Fit For Natalie

They never announed any military vehicle line. They didn't promise jets in 2007.In 2005 said they would be discussing jets with Takara. Presumebly that evolved into MP Starscream instead. I can only assume, baring some surprise unvieling at Botcon, they decided against a military line or jets in Alternators due to cost factors. At least there will be several versions of F-22 Raptor Starscream next year.

Takara still does most of the TF engineering for Hasbro, though Hasbro does do a fair amount in-house (like the new Beast Wars toolings and the Titaniums), but Takara have withdrawn from mainline Transformers due to the relatively poor performance of Galaxy Force and Binaltech in 2005.

Aside from the fact the arms aren't connected to the body , you're supposed to rotate the shoulder pads so the yellow circles face outwards from the sides of his arms.

I think just like normal ratcheting joints, like every larger TF these days. Clicky joints. Decent posability - elbow, mid-bicep swivel, shoulder up and down/backwards and forwards, hips are ball joints (BAD IDEA for a mostly die cast toy), knees.The Titaniums are made by the Galoob division of Hasbro, rather than Takara. And surprisingly, the Energon combiner teams (Arielbots, Constructicons and Combaticons) were Hasbro engineering, which shows Hasbro can make good TFs. But I'd still prefer TF to be a collaborative effort between both companies - Hasbro for its conceptualisation and ideas, Takara for its skill and technical expertise.

Don Figueroa said he was dissapointed by Titanium Prime and Megs. Originally his Megatron design was supposed to allow the cannon to flip all the way down so its parallel with his arm (like G1 Megs), and was supposed to have rubber tracks. Wave 2 (Jetfire and Thundercracker) are supposedly huge improvements, with ratcheting joints.

Did everybody not see my link to Classics Grimlock? To be fair, Jetfire is a $20US (or so) toy that sacrifices things to pay homage to two considerably different Jetfire/Skyfire designs, and I doubt Don would have had the sort of time (and plane engineering skill) Mr Kawamori would have when he designs Macross fighters. Plus as a kids-market toy its designed for durability and fun in mind. You can bash it around Yamato's are comparitively fragile collectors items that cost well over $100US (last I checked for the 1:48s). Well look at Classics Starscream Vs Masterpiece Starscream, different target customers, different priorities.

Classics Grimlock

So what do you guys think of Classics Ramjet and Jetfire? They didn't do a good job on hiding Jetfire's arms at all, given his fists can't even retract, but a nice toy otherwise.

He looks like a 90s super-villian whose name would be... Made-of-Knives Man. AICN took the pics down, so see the rest of the pics HERE

ACToys have posted pics of the Classics Optimus Prime Vs Megatron two-pack in box, with some stock photos of Mirage, Grimlock and Jetfire on the side. This Prime and Megs are obviously different from the regular Voyager-class ones. (In case the server goes down or is too slow)

Takara will ruin Transformers if left to its own devices

I wish they had put swords inside the things on his hips, you know, to reflect how he's been portrayed as a swordsbot for the past few years. Yeah, it isn't G1, but given the changes to his design, it doesn't matter

Ahh, I see, I stand corrected. I didn't realise yellow was an issue in terms of cost nowadays.

'Yellow paint/plastic is cheap-looking' collector mentality is a pet peeve of mine. Same with the description of any non-dark colour as 'neon', 'baby' or 'girly'. Besides, in the world of kids toys, amber (in this case) is too close a colour to his predominant red.

Okay... 426586[/snapback] Ahh yes, quoting out of context.Well, I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you posted those pics with nary an explanation before, during or afterwards. A little context then and there would have helped those of us scratching our heads

If anybody is interested, Remy uploaded a gallery of Classics Optimus Prime. Now there's an Optimus Prime. Naw - if you study BW closely you'll see many of the bots (particularly ones from the early years) were still using the same design features and styles as previous Transformers. These designs are closer to the cancelled Transtech line, whose concept art by Draxhall Jump were rather alien.As usual, Hasbro and Takara's toy interpretations simplified and 'transformerized' them.

Since www.tfw2005.com is down, uploading these Blackout CG and toy Optimus Prime CG Scorponok toy (Ain't It Cool News will no doubt call it 'skorponok' because they don't know how to spell 'scorpion') Starscream toy

Well, I was commenting more on the fact he is (to my recollection) the first normal fighter plane minicon (like Micromasters) that isn't some weird space shuttle concept, concord, stealth bomber/spy plane or super-gonzo bomber thing (Gunbarrel).So I'll take any fighter I can get and call him Leader-1. THEY SHOULD ALL BE NAMED LEADER-1!

I want it grey and to be named LEADER-1! His current colours appear to be referencing a plane from the Euro line and the G2 line, if I recall correctly.

Even more minicons

Classics Dinobot Minicons, Emergency and Demolition teams Presumebly originally developed for Cybertron but moved to Classics when the latter was moved up.

Movie Prime renders If real (and they are based on the prop truck's colour scheme), they seem to be rather early, if intricate, renders.

Because that would look extrodinarily stupid in western fiction. Affection for your vehicle perhaps, but crying? Ugh. 425277[/snapback] And yet in the real world some people are doing just that because of the colours or hip crap of a toy that nobody is making them buy. BTW, I would surely cry if my expensive as hell Gundam got scratched 425407[/snapback] Sigh. I never equate TF to true maturity or something around the level of animation created for adults. I was saying I consider the level of 'maturity' in the US created series, or the US-dubbed series to be of a higher level than of the Japanese-created or japanese-dubbed series of Transformers. This is evident given the fact Takara markets their TF Mainline (kids toys) at a slightly younger age group than Hasbro.Don't bother bringing up the fact Takara said in the Binaltech interview that Hasbro aims Alternators at a younger age group than Takara. That was because Hasbro doesn't develop toylines soley for the collector market like Takara can do in theirs, hence the lower cost of Alternators, so they can attempt to sell it to everybody. This is also why brick & mortar stores can carry in abundance. A good example of how a US dub can change the tone of the original is Cybertron. I've watched both all eps of GF and most of Cyb, and Hasbro's dub rewriters did a decent job in reworking it slightly to tighten up its seriousness in some areas and lightening it in others. I think the Cyb kids are more interesting and less grating than the GF kids, especially bad. I hated GF Bud and his grating voice that makes me want to stab my ears out!

Congratulations! This is the most racist thing I've seen on this board yet. 425321[/snapback] Congratulations! You did not realise I am asian! *THUMBS UP* I don't really know how to provide you proof of relatively common knowledge, but I grant you that it may be a matter of perspective. I meant to say that (to my knowledge) many of the toys not created by Takara were never officially released under the TF brandname in Japan. Btw, why did you provide those zincpanic links? They don't provide any formation. Even american Arcee at her most stereotyped was nowhere near as bad as Headmasters (the series) Arcee. As for her being the caretaker of Daniel... while it was a recurring theme, it wasn't a constant as you suggest. At its most predominant it occured in the movie, Dark Awakening (where she is shot in the leg when Cyclonus takes a uncharacteristically shot at both Spike & Daniel), and their binary bonding in The Rebirth. Daniel's appearances were usually accompanied by Wheelie or Grimlock as his sidekicks in their silly adventures. Arcee usually appeared alongside Rodimus Prime and Springer. I don't want to see my heroes cry over their broken mecha. Its fine if they cried over their living friends, or at least machines with personality. Did I hurt your feelings? I'm so sorry *man hug* Well, then you'll have to enlighten me And Takara said they liked it for TF's apparent western values. You can't ask 'what western values?' and then ignore what Takara said if you don't believe what I say. Go research for the quote. It was a tiny excerpt of an interview with a member of the Takara TF team back in around 2004.

There are no numbers - this is judged from what japanese people say, and the fact Takara seem to flog more stuff from the US creation and US fiction than they do of their own japanese creations. All the season 1 and 2 TF's were diaclone toys orignally (supposedly). It wasn't until that nifty commerical TF:TM that hasbro start getting original (Hot Rod, Rodimus Prime). 425104[/snapback] That is correct - all of the 1984-1985 bots were from various japanese toylines, and the sheer majority of the non-Takara toys were never released in Japan. I believe only Shockwave was released out of the Bandai (or whomever) toys. Like I said, while the concept of sentient living robots aren't foriegn to Japanese fiction, Transformers were different from the norm because of their western values and their western personalities. And of course the western presentation of the series.Go look at Headmasters, or Masterforce. Generic japanese kids series where woman are put in their place (NO, Arcee! You cannot come with me! You must stay behind and be the Cybertron Office Lady!!), a largely increased human participation (to the point of being critical to the good guys sucess) and bad asian humour. I don't even like G1 very much - I watch it for nostalic and comedic reasons. And while I agree that Hasbro didn't have much to do with the storyline quality of BW (at times the toy development interferred with the natural flow of the series, and they demanded more humour in season 3), you should acknowledge that TF series from the US, or with US/Hasbro involvement shows a distinct different difference in tone (maturity) to the series developed wholly by Takara. Even predominantly japanese series like Armada, Energon and Cybertron are completely different to camp comedy series like BW 2, Neo and Car Robots. Because that would look extrodinarily stupid in western fiction. Affection for your vehicle perhaps, but crying? Ugh.