The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[Tking22]

I may actually double dip on Barney :). Dinobot is GLORIOUS, easily the peak of MP, far beyond MP-36 or any figure before it. I'm pretty done with the G1 MP line, I don't like my G1 super screen accurate, but Beast Wars? Keep that crap coming. Dino Megatron looks incredible, and since I set up an Amazon Japan account, which I recommend EVERYONE buying MP figures to do the same, prices aren't nearly as bad as before, so double dipping is actually an option now. Once again, if you're buying MPs I highly recommend Amazon Japan, best prices including shipping you can get, and they seem to use incredibly fast shipping for international customers.

[mikeszekely]

The only other new figure in the second wave of Studio Series Deluxes is Lockdown.

The thing with Lockdown is that, like a lot of the other smaller figures in the Studio Series line, he's still ultimately a Deluxe-class toy designed on a Deluxe-class budget.  While the designers managed to get the missile things on his shoudlers and the outside of his biceps, most of his arms are car kibble.  His back is covered in car kibble.  His calves are car kibble.  His heels are car kibble.  His lower legs have an odd curve, so his ankles are actually behind his thighs.

Despite the limitations of his size and budget, the designers were definitely trying.  If you ignore the kibble most of his body has the correct proportions.  His head is perfect.  His collar, his torso, his hips, and his thighs are all covered in move-accurate molded detail.  And despite being a pretty uniform dark gray plastic Hasrbo still stuck some nice painted detail including some gold on his thighs and abdomen, some silver and blue on his chest, silver on his face, and the piercing green of his optics.  So, yeah, you're not going to get Peru Kill, but I don't think we can expect that from a toy that costs a sixth of the price.  A more fair comparison, albeit one I don't have, is the original Age of Extinction Deluxe-class Lockdown, and aesthetically the Studio Series version is even more of an improvement than Studio Series Jazz was over the movie 1 Deluxe.

Pro tip (something I didn't figure out until after I was done taking pictures):  if you move his backpack out of the way enough to get a finger into his torso cavity, you can pop his chest out.  Looks much better that way, and it's not mentioned in the instructions.

For a Deluxe and a car, he's definitely taller than Stinger, Bee, or Jazz.  Which is good, but... is it good enough?  He's a head shorter than Studio Series Optimus, and I believe that version of Optimus was supposed to be shorter than his knight form.  I don't know if there was an official scale chart for Age of Extinction, but I've seen some sources give 28' for pre-knight Optimus and 22' for Lockdown, so maybe this is still technically in (robot) scale.  Lockdown sure looked to be as big as Prime in the movies, though.

Although the art on the box shows Lockdown with a gun, Lockdown doesn't come with a gun.  Instead he's got a knife/sword that I kind of don't remember, and his hook hand.  His rifle and his masked head would have been nice, but no.

Lockdown's head is on a ball joint with a hinge at the base.  He can look up no problem, and tilt his head sideways an adequate amount.  He can't really look down at all, though, and rotation is limited due to his collar.  His shoulders are also ball joints with hinges at the base, but due to kibble you're limited to 90 degrees of lateral extension and perfectly adequate but not 360 degrees of rotation.  He does have a bicep swivel, and his elbow is a ball joint so it can swivel there in addtion to bending 90 degrees.  No wrist articulation. He does actually have a waist swivel, but it's limited to about a 45 degree turn in either direction.  Hips are ball joints, and you get 90 degrees forward, 45 degrees backward, and 60-70 degrees laterally.  His thighs can swivel, and his knees can bend 90 degrees.  Due to transformation his feet can bend up but not down, and he lacks any ankle pivots.

His sword can be held is either hand, as the handle is your basic 5mm peg.  A tab on the side does allow you to attach it to the outside of his forearm, too.  As for his hook, it has a 5mm peg, but the plastic around the handle means you can only put the peg int the top of his fist.  In his right hand, the hook curls in toward his body.  He can hold it in his left hand, but that means the hook curls away from his body.  Like his knife, the hook has a tab and can be plugged into his forearm, allowing for a more movie-accurate upward curve from his right arm, but his fist will still be clearly visible.

Also, I don't think it's intentional and there's no tabs or anything to secure it, but you can kind of store his sword on his back by wedging it between the part that's the rear of the car and the folded-in panels.  The tab on the sword kind of lays over the edge, holding it in place.  Again, though, it's not secure in any way; you're just relying on that one tab grabbing the lip of the backpack and the tension of the joints in his backpack to keep it from falling out.

Just like Jazz, Lockdown's alt mode is goregeously on-point.  At first he might seem a little dull, being a farily uniform gunmetal color with smoked translucent plstic over the headlights and for the windows.  However, I think that gunmetal color might be a finish and not just simple plastic.  It looks nice in hand.

As far as size goes, he's bigger than Jazz, which I think is ok, but he's also a bit bigger than Bee.  I'm not so sure that's correct, but the Studio Series is about robot scale, not alt mode scale.

A closer look does have some gold paint over the Lambo emblem, and his tail lights are painted red.  His weapons can plug onto the sides of the car.  All-in-all, I think it's a pretty good alt mode, especially for the size.

Between the two I definitely like Jazz more than Lockdown, but Lockdown's still a fine figure in his own right and the best of the Decepticon Deluxes.  And unlike Crowbar and Stinger, Lockdown feels like a major character, one you'd want in your collection.  I'll give him a recommend.

Speaking of wanting figures in a collection... I'm definitely going to do my best to track down Studio Series Ironhide, and at that point I'll have collected and covered the first 14 releases in the Studio Series line.  After that, despite my pining for a Studio Series Bonecrusher and Barricade, it looks like the Bumblebee movie is going to interrupt things a bit.  Expect that I may skip SS 15-17, which are repaints of Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Lockdown.  I will pick up 18, which is Bumblebee from the upcoming movie, but skip 19 and 20 which are gold repaints of both old Camaro and Beetle Bumblebee.  I'm probaby going to pick up Dropkick, who's numbered 22, but 21 is a repaint of Starscream and 23 is a repaint of Stinger.

[sh9000]

Waiting to see how much the Japanese sites sell the Golden Lagoon MP-10 for before I decide if I want to pull the trigger on it.

[jenius]

Probably a shrewd move. Honestly, the KOs in gold look better but I'm a sucker for mp10.

[danth]

I watched Goku Midnight Eye recently and noticed the car in that anime looks just like PointBlank.

Here's the car:

Here's PointBlank with 3rd party  Contact Shot:

Am I crazy or is there a strong similarity?

[Dobber]

You’re not crazy, VERY strong similarity.

Chris

[kanedaestes]

Latest MP Optimus v3 images 

[captain america]

7 minutes ago, kanedaestes said:

Latest MP Optimus v3 images 

Prime should be RED and BLUE, not grey! Too many joints, not poseable enough! I'm suing T/T for mental anguish!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

Just trolling, he looks fantabulous!

Edited August 23, 2018 by captain america

[mikeszekely]

Prime's got some epic bell bottoms.

[derex3592]

My question is...  Since they are going for this whole "Toon accuracy" thing now, are they actually going to make the upper parts of his legs white or even off white like in ALL the cartoons? All others have always gone grey or some kind of darker metallic look I think. If they do the white that MIGHT push me over the edge to actually get V3. Poseability looks amazing though..

[technoblue]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

My question is...  Since they are going for this whole "Toon accuracy" thing now, are they actually going to make the upper parts of his legs white or even off white like in ALL the cartoons? All others have always gone grey or some kind of darker metallic look I think. If they do the white that MIGHT push me over the edge to actually get V3. Poseability looks amazing though..

I would expect so, especially if they follow the same path they took with Megatron. Optimus v3 could be "toon accurate" to a fault like MP-36. The next release of Prime v3 might have more of a G1 toy aesthetic, like MP-36+, and then we might see a new line of rainbow Primes as Takara milks the new mould and retires MP-10.

Of course, nothing is stopping them from doing something completely different either.  

Edited August 24, 2018 by technoblue

[captain america]

Cleaner image of the previous MP Prime pic.

[Mechapilot77]

great articulation, giant backpack, odd gappy double joint in the knee, gappy ankle tilts, messy chest hinges, messy shoulder area.  keep telling myself that in color it will hide these shortcomings better.  the two 3P offerings both look better but doube they have this levl of articulation.

[David Hingtgen]

White thighs/waist would guarantee I DON’T buy it...

[mikeszekely]

9 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

White thighs/waist would guarantee I DON’T buy it...

Yup.

Based on Takara's MO of late, I'd bet the first release has white thighs, with a subsequent + release that has silver.

[captain america]

I suspect that, like with previous MP releases, the standard version will come first. Animation color afterwards.

[Mechapilot77]

52 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Yup.

Based on Takara's MO of late, I'd bet the first release has white thighs, with a subsequent + release that has silver.

yeah starting with megatron they did animation version as first or main version, then mp-36+ will be a toy inspired version, opposite of how they did red alert etc.  too bad there is no "best of" version anymore.

yeah i don't want white thighs just like i don't want superman with blue hair... i could do with toy chrome though (especially if they went yellow eyes)....silver/grey would be best though.   pretty much i'd like takara mp-10 coloration with grey thights replaced with silver or maybe metallic anthracite, also hasbro  or YOTH style blue eyes, not TT "dead eyes".  

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, captain america said:

I suspect that, like with previous MP releases, the standard version will come first. Animation color afterwards.

No, they only do it that way for the Hasui cars.  With Megatron and Shockwave the first release is cartoon, the + release is toy.  I can pretty much promise you that's how Prime v3 is going to go.

[Tking22]

2 hours ago, captain america said:

I suspect that, like with previous MP releases, the standard version will come first. Animation color afterwards.

That would be previous Hasui releases, since the line went full "toon", the toon color comes first then maybe a + toy colored version. MP-36 and Shockwave are prime examples, no pun intended, animation first, now we're finally getting the dark purple + Shockwave and silver toy and hairy chested + MP-36. It's just the Hasui releases that are now getting updated with + "toon" repaints. Hound and Suntreaker are clearly toon, maybe eventually we'll see a + toy color version of them too, but the "toon" color definitely takes priority now. V3 Prime will ABSOLUTELY have white thighs, there's absolutely zero chance it isn't as animation accurate as possible at launch, that's how the line is now.

I'm still unimpressed with Prime V3, lots of odd looking areas, nothing wows me. Honestly, if I feel I need a new Prime, and that's already a HUGE if, MP-10 is still awesome. I may pick one of the third party versions instead.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Tking22

[JB0]

22 hours ago, captain america said:

Prime should be RED and BLUE, not grey! 

This is the limited-edition movie colors.

[Negotiator]

this is the death of optimus prime movie version

 

[lechuck]

That is some insanely good amount of articulation being demonstrated by the new MP Optimus Prime, a lot of fun factor with posing to be had with it.

It really makes MP-10 look very obsolete now. I will be first in line when the pre-orders go up, regardless if it is toon, toy or something in between coloured.

[Ignacio Ocamica]

6 hours ago, lechuck said:

That is some insanely good amount of articulation being demonstrated by the new MP Optimus Prime, a lot of fun factor with posing to be had with it.

It really makes MP-10 look very obsolete now. I will be first in line when the pre-orders go up, regardless if it is toon, toy or something in between coloured.

Same here!!!!

[connor99]

I see a Hound figure in front of the OP V3 in that pic Captain America posted. Will Takara be releasing that as well?

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, connor99 said:

I see a Hound figure in front of the OP V3 in that pic Captain America posted. Will Takara be releasing that as well?

Yes.

[mikeszekely]

Apparently MPM-07 was leaked, and it's another Bumblebee.  Specifically, it's the Volkswagen Bumblebee from the upcoming movie.  I understand the urge to have movie tie-ins and all, but I guess I'd have rathered they finished the movie 1 cast.

[mikeszekely]

Studio Series Barricade is coming!

Apparently also at the show (Canada's Fan Expo) were Sideswipe (with the convertible alt mode, so I guess Dark of the Moon?) and yet another Studio Series Bumblebee.  This time it's the WWII armored car version from the flashback scene in The Last Knight.  Which, cool, I guess.  And Hasbro really knows how to milk a popular character, eh?  But 70s Camaro Bee, Volkswagen Bee, and now armored car Bee, but not the modern Camaro Bee was in the first three films and that was probably his most recognizable version?

Eh, I'm not complaining too hard, though.  Barricade's been my biggest wish from the SS line, and it looks like my wish is granted.

[sh9000]

 

[derex3592]

I like those videos.  Interesting stuff. 

[sh9000]

Yeah they are pretty good.

[mikeszekely]

Way back when I gave my little review for Studio Series Optimus Prime, I said:

On 4/17/2018 at 2:05 PM, mikeszekely said:

despite the notion that the Studio Series would be more screen accurate than previous movie toys, I'm not sure if SS Prime is actually better than the Voyager Battle Blades Prime from Revenge of the Fallen (which, sadly, I don't have to compare it with.

Well, I still don't have Voyager Battle Blades Optimus.  Or the Takara version, with hooks instead of blades.  Or Walmart-exclusive Dark of the Moon repaint that also had the hooks.  I did, however, stumble across Takara's Revenge Optimus Prime, which was 2014 re-use of the mold for Takara's Movie Advanced Series.

When it came out, the Leader version of RotF Optimus Prime was widely-regarded as the best movie-verse Optimus toy, and it kind of seems to me like HasTak knew it too because long before they borrowed a lot of the engineering for MPM-4 they tried to ditch the electronics and downsize it.  And this was basically the result- a figure that may still be the best Voyager-scale movie-verse Optimus Prime to this day.

Or is it?  The chest is definitely an improvement, and I like that you can see the visors on it.  Despite being more similar to MPM-4's, this toy's shoulders are actually less movie accurate than the Studio Series (although the gray plastic and silver paint are a nice change from the all red and blue).  SS's forearms are also better, with the kibble on the outside of the arm instead of creeping all the way into his armpit.  Plus, the swords on Revenge Optimus aren't removable.  Because the transformation is more similar to Leader/MPM Optimus Revenge Optimus does strike me as having better legs, even with the non-accurate steps near his knees.  However, unlike those versions Revenge Optimus' feet don't unfold, so SS wins there.  Plus, if I'm being honest, SS has better proportions, with a narrower waist and a more cohesive torso.

Being a Takara figure, the extra paint and chrome on Revenge Optimus do stand out as being really nice.  A lot of stuff in his torso is left red that should be silver, though.  Plus there's this ridiculous carmel-colored plastic in some of his joints, hips, and shins that just looks awful.

Maybe a look at the back will help us decide.  And... well, no, that isn't really much help.  Both have similar molded detail on the calves.  Both have way more backpack than the CGI model.  You could say that Revenge Optimus' backpack is closer to the movie design, with the angled panels, but the SS version's backpack is, amazingly, smaller.

Out of the box, it looks like Revenge Optimus doesn't have any accessories, just the permanently-attached blades on his arms.  But before we go giving the point to SS Optimus, for having more screen accurate blades that are at least detachable, the fuel tanks can be popped off the panels on Revenge Optimus' back, and a little barrel can be unfolded from each to give Revenge Optimus guns.

Articulation, then?  Revenge Optimus' head is on a swivel, so he can turn his head but he's lacking the up/down/sideways tilt of SS Optimus.  Shoulders can rotate 360 degrees and move laterally 90 degrees, which is technically less than SS but I think perfectly adequate.  He has two thigh swivels, one just below the shoulder and one just above the elbow, which I guess is technically better than the single swivel on SS but functionally the same.  His elbows can bend a little over 90 degrees, which beats SS.  No wrist or waist swivels, though, so SS wins on both of those accounts.  His hips soft ratchet forward 90 degrees, which is less than the non-ratcheted SS.  They also soft ratchet laterally, but only one click or so, so again SS lacks ratchets but has greater range.  His thighs swivel, no issues there.  His knees bend a little over 90 degrees, but again much less than SS Optimus.  His feet can tilt up and down, and his ankles do pivot, which is nice to see on a Voyager in a general sort of way, but in this case it's about the same as SS Optimus.  So not too bad, but on the whole SS Optimus definitely has better articulation.

But Revenge Optimus does have one thing SS Optimus doesn't... you can open up his chest and find the Matrix inside!  The Matrix is painted silver and is removeable.  It looks decent enough, but considering you have to halfway transform the torso to get access too it I have to say that I really could have lived without the gimmick.

But then we come to truck mode.  The contest here isn't so close.  For starters, Revenge Optimus is quite a bit bigger.  I don't think the Studio Series toys have done a great job with alt mode scaling, but SS Optimus was definitely looking too small compared to the other Autobots (a problem that I think will be exacerbated when SS Ironhide is released).

Here we've got lighter silver paint for the step, the front grill, and the air cleaners than the dark plastic used on the SS toy.  The silver paint is a match on the smokestacks, but on Revenge Optimus it coveres the whole smokestack and pipe (although the pipes look like they run into the fuel tanks instead of under the truck), plus the smokestacks aren't shortened for "safety" or whatever other lame reason they were on the SS version.  The same silver paint is on the wheels.  Instead of gunmetal paint or dark plastic the fuel tank, sunvisor, and tool boxes we have chrome.  The frame around the front windows is red.  There are flames om the door and the full length of the cab.  They also stand out better on the front of the truck, which has the proper sunburst color.  There are flames on the rear fenders.  And while it probably could have used some of that silver paint, the rear of the truck looks like an actual truck, complete with fifth wheel, instead of a mess of robot foot kibble.

So, which is ultimately the better Voyager Optimus?  Neither toy is perfect, nor should you expect perfection from a mass-market retail toy whose original mold probably sold for $20-$30.  And while I wish it had a lot more paint, I'm ultimately going to go with the Studio Series version.  There's definitely some things Revenge Optimus does better, but overall I think SS Optimus has better robot proportions and articulation, plus a smaller backpack.  He also technically scales more correctly with ther other SS figures in robot mode.  And since I'm building a display of Studio Series figures in robot mode those are the things that matter to me.  Revenge Optimus (and presumably the other variants of this mold) is still a really cool figure, though, with a much better truck mode.

[Numbninja]

hey guys, not sure if this is correct thread to bring this up but, where can i get a flame toys drift at a good price, i missed out when it came out...wasnt able to afford it then

thanx in advance

[Scyla]

I payed for my Flame Toys Tarn yesterday and I'm really hyped for that toy. Hopefully they can keep the September/beginning of October release date.

In other Flame Toys news. The Moonbase 2 podcast is collecting questions for a text interview with FlameToys over at TFW. 

Maybe you got some interesting ideas for questions: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/got-any-questions-for-flame-toys.1159856/#post-16115066

[Silverstreak]

21 hours ago, Scyla said:

I payed for my Flame Toys Tarn yesterday and I'm really hyped for that toy. Hopefully they can keep the September/beginning of October release date.

In other Flame Toys news. The Moonbase 2 podcast is collecting questions for a text interview with FlameToys over at TFW. 

Maybe you got some interesting ideas for questions: http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/threads/got-any-questions-for-flame-toys.1159856/#post-16115066

I was debating the Flame Tpys Tarn but compared to MMC version I can't justify the cost. I will be picking up Drift soon though and Star Saber is really tempting since they announced Victory Leo. GaoGaiSaber mode looks awesome.

Edited September 9, 2018 by Silverstreak

[vlenhoff]

I am sorry, i don't get how the MP-10 looks "old", now. I am on board with a new OP mold, but i am not going to down on the old one. I know it is not perfect, but you can't say it hasn't aged well. It is perhaps the most copied version, for a reason.