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How do you feel about paying $40 extra for MP Optimus Trailer?


Shadowpanther

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The overuse of metal was one of the worst elements of 20th Prime, actually. It made him so heavy he couldn't support his own weight to hold a pose, and the metal had chipped paint basically right out of the box. If the DVD edition rerelease (or any of Takara's 50 reuses of the mold) had been all-plastic, the original 20th Prime would have been in the garbage where it belonged. Once the new MP Prime comes out it might still be.

 

*ahem*

convoy_stances.jpg

^none of these poses have any support assistance, including the fourth one where he's standing on one leg. ;)

 

Also, over 400 photos here:

 

:) I find the original MP Convoy to be able to hold multiple poses on his own just fine. :)

 

I had a chance to see MP10 IRL yesterday. It's a very nice figure - the colours on the TakTOM version is very nice (although there is some flat grey on some parts of the inside trailer and Combat Deck claw-arm and radar), but it's smaller and completely plastic. And it's more expensive than MP04 which retailed at Target for approx. $80 less (and that's not even factoring in postage cost for MP10).

 

Yes, 20th Prime can do poses, but can it hold them for display over long periods? In my experience, it can't.

 

MP10's size is an improvement, IMO. I've always felt that 20th Prime was simply too darn big - he can't be used with virtually any of my collection without looking ridiculous. There are pictures of him wrestling Unicron, for Primus' sake! MP10 might actually be compatible with Classics. And all-plastic is a vast improvement to me. I'll wager MP10 won't have chipped paint right out of the box.

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Yes, 20th Prime can do poses, but can it hold them for display over long periods? In my experience, it can't.

Yeah, fair point. I certainly wouldn't leave him free standing for an indefinite period of time. ;)

 

MP10's size is an improvement, IMO. I've always felt that 20th Prime was simply too darn big - he can't be used with virtually any of my collection without looking ridiculous. There are pictures of him wrestling Unicron, for Primus' sake! MP10 might actually be compatible with Classics. And all-plastic is a vast improvement to me. I'll wager MP10 won't have chipped paint right out of the box.

Alright, but consider the following:

 

(1) Context of time

MP01 is a 2003/04 toy, MP10 is 2012. Naturally one would expect MP10 to be an improvement considering that it's come 8-9 years later. But in the context of 2004, I think MP01 is a darn fine toy. I don't know about you, but when I first got MP01 in Jan/Feb 2004, I was absolutely thrilled. It's like looking at 1984 G1 Optimus Prime... by today's standards it may be limited, but in 1984 that was a bloody awesome toy! :D And maybe in a few years something else will come along that'll blow MP10 out of the water, but for now, MP10 is a well designed toy from what I've seen.

 

(2) Price

MP01 retailed for 10290JPY ($132)

MP04 retailed for 18900JPY ($242) and sold as a Target exclusive for $250 IIRC.

MP10 retails for 23100JPY ($295 )

So you might say that MP10 is a better toy than MP01/04, but it's also a substantially more expensive toy too. The most expensive Masterpiece toy to date. And while the looks to be really well made with some nice colours and tighter looking truck mode; considering that it is a significantly smaller toy, has no die-cast metal and the trailer suffers from some bland flat-grey (which MP04's trailer doesn't have)... one might question its value for money. Yes, MP10 does have various features that MP01/04 lacks, like flip out wing mirrors, Spike, Roller etc., but MP01/04 have features that MP10 doesn't have such as the pistons and lack of bland flat-grey parts on the trailer (granted that the flat-grey on MP10's trailer is minimal, but noticeable). I didn't get to play around with MP10 much... does it have working suspension on the ankles and wheels? What about LED for the chest-matrix?

 

I'm not denying that MP10 is a nice toy and has some elements which are superior to MP01... but it is an 8-9 year newer toy and at 2.25x the price of MP01! (or $50-60 more than MP04) -- that's a substantial price difference. And that's why I skipped MP10. But hey... Hasbro's version of MP10 is great news. Sure the flat grey on the trailer looks terrible, but at $150, I'm content. It's only $18 more than what I paid for MP01. :)

 

(btw, my MP01 was never scratched when I took him out of the box; if it were, I would've demanded an exchange... although it did come with one missing panel, but Takara quickly sent me a replacement part :))

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Alright, but consider the following:

 

(1) Context of time

MP01 is a 2003/04 toy, MP10 is 2012. Naturally one would expect MP10 to be an improvement considering that it's come 8-9 years later. But in the context of 2004, I think MP01 is a darn fine toy. I don't know about you, but when I first got MP01 in Jan/Feb 2004, I was absolutely thrilled. It's like looking at 1984 G1 Optimus Prime... by today's standards it may be limited, but in 1984 that was a bloody awesome toy! :D And maybe in a few years something else will come along that'll blow MP10 out of the water, but for now, MP10 is a well designed toy from what I've seen.

 

I thought 20th Prime was great . . . for about 4 hours. Then I saw the first chips in the paint. Since then, he's been #1 on my vastly overrated list. A $60 toy should not have chipped paint in less than a day!

 

(2) Price

MP01 retailed for 10290JPY ($132)

MP04 retailed for 18900JPY ($242) and sold as a Target exclusive for $250 IIRC.

MP10 retails for 23100JPY ($295 )

So you might say that MP10 is a better toy than MP01/04, but it's also a substantially more expensive toy too. The most expensive Masterpiece toy to date. And while the looks to be really well made with some nice colours and tighter looking truck mode; considering that it is a significantly smaller toy, has no die-cast metal and the trailer suffers from some bland flat-grey (which MP04's trailer doesn't have)... one might question its value for money. Yes, MP10 does have various features that MP01/04 lacks, like flip out wing mirrors, Spike, Roller etc., but MP01/04 have features that MP10 doesn't have such as the pistons and lack of bland flat-grey parts on the trailer (granted that the flat-grey on MP10's trailer is minimal, but noticeable). I didn't get to play around with MP10 much... does it have working suspension on the ankles and wheels? What about LED for the chest-matrix?

 

It's a smaller figure, true, but it does a lot more. MP 10 has the trailer, Roller & Spike. 20th Prime's features I was completely underwhelmed by. Flip-out comm panels? Working suspension? The time spent on those features should have been spent making the truck mode look decent. The light up Matrix was ok, but still not thrilling. I've said in the past that Classics Prime was better than 20th Prime because it was a better $20 toy than 20th was a $60 one. Well, the same holds true here. MP10 looks like a better $100 Prime than 20th Anni Prime was a $60 one. Of course, considering the recent price hike on TFs, if MP10 had been released in 2004, it might have been $60.

 

And the lack of diecast metal makes it more worth the price to me, not less. I'm not a fan of the stuff in TFs.

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I thought 20th Prime was great . . . for about 4 hours. Then I saw the first chips in the paint. Since then, he's been #1 on my vastly overrated list. A $60 toy should not have chipped paint in less than a day!

Maybe there was a drop in quality in 20th Prime compared to MP01 Convoy. My MP01 Convoy had no chipping when I took it out... it only has a few chips on it, but that's from play wear (yes, I do like to take my toys out and play with them - including outdoors :)). It certainly didn't chip for no good reason. I don't own 20th Prime, but I've seen it IRL plenty of times and the paint apps don't look as well done as on MP01. <shrugs> Anyway... all I can say is that my MP01 never had spontaneous chipping issues.

 

It's a smaller figure, true, but it does a lot more. MP 10 has the trailer, Roller & Spike. 20th Prime's features I was completely underwhelmed by. Flip-out comm panels? Working suspension? The time spent on those features should have been spent making the truck mode look decent. The light up Matrix was ok, but still not thrilling. I've said in the past that Classics Prime was better than 20th Prime because it was a better $20 toy than 20th was a $60 one. Well, the same holds true here. MP10 looks like a better $100 Prime than 20th Anni Prime was a $60 one. Of course, considering the recent price hike on TFs, if MP10 had been released in 2004, it might have been $60.

The price hike seems in-proportionate. I don't know about overseas prices, but here we had (if memory serves me right)...

+ 2004 Basics retailed for $12, current Scouts retail for $15.

+ 2004 Combats retailed for $25-30, current Deluxes retail for the same.

+ 2004 Megas retailed for $40-45, current Voyagers retail for $45-50

+ 2004 Leaders retailed for $90-100, current Leaders retail for $100

 

MP RRPs are really sporadic here... 20th Prime and MP Ultra Magnus sold here for about $80, MP04 retailed for $250-300, MP Starscream sold for $100, MP Grimlock for $150, MP Ghost Stascream for $250 (such a stupid price, even now that TRU has reduced it to $99 it's still shelfwarming!) and MP Rodimus for $80. So $142 is an average price of a MP for us -- putting MP10's RRP of $295 (before postage) _well_ above that average. Like I said, I'm not saying that MP10 isn't a very nice toy... but it's certainly isn't cheap!

 

And the lack of diecast metal makes it more worth the price to me, not less. I'm not a fan of the stuff in TFs.

I'm not saying that die-cast is better or worse than plastic... but the fact is that die cast metal is a more expensive material than plastic. That's why HasTak phased it out in 1986 (which is why we have several metal vs plastic variants from that year (e.g. Hot Rod's toes, Kup's feet/rear wheels, Hot Spot's chest plate, the Predacons, Onslaught's chest etc.). MP10's plastic looks and feels perfectly fine to me; but when comparing the prices between MP01/04 with MP10, I was taking into account the fact that MP01/04 have more expensive die-cast metal parts. You might dislike metal parts, that's fine... but it is more costly. Plastic is cheaper, yet MP10 is more expensive.

 

So with MP10 we're looking at a smaller toy with cheaper parts. Now there's NOTHING wrong with a toy being smaller and made from plastic... in fact, often some of the best Transformers have been smaller. Just compared Legends ROTF Devastator with Combiner Class Devastator. The former is a damn awesome set of toys for their size and price point, whereas the latter is a hunk of overpriced rubbish. The thing I'm saying about MP10 is its 23100JPY ($295) retail price. Let me put it this way... the only toy I've ever paid about $300 for was Car Robot Brave Maximus. But of course, it's Brave Maximus - a repaint of the biggest and heaviest Transformer toy ever made! MP10's RRP rivals that... and it's small and light weight! I'm not saying that MP10 is a bad toy -- I think it looks like a really nice toy. But I just feel that it's an overpriced toy. JMHO. :) "Value" is a subjective notion... at the end of the day, if _you_ feel that MP10 is worth every cent you paid for it, then good for you. But it's not what I would personally be willing to pay for a toy like that. I'll wait for the cheaper Hasbro version thankyouverymuch. :) (that and I'm a massive tight arse ;))

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i just took 14 pictures of all the different trailers i have on display but i'm not going to begin spamming the shit out of this thread.

Just do it!

 

 

Please?

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