I'm with you on this and I'm torn. Phoenix is amazing but then the G1 toon accuracy whore in me looks at all the flat surfaces and attention to the source material on TT's rendition and then I go.....Oh, God, no!!!!!!

This is the very first time I've actually contemplated keeping the 'stand in' despite an incoming official and you can tell it's echoed in these forums and it goes to show you how good a figure Phoenix is. With a lot of 3rd party stand ins whenever TT released their versions of said character a lot of people readily denounced their figures and off to Ebay it was, with Phoenix it isn't the case, a lot are still keeping him and/or waiting to see further developments before selling him. (Hell, Phoenix is that good a figure even the official only fanboys are not bagging on it!  )

I'm in the second camp for two reasons. The first....Phoenix is amazing and selling him at this point would literally and metaphorically leave a seismic hole in my collection. The second is...while the seekers look to be a return to form for TT and believe me I have each and every one of them PO'd.......this just isn't the TT pre MP-36/. Hell if it was, my Phoenix would have found a new home yesterday.

With the exception of Sunstreaker every robot as far as G1 is concerned which has been released since then has been very polarizing one way or the other. Prime and Hound have even been taken of the shelves for obvious reasons and Arcee and Bee are still on them. The latter two have been shelf warming since god knows when. Bee is currently at Omegalock, near two years after his release, still available at his original price. Even Tracks, one of the most notoriously slammed MP figures never had such a disdainful accolade. MEH!

So it remains to be seen for me. If TT brings their A game then it's bye bye Phoenix, if not I might just keep my Phoenix.

We shall see, we shall see......

 

No way it's that old! That puts it firmly in Hasui era when it would have looked a lot more like the CHUG version many think is good enough for MP. The rounded fingers and total toon accuracy show this is pretty modern. During development of MP-44 before he had a painted proto available is the earliest I'll give you! It's just a handphone pic of what must be a postage stamp sized pic in a book given the visible print dots.

 

Too early in the game for me to tell if it's good or not. So far it looks like it will ok, but won't even dare to compare ir to the FT release, wich in my opinion looks perfect, even though i don't own one.
The price for tag for this is what i'm fearing. After MP44, my guess is that it will be at the same price range, if not slightly higher...

 

As others have said, I wouldn't be surprised if this was a newer photo, taken with whatever figure happened to be around at the time. Most (all?) of the prototype photos we see from TT have been blurry, poorly angled with major lens distortion, and appear to have been candid snaps for internal use that were never intended to be used as promotion, including the ones that have appeared in FK and precious Generations books. More like someone decided they wanted to include a look at the prototype and just grabbed whatever photo they had available.

 

It is NOT toon accurate this thing has a long way to go in terms of proportions and layout to get to that point.


tbs

 

Think they're showing he will have the same amount of articulation as MP-10, which is a little bit more than Phoenix,where the entire articulation budget was saved for his hands.

I'm waiting to see more than a fuzzy picture of a undefined block prototype, but I'm still pretty excited. While I do like the clear parts on Phoenix, much like Stomp I thought he was seriously overvalued. I was one of the few people crazy enough to think they would attempt a Skyfire, which is why I didnt have a problem selling my Phoenix off, nice to know that gambled played off.

 

All that shows is how not toon accurate Phoenix is as his proportion are not that

 

Maybe 10 years is overstating it lol

Defo before mp44's time though.

 

Well it will change a little but not a lot since the engineering is done. What is so off about it? Bear in mind they go for the official animation reference model and not random stills from the show.

 

So this is still happening or is it an old cancelled prototype

 

It's happening. The book is showing off both the block-proto of Jetfire and the line concept of Shouki because they're coming.

 

I agree Phoenix is not toon accurate. However Takara's still isn't.
Feet are narrow.
Leg armor is to wide
Back wings are too low and set to a different angle
Upper arms too thin
Lower arms too thick

The chest is so so. Going from various angles of the 2D drawing, some times it looks angles some times it looks more straight. I think a compromse between the 2 looks would be better.


tbs

 

Why is it definitely before MP-44? I don't understand this logic. Not that it matters at all. They showed photo of Skids with MP-14 and MP-18 so does that also means that Skids predates Wheeljack? It doesn't mean anything at all.

 

I'm not reading too much into MP10 next to skyfire. I think a Hasui-era version would look like the Siege version because most likely he had a hand in designing it. This looks modern anime to me since they're still emphasizing some of those unique & crazy character model shapes to be the real details on the toy. I like FT phoenix but I actually bought a Daca Toys Kronos last year with the intention of customizing it because as good as PHonenix is...it could be better.gif. (Of course as soon as I bought it, TT teased MP skyfire in that interview  ) But the photo is at a rough prototype stage so we'll see what's there in the next phase.

What's this thing gonna cost? We are already living in a world where the TF community can absorb $700 robosen prime, $700-$1400 WFC unicron, $500-$600+ for JimJones's old bugs with "nano painted"/uniquely molded/found in a broom closet gray chests that pairs well with a nice vintage apollyon and spindrift 1.0. I'm not hating or judging any of it, it's the reality of how the community is spending it's money and the state of the hobby today. But getting MP44 for $320 now seems like a bargain!

 

Based on the sculpt alone, I'll have to stick with Phoenix. No, he's not totally toon accurate, but in my eyes the interpretation is faithful to the spirit of the character, retains many of the trademark features and is just damn awesome. I expect TT will up the ante as they usually do with endless cool accessories and great articulation. However, I can't see how you're going to get a waist swivel from that picture, which is probably the most glaring weakness on Phoenix.

If TT wants to win over Phoenix owners, the keys are going to be:
- Articulation - Phoenix is weak here
- Accessories - Phoenix only comes with a Gun
- Playability - If they figure out a way to put a bot in the alt mode ala prime's trailer, that's a gamechanger. Accessories will add to this as well.

 

Why would they promote a figure they've replaced, with great fanfare? Makes zero sense. Same goes for a carbot that is arguably in the old Hasui style.

There is more evidence but I'm not willing to break that person's confidence. You'll just have to take it from me that Skyfire has been in the works for quite some time. Tbh I thought plans had changed as it all went quiet but here we are.

Edit - It'll be interesting if a certain purple Decepticon is announced as one of the next few releases now. I really hope he is.

 

well why are they promoting MP-18 when that’s been “replaced” by MP-18+, with Skids?

I know that Skyfire has been rumoured for a long time, think it was even one of the bots that TCracker (RIP) talked about years ago. I’m not denying that.

But putting it next to MP-10 doesn’t mean that this version of Skyfire is that same version. It’s entirely possible they used ideas from that previous Masterpiece Skyfire for the Siege version (same as how Hasui used ideas for MP Devastator for the UW version).

The fact that this Skyfire is done in a cartoon style with the same hand articulation as Starscream (down to the double-jointed thumb) leads me to believe it’s not that old, in this form.

It would definitely look better standing next to MP-44 but who knows where this photo was taken, and what TFs were easily accessible. Maybe they pulled off MP-10 from it’s proud spot on Hasui’s desk to take a photo in the corner of an office.

That’s my take anyway

 

Wow I just finally noticed this one... but I hope Takara are still in their prototype period, because Phoenix looks way better IMO.

 

This isn't a professional stock photo, like @chchchch mentioned this was probably something one of the designers had as we know they work in groups and decided to share or it was the closest thing available to give a sense of scale. You would probably need proper photos to determine if this is an olds design. I imagine even with no waist rotation,he still is going to have his fair share of articulation, probably an ab crunch design similar to Starscream.

 

INteresting. I remember reading about a lot of MPs in development in the speculation thread so that's always a possibility. I think once they reveal the level of articulation on this thing it'll show if it's is a continuation of an older design or a redo. Of course a designer interview would help too.