POTP?

 

Power of The Primes. It's the line coming after Titans Return.

The thing about Rodimus is that he gets kind of a weird reception from a lot of fans too. There's a reason that Optimus got brought back and Rodimus became Hot Rod again. As cool as it would be to have Rodimus nicely included in the line if they want to do more movie characters, it might be best to start with characters like Arcee or Blurr, partly because they'd be a bit cheaper to gauge interest with.

It could be the exact opposite too, of course. We could get a full year of movie characters for all I know.

 

I agree with this. Certainly any purported MP Galvatron will be accompanied by a reissue of MP-09. It's cheaper than pressing a new mold and baring the incorporation of better rachets, washers, springs, etc., the cost has already been incurred. If I'm a Takara executive in charge of the MP line, from a business standpoint I would much rather invest that money to press a new mold for something like Super Ginrai with the eventual obligatory God Bomber add on that would appeal much more to the core Japanese audience as a whole, than proffer a second version of Rodimus Prime.

 

Make of it what you will.

Via planetiacon FB

Upcoming Takara Transformers:
- Mp37 Artfire
- LG42 God Bomber

 

as expected, BUT TT seems to be rushing to bump up the MP numbers?  

 

Guess Ill be keeping that Ginrai preorder. They wouldn't dare be put an MP version out anytime soon...I hope 

 

I have no clue who Artfire is and why he is so popular?

 

He's an Inferno repaint with targetmaster, I guess the original was pretty rare

 

I'd only be opposed due to my wallet. Otherwise more Ginrais makes me happer.

It's pretty much this. He was released alongside Stepper during Headmasters. The original Artfire toy commands a very high price on the secondary market. Stepper USED to be in the same boat but he was reissued by both Hasbro (in their commemorative line as Ricochet) and Takara (in their Collection line) and shelfwarmed in both markets. For whatever reason Artfire was NOT reissued thus keeping him in the high price range.

 

Interesting... and as a numbered release, that makes him general retail, not an exclusive.

Prediction: new head sculpt.

Oooh! Maybe he'll have all the details molded in that they omitted on Inferno! *fingers crossed*

 

Okay I get the rarity, but Stepper has a cool deco though. Artfire looks like a prototype or bad custom.

 

....and as expected, nobody predicted MP-37 Artfire. TT are tight lipped. Nothing gets out of their HQ.

 

And then re-use the mold as toy-accurate Inferno  

 

I like where your head is at.  

 

Will it come with target master?

 

That would mean the first targetmaster since the reboot, and it'll probably set the precedent for all "master" types from here on out...very interesting indeed!

 

I expected it at retail since I'm assuming a Targetmaster will be included and, Coneheads aside, I wasn't expecting new tooling for essentially a separate character to be released via an exclusive.

If Artfire is coming not long after Megs, I wonder if that knocks Hauler out of the running for the upcoming eHobby exclusive as well, unless the eHobby exclusive is well after Megs/Artfire (I can't remember if a date was associated with the teaser from eHobby).

Would Artfire need a new head sculpt? Inferno has the toy-type head option included already, unless it's less accurate than what I remember from all the promo pics (my Inferno is still in transit).

I could see more toy-based molding changes being factored in, but with a Targetmaster possibly/probably being included, I wonder if they'd bother.

 

So far in Masterpiece, unique character = unique head sculpt. Road Rage was the real precedent-setter here, with a new head never before used on a toy (even more important considering the eHobby Road Rage used the mouthplated Tracks head, and thus could have been considered the correct precedent/homage).

 

Aaah, but road rage was never a character outside of that toy's pack in fiction, whereas artfire was in the headmasters story pages along with stepper. With Takara staying as true as possible to the source material, I'm expecting an inferno head.

 

And??? That implies they have something to pivot to. Inferno isn't a female character, so that's out. Is there a manga option that differs enough from the toy/Inferno head to bother with? I don't see what she had to do with anything.

As for unique character = unique head sculpt, that hasn't been quite true (Nemesis, non-Conehead Seekers, Frumbles). There's been swapping tooling around, so I could see that I guess (maybe the 'toon Grapple head and/or smiling face being included as the "standard" head) but a completely new head for a toy-based character and toy-based options already available with that mold?

Yeah, this. What would they even bother changing with the head?