It's not that TE can't pull off poses so much as he can't look natural and lifelike while he does them. When I pose him, I usually go through a few poses before I find one that works for him. With MS-02, I just pose him and he always works. It helps to cheat, though: one of TE's biggest problems is the lack of front/back ankle which I get around by sticking a blob of blue tak under his foot to let him stand without being flat footed. That's what I did when I put him in his "no matter the cost" pose - it just didn't work at all until I did that.

 

I don't think the poses in my pictures were serious attempts at being "natural"!

I'm not really into posed displays anyway. To me, these are toys to be played with in hand. Transformed, placed on the desk in a silly pose, fiddled around with. And then they go back in the cabinet in boring A-stances, because it's more of a library to me. I find posed displays look weirdly static - they're trying to give the impression of action and movement, but always look awkward, like when actors try to stand still in a "frozen time" episode of a TV programme. Blaster/flame/jet effects look particularly silly to me, and never leave the box.

Oof, that's a very overdone paintjob. I don't like them at the best of times, especially Lek(?) who just covers things in coloured ovals. It's all a bit of a mismatch. This is probably related to my posing comments above - it feels like it's meant to look like light moving across the surface, but looks too static. I'd rather have a plain figure and have actual light or shadow moving. But yes, this is probably just my bias showing through from disliking the cartoon in general!

 

Damn he looks good with that paint job!

 

There's some Photoshop going on there but yes, the cell shaded paint job does look pretty damn good.

 

Such a fabulous use of Photoshop!

 

Not a ton. Iirc, I used find edges to add outlines to all the shaded areas and I gave the entire figure a black outline. Also painted in cartoon style shadows. Probably should've done something about the unpainted parts but I mostly don't notice them unless I go looking for them and I was pretty satisfied that he looked like an actual animation cell in the photo. To do it "right" I would've probably flattened the colors a little more and I would've painted over the silver smokestacks entirely, along with painting in some shading on his hands and the exposed grey plastic parts at his knee and hips.

 

"The faces must be mine... No matter the cost."


"Sideswipe, get Chip out of here! I'll take care of Devastator."

 

So MP44 getting a toy colour release, definitely would buy a TE-01 with the same colours (though blue eyes for me!)

 

That's a very good price for a very good Prime.

Tempted to get one for alt-mode.

[Pre-Order] Transform Element TE-01 Optimus Prime

 

He is tempting at that price. But I've seen a few ppl in this thread had their plastic discolor, which has me concerned. Curious how common an issue plastic discoloration is with te-01

 

anyway to know if this is a new run or leftover stock?

 

Wasn't aware of that issue. I've only had my mk3 since November though

 

Sorry, no idea, though I'm inclined towards the latter

 

Anyone still buying into this mold, I've still got the ab-crunch modification available for purchase  

 

Pretty much magic square has asserted their dominance sold mine when i got light of peace

 

Dang, I may get another! TE-01 is pretty much my “forever Prime” in terms of Masterpiece figures. Haven’t seen anything since that I like as much.

 

The issue I had with te-01’s head sculpt was the eyes was protruding, so I put some paper in between the helmet and where you put his eyes in, and imo it looks better.

 

Back in stock at Bombusbee for less than $70 shipped.
【In Stock】Transform Element TE TE01 Optimus Prime

 

Was there ever a Nemesis repaint of the TE01? I kinda want a different model Prime for Nemesis and I got MS for my proper Prime.

 

Transform Element TE-01 OP Leader Black Version