Another awful sunbow design is Sideswipe, starscream, soundwave, and prime. All of them puffy and bloated unnecessarily, and again, only in some of their depictions. Imagine getting an MP10 with a prime head that's overly rounded with small ears, big eyes, and an extra long face-plate. If we got literal versions of those designs in MP form I don't think the line would still be around and as popular as it is today.

Best prime face eva  .



I agree that megs has more detailing than Inferno, which does redeem him a bit. The pics with him and prime next to each other really emphasis the change in direction. MP10 Prime is not proportioned like his toon counterpart at all, especially in the hips, while MP Megatron looks heavily inspired from some of the poorer depictions of toon Megatron. Anything where the animator got lazy and drew a disproportionate crushed upper body and huge hips to represent looking up at megatron from a lower angle is apparently what koboyashi used for inspiration for this design. Thankfully, we didn't have 100% toon accurate depictions for the characters until now. A 60% awesome collection is better than none.

 

Sorry in advanced to anyone reading my long ass post , I will get to my point in the end.....

MP1 was a dream come true for me when I bought him(when he 1st came out) and when MP10 came out I was disappointed to say the least . Then again I didn't own MP10 yet or held him in hand , nor could I know yet what was to come of the MP line . It took me quite awhile to come around to the new scale lack of gimmicks and accessories...or precieved lack of said stuff . It took me years to get over MP10's price tag and bite the bullet ,never ever getting rid of my MP1 by the way .
I have notice the change in the detailing in MP line and it doesn't bother me at all as my vote reflects , What I am THRILLED about is that the scale has been better over all sense MP10 . I was pretty disappointed with MP08 being small BUT now it is a wonderful time to be a MP G1 collector and we have choices ! Lots of them for the most part and I wish more of the fandom could just be happy instead of so much whining about mostly nothing big (I am not saying that's what this post is about).
I will put myself out there by saying I mostly buy habro/takara products and try to wait for them to come out with the characters that I desire (S1 S2 and the movie cast) BUT I am not apposed to buying 3rd party and have a few that I love more that official offerings....Bii I'm looking at you  
If I wasn't trying to show support of the MP brand (In high hopes of continued G1 releases in this scale) I would purchase MMC's offerings for Grapple and Inferno as I feel they look more like MP10 thru lets say MP25 in styling but I really do like the official versions just as much(transforming hidden ladder I'm looking at you ), so no big deal to me . I would also be trying to figure out which Trailbreaker and Hoist to buy as well . I have also promised myself I would hold off on buying Gundog till the new year in hopes of an official release getting an announcement  . But i digress ....

My point being in the end with all my rambling is this , Do I like the new direction ? I'm more than happy with it . Do I wish the styling was more consistant sense MP10 ? Yes I do . You know what's more important to me ? QC improvement and a halt on the rising prices because they my friends are getting out of hand  

 

OK some fair points however why shouldn't people be allowed to critique a figure? Critiquing involves discussing ALL aspects of a figure not just singing koombaya and blowing sunshine up a figure's backside.
I do think some people are hyper sensitive and seem to think that anything other than gushing praise is bashing when it really isn't.
Although bashing and trolling does of course occur.

 

I don't think it was a compromise, I think it was just a different design goal. I mean, MP-1's piston elbows/knee's, light up Matrix, Wrist communicators, moving mouthpiece, the never normally seen 'mouth' behind the faceplate, shin vents (linked to shock absorber feet) and the alt mode shock absorbers, etc etc or MP-3's flaps, air brakes, radar dish, titty missiles and stuff like that weren't homages to the original toys, they were shoved in by the designers to try and create what they thought (at the time) to be the best figure they could.

And I preferred that.

 

Well I think I prefer MP-11 to MP-3.

 

I never said ppl couldn't critique but there's a difference between that and just shitting on something for the sake of it without any basis and/or reasoning besides making yourself feel better. Maybe I'm reading things wrong but there's a hell of a lot of the latter where it's almost like a case of verbal diarrhoea first without actually looking at anything, almost knee jerk like. Mp36 bbts price being the obvious recent example. In that case I often wonder how the hell these ppl get through a day.

It still doesn't explain why alot of ppl like to focus on perceived negatives of a figure they have no intention of buying instead of looking at the positives of the one they do like. It's supposed to be a fun hobby....isn't it?

Maybe I'm doing it wrong and should just constantly complain about things not being right because it's not to my particular taste even though there are other options that would suit them better.

 

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Opinions... different than my own! My... one true... weakness.

Being slavishly animation accurate will certainly ruin the masterpiece G1 line if it continues. Especially when basing designs off animation that was horribly inconsistent. Interesting, really because I think we all agree that any further MP-Beast Era figures need to be as faithful to the cartoon as possible. Looking at you, Terrorsaur.

MP-10 was meant to be healthy balance of all things G1 Optimus Prime. Is he perfect... No, because opinions will vary on what makes a perfect Prime. Were people willing to buy him to the point where he sells out and get multiple reissues? Yes. So they must've done something right.

MP-11, does look better than MP-03 buuuut MP-11 merely went back to the original prototype designs and cleaned a few things up.

Ironhide, tough case, the original toy looked nothing like the animation models so they obviously went the right direction... And then went too far with excessively flat panels and minimal effort to clean up the hips and ass cheek tires. Same with Inferno... flat panels looks lazy and cheap.

Megatron... I can see what they wanted to do with him. I do. But the final point is that he looks like an old man with his big, black diaper pulled up to his armpits. And that gun mode... awful. No ones gonna get shot waving that they around for all the panel lines.

 

Lol you're definitely missing out then passing them by. Amazing figures, far better in hand. Yeah they have hip-panels but otherwise amazing transformation that FansToys (who I own the Dibot set of) can dream of emulating or coming up with themselves.

 

Problem is, if your main focus is just displaying the figures in bot mode, the transformation doesn`t really matter, only the look of the bot mode. FT Hound is the perfect example, he looks like in the cartoon, but has enough panel lines and details to not look plain. And none of his limbs or body parts are hollow.

 

I was going to buy FT Hound but it just looks off and blocky in ways that I know Takara's won't. FT are superior in terms of die-cast, rubber tyres and detailing, however the aesthetics, transformation, and plastic quality of Takara's MPs is superior. A perfect blend of both would be great but I can't see it.

I'm also pretty sure TT will release a toy deco Megatron and Shockwave. They need to milk the molds somehow.

 

I agree on the transformation, I´m not sure on the plastic quality, FT materials feels also sturdy to me. Tolerances are way superior on Takara. Aesthetics depends on the mold, the Sideswipe, Ultra Magnus & Bluestreak molds are really nice, also Soundwave, but Takara went in another direction with Tracks, Shockwave & Megatron, which I don`t like that much. Inferno is overall the nicest figure from this character, but his legs without any panellines kill it for me.

 

One of my hopes for the MP line was an updated version of all of the original Diaclone cars in MP form. Tracks was the first one I really disliked.

But I'm skipping Grapple/Inferno for sure. And at this point, if they DO Hoist and Trailbreaker, it's almost certain they'll be based on the Sunbow designs, which I strongly dislike for both characters. So no matter what, that's two Diaclone molds I'll be skipping.

That only leaves Jazz, Sunstreaker, Hound, Mirage, and Skids. But again, they're gonna come out looking like straight Sunbow designs. They can certainly skirt licensing issues now by having vague cartoony alt modes. Not sure if that even "counts" as completing the Diaclone cars. Guess I'll wait and see how they actually look. IF they ever come out that is.

 

I think if we all were able to find it in ourselves to empathize with what the other is offering as critique, it would help us be able to realize that it's not a personal stab at anyone who thinks otherwise.

This text thing has a way of lacking the expression we use in real life to decypher the intent of the words

 

I don't mind the aesthetics, and the engineering of the recent MP's look incredible, but the bland coloring and lack of details is awful. Hate to say it, but Shockwave is looking worse and worse everyday, he just doesn't fit in with the rest of my collection. As for Inferno, I cancelled my pre-order today. He takes the blandness to a whole new level, gonna go 3P for once. Although I will buy MP Grapple  

Besides, I'm not convinced Takara is all-in on anime version only. I like to think there's some new kind of corporate ploy by Takara to release the anime-inspired deco, and then release the toy/detailed deco later. Milk some money out of people for the less-desired deco first, and then make them double-dip for the toy deco later, umm hmmm.

When (not if) an eventual deep-purple deco Shockwave is announced, the lavender-purple one is gonna go on the sell list.

 

From Ultra Magnus, possibly Bumblebee, I've not been happy with Takara's direction. It would have been OK if they released two versions, but I think they've lost their way. This is especially frustrating for Shockwave and Megatron, as Hasbro probably won't release them in the US...

Anyway, the options for the OP's poll seem to be too specific, IMO. Instead of giving "Yes/No" answers, they should be changed to just open answers to an open question. That's why, although one option had "they've used too many cartoon style figures", I didn't choose it because it had " No" at the front.

 

I always wanted them to look like real-world version of what was in the cartoons & comics. That's what the cartoon and comic were to me; budget versions of characters from this awesome fantasy universe. The photos that were posted recently on both here and Facebook (shared by several TF fan pages), of FT Willis and Badcube's Gundog, were what I'd REALLY like to see MPs as; highly-detailed versions of the primitive and insultingly basic cartoon characters.

 

I totally agree that Willis and Gundog have the ultimate look of what a Masterpiece is in my eyes

 

Ι waited for a proper Mp Megatron like.......Ever since I waited for an Mp Galvatron. After I saw that....No just no.

And then they did the same to Sunstreaker (to me an indifferent character all things considered) so yeah.

There is toon accurate and proper and there is toon accurate and reatarded. They chose the later, I chose to take a hike from any such future products.

 

Something I was trying to point out elsewhere in another thread is I do not like cartoon only accuracy. I said the galvatron I want is anime or cartoon accurate from the movie. Fans toys and Dx9 isn’t quite those colors.

I said I would like one in the style of that animation and the reason why is fans toys could do a movie repaint and it would be all good cause that figure has a good amount of detail.

I do not like paying more and getting less sculpting. I’m all for cartoon accuracy on a figure with some detailing.

My whole point is there’s a happy medium to this dilemma.

But why would takara change they are making the figures with less detailing and charging more. So when they decide to throw detailing on these things we won’t be able to afford them cause if your charging more for less total detailing their not going to reduce the price when they add the detailing back into them.

So some of us can’t afford it now so then it will be even worse

 

I miss the added detail of the earlier MP’s. If someone knocked off Inferno with the details of Hell Fire then I might want it.