Yeah, I would love to see Fanstoys tackle Ratchet and Ironhide. Damn '86ers should be, uh, eighty-sixed.
Good to see you here, Magnus!
Damn straight. I feel a bit dirty having preordered them, to be quite honest.
As for their Hot Rod... Honestly, I don't see enough of a difference between the two to warrant a purchase. The Takara one looks great to me, and quite frankly, I wouldn't count on a CG render necessarily representing a better product, even if it did look better.
That's not to say it doesn't look good - just not quite enough of an improvement, if any.
FT's Galvatron looks off, too. When you compare it to G1 screen shots, there's just too much that's exaggerated about the FansToys version, and quite a few of the "curves" and what not just aren't present (and I'm not just talking about the cannon, which will be refined, apparently). Looking at the difference between Quake Wave and Takara's official Shockwave, this is one character I feel will come out better from Takara... Maybe not as solid or heavy, but that's okay by me. And he's important enough a character that I think he WILL happen, eventually.
I do prefer their Reflector to MakeToys, though. There's something just off about the MT versions, IMO. Too blocky/cartoony looking. FT's alt mode especially looks like a real Masterpiece product. Their facesculpts look a little odd in pictures, admittedly - but with several options to switch them out, and the fact that face sculpts usually look better in person, it's certainly not a deal-breaker.
Decided to cancel Sphinx due to VERY spotty in-hand feedback. Looks like this isn't the clear winner the test-shot reviewers made it out to be... What with that, and the odd logos and words plastered on him, I think I'll wait until either Takara, FansToys or BadCube does one.
