TF Views

For what its worth (nothin') there is lil' Bot Shot Sunstorm. So you can have cute lil' Big Orange Antichrist.

I'm excited for Acid Storm and all, but I would straight up lose my shit for a Masterpiece AM Cracker. Holy balls.

BWprowl wrote:EDIT: Of course, if this alternatively somehow leads to an MP ActionMaster Thundercracker, I will buy the hell out of that.

Oh yeah, how the heck did I forget about that?

138 Scourge wrote:Yeah, I'd happily buy a five-pack of extra MP Sound wave tape guys. I'm not counting on it, but I'd buy the hell our of it. How cool would Masterpiece Squawkbox be?

MP Squawkbox vs MP Slamdance would be a set I'd buy, but I get the feeling the designers on these are treating them as too expensive to release more molds of, despite them not being terribly complicated really. Overkill and Slugfest too, let's make this a cassette party since we're playing fantasy design.

BWprowl wrote:Thanks JT, these are nice pics, especially given that some of the ones that other sites put up apparently suffered from some color-warping. Score one for TFViews!

Right on, glad to hear we could bring it to the masses straight-up.

Soundwave looks snazzy as ever, though getting a good look at him here I'm disappointed in his cartoon-based headsculpt (I greatly prefer the toy's strong, angular, Decepticon-symbol look), though the yellow eyes mitigate that somewhat. Otherwise looks like a fantastic toy and I'll happily buy one if I have the cash and ever, uh, find one.

Good point about the cartoon headsculpt, I hadn't really pinpointed what felt off beyond the eyes themselves (why sculpt cartoon face and paint toy eyes?), this seems like an area they probably had a long conversation about and I'd love to hear how that went down. I think they should have included a swappable head, a buddy of mine feels at least MP Grimlock-style eye color changing.

Acid Storm now wins the award for 'Most Insane Character To Receive a Masterpiece Figure' and pretty much makes him a lock for this years 'Best Esoteric Character' nod in our Year in Review. Looks cool, and I'm far less terrified of this version of the Masterpiece Seeker mold than I am of the initial version (and was, in fact, under the impression that they were two totally different molds until not too long ago), though I had passed on Thundercracker. I *might* get this version if I see it, but if I'm going to get any version of this mold I'd prefer it to be Sunstorm, though the Takara one goes for more money than I'd care to spend. Maybe if this works out and Hasbro brings out there own Masterpiece Sunstorm, but I dunno, they seem to be oddly averse to the big orange AntiChrist these days (still no Classics version, for whatever reason).

EDIT: Of course, if this alternatively somehow leads to an MP ActionMaster Thundercracker, I will buy the hell out of that.

Not sure wwhat you mean about "[thought] they were two totally different molds until not too long ago", they are different molds, although the new version does reuse a small amount from the original - that could be what you mean, but I'm not sure.

Yeah, I can't imagine any figure coming out in 2013 that'll be more expensive and esoteric than MP AS. And the idea of paying $75 for MP AMTC is quite an interesting thought... one I won't personally entertain. I'd love to see the receipts from those who actually paid that much for the world's ugliest Masterpiece though.

JediTricks wrote:Not sure wwhat you mean about "[thought] they were two totally different molds until not too long ago", they are different molds, although the new version does reuse a small amount from the original - that could be what you mean, but I'm not sure.

That is what I meant. For a long time I was under the impression that they were two totally distinct molds. Then when MP Thundercracker came out over here I saw quite a few people referring to it as a 'remold' of the original MP Starscream mold. So according to the (admittedly brief) research I did, it appeared that this new mold is considered a remold of the original MP Starscream. And after your response, I'm still not sure what's what.

I'd love to see the receipts from those who actually paid that much for the world's ugliest Masterpiece though.

Well I'm sure some people can provide proof that they paid for Masterpiece Megatron.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BWprowl wrote:

JediTricks wrote:Not sure wwhat you mean about "[thought] they were two totally different molds until not too long ago", they are different molds, although the new version does reuse a small amount from the original - that could be what you mean, but I'm not sure.

That is what I meant. For a long time I was under the impression that they were two totally distinct molds. Then when MP Thundercracker came out over here I saw quite a few people referring to it as a 'remold' of the original MP Starscream mold. So according to the (admittedly brief) research I did, it appeared that this new mold is considered a remold of the original MP Starscream. And after your response, I'm still not sure what's what.

Ah, ok. They are distinct molds, it's just that the new one mirrors a few parts off the original. A "remold" is a vague term, it can mean a total change for a figure or only some new parts - in this case, both are true from a certain point of view.

I'd love to see the receipts from those who actually paid that much for the world's ugliest Masterpiece though.

Well I'm sure some people can provide proof that they paid for Masterpiece Megatron.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hiyo! I'd be insulted but I didn't buy that skinny thing. Actually, I kinda would like to own one to have a giant handgun. Still, no way he'd be ugliest if AMTC was released.

JediTricks wrote:Ah, ok. They are distinct molds, it's just that the new one mirrors a few parts off the original. A "remold" is a vague term, it can mean a total change for a figure or only some new parts - in this case, both are true from a certain point of view.

Thanks for the clarification. To be fair, some of the people I saw referring to it as a 'remold' are also the type who insist that RTS Jazz is based off the Universe Prowl mold.

Hiyo! I'd be insulted but I didn't buy that skinny thing. Actually, I kinda would like to own one to have a giant handgun. Still, no way he'd be ugliest if AMTC was released.

Yeah, there's a difference of intent though. AMTC does it with GUSTO, it's ridiculously bad on purpose, and that makes it enjoyable. It's the Sharktopus of TF color schemes.

Spoiler

Why the hell isn't there a TF with Sharktopus for a beast mode yet?

BWprowl wrote:

JediTricks wrote:Ah, ok. They are distinct molds, it's just that the new one mirrors a few parts off the original. A "remold" is a vague term, it can mean a total change for a figure or only some new parts - in this case, both are true from a certain point of view.

Thanks for the clarification. To be fair, some of the people I saw referring to it as a 'remold' are also the type who insist that RTS Jazz is based off the Universe Prowl mold.

Wow, that's a new one to me, how is Jazz in any way similar to Prowl on those molds? What is their crazyperson argument, that they use similar transformations?

Hiyo! I'd be insulted but I didn't buy that skinny thing. Actually, I kinda would like to own one to have a giant handgun. Still, no way he'd be ugliest if AMTC was released.

Yeah, there's a difference of intent though. AMTC does it with GUSTO, it's ridiculously bad on purpose, and that makes it enjoyable. It's the Sharktopus of TF color schemes.

Spoiler

Why the hell isn't there a TF with Sharktopus for a beast mode yet?

Seriously, how did that not happen in the Fuzors line?

As for doing it with gusto, I'm not buying it, the euro designers made everything they could get their hands on fugly, I challenge the notion that this was an attempt to be bad on purpose but that they simply had awful aesthetics for the purpose of being different.

JediTricks wrote:

138 Scourge wrote:Yeah, I'd happily buy a five-pack of extra MP Sound wave tape guys. I'm not counting on it, but I'd buy the hell our of it. How cool would Masterpiece Squawkbox be?

MP Squawkbox vs MP Slamdance would be a set I'd buy, but I get the feeling the designers on these are treating them as too expensive to release more molds of, despite them not being terribly complicated really. Overkill and Slugfest too, let's make this a cassette party since we're playing fantasy design.

Yeah, the fantasy 5-pack I made up in my head and would totally buy would definitely include those dudes. I wanted to say "I'd happily buy a five-pack of Ratbat, Overkill, Slugfest, Beastbox, and Squawktalk" but fighting my phone's autocorrect to get all those names out would have taken awhile and I was slacking off at work enough as it was. Still, this set does have a tape dude I never thought I'd get with a Soundwave since it's got Buzzsaw. About time that dude showed up in something other than a Soundblaster repaint.

JediTricks wrote:Wow, that's a new one to me, how is Jazz in any way similar to Prowl on those molds? What is their crazyperson argument, that they use similar transformations?

Pretty much. They think there's no reason for the two to have robot modes so similarly constructed, and assume that Jazz was just based off the Universe Prowl mold (this was especially common when the first pics of RTS Jazz had surfaced). Then I'll post a pic of a side-by-side comparison of the G1 Prowl and Jazz toys pointing out "Yeah, that's just the Diaclone Car transformation, they've always just kinda looked similar" and these people'll be all "Oh, I wasn't aware", like they've never even seen the G1 toys before.

There's a staggering amount of new people in the fandom who aren't up on stuff like this that I encounter on /toy/ and the like. I just saw a thread where someone was completely unaware that Universe Onslaught existed! That toy didn't come out that long ago!

As for doing it with gusto, I'm not buying it, the euro designers made everything they could get their hands on fugly, I challenge the notion that this was an attempt to be bad on purpose but that they simply had awful aesthetics for the purpose of being different.

Well I have no idea what the original guy in charge of AMTC's deco in the 80's was thinking, but I'll admit that he likely wasn't shooting for bad on purpose at the time. However, the reason most people these days enjoy the color scheme, and surely the thinking behind finally releasing it on the Classics Seeker mold through BotCon was "Holy crap this look is so insanely awful it loops back around to awesome!"

There's a staggering amount of new people in the fandom who aren't up on stuff like this that I encounter on /toy/ and the like. I just saw a thread where someone was completely unaware that Universe Onslaught existed! That toy didn't come out that long ago!

Realize for a second that Universe Onslaught came out in 2008. That's 'five years ago.'

In three years, Classics toys will be a decade old. That will have been long enough that they'll have to start the whole cycle over again.