Faith Leader was kind of a piece of crap quality wise. You basically couldn't transform it without great risk of breakage...but it sure looked damn good.

Is that all?  

 

I mean, I could also use a more accurate head  

 

aw c'mon couldn't you imagine the pics @Dean ML could take of Huffer and Ironhide playing "catch .

 

Most of that is where I prefer mp01's design nods and think a hybrid log the two would really work.

 

Basically, redo mp10.
That's what I was saying when I was saying that mp10 is not cartoon accurate at all.

I would like a v3 prime and I probably would be buying two. I would like it to have an extreme cartoon style, as mp10 is already a perfect stylization for the "hybrid toy/toon".

 

Apart from the fact mp01 has more cartoon nods hence the hybrid comment. I agree mp10 is the perfect stylised Prime though.

 

The original design sketch for a 'Masterpiece' Optimus Prime was this, right:



The very idea was clearly heavily toy-influenced.

I wonder how much it affected the final design for MP-1. I also wonder how much of the design for MP-1 came from Kobayashi himself. I remember he used sketches he had done back in school when coming up with the transformation!

Seems Kobayashi updated toon Prime by adding some real world elements like working pistons, a few more cool gimmicks, while Hasui's update combined elements from the IDW comics as well as the toy.

I remember how Hasui didn't even want to bother covering the wheels on his legs - that was the team's decision. No offense to Hasui, but I think it shows that it's something of an after-thought. Happy enough that he budgeted for Roller, at least. He did make a point of making the gas-tanks hexagonal, in contrast to MP-1's toy-accurate cylinders, but that might have come from the team (probably Kobayashi's suggestion ) as it wasn't present in the original sketch:



(look at the rear view)

MP-10 embodies the image in our mind of Optimus Prime, which for Hasi meant updating him with modern heroic proportions, and sadly losing the long legs which I always loved about Prime's design.

When I say MP-1 is more toon accurate generally I'm talking about the overall proportions, the square windows, the longer legs. He's not perfect, by any means.

I look forward to seeing how Yuki Ohshima interprets a Masterpiece Optimus Prime, and how Kobayashi & Co. come up with his transformation. They did so well with making a toon Megatron:

 

Yeah, that's a Don Figueroa drawing, I'm pretty sure he only some design work for Hasbro. I'm also pretty sure no Masterpiece design work has been officially attributed to him. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Interesting stuff.

The long legs on MP-10 were fixed on the oversized MPP-10 allowing for a better proportioned robot mode. Alas, no one has yet released MPP-10 at MP-10 size (if they did that's what I'd currently have on display).

Strangely the hack to hide the leg wheels in robot mode is another thing I always thought was unnecessary (in the days before the toon started dictating these things more and more) and I'd have been happier had the wheels been left on show a la MP-01. Nowadays it seems like such a no-brainer to have them elegantly fold in and hide in the lower legs - I'm just not convinced yet whether I'd actually prefer that.

Also worth pointing out I could transform MP-10 between modes probably a half-dozen times over in the time it would take me to put MP-36 into gun mode once. We're getting very close I feel to a point at which the ends no longer justify the means... Although I was impressed with the fluidity of Sunstreaker's transformation once you nail it down it's still more of a chore than his brother was (MP-12 is still one of my go-to Masterpieces when I just want to Transform someone quickly).

 

I think if you want to transform something quickly there are plenty of lines other than masterpieces. I too gave up on megatron's transformations. I spent 15 minutes trying to transform the legs and said what the fuck, reverted what I have done and put it on my shelf in robot mode.
I think that with masterpieces what really interests me is that it CAN transform, not that I WANT to transform it. I mean, the fact that if I want I could transform that thing to its alt mode is enough for me. I cannot understand a non transformable transformer, but I can understand a transformer that is so toon accurate and because of that has a so complex transformation that I might want to actually never transform it.

 

It sounds crazy when you put it like that but I'm totally with you, even if I'll never transform it I need to know it COULD be transformed

 

Oh I get that. I gave up on Megs too which is a rarity, had him a year before I finally decided to transform him and I've still only done it once... Fanstoys Galvatron has likewise only been transformed once and I've never bothered transforming their Reflector at all as the real-sized alt-modes never really interested me... But I'd never buy a non-transforming Transformer. That's just an oxymoron.

I know what you mean about other lines but other than the original G1 toys (an original Bumblebee and a Seaspray are often within reach) I have zero interest in any of the main-lines, even the G1 homage based CHUGS (I dabbled, then sold what I owned or gave them to my son).

 

As much as I do like MP-10, the more I look at him beside Megatron, the more I want a similarly proportioned Prime (and indeed, the more I think it will happen). As much as I imagine a new Grimlock, or possible even Rodimus Prime, as being within TT's sights, I think Prime may very well be our most likely re-do in the line.

Hey now, I used to be with it! But then they changed what it was. Now, what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me...

 

It's official, it's even in the MP Official Guide.   Iirc, Hasbro initiated MP-1, right? Or at least had some input.

 

It does sound odd, but I feel the exact same way. Never transformed Apache, Transformed Grinder once, transformed Phoenix once and the rest of my MPs, maybe a couple of times. I just want to know that they will transform, and that is why I am not interested in the non-transforming statues/figures, even though they look amazing. Unless I get a couple of seekers, or another Datsun carbot, they will always be displayed in robot mode.

 

Half of the fun with MPs for me is in the transformation. Megatron is an intense one, and something that I tend to approach carefully since he has so many small parts that need to go just so, but good lord, so rewarding when you get it done just right and the gun mode comes together. Sunstreaker is like that too. Very challenging for a carbot, and I honestly would hope they don't ever go too much more complex at that level, but he's just amazing to complete back and forth.

 

I can't believe no one has followed up on that. The exact quote was:

Which will do for me for now.
TT have a habit of doing recolors very soon after a release. Deepcover and Police Sunny make sense.
Huffer and Skids would be awesome.

 

Woah, woah, woah, @TCracker, you serious???

 

Deepcover?

Pleasebetrue pleasebetrue pleasebetrue pleasebetrue pleasebetrue pleasebetrue

 

And @artimus prime you really hear something about devy? And if so, mind saying where from?