Too bad the Haslab version is so expensive because it's the type of figure you get as a stand in til you get the better well engineered cell/pumpkin. Haslab really made a piece of junk. With how big it is, why couldn't they have managed at least half of what cell/pumpkin does. Instead there is a quarter ton of shit hanging from the legs and three quarter ton of shit hanging from the back, horrible! Overall it just doesn't look good! I know oversize bots are not for everyone but as I said before I would love the cell/pumpkin design in the Haslab size or bigger just because he's a planet!!!

 

The haslab is cool for its size and all, but that kibble is terrible. That and it looks like it can barely stand without a...stand

 

So much hate for haslab  
I jumped on the crowdfunding as soon as I heard about it. The kibble certainly bothered me, but I overlooked it because there was so much more that was exciting about it. Then the waiting game... up until about last Christmas when I started to really hate all that kibble. Zeta just looked so good in robot mode (and terrible in my opinion for planet mode with the original rings). So the solution was, Haslab in planet mode and Zeta in robot mode...so I went ahead and bought a v2 "merry Christmas" studio cell in original colours.

When Zeta arrived it was awesome. Comes out of the box in robot mode. Put some stuff together and right into the display. Then haslab arrived and wow. I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much I did but you have to give credit where it's due. It's big and it's awesome. But I soon realized there was no where to display his planet mode as it was too large. So plan B. Haslab in robot mode and Zeta in planet mode (with the upgraded rings).

I'm happy with both. Never planned on transforming these things but had to to get them into my display.
Haslab is a beautifully sculpted piece. Yes it has the kibble, but after people started taking it off and using the shell to form a planet. It's a two for one. Even with the kibble, I started to find that it added to the figure. Sounds nuts, but the kibble contributes to its presence and size and doesn't bother me in the slightest. What did was the blue teeth that I painted.

Zeta's engineering definitely wins. Didn't plan on transforming it but when I did, it's amazing this thing can transform into an almost perfect sphere. And with the upgraded rings, it's perfect in planet mode and looks way better in robot mode too.

There's my two cents which has probably been said before. Neither is a stand-in. Both of these are awesome!

 

I dont think its "hate", more.... "disappointment", I thought it looked amazing initially but upon further inspection it just made me sadder for a missed opportunity. No matter how you look at it its a figure for adult collectors or spoiled kids (due to cost) yet its so.... basic. By basic I mean simple, hollow and as a result cheap, the ratchets sound cheap, the big chunky plastic all hollowed out to save a few cents. Realistically its an upsized mainline titan class figure that should have cost $150 imo anyway.

Still whatever floats your boat, anyone who got one on preorder has certainly made out like bandits and congratulations with that should you ever come to cycle it out of your collection.

 

I hear you. I wish hasbro didn't mess with the colours at production. I wish they would have put some more engineering into the transformation. I wish there was a cover for the hole in his ass when he's in robot mode   I've never felt it was cheap though. Handling it and transforming it, the thing is heavy and so big it's almost awkward to transform. Ratchets are really strong! Two arms! Really satisfying loud clicks. To be fair, I don't own any titan class figures but do have the ARK coming in. I do expect that one to feel cheap and hollow but I don't care...I wanted the shuttle.

I don't mean to keep talking about haslab in the zeta thread so I'll switch topics a bit.
I do hope we can see an oversize zeta one day. And if we do, fix that ugly maw, get some more sculpting on the panels for robot mode, give the thing more (and better spikes), make it easier to swap out colour panels (that don't require me to push a pin out).

 

You displayed both of those really well. The Haslab Unicron looks really impressive on the shelf.

You can be disappointed with it but it is still an impressive feat for Hasbro to produce a ginormous Unicron. It has stature, looks menacing and towers over everything else. They were upfront about what it is and they delivered. Being classified under the mainline, the engineering does exactly what it’s supposed to do, be able to transform to both modes and be robust. And you also have to admit, that is a whole lot of plastic.

 

thanks! It really had to fit cause there was nowhere else I could keep it. Had to remove the third ring on each side, lift the arms, and remove the back leg of the stand. Luckily the pose works. Detached the head to make him look slightly downwards.

 

Actually much less impressive than you think, they didnt invest in it, the fans did. Hasbro could have easily produced this figure on their own but they didnt, I personally think it was incredibly cheeky of a company with a net revenue of $1.72 billion to essentially run a kickstarter, I mean better that and to get the figure than not but still, its just rude, greedy and an incredibly easy option.

Again though, dont get me wrong, I thought it was amazing initially but it was probably the existence of the Zeta that turned me off it, that something so elegant already existed and to me, Hasbros offering just didnt match up in terms of engineering and style, initially I didnt like the Zetas back being uniform to the front and thought it was an engineering or cost choice until I actually went back and looked up stills from the movie and thats actually how Unicron was.

Anyway, to sum up, more options = good, pleases more people and we avoid the horrors of the late 80s, early 90s garbage offerings with no other options.

 

I’m not telling that you have to feel any certain way about it. Just saying that I believe that a $600 mainline figure was an untested area because of the price point. Transformers isn’t a strong brand like Star Wars and Hasbro probably didn’t want to invest heavily into the tooling of a high-priced figure with no real repaint value unless they were guaranteed to at least break even. On top of that, they also use the crowdfunding is also a tool to create engagement, publicity and hype for everything down the line. People are more willing to commit if there is a deadline and believe that it is limited. I think that it was impressive because they did step out of their narrow corporate comfort zone with the project.

I am in no way comparing it to Zeta’s either because their requirements and objectives are different. It’s like putting a Toyota Camry and a BMW (pick any model) in a head-to-head match up. Yes, they are both cars but they are each aiming for a distinct segment of the market with different demands and budgets. Like the mainline isn’t about G1 toon-accuracy, whereas we expect more of that from 3rd party.

Yes, I agree with you that options are always good. Just offering my point of view.

 

Have you seen the new Camry? That's a nice car! And getting to a point where any bmw owner would be proud to own.

I am disappointed with the Haslab thing. It's like they didnt use any of the engineering that they've used in many other figures. I was very excited when they showed their first progress but then it went downhill. To me size is not an impressive feet for them to accomplish. Sure, it's a big transformer but there are tons of big plastic toys in the world so it's just another one. They missed the mark big time on what could have been an amazing figure. It's like half a transformer because so much just moves and piles up like massive stacks of pringles on the backside.

I mean WTF were they doing! Gross!

 

Oh absolutely and Im not trying to grind you down or disparage your opinion, just a debate, I like talking about things, I like that people have different tastes and opinions, its how you can expand your own as even if you dont agree with someone there can be aspects which can alter or augment your own opinions. As I said, I would prefer Hasbro to do the crowdfunding than not I still personally find it offensive professionally, when 3rd party companies can make masterpiece quality items over and over without begging customers for money in advance a huge company like Hasbro not putting their own money where their mouth is doesnt sit well with me, its kind of like when established and wealthy actor Zach Braff got his fans to finance his vanity project film. People and businesses with money dont like to spend money, its a tale as old as time but I personally find such a large company crowdsourcing to be offensive because even if Hasbro didnt sell a single unit of their Unicron all the costs involved could have been swallowed up and not even make a blip in the year end earnings report.

As for being a strong brand, Transformers has been one of Hasbros top cash cows for decades now, there was a phase in the early 90s when it looked like they may mothball it but now it just goes from strength to strength, I think the movies have made nearly $20 billion by now which is obscene given the franchise doesnt have as wide demographic appeal as say Star Wars (Note I hate everything about Bayformers).

I think TT approach the 3rd party toys the wrong way, they basically pretend they dont exist because fundamentally they dont effect their own sales revenue because they dont hit mainline buyers but what they could do is buy or even license these amazing designs which are clearly made by hardcore fans given the fanservice details in many of them, they save on R&D costs, reach a wider audience and if Zeta can make money selling their Unicron at $300 TTs economies of scale would allow it to be sold for less (haha, yeah we know they wouldnt do that) or more likely be sold for a bit more and TT walks away with a healthy profit margin.

Still, I guess it doesnt matter who makes them so long as they are made though I wont buy Fanstoys products due to their selling practices of short selling popular figures then rereleasing late at double the price.

 

I'm hoping Pumpkin will drive down the price of the original and people will want to sell their used ones for much cheaper than the current asking price. Yikes...

 

I just stated that because debating for many now becomes personal. You made good points that I’ll have to chew on.

Essentially, I think it depends on what your expectations were for the figure. When I saw that it was a Hasbro project, I expected something like this:



And they didn’t disappoint. Thanks for taking the time to relay your ideas.

 

Hah! Thanks for making my day with your expectations, I guess a truism is that people generally overexpect and I daresay I'm guilty of that.

 

They look one in the same to me, just different sizes/colors! 

 

Ahh, you answered my unstated question here. My mind had been blown because you reversed what most people do who have both--display Haslabicron in planet mode and Zeta in robot mode. Indeed that generally seems to be their agreed upon better representations.  
Very well done!

 

I was initially disappointed to see the simplistic Haslab Unicron transformation, and doubly so to see all the planet shell pieces hanging out on the back/legs, but I've since turned around on that and came to the conclusion that they made the right decision. The catalyst for that was the XTransbots Menasor trailer. A lot of folks really rag on it for a variety of real and perceived flaws, but I actually like it a whole lot. I think there's a lot of very clever and interesting engineering in there, but I won't argue that it's very difficult to transform. A lot of folks point the finger at the number of panels that swing around and fold on themselves, etc, as the reason for this difficulty, but I actually don't think that the main reason is a complicated transformation; I think that the reason is a complicated transformation on a very large figure. When you're manipulating a smaller figure, you can hold it in one hand and move things around with the other. With something the size of the Menasor trailer, you absolutely cannot do that - the size and weight of it prevent that. You need to either lie it down on a flat surface while you're transforming, or you need like four hands. The larger a figure's size, the more physically challenging the transformation will be, just by virtue of the figure being larger and heavier. A complicated transformation on top of that makes it exponentially more challenging. The XTB trailer has a step at which the entire torso is just a bunch of unsupported panels hinged to each other, with heavy arms attached; it's just Flop Central. On a smaller figure, that might have been fine; on a 20" figure, this is a nightmare.

Basically, my conviction at this point is that the bigger a figure is, the simpler its transformation needs to be in order for it to remain manageable and enjoyable. The Haslab Unicron is huge, so I think it was the right decision to make parts of the figure hollow (to make it lighter), to make the transformation simple (to decrease frustration at that size), and to include a big stand that can hold the figure during the entire transformation process (so that you don't need to phone up your three closest buddies to lend a hand every time you want to transform him). Could they have done the same without doing a shellformation? I dunno, maybe; I'm not a designer, so I really can't judge. I do think that it's a better option than something like the Zeta Unicron transformation at Haslab Unicron scale.

 

Where are Pumpkin or Cell available to buy currently?

 

Here are a few:

01-Studio PUMPKIN-P01 Pumpkin 2010 Universal Dominator Version

01 Studio PUMPKIN-P01 Unicron

01-Studio PUMPKIN-P01 Pumpkin 2010 Universal Dominator Version will arrive

 

Thanks! Really appreciate it.