I think it looks pretty great overall, the price is the only strange part

 

There are couple of vids. Did you avoid watching them on purpose?

 

I wish more people were like you. This is a discussion forum and we should be allowed to point out failings of a figure but unfortunately some delicate snowflakes just want to hear that "everything is awesome" and nothing else.

 

You’re right that different opinions should be more accepted, but you still resort to to shaming those that you’re referencing. Critiquing a toy is fair game. But critiquing members is where some uncomfortable situations occur.

Delicate snowflake is no different in sentiment and semantics as calling someone a pussy or a sissy.

 

Thank you for taking the time and money to not only review your copy, but write it all down. I really appreciate the honest review of it, both positive and negative. Not only that but with those great words you added some photos to allow us, the readers, to see what you were talking about. I hope that your copy made your days better now. If anything I wanted to let you know that your words and photos have made mine better today.

Again, thank you.

 

Well what else can I say about somebody who walks away from a thread simply because they can't handle hearing negative critiques?
I like that you say critiquing a toy is fair game - I wish more people were like you too.

 

Plenty! Or nothing at all. There's no need to be insulting to one another. Period.

And, FWIW, it's this type of attitude: the name calling, the passive aggressiveness, etc towards each other that pushes people away. Not the disagreeing, or actual critiquing of the toy.

Look at @Booster Gold for a great example of someone who can talk about his dislike of the toy without insulting his fellow collectors. There's a HUGE difference, and it matters.

 

Yeah. I like to experience the transformation unspoiled, which I meant to mention in that last post but forgot. I could be wrong about the doors, which is why I mentioned not having watched the vids.

 

Well I disagree with you about the critiquing of the toy part. Have a look at the Optimus Prime V3.0 and Bumblbee V2.0 positive discussion threads. They were started simply because some people only want to discuss positive things, nothing at all negative or critique like can be mentioned in either of those threads.

 

Just because people prefer not reading the same opinion(positive or negative) repeated in dozens of pages, it doesn't mean they "can't handle it."

You have no idea what other people had to "handle" in their real life.

For you, feel the need to insult others in a toy forum to feel superior, demonstrates the act of a snowflake.

 

You have no idea what makes me feel "superior" in real life.

For you feeling the need to insult me also demonstrates the action of a snowflake.

 

It wasn't my intention to insult you by simply describing your action.

But you do deserve to be insulted since you drew the first blood.

 

Also where else would they go? They can’t keep adding to the back. Perhaps if it had a different set of hinges it could fold up into a better shape. But Takara likes to make their panel lines less obtrusive.

 

Very nice balanced review. Thank you. Its quite right to be critical as well as praising - one of my biggest bug-bears of some video reviewers is where they do not point out issues and are always positive, as this destroys my trust. No names mentioned but i have had figures with major clearance/tolerance issues where the section was 'glossed over' in a few reviews. If the reviewer is critical of an element then i can decide if i care about it or not. Just v slightly off topic, but recently i read a game review where a couple of the critisisms actually were positives for me and i went and bought the game!

Anyway, (ignoring the couple of looseness issues which as you say are probably down to pre production) how does he compare to v1 in terms of robustness - from what i can see in pics / other videos most joints/parts look fairly thick for his tiny size? How does he compare weight wise to v1?

Glad you are enjoying him, as it must have been difficult to get hold of.

 

Many thanks for the nice response to the review, much appreciated.  

I'd say they are about the same in terms of robustness. At first I was worried he was a little flimsy because of the clear plastic hinges and a bit of creaking, and also a certain softness to the yellow plastic of the small scissor joints at the shoulders, but it all settled down after a few transformations and he now feels perfectly solid. I think he's a tiny bit heavier than MP-21, although I haven't weighed him - MP-21 feels quite hollow by comparison (because he does have that hollow chest cavity, of course, whereas MP-45's chest is packed with car parts). None of the joints look to be fragile or problematic. The only ones I was worried about at first were the ones that hold the real wheel arches on and swing inwards for the transformation (they're on one of the clear plastic hinges and you have to force the arches around the chest and shoulders a little), but they just needed a little loosening up from use and are no longer a concern.

A few pictures I took which didn't fit into the review:

 

Those feet are insanely wrong

 

I love that first pic so much, great angle! I feel like we saw that so often as a Spike POV on the show.

 

@ambitron , real happy you were able to snag an early copy, especially being one of Bumblebee's biggest fans and one of the best contributors to this board. Loving these shots! @chchchch is right, that low angle shot's just perfect! Here's to hoping the final production copies are a bit tighter! MP-21's loose backpack was always a bother to me so as "messy" as 45's may be, if it holds together well I won't have any complaints. Even then, maybe some Future in a joint or two would solve it.

I've said it before, but regarding Bumblebee's feet it seems clear the design team's been trying to avoid chopping up doors as much as possible ever since Sunstreaker. I think Bumblebee's heels have even more to do with that clean door approach and less to do with the door opening gimmick. If they were willing to chop those doors up more his heels could be more compressed while still retaining the door opening gimmick but I believe they really wanted to keep the doors as clean as possible.

 

Yeah, I quite like having him on a high shelf looking down just because of that.  

Thanks Dean! The rear of the feet really don't bother me in-hand. Although I don't like the look of the backpack, it is solid and not loose like MP-21's. The only loose part is that circle, since it's held on by a hinge only at the bottom and so tends to flop down after a few transforms - well, at least on mine. It stays in place when posed, but just flops when you pick him up. Hopefully that hinge is tighter on the final copies.