Not sure that this 100% swings me to replace my seekers yet, but I will say that the wings don't bother me one bit ... just doesn't seem that weird to me  

 

For me, the hollowed out wings are what separates MP from CHUG aesthetics. Granted the rest of the figure looks MP, but hollow wings scream CHUG Jetfire to me. As I look at all of my MPs, from front to back, I don't see any that have a hollowed part that looks remotely close to what is going on here.

There's plenty of things that could have been done to "cost cut" as it's been put, that wouldn't have taken away from the figure visually. It just seems though that this was the easiest solution. And the cost cutting doesn't seem to have been done as a means to lower the price of the figure, but rather to maintain a level of profit. So 3rd party, in that regard, is becoming Hasbro/TT.

 

Business does things for profit. Shocker.

 

Way to completely miss the point for a shot at a sarcastic response.

The point is, Hasbro/TT sacrifice figures to save on production costs and increase price.

3rd party has set a precedent of NOT CUTTING CORNERS.

 

Are we suddenly forgetting the "debacle" of people discovering the doubled-up parts on Maketoys Utopia and Pandinus, and FansProject's Dinobots?

Third Party manufacturers aren't exempt from good business sense. They need to do things like that to stay afloat as well

Just because they're not bound by Hasbro/TakaraTomy's financial limitations doesn't mean they're truly unbounded. There's the point where they have to do the cost/benefit analysis of all those extra embellishments and say "enough is enough".

 

I see all of these references between the relationship of costs and price and just thought I would add this. The price is determined first. Typically they have had a $140 MSRP but apparently this one is set at $125. It's not tied to the costs, it's tied to the market for their production run (all of the Seekers that have saturated the market, Takara dropping their price, and the KOs share of the market). You cannot charge $200 for a Seeker and you probably cannot charge $150 because of the market. From there they budget the production to hit a profit margin. When problems arise they make decisions for how to reduce the costs to stay within budget. Spence obviously highlighted one example. The challenge for developers is they could make a $300 version but who is buying. For simplicity, the goal is make me the best damn SS with a $125 MSRP and a 25% margin (on MSRP) for a 2000 piece run. With enough of these done now they know pretty much all the costs and it comes down to staying on target. In that example, an additional $30K mold would have been half of the profit. That is the gravity of these decisions. People think $125 minus Maketoys costs and then they get the profits. No, add in shipping fees, distributors cut, etc. That profit funds MTRM-12 or doesn't.

I have no problem understanding why these things were done. The problem I have is the mission. This should have been a HUGE priority and all MT had to do was commit. It could have dropped before the KOs. I spent money on five Seekers that I love but would have given that money to MT without hesitation. I think the Seeker market was there for the definitive version to take over and would have reduced the risk of this being on one job. I think this was a license to print money and no one could have competed. I know I would have bought all three main ones and even a couple repaints. If they remolded for the coneheads I would have had an impossible time saying no. I am definitely 100% in on Howling Meteor. That's my Starscream. Even as is I love him to death. He really is a beautiful figure.

 

I'm not bothered by the hollowed out wings, besides you know someone will design some fillers.

 

I will definitely buy. Love this figure.

 

That's because MT got the F-15's wing washout totally wrong. (Takara is only a bit wrong). Washout----having the tip of the wing have decreased incidence relative to the root. In English, that means the leading edge at the tip, is lower than it is at the root. Basically, an F-15's wing is pretty flat, like most fighter jets. But as you start getting towards the tip, the whole wing should start twisting down, so that when you reach the very tip---you've got a definite "nose-down tilt" there. MT applied that nose-down bend to the entire wing, instead of just the top. Making it way too thick across most of the span.

Takara applied it just to the tip, but they seemed to have bent down both the leading and trailing edges. Still too curved/arched, but less so than MT. But it's still a decent attempt, and 10x closer than what MT did since they only did it to the tip as it should be, and not the entire wing.

*and I hope no one brings up "toon accuracy" for this because there is no way this was in any way represented/omitted/thought about in the show.

::edit:: Found a good pic showing it well:

 

Um, just looking at the ones I have in arms reach; the reverse side of Thrust's rear tailfins and the underside of the large rectangular panel on his back (which ends up facing forward in robot mode), the backs of MP-36 upper arms, the under side of Road Rage's feet (and presumably Tracks). I suspect I could find more if I went looking.

 

why hello


and the side of mp-12's legs mp-21s arms. mp-25's back

 

I'll give you thrusts tail fins. The rest is stretching a bit.

 

Same.

 

My main concern is still the head. I mean, seeing better pictures the face DOES look better, if on par with MP3 [which was okay] but i'm kiiiiiiiiiiinda hoping they or somebody else will make a new, slightly bigger, more cartoon styled head that we can plop on and off if we choose. Who do I get ahold of to make that happen?  
It can come out with the inevitable coronation add-on kit!  

But yeah. The wings dont bother me. It still looks incredibly superior to MP3 and I say bring it on

 

And don't forget mp track's hollow chest

 

Any pics of this guy with the actual MP Megatron yet, or are they all just with that shitty 3P wannabe version so far?

 

I also like to see that the chest exhaust be properly transformed when in Jetmode. It's something that I've only seen MP lines are able to do but nothing else. So voyager size and chest exhaust in jet mode face forward in Jet mode will make it a buy.

 

Guys, let's find all the worst things Takara did in their MP line, often on figures costing less than half the price, and pretend that justifies a 3P making poor design decisions with an expensive 3P Masterpiece product!

You guys are too much.  

 

The back of Mp-36 looks pretty bad compared to this...

 

This is ironic in a thread about a product that could also be classified as a "3P wannabe"