The Transformers Thread (licensed) Next

[Kuma Style]

 

 

[mikeszekely]

Takara announced they're unveiling MPM-12 on February 25th. I'm telling you now it's gonna be Optimus from the Bumblebee movie.

[Mechapilot77]

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Takara announced they're unveiling MPM-12 on February 25th. I'm telling you now it's gonna be Optimus from the Bumblebee movie.

would make me happy if so.  the toyworld one,  i have it and i'm afraid to do much with it...and my main cmplaint is that its also too big.  i'd like a mp-10 height robot mode for a bee movie optimus and lets not hope its a qc disaster or just a bad design.  i really want it to be good!

[lechuck]

This would be my first MPM if it turns out to be BB Prime.

I just hope it scales nicely with MP-44.

Edited February 19, 2021 by lechuck

[sh9000]

[mikeszekely]

I really haven't been impressed with the Super 7 stuff. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious to see Tarn, Bludgeon, and G2 Megatron.

[mikeszekely]

Ok, big rumor so take this with a grain of salt (but this is the source that told me about Deep Cover plus the Quintesson drone (black Siege Ironhide), Sparkless Siege Datsun, and the purple Paleotrex that have leaked more thoroughly with pictures), but supposedly Hasbro is planning to redo Menasor.  Motormaster will be a Leader-class figure this time, but we don't have any more info than that.  We don't know if Motormaster will have a trailer, we don't know if he'll be be CW-compatible and the other four Stunticons will be reissues or if all the Stunticons are getting a do-over.  If it's a do-over, we don't know if they'll be Scramble City or if they'll be locked into a Sunbow configuration.  We do know that this shouldn't be considered a do-over of Combiner Wars, where every Deluxe in a line is meant to combine.  For now it's just Menasor, and IF Hasbro decided to do another combiner it won't be until after Menasor is done, and we're talking one, maybe two combiners a year.

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

  For now it's just Menasor, and IF Hasbro decided to do another combiner it won't be until after Menasor is done, and we're talking one, maybe two combiners a year.

If they do go this route, and at this point, we have little reason to doubt Mike's source, then I'm definitely in favor of a more concentrated effort put into each combiner alone rather than trying to make a generalized mix-and-match system like they did with CW.  If they take an approach similar to third party and craft each combiner as a singular team, and if they observe a similar quality standard as the WFC/SS'86 lines, then I think the final product will be more refined.

Personally, I want a better Devastator than the CW version provided; it was a very compromised toy, and although Takara introduced a little more articulation into their individual Constructicons, it was less than ideal, and both sets contained a very non-G1 Mixmaster. I passed on both versions with the hope that Has/Tak would take another, hopefully better, stab at combiners sometime in the future. I didn't expect it, or rumors thereof, so soon, but with G1 popularity so high, and with the SS'86 line offering opportunities for do-overs for lackluster previous toys, the timing is propitious. And while I like my CW Bruticus, despite its numerous flaws, an improved set of Combaticons would make me happy, too.

And if they do avail themselves of the SS '86 line to make better figs than previous releases, I hope both Astrotrain and Ultra Magnus make the list, as the WFC ER figs were lacking and could really do with some refined designs, especially where their alt modes are concerned.

[mikeszekely]

18 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

If they do go this route, and at this point, we have little reason to doubt Mike's source, then I'm definitely in favor of a more concentrated effort put into each combiner alone rather than trying to make a generalized mix-and-match system like they did with CW.  If they take an approach similar to third party and craft each combiner as a singular team, and if they observe a similar quality standard as the WFC/SS'86 lines, then I think the final product will be more refined.

I mean, if they do eventually do another combiner (I'm hearing it's a big if, but IF they do the second one will probably be Defensor) I don't think using the same connectors as Menasor (and possibly, but not necessarily, Combiner Wars) is out of the question.  And honestly, on mainline figures it doesn't really bother me if they use the waists for bicep swivels and the hips/knees for an elbow joint (although if they can engineer them to smush in and hide the gap like MMC did with their Bruticus, so much the better), so I think Scramble City is still doable in the long run.  But absolutely I want them to focus on one team at a time, and getting them right in a way that says something like "This is the best Hot Spot we can make" and not "here's a design we can use for Hot Spot and then retool in Onslaught later."  If that means Leader-class torsos and Voyager-class limbs I'm in.  If that means mixing Leaders, Voyagers, and Deluxes I'm in.  If that means gestalt hands, feet, weapons, and chest plates that don't do anything except be parts for a gestalt that's fine.  Less cute gimmicks and more G1 accuracy, please.

29 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

Personally, I want a better Devastator than the CW version provided; it was a very compromised toy, and although Takara introduced a little more articulation into their individual Constructicons, it was less than ideal, and both sets contained a very non-G1 Mixmaster. I passed on both versions with the hope that Has/Tak would take another, hopefully better, stab at combiners sometime in the future. I didn't expect it, or rumors thereof, so soon, but with G1 popularity so high, and with the SS'86 line offering opportunities for do-overs for lackluster previous toys, the timing is propitious.

Same.  Scrapper is my favorite Constructicon, and it kills me that he didn't even have elbows on the Hasbro release.  Aside from Long Haul, though, they were very good likenesses.  Give me more of that, but with articulation!  And then, in line with what I said above, I'm ok with partsforming if it'll improve the overall set.  Make Long Haul a Voyager-sized Leader-class and throw in some pants!  The G1 toy technically did.  And while I do prefer a more creative engineering solution on something MP-scaled I'm cool taking off parts and setting them aside on a $20-$50 mass-market retail toy.

34 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

And if they do avail themselves of the SS '86 line to make better figs than previous releases, I hope both Astrotrain and Ultra Magnus make the list, as the WFC ER figs were lacking and could really do with some refined designs, especially where their alt modes are concerned.

I'm with you on that; Astrotrain has a great robot mode but an unfinished shuttle mode and a WTF train mode.  Magnus has a passable combined robot mode but the inner robot leaves much to be desired and his alt mode is a very inaccurate Earth cab pulling the Siege trailer.  I don't see Hasbro doing it any time soon, though; my source told me specifically that the design team wanted to do a totally new Magnus figure but the bean counters nixed it.

The fact that many of Hasbro's WfC releases have been excellent figures that borderline on mini MPs makes the missteps more glaring and, I think, leaves more demand than ever for a 3P to get back into CHUG and both fix Hasbro's mistakes and fill in the missing gaps (Gears! Skids!).  I know Newage made some great Vanettes, Magic Square did a pretty great Ultra Magnus (no inner robot, though), and MFT/Mechanic Studio made an awesome Astrotrain; just upscale those!  If NA/MS/MFT don't want to do it themselves, maybe KBB can get on it?  They already upscaled Newage's Bumblebee and it's exactly the right size for WfC.

[M'Kyuun]

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I mean, if they do eventually do another combiner (I'm hearing it's a big if, but IF they do the second one will probably be Defensor) I don't think using the same connectors as Menasor (and possibly, but not necessarily, Combiner Wars) is out of the question.  And honestly, on mainline figures it doesn't really bother me if they use the waists for bicep swivels and the hips/knees for an elbow joint (although if they can engineer them to smush in and hide the gap like MMC did with their Bruticus, so much the better), so I think Scramble City is still doable in the long run.  But absolutely I want them to focus on one team at a time, and getting them right in a way that says something like "This is the best Hot Spot we can make" and not "here's a design we can use for Hot Spot and then retool in Onslaught later."  If that means Leader-class torsos and Voyager-class limbs I'm in.  If that means mixing Leaders, Voyagers, and Deluxes I'm in.  If that means gestalt hands, feet, weapons, and chest plates that don't do anything except be parts for a gestalt that's fine.  Less cute gimmicks and more G1 accuracy, please.

Same.  Scrapper is my favorite Constructicon, and it kills me that he didn't even have elbows on the Hasbro release.  Aside from Long Haul, though, they were very good likenesses.  Give me more of that, but with articulation!  And then, in line with what I said above, I'm ok with partsforming if it'll improve the overall set.  Make Long Haul a Voyager-sized Leader-class and throw in some pants!  The G1 toy technically did.  And while I do prefer a more creative engineering solution on something MP-scaled I'm cool taking off parts and setting them aside on a $20-$50 mass-market retail toy.

I'm totally down with partsforming on a gestalt. While I like and admire MMC for attempting to make their versions free of partsforming, concessions have to be made, and quite honestly, I don't expect that level of engineering to be applied to a mass market toy, regardless of scale. Truly, I don't even expect it if Takara eventually does a combiner in the MP line. It's one of those unique Transformers concessions that I think the vast majority of us, even ardent perfect-transformation fans such as myself, can forgive readily. And yeah, more G1 accuracy, please, although more in the Hasui tradition of taking the best of what the toy and the animation had to offer and combining those attributes into the most ideal toy possible.

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I'm with you on that; Astrotrain has a great robot mode but an unfinished shuttle mode and a WTF train mode.  Magnus has a passable combined robot mode but the inner robot leaves much to be desired and his alt mode is a very inaccurate Earth cab pulling the Siege trailer.  I don't see Hasbro doing it any time soon, though; my source told me specifically that the design team wanted to do a totally new Magnus figure but the bean counters nixed it.

I think Hasbro should bring their bean counters to a convention to see first-hand the fanaticism and demand that continues to drive this franchise. I think they'd have less reluctance when the team suggests making a better figure. Alas, SS86 may yet be our salvation for both Astrotrain and Ultra Magnus. As much as I like an all-in-one Magnus design, the CW version fulfilled that wish with a pretty good figure, IMHO. If they do a version for SS86, I hope they harken back to the original toy, and as the designers seem inclined, make him a two part fig with a white ER Prime as the core. I think that would please the vast majority of fans. Even if it means the trailer needs to partsform to a degree to allow for better aesthetics and articulation of the combined form, if it makes the final figure better, then it's all good.

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

The fact that many of Hasbro's WfC releases have been excellent figures that borderline on mini MPs makes the missteps more glaring and, I think, leaves more demand than ever for a 3P to get back into CHUG and both fix Hasbro's mistakes and fill in the missing gaps (Gears! Skids!).  I know Newage made some great Vanettes, Magic Square did a pretty great Ultra Magnus (no inner robot, though), and MFT/Mechanic Studio made an awesome Astrotrain; just upscale those!  If NA/MS/MFT don't want to do it themselves, maybe KBB can get on it?  They already upscaled Newage's Bumblebee and it's exactly the right size for WfC.

I agree 100%. I vehemently wish that some of these third party legends makers, or a KO party, would upscale some of these figs to fit in with the appropriate CHUG scale, especially when the official is a letdown. I think the fear of litigation and potential criminal charges has successfully kept the 3P folks from infringing on Hasbro's mainline. Unfortunately, we the fans lose in this situation. 

 

[Mechapilot77]

17 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Ok, big rumor so take this with a grain of salt (but this is the source that told me about Deep Cover plus the Quintesson drone (black Siege Ironhide), Sparkless Siege Datsun, and the purple Paleotrex that have leaked more thoroughly with pictures), but supposedly Hasbro is planning to redo Menasor.  Motormaster will be a Leader-class figure this time, but we don't have any more info than that.  We don't know if Motormaster will have a trailer, we don't know if he'll be be CW-compatible and the other four Stunticons will be reissues or if all the Stunticons are getting a do-over.  If it's a do-over, we don't know if they'll be Scramble City or if they'll be locked into a Sunbow configuration.  We do know that this shouldn't be considered a do-over of Combiner Wars, where every Deluxe in a line is meant to combine.  For now it's just Menasor, and IF Hasbro decided to do another combiner it won't be until after Menasor is done, and we're talking one, maybe two combiners a year.

 

Well they've run out of titan class guys to give us from the 84-86 timeline so they're going back to combiners as titans?  devy was a titan class in CW (and being reissued soon btw!),  predaking done in PoTP, omega supreme done in siege, trypticon was done not long after metroplex...and of course we got scorponock recently and fortmax a while back.  i feel like if its done its gonna be a box set in the titan class...with a leader class sized torso?  retailers want a big box halo product on the shelf?  just a guess - could be totally the opposite though and its hasbro that thinks fans want it but retailers may be forcing them to go to separate releases.  anyway, yes it'd be cool to get a mainline menasor even though i'm in on the 3P xtb sets.  i also hope they get new cooler fiction.  the combiners were such chumps in the CW/PoTP/Titans return triology....  it was like an anti commercial for those toys.

[sh9000]

I love Menasor so I’ll probably buy a new one if it gets released.

 

[mikeszekely]

30 minutes ago, Mechapilot77 said:

 

Well they've run out of titan class guys to give us from the 84-86 timeline so they're going back to combiners as titans?  devy was a titan class in CW (and being reissued soon btw!),  predaking done in PoTP, omega supreme done in siege, trypticon was done not long after metroplex...and of course we got scorponock recently and fortmax a while back.  i feel like if its done its gonna be a box set in the titan class...with a leader class sized torso?  retailers want a big box halo product on the shelf?  just a guess - could be totally the opposite though and its hasbro that thinks fans want it but retailers may be forcing them to go to separate releases.  anyway, yes it'd be cool to get a mainline menasor even though i'm in on the 3P xtb sets.  i also hope they get new cooler fiction.  the combiners were such chumps in the CW/PoTP/Titans return triology....  it was like an anti commercial for those toys.

It's possible, but my source says they may be phasing out the Titan-class in favor of two Commanders a year.  The Titans were extremely expensive to produce and with dedicated toy stores like Toys R' Us gone stores like Target and Walmart actually didn't want those huge boxes taking up that much shelf space.  The impression I got is that Motormaster will retail on his own as a Leader-class, but he's at least a year out.

[Scyla]

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

It's possible, but my source says they may be phasing out the Titan-class in favor of two Commanders a year.  The Titans were extremely expensive to produce and with dedicated toy stores like Toys R' Us gone stores like Target and Walmart actually didn't want those huge boxes taking up that much shelf space.  The impression I got is that Motormaster will retail on his own as a Leader-class, but he's at least a year out.

If we are getting more Commander Class toys I hope that means an Overlord, God Ginrai and Star Saber pretty soon. I don’t know what other figures they could do with that price point. Besides the already leaked Rodimus.

Maybe they could fit a whole Combiner i to the Commander Class but for a good toy the $80 price point would not be enough since 1 Voyager and 4 Deluxes in Combiner Wars was already $80 and those where less than stellar.

What else could they do for Commanders? 

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, Scyla said:

If we are getting more Commander Class toys I hope that means an Overlord, God Ginrai and Star Saber pretty soon. I don’t know what other figures they could do with that price point. Besides the already leaked Rodimus.

Maybe they could fit a whole Combiner i to the Commander Class but for a good toy the $80 price point would not be enough since 1 Voyager and 4 Deluxes in Combiner Wars was already $80 and those where less than stellar.

What else could they do for Commanders? 

An Ultra Magnus with a much better core robot and a trailer that doesn't suck?

Oh, and don't forget that post-Kingdom won't be purely G1 (and BW).  So I'm crossing my fingers for Fire Convoy and that Armada Optimus they showed at Wonderfest way back with the prototype for Star Convoy.  Maybe Tidal Wave.

But yes, an Overlord closer in size to Jetfire and a Powermaster Op/God Ginrai with a proper smaller robot would be high on my wish list as well.  Unfortunately my source doesn't know what's coming for that class after Rodimus.

[M'Kyuun]

Although the triple changers outside of Springer, Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and possibly Sandstorm really don't interest me much, along with Tidal Wave, Broadside could be thrown in there, and possibly a Six-Shot. I'd be down with UM done at commander scale; that would give them the budget to make a really good figure. Despite being a lukewarm fan of UM, I hope it happens, and happens the way the designers seem inclined. We're sure to get a better toy if the designers themselves are personally invested.

I've zero interest in the UT stuff and purely Japanese Transformers, but if they eventually do make them under the Kingdom banner, then I'm happy for the Western fans who never had an opportunity to get the original stuff. If they're tapping every vein of nostalgia, and I think they should, all TF fans should get updates of the toys they love. It's win/win for us and Has/Tak.

4 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I love Menasor so I’ll probably buy a new one if it gets released.

 

I wonder if Polesdru gets some kind of kick back from Hasbro or Takara? His stop-motion vids are great PR for them.

Cyclonus is an exceptional figure in the WFC trilogy. i just hoped it wouldn't suck, but they exceeded my expectations with how well he was executed. If only every fig in the line was on par.

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

I've zero interest in the UT stuff and purely Japanese Transformers, but if they eventually do make them under the Kingdom banner, then I'm happy for the Western fans who never had an opportunity to get the original stuff. If they're tapping every vein of nostalgia, and I think they should, all TF fans should get updates of the toys they love. It's win/win for us and Has/Tak.

I watched RiD and most of the Unicron Trilogy (I missed the last half of Cybertron).  With apologies to the fans, the shows sucked hard.  That said, coming off Beast Wars is was very cool to see Transformers that turned into cars and trucks and stuff again instead of gorillas, rats, and jungle cats, and I like a lot of the character designs a lot better than more recent stuff like the Bayverse (looks like someone dumped the cutlery drawer in a blender), Animated (the exaggerated lines looked fine in the cartoon, but I didn't care for how they translated the shapes into three-dimensional objects), or Prime (I actually do like the designs in Prime, but they're a bit closer to the Bayverse than G1).  I can't honestly say that I'd commit to whole lines of RiD/UT characters, but I'd be down for RiD Prime, Ultra Magnus, Rail Racer, Megatron, Scourge, and Ruination, Armada Prime, Megatron, Starscream, and Hot Shot, and Tidal Wave, Energon Prime, Megatron, Rodimus, Shockblast, and Starscream, Cybertron Prime, Megatron, Vector Prime, Hot Shot, and Starscream.

[M'Kyuun]

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I watched RiD and most of the Unicron Trilogy (I missed the last half of Cybertron).  With apologies to the fans, the shows sucked hard.  

I couldn't have said it more eloquently. In all fairness, I liked the animation direction, which used a lot of CG to make the characters look sharp. The designs themselves, overall, didn't grab me, and the few eps I suffered through turned me off to the series altogether. If I had to choose between watching RiD/UT or the Bay films, I'd pick the former, although I'd consider watching either as cruel and unusual forms of punishment. I will say, however, that the return to non-critter alt modes was refreshing, as much as I love BW. BW owes a great deal to the writers and VAs who brought the characters to life; I think the show would have been completely forgotten, as well as the franchise as a whole, had it not been for how engaging and fun it was. It is to Transformers what Bionicle was to LEGO back in '03 when they were facing bankruptcy. 

I have to part ways with Mike when addressing Animated. Initially, I was skeptical of the animation direction, and was quite dubious that any sort of functional transforming toys could be made from it. However, I warmed to the animation, and IMHO, I thought Takara did an impressive job of translating that toon look into toys. Like most TF toylines, they're not without their concessions, and perhaps I'm more forgiving b/c of the extreme nature of the source material, but Animated was and remains one of my favorite toy lines in the history of the franchise. I still lament that we didn't get a fourth season, and the toys that would have accompanied it. The show itself was great, with lots of G1 references, some great humor, a refreshing take on the characters and story, good writing, and a number of enjoyable cameos (Al Yankovic and George Takei spring to mind). Oh and that transforming Ark- so hope that that will get made at some point.

Prime was really well done, too. Given that Orci and Kurtzman were the writers and the bot aesthetic borrowed noticeably from Bay's monstrosities, I wanted to hate it from the onset. But, I gave it a chance and found it to be well written and the designs grew on me. I still hate that they made Bee mute- f##k Orci and Kurtzman forever for introducing that unforgivably stupid trope into Transformers. Prime turned out to be an interesting toy line, what with the mostly superior First Edition figs and then the later retail figs of a number of the main characters. The show itself gave a window into how the live action movies may have turned out under a different director, as Orci and Kurtzman proved , to me anyway, that they could tell an engaging Transformers story. It's still one of my favorite TF series.

[Kuma Style]

[mikeszekely]

Called it.

MPM-11 is Bumblebee Optimus. It's a Target exclusive in the US, and it'll be out in August.

Oh, and a new Transformers cartoon is coming to Nickelodeon. They lost me at "action-comedy" though.

[danth]

Ugh, those curved smoke stacks.

(Yes I assume they're that way in the movie; still hate it).

[no3Ljm]

2 hours ago, danth said:

Ugh, those curved smoke stacks.

(Yes I assume they're that way in the movie; still hate it).

It was actually straight in the movie.

 

[mikeszekely]

More accurately, it's bent on Cybertron and straight on earth. And if Takara copies the 3Ps who've taken on the design it'll have swappable parts for both.

[danth]

52 minutes ago, no3Ljm said:

It was actually straight in the movie.

Whaaat?

19 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

More accurately, it's bent on Cybertron and straight on earth. And if Takara copies the 3Ps who've taken on the design it'll have swappable parts for both.

Ah, I see. Yeah I would swap those out so hard.

[lechuck]

There is also some new prototype images of MP Skids

[no3Ljm]

7 minutes ago, danth said:

Whaaat?

Apologies that I'm no expert on TF's. All I did is watch the clip from the movie that I posted above and noticed that the smoke stacks were straight and not curved as what on the toy photo shows. Unless I'm seeing it wrong though.

 

[M'Kyuun]

To my eyes, what should have been an improvement over the Studio Series toy fails,  at least so far as truck mode goes. The SS did a better job of making the hitch deck cleaner and more proportional- this looks stretched with obvious robot leg armor just hanging out. Easy pass for me.

10 hours ago, lechuck said:

There is also some new prototype images of MP Skids

This is shaping up nicely. I hope it's not the victim of the QC issues that seem to have plagued MP releases of late, as this may be the first official MP I buy since Sunstreaker. I still wish they'd designed the feet closer to how XTB did theirs, and I wonder if that windshield is going to collapse closer to his back, but otherwise, Skids is looking good. I 'm totally digging Takara's take on the shoulders, which are accurate to the G1 toy. The well-detailed bot mode is not lost on me, and I hope the pendulum is swinging more in this direction with future releases. 

I passed on Savant, but I have to give XTB props for managing to squeeze in seats and a dashboard, as well as a folding scooter in the back. Takara obviously didn't do either. The scooter was actually part of the Diaclone release, but Hasbro dropped it for some reason when they co-opted the toy into Transformers.

Anyway, this is the first I've felt anticipation for a MP fig in a while, and I hope it doesn't disappoint. Looking forward to some colored pics of this guy. They probably won't, but it'd be cool if they chromed his weapons.

[lechuck]

10 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

This is shaping up nicely. I hope it's not the victim of the QC issues that seem to have plagued MP releases of late, as this may be the first official MP I buy since Sunstreaker.

I keep seeing and reading this everywhere anytime someone wants to bang on the modern MPs. Where or what in your opinion is this supposedly general lower quality that has manifested itself with Takara's latest MP releases?

Yes, I acknowledge the plastics on Hound were breaking and the quality is not good, but he has to be considered an outlier in the bigger scope of things. Since then we have had Tigertron, reissue MP-39, Spinout, Arcee, Leo Convoy and Black Convoy and there have been no reports of greater quality issues with them. There will unfortunately always be that one toy that was assembled early Monday morning with misalignments, paint issues or even broken pieces, but that is not evidence of something fundamentally wrong in the MP line.

As for Skids... looks decent I guess, but that's part of problem. Nothing here that is pushing the limits or where you could see Takara going for that excellence type of mentality. I could be wrong, but the prototype doesn't bode well when it comes to articulation either - lazy and limiting implementation like during the Hybrid/Hasui era, that would be a big disqualifier for me. As it stands, I think I might sit out the pre-order and wait for AJP to have a sale.

Crazy times, I actually want to pre-order a MPM over a MP Transformer. 

Edited February 26, 2021 by lechuck

[technoblue]

I like this MPM Optimus for his bot mode. I also like that the alt mode doesn’t have his legs crawling up the back of his cab. That was a feature of TP Optimus and not really Bumblee Movie Optimus, which shares cues with G1 Prime. The length of the legs isn’t a big deal for me, but it would be a cool gimmick if this MPM Prime can pull MP-10 or MP-44’s trailer.

What I’m not sure of is those alt mode cat ears. If it’s a mistransformation, it’s meme-level hilarious. I might pick it up for that reason alone, especially if I can fold the ears back down after it gets old. 

Seriously, this is the first MPM release that’s actually tempting me. I usually skip them and stick to the regular MPs.

And on that note, Skids looks good. I don’t mind revisiting the original Datsun styling with this release. I am going to hold my final judgement until I see the painted prototype, though. I was disappointed by XTB’s release. Takara looks to have more sculpted detail in their Skids face plate, and that’s a plus in my book.

[mikeszekely]

I shop at Target a lot, so I'll almost definitely pick up MPM-11 on one of my runs. Can't be any worse than MPM Ironhide.

Oh, and Grimlock is back in stock (Jazz too) on Pulse for Premium members. Which naturally would happen the day after I cave and buy one on eBay...

EDIT: And now the one I preordered at Amazon that they said wouldn't arrive until May is suddenly ready to ship...

Edited February 27, 2021 by mikeszekely

[M'Kyuun]

 Grimlock and BW Megatron are on their way to me from Pulse, ETA Monday. It's a beautiful day here in eastern Washington, and I took a stroll across town to my favorite coffee stand. When I returned, there was a Target box on my step. It turned out to be X-Men X-Spanse. Bear in mind I never had RotF Jetfire, of whose toy this is a major retool, but I managed to get him transformed without consulting the instructions. It's not the best figure in the world, but as a crossover fig, it's not bad either. I like the engineering of the legs- they're the most interesting part of the transformation. Since the majority of his plane mode ends up-surprise!- on his back, it would have been nice had they had some additional heel support and some fore and aft rocker for his feet. His toes can rock up and down, and his heel, which is the exhaust augmenter, is on a ball joint with very limited motion. But with all that weight on his back, there's a bit of necessity to bend him forward at the waist a little to keep him from tumbling backward. His heavily modified blue SR-71 mode is ok. I'm a plane guy, so the concessions are far more glaring to me than they probably are to most Trans-fans. Suffice it to say, like most of Hasbro's jetformers, his best angle in jet mode is from above. From the sides or the bottom, it's pretty clear this is a robot attempting to disguise itself as a plane, with lackluster results. I could pick it apart ad nauseum, but I won't. I will say it's not the worst jetformer I've seen or even owned. It has retractable gear, and even though the mains aren't enclosed when retracted, and aren't in the right place on the aircraft, the fact that it has retractable gear at all gets points from me.  One other niggle I have with the alt mode is that it's far closer to the real SR-71, due to their licensing it from Lockheed, than the very stylized Blackbird from various X-Men media. What's ironic about that is that the comic representation is on the box. I wish they'd followed suit with X-Spanse's alt mode, as I've always liked the look of it, and it would have been cool had they attempted to sculpt the plane mode to be closer to the original source. Alas, they didn't, but I'm happy to have a passable representation of the Blackbird within the Transformers Universe. Excelsior!

[mikeszekely]

19 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

When I returned, there was a Target box on my step. It turned out to be X-Men X-Spanse.

Yeah, mine is on the way, but being on the other side of the country means a longer wait. Last check it was in Indianapolis, with the delivery date "pending."

[M'Kyuun]

7 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Yeah, mine is on the way, but being on the other side of the country means a longer wait. Last check it was in Indianapolis, with the delivery date "pending."

I think you'll like him, and I look forward to your thoughts/review. I messed about a little with him after I posted, and due to his double knee joints, which are both rather stiff ratchets, I was able to position his knees such that he can stand tall and proud without falling over backwards. I found those knee joints a bit of a pain when transforming him back into his plane mode. I couldn't remember exactly how his thighs needed to be positioned, and so, pride be damned, I consulted the instructions. The joints throughout my copy are all pretty tight, so while that's ultimately a good thing, it also makes it challenging to manipulate things during transformation. Nothing a little patience and persistence can't overcome.

One caveat- the little winglets on the engines just snap into their mounts , but both are easily detached inadvertently on my copy. They could have used some pins to keep them in place and give some strength (they have to rotate at the root). Not the best, but in my short experience with the figure, those were the only bits on the whole toy that seemed flimsy. Compared to his original mold mate, RotF Jetfire, the jet mode cleans up quite well, with virtually no kibble under the forward fuselage. He does have some ro-block syndrome under the main fuselage, but the large engines go a long way towards hiding it, and it looks compact from the side. From the bottom, all is revealed and made all the more obvious due to the light blue and yellow coloring. Pretty typical. I still dig him, though. Hope the same for everyone else who got him.

[mikeszekely]

7 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

One caveat- the little winglets on the engines just snap into their mounts , but both are easily detached inadvertently on my copy.

Are you referring to these winglets?

Because the image I got this from was an unboxing that seems to confirm that they're installed in the direction that most of the preview pics showed a few months ago.

Which is to say, backward, as the Blackbird's wings are forward-swept in the 90's cartoon (and the Fox films, for that matter).

If they're installed backward, then I'm glad they can pop off and aren't pinned so I can fix them.

[M'Kyuun]

Yep, those are the winglets, and mine are installed swept forward. Honestly, it doesn't matter which way you install them; they mount so loosely that they are easily knocked off. It's the only flimsy element of the toy; everything else is pretty solid. the connection to the two panels that just kinda hover behind his head is a potentially weak spot for breakage, as the base rotates and can be inadvertently sandwiched between bits of the backpack; if it's not sitting flat and one attempts to squeeze the backpack together, it could possibly break. It's an unfortunate holdover from the Jetfire design that has no function and just looks odd. I wish they could have found a way to redesign it for X-Spanse.

Figure King posted some greyscale pics of the upcoming MP Skids. I shamelessly copied the pic from TFW2005, where there's a bit of discussion about it, mostly complaints. One thing that was pointed out was the return to lackluster articulation after a spate of MP figs with a focus on improved articulation. Given the seemingly backward approach to the articulation and the extent of detail on the bot mode uncharacteristic of the plain Jane toon direction, my theory is that this is an old, possibly Hasui-era design that Takara sat on and only now decided to produce. Like I said, just a theory. But the change in direction is notable for its departures from what has become the standard for this line over the last few years. This looks like a step back in time to me. Regardless, seeing detail on a bot again is a good thing.