Nah, it was just the factory XTB used put out a terrible product that couldn’t be transformed because pieces were warped and would fall off and break in transformation. At first XTB said everything was fine and later recalled it and said they were suing the factory and drama about the guy stealing money, but the product was completed, boxed up and released with XTB’s ok.

XTB says they’re creating new moulds now to fix the warping and other issues for the upcoming fixed version.

 

So is that plus the trailer why I've seen more negativity with XTB recently? Cause I thought they were in pretty good standing with the Stunticons.

 

could probably throw in the pricing on their Dr Egg too, think that set some folk off.

 

I wouldn't say inflation, personally but rather a matter of business. Crackup, for one, was initially so cheap because of a KO that was legit being shown off at the same time as their reveal, if not earlier. That being something that I believe was one of the defining factors on why the trailer pricing was so high, if you wanna look at it a step further.

I think the argument could also be made that possibly further engineering could be needed for some of the limbs, most likely Groove and Blades. So possibly some of the extra scratch could be going towards offloading engineering costs?

Either way, could be an economy-based reason or a production-based reason, I guess maybe we'll figure out when we go later down the line...

TLDR: Locke crashed and burned on arrival, Keith recalled all stock and is now coming out with a lengthy revision due sometime in Q3(?). But then on top of that, a factory owner who was working on the original Locke secretly did a cheaper run of the toy variant of Dead End and now has run off, with Keith at least attempting to sue him at this moment.

 

Yeah, I think it started with the Dr egg pricing at $175, then announcing that some stuff they said would come with the trailer was being sold separately as an $80 accessory pack on top of the trailer. Then reissue prices were jacked up for some re-releases and then the Locke quality fiasco, so it’s been a rough start to the year.

 

I see Dr. Egg is on sale at ShowZ for $158. Can't imagine why!

 

Hmmmmm I'm intrigued and more than a little confused!

First that alt mode. Sooooo, they went with the Mack truck alt mode after all. Not too surprised since its the toon alt mode, I guess, but not what I was hoping for. I had the toy so I was really hoping for a nice realistic version of that Mitsubishi truck. But its not just that - it's WHY THE HECK DOES THAT MACK ALT MODE EXIST AT ALL IN THE FIRST PLACE!!  

There must be a story behind it, maybe even one that makes sense, but I'm just going with another day Flory Dery came to work drunk, like the day he drew Blitzwing  . I mean he presumably had the toy in front of him as usual to do the bot mode model, but then what happened? He had to completely disregard the toy's alt mode and then make some diliberate effort to find a model, picture or real life reference of a completely different fire truck to draw instead, and thats how we end up with him being a Mack in the toon. Completely bizarre! I dont know if we even see him in alt mode in the toon. For a brief glimpse I guess.

Ok so let's say I can get past the alt mode. Its a fantastic recreation of a Mack fire truck thats for sure. Then I just remain deeply confused how this figure works with the current limited info. 29 cm! Thats 1 cm short of MP-10's trailer! So this is one beast of a fire truck - dwarfing MP Inferno at 20 cm. Ok i reckon this American truck would be bigger than the Inferno Fuso in real life, but not this different. But OK - MP Inferno is a bit underscaled compared to the carbots, so not XTB's fault. And Hotspot as a Mack here looks good compared to the car, so OK. But this is one big truck!

What's confusing is I just can't see how it works. So its a 26 cm bot. I guess that matches Gravestone being noticeably bigger than Prime/Megatron. Two wrongs don't make a right in my book, but OK makes sense for them to match up. But even as a big bot I'm struggling to see how that huge amount of mass - almost MP-10 trailer volume - converts into that sleek ridiculously clean looking bot??? Where does that entire truck go - you can't see any of it! Maybe the legs are the rear hidden by Streetwise, but the detailing on them looks straight from the toon and not the Mack. In fact I expect a double axle to be hidden there if they're strictly following the toon model, but could be single if following the real truck - then two of the six wheels he proudly displays in bot mode would be faux.

Honestly if I didn't see the hinge in the ladder that suggests they are directly copying MP Inferno's disappearing ladder trick, as also implied in that dodgy translated tweet, it think that was just a render of a non transforming fire truck. Unless there's some serious magic going on, like a very hollow truck turning inside out and compressing down to that sleek kibbleless bot, I just don't see how it works. And while there seems like too much truck to be hidden in that bot mode, there doesn't seem anywhere near enough for it to comprise Hotspot and Defensor.

Wait I've got it - the Mack truck is an oversized pretender shell covering a smaller Mitsubishi truck that converts to that bot!! The only explanation! You heard it here first.     Can't wait to see more of this.

Anyone got payment request for Fuzz from Baba yet?

 

One thing I noticed is that the back of the truck isn't as tall as the cab, so volume wise this might still be much smaller that Optimus+trailer or FT Motormaster that we know transforms into a bot comparable in size to this Hotspot. Now the FT bot has huge legs and a backpack while this one is suspiciously clean, not only from kibble but also from panel lines that you would expect given that to have such a different look between mode a lot of panel flipping should be involved. Either the transformation scheme is different from what we are imagining or the render was made cleaner than the final product.

 

According to what they replied in a comment, Hot Spot should be the next release. And judging from the pictures, I suspect there will be some kind of partforming.

 

I think the bot mode for Hot Spot is the back portion of the truck, probably a bit shell forming too.

The rest of the truck will fold inside out to form the combiner parts.

 

I'm not seeing it myself. The Menasor skeleton took up the space of a huge trailer packed completely full, except a little car sized cubby hole. No way does only part of that fire truck form the whole Defensor skeleton. Defensor's feet alone would fill half that cab!

 

IIRC, all the animators (therefore presumably Flory) had as reference for the S2 combiners were poor black and white photocopies of photos of the toys, which is why their models took more liberties and deviated more from the toy look than the other S2 character models. I don't recall the source for this info unfortunately.

 

Ok that makes a lot of sense. Maybe Hotspot's alt mode ref was damaged or otherwise completely useless so he just had to go out and find another fire truck to draw. Not like he could send an email to request the model and Google it.  

 

So that's probably how Onslaught got his colour changing abilities for Bruticus. Maybe even got some confusion with the silver chest covering him.

 

That is correct. TFraw on twitter has tweeted some images showing the materials Marvel got to create the character models for the combiners.

 

Well considering what they had it could have definitely been much worse.

Still interested to see if it's even possibly for some company to make an MP Bruticus with a blue Onslaught and a white/grey Brutiucs without the partsforming piece.

 

I think there isn't enough material here to make Hot Spot and the combiner torso. since it is only a render and not an actual completed piece we don't see the panel lines but I would suspect the back of the alt mode collapses down into the legs, the arms unfold from the cab and the ladder assembly folds into the chest. Since this doesn't have the cab as the chest, a la Inferno, they don't have to keep that as one solid piece.

 

Van Guard really looks great. Looking forward to it. Just POd Fuzz.

As what I've commented on their FB, hopefully Bastion's head, torso, hip, thighs, hands, feet, and the big a** gun will be included in Van Guard's package ala Zeta. Not in a separate box to buy.  

 

I'm thinking it's not the entire combiner, but maybe the upper half with it also needing pants similar to constructor, but who knows.

 

Never gonna happen I'm afraid. He doesn't just have a pile of combiner parts like Zeta. We can already see from the renders that he has a complete robot skeleton like their Menasor, and most likely it'll be sold as an extra package.

Hmmm the combiner skeleton as separate parts with some of the figures? I doubt it but thats a possibility.