Good old cartoon and comic design not knowing what a hatchback car was since they weren't common in the USA. So instead they made Skids a van. This is why I think the Masterpiece is not as cartoon accurate as other car robots. Because the show made him a van rather than a Honda City Turbo.

 

I do appreciate how excited Honda seems to be.

 

THanks for sharing these. Love reading the designer interviews. The interview on legendary optimus highlights how I think this one ended up. Legendary optimus was based on the aoe classics optimus but with tweaks based on what the new product's scale&price point allows. This one is "new" based on most likely an old design but tweaked to provide the newer gimped alternators features we've been seeing on MPs like opening hood, maybe hatchback & some consideration to interiors for a bike. I think that corresponds to their marketing of comparing this to today's MPs but it doesn't look like it's applying to the bot. They've said in newer interviews that they start MP design with articulation in mind now so reworking butterfly joints or whatever on an old bot may not be feasible based on the budget they're working with.

 

Wasn't Skids a Floro Dery character design like most others? I thought he was from the East rather than West so surely he would be familiar with such a high profile car, I genuinely wonder why the character model became a van instead.

Based on the lack of cheats in the transformation and more old-style articulation it seems Skids has a lower than usual (for these days) parts count. So are they working to a lower budget than usual or is there more to this than meets the eye?

 

Yeah that's the big question. I hope it's more than meets the eye and that part the shoulder attaches to is able to swing out. But with a lot of companies conserving cash due to covid, this could be a reaction to that. I do want MP to remain a flagship line and as much as I hate it, reduce output if budget cuts are mandated across all TT divisions. The more they start to water down the high end concept and make it look the same but at a different scale as what they are already doing in other lines, the more it starts to look like GM in the 80s where you had a ton of brands and all of of the cars looked a little too similar.

 

How awesome is this?!?! A @chchchch and @ThatGuyCalledBlaster split collab. Rock’n my world.

 

I’m hopeful for a nice dark blue similar to his G1 toy.

 

Me too.

 

I guess that's a weird thing for those of us remembering the original Autobot cars from a non-Japanese perspective. Because the scale was all over the place and because we had no context for the Honda City Turbo, we assumed that Skids was some kind of Van rather than a tiny, sporty econo-hatch.

Personally, I'm glad they got this right...but then again, the anniversary of the Honda City seems to be the reason that this thing exists to begin with.

 

?

 

True, but the biggest difference is that Gundam does not have real world counterparts....or in this case a toyline that came before the original animated series. Besides anime accurate mecha toys for gundam, they are have a healthy amount of sublines that feature "real world" gundams.

 

I’m looking for pins, rivets and screws. I thought about Skids being a low parts count bot based on the general lack of complexity. A better story will be told with more pictures and different angles. Right now, I’d guess the 150 mark on parts. Maybe 160.

 

He was, but they were still designed for Western animation and Western audiences, so it’s not hard to imagine why Skids was turned into a van.

It’s also worth pointing out that the majority of Gundam Models do take liberties with adding details to the animation models, namely Master Grades.

In fact Gundam Models in general tend to be “prettier” than the animation, especially OYW-era stuff.

 

For reference, what’s the parts count of the Datsun Bro vs. Sunstreaker.

 

For Skids in particular, I'm glad they're not going for cartoon accuracy for whatever reason it is.
I mean he now has actual shoulders.

 

BUT EVERYTHING MUST BE TOON ACCURATE OR THEY SHALL BURN!!!
But seriously (lol) I/ would probably go in on this if they release the black or red repaints, as XTB's version is good and I see no reason to sell them off to get this.
Design wise I'm not a fan of how the mirrors fold in leaving that oddly misshapen bit where they used to be. I know the part needs clearanced to be able to rotate around but it just looks ugly.
Do you think the hood bulge is part of the hood or a separate piece? If you look at the TF Wiki on the Diaclone versions they used (or supposed to have used) the turbo and non-turbo versions for the different versions of the toys. Like Skids was a turbo version and Crosscut was a non-turbo version. It might not be worth it to make two different versions, I have no idea how well this is going to sell. It's just a little something I noticed.

 

Perhaps there was some extra cost involved in getting the Honda license, which led to the bare-bones approach? Or perhaps (my hope) there are extras for this MP that we haven't seen yet... if 'Hybrid' refers to him having parts to make him Toy or Toon a bit like Grapple/Inferno.

Be interesting to see. Frankly it'll be a nice change to not have the exploding origami transformations of modern MPs, but I still don't see why that would stop them building in similar levels of body articulation.

Maybe just as simple as 'We've got too many cars already, do something different with this one!'

 

Haha, classic.

 

Tfw2005:Best MP since Hasui left
Dude who normally breaks his neck to upload stuff:

Don't think we've ever had to wait so long for scan uploads with a new MP like with Skids

 

Bots without any accessories:

MP-12 Sideswipe = 110
MP-18 Streak = 104
MP-25 Tracks = 99
MP-39 Sunstreaker = 157

Sunstreaker's count is a lot more due to things like budget, transformation design, smarter design of parts using more rivets and pin and zero springs. If Skids is designed the way I think he will be like @OptimusTimelord suggets, then the count may be less than Sunstreaker and incorporate a few springs in the waist area.