Not gonna lie - that transformation looks like zero fun :-/

 

Yeah that's a pretty good looking bot, a little too Hasui for my particular tastes but it makes me wish Takara had never gotten around to Ironhide since we could have seen more 3P attempts that would have refined that engineering and made it more toon (basically I imagine FT, XTB, MT, DX9, or TE/DS would go for a similarly streamlined, robotic look but drastically reduce the greebles). Takara doing a character is typically the death knell for them getting further updates from 3rd party (aside from notable exceptions like the figure this thread is about), so in a way the characters Takara never got around to are kind of the lucky ones. Like how many Tracks figures do we have to choose from? How many Jazz figures? Yeah I'd say Jazz wins that matchup.

 

Am I the only one who doesn't like to watch the transformation part of the video?
I know it's a visual helper if the instruction is too vague, but if I'm interested in figure I actively skipping the part to not spoil myself.
Transforming figures is like solving a puzzle and to me, you appreciate the engineering more thoroughly if you going in blind.

 

Nice! Thanks for the info. Put that one on my watch list and will look around a bit but will be picking them up. I guess I never looked further into these two so I wasn't aware there were other MP versions available so it was a nice surprise to see!

With DS-01 I just got through the video and like what I see. I'm gonna discount some of the fiddly stuff because as someone mentioned it only looks like hes done the transformation a few times so still trying to figure out the best and smoothest way to move things. With the paint, if things are prepped and painted properly the parts should be pretty well cured by the time they start assembling batches. Maybe that's not enough time so hopefully by the time we start getting them it will make the difference. The area with red paint rubbing off on the knees from the underside of the crotch is likely due to the underside is an area that isn't usually prepped at all so the spray that gets there isn't adhering well letting it come off easier. This wont bug me if I can clean it and prevent it from happening.

 

Personally I would never transform an MP without watching a transformation video every step of the way, pausing and replaying on tricky steps and even cross referencing with other videos to make absolutely sure I'm moving each part in exactly the right way. But then I've never been super big on puzzles.

 

I like to watch everything once to see what I'm getting and that's it. Then by the time I receive whatever it is, I've likely forgotten most of what I saw, especially if it's in a different language. I do take that same approach of its like solving a puzzle, but wont lie, if I get too frustrated it's right back to a video to solve a step.

 

This might be true for me if the figures weren't $100+. I don't have the funds to risk breaking these things.

 

Yeah--I'm in this mindset (have the funds, sure as hell not spending them). I actually loved it when I was getting some of the 3P carbots for closer to $60, and it was more fun to figure out on your own. But with things like prices spiking, or (example) Fans Toys Blurr and others with potential break-spots, it's safer to watch a step-by-step.

Back to this figure. I see the cockpit canopy transformation, with the faux parts in the chest. And then I look at the one piece of front canopy that tucks away. And it makes me think--if we weren't so damn beholden to real-world-accuracy-to-a-tee alt modes (except underneath of course, which REALLY makes my point)...we could have just shrunk the canopy down to a size that would look good on his chest. Maybe have the other end tuck away like it currently does--that one part being the compromise. And being smaller than what we have on this figure in alt mode, it would still look PERFECTLY FINE when transformed as a jet. I love the fact that most of the cockpit is original in robot mode, but I totally recognize how we shoot ourselves in the foot like this. I don't require that stupid cockpit to be "regulation F-15 size/length" or whatever. Everyone assumes it would look goofy, but be honest--it wouldn't. Only the plane enthusiasts would point it out with every photo from Google ever. And the rest of us wouldn't even care.

Still buying this. But I wish we would be better about that little bit of 'give' in situations like this.

 

Looks like his null rays are painted too. Is that the case? That would be a bummer...

 

There's a YouTube who does this. Windcharger!

Ever seen his videos? They're great.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9z9EUHB2zQXeID_r95acxP9vbSCJGhdq

 

Ugh looks like a nightmare to transform. If he comes in robot mode I’ll buy him but I hate complicated transformations for fear of breaking a tab or snapping a part. I really like the height tho. Would love to see how he looks next to MP Megatron

 

he comes in bot mode

 

Interesting. And I totally get the appeal of that. But for me personally I like to become as familiar as poss with the transformation with the ultimate goal being that I know it well enough I can do it unaided on the sofa while watching TV. A proper classic Masterpiece is for me a bot that I can do this with. I think I'm unlikely to ever get there with this one! TBH I may not even transform him, even thought I try and make a point of transforming every bot I buy at least once. But I really am only getting this one to update the look of my Decepticon leader shelf - as much as I love MP-11, he certainly sticks out somewhat nowadays.

 

That was a Bobby Skull Face level “maximum force, minimum finesse” transformation video. Who needs a spudger when you have a pair of scissors and a metal guitar pick?

There were definitely enough tolerance issues in that video to make me wait until other people have it hand before ordering one.

 

Only company I was fine with not seeing the transformation was DX9/Unique toys. But considering they are no longer in the game, I need to make sure my purchase is for something fun and not nightmarish.

 

Wow, so I just watched that video, and this beats Takara's (is that really hard to do anymore at this point?) in all aspects IMO. Now, personally, I'm still fine with Maketoys' Seekers, that being said, if I weren't broke and I knew for certain (no reason to think they won't do the others and possibly the coneheads) that they were making the rest of the Seekers, I'd be all in on this. That transformation is a bit of a bear, but I'm assuming this is a test shot, maybe final product? I'm not sure, but the materials obviously held up very well and the end result looks satisfying and cleaner underneath. I have minor gripes about this, but it easily gets my vote.

 

My initial impressions (I'll read other comments after this) is my only significant concern at the moment is the loose panel for the front landing gear.

There is some clear paint rub, but 99% of what I saw is internal for both modes so it won't bother me significantly. The worst on the outside was on the backpack, hopefully being careful with the transformation can avoid it. It would be better without the paint blemishes, but if it won't be seen on display oh well.

I am not familiar with this reviewer, and it could very well end up being this figure causing it, but so far I'm not inclined to really judge the transformation based on his handling of it. There were multiple times I wondered why he did things the way he did. Maybe the figure's engineering and clearances forces it, maybe it made it easier to keep things on camera, maybe he was just following bad instructions instead of finding the best way to actually do things, but several times I felt like (I could VERY easily be wrong) it would make more sense to do things in a different order.

 

For me it depends on the figure. Most of the time I feel the same way you do, there are 2 primary exceptions. One is for figures I'm not getting. I really appreciated the engineering UT did on their live action figures, but the bot modes looked terrible (not UT's fault, it was the character designs) so I didn't want to spend money on it but I liked seeing their magic in action. The other exception are figures like this one where my curiosity to see how it works overcomes my preference to figure things out on my own. I also tend to try and figure out how transformations work based on pictures the company shares, and as I've said before I had actually thought of and incorrectly dismissed the idea arms going into the legs. I really wanted to see how it actually worked and simply was not willing to wait until I have mine to do so.

 

I owned that, not a good toy. Love Ed from toyDojo but his manufacturers kind of screwed him with inferior product execution.

 

Hinged wrists and more or less fully articulated fingers! Nice! I still prefer three joints per finger and I like them to be able to splay but I realize 3P companies stopped doing that when all you whiners kept complaining about *checks notes* hands falling apart and pieces going everywhere and getting lost all the time. Pssh, dunno' why that would bother you so much.

Is it weird that I think the tail wings (stabilizers, tailplanes, I don't know what they're called) make his inner leg look better than if it were a solid piece. It's like an added bit of greeblie detail except it serves a purpose and corresponds to an alt mode part, which I just love (I enjoy my Transformers being nice and clean while still looking like Transformers).

I love the clever engineering. Most Starscreams have the legs collapse to meet the body; here's one that does the opposite with the body collapsing to meet the legs. Arms inside the legs is a nice idea. It's still a bit of a shame that with all that engineering he still ends up having an alt mode as thick/thicker than MP-52's.

Probably not, but I'm quite certain you're in a very small minority  

I'm not much of a plane enthusiast. I like them but I'm not the kind who could tell you their stats or the names of every plane that shows up in a movie. And yes, I would absolutely care. Make the damned alt modes as close as possible to the real world vehicle. Sacrifice the underside if need be, make a few minor tweaks as needed, but do your damnedest to make it look right (or at least good enough to trick me into thinking it's right). It's one of the things I don't like about FT - their car modes tend to more cartoon than real world - and it's one of the things I always loved about XTB - their Beachcomber could've just been a weird made up buggy but instead they modelled it after the Chenowth Hellfire and it came out amazing!

... admittedly, I may have just proven your point as I just looked at pics of the Hellfire and Arkose deviates from them more than I expected. I also enjoy DX9's Powerglide even though he bears only a passing resemblance to an A-10 Warthog and I definitely wouldn't like it if they compromised his bot mode to make his alt more realistic.