Hi everyone,

This is my first post on this forum. Although, I've been reading it for a while and I keep finding it a great source of useful information on all things Transformers.

I used to own the original 1984 Optimus when I was a kid, and I can still remember it to this day as the single greatest toy I have ever played with. Sadly, it was taken away from me by my primary school teacher for showing it off to other kids during class, and never returned.

Anyway, I had been toying with the idea of getting an Optimus for a while and after some research, I decided to go for the Takara's 2003 Masterpiece version. And it is as awesome as I thought it would be  

However, owning it awoke a bit of a collector inside me, and now I have a craving to go for the MP-10 version as well. However, it seems that the listings available on eBay and other sources provide different dates of issue for that particular model, namely: 2011, 2014 and 2017. My question to you is whether there are any significant differences (if any) between these MP-10 versions? Or are they simply re-issues?

I'd be grateful for any info you can provide on the topic.

Many thanks in advance!

 

I think the three versions you are talking about are the original Japanese MP-10 Convoy TakaraTomy 2011 release, Hasbro's Masterpiece Optimus Prime 2012/2014 release/reissue and Hasbro's MP-10 Optimus Prime 2017 release.

Having pieced this together from Optimus Prime (G1)/toys - Transformers Wiki I'm fairly sure the main differences are as follows. The original TakaraTomy version features a coat of red paint on the truck cab 'unpainted' marker lights (actually painted red with the rest of the cab), unpainted 'dead' eyes and silver paint on the interior of the trailer. The Hasbro original version(s) feature mostly unpainted brighter non-metallic red plastic and a brighter blue plastic, the marker lights are painted yellow/orange, painted light blue eyes and no silver paint on the trailer's interior. Roller is also blue rather than silver. The later Hasbro version was slightly different still in that the silver paint on the interior of the trailer returns and the die cast hinge piece in his body is painted blue rather than red.

I'm sure whatever version you get you'll be impressed, they all look great and it's a fantastic figure regardless of the deco you get.

 

Booster Gold nailed it. Same mold with slightly different paint aps. It's great and was a game changer at the time.