Sounds normal for 3rd party products to me.

 

Preorders really mean nothing until you have an actual prototype that is close to completion shown. The release dates mean nothing. The only company right now that you can reasonably trust preorders and release dates is Fans Toys. KFC/XTB will complete something but it is going to be on their own time. They are currently focused on Motormaster but have over a dozen other figures waiting including Galvatron, Springer, Kup, Junkions, Buster, Hydra, Deathsaurus, Overlord, and this one. For the past year they have been able to do endless reissues and focus on the Stunticons. That time is over now. The next most recently promised bots are Springer and Kup. Let's see if they keep that promise and can do more than 3 figures a year that were promised as early as 2015-2016. These are the last two main companies pushing G1 MP so it would be good to see this one stay solid and reestablish the success and release schedule of 2017 where they almost got out a figure every month or two.

 

Yep. XTB clearly has taken priority over KFC.

For example, what happened with these?
KFCTOYS Skyshock & Blackcloud (3P MP Dreadwind and Darkwing)

 

I'm giving till TFcon 2020 in Florida for them to show something or else I say they are officially on ice.

 

Wondering if we'll see some stuff get delayed majorly and then pop up with closer to completion prototypes at the 2020 TFCon?

I really hope those still happen. At this point, I'd wager that Fans Hobby will get to them first (not that I'd complain).

 

I found out at TFCon that the KFC designer has taken a step back from third party, / Transformers entirely. Probably burnt out at this point, plus a few other things.

So putting two and two together, I'd guess Keith is trying to find an engineer he trusts to pick up the existing KFC projects and finish them (if not take over the line altogether), combined with XTB really cranking lately, just leads to KFC projects taking a back seat.

I feel Keith himself is still very interested in and excited about getting these Masterforce projects done, just hard to find the right engineer, that is trust worthy (see: when Crackups design was stolen and KO'd before he even got released) and easier to focus on the XTB stuff.

 

I wonder if this guy got put on the back burner due to low pre-orders because of the freaking insane price. I'd actually be really curious to know what preorder numbers it got.

 

I want these but I'm not pre-ordering until I see it further along or know for a fact that it is coming

 

I want this version of God Ginrai, but the overall price is prohibitive. Something needs to be done about that.

 

I would really hope that's the main cause of the delay. After all, its primary comparison is going to be MB-06 and MB-11. Total cost of the complete FansHobby offering is around US$330. KFC, on the other hand, is around US$480, for what is still ultimately just two figures and a separate large accessory - that's up in Masterpiece-style combiner territory. To justify that sort of price premium it would need to be damned-near perfect, not just the "pretty good" of the renders we've seen to date.

Prices from ShowZ, current as of the time of this post but subject to change before release.

 

To play devil's advocate, the "separate large accessory" and raijin should be larger and somewhat more complex (overall) than mp-44.

Fanshobby never went for the Masterforce accurate look so they took many liberties and didn't have to engineer from the same aesthetic constraints as this project

 

That's fair. I still believe the comparison is going to be made against MB-06 and MB-11, though, given they're purporting to be the same character(s?). And, despite its inaccuracies to source, Power Baser is really well stylised (in my opinion, anyway) as opposed to just being "wrong".

I don't know that I'd agree Raijin would trump MP-44 in terms of complexity, though. Ginrai's design lends itself far better to being turned into a physical figure - the visible wheels on his hips, cartoon-accurate hinges for his arms (and cartoon accurate hollow between them behind the cab), double-sided cab to allow the taper, and so forth. It's not entirely without its tricks but they're definitely more manageable.

 

Dude, you make this post in soooo many threads. Have you seen a doctor about this memory loss?

 

I should have clarified that i meant the "package" of raijin plus trailer should overall be more complex than the total contents of mp44 out of the box. Mp44's cab should and will be more complex, but the trailer for raijin should and will be more complex than mp44's trailer, just by virtue of requirement.

But agree, could deal with a better price

 

Oh, I absolutely agree. For all the tricks you could use, especially considering the open space inside a trailer, it's going to add a lot of complexity. Double as such when you consider they want to have it open enough to fit at least one car-bot inside. The renders make it appear that most the actual "meat" of Grand Raijin is in the front third of the trailer, so there's some serious contortion and/or Tetris going on there.

 

You can't listen to any company. Fanstoys are synonymous with missing dates or flat out delaying shit for years.

 

Here's hoping we can get an update on this guy in this event

 

Lol I do realise I say that a lot. There’s just too many transformers these days. And some of them get forgotten about like this.

 

@ibot any updates on these dudes? 

 

Maybe reconsidered and deprioritized