ALL THINGS TRANSFORMERS!!!!

Hopefully a new #Decepticon MP gets announced in 2024!

I just got Gears. Really fun figure.

I’m surprised no one here has mentioned hasbro’s “kickstarter” to get a newly updated TF RID Optimus and Magnus set produced.

https://news.tfw2005.com/2024/01/30/haslab-rid-2001-omega-prime-in-hand-recap-503080

It’s already reached the required 10K backers (i backed 2 sets).

https://hasbropulse.com/products/transformers-legacy-robots-in-disguise-2001-omega-prime

My thoughts on the new MP Hoist.

Nice video. I picked up the Fans Toys Hoist a couple months back, and it's probably my toy sleeper hit of the year. Doesn't get a lot of love but I think that is truly a fantastic figure. Takara went more for the pure anime look, and it works on that front, but I generally prefer what Fans Toys is doing with their figures. The diecast makes it look and feel like quality toys in line with the original Transformers. And the aesthetics are usually improvements over going for a pure G1 anime style guide in my opinion. Warpath is a really good example. Though in some cases like Huffer and Seaspray there is room for improvement.

It's hard to mix the Takara figures with the 3rd party figures since the aesthetic doesnt really match. But I do like the various characters that the 3rd parties release. Takara's release rate is so slow these days on the G1 front. After the next two, nothing's even been announced yet. I really hope they blow everyone's minds with a frickin Jazz or Mirage!

koolkollectibleskhai said:

It's hard to mix the Takara figures with the 3rd party figures since the aesthetic doesnt really match.

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Yeah, one other issue is that these companies take years and years to release figures, and over time the internal style changes dramatically. Look at Starscream 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0.

This weekend I finally had enough of how bad Sideswipe looks in relation to the other MP style figures and transformed him back into car mode after having him in bot mode since he originally came out. Same for Red Alert. Fans Toys has also done a Perceptor 2.0, recognizing how out of step the original one was from where they are now.

Unfortunately we've always had to cobble together figures from different lines to get reasonably complete TF displays. I'm not holding my breath on Takara doing Huffer or Beachcomber. But as time goes on we're able to get closer and closer to something that better approximates the cartoon, even if they don't 100% match up. So on balance that satisfies my personal interests.

Finally got this bad boy. First MP in a while. Definitely a looker!

A gorgeous looking paint app, although my figure has one major flaw. The set itself has a disappointing set of accessories with no proper head sculpt for the toy homage unlike MP-36+. The stickers instead of tamped on decals are a terrible cheap move too, also unlike MP-36+. Takara could have, and should have, done better with this one to make it an amazing toy homage.

BrooklynWolf X said:

I’m surprised no one here has mentioned hasbro’s “kickstarter” to get a newly updated TF RID Optimus and Magnus set produced.

https://news.tfw2005.com/2024/01/30/haslab-rid-2001-omega-prime-in-hand-recap-503080

It’s already reached the required 10K backers (i backed 2 sets).

https://hasbropulse.com/products/transformers-legacy-robots-in-disguise-2001-omega-prime

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Yo!! I'm late to chime in, but yeeeesss, I was so thankful to see these two revived via HasLab!
Even though I grew up with G1 thanks to my older brother's love of it, my childhood was all about Beast Wars, which accustomed me to unconventional interpretations of Optimus/Convoy. So when I saw RiD Optimus/Fire Convoy for the first time, I instantly embraced its uniqueness. To this day, it's my favorite Optimus design (in terms of personality, though, v1 Primal takes the cake Lol). The firetruck is such a great symbol of what Prime stands for, and the dominance of red throughout his color blocking (not just on his upper body, per tradition) is really cool to me. RiD/Car Robots was also the first time I'd seen an Optimus with combiner functionality, so Omega Prime remains cool as hell to me.

Can't wait to watch your review of the set when it rolls out down the road!

Here's my video review of the new MP-44S Optimus Prime. A decent reissue of the MP-44 mold, but should've been a much better overall set to be a true G1 toy homage. It's a shame Takara didn't put the same effort into this that they did with MP-36+ Megatron.

koolkollectibleskhai said:

Here's my video review of the new MP-44S Optimus Prime. A decent reissue of the MP-44 mold, but should've been a much better overall set to be a true G1 toy homage. It's a shame Takara didn't put the same effort into this that they did with MP-36+ Megatron.

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It took me a little while to figure out that if you wait long enough, the molds will be reused in some fashion. Which, if I think more on it, makes total sense, as the complex engineering for some of these is probably a much more involved process than making just about any other kind of action figure, etc.

I recently picked up the Prowl / Ironhide "dead" 2 pack. Only further exploration revealed, again, that these molds were used before.

The original Transformers movie was in my local theater for about 1 and a half to 2 weeks tops. I saw it the first week it came out. And had I not, I would have never seen it that way. As a kid, the carnage was shocking. Apparently parents went nuts when they found out so many characters were getting slaughtered. Which makes me laugh today since in the 80's, as a kid, adult animation for Japan was ported over to after school scheduled "cartoon slots" We got the US "revamped" Robotech (Macross), Captain Harlock ( I'm guessing several iterations of Galaxy Express combined with Arcadia, etc) and Star Blazers (Yamato). So much death and violence.

Anyway, glad to be among the ranks of new Transformers collectors. Right now, IMHO, still the best "value" for collecting for your dollar in my book. I can't do it. I can't spend 18 bucks plus tax for a 4 inch Vintage Collection Star Wars guy. Or 25-30 for a full retail Marvels Legend.

Great review of Prime there. You can see the love put into it. ( I really appreciate all the reviews, help to make purchasing decisions and helps with transformation since the instructions are just hazy for many of these guys) What I love about Transformers is the core characters, even if you miss out or can't pull the financial crunch of one kind, there are always other options. There are tons of iterations of Prime out there. There's enough of a range for all different kinds of Transformers collectors.

Just been on TFW the last couple of days and saw a good amount of updates on characters I'm interested in.

FansToys Ultra Magnus - Looks pretty good! I've been waiting to get an MP cartoon styled Ultra Magnus and that's looking like the one even though I probably won't like the price. The only thing that could get me to not get it would be if Takara showed off a 2.0

FansToys & XTB Ratchet/Ironhide - not really 100% sold on any of these. My main issue is with the chest windows. The splits on the XTB figures are a no no to me but also don't like the shape on the FT. Even with it's faults, I still like my original Takara with the Shadow fisher upgrades.

FansToys Optimus - Digging it for the most part aside from the yellow arrows and shape of the chest. While I don't think the Magic Square 2.0 is the end all toon Optimus, I'm not seeing much of an upgrade yet based on the few pics we have of it aside from the more than likely heft that the FT will have. Hoping that the backpack compresses a bit more for Optimus than is does for FT core Magnus. If the backpack compresses more and I can get some stickers to cover up the yellow arrows, I'd probably go for the FT version and sell the MS 2.0 EX I have. The paint to plastic color would also need to match better than the MS 2.0 EX.

What I really want to see one of these companies do is make a better toon version of Megatron. So far, I haven't seen anything I like better than MP36 even though that one could use an upgrade. I keep hearing ppl say that XTB will make an Apollyon 2.0 but so far, haven't seen any evidence of that as of yet. I had the 1.0 as my first MP Megatron but sold it before MP36 came out.

koolkollectibleskhai said:

Here's my video review of the new MP-44S Optimus Prime. A decent reissue of the MP-44 mold, but should've been a much better overall set to be a true G1 toy homage. It's a shame Takara didn't put the same effort into this that they did with MP-36+ Megatron.

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Thanks for this review! Really surprised that Takara cheapened out with the stickers instead of tamped on decals. Like you said in the review, it seems like they sort of used this a half reissue and a half G1 homage.

Nice to see it looks like the antenna on the headsculpts appear to be made out of sturdier plastic and aren't warped right out of the package. The joints being tighter overall is a plus even if you have to be a little more careful this time around.

Glad they fixed the knee thing. That notch always felt unnecessary.

I know there's a group of ppl who like toy accuracy in their MPs, but that's just not for me. I find the toy look charming but only for the original toys and personally don't think it transfers all that well over to the MPs. I'd take the realistic take and toon take over original toy look for MP scale.

koolkollectibleskhai said:

Hopefully a new #Decepticon MP gets announced in 2024!

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I really like this Takara MP Starscream. I know it's a little too short to some ppl and I, too, would've like a little more height, but so far it's been my favorite cartoon interpretation of the character. I think the good outweighs the bad on it. Hoping for a Takara Soundwave 2.0 with cartoon aesthetic soon. It could be that I had the KO of the FansToys (Robot Paradise) Soundwave, but I didn't like it as much as others did. However, I'm open to hunting one down to find out even though it's ridiculously expensive.

Thanks for the FT update. Hard to navigate the TFW site when there are a billion different 3rd party figures all jammed into the same forum section. I never liked Ultra Magnus and still don't, but that's a good representation of him. I did see the Ironhide the other day, and am pretty excited about updating my MP figures of him and Ratchet.

karamazov80 said:

Thanks for the FT update. Hard to navigate the TFW site when there are a billion different 3rd party figures all jammed into the same forum section. I never liked Ultra Magnus and still don't, but that's a good representation of him. I did see the Ironhide the other day, and am pretty excited about updating my MP figures of him and Ratchet.

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Agreed-there should be subsections for the different companies now that many of them have a pretty long standing in the 3P world and aren't just one offs.

I really don't know why I like Ultra Magnus to be honest. In later versions, I've liked the story that's developed for him, but I can't go to a certain moment in time where I said to myself "wow he's so awesome! I love him!" I do think he's a pretty cool looking bot and that honestly may be all there is too it

I'll need to see more of FT and/or XTB Ironhide and Ratchet before I decide upgrading.

With TransArt finally reissuing Transmetal Optimus Primal without the clear plastic, it gave the push to finally pick up some of the previous releases before they sell out. I just got the metallic version Cheetor in today with Rattrap also on the way.

With so many masterpiece styles figures gong for the super complex transformations (which I don’t mind btw), it’s sort of nice to have a good lookin hefty figure with a straight forward transformation that doesn’t take almost an hour just need to get him a maximal decal to place on his crest.

Just waiting on them to reissue Megatron which is said to happen some time in April. This really opened up a can of worms as I was only going to get the S1 versions to represent Beast Wars in my collection, but now I’ll be in for the transmetals as well

koolkollectibleskhai said:

Here's my video review of the new MP-44S Optimus Prime. A decent reissue of the MP-44 mold, but should've been a much better overall set to be a true G1 toy homage. It's a shame Takara didn't put the same effort into this that they did with MP-36+ Megatron.

Click to expand...

Are the American and Japanese versions different in colors? I just got the email that my pre order is about to drop, including the missing link Optimus, still looking forward to both but considering how I missed the first MP44 drop I think I’m happy to get the 44+ LOL I’ll be completely happy once I get it delivered though!

Both are Japanese versions,MP 44+ has darker blue legs,silver thighs instead of white and the red on + is a little brighter. I have and love both and even prefer 44+,only thing is I wish he had the blue eyes, you'll like MP44+.

Recently went out on a limb (for myself) and picked up the “official” FansToys/RobotParadise Soundwave and happy to say that it’s waaaaay better than the KO RP46 I had previously and sold.

On the face, they would pretty much be the same, but based on the copies I got, the “official” is just better all around. The blue color, much better joints, everything lines up perfectly in transformation and just overall quality feels nicer, stronger and more premium. Frenzy also has better joints and paint. The same can be said for the rest of the cassettes, all much better than the KOs. Nice to have Rumble this go around as well

This gives me much more confidence than I previously had in the upcoming FansToys Ultra Magnus, Ironhide/Ratchet and of course, Optimus.

I’ve been busy, I also realized they added more details to the removable trailer tower and the truck on the missing link c01, now i want to get the c02! The other primes are the MP-10 toys r us, the Optimus prime 2012 Commemorative release and the Walmart single cab exclusive.

I love the MP-44 but haven’t messed with it too much because the missing link it’s taking my attention!!! At first i didn’t want to clip the spruces but screw it haha i ain’t selling it. I need more space!! I just opened up the Soundwave 40th and need to get blaster to go with it. I am curious to see the next missing TF though

Maybe the trailer mold was damaged to a point they couldn’t do the spring action on it but who knows!! I’m loving the retro direction, foam padding, packaging and decal sheet we can do for it!! Since the C01 as we all know has the printed molding that just leaves spare decals for your older cab if need be!

I do agree with what KoolkollectiblesKhai mentions about the MP-44S at first glance I realize what they did but since I missed the first one back in 2018, I’m curious to know if the color painting on this is just a newer version of the old school toy? I feel that the actual homage to the figure is the missing link which is why i didn’t mind missing details on the MP-44S but we’ll see