I'm trying to get an idea of Takara MP gestation periods. I'm defining this as the period from announcement to release. Can anyone point me in the right direction if this has already been done elsewhere? If not, anyone able to help fill in the missing dates for when Takara first announced MP's in the list below? I'm not interested in accuracy to the day - nearest month is more than adequate I'd happily take the date of the first post on tfw2005 forum for that figure as accurate enough - but I can't find the original forum posts for most of the below, ___________________announced____Released MP-01 Optimus Prime..............................11/12/2003 MP-03 Starscream...................................28/09/2006 MP-05 Megatron......................................29/03/2007 MP-08 Grimlock......................................26/03/2009 MP-10 Optimus Prime..............................24/09/2011 MP-11 Starscream...................................31/03/2012 MP-12 Sideswipe.....................................27/10/2012 MP-13 Soundwave...................................26/01/2013 MP-17 Prowl...........................................28/09/2013 MP-18 Blue Streak...................................16/10/2013 MP-19 Smokescreen................................14/12/2013 MP-20 Wheeljack..............01/06/2013......20/09/2014 MP-21 Bumblebee.............01/06/2013......29/11/2014 MP-22 Ultra Magnus.................................27/12/2014 MP-25 Tracks..........................................07/11/2015 MP-27 Ironhide.................01/06/2015......30/01/2016 MP-29 Shockwave....................................26/03/2016 MP-30 Ratchet.........................................23/04/2016 MP-33 Inferno...................20/04/2016......26/11/2016 MP-35 Grapple........................................25/02/2017 MP-36 Megatron......................................01/04/2017 MP-39 Sunstreaker..................................22/12/2017 MP-44 Optimus Prime........22/02/2018......31/08/2019 MP-45 Bumblebee.............05/02/2019......25/11/2019 MP-47 Hound....................29/07/2018......26/12/2019
It's fairly easy to roll back through the news archive under the Masterpiece section to find the dates, but I wont do the work for you, especially seeing a you've omitted the Beast Wars releases from you list! Even if you don't care for them they'd give you a better idea of what sort of 'gestation period' to expect. Transformers Masterpiece - Transformers News - TFW2005 I also notice you are not making the distinction between teased and announced, MP-44 for example was teased in May 2018 but not announced until June for example.
Thanks Booster Gold, and good points all-round. I think for my purposes, I'm happy with 'teased' as the first point at which we became aware there was a figure, so that's my date I'll take a trawl back through the news of years gone past and when I'm done, produce a lovely bar chart
Good stuff. You don't want to see my data on prices(yes I've done the work because I'm obcessed!!).. that curve only goes in one direction.
Ha! Yes, I don't doubt that! Had a great lunch hour looking back through the first (last!?) 20 pages of news you linked to - really good fun looking back at the news articles from 2003-2009 and the grey prototype photos of Megs v1, Grimlock, Sideswipe etc!! Should be fairly quick now to complete my dates Okay, stats gathered. Not really sure this shows anything useful at all!!! Still, I had fun collecting the info and looking back on posts gone past
Haha, sorry. Beast Wars were a little after my time. The MP's do look awesome though - I particularly like the look of the Cheetah one (sorry, I don't know the name). Not having been into them as a kid I have to draw the line at G1 or I'll have no money left!!
For some reason linking images to my web hosting isn't working so here's a directly uploaded version. We are now in a rare space in time where there are no G1 Ark figures we're waiting on from Takara Hope this doesn't last long into 2020 before they announce a plethora of Ark figures!
