Yeah but I’d imagine that the August 27 announcement date wasn’t sprung on them. You’d think that’d be a priority to have by announcement. Seems very weird. But like I said, it all worked out in the end. So who cares?

 

Hasbro: “Hey Jim you paid off your Photoshop right?”

Jim: “Uh…..”

Hasbro: “Dam it Jim, we’ll reveal it, but you better pay that off and get us colored renders!”

 

Personally, even if the lion head stays on the back, I think it would be better to maybe hide some thruster details inside the lion head that you could flip out for the backpack mode. With this being as successful as it is, I hope this would somehow renew the possibility to let Hisashi Yuuki to finally make his MP V-Leo

 

I hope we can eventually get MP Victory Leo, my MP Star Saber needs his partner!

 

Honestly, the KFC Simba figure is perfectly fine for that. Quality wise it's probably one of the best figures any 3rd party company has ever put out.

 

I have Simba and I like him...but I'm still hoping someday, an official one would materialize. Just wishful thinking on my part that's all.

Also Simba doesn't fully utilized the die cast combining attachments underneath MP Star Saber's feet.

 

I'm not really a 3rd party guy so only barely read up on Simba, I do recall that there were some balance/weight issues when combined with Star Saber? I'm also aware that Star Saber himself has his own upgrades such as for his hands - but I'm not sure if there are any additional ones needed to make sure that it addresses most of the issues.

I'm still hoping for an official one because I'm sure things like the balance/weight issues would be better worked out though since they have access to all the design files.

 

There have been several pictures of the full Victory Saber prototype in combined alt mode on the stand. Not only the ones provided by Hasbro, but also taken by fans at the conventions it was displayed at. Don’t have time to find them no but they have been shown on this thread.

 

The stability issues was mostly due to the mp already being a bit of a floppy mess. Adding a backpack didn't help. So I don't really see how an official attempt at victory leo could be any more stable unless it weighed virtually nothing. Honestly, we need a revision of mp24 at this point. That thing could have been so much better.

 

KFC released replacement joints for MP24. I confirm MP24's joints can't really bear the weight of KFC Simba, but the new joints fix everything.
I am not sure what an official VL would do better than KFC Simba.

 

I think they tried to do too much with play pattern at the pricepoint, while also ending up with too little variety due to the budget constraints.

IMO the weapon modes should have been left to the Battlemasters so the Micromasters wouldn't need the necessary compromises for weapon/combined weapon modes, instead in a line where the upper scale toys all had 5mm ports up the wazoo, and 3mm post pegs, they should've all just had 5mm pegs for "powerlinxing" imagination play with the bigger 'bots (e.g. , "Powerlinx the Race Car Patrol to larger Transformers for a Hyperspeed Boost", "Powerlinx the Air Strike Patrol to a larger Transformer for Stealth Shielding", etc.), 3mm feet ports for base and alt. mode play (your Micromasters could've then be posed "spacewalking" up the side of Omega's Rocket portion, car-surfing atop side swipe, etc.), and/or give them all at least one mould detailing fixed weapon with a 3mm effect peg (like Fuzer/Phaser's pair of pistols).

I doubt that would have fixed the lack of variety though, Hasbro just weren't gonna give them the initial investment boost for more exotic alts like Sunrunner, Seawatch, Etc. to get the pricepoint established. They just tried to do it too cheaply.
The pairs we got often included a duller/simpler team member, for instance despite a neat transformation Highjump is one of the duller designs from the Offroad Patrol, where I'm pretty sure a blue & orange Mudslinger with a tiny Bigfoot car mode would've caught kids eyes more than a grey SUV (and maybe been gangmoulded in orange some with Powertrain), and though the reuses with minor alt parts were very clever, the repetition of the sameness of toys just added a dullness or lack of "flavour" overall - and this is coming from someone who was resistant to the line initially before being won over (to the extent I have been customising missing team members, or in the case of the Battle Patrol picking up G1 Sunrunner & sidetrack to finish off the squad).

 

Obviously if MP V-Leo is confirmed that would mean Takara would reissue MP24 as MP24+ with improved joints and some added paints, effect parts, a laser grid diorama background and throw in MP Holi+Jan+Illumina, then slaps a new price tag to go with it. Easy money.

 

Were there photos of just Star Saber front and back?

 

it's worth getting MP-24 just for Saber.

 

I can't remember any of the gray prototype on the stand as just Star Saber in alt mode but this one is on Pulse. If you want to take this with a grain of salt I understand. The main problem with clear plastic is stress caused by repeated transformations due to hinges, pins, and parts tabbing together. Since this is just a static stand that seems pretty thick it should be fine.

 

Saber is the worst part of that MP. Don't know what they were even thinking with those legs.

 

Gah, alright. But man that stand is like my least favorite thing about this figure. I get why it was needed, display and so on, but holy crap, I could do without this thing.

 

So then don't use it, not like it cost anything extra  

 

Maybe they could sell it on ebay for a tiny extra profit hahaha

 

I'm really looking forward to the stand. I was ecstatic when it finally reached the 2nd tier of the crowdfund.

Also having spend a considerable amount of time with Bandai products makes me appreciate figure stands so much more.

It's ok to each his own.