A Closer Look at Takara's Transformers Prime Arms Micron AM-01 - AM-06

Not evident from the images, but the stickers are actually pretty damned bad looking on some figs. Especially cliff and ratchet. the silver on the knees are stickers, and so is the lights on his waist.

For ratchet, the whole grill is a sticker, with the red areas on his chest being a sticker too. This way, it actually has less paint apps then the Hasbro one!

Just for reference, here's a pic of the size of the sticker sheet of BB, and the Micron comes in the form of a Gundam-kit.

These...do not look very good.

I'll be surprised if Hasbro dont put these out somehow, another Universe style giftse would be ideal.

I'm loving that Skywarp too......

Stickers!?

STICKERS!?!?!

Don't get me wrong, I'm a faithful Reprolabels customer (I've got to waiting on each months update at this point, I always end up buying something), but STICKERS!?!?

I was looking at getting some of these over the Hasblo versions, based on the assumption that they would have more detailing and paint apps than the standard ones, but, I'm worried now!!!

Correct me of I'm wrong, but is Takara not releasing the Voyager Megatron along with OP? That still looks like the FEversion there (it's even 'standing on a box' fer gawdssake)

NaM3L3sS wrote:Correct me of I'm wrong, but is Takara not releasing the Voyager Megatron along with OP? That still looks like the FEversion there (it's even 'standing on a box' fer gawdssake)

You're absolutely correct: there is no spoon TalaraTomy Voyager Megatron

I'm really torn on these. I want the Microns, but could care less about the actual figures, and those stickers look terrible.

El Duque wrote:I'm really torn on these. I want the Microns, but could care less about the actual figures, and those stickers look terrible.

Not sure how it works out for you guys, but the import prices on a Takara Deluxe here are over twice the price of a UK retail one.

I just can't justify that for microns

El Duque wrote:I'm really torn on these. I want the Microns, but could care less about the actual figures, and those stickers look terrible.

Exactly. Oh well, the ones im actually interested in are ratchet and soundwave. Seems like i'll be getting the AM ones as they are cheaper than hasbro version due to the short-packing and scalper prices.

I still can't get over how bad the chrome sirens and grill looks on ratchet in person.

WTF Stickers!!!! Ok I know they wanted to cut cost to bring in the Mini Cons but this is just ridiculous. And to not have a Voyager Megs is making it even worse. We NEED that V Megs because the Hasbro one is just garbage as far as color is concerned. Well looks like I'll be saving money after all and not picking up this cheap madness and going with the ones Hasbro will release. SMH

I was so excited at first that the Ratchet toy had more detail than the Hasbro version, but now I am just kind of disappointed. He is easily one of the best toys in the line so far. As for Soundwave, don't be too frustrated because he is only a hair better than mediocre. I will be skipping out on all of the Japanese toys...even the Skywarp toy .

Definitely not worth the price with those stickers. Is paint suddenly so expensive or something? I'll happily buy the Hasbro Ratchet and just wait for Reprolabels to add some detail.

The Micron for Cliffjumper looks like Warpath!

well that settles that, hasbro all the way. gonna get Megs and T-Cliff still, but thats really it. Hasbro, please bring those minicons to us shores

Looks like I'm sticking with the Hasbro RID releases, except maybe Skywarp (but only if they do Thundercracker as well). And I'm reserving judgement on Soundwave til I see good pictures of both versions.

Now I'm at home, I looked at these pics again, thinking they'd look better on a larger screen - however, all I can say is this!:

I think that's sealed the deal. I'll be having a snowball fight in Hell before I buy anything from the Arms Micron line. No way I'm paying premium prices to play Primus with some Mini-Cons and have figures that look worse than the RiD figures thanks to some hideous stickering. For the cost of a single AM figure I could buy almost three RiD versions and try painting them myself.

Hasbro wins one.

Pretender Skywarp wrote:

El Duque wrote:I'm really torn on these. I want the Microns, but could care less about the actual figures, and those stickers look terrible.

Not sure how it works out for you guys, but the import prices on a Takara Deluxe here are over twice the price of a UK retail one.

I just can't justify that for microns

Actually, it's closer to 3 times the price for Americans

I'm sorry Takara/Tomy... the arms microns do look kinda cool and all, and I used to love the act of putting stickers on my toys to increase the detail... but honestly reprolabels does stickers better than this, and they're not even official. Some of that is just looking so bad, especially with all the extra molded ports not found on the US released toys... I'm pretty turned off of a lot of the Prime stuff anyway, what with the first edition fiasco and all, but I'm even less inclined to import the japanese versions with how they're shaping up.
I'm really starting to dislike the treatment of the Prime toyline in general... seems like everyone's dropping the ball this time around, which is a shame because the show is really good.

I don't very much like the repaints of SS's mold as the other seekers. That mold is the physical embodiment of his personaltity portrayed on Prime,in my opinion. It doesn't translate to the the others very well. Plus i'm sick to death of seeker repaints and every single line that comes out seems to get a salvo of seeker repaints that absorbs resources that would otherwise be best served making new figures.
It seems that there is an assumption that this line of marketing will placate the appetites of fans wanting G1 or "popular" characters which isn't necessarily the case. Especially in my case. STOP BERATING ME WITH SEEKER MOLDS AND REPAINTS PLEASE. Maybe i'm in the 1% or less of the fans who feel this way but i had to rant about it.

I like Ratchets scalpel sword weapon thingy though. I'm also a fan of decals as well.

The Microns are cool and all, but stickers just feel and look "cheap."

monstergrotusque wrote:I don't very much like the repaints of SS's mold as the other seekers.

Same here. I love how RotF gave Starscream, Thrust, and Dirge their own molds; wish other lines would follow suit.

Noideaforaname wrote:The Microns are cool and all, but stickers just feel and look "cheap."

monstergrotusque wrote:I don't very much like the repaints of SS's mold as the other seekers.

Same here. I love how RotF gave Starscream, Thrust, and Dirge their own molds; wish other lines would follow suit.

You misunderstood me. I know who and what the seekers are but i don't think the Prime SS should receive seeker repaints. This iteration of SS seems to me to be specifically designed to accentuate his particular personality traits. It's too creepy, lanky, sinuous and as some may interpret...feminine to really work as a Skywarp or TC....or a Conehead for that matter. God forebid.

In my opinion he's a stand alone design in the Prime universe that should be a stand alone character and to add to that,I don't want another SW or TC anyways. Must there ALWAYS be the other seekers involved everytime a SS is present in a story arc?

I've taken this reply waaaaay off topic of the thread....sorry guys.

One of the few times Takara fails. Those micron holes are serious eye sores.

monstergrotusque wrote:

Noideaforaname wrote:The Microns are cool and all, but stickers just feel and look "cheap."

monstergrotusque wrote:I don't very much like the repaints of SS's mold as the other seekers.

Same here. I love how RotF gave Starscream, Thrust, and Dirge their own molds; wish other lines would follow suit.

You misunderstood me. I know who and what the seekers are but i don't think the Prime SS should receive seeker repaints. This iteration of SS seems to me to be specifically designed to accentuate his particular personality traits. It's too creepy, lanky, sinuous and as some may interpret...feminine to really work as a Skywarp or TC....or a Conehead for that matter. God forebid.

In my opinion he's a stand alone design in the Prime universe that should be a stand alone character and to add to that,I don't want another SW or TC anyways. Must there ALWAYS be the other seekers involved everytime a SS is present in a story arc?

I totally agree about 'Screamers design in that he should be a stand alone character. That design fits him and him alone in this series. As far as the other Seekers, it does kind of follow that where one goes the others do too. It's just a way of keeping fans happy and keeping at least one aspect a "constant" throughout the history of the brand. Do I think they have to have the same mold? No. Should they at least be included in some way or form? Probably but that's just one old-timers opinion.

Now as for these Microns...I'm all for getting the ones included with 'Bee and CJ. Unfortunately, I have no desire to seek these toys out outside of their U.S. releases and even then I only want CJ for customizing purposes. So it looks like I'll be saving a bunch of money on this line. The only figure that interests me simply for it's own sake is Ratchet and I could care less for his Micron and I sure don't like the sticker-for-a-grill aspect or the fact that he looks like a block of Swiss cheese with the weapons holes. I'd say Takara blew it on this one. I'll pick up a Prime for the sake of adding to my Optimus collection but outside of that I'll wait for the Classics line to pick up pace.

Arms Micron is a bust.

I'd preordered Skywarp, Ratchet, and Terrorcon Cliffjumper. Cliffjumper is the only one of those purchases I'm not regretting.

Skywarp I'm still kind of on the fence about. There's a novelty factor that makes him attractive; but that's about it. I'm sympathetic to previous commenters who've noted that the First Edition Starscream mold does not lend itself readily to the personalities of other Seekers.

Ratchet I'll be reselling. I got him because of the EKG detailing that's missing from the Hasbro figure. But now that it's perfectly clear that this detailing is done with decals, I'm sure Reprolabels will fill in the blanks on the Hasbro figure.

Are these arms microns originally a Japanese idea coz I don't understand why our Prime figures don't come packaged with them. Instead, we get lame LED flip-a-mabobs for weapons.

bumblehide wrote:Are these arms microns originally a Japanese idea coz I don't understand why our Prime figures don't come packaged with them. Instead, we get lame LED flip-a-mabobs for weapons.

Yep, they're TakaraTomy's idea. Hasbro isn't the only one who can get creative you know?

I actually really like the Microns and the stickers they have. The figures they come with, not so much. At least not with those ugly ports all over them. Unless they're cheap and easy to get, I'm not worried about them.