He's up on toydojo now- and they're actually selling it for a little cheaper, $124.99.

 

1) Diecast is not a premium cost factor. Outside of maybe the slightly higher paint budget required, it is not of significantly higher cost than ABS plastic.

2) This was never an official stance, and purely speculation gone wild. Crackdown launched at a discount price which was assumedly meant to counteract the KO version that was releasing around the same time. The others launched at a more "normal" price, if slightly lower than the competition. But even then, most people were speculating that the lower individual member pricetag was an offset to a much more expensive Gravestone (much as how the FP figures were released years prior), especially when he was initially intended to have two separate trailers.

 

XTB threw me with the Part - A Cab Only only because DX9's offering both now and together.
Think I'm going to get all three Motomasters offering with cab and sort it out later.
No plans to get DX9's car bots though.

 

Can someone who owns both MP-44 and the XTB Stunticons post a pic of them posed together? Try and mimic the stance and poses in the Stunticon team shot below? A pic of FT Roadking next to MP-44 would also help?
I'm really trying to wrap my head around the comparative sizes of all these figures.
Looking closely at the "Team" photo that ibot posted, I'm 90% convinced they've photoshopped a pic of Motormaster onto an existing pic of the Stunticons (look closely at where Gravestones leg overlaps Breakdown) and I'm thinking they may have got the size a little wrong?
XTB Stunticons are the same height as MP Carbots, which sit at the waist of MP-44. If Gravestone and MP-44 waists are at the same height (based on the side by side image) then the XTB Stunticons should also sit at waist height NOT at his lower chest.
These kind of comparisons from multiple pictures are always crude and a little off, but if Gravestone is that tall next to MP-44, I don't see how the XTB Stunticons can come up to his lower chest.
Either the side by side with the rest of the team is wrong or the side by side with MP-44 is wrong.


If Gravestone is that much taller than Mp-44 I'm thinking the actual size of Gravestone with the team may be more akin to this? It's not a big deal, he looks to be about the same height as FT's version and plenty folks are fine with that, I just don't see the XTB sets matching up the way that photo suggests



@ibot - can you post a pic of Gravestone, the other Stunticons and MP-44 all together, so we can get a definite confirmation of the size on Gravestone? Throw in some Autobot cars as well if you like so we can see how they all fit it together in height.

 

cool thanks. He wasnt there at the time i looked so i may order from them. Tfsource are notorious for getting their stock in slowly than other retailers.

I will wait to see if other sellers on ebay will give me a better price given that the exchange rate of USD/AUD will be a deal breaker for me and i also have to take into account shipping costs

 

1) What does that have to do with what I said as a totality for the-01?

2) Did anyone here claim otherwise or something?

You like the price, huh? Good, then why don’t you do us both a favour, and buy two of these, and then ship me one and I will pay you the shipping. Thanks in advance, buddy.

 

A person who can justify MMC's add on kit for 55 bucks when there's no diecast and barely any paint can justify ANYTHING.

Just don't bother.

 

I’m definitely confused about the size now lol. I still like him but I don’t want him being toooooo massive.

 

1) Wasn't an "argument", so much as correcting a common fallacy. You listed it as an "upsale" feature, and I was just saying that that's really not the case. And for that matter, Gravestone's probably going to have a decent chunk of diecast himself, comparing to the rest of his team. Otherwise, I have no horse in this race, because I do not own TE-01 nor do I have interest in doing so.

2) How do you mean? Your stated prices were merely a hope and a dream, supported by zero evidence. You have only yourself to blame if you were getting hyped up over a "good price", because it wasn't supported by any official stance.

 

I don't have MP-44, but TE-01 is the same height:

It does look like the pic of Gravestone with the rest of the team is photoshopped while the one with MP-44 isn't, so the team will prolly just come to about waist level with Gravestone.

 

Cause I’m thinking XTB wants to keep the price around $200 for the set... and it is mostly big pieces of plastic. Not a ton of paint or small parts to assemble. Lower production costs. Time will tell.

I was pretty spot on with my guess of $120USD for Gravestone... just for the truck.

 

wouldn't make sense for the trailer to cost more than the cab itself.

 

Thanks for the pics all. Yeah, I think Gravestone is going to be only a few mm shorter than Roadking. So the team will look a lot different than XTB's photo. I think the group shots we already have with XTB limbs and FT MM are a pretty good representation of how the set will appear.

I'm pretty ho-hum on the XTB set as is, and the new pics of the combined mode really aren't doing it for me. Motormaster is very nice in alt mode though. And the option to skip the trailer (which takes up WAY too much space on the shelf) / Menasor skeleton (which I have no need of because I don't want to combine these) does make this a far more appealing option.
As it stands, XTB can be my alt mode set (if I can just do something about the POS Crackup). I can skip all the unnecessary trailer and combiner junk by only buying Gravestone part A, and have a decent vehicle mode set... except for that damn Crackup. So disappointed in his colour. Can't decide whether to try and repaint him, pick up the XTB Toy version (urrgh, I'd basically be rewarding the original colour choice by double-dipping on the figure?) or pick up yet another FT Spoiler to fill that vehicle slot... I guess a repaint is the easiest and cheapest option. I hate the figure as it is so If I screw it up there's no big loss...

Also, I kind of glossed over a few posts since the picture announcement - was there any resolution as to the question of why some pics shoe clear purple parts, some show opaque and some seem to mix and match? The opaque pics also seem to be dodgy photoshop efforts so I'm assuming the final will be clear?

 

All the purple bits on Gravestone appear to be translucent, with the exception of the false cab windows on his toes, which are painted. Any pic that shows any of the other purple bits as opaque is a render.

 

While I’m a bit disappointed in the backpack (it’s not Cliffjumper’s, but it’s also no Maketoys Jazz or XTB’s own Dead End) and the (seeming) lack of paint on his sword (FT’s nailed that one hard), those feet are perfection IMO. Nice and clean while keeping true to the anime. And that vehicle mode... God he looks amazing in that mode...

 

Which is just... nonsensical?
Either the windows are clear or the windows are opaque. Pick one!!
Even more though, if you ARE making the toes opaque because of some random "bot mode only" thing, why give him clear purple plastic knee and chest bits at the same time? None of the bot mode translucent bits are visible on the truck, and vice versa (except for the windows on his but) as far as I can see, so just treat them all the same.
I mean, I'll probably paint ALL the translucent bits in both modes an opaque purple with some cell-shading effect anyway',s so I don't really care, but the inconsistency is just weird.

Yeah, he is kind of chunky in the back. Seeing how none of the MotorMasters are incorporating much of Menasor in the design, and this MM is a truck only figure, the backpack honestly isn't that much smaller than FT's and DX9 blows them both of the water. Everyone defended FT's backpack against DX9 by stating "FT had the whole trailer on the back while DX9 is just the cab so of course their's is smaller"... but then XTB does this?
Again, not really a big one for me as this will be truck mode only and the truck actually cleans up REALLY well.

 

my assumption is that the feet aren't the front of the cab and that's why the windshield is painted on the feet but the windshield is see through on the alt mode pics. also the tires on the bottoms of the feet in robot mode are on the rear bumper of the alt mode.

 

You don't need to assume that - that's just how it is. It's obvious and always was. What he was saying is that making the faux cab windows on his toes opaque is an odd choice since his knee bits are clear. If they were gonna go with clear knees, they should've gone with clear toes. If they were gonna go with opaque toes, they should've gone with opaque knees.

Personally, I really like the clear knees and chest accents and I'm disappointed in the opaque toes. Not so disappointed that I'm going to make a fuss, but it is something I wish they'd done better.

 

The backpack and especially the shoulder joint transformation in how it attaches to the bot torso reminds me a lot of MP-22 Ultra Magnus. Hopefully those shoulders attach securely to the torso.

Alt truck mode looks amazing.