Bob,
Nice setups you have there!
As part of a Prime themed display I could see the appeal for MP Prime but the vast majority of my collection is devoted to Classics and as such I want the best possible Prime that's in scale with those.
Until recently it was Classics/Henkei Prime which is OK but compared to Faith Leader it's mediocre.
Much has been said about iGears ripping off an official design but had Classics/Henkei Prime been more G1 accurate in the first place then there would have been no need for Faith Leader as I'm guessing the majority of people would have preferred that instead of the reimagining that was first released in 2006.
I e-mailed iGear this morning about international shipping and recieved an ultra quick and pleasantly suprising reply that it would only be $18 ( just over £10 ) which was less than I expected so I treated myself to one for Christmas
Providing the QC on Faith Leader is good I'll ebay Henkei Prime as the £30 or so I'll raise can be added to the MP Hot Rod/Rodimus fund
Ra88,
I agree that Takara aren't perfect when it comes to QC issues, the exceedingly floppy Henkei Skywarp & Thundercracker on my shelves are testament to that but apart from those the only issues I've had are,
Loose knees on Alternity Megatron.
( I fixed them with a screwdriver although I ended up reselling the toy anyway as it was one of those impulse buys I regretted. )
A bit of chrome rubbed off on Henkei Sunstreaker's spoiler.
( Fortunately it was on the side the reprolabels decal went over it so it's not noticeable. )
As for diecast it's never been something that's influenced my decision to buy a particular TF..........I have a few with it but it's not something that I feel adds to the toy in any significant way aside from increased international shipping costs eg I got Takara's MP Grimlock with slightly damaged packaging for £60 but the shipping was £30 on top of that amount.........without the added weight of the diecast it probably would have been £15-£20.
karamazov80,
Had the original MP Seeker design been stuck to it would have been a real challenger for the best one as it was virtually perfect.
Takara however hired a new designer who insisted on adding the crappy looking "sword sheaths" on the hips to give the robot mode a "samurai" feel and it was a BAD move.
I can't argue with the guy's overall pedigree as a designer as he was also responsible for ( among others ) Diaclone/G1 Prime & Hybrid Style Convoy but I think he was having an off day when he came up with that one.
I was also disappointed that neither version of Starscream were in the G1 toy colors of silver/grey.
