Τrue, the challenge is when the paint after hearing the first joint moving, to stay put and not start running in panic  

 

Lol I said their paint is second to none, but I know as well as anyone (MP36 comes straight to mind) one transformation and that paint will be scratched to high heaven. Although I didn't have that issue with MP52 oddly.

 

Yeah, was not referring to 52 either, too early and hopefully that wont be a case, but in general.....

 

Yeah I mean obviously if your unit has no issues that is great!

My comment was sparked by one guy in particular listing all of the joints he took apart to glue / correct, the broken bit and the cracked tail fins and he seemed fine with it. Just seemed very odd to me.

Paintwise: I am no expert on this topic but I dont think "second to none" is fair when I look at my Fanstoys figures. Their Galvatron, Cyclonus, and even XTB Andras movie ver are fantastic in terms of paint. I dont have MP 44 though so as I say not speaking from a position of comprehensive knowledge.

Totally with you on the £600 point. Ive PO'd Skywarp (just thought the mold looked better in those colours personally).. will just have to see on this SS and Thundercracker (might skip him but my original Toys R Us MP starscream is definitely looking too boxy on my shelf).

 

In term of quantity of paint apps, Takara is definitely pretty high up there. But in terms of actually applying those paint apps cleanly, I'd say they're pretty unremarkable.

Like, I have never had a single Fanstoys figure with a sloppy paint app. If there are ever any paint flaws, it's due to chipping after application.

Whereas the vast majority of paint misapplications on my MP figures are on Takara figures, and often they occur on the head (which is when it bugs me the most). In general it just does not feel like Takara applies their paint with the kind of OCD-level precision that Fanstoys does.

 

I think what Takara does is to make any figure feel more "masterpiece"y. Nothing screams more premium than a fully painted and highly articulated transforming bot.
But it blew up on their face. A figure with so many moving parts and painted plastic is prone to disaster.

The weird thing is Hasbro and Takara kinda flip their standard on MP and MPM.
You know what a better choice for a figure based on a basic 2D cartoon? a bare-colored plastic with a few touch up here and there.
And MPM with a more highly detailed figure should have the full amount of paint. At least if there's a paint-chipping it can be count as "battle damage".
After what happens to MP-11 laughable how much different it makes if they put effort into painting the figure.

Sorry for a bit of a rant. Want to get it out of my system.

 

Ah...HahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! made me spit coffee through my nose... One product comes to mind: MP-44 $h1ttyest paint of all my figures. Just looking at MP-44 the paint falls off.

Edit: I did purchase MP-52 (and I do have MP-44).

 

It always puzzled me a bit reading about paint issues on MP-44. I have posed mine a lot and transformed it probably 3-4 times and never noticed any paint coming off. Maybe I just didn't notice it, but I think I would have noticed paint flakes around the figure.

Anyway, having just received MP-52 got me to check out this thread. I am extremely pleased with MP-52 so far but if this figure turns out well and isn't too expensive, I might get one since I'm always interested in interesting transforming bots and tend to get multiple versions of the same character if I think the toy design is good. I will say that just from the comparison images between this and MP-52 shown before MP-52's release, I preferred MP-52, so I guess we'll see.

 

Can you give me some examples of figures with thumb joints you like? I'm not quite sure how good hands are supposed to be designed.

 

Don't have mp44. I'ts why I said one transformation and it's likely that the lovely paint is ruined. But still can't question the beauty of their paint.

MP52 though, he looks pretty fine I must say.

 

I think skepticism with TE isn't unwarranted. OP Leader shipped with chips and scuffs out of the box, and Speed Star had his own very well documented issues. They're a solid company, and I'm a fan of the products (if they are behind this toy) but it isn't like saying "it's TE" is an automatic reassurance. If it is TE, and if I can't see half the toy that is something that would give me pause. It's like you said, they're displaying what appears to be a damn near finished product. If they are intentionally omitting the alt mode it's understandable that would set off some red flags for potential customers.

At the very least whoever handled the logistics of the announcement did a terrible job. If a toy transforms, then customers are going to want to see what it looks like when you transform it. It is kind of sketch that they're only showing half the toy off. What they did only serves to allow for speculation that hurts their brand and lessens excitement about the product. If you're going to try and drink up Takaras milkshake by doing an announcement right before their toy drops it's probably a good idea to show the whole toy.

 

Ι like the fact that we are overgeneralizing that there are like ten documented (aka posted in here) complaints about paint chipping in a figure that had like 6-7 repaints and with an equivalent number of units per release sold and we are forgetting that those exist and without complaints. Yet we are elevating these cases as a general rule that TE OP Leader shipped with chips out of the box.....IDK m8, I have handled like 20ish odd boxes of that figure and none had problems out of the box, save my own Nemesis variant that had warped antennae on the 'MP44' head.

Mirage on the other hand, yes the green panels were a wide spread issue hands down.

 

Takara's paint is pretty crappy. Let's not even talk about past figures. My MP-52 comes with paint bleeding in the ribs area, and no it's not just me, you can see it in a number of reviews a well. Pretty sure it's pretty widespread. I mean we are talking about MP Numero 52 here, not 1.

 

Gosh maybe I'm just really lucky. My guy looks near perfect. That being said, my mp47 had no issues either.

 

Yeah thought this thread would get like this when MP-52 dropped! Siiiigh.

I find it funny that those making the snarkiest of comments about 'those over there', and referring to Takara as if they are a cabal of devils, think they're any different or better than the zealots on 'the other side'. In fact I find it funny grown ass adults even need to create this tribal us vs them conflict at all, like 'official' and '3p' are the Montagues and Capulets or something, and score points trying to make the most sarcastic, passive aggressive comments possible about 'the others'. Last I checked both 'here' and 'there' start with the same URL, and we're all weirdos who spend our spare money on plastic robots.

I also thought this was supposed to be a thing we like - ya know - a hobby. Something positive in our lives. But from the way some people act towards others, and towards the company that started it all off when we were kids, you'd think they literally hate it all and are just here to punish themselves. Speaking of positivity - no that's why some people wish guys like DeanML would stick around. Takes amazing inspiring photos, is polite and respectful interacting with others, focuses on the positive but isn't afraid to criticise the figures either. A genuine positive contributor to the hobby and the experience of being on this site, imho. Doesn't surprise me at all that some would despise that and try to frame such positivity as creating a kool-aid guzzling echo chamber, though. People gotta hate.

If my MP-52 has that crack, and the majority don't, so odds are good it wont, then yeah, if it doesn't get worse and that's all there is, it'll suck but I wont give much of a shit about it! Wont stop me enjoying what seems to be one of the best MPs to date. If anyone wants to imply that makes me practically mentally ill, I dunno - more power to you, I guess! Shrug. Back in reality I'm just being realistic and since I buy official from AE I'll have no choice but to just suck it up anyway. If I'm honest, I've had more duds out of the box in my FT and XTB figures, but I don't generally give too much of a shit about that either. Well, when it's literally limbs dropping off, missing parts, you really do want to fix it, but at least with 3P you often can.

Anyway - anyone see that @BrutiKing removed the faux canopy from MP-52, and it kinda looks fine. For me the ideal balance is what DS is doing here - use a large part of the real canopy but with little faux end pieces top and bottom giving it the toon accurate shape. With that and the cover gone the lowest hanging part of alt mode would be his boobs which would look a lot better. I'm 99% certain DS' alt mode would be something like that. I genuinely can't see how it wouldn't be - there's just not the extra parts there to need an excessively fat alt mode. Gonna be something like MP-11 or Meteor I reckon - I'm not worried about it. So it's really odd they don't just show it off! And while they do it, please announce welcoming committee, rainmakers, even coneheads. TT will get my money for the OG three, but I'll be up for multiples of this if the price is fair.

 

It's you and one other guy. For the rest of us, the paint on our FT and a bunch of other 3P figures are perfect too. Gosh, and no we don't rely on luck.

And as you said "near perfect".

 

Dear 3Ps,
Please do not announce a version of the same character that Takara is currently set to release. No, it's not because I'm worried about C&Ds. No, it's not because of cancelled pre-orders. It's because every time this happens, the thread turns into a shitshow with constant chatter about the Takara figure and not the one this thread is actually about.

 

Are we talking about the same DeanML that circle jerked for about 20 pages on me with the others insulting me, because I asked genuinely after taking two months break from the hobby, if those renders were a retool of Mp-11, and took a mod intervention to delete these posts? And I really doubt all of them are deleted, by I am really bored to dig them out.

I mean yeah. Comradely, brothers in arms, no division, unicorns and rainbow farts.....As long as we all agree to like the same things. After all its not like that every picture posted there that has a 3p or KO starts with "Sorry for posting this"....What a great sin......Pretty cool guys overall and all that....

M8, sometimes I wonder: Is the need to play it cool and get some likes is so much important? Or is it true obviousness to certain things?
Ill never understand it....

You gotta admit though, that till there is something more concrete, there gonna be a lot of random stuff been talked about, or the thread will become stale.
That said the official release is the least random stuff to talk about. The bashing though, yeah it grows tiresome, but its something that wont stop ever.

 

Lol at this thread devoted to talking about other product instead of the actual thing being released.

there’s a MP 52 thread, you know? You are welcome to post there!

Has there been pics of the alt mode on this?

 

            

Bless your everything, I needed that. Couldnt have had a better timing to boot too