Henkei/United/whatever Artfire

[Dominic]

Remember the comic from the last "Generations" book, ya know, the one where a bunch of guys head to Nebulos? Remember Artfire showing up in it? (Artfire being the guy who was a recolour of G1 Inferno all those years ago.)

Well, guess what has been all but announced...

Hint, it is a figure of a character that I customized about 2 years ago, and then went out of my way to customize a proper Target Master for.

Yeah, you got it. Takara is going to be making a legitimate (albeit exclusive) Artfire.

I am going to make an exception to my "no more toys" rule in this case because it was such a remote possibility to start with, and it is a legitimate toy that effectively supplants a custom figure that I made.

Granted, my skip rate on these has been higher than I would like. But, Artfire is a different case than the others.

"Time Lines" G2 Sideswipe is simply to rare/expensive for me to even consider. I might be able to buy one if I were willing to completely sacrifice all of my savings, and maybe sell some toys/comics while still accepting some debt. I only know of one sale of that figure, an off the cuff transaction during BC10. A set of unbroken sprues sold for a grand. (I only know about it because a friend of mine just happened to be there when it happened.)

"Time Lines" SG Thundercracker is just awful. The one I made was and is better.

"Time Lines" G2 Ramjet is really not a bad figure. I just did not have the money. Mine is slightly better by virtue of having a package art based head. But, if I could get ahold of this figure, I would.

"Time Lines" SG Tracks is a mould I like. But, technically, my custom figure is based on "red Tracks"/Road Rage, And, SG figures have reverse coloured sigils, meaning that I would still have to customize this figure to make it work. Of course, the fact that it is only going to be available in a very expensive box set of crap that I do not want is the real deterrent.

But, this? Artfire? This is going to be one figure. And, while it will be a bit pricey, it is only one figure and should be not too hard to get.

It looks to be a retooling of Grapple, which differentiates it enough from Inferno to justify the purchase. I cannot tell from the picture what the Minicon mould is.


Dom
-would have bought the crap out of this last year, so....

[Onslaught Six]

Sad that it's gonna be so expensive and stuff. Oh well, guess it's another rare and cool toy I'll never own.

[BWprowl]

I really really like the Inferno mold, but Artfire's colors never really grabbed me the way his buddy Stepper did. Combine that with how expensive this is likely going to be (and how...iffy the new Stepper turned out), and I'll probably just ignore this one. Cool that it's getting made though.

Man, I'm still clinging to hope that Hasbro'll do their own version of Ricochet eventually.

[Tigermegatron]

I'm happy & satisfied just owning the mold I like at normal retail usa store prices.

I don't like rare repaints enough to pay thru the nose/wallet for them.

FWIW,I was never a fan of the Artfire color scheme,it looks very KO & a royal mess of ugly colors.

[Dominic]

What? Artfire looks good in red and white. Are you sure you are not thinking of "Time Lines" Pyro/Spark?

I am in for this figure, as it will probably be better than that custom I made a few years back (photos on my old MySpace page for those who care). Besides the fact that white base plastic is always better than white paint, Takara's Artfire is going to have the better moulded hands that Grapple has, rather than the block hands that Inferno (and by extension my Artfire) has.


Dom
-also thinking that the Minicon will work better on the official figure.

[Dominic]

New pictures have surfaced indicating that Artfire is in fact a recolour of Grapple. And, this figure apparently comes with recolours of both TFU/RTS Nightstick and PCC Pinpointer. Still no word on if/how the mould has been modified. But, given the lack of modification to Stepper, there is little reason to be optimistic on this question.


Dom
-will be irked if the Target Master and Minicon figures are intended to be the same character.

[Dominic]

And, according to reports on AllSpark, a general "United" Artfire has been announced. This is different from the figure this thread was initially started about, which is technically a "Million Year Publishing" exclusive.

Aside from a significant difference in price, (with the newly announced figure being much cheaper), not much is known about "United" Artfire. Speculation includes differences in paint, missing accessories and which mould will be used.

As of right now, I am still leaning towards the more expensive MYP edition, if only because I know what I would be getting. And, I kind of regret not getting the book (actually a magazine) with Ricochet/Stepper.


Dom
-learning to dread the phrase "Asia market exclusive".

[Onslaught Six]

It sounds like somebody hoaxed this up. Or, at best, somebody leaked out information that wasn't supposed to come out yet. (Japanese companies have a habit of denying that things are coming, only for an official announcement to hit a few weeks later. Western companies are more willing to go, "Fuck it, you got us, that thing's coming out," and rush out a press release.)

http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-new ... my-175331/