Where the friggity frack is ER Thrust?! I don't like how long it's been since I got his crew mates from Amazon earlier this year and I HAAATE missing teammates! Anyone who sees me talk about Pointblank and Sureshot knows this! And that's another rant on its own. And then there's Hotlink with no Bitstream, Nacelle and Sunstorm in sight! Agh!

*grabs Hasbro's fence*
Lemme team.... LEMME TEAM!!!

 

Because what "Masterpiece" was has changed over time.

MP-1 Convoy aka 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime came out in 2003/2004. It was supposed to be a one off. There wasn't any thought given to a wider line, just making the "ultimate" Optimus Prime. This is at a time when Hasbro wanted little to do with G1 in terms of toys to sell besides Armada / Energon homages and TRU Commemorative Reissues. Takara was in a similar spot, but mostly focusing on reissues. But MP-1 was about making the perfect Prime, that' it.

MP-2 Ultra Magnus came out a year and a half later, as a straight recolor, and only in Japan.

MP-3 Starscream came out in 2006, a full three years afters after MP-1. There was no "masterpiece theme" at this point. Unlike MP-1, whose goal was to make the Ultimate optimus, they brought in a mecha-designer and really focused on making the most engineering-vehcile accurate F-15-to-robot as possible To drive the point home, the F-15 was an F-15E, not an F-15C like Starsceam (it has the conformal fuel tanks). The strange paint job, while Starscream inspired, is done in the grey-green that F-15Es are smiliarly painted in. But the departures from Starscream's traditional look was intention. The goal was to create am perfect transforming jet, not the perfect Starscream. And it really accomplished that task. This mold was released over a year later in 2007 in the US in G1 toy colors, but not in Japan. MP-3 was designed with no scale in mind other than "what it takes to look good".

MP-4 Convoy Perfect was released at the same time as Starscream. It is MP-1 with a trailer, which fans demanded.

MP-5 Megatron was released in 2007, a full 4 years after Optimus, to give MP-1 an opposite. It was designed on a hilariously quick schedule according to the designer - about 15 days - and was exceedingly fragile. But it's motivation was to scale with MP-1. Notably, it was far too big for MP-3 starscream.

MP-6 Skywarp in late 2007 and MP-7 Thundercracker in late 2008 were redecos of MP-3 in semi-toy colors. But they maintained a lot of the new detail of MP-3 starscream. Even at this point, there was no unifying idea behind MP.

MP-8 Grimlock, released in early 2009 goes well well with modern MPs, but is closer to the a downscaled version of the MP-01 approach - to make the "ultimate" version of the character, melding toy and animation details. But it is out of scale with all other MPs. But clearly at this point, Hasbro was moving in a direction of a consistent theme.

Then there was no MPs for two years, likely a result of the long tail of the financial crisis. Even in the main line, we saw budget cuts in this time.

The next MP was MP- Rodimus Prime, who is one step in every "direction" up to this point. His Rodimus Prime mode scales perfect with MP-10 Optimus Prime (that came later in the year). His winebago mode scales wellt oo. But Hot Rode mode was far too big, as was the car mode. The trailer opening up gives away the game: MP-9 rodimus, while scaling with MP-10 that was coming out that year, was very much like Grimlock and and MP-1, in the the "Ultimate incarnation" mode to be a synthesis of animation and toy designs.

MP-10 Optimus Prime, as we all know, set the scale. But while it was a great Optimus for a lot of years, folks started to notice how much it aged until MP-44 was announced, because while it set the scale, it was very much also in the "ultimate toy" side of thing still. But Hasbro at this point, really starting with MP-9, stylistically, was moving closer to deciding "what Masterpiece what", with a slant towards animation designs, and not what MP-1 was or what MP-3 Starscream was.

Which brings us at least to MP-11 Starscream, released six years after MP-3 Starscream. It was a remold of MP-3 of course, with a larger head and redesigned transformation. Technically, he transformers into an F-13C instead of an F-15E. More accurately, they just did what it took to make him look more like the Starscream we know. Because Masterpiece had a theme. As we know, over the next two years, they move in an ever more animation-centric direction, with probably MP-22 Ultra Magnus in 2014 being the inflection point. But like MP17 prowl (2013) and MP-20 WHeeljack, for a long time, the deco of MP-11 Starscream was good enough.

So basically MP-11 Starscream was "1.0" because it's the first Starscream made when Hasbro decided what Masterpiece was. The older MP-3 Starscream, while technically speaking the first, was another concept... an experiment of sorts... that they never repeated again. And while the overwhelming majority of that 2006 toy was carried over to the three seekers and 3 coneheads in later years, it didn't form the direction of MP going forward. You can say MP really started with MP-8 Grimlock. The line got progressively more consistent after that.

 

WHich would make sense if MP-10 was considered Prime 1.0 but he isn't. He's Prime 2.0 with MP-01, a release earlier than Starscream 1.0, is Prime 1.0. MP-03 and MP-11 are just not different enough figures from an engineering standpoint to be considered two whole new figures. MP-11 is a refined and cleaner MP-03, as you said yourself in the above post. MP-11 isn't Starscream 1.0 as you suggest, he's 1.5 or 1.1 or however you'd classify it. MP-03 is Screamer 1.0

 

The most commonly held belief of the past 8 years among Masterpiece collectors is that the MP-11 mold is a retooled version of MP-3. Therefore, the “1.5“ designation makes the most sense and logically explains why MP-52 is considered Starscream 2.0.

 

I don't know if it's the pandemic, or all the distribution and exclusives drama, or a combination of both, but I'm finding myself lacking the motivation to really enjoy this hobby right now. Lately, I've been forcing myself to take pics of figures that I've only been mildly excited about instead of actually wanting to do it to have some fun. I don't like this feeling. There's enough shit going on in the world and I hate that it's sapping the joy out of Transformers for me. I've already had to give up comic books, I don't want to have to give up this hobby too. I'm just at a point where it seems like everything sucks right now including this hobby and I DON'T LIKE IT!!

Just venting a bit..........I do still love Transformers, I'm just not enjoying collecting them right now.

But I will keep pushing forward as best I can.

 

When you focus on one thing too long it can become monotonous and less exciting. Maybe try to spend more time on other interests when TFs are not necessarily drawing you near. It could be the overall state of the world too, that has affected a lot of people during these trying times.

I'm in a similar boat about life in general. I retain a lot interest in Transformers, but cannot enjoy them to the fullest being separated from my sons. Being forced through an unwanted legal battle in which the cards have been stacked against me and missing boys I have not been able to find joy in anything lately even the things I've always enjoyed.

 

The Earthrise toyline isn't as good as Siege. The level of detail is lower, the quality of plastic is lower, modulators aren't as interesting as weaponizers, the AIR Lock system isn't remotely as compelling as COMBAT system, the Battle Masters have less-interesting jobs being ramps/shields instead of weapons.

 

I mean, what would the point of the Earthrise line be if its battle masters and modulators were a repeat of Siege? Siege was great, don’t get me wrong, but Earthrise had to somewhat differentiate itself from its predecessor line beyond earth modes, right? It’s not as if Siege suffered from a painful lack of battle masters. Now, the focus is on base/bridge building and shields.

Edit: I get why people might not be enjoying Earthrise as much as they did Siege, but I understand the need to refresh its sub gimmicks a little.

 

I understand the need to refresh the gimmick, but we only got 3 weaponizer molds and 3 melee Battlemasters. I would have liked more new molds (not recolors).

As for the modulators... I think the appeal of the play pattern is more narrow. Not everyone is into base building. For those that are it is a solid gimmick, but where the weaponizers would work with almost any figure, the modulators really only work with other bases (and Hoist and Grapple in a very limited way).

 

I'm so sorry to hear about your legal issues. That would be incredibly stressful on top of everything else going on right now. I have two children myself and I know it would kill me to not be able to be around them. I truly hope something works out for you and you can see your boys soon. Thank you, good luck, and take care.

 

There were also, what, 3 target master molds? Can’t forget the Micromasters, which also doubled as weapons even if the execution wasn’t all that great. And then there were the cassette minions. Even if the unique mold counts weren’t super high for that scale, there was still a little bit of variety there. I think they did pretty well in that regard.

 

I’m not really noticing the gulf in quality that he speaks of. I have figures from both lines and I’d say they’re about the same. The plastic quality for Siege and Earthrise is obviously different from the Unicron Trilogy and Classics/Universe 2.0 eras. Lighter, less dense, with more of a “matte” texture. I’d say it’s closer to the feel of FOC and Thrilling 30.

 

My bad QC streak continues! I swear It’s like I have a curse set on me.  

Today I received most of my wave 2 ER deluxes plus the Astro squad from Amazon. One of my Astro squad guys have a partially melted chest and my Smokescreen came with a broken gun barrel rattling around in the box.

I get that they’re just toys, but lately it has just been disappointment after disappointment for me due to QC issues.

Fingers crossed that the replacements coming from Amazon come with no issues or problems.

 

I would've liked for ramps to be handled more like they were in the original MicroMaster line. I hate that they're not symmetrical because it just looks stupid and does nothing for stability.

 

I definitely agree. I mean, look at the upcoming fossilizers. Bone armor?? Awesome. It's the same excitement I had with the weaponizes because it was like, "A guy that becomes guns!" Meanwhile, A.,the modulators only really look good in their official main-base mode which doesn't scale with anything, even micromasters, B. Taking them apart leaves clunky armor and the official bases, which once again, IMO, are the only good modes, require unnecessary parts forming.

TLDR, I think the new base connection system is dumb and wasn't properly utilized.

 

Welcome to TFW! There's only one direction to go after leaving this thread...UP! Lol. And, your English is just fine.

 

I find it funny that when people on message boards for whom english is a second language apologize for their grammar, it is usually better than writings by many people for whom english is their primary or only language.

 

Along with vague thread titles that give no indication of the actual thread topic.

I use acrylic future floor polish for tightening. There should be more info in the Radicons forum...

For my rant, I tried transforming MPM Ironhide back to truck mode again today. I hate it when trying to get one spot to fit causes others to come out of alignment...

 

Bone armor is just... weird to me. Not saying it won't work, but the idea of putting bone armor on a g1 figure? Bizarre.

I have no issue with the base connection, but it isn't a thing they could fully exploit in a single year. They need to stick with it and keep it for a few years.

And I think that's really my issue with the WFC gimmicks. They are just tapping the potential of the COMBAT system, and could do so much more with it. Because they are partsformers, if they just divorced them from pre-existing designs (Sixgun, Fasttrack, etc), they could do some wild stuff. I would love to see them continue with both the AIR Lock system and weaponizers - maybe toss in some that are Voyager class. With micromasters hitting the unemployment line, won't really be much place for the modulators any more.

I wonder if that is a rights issue? Maybe a more symmetrical system would be too generic, but the AIRLock system may be distinct enough to keep 3P from using it?