Xovergen Trailerforce, new trailer for G1 Powermaster Optimus Prime? Options

[DINOBOT SLUDGE]

That is assuming the demand for the Green ones was elastic and not flat. Which it was likely pretty flat.

[Asquian]

I still kinda want a green one, but QC issues plus price plus the inability to get someone to go in on a set means that it likely will remain an exclusion to my collection.

Eh, maybe one day they'll have a fire sale to desperately try to clear stock and I'll have some pity on one of the online vendors.

[Magnus]

I'm very torn - on the one hand, it does look pretty good, and Classics PMOP is #1 of my list of figures that I would kill for.

That being said, I have two concerns that prevent me from plopping down money for a pre-order:

1) Xovergen's last product sucked. Sorry, but it really did.

2) The fact that this was made for three different Primes really worries me. I question how well it will be able to hold Classics Prime in if it was also meant for the original PMOP Prime, and wonder how much better this would look if it were meant for Classics Prime only. I wonder how much this kit is trying to be all things to all people.

I'll wait for the reviews before I make a final judgement, but i'm definitely interested.

[Database]

I still kinda want a green one, but QC issues plus price plus the inability to get someone to go in on a set means that it likely will remain an exclusion to my collection.

Eh, maybe one day they'll have a fire sale to desperately try to clear stock and I'll have some pity on one of the online vendors.

Yeah, same here.

[Axaday]

2) The fact that this was made for three different Primes really worries me. I question how well it will be able to hold Classics Prime in if it was also meant for the original PMOP Prime, and wonder how much better this would look if it were meant for Classics Prime only. I wonder how much this kit is trying to be all things to all people.

It's being all things for just me. I'll probably buy 3.

[Destron D-69]

well I just measured and Powermaster Prime requires 2 1/4" of depth to lock into the original trailer... measuring from the arm hinges to the edges of the rear wheels ... G1 Prime, takes up the same amount of depth measuring from the edge of the dicast cab section to the back of the rear tires when the legs are folded up in a similar manner to PMPrime.

Classics prime (with the legs down as shown) is 3" even from the yellow arm accents to the front grill... with the gun/stacks attached adds another 1/4" so he sicks out an entire inch more already ...

yeah, there's just no way to avoid the big blue buttflap using the classics mold (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-screamer.gif)

now my next question is... Will there be fold out trailer hitches so I can connect this between the G3 trailer and the TFCON Powered Commander set ? O_o because I will put down a preorder NOW to ensure that monstrawesome convoy

[ShinRa Inc]

I still kinda want a green one, but QC issues plus price plus the inability to get someone to go in on a set means that it likely will remain an exclusion to my collection.

Eh, maybe one day they'll have a fire sale to desperately try to clear stock and I'll have some pity on one of the online vendors.

BBTS did, finally, break up sets. And in short order dropped the price on the green one to something like $40-50 for varous clearance sales, which they appear to have done well on, since that's sold out, but they've got one Red and Blue still for sale ($90), and 11 of the original sets ($180).

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search....search=xovergen

I got the green one, tried to transform it and enjoy it....and it was all just pure jive. Good ideas, but piss-poor execution. None of the stuff on the 'trailer' is secure to anything, etc, etc. It's still sitting in it's box in the spare room. Every now and then, I think about pulling it out and trying to fix it with some trimming or glue or nail polish, but I don't even know where to start.

This looks a lot simpler than Rolling Thunder was, and hopefully these guys have learned something, but I remain skeptical until it's reviewed. And they reevaluate their price and distribution structure.

[Lukeblast]

I got the green one, tried to transform it and enjoy it....and it was all just pure jive. Good ideas, but piss-poor execution. None of the stuff on the 'trailer' is secure to anything, etc, etc. It's still sitting in it's box in the spare room. Every now and then, I think about pulling it out and trying to fix it with some trimming or glue or nail polish, but I don't even know where to start.

I would echo everything about this, save still having it. I found a suckergood friend willing to buy it off me at cost.

I really wanted to like it... in theory a Rolling Thunder Prime is everything that I should like. But it was just horribly done and took up so much space on the shelf that I eventually couldn't stand it anymore.

[Jeremy]

Hopefully they've learned that quality is very "make or break" with these things as far as word of mouth goes, but it does worry me that this is trying to do too many things at once. I wouldn't mind it looking just a little more beefy, but if this is well-made, it would be a pretty welcome collection piece. A G1-style Powermaster Prime with all the bells and whistles is one of those things that I still can't help but think is really unlikely to get from Hasbro.

This post has been edited by Jeremy: Mar 17 2012, 07:17 PM

[Axaday]

Hopefully they've learned that quality is very "make or break" with these things as far as word of mouth goes, but it does worry me that this is trying to do too many things at once. I wouldn't mind it looking just a little more beefy, but if this is well-made, it would be a pretty welcome collection piece. A G1-style Powermaster Prime with all the bells and whistles is one of those things that I still can't help but think is really unlikely to get from Hasbro.

What's the deal with cheap plastic, anyway? The cheapo knockoffs use it, I guess, because they couldn't care less. But is there anything about different kinds of plastic that would require different equipment? Can Xovergen just run good plastic through their Rolling Thunder molds and get better Rolling Thunders? Or is there more to it?

[ShinRa Inc]

Rolling Thunders problems won't be solved by just changing the plastics. There's just a lot of unfortunate design decisions (There's just no fix for that thing hanging off his back without a full redesign), things that should peg together but don't (aka, the entire trailer in every mode and combination possible), and just tolerances all around.

[Creature SH]

The robot mode looks fine, but the alt mode looks like.. uh... nurflgrpft. And it's not really a good TF toy to me when one of the modes is basically an afterthought.

Add the huge price tag (I can't bring myself to type "potentially huge" when it is basically guaranteed to be) and the big likelihood of bad quality, and I'm out before there was ever an In.

[Asquian]

I still kinda want a green one, but QC issues plus price plus the inability to get someone to go in on a set means that it likely will remain an exclusion to my collection.

Eh, maybe one day they'll have a fire sale to desperately try to clear stock and I'll have some pity on one of the online vendors.

BBTS did, finally, break up sets. And in short order dropped the price on the green one to something like $40-50 for varous clearance sales, which they appear to have done well on, since that's sold out, but they've got one Red and Blue still for sale ($90), and 11 of the original sets ($180).

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/search....search=xovergen

I got the green one, tried to transform it and enjoy it....and it was all just pure jive. Good ideas, but piss-poor execution. None of the stuff on the 'trailer' is secure to anything, etc, etc. It's still sitting in it's box in the spare room. Every now and then, I think about pulling it out and trying to fix it with some trimming or glue or nail polish, but I don't even know where to start.

This looks a lot simpler than Rolling Thunder was, and hopefully these guys have learned something, but I remain skeptical until it's reviewed. And they reevaluate their price and distribution structure.

I got the green one, tried to transform it and enjoy it....and it was all just pure jive. Good ideas, but piss-poor execution. None of the stuff on the 'trailer' is secure to anything, etc, etc. It's still sitting in it's box in the spare room. Every now and then, I think about pulling it out and trying to fix it with some trimming or glue or nail polish, but I don't even know where to start.

I would echo everything about this, save still having it. I found a suckergood friend willing to buy it off me at cost.

I really wanted to like it... in theory a Rolling Thunder Prime is everything that I should like. But it was just horribly done and took up so much space on the shelf that I eventually couldn't stand it anymore.

Thanks for these, I think I'll just take this thing off the want list altogether then. But I'll keep my eye on trailerforce for now.

This post has been edited by Asquian: Mar 18 2012, 08:20 AM

[Rosicrucian]

Honestly, there was nothing especially wrong with charging what they did for a figure of that size, or even for one that might have ended up smaller. That's not unreasonable for a custom product with a limited run. It's just their engineering really fell down.

[ShinRa Inc]

Most of the price complaints are two-fold; The quality is not worth what they charged, and their insistance at selling a pair of them.

Even if it had been Fansproject-quality, the requirement of buying two of these things for a total cost of $180 was not a wise decision. Just like how FunPub couldn't sell off their Astrotrains on a "Buy one, get one free basis"; They only sold when they finally halved the price in general.

There are odd collectors who want (and can afford) duplicates of big-ticket items like that, but they are not the majority of the consumer-base for these things.

[Spark]

2) The fact that this was made for three different Primes really worries me. I question how well it will be able to hold Classics Prime in if it was also meant for the original PMOP Prime, and wonder how much better this would look if it were meant for Classics Prime only. I wonder how much this kit is trying to be all things to all people.

Yeah, this is another sticking point for me. I'd prefer that a company just pick one Prime, whether it be the Classics deluxe or voyager, I don't care either way, and do it well. We already know Xovergen can't deliver on something overly ambitious, so why do the same thing again?

Honestly, there was nothing especially wrong with charging what they did for a figure of that size, or even for one that might have ended up smaller. That's not unreasonable for a custom product with a limited run. It's just their engineering really fell down.

I think the general impression was that Xovergen seemed to be cutting corners to wring every last penny from that price and it backfired.

[Database]

2) The fact that this was made for three different Primes really worries me. I question how well it will be able to hold Classics Prime in if it was also meant for the original PMOP Prime, and wonder how much better this would look if it were meant for Classics Prime only. I wonder how much this kit is trying to be all things to all people.

Yeah, this is another sticking point for me. I'd prefer that a company just pick one Prime, whether it be the Classics deluxe or voyager, I don't care either way, and do it well. We already know Xovergen can't deliver on something overly ambitious, so why do the same thing again?

I kinda wonder how far in advance they planned it, or if while doing the planning they realized that G1 and PM Prime would also fit in the space? Almost like how G1 fitting in the original wasn't planned, but ends up working.

[Meister79]

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3...0000&type=1

New pics!
Looking good. Just don't like the thin neck.

[God Fire Convoy]

gotta admit that thing does *look* pretty spiffy

here's hoping the quality doesnt suck



[and if it doesnt i hope they're wanting to do a godbomber-like add on kit. that thing would look sweet with some beefed up lower legs, a new chest piece, and some epic wings]

This post has been edited by God Fire Convoy: May 26 2012, 07:43 AM

[Smitty]

I am disappointed by the colors matching the Henkie Toy rather than the Classics toy but only a little bit because I may not even get this.