Just checked my Takara, lucky it's painted silver. I think I would have noticed it if it wasn't, it sticks out.

 

got my SW. Came in pretty good shape. Wonder why the box is so thick though.

 

I think that might be the clincher that makes me keep the Takara. I've been going back and forth on the Yellow Vs Red eyes, but I def. like the gold vs the yellow.

Plus the minions look loads better with the chrome.

 

For those who already own the Takara version, how does the plastic / color tones compare?
I remember seeing Hasbro's MP1 in a horrible pinkish plastic instead of the original firetruck red from Takara...

If it is only the visor color I can live with...

 

Maybe someone with both can do a comparison, I'd like to see as well. From some of the images of Hasbro's I've seen, it looks not much different.

 

I'll probably do a video review tonight and compare them side by side.
Assuming it makes it to my door in one piece.

Question about the packaging to those that have it... how much tape is their? Do you just have flaps on the box and the plastic is taped or?

 

I have both versions and have carefully compared them side by side, and the plastic and color tones are identical, as far as my eye can tell. The gold highlights around the tape door and on the legs are the same exact gold on the Hasbro version as on the Takara version. The blue plastic is the same, the joints are all the same level of stiffness, etc.

Here is a breakdown of the differences I've noticed, and some of my thoughts on them:

1. Yellow vs red eyes. This one I assume everyone is already aware of. I definitely prefer the red eyes on the Takara version, and not just because of cartoon accuracy, but also because I feel that the yellow eyes get sort of lost in his face. It's too much of a gold-ish yellow, and his eyes just don't pop the way the Takara version's do.

2. Unpainted inner feet. This one is a head scratcher. It doesn't seem like painting these silver on the Hasbro version would have driven the cost up by much, but what do I know about toy manufacturing? Honestly, even though it is very noticeable right out of the box, it's not really a deal-breaker for me.

3. The Hasbro version has a very obvious, and quite large "CE" (marking that all products distributed in Europe need to have to show that they comply with European standards) symbol with some numbers tampoed on his right outer thigh, which I guess confirms that this is the exact version that UK TRU's will receive. Of all the places they could have put this symbol, I don't know why they picked that spot. It really stands out, and kind of spoils his deco a bit.

4. The tapes. Can't really say much about these, since the only Takara one I have is Laserbeak, which seems to be exactly the same as the Hasbro Laserbeak. I will say that if I had paid $50 - $60 per 2-pack of the other tapes, chrome or not, I would have thought I'd been ripped off. As cool as the engineering on these little guys is, I am really disappointed with the overall quality, especially on Frenzy and Rumble. These do not feel like Masterpiece quality figures to me. I understand there's not much you can do when making figures of this size, but I feel like they could have done better than this.

There are two pieces of tape along each side of the inner plastic tray, holding the lid in place, and that's it.

 

man im steamed ups dropped mine off at the post office for delivery and like always the box was crushed by the time it got to me, thank god mp soundwaves ok but the box... yeah no saving it

 

Two pieces of tape on the outter box flaps, I believe 4 pieces of tape on the clamshell...

 

Have A Cygar, thanks for the info, when I did a video review I wish a had a takara version to better explain all the differences instead of just judging by pics and vids

 

adding my pics here:

 

Looks like SW got calluses on his feet with that unpainted plastic  

 

Its funny I never noticed it until someone pointed it out three days later.

 

Well mine came in today, box was a little crunched, i thought about putting him on ebay since he is hitting stores for about a nano second, opened it up, beautiful figure, loving the laserbeak, only complaint small scratch on SW's tape deck glass whatever the hell its called. Very Happy Bonewire.

 

I didn't like this either. I decided to use a q-tip and some nail polish remover to take the CE and numbers off. They came off easily enough. However, there is a bit of a matte looking spot left behind. It is not very noticeable and looks better than the other to me.

 

Would you mind possibly elaborating on why you don't feel they're up to MP standards? I've only seen the Takara versions, no one seems to be posting photos of the Hasbro cassettes, mind posting some photos?

 

Sure. My biggest issue is with Rumble/Frenzy. Lazerbeak/Buzzsaw is near perfect, and Ravage only has a couple of issues that bother me, which I will elaborate on in a bit. But going back to Rumble/Frenzy, I think the joints were very sloppily designed and implemented, and there was some corner-cutting that is inexcusable for a toy at this price point. For example, the ball joints in the ankles are not very smooth, and have mold lines and imperfections which cause them to not move smoothly within the sockets. Right out of the box, both of mine had stress marks in the plastic ball sockets. I don't know if the Takara versions have the same issue, but considering the flaw is in the design, I can't see why they wouldn't. Extra care should have been taken to smooth out the ankle ball joints, or make them out of a separate, die cast metal piece that screws into the feet. And the ball shoulder joints have the same problem, although I'm not seeing it resulting in plastic stress as of yet. Finally, it seems like the plastic they used for Rumble/Frenzy is cheaper and more brittle than what was used for the other tapes.

As for Ravage, while I think having his head split in two halves for tape mode was an ingenious bit of engineering, I think it was, again, sloppily implemented. The little tab that you have to pull out that forms his nose, and serves as a peg to keep the two halves in place in his robot mode, is very tiny, and not well-molded. I think they could have come up with a better way to keep the two halves attached, and also done so without having such an obvious gap there.

Even with these complaints, I still like the tapes a lot. I just don't think they're worth the price. I'm glad I didn't pay import prices to get the Takara versions, and I'm seriously considering selling my Hasbro version of SW, with all of his tapes, and just keeping my Takara Soundwave and Laserbeak.

 

I somewhat agree with you they are cool, think your being to harsh on Ravage, but they are not worth the Takara price, BTW how cool is the cassette eject button on the back of SW?! He holds 3 cassettes and then he can eject them out i exploded the first time i did it.

 

Hm. That's a shame, I really do love me some cassette bots.
Would you mind posting a photo of the plastic stress you mentioned on Frumble?
Is it both of them, or just one?

 

The eject mechanism on Soundwave is very cool. I love that feature. As a whole package, MP Soundwave and his cassettes are phenomenal. I'd be happier than a pig in s**t if Hasbro SW had red eyes. I would even be happy with what I paid for the Takara version, if it came with all of the cassettes.