2014 Japan-exclusive toys: Masterpiece, Generations, etc

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Fri Sep 06, 2013 11:30 am

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

First official pics of G2 Sideswipe and Soundblaster with Ratbat are up on tfsource for now.

No surprises here, glad they went all black on Soundblaster and not hints of blue like the original toy.

Ratbat looks too busy, but the shot is small.

Loving the colours on Sideswipe.

It's official. Just MP figures from me from now on.

Post by **Blackjack** » Fri Sep 06, 2013 1:18 pm

SOUNDBLASTER AND RATBATTTT

We've been joking about it for years, but here it is!

Unicron · Post by **Unicron** » Fri Sep 06, 2013 3:31 pm

I knew they were going to do that. Now to figure out how to acquire a Ratbat without paying out the nose for it.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Fri Sep 06, 2013 8:46 pm

Me and probably a billion over fans outright predicted it. No joke about it. Ever since that takara designer said they're making ratbat, it was the only place for him.

At this point I think it's better for me to sell my takara soundwave, get hasbro's version and then takara soundblaster.

Or maybe get the four tapes and then Soundblaster? Decisions decisions

Post by **Denyer** » Fri Sep 06, 2013 8:49 pm

Unicron wrote:I knew they were going to do that. Now to figure out how to acquire a Ratbat without paying out the nose for it.

Well, for starters it'll be bootlegged heavily if a single release or a further tape mould set isn't forthcoming pretty soon.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Fri Sep 06, 2013 9:15 pm

So was the Soundblaster/Ratbat thing not announced ages ago? Or was that people talking about their assumptions as if they were fact?

Post by **Denyer** » Fri Sep 06, 2013 9:33 pm

Think there was an announcement a Ratbat design had been produced, and it was taken as a given it'd be the thing to try to sell the SB redeco with.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Fri Sep 06, 2013 11:24 pm

inflatable dalek wrote:So was the Soundblaster/Ratbat thing not announced ages ago? Or was that people talking about their assumptions as if they were fact?

There was a translated interview of a fan with a designer on a toy fair show. Really obscure, like blink and miss it, on the tfw2005 forums. The designer said that they have Ratbat planned/designed.

This was around the time the cassette packs were announced. So this left one cassette with Soundwave, four more released as two packs, and Ratbat on his own.

Seeing as nobody believed that takara would invest on other cassettes, and Ratbar would be too cheap to sell on his own, many, myself included, speculated that a Soundblaster repaint partnered with just Ratbat would be the way to go.

Which, apparently, it is. And today, out of the blue, we get official confirmation of it.

So yes, SB with Ratbat, along with Prowl and his mould mates, make four unique cases in which I was right in my assumptions about takara tomy.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Sun Sep 08, 2013 3:29 am

I love G2 Sideswipe and his silly '90s guns. Oddly, with the reverse colours of G1 Sidey, he looks better proportioned and less cluttered in robot mode. Looks like the silly 'Side Swipe' and 'SS' things are stickers too, so you can leave the alt mode looking brutal in plain black. G2 logo on the bonnet looks a bit lost without a white border though.

...and £55 on pre-order from Kapow. Hmm...

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Wed Sep 11, 2013 3:17 pm

Preorders up at HLJ, amiami and animeexport.

HLJ only has G2 Sideswipe for now.

Also, at ehobby's site there's new product shots for both of them, plus final shots for takara's rhinox and waspinator.

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:53 pm

Blast... That's a lot of money for Ratbat, when I really don't care about Soundblaster... But Ratbat does look very nifty...

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:16 am

didn't seem worth starting a new thread for this, but the anime version of Encore Devastator is around £52 from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Transformers-En ... k_h_b_cs_1

I didn't know they'd resculpted the faces of the original toys for this.

Post by **inflatable dalek** » Mon Sep 16, 2013 7:27 am

If nothing else that increases the chances of Mixmaster actually having a head.

EDIT: Jeeeeez, I hope no one brought reissue Piranacon as a financial investment.

Post by **Clay** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:09 pm

Here's Wheeljack!

numbat · Post by **numbat** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 12:23 pm

I had thought I wouldn't be picking up Wheeljack, but now I'm not so sure. The prototype looks very nice indeed. Of course, having our baby on March and moving house in January may mean I simply can't get this one past my wife...

Delayed release now though - August is hardly 2nd quarter of the year!

Really want to see Bumblebee...

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 1:27 pm

Christ that's good... Bumblebee I can actually picture the engineering of because the toy and the animation model have a lot of big similarities in terms of general body shape - add in a slide-out crotch, pimp the articulation, put the show head on, fold those wheels away, should be pretty intuitive if they don't Binaltech the shit out of the thing for the sake of it. Assuming they've got the VW licence (which, as outlined previously, they surely do) I think he's pretty safe; it'll be how much remoulding they're prepared to do for Cliffjumper that's more of a question (though Red, Blue and Smokey all suggest the answer is quite a bit seeing as those figures would all have sold pretty well as straight redecos).

Wheeljack however has his wonderful but weird original toy and really boring sanded down character model with a lot of potential for screwing up inbetween... that looks like a really good blend that takes the detail and kibble of the toy while using the proportions of the character model.

WHEN IS HE OUT?

EDIT: Ooops, August... and he's the next scheduled, yeh? That's cool, actually, might be able to save up funds for MP-10 and Soundwave in the meantime.

Knightdramon · Post by **Knightdramon** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 4:53 pm

Neat. He's up for preorder at anime export.

First actual japanese preorder.

Post by **Denyer** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 6:03 pm

http://www.taghobby.com/1-0/1-1/takarat ... wheeljack/

http://i.imgur.com/Wo2S8PW.jpg

Decent.

another tf fan · Post by **another tf fan** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 7:25 pm

Yep. Pre-ordered.

There has been some talk about the canopy section of the car being a bit manipulated to produce a better robot mode. I am not too keen on the car modes being fudged but its a minor detail.

Rack 'n Ruin · Post by **Rack 'n Ruin** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 9:15 pm

I'm very, very tempted by Wheeljack. He would fill a Wheeljack shaped void on my mixed MP & Alt shelf. But... Is he going to be too small to display with my Alts without looking ridiculous? Not having any of the new car MPs I'm not sure. Can you help? What are your opinions?

Cheers!

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2014 Japan-exclusive toys: Masterpiece, Generations, etc

MP-20 Masterpiece Wheeljack prototype images