ALL THINGS TRANSFORMERS!!!!

[thecorsair]

Thanks for posting that review. I have been itching to pick one up for the longest time now, especially with most of the online stores out of stock and thus the increase in price. I'm tempted to pull the trigger now but I know I'll regret it when I it comes time to pay off MP Soundwave and DX11 in the next year.

No problem, glad I was able to provide some food for thought....MP11 is definitely worth considering if you can still get one for a decent price once you've paid for the other items.

EDIT
The first color test shot of the 3rd party WFC Omega Supreme,

Subject to price and QC I think I may get one as it's apparently going to be a similar size to TFC's Devastator.

The G1 Omega Supreme design would be preferable but the robot mode of the videogame design is pretty similar so it would still fit in with the rest of my display.

 

[Furyan]

Glad you like the pics!

It's nice to finally have a Masterpiece Starscream that looks the same color as the G1 toy and the animation model as that was my main disappointment with the iGear one.

The headsculpt may lack the switchable faces of the other mold but looks way better although the darker face takes a bit of getting used to....but it is accurate so all's good.

Owning the iGear Seekers meant the new configuration for the tailfins in robot mode wasn't as new to me as itmay be for others but it works well and as with the iGear versions the robot mode looks a hell of lot better than the original MP03 because there's no hip kibble.

The new null rays work very nicely and all the joints are nice & tight, the only slight issue I have is with the rotation of the feet....I think the MP03/iGear mold does better in that area.

No annoying bits on the intakes to fall off during transformation =

I'm no aviation expert so I couldn't tell you which model of F-15 it's meant to be but like the original it looks very authentic ( aside from the colors of course ) and the holographic pilot is a nice touch.

I think the improvements to the previous official mold are good and I'm happy enough with it but I still think the money used to develop it would have been better used towards another new character and there's no need for a 3.0, or not until mass shifting tech is available for toys

I wouldn't pay the £120 it cost me ( just under twice the price of an iGear one ) for any Seeker other than Starscream and I want him to stand out from the others so he'll likely be the only time I get this mold.

Overall I'd give it 9/10.

Right on. I agree that Igears seekers look really good next to MP11. Makes MP11 shine a little more than the others which is what Im after. If I dont hear about a reiisue of Skywarp soon Im gonna snatch up Igears version. Only knock I got on MP11 is that it didnt come with a stand,that should of been in there especially for the price. But overall Im happy. Glad to hear your diggin him too.

Yeah, I love what these companies are doing with the combiners, but it's just too much, and that's coupled with a slight bit of buyer's remorse at Hercules. Not even sure I will get Superion, even though I have strong nostalgic connections to it, but I would love to have Herc, Superion, Menosaur, and Predaking all on the display.

You said it! Ive had buyers remorse creepin in and out of my head with Herc. He was the first collectable I ever bought that was over $500 and I still think hes not quite worth that much. But that said Im happy I got him and hes paid for. I think Im gonna go through the same thing with MMC's? new Predaking. But that thing is gonna be just wicked. All I would need is a Bruticus in the same size and Id be so gravy.

 

[Frank]

I can't get over how good these third party products are. Was igear the first of these companies? I don't follow it as closely but it seemed like their Faith Leader was the first time I took notice.

 

[karamazov80]

Nah, there were 3rd party companies around before Faith Leader. One did Powerglide, Wheelie, and Cyclonus well before the current wave of 3rd party popularity came along.

 

[Frank]

Nah, there were 3rd party companies around before Faith Leader. One did Powerglide, Wheelie, and Cyclonus well before the current wave of 3rd party popularity came along.

Thanks for the leads. I love how it's putting some extra heat on takara to keep cranking out the MPs. Though I don't think Takara will ever try to pull off an MP combiner sub series. Glad there's an explosion of 3rd party development.

 

[thecorsair]

Right on. I agree that Igears seekers look really good next to MP11. Makes MP11 shine a little more than the others which is what Im after. If I dont hear about a reiisue of Skywarp soon Im gonna snatch up Igears version. Only knock I got on MP11 is that it didnt come with a stand,that should of been in there especially for the price. But overall Im happy. Glad to hear your diggin him too.

A stand would have been more useful than the cape and crown that I reckon most people will leave in the box

iGear Skywarp is very nice, mine needs a minor repair at the moment as a piece keeps popping out of it's joint as the pin appears to be slightly shorter than it should be but it's fixable.

My U-turn on Starscream was largely due to how good he looked in the pic with MP Soundwave and as my collection is waiting for a decent Megatron it seems fitting that Soundwave and Starscream will be fighting for the best position on my Decepticon shelf.

Frank,
Although it's great that Takara are finally having a go at a consistent scale in the Masterpiece line it means they have placed some limits on themselves.

Most combiners have limbs that are out of scale with each other if you take the real world scale of the vehicles into consideration so the only ones that Takara could do that would work within the current scale are Devastator and Menasor.

Nobody really cares about official licenses for construction vehicles so it wouldn't have that obstacle to overcome.

The real issue would be cost as each Constructicon would have to be a bigger than MP Sideswipe and Red Alert and with 2 decent versions already out there some people might not want to get a 3rd version of the character unless it was significantly better eg, bigger Constructicons, bigger Devastator, more G1 accurate if possible and maybe some lights and/or sounds.

Menasor would be more problematic.

The Lamborghini license already being in place has created some speculation about Breakdown but getting Porsche, Ferrari and whoever owns the rights to the six wheeled F1 car that Dragstrip was is probably not going to happen so they'd have to make the alt modes look more like the cartoon to get round the legal issue.

In addition Motormaster wouldn't be easy to make as his trailer is also part of his robot mode....then there's all the combiner ports and things to add.

So unless they throw their present scale out of the window I think the only realistic option for Takara is Devastator.

 

[sifu74]

FansProject are already making Menasor although the first 2 Stunticons have ugly alt modes that look like Hasbro designed them.

FP have produced some nice stuff but their style is getting a bit samey now, it's like they turn the "blocky" look up to 11 on pretty much everything and somehow fail to get the G1 vibe which Takara and iGear have found the formula for and I think their Classicsverse approach of redesigning stuff just for the sake of it is looking increasingly lame in comparison.

Only thing I like from them so far is the Bruticus addons which looks good in alt, robot and combine mode. Evrything else is blocky especially the new Stunticons and the alt modes is not looking good so far.

 

[Frank]

Frank,
Although it's great that Takara are finally having a go at a consistent scale in the Masterpiece line it means they have placed some limits on themselves.

Most combiners have limbs that are out of scale with each other if you take the real world scale of the vehicles into consideration so the only ones that Takara could do that would work within the current scale are Devastator and Menasor.

Nobody really cares about official licenses for construction vehicles so it wouldn't have that obstacle to overcome.

The real issue would be cost as each Constructicon would have to be a bigger than MP Sideswipe and Red Alert and with 2 decent versions already out there some people might not want to get a 3rd version of the character unless it was significantly better eg, bigger Constructicons, bigger Devastator, more G1 accurate if possible and maybe some lights and/or sounds.

Menasor would be more problematic.

The Lamborghini license already being in place has created some speculation about Breakdown but getting Porsche, Ferrari and whoever owns the rights to the six wheeled F1 car that Dragstrip was is probably not going to happen so they'd have to make the alt modes look more like the cartoon to get round the legal issue.

In addition Motormaster wouldn't be easy to make as his trailer is also part of his robot mode....then there's all the combiner ports and things to add.

So unless they throw their present scale out of the window I think the only realistic option for Takara is Devastator.

Yeah, I got MP-01 back when it first came out and I was really looking forward to gigantic hyper-featured uber engineered versions of the G1 bots, but as soon as Starcream came out (and with no progress on an MP-BB) I got off the wagon and sold my MPs. Consistent scale is important and while I would always opt to go bigger, I've discovered that I care more about how the robots look next to each other than I do about the alt scale (which has always been a loophole for the brand). That doesn't mean they can slack on robot mode but even now we have a lamborghini already too large next to a big truck. It's nice it can still fit in the trailer though.

I do admire them for trying to unify the scales somewhat, but hey the whole line demands that jet fighters be smaller than 18 wheelers. There's only so much they can do.

 

[BrooklynWolf X]

Can someone take me to school on this...

With these unlicensed TF toys being made, how is it that has/tak haven't dropped the hammer on them? Aren't they infringing on their properties?

Not knocking on them. I do admire the stuff they do and am surprised at the quality. Just curious on how these companies are still producing things that don't belong to them.

 

[Furyan]

Can someone take me to school on this...

With these unlicensed TF toys being made, how is it that has/tak haven't dropped the hammer on them? Aren't they infringing on their properties?

Not knocking on them. I do admire the stuff they do and am surprised at the quality. Just curious on how these companies are still producing things that don't belong to them.

Quick answer is these 3p companies change enough minor details of these figures that Has/Tak cannot do anything about it. Things like size,name,coloring are all different enough to be considered a different figure and not copyright infringement.

 

[lerath666]

in shorter. hasbro also knows that most of these companies are operating in countries like china, which do not recognize international copyrite law. also, these companies cater solely to collectors, who according to hasbro, make up less than 10% of their business.

as for takara, my guess is japan is simply used to garage kits. and as such really dosnt care.

 

[BrooklynWolf X]

Thanks fury and lerath...I had no idea. But I still don't understand a few things...what's to stop one of these companies from producing their own optimus prime? And if they did make minor alterations to the look, how is that still not infringing on hastaks character? Same color scheme, but different colored smokestacks and windshield are enough to get through whatever copyrights were setup to prevent such things?

 

[Ra88]

Thanks fury and lerath...I had no idea. But I still don't understand a few things...what's to stop one of these companies from producing their own optimus prime? And if they did make minor alterations to the look, how is that still not infringing on hastaks character? Same color scheme, but different colored smokestacks and windshield are enough to get through whatever copyrights were setup to prevent such things?

Pretty much. Big grey area. Hasbro and Takara could probably do something about it, but it's apparently not worth the hassle or they would have taken action by now.

Size comparison of Project-X Genesis and Hercules:

 

[Furyan]

Thanks fury and lerath...I had no idea. But I still don't understand a few things...what's to stop one of these companies from producing their own optimus prime? And if they did make minor alterations to the look, how is that still not infringing on hastaks character? Same color scheme, but different colored smokestacks and windshield are enough to get through whatever copyrights were setup to prevent such things?

I the case of Optimus they have already did just that. Igear pretty much copied Takaras MP01 Optimus Prime with their version "Faith Leader" Just shrunk it and took out the electronic components. Did the same with their version of Ultra Magnus called "Ultra Leader". I believe there are many bootleg reiisues of G1 Optimus as well as a great many other G1 characters. And I believe their is another bootleg Optimus named shadow scythe or something and there are probably many others. Like lerath said most of these companies come out of China and I guess they just cannot be touched. And they really are only selling to a "small" percent of the Transformers community so maybe its not worth their time to go after them,plus lawyers cost $$$!

@ra88
DAYUM that dude is huge...

 

[thecorsair]

Faith Leader also lacks diecast, which helps the stability of the robot mode no end.

sifu74,
I still like Warbot Defender and Assaulter and will keep them but my intrest in future FansProject stuff is not great as Takara & iGear are doing a much better job with G1 characters.

Frank,
Scale will never be perfect for both modes especially with characters like Soundwave and Megatron but as long as the robot modes are given priority I don't mind so much.

Ra88
It looks amazing but it's obviously not gonna be cheap.

Herc wasn't such a hit on the finances as the cost was split into 6 over a period of several months but if this is in a similar price range I may have to make a decision between getting that or HT's Iron Monger

EDIT
Just been reading the thread at TFW2005 and it seems like it'll be $350 so it'll be at least £350 once import stores here mark it up even though 350 dollars is actually around 215 pounds.

 

[thecorsair]

Thanks fury and lerath...I had no idea. But I still don't understand a few things...what's to stop one of these companies from producing their own optimus prime? And if they did make minor alterations to the look, how is that still not infringing on hastaks character? Same color scheme, but different colored smokestacks and windshield are enough to get through whatever copyrights were setup to prevent such things?

iGear's Faith Leader says hi,

iGear also released a slightly modified version of the MP03 Seeker mold in the exact same scale as the original as well as the Coneheads which were based on a set of customs made from the official molds.

Other 3rd party companies haven't crossed that line, but with their initial offerings iGear "went there" and essentially dared Has/Tak to do something.....they didn't, possibly because they already had MP10 in development or because the whole legal process would cost more than any projected losses made from the unofficial product.

iGear have switched to making their own molds now but for the most part they're still sticking to the G1 designs, they just lack faction symbols and have different names eg Cogz instead of Gears.

One possible case of Takara reacting to a 3rd party project seems to have occurred with the Fans Toys Soundwave.

A prototype was shown several months before any pre-order or release date and Takara effectively squashed it by announcing an official Masterpiece Soundwave.

I happen to think that there was something of a coincidence as the official one seemed to come out of nowhere so I reckon it was already being made, but once Takara saw what Fans Toys were up to they decided to bump it up the release schedule.

 

[Ra88]

Corsair: I think you're better off going for Iron Monger. It'll be harder to get that and it'll only get more expensive the longer you wait. This WFC OS is nice, but it's only a matter of time until someone releases a big G1 Omega Supreme. Do you want to later kick yourself for not going for Monger, a one of a kind thing, and instead went for an Omega that you will just have to replace?

 

[DPrime]

Thanks fury and lerath...I had no idea. But I still don't understand a few things...what's to stop one of these companies from producing their own optimus prime? And if they did make minor alterations to the look, how is that still not infringing on hastaks character? Same color scheme, but different colored smokestacks and windshield are enough to get through whatever copyrights were setup to prevent such things?

The only blatant IP ripoff I can think of is Faith Leader, since it's just a scaled down MP-01.

As long as the differences make up a certain percentage, apparently it's okay. Look at something like Hercules and the original Devastator and start looking at the differences rather than the - quite frankly, rather superficial - similaries. Yeah, it's a six-robot gestalt that's green and purple, and the headsculpts and proportions are very similar (but then again, Transformers have very, very generic faces, and are basically human in proportion, for the most part). However, the differences are enormous when you get right down to individual parts, engineering, articulation, minute paint details, size of individual parts, etc. And that's aside from the fact that the packaging is vastly different, so there's obviously no attempt to pass this off as the real thing for commercial purposes... not to mention the absence of trademarked symbols and names.

All these differences are minute enough to us that they don't affect the overall look - but when you get right down to it, Hasbro can't "own" the concept of a combining construction-themed robot that's green and purple, and that's why the third parties can do what they do.

 

[bicoid18]

Corsair: I think you're better off going for Iron Monger. It'll be harder to get that and it'll only get more expensive the longer you wait. This WFC OS is nice, but it's only a matter of time until someone releases a big G1 Omega Supreme. Do you want to later kick yourself for not going for Monger, a one of a kind thing, and instead went for an Omega that you will just have to replace?

Yeah, I have to agree. Not really feeling that Omega Supreme design. Iron Monger is just plain awesome. Definitely a grail piece for any collection and will be highly sought after in the second market, even if HT releases an update. But I don't see that happening. I think Monger scales well with IM or Hulk.

Btw, I pulled the trigger on MP-11. I just had to have him. I payed a bit more than I would have liked, but much less than on Ebay with shipping and duty fees. I'll probably feel the pinch a bit in January, but I think I'm able to fit it in my budget. Just gotta live on ramen noodles and mac & cheese for a few weeks.

 

[karamazov80]

I think Hasbro/Takara realizes that these 3rd party companies do more good than harm, as they help a certain niche collector group maintain interest in Transformers while, if Hasbro were left to its own devices, many of these collectors would turn off completely and not spend any $$ at Target/Toys R Us/etc. on the various MP/Classics type figures that are released. I'm in that group.