Ironically, probably cheaper than the Botcon toy it replaces... Duke is the purple version of Maketoys replacement body for the Battle Tanker upgrade.





So, which one do you think it best?

 

I'll take that with a reissue of that trailer!

 

Duke as in Duke of Destruction? Cause I thought of a GI Joe style figure when I saw then name. I like the Maketoys version with the shoulder pieces - comes off as "more" evil.

 

He's the duke of New Kaon, he's A number one!

 

first time seein this retool and holy shit. the mold already has a kinda movie feel toit and with that mad max style vehicle mode i want it in traditional colors as a cybertronian movie OP. screw that protoform nonsense.

 

Just need the Nemesis Cape and chains' colors changed to royal purple and gold and you'll have an amazing figure right there.

 

Crap now I'd wish I'd bought one of the purple armor sets way back.

 

Indeed. Something about the added gold bits plus the overall scheme that make it look far better than the DIA one... I dig the DIA, but SG would've been great... if a suitable substitute were available at the time.

Dig the fact that they're offering a core bot deco'ed as SG Prime to go with the very nicely done SG Tanker deco... but man... I can't stand those shoulder kibble bits... if there was one bit on the RTS Prime mold they shouldn't have retooled... it's that. Looks funky in unarmored mode as two giant shoulder kibble chunks. Then, in armored mode, based on Novae, the older Shoulder addon bits *are not* compatible.

Honestly... if a decent KO SG Prime came out... I'd consider replacing the legs on it with the Maketoys one, simply because that's where the vital updates/improvements are. The rest of RTS Prime was well done, and well-designed. The legs *needed* updating because the weight of the tankers is a bit much for ball-jointed hips.

 

So, I wonder if we'll see a version of the cab and armor based on the color scheme of the E-Hobby Laser Ultra Magnus?



Also, I would REALLY like to see a version of the truck and armor with a deco based on DOTM Megatron's vehicle mode, with maybe a G1-esque bucket head Megatron head sculpt.



As far as Duke goes, my choice wasn't on the poll: I have and love Shattered Glass Prime and the Battle Sentinel armor already, but I look forward to adding Duke to my collection as well.

(The takeaway from this post should be that I REALLY love this mold; it's one of my favorite transforming robots, period.)

 

I like the retools. Looks like the arm/shoulder articulation should be much improved over the original. I'm not interested in a SG deco, though. Release it in Ultra or Delta Magni, and I'm tempted. Especially if they come up with an adapted battle tanker armor (particularly arms, legs, and ideally shoulder pylons and missiles).

 

Yes! I'll be all over this!

 

I was just reading the Maketoys fiction on their site. Seems His full name is Duke Grail. He's depicted as third in command after Battle Sentinel Gento (Optimus Prime) and Atorasu (Dia Atlas). He is not depicted as evil, nor a clone or mirror universe version of anyone. He's a Bushido trained by Gento.

 

I like the Maketoys version so much more its not even funny. I've always hated how the CHUG toy looks in pretty much every facet. Head, shoulders, the forearm kibble, the legs. Maketoys are experts at polishing a turd.

 

I'd got with the Botcon one to be honest. The maketoys figure is nice and all, but it has a very annoying habit of having it's shoudlers clip with the front part of the cab in robot mode which hinders the aritculation there and can prohibit the arms from moving up at the shoulders. You can alleviate that with moving the cab pieces further back, but Hasbro did it better by incorprating the cab parts as the shoulders. It doesn't stop movement or anything. The issue with that figure is made more prevelant in the powered up mode, the arm movement is very much hindered.

 

I'll try to take pictures on Friday or Saturday when I gt my new phone, it will illustrate what I mean better.

 

Fix the ankle joints. Be creative about it and keep it covered in bot mode somehow. He looks good from top down to his calf for now. And after that, I would consider only if there is a re-release of the sentinel battle tanker. This mold is a huge incomplete without its tanker.

 

So I am digging the repaint of Hyper Novae and like it better than the SG Prime

 

That looks superb, very tempted to get him as my SG Optimus

 

More excited for this than Pandinus.