Also wondering if the bit in green is supposed to slide up to look more like the G1 leg gun.

 

That's odd, it looks like the cab is part of the ankle gun. It should be on the arm

 

the original toy the front the arm trains formed the ribs of raiden

on the same block test that that leg picture is form the front of the trains do form the arms as well so we will have to see what exactly the backpack chunk is that forms the ankle guns

 

Raiden's left hand is likely stored in Suiken's chest and rotates out for combined mode with Suiken's head going into the chest.

 

huh thought the chest was the front of the train at first

 

Got my copy of Shouki from HLJ.
Verdict: Train great, Bot-mode ok, Torso-mode worrisome.

I hope Kaen comes with a lot of mass to stabilize the torso. As is it feels super unstable.
I assume the assemblies that Raiden‘s arms attach to Shouki are also the joints that are responsible for the shoulder rotation and they don’t feel great to hold any pose with an arm attached.
Also the Shouki’s legs feel super unfinished especially in combiner mode. Again I hope Kaen fills out the gaps.
Conveniently Kaen comes out last right? So you won‘t know if this thing will be stable until you bought all six members.

 

I mean, even if it did slide up a bit it's still sitting on top of a massive chunk of plastic.

 

For a 6 bot combiner @ over $100 each i can see spreading out releases, but the downside is people on the fence don't get to see full team / combiner reviews until it's too late. This is why I skipped Unicron... for a $600 HUGE figure I needed to see how well it held up. Buying Dragstrip without seeing Menasor was a minor risk, but I'm happy with how it's coming out.

I may not buy buying these trains, but I hope this combiner works out for those who do want it.

 

All the loose stuff about Shouki's combined mode needs to be that way. It gives clearance for all that shoulder mass to move.

 

So do we think the remaining 3 will be Getsuei pricing?

 

Hard to say, with the insane inflation and weak-ass yen. Prices on mainline figures have increased again with the most recently announced wave, so even if they fit in the same "price class" as Getsuei, they may still end up being more expensive.

 

Getsuei is smaller than the arms in train mode. I’m willing to bet the arms will be closer to Yukikaze’s pricepoint. Kaen is more the wildcard. Size wise he’s the smallest in train mode, but his engineering could push that price back up to Getsuei. And this isn’t even factoring in inflation.

edit: should have read @lord ginrai ’s post first!

 

i can see kaen being about shouki price or more

 

My gut feeling is the yen price for the arm bots will similar to the leg bots. Then Kaen will very similar in price to Shouki. However, for those paying an exchange rate, the final prices may be more than what those same people paid for the first 2 or 3 figures.

 

Looking at MPG Suiken. The backpack "wings" appear to work differently from the Diaclone/G1 figure. They look like they are attached to his arms instead of the backpack and could possibly swivel to the sides like Getsuei's and Yukikaze's arm panels. Which is the orientation I think they are in for the silhouette image we saw a few months ago.




The tall sections by the sides of his head on the Diaclone/G1 figure are now set behind his head and are part of the backpack.

 

Kaen for sure will include the Raiden gun, so the price will be comparabile with the Getsuei's one.

 

Bought now some credits on Amazon, the yen is at lowest value in month ( it's rising up)

 

I just wish he had the same hand articulation as skyfire. They're close in height I see no excuse, those hands are awesome

 

The next PO date is probably the 6th, since Thursdays seems to the day for POs, so we'll probably get a pretty good look at the final hands soon enough

 

well seeing on the g1 toy the pack pack wings where the whole front of the train that would come off and spread out to peg in and these seem to be trying to be more self contained with little parts forming