Ok, so what I'm thinking is this: all the hardcore collectors seem to hate Ultimate Bumblebee as it's [apparently, despite it's ludicrously complex transformation - in fact, what child today could manage/have the patience to transform anything beyond the FastAction Battlers or deluxe figures, especially with instructions that often aren't worth the paper they're printed on - but I digress...] aimed at the younger end of the collecting spectrum.

Therefore, would there be a market for TakaraTomy produced movie Masterpiece figures - less gimmicky, more accurate and at the usual £50 price point? Discuss.

The more effort goes in to a figure, the more people will whine about it. Especially if Takaratomy makes the figure.

No. It'd be a bad idea since not everyone in the movie is worthy of an MP figure. In fact, it'd be too difficult to do the movie designs in MP style. Most of them have hands that convert to weapons, and some of those weapons would be too hard to do right. Besides, most people wouldn't be able to afford that.

The cars in the movie could use the BT/Alternator treatment, but anything beyond that seems to difficult. It would be hell to design a Masterpiece Megatron.

Considering the existing MP line are already expensive as they already are, making the movie MP line maybe too much of a risk. The movie figures are a new breed and the existing MP are the original G1 cats like us. A hundred dollar a pop for the MP line is not everyone's price range. The UBB is pricy as it is and i think it's considered an MP for the movie line. I hope they release other Ultimate characters from the movie. That should be interesting to see.

Megatron has the simplest design of any of the movie bots, actually.

Which makes him an excellent candidate.

How so? If that were the case, I'd still have the Leader class toy that ended up returning.

I second the motion.

TF 30th anniversary will be movie prime, count on it.

I would absolutely LOVE a Masterpiece Movie Prime. I think for the next anniversary, they should break one of those out. If it were made with the perfection of Original Prime, I would worship Takara.

Besides thinking movie Masterpiece Prime, Bumblebee (the '76 one...) and Ratchet would be awesome, I think they should do an Ultimate Barricade to go with Ultimate Bumblebee. He can be a complete contrast and headbang to Disturbed and The Used songs from the film.

Any takers?

i d love a masterpiece movie brawl..... already love the leader class

If they ended up "Masterpiecing" and of the movie toys, it'd be Prime first, and then BB.

We need:
$30:
alt Bumble Bee 76 camaro
alt Bumble Bee concept camaro
alt Jazz
alt Baricade

$45:
Super alt Rachet
Super alt Iron Hide (could be almost the same as deluxe but bigger and with rubber wheels)

$100
MP Prime
MP Megs
MP SS
MP Brawl
MP Bone Crusher
MP Blackout

$25 THS class frenzy
Current scorpnok is probbly fine, but I'd love to see one even nicer with some diecast at $25

I would buy at least doubles of all of these!!! I think that these would be as viable as any of the current Japanese lines.

Maybe if they had them all ready to go, in limited runs (could charge more) a week after the movie opened.

Now, only the most popular could demand those prices. Plus on top of that, most collectors don't really want a bunch of HUGE figures. The size alone would stop me from buying 6 MP class figures.

They could profitably do MP sized Prime and Megs, and LC sized BB (08), and EITHER Barricade, OR Starscream.

Personally I want a MP Movie Frenzy!! That actually play CD's and tranforms to be about 1/2- 1/3 life size. I dont think we could have the MAIN movie bots be MP for another five maybe ten years (or at least till the movie hits its 5th anniversary.)

Wouldn't a MP compete against this lovely $80 monster!

My question is: how long is the leap between leader Prime and MP-04?

Make it as tall as MP-04 and you'll have enough room to work with to get hands and feet to transforms into working toasters if you want. I'll even throw in a detailed interior with leather seats and a working stereo for crying out loud!

Not to mention a decent paint job and perhaps metal rims and front grill.

Seriously though, we are seeing an awful lot of crap made of cheap plastic not even worth the packages they are wrapped into, except for Leader Prime. Even Megatron could use some serious work (what's with the head sticking out in aircraft mode???), and i don't see many complaining about that! Actually the majority seems to worship these cheap ass Happy Meal gizmos! Probably because they have been wowed by a few kitbashers taking the trouble to repaint them nice enough to pass them for decent... but where are those repaints? Definitely not in stores! So the rest of us is stuck with cheap grey plastic and crammy looks. How about IronHide huh? What's with those huge "things" attached to the bottom?? that thing is supposed to be a 4x4 pickup truck and there is not even room for the shocks to go down! I'd like to see that running on a beach and not getting stuck in the sand...

I'm not saying they should all be super realistic, but this is ridiculous! How much does it cost to use rubber wheels and a tiny bit of metallic paint?

Bah... what's the point... i guess i had to vent it out one last time.

I think there's a HUGE difference between making a "Masterpiece" version of a cartoon design and making an even semi-convincing scale replica of one of the movie designs. 20th Prime really wasn't that big of a deal because you had a box with legs that turned into a boxy robot with longer legs. I mean, Softimus Prime had the same basic transformation. But if you're really going to make a serious reproduction of the movie bots -- any of them -- that's going to be a huge huge undertaking. Hell, try making a 1:1 scale transforming movie Optimus. It couldn't be done.

And BTW "Masterpiece" figures are meant to be commemorative... let's see how enduring the appeal of the TF movie proves to be over the long term before we start talking about MP versions.