So far the FT render looks way better to me than the official prototype, which seems to have the usual TT backback and once again a strange face.

My only fear is that FT will screw up the next Minibot after their Huffer. That figure looked marvelous in early stages and ended up looking off.

 

FT nailed Huffer at the prototype stages then decided, nah. What everyone REALLY wanted was giant fish eyes and a chromed out face.  

 

if that really is a tt cliffjumper proto which it does look to be i will be buying ft's , if ft made another bumblebee i would probably swap out the official ! i think ft are nailing the minibots ... maybe huffer could look a bit better

i mostly never miss a new ft figure ! only one was ft29t on the first run , most retailers give notice albeit short , and some like bombusbee stagger the drops , unless your skint at the time there is no need to miss any of them regardless of smaller runs ... which i don't believe are as small as it is being made out , false flag to cause panic and sell units faster

 

Tbh I bet they delay cliffjumper if that MP turns out to be true. They invented a new company to release their soundwave after all lol

 

That's exactly why I'll go TT, I am not running the gauntlet of luck to get a fanstoys cliff preorder if I know I can just jump on Amazon Japan and grab a TT cliff easily when preorders go up. Then there is the fact I have mp45 bee, this reveal matches the aesthetic of that figure perfectly (I will admit it, I like bee V2).

Until today I never thought we'd see anything from TT that's a Porsche, guess I was wrong? Still fanstoys looks cleaner and really good in its own way and will be built like a tank, so I've no doubt you can't go wrong on this either way you swing it... But gotta say Takara always get me with that toon shit, I love it.

 

I feel like I’m the only FT huffer fan

 

You're not alone. I think he looks great

 

For me, it comes down to how long the wait between them is.

After FT Huffer releases, Cliffjumper will be the only character I need to complete my Ark crew lineup. The idea of having to wait a year or more after that, just to fill that one hole, is painful.

So if Takara can pop their Cliffjumper out quickly, I'll buy it. It may be messy in the back, but much like MP-45 it'll still round out a toon shelf nicely.

 

TT remolding their crummy Bumblebee v2 as a Cliffjumper is a point in FT's favor
However FT isn't out of the woods yet for me. I'm still concerned about...
paint chipping
clunky transformations
limited articulation (I'm looking at you Hunk!)
and last but not least is that they stopped with pre-release copies. So reviewers don't get them before anyone else. So if you're interested at all you're forced to make a choice and either take a leap of faith or wait for the reviews and then chase one done on the secondary market at increased prices in a lot of cases.

 

Takara announced Shockwave, I sold FT's
Takara announced Hound, I sold FT's
Takara announced Skyfire, I sold FT's
Fanstoys announced Soundwave and his minons, I sold Takara's
Fanstoys announced Cliffjumper, I won't buy Takara's

Keep the options coming, I'm enjoying the cycle. I still have 9 slots I want to fill from season one.

 

Correcto. Hasbro clearly had an impact on their decision making !

 

I know right. Its hilarious that another company is trying to provide collectors with characters that takara doesnt deem "profitable enough". Tt got scared by ft so now they have a cliffjumper scrounged together from leftover 45 parts. Not much more to it than that.

 

I am really looking forward to him too actually.

 

I'm expecting the FT to be about the size of brawn and beachcomber and I've never really thought about it before but TT bumblebee is crazy smaller in comparison.

 

True. But then one must ask…. Why I’m a trying to size match b2, when I don’t really like it.

seems a ft bee would be inevitable

 

yeah my point is that MP BB and new CJ will be small which isn't as good as scale FT has been working with

 

Well, TT decides what the MP scale is, like it or not. Having a preference is great though.

But Bee’s scale is just perfect. FT does whatever they want, no cohesiveness really.

 

You would be surprised, for example their tried and tested wheeze of under-releasing a figure and rereleasing it months later at double the cost has likely been ruined by TTs offering.

 

If the original silhouette is anything to go by, FT Cliffjumper will be about the same size as Takara Bumblebee and Cliffjumper.

 

They are doing a great job on the minibots that's for sure!