I’m liking the look of this bot. Train mode looks incredible. Combine mode looks like a train wreck so far (IMO)   Love the addition of the track and it compatibility with the stands. I’m sure the other bots will look just as great as individuals but hoping the combiner looks better than anticipated by the time of a full reveal.

 

He's definitely not motorized, right? Those wheel assemblies seem like they could easily hide a battery compartment. That very prominent screw right in the middle seems placed for optimally easy removal.

 

I don’t know what I’m looking at. It looks better then chug but it doesn’t look quite mp to me.

I will say that my opinion has improved with each new set of photos but I’m still very much on the fence

 

I don't think he is motorized, but if he is, that would be cool

 

I doubt it. Tiny battery maybe, but I don't see where a motor could go that would be able to pull this thing. The screw just looks like where the wheels pivot so it can run round corners on track.

 

I'd say my scaling getting 19cm is about minimum. If AE listing is correct he's 20cm. That's a head or half a head shorter than Ironhide. So not quite Ironhide height, but not far off, and that's close enough to the holy scale chart, praise be to its scribblings. I haven't seen anyone assume/hope it'll be any bigger, so I don't think there's any big butthurts coming.

 

I'm sure they would have publicized it, if it was. I just saw that wheel box and thought, hmm...

 

Yup. The very first real life vehicle combiner Takara did for the Diaclone line. The same designer then went on to do Devastator. And is now the lead designer on this MP Raiden <3

 

If it was in any way motorised then they would be shouting about it.

 

I think a lot of it depends on your collection and how this would be displayed. I mostly keep mine in combined mode and like big beefy combiners like Constructor to go with my MP collection, so I pick Moon Studios for the most important mode to me. I know others have their own reasons what goes into their collection and that's fine.

If you are a Green Giant or Ferral Rex person or a combiner around that size then I would go with Takara trainbots.

 

And for the record, we have no clue if all of the other combiners like Victory Saber, Big Powered, or any of the super Optimus forms in the Unicron Trilogy will apply here.

(But I would REALLY love it if the guy after Raiden was Armada Prime.)

 

Fair enough, man  . I did mention earlier I am definitely a bit deflated by the estimated height of TT Raiden (although early days, nothing confirmed). For me I see these as six fun and interesting individual bots and love the realistic alt modes. But I haven't really bought into giant 3P combiners - I only have XTB Menasor. I totally get that people who have might struggle to justify fitting a relatively tiny Raiden into their collections. I think a smaller combiner will certainly be more fun to actually play with - my XTB Menasor certainly isn't any!

 

I'm a big train fan but haven't got the room for a(nother) collection, so this I think is nice for me to kill two birds with one stone, even though I am not familiar with the character. Love combiners, love trains, love transformers. So I think I'm in.

 

That's cool. I get it, once I combine a 3P combiner I don't mess with it much and just display it. It is a hassle to transform. I have a kid and transform his Chug combiners if I want to play with one and mostly display MP in my office and love to just look at them.

The biggest headache of MP combiners for me is all the size differences, so it is hard grouping them together so I have to separate them into separate areas so they don't look stupid by each other. I finally came up with a system of large combiners on tables, and small combiners on shelves. It looks good enough to me.

I have the large group:

Fans Toys Omega Supreme
Fans Toys Guardian Robot
Toyworld Devestator
Zeta Bruticus
Fans Toys Menasor
Fans Toys Superion
Cang Toys Predaking
X-Transbots Defensor

All on a large cabinet table top and plan on putting Moon Studios Raiden with them.

I have the small group:

MMC Sky Linx
MMC Predaking
Warbotron Computron
Unique Toys Abominus
TFC Piranacon
TFC Liokaiser
Fansproject Dinoking
TFC Road Caesar
Unique Toys Combaticons (Individual bots)

All spread out on shelves away from the big guys so I don't have to replace them with bigger versions to be happy with my collection if I don't want to, and it looks good that way. With rising costs of everything, I need to reach a collecting end game at some point.

What's weird is that:

TFC Piranacon
TFC Liokaiser
Fansproject Dinoking
TFC Road Caesar

All size well with the MP/3rd Party Masterforce and Victory series bots, but don't size well with the other combiners. It's like after Headmasters, the combiners shrunk in size to fit with the new series. But at the same time feel like they are the same size (Raiden being the same size as the Season 1-3 combiners). I think the Japanese series MP toys might not be sized the same as the rest of the G1 MP toys. But all the 3rd Party Masterforce and Victory toys are sized right with MP Star Saber. So they need separate shelves from the other combiners to look right.

 

Combined mode torso looks like CW hotspot proportions…

 

Yep!

 

I also only have XTB Menasor as far as MP "style" combiners go. I'm happy with it, mostly because I'm a Stunticon/Menasor fan. But he'll be displayed separate from any other MP combiners I get, so I'm not concerned about relative size between Menasor and Raiden.

I also put this together this morning. Here's my estimate of Shouki's height, based on the measurement of the distance between the mounting points in the track that you posted a few pages back.


It looks like the train isn't quite to scale with the track in the pic where they are separated. I can only assume they're accurately shown in the one where the train is sitting on the track. i've used the track itself for the size comparison between the two pics. And then I based my measurements off the pic with the train sitting on the track. I then used the newest pic of Shouki since that appears to be the most straight on with no distortion and then based my height measurement off where the middle of the feet sit on the table. It may not be 100% accurate but it should be pretty close. So I'm thinking Shouki could easily be around 8" in height, perhaps a little less. For comparison, I just measured MP Ironhide and he's a little over 8" in height (about 8.25").

 

Ugh… ordered one on Amazon. maybe there will be a Chug Raiden but this is right size for my collection and it looks cool. I won’t be charged until next summer so that’s good…

 

Oh I'm sure I'll love Raiden mode and enjoy messing with it. Just I can deal with it not being 20+" personally, as I'm not invested in those, but can see why that may differ for others. I'll be able to find a way to display him where it doesn't matter - easy right now as my collection is just bots on shelves in a mess, but even when I make it tell some sort of story I'll find a way - display him with my WST Dinobots or something!   Like I say he'll definitely be more fun to mess with than the 20+" combiners. I fully admit to myself that's partially a consolation prize - I'd definitely be even more happy if this was gonna be at least 18" UW Devy size. But I am a loyal White Knight of Kobayashi so not gonna let that bother me!   I'm not much of a train guy, but I'm enough of an accurate alt mode whore that I can't get past the 3P Raiden's stumpy almost chibi looking trains, so that's not an alternative for me.