yeah, but it would be great though, with everyone scrambling to get their Springer out. I don't even know if he would happen on the TT end, granted after Arcee, their was hope for a MP Sprung, but he has limited, if no repaint opportunities. While that hasn't been a problem with BW, when the other 3xchangers options are Astrotrain and Blitzwing, it doesn't look as good for him getting made.

 

Repaints sometimes have a faster release window as you said. There are also rumours of a Hound reissue that fixes the plastic issues so I'm hoping Hound is reissued before Starscream.

They could also do something like one of the remaining diaclone repaints or a Tracks or Hot Rod Plus release. I would be good with any of those options.

Or TT/Hasbro are leaving some space in the schedule for the SS86 releases and Unicron. Those releases most likely appeal to quite a few MP collectors as well. I preordered the entire SS86 first wave which costs about the same as a larger MP figure and maybe I'm not alone.

 

I'm wondering if they would actually bother changing the number of buttons for bot mode. But TT have put the fake wheels on Magnus and Hound for bot mode etc. so it could happen for sure. They do love their attention to detail.

 

they 100% would. even going back to MP-01 they changed the grill between vehicle and robot modes.

 

But depressing buttons on both? Where do those go between modes? Those things aren't flat panels

 

Exactly. And one of the buttons opens the cassette door. If they pull it off it will be quite something!

 

I also think it's an animation error. Of sorts.

The basic sheet has it too, but if you look, the middle two just merge. You'll have to zoom in...

 

If TT didn’t make it change from 4 to 3 between modes on Blaster, would people really get that bent out of shape? What am I saying? Of course they would. I wouldn’t personally care one bit. It would be quite annoying sifting through all of the reasons in a hypothetical Blaster thread about how much TT hates the fans or whatever other trivial bullshit people get upset about on every new MP. This isn’t outside the realm of believability. Haha

 

Oh absolutely! And don't forget how large his head is!  

 

So Figure King in about a week I guess, and a virtual Wonderfest on the 9th. I'm expecting to see more on Skids and TC and maybe the next BW release hopefully for their virtual show. There's normally a show in May(shizuka?) And TTS in June, so if nothing else is seen it's not the end of the world. Would be nice to see something with Raiden, just to judge how far out we are.

 

Yes, Figure King comes out on the 27th this month. Guessing they'll give some attention to Thundercracker and the new Kingdom stuff.
Wonderfest livestream on the 7th should be interesting. Skids seems like a good bet. An update on Raiden and a BW announcement would be terrific, so fingers crossed!

May is indeed Shizuoka Hobby Show but I expect it might get cancelled again this year.

 

Could the divisive release mean no Beast Wars release? I could definitely see that.

 

BOOOOOO!

Hoping for a BW announcement at the virtual Wonderfest.

 

As I was transforming Arcee, I got to thinking about the fairly slim representation of female characters in the Masterpiece line. We currently have 3: Arcee, Blackarachnia, and Road Rage. And then Nightbird came to mind. We’ve gotten a few Nightbird releases over the years, but they’re usually just retools of other female characters. I’m wondering what the likelihood of a show accurate Nightbird would be. Would the notion of it be rejected by the community because “iT’s NoT a TrAnSfOrMeR iF iT dOeSn’T tRaNsFoRm?” And then I thought, it could have a place in the Flame Toys lineup, especially if the “scale” matches up.

 

TBH, I think this issue is more that there was extremely limited presence of female-skewed Transformer characters in general until the last 10 years. Arcee and Blackarachnia were both major characters in their show's respective time, but they we like 1/12 of the overall character pool who were otherwise portrayed as being essentially male. The Masterpiece line is all about nostalgia, so the pool of characters is a victim of the toy-selling mindset of those times.

Nightbird has been portrayed as transforming pretty often recently, so I don't think a repainted Arcee is unlikely - though it's kinda funny that Nightbird predates her, if I remember right.

That being said, I'd love to see an '85 Elita-1 and Chromia in particular. I never got why they didn't return as a kid. Suddenly, it's just Arcee and no mention of this kickass rebel crew that'd be fighting on Cybertron for four million years while the guys were conked out on earth.

 

after the success of Arcee i could actually see a windblade, she kind of checks the boxes they're looking for. I could only imagine the complaiints of a Elita-1 or Chromia before Jazz. Honestly don't have too much interest in them anyway and unless one of those is a repaint/remold of each other,that's a pretty hard sell.

 

See, as cool as it’s been to “imagine” alt modes for Nightbird, it’s gotten tiresome to see her relegated to Arcee/Chromia retool status. And I say this in spite of her not having very many official toy representations. I want her to be her own thing. The Impossible Toys version was a good starting point, even if the execution left much to be desired. There’s also the height. She would need to be taller than the likes of Prowl and Sideswipe, maybe about Ironhide and Inferno’s height. I’m not basing that on the scale chart since I don’t remember where she placed (if she was even included), but on some stills of her feature episode.

 

Nightbird isn’t a significant enough character to be able to carry a full release herself, though. The way of the line has always been to reuse molds for other characters, and you really only have two options with Nightbird; Arcee repaint (which I think will probably go to the medic first), or if you want to go scale and traditionally MP.

The latter doesn’t transform, and is a lot close to human size, so she’d probably not warrant a release, and be a glorified accessory with another character. Since the line is toon accurate now, that might be the only way they’d go, though.

 

That'd be a hell of a cool way to kick off an expanded universe Generations bent on the line. Windblade is pretty emblematic of that more open era taking hold, and she's certainly been front-and-centre in a lot of media. Personally, I'd be down.