What, you missed the color protos of Smokescreen and Prowl hiding in the background of Megatron print proto pics?

Everyone I follow on Weibo R&Ds with 3d prints. Molding is a step that is costly if changes need made, so it's much quicker and more economical to work out kinks in prints.

Printing protos is what's getting us as many releases as we are a year. It makes development super fast.

 

I'm not complaining about the process used, I was simply remarking that they seem stuck at that stage in the process, and are seemingly not far along in the tooling, which means releases are probably nowhere soon.

So I was theorizing that their allotted factory space is either tied up in Prime repaints, or they are looking for a new factory space / contract for the next phase, who knows. But last year they were showing a draft, showing the color, bam it was out. Now we have a whole slew of 3d prints, and nothing else. Which could mean from the photos that we've seen the guy's garage that he works out of with the 3d printer, but they don't have the factory ressources to go to the next phase.

 

Sorry if I came off combative.

I'd also posit that this lull is very similar to their pre-Optimus one, that was due to joint development of a Masterpiece and Legends scale figure. I think we can safely assume Megatron will receive the same treatment.

I'll agree that they're a small operation. Granted my interaction with them is dated (summer 2018), but when I was discussing design work with them, it was communicated with me that they are mostly university students, and there's just one designer.

 

wat?! such enterprising fellas!

 

For real?? That would explain why there's an almost fetish-like tendency to put a really clever leg transformation in the majority of the designs.

 

you didn't! Just wanted to make my point more clear.

But yeah, if they're students (!!), then life happens, and we might not get more MS for loooong time, if my early twenties were an indication.

 

or we might get two left feet in one figure if my own twenties will be an indication. jeezuscrikes talk about getting hammered almost every day after class. then (miraculously) showing up the next day with a bad hangover. repeat process.

 

Gosh, it's not like they haven't been releasing figures. Maybe not at the speed some would like, but Hoist and Cosmos were not released THAT long ago, right?

I do agree their MP scale Prime and his million repaints probably pushed back the timeline on their other designs. No complaints. I'm not really doing MP scale anymore and I couldn't pass that one up. But part of me dreads the idea that the same will happen with Megatron.... That's a figure I'm not super excited about. It looks nice but (heresy alert) I'm not that excited about this version of the character. Yes, it's G1 but i didn't get the figure even back then. The only reason I'm even vaguely considering the MST version is that he will scale better with their Optimus than the Iron Factory one does. And I'm not sure that matters enough to me so still on the proverbial fence.

I am excited for their jets and Soundwave, though. I'd love more Autobots but just like in childhood, the good guys are seriously outnumbering the bad guys right now.

 

Combiners. Decepticons have like three combiners out now, outnumbering Autobots pretty bad there...

Just kidding, you're right. It makes a little more sense that the Decepticon Jets(and Megatron) would be a bit bigger than the Autobots, making a 2-to-1 ratio a bit more plausible but there's still a serious shortage of villains. I have addressed this by Troop-building my Seeker Corps with Kallite and Amethyst copies, and giving Shockwave a Clone in the form of his Combiner Wars Legion figure(which is also a play on the "Shockwave-using-a-gun-version-of-himself" animation error). I also hope a we see some decent Straxus and Jhiaxus figures sometime; there's not nearly enough Decepticon Scientists... I also have my WST Thrust in my display as an additional(tiny) soldier/drone. Decepticons were kind of always obsessed with copying themselves, combining, doing whatever they could to push the species' limits...

 

Every company ever makes its initial prototypes from prints, no exceptions. If they jumped straight from CAD to injection moulding it'd be incredibly stupid

 

My shortage of Decepticons is a typical thing for me - or it was when I was a kid. I rarely went out of my way to get Decepticons. Even when they were available I tended to skip over them. In G1 Megatron's case, I didn't care for the alt mode and his robot mode even for the time seemed homely to me. I did get G2 Megatron when it came out.

I haven't gotten any of the Legends scale combiners yet. I have teetered on getting the Combaticons but always ended up going for something else.

 

Same here. I NEVER liked that Megatron turned into a Handgun that needed to be wielded by another character. The IF Megatron may be very stylyzed, but it totally works for me. It even matches the height of my THS-02 Convoy! I am very interested to see where things go with MS Megatron.

 

I sure hope so. PE Reflector barely qualifies as a Transformer. Three figures that turn into boxes and then everything that makes it a camera gets partformed onto the boxes, including a plate that forms the entire bottom.

 

I’m a huge Megatron, gonna end with 3. IF, NA, and MS. 4 if you include the IF BW Megs.

I want to see these in color though, see how they look with that muted vinyl plastic that they’re determined to continue using.

 

Yep. They call him "the wizard". I could never figure out if it was a lost in translation thing, but given what they've done with things like accordion panels, I think it fits.

 

I really hate the plastic they use. Wow, its bendable. Woopie Doo. It also leads to random pin joints being loose for no other reason.

 

ok guys didgibash e finished! please like comm, ent share and subcsribe!

 

JK, here it is

 

Looks great and gets me even more hype. MST is pretty generous with paint apps, so I'm really anxious to see how everyone turns out.

 

Here's hoping the Reflector gets a little more attention to detail, especially on the legs so they are more G1 accurate.

Otherwise, I love pictures but I would greatly appreciate having the actual items in hand at this point. I mean, I literally have 5 Decepticons (includes NA Megs as filler, MF Weirdwolf, MS Cyclonus, B&A Devastator, LG Trypticon) right now against, MMC Sky Lynx, OP, SS, RA, Inferno, Grapple, Beachcomber, Seaspray, Trailbreaker, Hoist, Blaster, UM, Huffer, Siege OS, and Fort Max.

Help me out MS.