking fluid doing it.

 

Yeah, I'm with you. Skids may have less articulation in terms of literal numbers, but I don't think he'll be *lacking* for poseability. At worst, he's Datsun level, which is pretty good in my book. Either way, I'm not really interested in paying 20-40% more just to add in a few degrees more of motion. To each their own, of course, but Skids is a nice sweet spot of cost to toy in my book.

 

That's sold by Toytopia. Not Amazon Japan. We've had 3 or 4 different amazon links all linking to the wrong store.   Having my hopes dashed upon the rocks so many times is becoming numbing.      

 

He doesn’t have an ab crunch, no wrist flex (which granted MP-44/49 don’t have because of the hand-swap feature to use their axes), virtually no forward/backwards ankle flex from what we can see, no additional neck joint to allow him to look further down. The original prototype also didn’t have deep elbow bends but they re-engineered the biceps to allow for them.

The deep elbow and knee bends are good, and the individually articulated index finger is nice, but the lack or wrist flex is a step back compared to Sunstreaker, Arcee and Hound. It was nice seeing them push the envelope with each car bot and here they’re taken a step back. For example, no attempt at lateral ab crunch on a carbot (yet!)

 

Kind of hoping they change the face to a pearlescent, the silver really bothers me. Normally I'm a fine of chrome but wish they went pearlescent on that too.

 

Interestingly I've noticed that searching "mp-53" no longer brings up the listing. I've had to go through my history to find the page.

This started yesterday, and continues today (though could all be Monday in Japan, I'm in the UK). That might signal something, or not.

Either way, the only listing on AJP is not available internationally at this point.

 

That just happens when no one offers shipping to your address. Starscream (which I have 2 paid for) doesn’t show up for me either even though amazon is still selling it. They just aren’t offering shipping to me at the moment. I’m just going to wait until Anime Export’s deadline date to order and hope Amazon puts 52 up before then. They probably will.

 

Actually, I think there it's there on Hound - it's in the upper chest.

 

But it showed up for 10 days(?) despite nobody shipping to my address  

 

Strange. Amazon listings should be visible, even if shipping isn't offered to your address.
I checked and the listing shows up just fine for me when I use my European address.
What if you search for トランスフォーマー　マスターピース　スキッズ ?

 

That does work.

But just in case it affected anything, I tried "mp-53" beforehand, and it worked this time. Weird it dropped out for 24hrs...

Still not available overseas  

 

Your option would be a Jp proxy for the difference of $6.00 or try amiami.

 

Nah. AMJ will get it. Just taking longer than normal

 

Amazon HAVE got it. If you live in Japan you can buy from Amazon directly. It just not open internationally, although Reboost is. It's really odd!

 

Yeah, same thing happened with Star Cream v2. Skids will be listed properly, maybe even this week.

 

Well there's no refunds past Sunday, so they need to get a wriggle on!

 

Yup. I don’t remember if Star Cream was listed fully before or after the cancellation deadline, but it was a very similar situation.

 

Definitely no lateral (side to side) flex on Hound though he has a nice forward ab crunch.

 

I'll wait for Amazon Japan preorder if it happens or I'll just wait until release and pick it up. I don't really feel like paying in advance at Anime-Export even though it's a good price.