He's a fucking awesome toy. Better than all three of the Autobot citybots, arguably better than Trypticon (I have a big soft spot for all Trypt).

What a wild interview. This dude clearly gives no fucks and I am here for it. But... 3/4 of the Budget, for a toy that came in at a slightly higher price point (Omega was initially 230 canadian, then bumped to 250. Scorp launched at 250). That is an infuriating piece of news to have.

And yet dude made Scorp the best of the best. He is a FUN toy, he holds together well, he feels sturdy AF... and SS69 is a bonkers toy(s) that they will probably never attempt again, absolute genius, whether you like BayFormers or not.

 

Now that was a great interview, very honest.
It is a shame that Hasbro slashed the budget, but it's equally amazing that they produced a toy that felt even better than Omega with that lesser budget.

 

This. If he used it, wouldn't it make the term semi-official?

 

Agreed; this is a fantastic window into toy design.

It also explains some of the design compromises with the Ark rather nicely. For instance, the open sides of the ship in altmode. I suspect that Teletran-1 was very much a priority for the design team, for instance. (Also, I note that they designed the legs such that it wouldn't be very hard to design an aftermarket upgrade kit to add leg covers for the altmode.)

 

Amazing to think that, even with a slashed budget, Scorponok is arguably THE best Titan class figure ever. It does an even better job of capturing the likeness than Omega Supreme, it's super articulated (as a robot, at least) and looks very dynamic, and has a fun transformation with more fully-realized altmodes than any other Titan.

Hasui-san almost seemed to be counting on the DNA Designs of the world to complete the intended look and feel of this figure. It's clear, for instance, that he would have included at the very least the face shield, but probably also a gun and a more robust arm shield, and presumably more/better/more and better double-barrelled gun turrets. Given the limitations he was working with, I'd grade this an A+.

 

Ya kinda had to though, I get the original toy was smaller than fort max, but it just isn't intimidating, I imagine fights between him and TR FM going like this

It's cool when we get to hear the designers speak so frankly about their work, I wish they did these more often, I'd love to hear their thought process when it comes to deciding on certain things for figures.

 

ER Skorponok: has extremely simple engineering.

Takara designer: “we needed magic to pull this off”.

 

pain

 

Everyone should read this and see how TakaraTomy fights for the fans. Much respect to Hasui-san and TakaraTomy, they get it so much more than Hasbro. A tiny Titan Scorponok would have been another slap in the face from Hasbro. I'm so glad we have TakaraTomy on the engineering side because if we didn't, it would be an absolute disaster. If we ever live to see a day where they call the shots, we will be truly spoiled.

 

Did you read the fucking interview? Smdh

 

Great read! It's fascinating reading about the design challenges they ran into and how they solved them. Making limbs mirrored is a favorite trick in some third party companies too, so it's really cool seeing Takara coming to those same solutions.

Engineering is more than just parts complexity. It's also needing to work within a budget, especially when you have a clear goal like they did with Scorponok. So yeah, they definitely worked some magic.

 

Except u wouldn't have scorponok if hasbro didn't ask takara to make him

 

Yeah, and it’s the same thing they say for every single one of their figures. Am I supposed to be impressed that they made something their job entails them to do? The engineering was never supposed to be that impressive, and it isn’t. Doesn’t mean it’s bad, just not impressive.

If you want to see magic, go look at MP figures both official and unofficial that have clean bot modes with real vehicles.

 

I had noticed that the feet were exact duplicates, due to fanmoding with the DNA DK set ankle covers, but that so much more of Scorps is duped parts and yet not so easy to spot is Kudos to Hasui (as if he needs any more, baller designer that he is), this made me prick up my ears though...

At time of interview would this be the Autobot Ark, or could it be something else?

 

With Titans supposedly not ending yet, I would hope a nemesis. We need a nemesis!

 

I'm fully prepared for it to turn out to be The Ark (and it wouldn't surprise me if the Ark lost out to some budget juggling as it does seem to have, ah, let's say a certain limited functionality compared to Scorps Bells-&-Whistles base and scorpion, with all the turrets being fixed, and just a micro-maquette-style bridge, & cargo bay with no additional internal areas (like for example some pop-off leg panels, like the roof of some versions of the Millennium Falcon have for the core body of the ship, that reveal a Medbay and other location in each leg interior) or full base mode)...but if it isn't? INTRIGUE!

 

Slashed budget meet Rodimus Smallish Prime.

 

Tidal Wave with a Nemesis altmode that can break apart into 3 different ships.

Make it so.

 

Unless you want it to be the size of a voyager class, I don’t think they’ll be doing that with their “budget restrictions”. As much as I want that to happen  .

 

They have the freedom to increase the price point though. I'm okay with paying $200 for a better Titan.