I've not seen those pics before.
They pretty much confirm that he is official.

 

Hubcap when?

 

Green hinge, Green spoiler. Why the hell would they adjust that in the final figure?

They really need to drop the grey.

Rant over.

 

Was there any doubt?

Enough for Takara to keep making them and making money. So. Yes. 'We' as a niche market did. They aren't a charity.

 

Yeah no I don’t remember any great demand for pure cartoon accuracy back when masterpiece started.

 

This looks pretty great, and now I'm starting to regret buying a 3P option for him and Hubcap forever ago! (Of course, there's also no guarantee they'd actually make a Hubcap from this mold, so maybe I should count my blessings  )

 

Apparently there was a previously untapped demand for "pure cartoon accuracy". More often than not, people don't know what they want until they see or experience it...that's one of the core jobs of Marketing departments--to identify that potential demand. In this case, Takara pushed the engineering envelope beyond what people previously imagined was possible in order to attain cartoon accuracy and found a brand-new market.

 

As I recall, a lot of people bought MP-1 because he was the most cartoon accurate Optimus at the time. And as I recall, a lot of people upgraded to MP-10 because he was the most cartoon accurate Optimus at the time. And as I recall, a lot of people upgraded to MP-44 because he is the most cartoon accurate Optimus at this time.

 

Should tell that to Japan.


Heck even back when MP first started, guess what started the "Cartoon accurate repaints"?

 

Debatable. But what does that have to do with Takara's profits in 2022? Apart from you don't like what is making them money?

This is the one fact the detractors seem to consistently forget. This aesthetic clearly sells. If it didn't, they wouldn't be still doing it 30+ releases later.

 

Right on cue!

   .

 

Yes? I don’t really like spending time with people who like to tell me the things I like are garbage.

 

I think it's even longer than that. People have wanted figures that look like the cartoon......since the cartoon.

 

Man, I've been in this hobby for such a long time now I'm actually feeling nostalgic for MP-03, green colour and all!

 

I must be weird then because I sure didn’t. The toys themselves were the draw to me, not the cartoon. Otherwise I would’ve stopped buying them in 1987.

 

The toys of course were great because that's all we had as kids. It still bugged me that most of them didn't look anything like the cartoon, so in my mind, it simply was not possible.

Fast forward 30 years and I'm getting what I always, always wanted.

 

Vitriol aside, it's always genuinely interesting to see where people stand on the accuracy thing. Some want figures that strive to be 100% accurate to the G1 cartoon, fully embracing the day to day on-screen concessions made to the model sheets as the necessities they were.* Others prefer the hybrid aesthetic, wanting the figures to reflect not only the cartoon but also the toys and comics that spurred their fandom way back when. And others still are just sick of G1 entirely  

I guess it all depends where/when you got bit by the bug! I myself was a G2 kid who would rewatch a copy of TF:TM religiously once the reruns stopped airing, so I was very firmly in the first category until I got some hands on Rhino DVD sets and realized for the first time what I remembered seeing on-screen when I was six or seven and what was actually on-screen were two very different things, to say nothing to the vast quality difference between the G1 show and The Movie that I'd seen so much more of. But then again, that's just my experience.

*With the possible exception of MP Skids, I don't recall seeing a whole lotta people clamoring for 1:1 screen accuracy with him.

 

I wouldn't say that, it's just what you liked. Like when I think of Soundwave, the cartoon voice is the first thing that comes to mind.

 

  Right? It's like, "What do you mean you don't keep friends around who call you names or passive aggressively snipe at you every time you like or dislike something they don't?" Like, what?  

 

Seeing how close the mainline is coming close to these Porshe altmodes, there wouldnt be a holdup if this didnt require a license . As mentioned before, either there is some specifications for the license that hasn't kicked in yet or its some other project they want to release in sequence with this, that they're having trouble finishing up.