- Dorian MacQuarrie
You are never going to finish your collection. Or at least, Takara will do their darndest to prevent it.
Okay, maybe that should be "you are never going to be finished with collecting"?
With the recent talk (legitimate or otherwise) of a 35th Anniversary Optimus Prime on the horizon, aka MP Optimus Prime 3.0, Takara have once again moved the goal posts. Just when you felt your collection was headed towards completion, they've rebooted things and given us a new aesthetic to buy into. I think it was inevitable we would eventually see a more cartoon styled MP Prime to go along with their wonderful Megatron and other such cartoon focused releases. Some are expecting this to be a complete relaunch of the Masterpiece line and honestly, I wouldn't mind. Seeing the recent reveal of MP Prowl with animation accurate bright blue windows did cause me to vomit a little; a styles clash if there ever was one. But a brand new, cartoon accurate Prowl on the other hand? I'd be keen on that. In my Sunstreaker review I floated the idea of Takara releasing a new Sideswipe to better match his golden brother. This is something I think we will definitely see in the coming years as Takara try to change the direction of their product to keep us digging into our wallets to buy more and more toy robots.
Be it the pressures of business or an insidious plan to keep collectors on tenterhooks, rarely does a line reach full completion. Rarely do we have the entire cast of a show or every iteration of a toy we were hoping to buy, and even with something as grand as Takara's Masterpiece line, it was always going to be the same. Once the heavy hitters are released it's time to move on to another project and release those same big name characters in ever new and updated versions. Call it the fetishisation of Generation 1 and the seeming inability for companies and collectors alike to explore new and different ideas or just call it good business sense, one way or the other, you're never going to have that complete collection of Masterpiece styled bots. Of course in this instance "complete" depends on your personal definition. Complete might mean a certain core cast or sub-group of Transformers and not necessarily every single release or member of a team. But for those who seek to have a complete Season 1-2 cast of G1 Transformers, your time is running out and it might be Takara who decide when things change. I'm sure this will leave a large enough gap for a multitude of Third Party companies to step in and complete those missing figures but regardless of how much noise a group of collectors make, I doubt it would still be financially viable once a new Masterpiece styled line is fully underway, building off the back of seminal releases such as Inferno, Sunstreaker or the aforementioned Megatron.
We have of course seen this before. As new lines roll out, new aesthetics take over and lines can remain incomplete. Generation 1 gave way to Beast Wars, which in turn gave way to Car Robots/RiD and so on and so forth. It's easier to accept when it's off the back of a cartoon. It feels more self contained and expected. Look to the Generations line though and see how with every iteration of that particular line, Classics, Universe 2.0 and Generations itself, the goal posts were ever changing and from one wave to the next we started to drift away from aesthetics laid down in the early waves. Again, this was probably easier to accept as a Generations shelf can accommodate a varying degree of different aesthetics and toy lines given the nature of the Transformers brand and the world it presents.
Masterpiece on the other hand, the seemingly iconic representations of these characters? When that changes, it's more difficult to accept. I have written time and again about the diverging aesthetics of the line. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker encapsulate this perfectly and never was there a bigger red flag (or yellow in this case) that the line was going to change, restart, reboot, call it what you want, but the goal posts would be moved. Takara will usher in a whole new set of cartoon accurate MP toys and not just current moulds with ghastly blue windows but brand new versions of Sideswipe, Prowl, Starscream etc. It's bound to happen. It must happen. It's not in Takara's interest to allow us as collectors to finish up and complete a line. Sure, plenty of us will just find something else to collect but that might be a product from a different company altogether. Takara have captured the adult collector market as never before but with no other core product in their repertoire to keep those same adult collectors engaged, they'll just need to start all over again but in a new and interesting way.
And on that grim note, keep it #Refined
Follow Dorian on Twitter @Vigadeath
- Ben Watson
The Last Knight hits theatres this week and whether you've booked your tickets and are eagerly awaiting it or not, one thing seems to ring true among fans this time around: Megatron's new design is pretty damn slick. Honestly, I didn't echo this sentiment at first. He looks like a LOTR baddie or a Dark Souls boss more than a Transformer but the figure looked to be something well worth getting my hands on and certainly worth getting behind a lens.
A Leader version also exists which furnishes the inexplicably reborn Decepticon leader with his new tusky faceplate and some flame effect parts along with a generally sleeker alt mode but I much prefer my leaders to not be Leaders. Voyager is enough size for me - and enough expense; because the very first thing to mention about any TLK toys is sadly the price. Every size class now costs roughly what the one above it used to. I.e. Deluxes are now Voyager money. But thankfully Voyagers don't feel as ludicrously overpriced. I've been paying roughly £30 for them for years through online dealerships so it's not much skin off my nose but I can well see how it might be for most. Good thing then, that Megatron delivers and for the first figure of a new movie design, that's no small feat.
Starting in robot mode as everything does these days, Megatron is a very decent action figure before any conversion comes into it. Every joint is afforded a wide range of motion while actually for the most part being exceptionally tight. The current standard suite of articulation for Generations style figures is present, so sadly no wrists or waist swivel but this is more than made up for with a double ball jointed neck and ankle tilts that go as deep as you could ever possibly want them to. For once this point of articulation is a transformation joint - clever. All of this allows you to make the most of Megatron's imposing feudalistic form and imbues a great deal of character.
Gimmickry is clearly minimal in a line focused only on accurately portraying on-screen designs but (depending on what you count as gimmicks) Megatron isn't totally devoid of fun touches. Firstly he wields his big new axe-sword / sharp pendulum thing. I have no idea how the describe this top-heavy weapon but it looks weighty and destructive in his grip and feels like a perfectly brutal blade for him to counter Optimus' robo-Excalibur with. This can also be stored on his back but lies just out of reach for him to pose as if he's grabbing for it.
For the first time movie Megatron also wields his cannon mounted on his right arm. I hesitate to habitually drop the words "fusion cannon" because judging by trailers and the inferences of the Leader version it appears much more incendiary in nature. It sits on his arm in the right place and looks suitably alien - a little Gigeresque actually - and can fold up and retract to the underside of his arm. This motion is really for transformation but it can allow you to create the sense of him extending it for battle - a dynamic from the movies I've always enjoyed.
Perhaps the best touch of Megatron's robot mode however is his light piping. It feels like ages since this was a regular thing and while it's relatively difficult to get to glow, it works so well for Megatron's beady rage rubies. This also provides a very effective hint of colour against his mostly monochrome metallic bod. I can understand the feel they're trying to evoke with the layers of black armour but it does leave Megatron feeling particularly visually uninteresting without good lighting. At least the dull gold accents prevent the deco from being completely dim but there are also some not-so-easily seen silver washed sections to create a touch of depth.
Transformation is quite entertaining, especially considering the fact Megatron essentially goes from an entirely rounded robot to a purely flat-edged jet. Very little of either mode can be seen in the other and honestly it just leaves me feeling like each was made by a different concept team. Megatron appears to use magic to transform because while you can spot jet sections on the figure, the CG model just has nothing that goes any way to resembling vehicle kibble. This is a personal gripe of mine over the newer movie designs; at least before you could see roughly how they transformed and what into but now, pfft, no chance mate. All this aside, Megatron's new jet mode is certainly distinctive. Echoing some shapes of his 2007 alien form but appearing to be made out of earthen jet sections arranged in a sci-fi way, it almost feels like Megatron. Honestly I keep seeing Beast Machines Jetstorm in its suggestion of a face in the translucent cockpit... But good detail abounds to (for once) give you a sense of a Cybertronian mode that isn't just visual BS. I really hope we get a mildly good look at this mode in the film because if nothing else, it feels kinetic and I'd really like to know why those blue thrusters appear to be facing the wrong way...
All in all, Megatron delivers a really interesting new design that at least has some kind of character driven aesthetic. The layers of armour give a real sense of kineticism which is really the only objective of any movie design. To be able to imagine how the plates overlap and segment as the robot moves - possibly as they would on-screen - is a testament to this design. Of course whether this figure carries over the presence of Megatron as seen in the movie remains to be seen, especially when this is the first attempt at the design (remember how awkward that first AOE Optimus was) but something about it makes me feel confident that they've done a good job here. Even with the deeply weird jet mode.
The Last Knight aside, this is a very competent and very unique new rendition of the Emperor of Destruction and I'd heartily recommend it. I struggle to think of anything else in my collection that evokes quite the same sense of restrained malice - certainly not another Megatron figure. Time will tell how strongly this design is received compared to each of Megatron's previous incarnations as he does seem landed with the disadvantage of a new look in every appearance. Will he finally get a break and be allowed to seem as constantly iconic as Optimus? I'd like to be hopeful, but somehow I doubt it. Maybe he needs to be just a touch more #Refined...
Follow Ben on Twitter @Waspshot23
