Maybe it's just me, but doesn't anyone find it ironic that the Floro Dery/AKOM/Toei error filled animation of the original g1 series has become a centerpiece of this line now. It's so odd as it was such a criticism of the original series, to now have people paying over $100 + to obtain figures that look peculiar in some cases. Never would have saw this coming. It's funny how tastes change over 30 years, huh?

 

It is nostalgia speaking. I get it. Absolutely do. I'm not necessarily interested myself but I certainly see where the appeal is.

G1 isn't held highly on any standard but for me and I'm sure many, being "good" isn't what we really like about G1. I love G1 BECAUSE it is dumb and stupid. Its what I grew up on and the Saturday Morning style camp is quite fun and endearing to me, animation and color errors and all.

I fell in love with the overly dramatic heroism and mustache twirling villainy of the characters and I still look fondly upon it to this day.

 

Makes sense. I grew up with it so it's comical to see a figure on my shelf in 3D that looked odd on screen. It's just one of those things I guess. I'm all for it because they are giving us (like with Inferno/Grapple) a chance to give the figure either look.

I think it's funny where this line has gone..but it's selling, so clearly it's working.

 

I don't get it. The AKOM colors are mistakes. They are not what the characters are supposed to look like. I despise AKOM, I don't watch their episodes, and I won't buy any figure homaging their ineptitude.

*drops mic*

 

AKOM was terrible for sure but many of the season 1-2 episodes were animated much nicer and the 86 movie still mostly holds up well. I do see how some people could be disappointed where the MP line has gone since MP10. Instead of the hyper-realism we were getting with alt molds that would make bot modes have to alter their appearance from G1 anime we now have a line that focuses on getting the bot mode anime accurate while sometimes sacrificice a bit on the Alts. And now we have smoother panels with less details, faux chest pieces, and head sculpts that don't always translate well from screen to figure(Sunstreaker). I'm mostly happy with the line as it is now but I do see where some of the criticism is coming from.

 

Ddi they make a mouthless Optimus Prime that I don't know about?



And where will we get MP Grimtane?



They are designing MPs to look like the cartoon's character model. Sidewipe not having wheels in bot mode was not a mistake its the way the people making the show wanted him to look.

 

Nah, it's what I wanted from the beginning, back to being 5 years old. I saw the cartoon first and went nuts for it in the fall of '84 and was sorely disappointed when I finally saw them in the stores around Christmas time. Where the hell are Ironhide and Ratchet's heads? Bumblebee's face doesn't look like that! WTF happened to Megatron?! (like most kids in the US, I obviously had no clue about their Diaclone/MicroChange origins). I eventually came around by the end of '85 and went all in on the toys, loved them and had a lot of great times with them, but I still always wished they looked like the guys I'd watch on TV every weekday (besides the fact that I wished they had more than one or two points of articulation!). Thrilled that that's what we're finally getting. My feeling is that we already had G1 toys, we've gotten plenty of updates and reimaginings over the years and that stuff's still going strong, but we've never really had good G1 animation homage figures until now. This is where a lot of Japanese collectible toy lines are at now anyway - anime homages with a lot of accessories and gimmicks. I love it. Besides, we're still getting licensed alts with nods to the toys peppered throughout. There've even been a few G1 box art nods along the way (Tracks' inner leg vents, Megatron's vents under his armpits), and with Megatron and Sunstreaker, parts count, articulation, and paint coverage are at an all time high.

A few things worth noting: The animation and comics shared the same character model 95% of the time; Floro Dery wasn't responsible for every character character model; and while AKOM and the Unknown Filipino Studio's work is indefensible, Toei did the bulk of G1 animation and their work ranged from sometimes being average '80's syndication animation, to often great, and sometimes outright excellent.

 

I was just about to get into collecting MPs when they put out Tracks...gah, why would you want a toy to be accurate to something that was never consistent? Oh, yeah, pull out that character model scale chart where Megatron has his pants pulled up to his belly button, that looks sooo good and totally proves a point.

Look, I loved the cartoons as a child, but even then I knew they were ugly most of the time. Bring back Hasui!

 

I pretty much stopped getting MPs when Ironhide and Ratchet came out. They've gone downhill fast since then.

The only MPs that are exciting now, to me, are the Beast Wars ones. WOW! Talk about bringing your A game, they make the main line ones look like they were worked on by the D team.

 

These posts reflect my feelings on the direction of the line. We are paying increased prices for more "toon accurate" toys that in addition to toon accuracy have more QC problems, are more expensive, and have a less unified feeling IMO than prior releases. On top of that they include uneessary accessories IMO that only serve to up the price of the releases. I agree with the sentiment to bring back Hasui. Or, at the very least maybe have a single head designer planning out the major aspects of a few releases so that the releases are at least cohesive...

 

Akom animation was so awful. I can't watch those episode's at all. No matter how good the story is I just can't. I have tried many times and it's just bad. Horrible animation.

 

The nostalgia is strong in me, especially since Transformers were my favorite thing back in the mid-80s. And to be clear, my nostalgia is based on the show-appearance of the characters, not their toy-appearance. I never found their look on the show to be odd, except for errors/mistakes/goofs/etc., but I thought the toys looked quite odd (blocky, weird proportions, less humanoid, alt-mode interference with bot-mode, etc.). And it's not that I don't appreciate the original figures, my G1 collection includes complete 84-86, all but complete 87, much of 88, and some of 89-90. I just greatly prefer the characters' show-appearance.

Exactly how I feel. I never wanted the show to look more like the toys, however I always wished (even, like you, back then as a child) the toys looked more like how the characters did on the show. And yes, I already have a G1 toy collection, but I am now finally getting what I've long wanted: a G1 toon collection. And also yes, I hope they stick to Toei's work for their sources, and leave AKOM and the rest fully alone.

Personally, I've had no major QC issues with any MP, from MP-1 to MP-11ND. I'd prefer a lower cost to a higher one, but I figure a rise in prices would be occurring about now whether the figures were more toon-based or not. Beyond that, I've gotta say, I basically completely disagree with you guys. But it's just an agree to disagree kinda thing to me, and that's fine!

 

Meh, I'm just not into MP's being so slavish to a 33 year old Sunbow cartoon. I loved what they were doing with MP10 and onwards but this whole new direct just makes them look so boring to me. It's a design and nostalgia thing, I have very little for the later and I appreciate a lot of the other. Definitely one of those "YMMV" things.

But, I didn't mention any QC issues. I wouldn't say the recent MP's I've gotten have had any, (I did get a Cheetor with two left feet but that got sorted out pretty quickly) just super boring design which is enough for me to stop buying them or pick them up as KO's simply to have them in my collection.

 

It's why I no longer buy MPs.

 

yeah, the lack of detail and over-reliance on animation models since they semi-rebooted the line is just gross to me. I don't want Sunbow Masterpiece, i want the "Ultimate expression of the original character" Masterpiece (meaning accurate alt modes, Detailed robot modes mixing toy, animation, comic, key art and other sources ~ Soundwave and Grimlock were good examples i think). And i sure don't want to pay ever-increasing import prices for smooth, cel-shaded-model-flat-under-detailed figures.

...and i want them to be 1:24, but i guess that ship has sailed.  

 

Man, aside from the accessories I don't think Sunstreaker deserved to be that expensive. I'm gonna be in the market for a Sunsurge pretty soon, that or I'll pick up his much cheapest KO but no way am I paying anything close to $100 for him.

 

MP43 revealed!!


What "Cartoon Accurate" actually means.

If TT did serve something looking like this up under the MP banner just how many would be ready to defend the new direction to the death AND pay the no doubt enormous price for it?

Not me.

 

Add me to the list of people who don't like the cartoon look the line has taken with Ironhide/Ratchet, Inferno and Megatron. I sold Ironhide and Ratchet on because of it, and had to grit my teeth when buying Megatron as he's too important a character to skip (and none of the third party options look great).

It's probably just as well that I've essentially stopped buying MPs. I just want Jazz now, but I'm not optimistic that a Takara one will be what I want, and downbeat is too cartoony again. Unless FT enters the ring, coolsville may be the only option.

 

I want that GenToys Jazz, he's a bit much compared to older MP releases but he looks great, to me, along side them.

I just couldn't get MP Megs, I got Despotron who looks about perfect to me.

Inferno I actually want to get, no idea why but his design appeals to me somehow.

 

No doubt that this new direction and the cheap hollow plastic syndrome that has scalated to the so called "masterpiece" line push me out of the official Transformers line and now have to get products from FansToys which is considered the New Takara. FansToys maintained the original concept of the line.

It difficult to me call "masterpiece" to the official line. Right now is a really big name for the line....