Japanese Transformers News

Platypus Prime

Well-known member
Citizen
I misunderstood it, I thought it was at first a remold of SS86 Megatron. I like the 'best of both worlds' concept here and it's a great work-around for a modern MP Megatron, but I also expect it will turn green at some point. I hope it keeps the arm cannon when it does, though.
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
I misunderstood it, I thought it was at first a remold of SS86 Megatron. I like the 'best of both worlds' concept here and it's a great work-around for a modern MP Megatron, but I also expect it will turn green at some point. I hope it keeps the arm cannon when it does, though.
MPG Optimus took a lot from ER Optimus. MPG Hot Rod took a lot from SS '86 Hot Rod. This MPG Megatron seems to take some ques from SS '86 Megatron, in the arms specifically.
Whereas Generations used to take ques from MP, it looks like the opposite is happening now.

IMG_7920.gif
 

Jackpot

Neo-maxi zoom dweebie
Citizen
[snip photos]

(Thanks again to Masabon, via Line)
Oh that turret-scope is a delight. Not sure why the turret barrel is so long in tank mode but so short in robot, though. I hope it's extensible. And also... boy, with most of the rest of his robot mode looking so G1, the chest seems even more boob-job-y than ever. "Megatron, you've... changed." "Like what you see, Prime? It will be your last sight!"

SS is nuts. I'm normally not a fan of hyper-complicated robot designs, but that's impressive. And it transforms! I feel similarly about Adamas Machina Predaking.
 
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Sabrblade

Continuity Nutcase
Citizen
Men have things there, too. They're called pecs.

that-one-episode-where-a-character-gains-muscle-through-the-v0-d1yo5fcw7psf1.jpeg
 

Jackpot

Neo-maxi zoom dweebie
Citizen
More seriously, that mold is making me wonder just... why? There's already a tank Megs out now that turns into a much more G1 robot mode. And why is the fusion cannon so literally a gun scope again? Is there a gun hidden in the design somewhere? Like, that black chonky part of the shoulder-cannon/turret looks like it does something more than we're seeing.
 

Shadewing

Well-known member
Citizen
More seriously, that mold is making me wonder just... why? There's already a tank Megs out now that turns into a much more G1 robot mode. And why is the fusion cannon so literally a gun scope again? Is there a gun hidden in the design somewhere? Like, that black chonky part of the shoulder-cannon/turret looks like it does something more than we're seeing.

Becuase this is most likely a Pre-paint for a G2 Megatron or BW2 Megastorm
 

LordGigaIce

Another babka?
Citizen
And why is the fusion cannon so literally a gun scope again? Is there a gun hidden in the design somewhere? Like, that black chonky part of the shoulder-cannon/turret looks like it does something more than we're seeing.
That's always been a problem with modern G1 Megatron designs. His G1 robot mode has a lot of bits that are clearly Walther P-38 parts. His legs are clearly halves of a grip, his fusion cannon is clearly the scope from the Man from UNCLE add-ons. He's got the barrel just hanging off his back. His shoulders are the halves of the hammer. Even his chest, which a lot of people default to being a generic blocky robot chest, is a P-38 cylinder.

Modern designers kind of struggle with this because they want new G1 Megatron toys that capture his character model as close as possible, but he also has to turn into a tank now. The result, be it CW or Siege or ER or SS '86, is a robot made of gun parts that turns into a tank.
And it has actually been compromising. ER had that awkward shield/sword/tank turret thing because the designers were committed to keeping the shape of the of the Walther P-38 firing hammers on his shoulders, and so the Abrams tank bits had to be a hollow overlay.
SS '86 manages it the best, but even then the tank mode suffers by having chunks of non-descript blockiness rather than parts that actually look like a tank because muh G1 gunmans. And he accomplishes a lot of his impressive stuff by folding the tank bits like the treads away in robot mode... which is... whatever. I like my Transformers to look like they're made of their alt mode, not like they have to fold the obvious bits away in shame.

Of all of these attempts I actually prefer Kingdom Core Megatron. They didn't have the space or budget to try and work in G1 accurate gun hammer shoulders so they just used the tank bits as his shoulders even if it wasn't G1 accurate, and the result was a tank Megatron who actually felt like he was made out of tank parts.

And it's why I dig this new MPG Megatron. Sure the fusion cannon still looks like a Walther P-38 Man from UNCLE edition scope but overall this design is far more committed to being a robot who is made up of tank parts, and I appreciate that.

More seriously, that mold is making me wonder just... why? There's already a tank Megs out now that turns into a much more G1 robot mode.
The new MPG moulds seem more committed to being toyetic than accurate. MPG Optimus was loaded out with accessories taken from Bay Prime and Siege Prime of all things. The MPG train dudes were designed with help from Takara Tomy's model train division so they'd be accurate to those types of toys and models in alt modes.
So my guess is they wanted a new mould that would stylistically match MPG Optimus, and wanted to make it as toyetic as possible and settled on the G2 design. They could go ham with the tank weapon features and it would give them easy G2 and BWII repaints down the line.

There's also the thing that, again, MPs seem to be willing to borrow from Generations more and more these days. We have a G2 Megatron coming soon in Generations. Who's to say this isn't borrowing from that?
 

Jackpot

Neo-maxi zoom dweebie
Citizen
Becuase this is most likely a Pre-paint for a G2 Megatron or BW2 Megastorm
Surely. But then, why not commit to the bit and just make a really good G2 Megs? This feels like, I dunno, his awkward adolescent phase. Though maybe I'm being thrown by the deco - perhaps if the reveal were in G2 colors, it would've jelled more for me.

The new MPG moulds seem more committed to being toyetic than accurate. MPG Optimus was loaded out with accessories taken from Bay Prime and Siege Prime of all things. The MPG train dudes were designed with help from Takara Tomy's model train division so they'd be accurate to those types of toys and models in alt modes.
So my guess is they wanted a new mould that would stylistically match MPG Optimus, and wanted to make it as toyetic as possible and settled on the G2 design. They could go ham with the tank weapon features and it would give them easy G2 and BWII repaints down the line.
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "toyetic". I don't think I've ever seen that term applied to an actual toy, but rather to drawn renditions. I agree that MPG's top priority isn't screen/page-accuracy, if that's what you mean. Like, the highest priority is looking cool as a figure unto itself, not looking like a drawing come to life. On those terms, MPG Megs at least does seem like he has a better tank mode than SS86 (hilarious scope notwithstanding), though not with real-world fidelity like the Trainbots. And I still really wonder if that shoulder-cannon block does something else.

As for stylistically matching MPG OP, well, that to me looks like a very G1 OP with some optional non-G1 features around the edges. MPG Megs doesn't have as clear a focus. Is he a G1 Megs with G2 enhancements, or vice versa? Or is he primarily a tank with whatever Megatron-y robot parts best support that? All of those goals seem kind of compromised. Maybe part of the issue here is that OP's incarnations haven't had as wide a variety of designs and colors as Megatron's. It's hard to design an OP that doesn't end up being essentially G1; designers could incorporate a whole array of non-G1 features and the result would still blend in with the classics. Megs, not so much. So trying to design a "best of multiple worlds" version of him is more likely to come out an obvious mishmash.

Physics and budget aside, I think a more conceptually satisfying version of this would go just a little further into G1 territory in two ways: having a chest that folds in on itself for the classic breastplate look, and having a shoulder-cannon that swings up and drops down his back, leaving only the barrel poking up over his shoulder. That really would be the best of both worlds, where he could be configured either way per the owner's taste. How the limb and ab/pelvis details end up, I wouldn't care as much about.

(And then he has G2 color-change paint, where getting him wet turns him from grey to camo! GET ON IT, HASTAK)
 
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lastmaximal

Administrator
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Surely. But then, why not commit to the bit and just make a really good G2 Megs? This feels like, I dunno, his awkward adolescent phase. Though maybe I'm being thrown by the deco - perhaps if the reveal were in G2 colors, it would've jelled more for me.
It probably is just that. Look at this way: they just got the eventual "more Geewun" redeco/retool with new accessories out of the way first. In most cases this might have just landed in purple or green (or yellow or blue, heh) and there'd no need for "but why a boobie tank when you have a Geewun tank", and once they did eventually get around to the G1 colors we'd just shrug.

so the takaratomy release of the kiss players cassettes come with acrylic standees of the kiss players themselves and unfortunately, due to woke, oshima was FORCED to draw them actually looking like adults

View attachment 39087

I hope these (and the smaller acrylic things with Op/Rod/Rooper that were on display with the cassettes are reasonably available. I want that Shaoshao on principle.
 

LBD "Nytetrayn"

Broke the Matrix
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
I mean, I don't see what the big deal is, Skybound already figured this out for everybody...

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...his tank treads kinda look like a Johnny 5 face with droopy eyelids that's doing the talking.
 

unluckiness

Somehow still sane
Citizen
The bison looks like a Steeljaw or Ramhorn retool. Make a new sprue with a new head and weapons and that’s it. You can even retool Ravage into the sabertooth tiger with a new head and weapons and pit it on the same sprue. Package it with a Magnificus retool of Perceptor because Hasbro loves packaging cassettes with microscopes for some reason.
 
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