MP-12: Sideswipe

[legios]

Mar 14, 2012 19:29:04 GMT Toph said:

Except it's highly doubtful that it will be. The likeness rights work differently for military vehicles, and so far Starscream has been the only thing that would have likeness rights issues.

And he would likely have been covered under the terms of the license that they had as a result of the live action movie line I suspect.

It is a fair observation though that he is the only one that would have needed a license so far - Prime was so modified from his original appearance that he no longer resembled a particular truck type after all.

If they do have a Countach license lined up then rather than do a straight repaint I would rather see them do a remould to add a lightbar to it for a second release version - that gives us Red Alert and can be repainted to give that police livery version that was done by E-Hobby a while back.

Karl

[Dezzeh]

If this is a Countach, it is bought, end of. My wallet is SO empty this year.

[kayevcee]

All right Jetty, you raise a fair point but I stand by my prediction. I'll bet you $1.57 it turns out to be a licensed Countach

-Nick

[Toph]

I'd make a bet with you, but I'm the kind of person who has *such* rotten luck, I could bet that the sun will rise tomorrow, and in the middle of the night it'll go nova, just to spite me. >_<

[Shockprowl]

Mar 14, 2012 19:04:08 GMT The Doctor said:

Where the fuck is my Masterpiece Birdbrain?

-Ralph

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!

[Shockprowl]

Mar 13, 2012 19:23:41 GMT Toph said:

I haven't bothered to read opinions on other boards about this, but if you guys are right about the complaints then I'm genuinely shocked. Sideswipe has always been uber popular, which I found stange since he never did anything, ever. His only notable features are being Sunstreaker's generic brother, and being the mascot for G2. He had no personality, toy wise, cartoon wise, or comic wise.
But dispite all that, he has always been one of the most popular TFs in the franchise. So if these same peopel are now bashing him being an MP? I don't understand anything, anymore. >_<

Personally, I feel Jazz is more deserving. Prowl, too. Hell, Prowl is the autobot equivalent of Starscream, with tons of repaint possibilities.
But, I always did like Sideswipe's design (Which is one reason his alternator was so dissapointing). And the way I look at it, at least it's not another Strike Plane or Optimus.
Optimus has two molds. Starscream has two molds (And a dozen repaints). They could have milked those two out even further. So hey. This is more interesting to me than Rodimus.

Mar 13, 2012 13:35:09 GMT Bogatan said:

For Taktom, its a bit different but for Hasbro its not too different from Rodimus. Just another masterpiece sports car. I imagine if they are going for any kind of scale across the line that hes a head or two shorter than Prime and Rodimus. Hopefully with a realistic, if non specific car mode and a cartoon accurate robot mode.

It sort of makes sense as a smaller masterpiece figure (with possibly a lower selling price) with lots of repaint potential if Hasbro have to be able to release it as well as Taktom to justify the production cost.

They had that already... they were called "Alternators," lol.

Yes, yes, I realize the difference in what you're talking about. I had to make the joke though. But aside from model accurate vehicle modes, that really is what the Alternators were ment to be. Small MPs. (In fact, they were ment to work with MP Prime, I believe, given they were all in the same basic scale).

Yes, Alternators, for all their faults, worked perfectly with MP Optimus and Megatron. I love my Alts, baby!


(oh, CJ, don't say 'Seekers', they go nuts on here if you say it! They prefer Strike Jets, or something like that. I said Seeker once. Whole worlda hurt, oh mama, I couldn't sit down for a week! I know you've said it once, but so far I think you've got away with it. What you don't want is someone drawing attention to it...)

[primenova]

I'm sure Hasbro are going to repaint him yellow for Sunstreaker - but they might even go & have the engine on the rear to transform into a gun. So they might try to make the toy different so people buy it. Or a gun & head piece seeing Sunstreaker has a wider head.

[Toph]

And on topic, I still don't think Takara will make a Sunstreaker repaint. Their whole point with the MP line is accuracy to the cartoon and toys. And Sunstreaker shares absolutely nothing in common with Sideswipe, aside from coming from the same carmaker. Their designs are completely 100% different.
If they're so dedicated as to make Grimlock a bafoon, and a fictional T-Rex that walked straight out of the fifties and dress him in an apron because he wore one for 3 minutes in an obscure season three episode, instead of giving him a proper updated alt mode, then I doubt they're going to stray so far off target by making Sunstreaker a Sideswipe repaint.
I mean, the original Starscream mold was very G1, and they decided it wasn't G1 enough and made another more G1 version, after all.

[blueshift]

Mar 16, 2012 21:18:25 GMT Toph said:

And on topic, I still don't think Takara will make a Sunstreaker repaint. Their whole point with the MP line is accuracy to the cartoon and toys.

To be fair, the MP Seeker mold wasn't particularly accurate to either.

No, I think you'll find the whole point of the MP line is to churn out a million repaints of every mold. I would be shocked if the Sideswipe mold doesn't have an alternate Sunstreaker transformation / parts which can be swapped out with other molded parts to make an easy Sunstreaker.

[Toph]

If they do that, Sunstreaker wouldn't be even remotely accurate. Such a trick is great for a $10 deluxe. But it doesn't fit with what they've done so far with the MP line.
Not that there's precedence for this one way or the other, since this is entirely new ground.

Either way, it doesn't matter if the character/toy has repaint potential or not. They'll still milk it by making mild paint changes.
Optimus Prime has all of one choice... Ultra Magnus. And they still milked a dozen versions of Optimus out of the first mold.
Grimlock has had three, without even touching the obvious G2 repaint. Rodimus has already had four releases, and only one of those being a repaint.
Pretty convenced the only reason they haven't touched Megatron again is the lunecy behind making a transforming gun in this day and age, and the difficulty in selling it. Had they made him G2, or an abrahms tank with a G1 robot mode, bet anything we'd have seen a half dozen releases by now.
So either way, combining or seperating them isn't going to effect how much they can and will milk the mold for.

Also an important point here, though I admit I could be wrong about this, but I believe that there is no relationship between Sideswipe and Sunstreaker in japanese G1 fiction. Over there, I believe it was Sideswipe and Red Alert who were considered to be brothers.
That's what I've always heard, at least. And since the wiki acknowledges english fiction over japanese when the two bump heads, not sure if it'd mention such a minor fact.

EDIT, from the wiki:

According to a story page in the October 1985 issue of TV Magazine, Sideswipe and Red Alert are brothers, with Sideswipe being slightly older than Red Alert. This connection may have been invented because, aside from Sideswipe and Red Alert sharing the same mold, Sunstreaker was not sold on the Japanese market outside of a special "versus" set with Skids and Buzzsaw. However, the familial dynamic between Sideswipe and Sunstreaker was not changed in the Japanese dub of the original Transformers cartoon, leading some Japanese fans to consider the three Lamborghini characters as triplets.

Seems I was correct about Red Alert, but wrong about Sunstreaker. Either way, he doesn't seem to be as important to them as he is to westerners.
It's a hard call. We'll just have to wait and see.

[primenova]

The only thing that is slightly similar for Sideswipe/Sunstreaker is both cars are slightly flat nosed at the front.

[blueshift]

Mar 16, 2012 23:52:46 GMT Toph said:

Such a trick is great for a $10 deluxe. But it doesn't fit with what they've done so far with the MP line.

Ultra Magnus would disagree!

I am sure that if there is a way, they will find a way to make the toy look both like Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Mayhaps it will involve a great deal of retooling, but it would be retooling planned for in the original design. I would put money on it, it's a bit of a no-brainer really.

[Toph]

Mar 17, 2012 0:29:27 GMT blueshift said:

Ultra Magnus would disagree!

I don't see how? I already mentioned Ultra Magnus as being the only repaintable character from Optimus.

He was a repaint of Optimus from the very start. Nothing unique about it.

Sunstreaker though had never once been portrayed in any fiction as being a repaint/remold of Sideswipe, until the OTFCC toys (Which case neither looked anything like either).

Given the fact that the two are rarely portrayed together in cartoon fiction, and the writers never made a big deal about their sibling relationship (Unlike the Car Robot brothers for example), combined with the fact that they visually share nothing in common, having dramatically different transformation schemes, I disagree that it's as much a "no-brainer" as you say.

After all, Sunstreaker and Cliffjumper visually and engineering wise share more in common with one another than Streaker and Sideswipe. Streaker is basically a slightly more complicated version of Jumper/Bee.

[Philip Ayres]

Mar 17, 2012 11:34:46 GMT The Huff said:

It wouldn't suprise me if MP Sideswipe does become a Sunstreaker but I still wouldn't like it.
Actually, if you think about the original mix-up of their tech specs you could argue that Sunstreaker is actually a yellow Sideswipe & vice versa.

Oh yeah, huge cock up on Hasbro's part there, supported by the original colours for the Diaclone Super Tuning Countach being red.

Come to think of it the Ironhide name makes more sense if he was black like his Diaclone version

[Toph]

Well, MP Sideswipe appears to be slightly larger than a deluxe, but not large enough to be a voyager.
It appears he will cost approximately $130 USD.
And it also appears that he will *not* be reused as Sunstreaker, Universe style.

This is the first MP that has absolutely zero appeal to me. There is no way it's worth what they're charging for it. For something that the Universe/Henkei toy already does.

[Stomski]

Y U mad, bro?

[primenova]

They could [apart from doing Redalert] do the RID Prowl repaint.

[Jim]

The Universe Sideswipe mould does not work at all for me - it doesn't really evoke the proportions of the classic (great, IMO) G1 toy at all. And the legs just look weird. (that said, I really like it as G2 Redux Breakdown).

This one looks more like it. It's the right alt-mode and right proportions and will stand well next to MP-10. $130 is too steep, but BBTS are anticipating it coming down, and it will probably be more reasonably priced (to UK buyers, at least) through places like HLJ.

And even if it turns out to not be so great once we see it properly in action and in full colour, or just too expensive, I'm still quite happy with my TFC reissue of the original toy. That one's a keeper.

[primenova]

Looking at the new images of the toy from front & back. Where does the rear top part of the car go in robot mode? just in front of the spoiler. We see that the spolier is the rear foot. You can't tell if there is a line up the middle as does look solid. But it must spilt apart then fold over.

[Toph]

May 24, 2012 8:50:18 GMT Stomski said:

Y U mad, bro?

I dunno, because I'm not?
Why would I be mad over a toy that has no meaning to me? It's not like they ruined a dinosaur. ~_^

[Shockprowl]

May 24, 2012 8:57:50 GMT primenova said:

They could [apart from doing Redalert] do the RID Prowl repaint.

YYYEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!

THIS MUST BE DONE!!!! I DEMAND IT!!!!!

[Toph]

Now *that* I would buy. Use the Supermode colors to make it different from Red Alert.

[Benn]

If they do G2 colours I will not be able to resist.

[glaug]

This is the least exciting MP for me so far really. Besides Red Alert. Only because I love my Binaltech toys so much though.

[Shockprowl]

I love Binaltech too! And MP Sideswipe does nothing for me either. Roll on Soundwave!!!

[Philip Ayres]

Whereas Sideswipe rocks my world to the point of wanting to buy it

[Deleted]

First pictures of MP-12

I think I'll wait for the cheaper Hasbro version (if there is one) myself.

Also, MP-14 is Red Alert and not 12A as some online stores originally stated. Is it safe to assume that MP-15 may turn out to be Soundblaster...?

[Benn]

Dammit. The colours just sold me.

[blueshift]

I dunno, a few years ago something like this would have blown my mind and been an instant buy. Nowadays a bit of added articulation doesn't do it for me, I think this is just TOO faithful to 'original toy but better articulated' that I can see.

Soundwave looks nice though! Have we seen his altmode yet, I bet it's a mess!

[Jim]

Well, thatÅ› definitely Sideswipe. I much prefer it to the Universe toy, but must admit itÅ› not terribly exciting. Maybe Red Alert will look a bit more interesting.

The HLJ pre-order went up yesterday, too.