More and more I'm seeing figures where the design is putting a split chest on the robot mode (FT Kup or MT Downbeat for example). Maybe to make it collapse and give a slim profile or hide some feature. While I can understand why they do it, it seems to me to make an ugly seam right where there shouldn't be one on the character and I'm just not sure it's necessary. Most characters have their faction symbol there so unless they figure that in somehow, it would make that a little more difficult as well. What do you think?

 

noticed it too

I won't mind if it's seamless enough, or locked together quite well, unlike Alternity GTR T_T

 

Despotron has that issue, but most people shrug it off and just accept it.
I don't mind it all that much, but enough to keep my Despotron mistransformed so I don't have to notice the split chest on him.

And actually the more you look at it, it doesn't look all that bad when you don't flip the lower panel with the 3 indents up

 

I don't mind it too much if it's accurate to the G1 toy or how the character transformed on screen. Like MP Grimlock in dinomode. Otherwise, I'm not so keen.

 

And yet, there was a fairly vocal subset of fans who were unhappy that MP Sideswipe et al didn't have some sort of hinging mechanism to give him a show-accurate skinny chest, versus the broad chest that he wound up with.

Can't please everyone.

 

Can we have an option for "I love it when it's part of an ingenious transformation?" or "Depends on the reason for the split"? With Downbeat, the split allows his chest to collapse giving him a much thinner and better shape in robot mode. And the faction symbol is part of a false stripe between the collapsing parts, so the split chest has no effect on that - the split can only be seen through his bumper, and that's it. So in Downbeat, I'd say the split chest is a positive advantage, and none of the options in the poll reflect that...

 

That's obviously a vote for pudding then.

 

Well, I do like pudding...

 

Well said. The execution is KEY.

 

I completely agree. Also, MMC Terraegis has the sides fold in which is another excellent decision. I think it is case by case basis. I think FT Koot fails because of this and it breaks up the sculpt. I think XTB's version will be much better and not have this problem even though FT otherwise had a very good design. I also think FT is making a mistake with the bottom plate on Apache's chest. It is not accurate to the toon and makes the piece bulky in car and chopper mode that takes away from the sleek design. I think they got rid of it but I have seen it again.