Seems reasonable to me.

 

Bit of a weird thought process but hear me out.

Just picked up POTP Optimus again to mess around with him and I was reminded how much of MP-10 had influenced his overall design. Transforming him to Orion and back to Optimus also reminded me that there were impressions on the Japanese side of things for how well he was able to incorporate the trailer into the overall figure.

In a weird roundabout way... What if POTP Optimus influenced V3 Optimus? Looking closely, there are some comparable elements, particularly in the abdomen and chest sections. How Orion hides Optimus's chest windows is a pretty neat fest of engineering that would seem easy enough to incorporate into an MP.

I dunno. Just a quick little shower thought.

 

We have no idea which project started first so it's possible.

 

Don’t disagree that he might be the most expensive MP, but OP V3 is likely to be a higher volume product than Beast Wars MPs, so I’m hopeful that TT would aim to maximize their profits by selling in larger volumes at more reasonable pricing (say Megs’ pricing).

And like many other rabid fans here, MSRP isn’t relevant for me. The pre-order discounted price when ordering direct from Japan is the price of this figure.

 

Oh I know, but you know how this board is and when they hear a MSRP of like 32000 or BBTS selling it for $300 they will lose their minds.

 

The fact is that with preorder discounts from JP sites, the figures are still very pricey- you need to take into account shipping + currency exchange costs as well, so just reporting the listed price that jp retailers use is misleading as well. Also, for those that don’t preorder and wait until the release date or just after, the price can be even higher

 

I wanted to take that new nice image and lighten it up as soon as I saw it.
Just to see it better.

 

In the interview on the Convoy special in Figure King the designers mentioned how when developing POTP Prime they were so impressed with how much more like Optimus Prime he looked with the tyres on his legs hidden. Definitely some inspiration there  

 

Yes. These are expensive toys / “adult collectibles”...
Not sure why anybody wouldn’t want to pounce on the -30% pre-orders from Japan (unless they don’t frequent these boards or don’t have the $ at the time??). MSRP is 43% more than the pre-order price, so even after shipping, ordering from Japan should be cheaper.

 

The only reason would be for people who are on the fence/ want to wait until reviews before purchasing a figure

 

Those people can always sell the figure on (probably for a profit) if they don't like how it looks in videos and in-hand photos.

 

There will always be people who buy American/European, etc. "XXX retailer sent my order out in time (which is the most basic thing a retailer should do i.e. it's their job) and as such they've earned my loyalty."

 

If you pay attention to Prime’s blaster. You can see that it will fold up. There’s a double hinge in the middle of it.

 

You're haven't seen many Beast Wars designs then. Break (the penguin) embodies Beast Wars Neo design. Yes we did have shell-formers in the U.S. but the vast majority are not. Virtually all of the Beast Wars Neo figures are shell formers. The biggest examples of shell formers in the US would be Armordillo, Snapper, Razorbeast, Snarl, Cybershark, Original Rattrap, Rhinox and lets face it.. most of those are very small basic class (>5" figures) with a spring transformation gimmick.

Also.... as far as the MPs the only "negative" label you can lay on them is with Cheetor. He is a parts former in the sense that his machine gun forms the back/tail of the cheetah mode. So if you loose that part.. you can't make a convincing looking cat anymore. Thankfully they make a thing called a box where you can store that part along with the extra faces. Primal is damn near perfection.

 

I think you are oversimplifying things. Good customer service is hard to find. For example, I am loyal to BBTS because of how quickly they handled any issues with damaged products, shipping, and delivery that arose over the years. Therefore, up through MP39, they have been my preferred source of MPs. Now if the price difference between a JP and American retailer is significant as it has been with Megatron and Dinobot, I may go elsewhere for individual items.

 

And because the gut and tail gun's are accurate to the source material, I wouldn't even peg the partsforming label on there. It's like dinobot's tail/ spinning weapon

 

You get all that and more with Amazon JP. Try them.

 

I am definitely going to try them for BW Megatron as I am sure he will be well over $300 if bought through an american retailer. Still plan on using BBTS for other figures though

 

I received a misassembled MP Targetmaster Hot Rod from AJ in February, notified them, and they responded immediately with a shipping label to return it at no charge and sent out a new figure the same day, apologizing for the inconvenience. I only wish they carried the TT Mall exclusives!