ALL THINGS TRANSFORMERS!!!!

[Reinhardt]

I can't find it on youtube

 

[franpincho]

Hmm. That is odd.

You just need to search for his channel (Benscollectables) and it's the latest one added.

Sorry all, it's YouTube acting weird.

 

[Reinhardt]

It's there now. Thanks fanpincho.

 

[franpincho]

No problem! Let us know what you think!


Like any Apple spokesperson would say: I think you are going to LOVE it.

 

[Reinhardt]

Awesome figure. So so close. It looks like the one Ben has a final piece, not a test one, so hopefully any day now.

 

[thecorsair]

Did you guys see Ben´s review over at youtube for Kapow Toys of MMC´s Carnifex?

This thing is massive and looks tremendously cool:

I'm getting the figure as a centrepiece to my Wreckers shelf and I've also got their Roadbuster & Whirl pre-ordered.

I'd love to see MMC continue to expand the Wreckers roster with Rack'N Ruin from the UK Marvel run plus Guzzle, Rotorstorm & Pyro from IDW's Last Stand Of The Wreckers.

 

[franpincho]

From Tempting toys and Collectibles on FB:

CANT WAIT for this! Love how he comes with accessories for White Prime as well!

Another amazing addition to the slowly growing Ultimetal Collection!!!

Bring it!!

 

[BrooklynWolf X]

Saw bens reviews of MAS01 and grassor...

Omg, what a time to be a TF fan...jeez!

Ok, not trying to start anything, I genuinely want to engage in a non fanboy conversation....


Compare the MAS01 to HT Optimus...

One is 18" and costs $180 and the other is 12" and costs $350....


What are we paying for with the HT version?


Also, the Magnus ultimetal looks dope! Buuuuttt...his face...I don't know about it. Looks too stylized for my liking. Were there any side by side comparison pics with the first ultimetal release?

 

[Pro Design]

Ok, not trying to start anything, I genuinely want to engage in a non fanboy conversation....


Compare the MAS01 to HT Optimus...

One is 18" and costs $180 and the other is 12" and costs $350....


What are we paying for with the HT

At the end of the day, plastic is cheap and time is money.

Take the HT prime, MP10 and the new 18" prime..

Build a 10 inch MP10 or an 18 inch MP10 and the cost of additional plastic is not that much in the overall scheme. Fairly close to the same amount of time involved. Hell the 18 inch might even be quicker since it's larger and easier to handle the parts on assembly versus the smaller ones on the Mp10 might be more tricky.

Now take the hot toys prime and you have similar amount of time to build and cost in plastic. BUT prior to build you have everything that goes into the paint work and the detailing and weathering on it. That increases the amount of time massively on that figure vs the "MP10" design. Then factor in all the additional crap that they threw in with it with all the additional parts, base, etc. Love them or hate them, there's additional cost for all of those and every one of those pieces have an amazing amount of detailing and weathering as well. Which again increases jacks up the time significantly. For those that are in doubt, you should try it yourself just for giggles. Try painting your MP 10 and then custom weathering it and see how much time it takes. Or get a quote from one of the recognized painters on the board to have them paint your MP10 and weather it and see how much it costs just for paint and weathering. Point is, ain't gonna be quick or cheap!

I've always said the price should be between $250 to $275 on this. So this isn't a fanboy response as I have said it is overpriced. But at the end of the day, time equals money. And there is a boatload more time to get the final production piece from hot toys vs those you mentioned.

 

[franpincho]

Saw bens reviews of MAS01 and grassor...

Omg, what a time to be a TF fan...jeez!

Ok, not trying to start anything, I genuinely want to engage in a non fanboy conversation....


Compare the MAS01 to HT Optimus...

One is 18" and costs $180 and the other is 12" and costs $350....


What are we paying for with the HT version?


Also, the Magnus ultimetal looks dope! Buuuuttt...his face...I don't know about it. Looks too stylized for my liking. Were there any side by side comparison pics with the first ultimetal release?

It's HT bro, they feel they can just charge whatever the **** they want. I'm getting that Optimus when it hits $150, as that's what that thing is worth to me.

People can justify the price all they want and that's fine. It doesn't affect me. It sure as hell affects stores full of this thing since they can't even sell them. A shame, since I would have really wanted to see a full line of TF's from HT.

 

[BrooklynWolf X]

It's HT bro, they feel they can just charge whatever the **** they want. I'm getting that Optimus when it hits $150, as that's what that thing is worth to me.

People can justify the price all they want and that's fine. It doesn't affect me. It sure as hell affects stores full of this thing since they can't even sell them. A shame, since I would have really wanted to see a full line of TF's from HT.

Right?!? Seriously when people muttered the words HT and Transformers...our imaginations ran wild! And then the reveal! Ok, yeah, that looks cool. Very interesting take on prime...

Uh..,ok...am I reading that right? $350?



....wait...what?!?!


That was my reaction haha.

 

[BrooklynWolf X]

Re: Possible Hot Toys DC TV license?

Spoiler:

At the end of the day, plastic is cheap and time is money.

Take the HT prime, MP10 and the new 18" prime..

Build a 10 inch MP10 or an 18 inch MP10 and the cost of additional plastic is not that much in the overall scheme. Fairly close to the same amount of time involved. Hell the 18 inch might even be quicker since it's larger and easier to handle the parts on assembly versus the smaller ones on the Mp10 might be more tricky.

Now take the hot toys prime and you have similar amount of time to build and cost in plastic. BUT prior to build you have everything that goes into the paint work and the detailing and weathering on it. That increases the amount of time massively on that figure vs the "MP10" design. Then factor in all the additional crap that they threw in with it with all the additional parts, base, etc. Love them or hate them, there's additional cost for all of those and every one of those pieces have an amazing amount of detailing and weathering as well. Which again increases jacks up the time significantly. For those that are in doubt, you should try it yourself just for giggles. Try painting your MP 10 and then custom weathering it and see how much time it takes. Or get a quote from one of the recognized painters on the board to have them paint your MP10 and weather it and see how much it costs just for paint and weathering. Point is, ain't gonna be quick or cheap!

I've always said the price should be between $250 to $275 on this. So this isn't a fanboy response as I have said it is overpriced. But at the end of the day, time equals money. And there is a boatload more time to get the final production piece from hot toys vs those you mentioned.

Spoiler:

I see what you're getting at...however I don't entirely agree with it all. You're kind of suggesting the R&D, paint and engineering from one company (HT) supersedes the R&D, paint and engineering from the other (Toys alliance), therefore lightly suggesting their price point is justified. I personally don't think that's a fair way to compare. All the stuff that goes into producing a figure (not even just figures...just about anything) is very intricate, time consuming and involved. One doesn't hold more value over the other, and at the end a products price point is a construct created by a group of individuals that consists of heads of marketing and design, various supervisors and I'm sure the CEO is involved as well. They're the ones that determine how much a product is worth, and with a company such as HT, I'm pretty sure some schmuck in that meeting reminded everyone else "we're Hot Toys, lets charge it way over its actual value and people will buy it anyway because...we're hot toys".

If their OP figure were under the "Designer" label...MAYBE I can see them charging that much for him...but it wasn't (even that in itself is a bit much if you asked me) It was supposed to be the start of a new line and I truly believe they **** the bed when they slapped a $350 price tag on him. I mean, take yourself through that reveal moment...Hot toys and transformers! It's almost like peanut butter and chocolate! Omg I can't wait!! This thing should've flew off the shelves and been scalped to high hell 2 months after its initial release. But nope, it's shelf warming and I can guarantee the ones responsible for that decision is thinking "we may have gone too far".

MP10 is an item that has so many moving parts that have to shift, twist and turn to go from one shape into another. I don't care what anyone says...the design and R&D for THAT is WAY more complex than what MAS01 and TF01 had (not to diminish the effort both companies gave to their respective product...it's just transforming is on a whole different level IMO).

That thing initially cost around $250 if I remember correctly. People were moaning and groaning that for an OP release that's smaller, didn't have as much die cast and not as articulated as its predecessor was really expensive. I wholeheartedly agree! But then something happened this past year that made me question the original price tag and everything that led up to it. It was re-issued...and it went for $150. Did the initial batch cover all the costs and therefore they were able to bring down its price for the reissue? Or was it a move to encourage buyers to NOT buy the knock offs? I'm gonna go with the latter. Because of one other release that made me wonder what the hell we were all paying for...the oversized MPP10. I bought 2 of those when I was in China last year. I spent $45 USD for each. Now I know that thing was a knock off. the ones responsible didn't have to factor all that went into producing the original...but you have to realize how much more material and plastic the MPP10 featured. FOR $45 USD. So the speculation of rising costs for oil, plastic and other materials is pretty much null IMO. Oil rates have dropped over the past few years and has been the cheapest it's been over 6 years ago. And now Wei jiang is getting greedy. By the 3rd reissue of the MPP10, their prices skyrocketed. In a matter of months. Not years. From $45 to $120 (give or take)...what does that tell everyone? If something is getting mass produced, shouldn't that mean prices should be heading southward? Maybe things have changed since I took marketing class all those years ago?

Judging by your SN and your post, I'm assuming you freelance mod, paint and take commissions? (If I'm wrong please excuse me since I'm going off on assumption) So it seems to me you're coming from an artists/customizers perspective. Whatever you charge per commission, isn't that something you decide on? You gotta factor in the raw materials used, detailing, work load and time. But ultimately you decide on how much YOUR work is worth. For a mass produced item, a figure like TF01 should NOT be $350. IMO it's unreasonable.

Especially when you consider the accessories it came with. Some liked it, others hated it and felt it was extremely unnecessary and don't make ANY sense whatsoever in the grand scheme of things. I'M in that camp. To me it felt like the whole product came out of the psyche of a college student that graduated from one of HKs school of design, got conceited with his delusions of grandeur and thought adding Starscream parts to an Optimus prime figure was unique and would stand out. But to me, it screams of amateur design at best. There was no real thought behind it. It's just slapping on parts to pad out the overall package with no rhyme or reason. To me it's obvious the designer wasn't an 80s kid but of someone that grew up in the 2000's and his only exposure was Bays Optimus prime. A prime that took faces for his personal collection. Wow...so edgy. If I had a chance to sit down with the designer, I'd ask him one question..."where in the holy blue hell did classic prime massacre Starscream for his parts and wear them like some kind of trophy?!". If he wanted to design an edgy prime, stick with the movie version and stay the hell away from G1 prime. Needlessly adding nonsensical items and artificially increasing a products price is why I think MAS01 is undoubtedly the way more sensible purchase because it is the exact opposite of what HT did. It's huge, colorful, a clear G1 homage or inspired design, it features awesome articulation and is of great quality...all that for $180.

So all it boils down to is which one aesthetically pleases people. While TF01 is a nice take on the G1 look, just about everything else that came with it was a complete waste of plastic. If they had excluded them and through that brought the price tag down to what you suggested $250 or lower, I can guarantee that it would've been a great success.

I've probably gone off the deep end here haha. Also, if my post came off aggressive...remember it's not pointed towards you.

This is all my opinion fellas.

 

[Reinhardt]

I love Hot Toys and have several of their figures. However, their prices as of the last few years has just gotten out of hand. I get inflation and improvements in their products, but 250+ for a figure is getting out of hand.

I remember when I was collecting McFarlane figs and had a hard time justifying purchasing the Hot Toys Aliens Marines at $89 a fig!!

I did see the Hot Toys Prime in person and will say it was impressive. But not the $350. Will wait for that magic 150 price. LOL

 

[Dave McFly]

if I had the cash I would SO buy that giant metal Prime with the removable armor exposing his insides that figure is so awesome.

 

[Levit05]

I'm still looking for the ULTIMETAL Optimus Prime....:-(

 

[jnmx2000]

Re: All things transformers!!!!

Perfect scale? Check

Perfect paint applications? Check

Scales perfectly with official MP figures? Check

Does not look like a potato? Check

The best MP Styled Dinobot maker in the world (until Takara decides to do them) strikes again with another amazing figure! GIGA's Grassor video review, courtesy of Benscollectables:


https://youtu.be/07iWQIt9GZE


Edit: Link doesn't work as the video has been listed as "private". But you can see it on youtube though.

Damn, the Gigapower figures are off the charts, I can't wait to start hunting these down, and that Prime looks killer too, I'm going to have to upgrade to a bigger collection shelf soon lol

 

[franpincho]

Re: All things transformers!!!!

Damn, the Gigapower figures are off the charts, I can't wait to start hunting these down, and that Prime looks killer too, I'm going to have to upgrade to a bigger collection shelf soon lol

They are the best dinobots out there. Don't hesitate to get them.

 

[Jbeltram4]

If I could only justify the price on he Ultimetal Prime and Ultra Magnus. Those are ridiculously awesome.

 

[Pro Design]

Maketoys has New pics downbeat, their MP jazz.

Here's some Photoshop with color added that some people did on the grey prototype pics

 

[karamazov80]

Bout damn time someone of note tackled Jazz.