The final thing looks pretty much like what I expected from all of the early indications.

 

I've been meaning to ask, does Raiden and the trainbots fit well in chug scale? And should I go for this or some other 3rd party?

 

Kaen looks nowhere near as good as Moon Studio's, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was just about as complex

 

I think the look of Raiden is understandable given that this set is committed to keeping real world scaling between the trains. People outside of Japan probably did not realize how much the vintage design fudged things. TakaraTomy often works under much more stringent conditions and design goals than 3P figures.

 

Well I mean yeah it's going to look the similar. It's the same character. It'll most likely have more of a focus on Raiden then the MP release, with the trains not looking so realistic. It'll happen, it may be a while but it will.

 

Can't you appreciate them for the G1 toy homage that they're going for? They are really fun figures!

 

They're technically MP scale, but they'll be in canon size for how they appear in Headmasters when alongside CHUG. (Maybe a little bigger.)

They're DEFINITELY as close as is available presently, even with the 3P versions.

Welcome to the internet, where endless complaints and criticism dominate. Been this way for 35 years, even back on UseNet.

The reality is this:

• Those who like and enjoy it, will.
• Those who don't care for it (for whatever list of arbitrary and subjective reasons) won't be swayed. They dug in their heels and will die on that hill.
• Anyone on the fence can either make their own evaluations or they can "follow the herd"

That last group is all that matters. The critics will work overtime to whinge and gripe about how much they dislike a "thing" in th hopes that they'll rain on everyone's parade. Why? Who knows. Who cares?

But for fans of the designs, all we can or need to do is just enjoy it. Who cares if critics criticize? I didn't make my purchase based on the views of others. I picked this up because I wanted it and I like it. I still do, and it has exceeded my expectations.

I'm glad TakaraTomy chose Raiden as the first MP combiner and I'm looking forward to Feb 2024 to complete it.

 

Too much kibble and partsforming for me

 

Apologies, but I haven’t paid a ton of attention to these guys, how robust are they? I know a lot of recent MP figures have been plagued with QC issues. And how fiddly are the transformations? I recently got a new job and wondering if I should jump on board these while they are still available at regular price.

 

Not very robust.

Getsuei and Yukikaze have potential break points due to the large panels that make up parts of the legs. With Getsuei you can break the bearing of the leg panels and on Yukikaze you can break the knee joints. Shouki is more solid but he has a lot of clear plastic (even some hinges) and you can scratch the paint of the train since the bottom of his feet are the outside of the panels.

Overall they are very fiddly to transform and handle since the outer hull mostly turns into panels (for example Yukikaze's lower legs are made completely out of panels and thus not very solid and very gappy).

If you have to check one out I think Getsuei is the most solid one, just be careful when dealing with the lower leg panels.

Overall I feel they work best as a train set and are displayed as such. You can’t play with them as a train tough since the bogies don’t turn and the trains have different gauge sizes, like the real trains.

So the best thing to do with them is putting them on a shelf and marvel at the fact that they could transform if you really want to.

 

If you don't hamfist skullface them they're just as robust as any other MP.

 

Partsforming lmfao it's a combiner it's all parts

 

I mean, if anything bringing Seizan into things make it worse for Moon Studio given he's off-colour in robot mode   No idea why they didn't tear them a new one over in the 3rd party forum over there given what happened the last time we saw an Optimus Prime with blue fists, and they didn't even have the toy accuracy to fall back on for just, using the wrong colours

But yeah, Moon Studio prioritised the combined mode over the others. So if you want MP quality individual robots, they ain't it.

 

2024 eas the date and time I was expecting Kaen to be officially released. In Asia the release dates are usually much earlier in advance...so I'd wager December 2023 at best.  

 

I'm actually impressed how little of Kaen is being used in combined mode. I had seen hints of that, but this takes it further than I expected.

It is the first member of the team that I might consider, he looks like he might look good (to be determined with better pics).

 

We won't change our opinions & we definitely don't see you doing likewise so you do you mate.  

This...So much this.

 

Pretty sure the knee breakages on Yukikaze have all been factory damage, rather than user error. Probably driving the pins in with too much force or something.

 

I think the problem is that the knees slide on the joint. Because the ring part of the joint is not supported by a surrounding structure the lower legs can apply force to the plastic rod that is breaking.

During my transformation of the toy that can happen before you transform the legs when the large panels apply force to the knee joint and transforming it back to train mode when trying to compress the left and right sides together.

The latter part could happen at the factory when apply too much force putting the toy into the package if Yukikaze is not transformed correctly.

However, since my toy has no broken knees yet I didn’t want to test my theory in practice. They were just observations I had handling my copy.

 

Pretty sure you would have saw a number of "after the fact" breaks if sliding the leg was the problem. Still you can get around that by bracing the inner leg part before sliding over, instead of holding the leg from the outside, which does feel less smooth. It's like Getsuei's leg there's a much easier and smoother method than what the show in the video.

 

I like these guys, they do a lot of things well, but I think @Scyla is correct. These are better display pieces and not at all what I would call "robust".