Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece MP-40 Targetmaster Hot Rodimus Announced

oh ffs ... that's just a cheap money grab given that it'll most likely just be a reissue with slight modifications to accommodate that Targetmaster. Very disappointed TT.

Who transformed G1 Rodimus Prime and put the spoiler in the wrong hole so it's too low down?

It's as bad as someone leaving the nosecone up on G1 Dirge, Thrust and Ramjet to make them mirror the cartoon.

Windsweeper wrote:Who transformed G1 Rodimus Prime and put the spoiler in the wrong hole so it's too low down?

It's as bad as someone leaving the nosecone up on G1 Dirge, Thrust and Ramjet to make them mirror the cartoon.

Misstransfom toy people act it's crime against humanity worse than murder there toys not paintings you put in museum get on deal live with it move on they are toys where not making cars here for people drive to work and home people complain about misstransformation they should have jobs as health inspectors those people have sticks up there butts you need jaws of life get stick out I see little speck of dust on light bulb in resturant automatic fail for resturant health inspection not enough oats in yougurt points taken off for it

Enough about the photo of the G1 toys. This is about MP-40. sheesh, didn't take you guys long to derail a thread did it?

Are we gonna ignore the fact that Rodimus is now Movie Optimus Prime according to that silhouette?

Decepticon Stryker wrote:Are we gonna ignore the fact that Rodimus is now Movie Optimus Prime according to that silhouette?

Given that it's a placeholder, yeah!

What can we surmise form he Japanese price? is it similar to the mp28 price or is it closer to the larger MP's?

I'd rather have them touch on other ark characters - would love a hound...

For a direct comparison, TFSource has MP-28 Hot Rod listed at 75 USD compared to MP-40 Targetmaster Hot Rod listed at 90 USD.

I doubt this increased price would come purely from the Targetmaster -- after all, MP Artfire didn't cost any more than MP Inferno. Either one of Takara or TFSource is getting risky/greedy, or something else is going on here...

Kurona wrote:For a direct comparison, TFSource has MP-28 Hot Rod listed at 75 USD compared to MP-40 Targetmaster Hot Rod listed at 90 USD.

I doubt this increased price would come purely from the Targetmaster -- after all, MP Artfire didn't cost any more than MP Inferno. Either one of Takara or TFSource is getting risky/greedy, or something else is going on here...

Artfire also came with significantly less accessories than inferno. We'll have to wait and see if hot rod loses his other things as well before we can pass judgement on the pricing

Dang it!!!! Just when I was happy to sell off regular MP Hot Rodimus, now I need to see if I need to keep his accessories!! I'm hoping they fix the tabs in transformation so he can roll better

Drat.

steals_your_goats wrote:

Kurona wrote:For a direct comparison, TFSource has MP-28 Hot Rod listed at 75 USD compared to MP-40 Targetmaster Hot Rod listed at 90 USD.

I doubt this increased price would come purely from the Targetmaster -- after all, MP Artfire didn't cost any more than MP Inferno. Either one of Takara or TFSource is getting risky/greedy, or something else is going on here...

Artfire also came with significantly less accessories than inferno. We'll have to wait and see if hot rod loses his other things as well before we can pass judgement on the pricing

In that case, FISHING ROD TARGETMASTER HYPE

More like announced because nothing was revealed.

Unusual of Takara to be giving so many nods to The Rebirth as of late, since that's an alternate universe story as far as they're concerned.

Targetmaster Hot Rod? I'll wait for more info and pictures before i decide if i want to get this. It's a lot more expensive than Hot Rod was, so it should have a lot of extra stuf...... or at least i hope.

I'm guessing he'll have a toy deco for two reasons.

To differentiate himself from the previous Masterpiece Hot Rod, and to differentiate himself from the Legends Targetmaster Hot Rod.

Which would lead me to believe that Firebolt will be in his toy colors (black, gray, and red) rather than his cartoon colors (silver, gray, and blue). Legends Firebolt used the cartoon colors, which if this MP goes for toy colors would further separate it from that.

Randy

Kurona wrote:I doubt this increased price would come purely from the Targetmaster -- after all, MP Artfire didn't cost any more than MP Inferno.

Inferno and Grapple were ¥14,000, Artfire was ¥15,000 and as mentioned already he was stripped of nearly all of the accessories the others came with except for Inferno's gun and one face. So yeah, an MP Targetmaster heavily effects the price. I'll be surprised if Hot Rod comes with anything other than his Targetmaster partner.

Emerje

Guess they want to make a couple bucks reusing the mold by packaging him with a Targetmaster. What I really want to see them do is make an improved version of MP-09 based on Rodimus Prime. With that POTP version coming out soon, I'm guessing they will hold off awhile on that, so I'd settle on MP-41 or MP-42 being Broadcast (Blaster) with Steeljaw.

I have some mixed thoughts on this since I wasn't the biggest fan of "Masterpiece" Hot Rod. Looking forward to seeing this, but I wish they'd fix the red upper shoulder area that blocks the iconic yellow shield on his back and would figure out a different design with the chest that was less blocky and more "heroic" looking like on the toy and other iterations of this character.

It seems Takara is tossing out the methodology for the previous number scheme. I'm OK with that for the sake of making it clearer that there are way more than 40 Masterpiece figures, but kind of wish they had done that from the beginning instead of having numbers like MP-11T and MP-11S, for example.

My guess is that it really doesn't differentiate from the MP-28 version. Maybe a more toy-accurate scheme given the amount of time we have to wait for it.

Although. I ask because I haven't actually looked into this question, how often does Takara refer to Hot Rod as (Hot) Rodimus when it is still just Hot Rod? Maaaaybe we are getting some Prime components?? Doubtful. But maybs?

Personally, I would have preferred a Decepticon Black Hot Rod, but... If we're getting a Rodimus Prime redux, I'd rather wait til then. I DO love that color scheme, though. Additionally, anything to fill out the Decepticons.

Relic0037 wrote:Guess they want to make a couple bucks reusing the mold by packaging him with a Targetmaster. What I really want to see them do is make an improved version of MP-09 based on Rodimus Prime. With that POTP version coming out soon, I'm guessing they will hold off awhile on that, so I'd settle on MP-41 or MP-42 being Broadcast (Blaster) with Steeljaw.

Maybe if MP-41 is Dinobot, given that we've seen a greyscale version. Exciting to just KNOW it's coming though. It's just a matter of time.........

DecepticonFinishline wrote:Although. I ask because I haven't actually looked into this question, how often does Takara refer to Hot Rod as (Hot) Rodimus when it is still just Hot Rod? Maaaaybe we are getting some Prime components?? Doubtful. But maybs?

In Japan, Hot Rod is "Hot Rodimus" (with just "Rodimus" as a shorthand nickname), while Rodimus Prime is "Rodimus Convoy" (whose shorthands are instead the more formal "Shireikan", meaning "Commander", and "Sōshireikan", meaning "Supreme Commander").

I don't think Hot Rod's ever actually been called Hot Rod in Japan. If I recall they only used that name for Armada Hot Shot and future versions of that character.

Toy-accurate Primal being a normally-numbered Masterpiece release; the Cartoon colour scheme already being represented in Masterpiece; and Targetmaster Hot Rod not being featured in any Japanese fiction all lead me to believe this will be a toy-accurate deco. Still, could easily be wrong. Hope I'm not since the original toy's brighter, vibrant colours are soooo much better and to my mind Hot Roddier.

Kurona wrote:I don't think Hot Rod's ever actually been called Hot Rod in Japan.

He was in the Japanese dub of The Rebirth.

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:I don't think Hot Rod's ever actually been called Hot Rod in Japan.

He was in the Japanese dub of The Rebirth.

I suspect that was because Rebirth wasn't originated in Japan, and he was called Hot Rod in the source material. Though I don't remember if that also applied to the series in the Unicron Trilogy, as the production and dubbing, especially for Armada, was a mess.

Rodimus Prime wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Kurona wrote:I don't think Hot Rod's ever actually been called Hot Rod in Japan.

He was in the Japanese dub of The Rebirth.

I suspect that was because Rebirth wasn't originated in Japan, and he was called Hot Rod in the source material. Though I don't remember if that also applied to the series in the Unicron Trilogy, as the production and dubbing, especially for Armada, was a mess.

The American G1 cartoon didn't originate in Japan either. Toei helped animate most of its first two seasons and the movie, but it was conceived as an American cartoon. The third and fourth seasons were animated by AKOM in South Korea, but the third season still aired in Japan in a dubbed form after its English release in North America and elsewhere.

The reason Hot Rod was named "Hot Rod" in the Japanese dub of The Rebirth, instead of "Hot Rodimus" like he was in the Japanese dub of Season 3, is because Japan didn't get The Rebirth dubbed until 1996, where it was released direct-to-video with a very different dub from how Seasons 1-3 had been dubbed in Japanese. Namely, the English theme song and commercial bumpers were kept intact and unchanged, and nearly all of the names and terms in the episodes were left as their English names instead of their Japanese names (with the few exceptions being high profile characters like Optimus Prime still being "Convoy", and a few other odd changes such as Scorponok being renamed "Scorpion"). Only three actors from the original Japanese dub of the G1 cartoon were featured in the dub of The Rebirth: Tesshō Genda as Convoy, Seizō Katō as Galvatron, and Issei Masamune as the narrator.

As such, the Japanese dub of The Rebirth was much more heavily based on the original English version of the episodes when compared to how Seasons 1-3 were dubbed with a ton of name and terminology changes.


As for the Unicron Trilogy:

• Armada Hot Shot was "Hot Rod" in Japan
• Energon Hot Shot was "Hot Shot" in Japan
• Energon Rodimus was "Rodimus Convoy" in Japan

No discussion about what the possible Targetmaster might look like? Or do we already suspect TakaraTomy is going to reuse MP Offshoot:


Transformers Masterpiece Offshoot Gallery

It's possible, the one image I found of MP-28 with Offshoot they do look good together.



But I feel like they'd rather do something new closer to Artfire's Nightstick.

Emerje

I just figured it'd be a new mold using similar engineering to MP-37's Nightstick. Figured there wasn't really much to talk about.

I could either happening, but TakaraTomy leaving a cost-saving opportunity like that unused... I don't know, guess we'll have to wait and see.

So, I brought these guys with me today. Seems people are already talking about it!


And, from not terribly long ago..

At least if you don't buy the new one the old one still works

That said, I still want to see the new integration and HOPEFULLY the mold fixes to make his chest area compress better in alt mode.

After seeing what Offshoot looks like with MP-28, I'm really kinda hoping Firebolt will be a new mold. Offshoot is nice and all, but man is he BIG when partnered up with MP-28. His size makes him look less like a handgun and more like a huge fantasy blaster from a video game or something.

Sabrblade wrote:After seeing what Offshoot looks like with MP-28, I'm really kinda hoping Firebolt will be a new mold. Offshoot is nice and all, but man is he BIG when partnered up with MP-28. His size makes him look less like a handgun and more like a huge fantasy blaster from a video game or something.

They are ALL huge fantasy blasters though, aren't they?!

In all seriousness, yeah, he's big. BUT if they retool the handle so it fits properly in his hand and his port on the engine, it would STILL be a completely new item for the Japanese "Takara" market!!

itscramtastic wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:After seeing what Offshoot looks like with MP-28, I'm really kinda hoping Firebolt will be a new mold. Offshoot is nice and all, but man is he BIG when partnered up with MP-28. His size makes him look less like a handgun and more like a huge fantasy blaster from a video game or something.

They are ALL huge fantasy blasters though, aren't they?!

In all seriousness, yeah, he's big. BUT if they retool the handle so it fits properly in his hand and his port on the engine, it would STILL be a completely new item for the Japanese "Takara" market!!

I think it looks pretty nice from the side, that front shot I had sort of exaggerated the look.

(I think that's gonna be the new sig!!)

And, here's as top down of a shot as I could get to show the length, they all end up being right around the same.



The Targetmaster torso and handle are what really make it gigantic, not terribly far off though!

I'm quite confident in TT's abilities. It would be quite below their current standards to re-release Offshoot with 28.

At very least I expect a new Targetmaster, and deco for 28. At most, modifications to 28's mold to make him more OG toy-like.

shajaki wrote:I'm quite confident in TT's abilities. It would be quite below their current standards to re-release Offshoot with 28.

At very least I expect a new Targetmaster, and deco for 28. At most, modifications to 28's mold to make him more OG toy-like.

You mean, like the deco the Reprolabels tried to do?!

itscramtastic wrote:You mean, like the deco the Reprolabels tried to do?!

Yussir! The remolding I was thinking of was mostly the lower legs. Since they don't "become" anything in car mode, you could change them to look however you want

shajaki wrote:

itscramtastic wrote:You mean, like the deco the Reprolabels tried to do?!

Yussir! The remolding I was thinking of was mostly the lower legs. Since they don't "become" anything in car mode, you could change them to look however you want

Interesting..I never thought of leg remolding..they definitely need to fix the dang neck/chest collar thing. And the wheels, as I want my Hot Rodimus to roll on my flippin' desk!!

What if it's that weird oversaturated magenta like in the Sony DVD for TFTM?

My real wish list for this would be better chrome, slightly (juuuuust slightly) bigger tires, and inclusion of the hoverboard that the SDCC Shreddicus Maximus has in white/blue for movie accuracy.

I'd really like to see the legs become red like the original toy. I don't know why his character models made the lower sections grey or black; it kinda offsets the whole colour scheme.

Kurona wrote:I'd really like to see the legs become red like the original toy. I don't know why his character models made the lower sections grey or black; it kinda offsets the whole colour scheme.

I always assumed it was because those were undercarriage parts in vehicle mode.

Alternately, those are his leather boots and he never takes them off in the cartoon.

ScottyP wrote:

Kurona wrote:I'd really like to see the legs become red like the original toy. I don't know why his character models made the lower sections grey or black; it kinda offsets the whole colour scheme.

I always assumed it was because those were undercarriage parts in vehicle mode.

Alternately, those are his leather boots and he never takes them off in the cartoon.

Not to mention that Hot Rod was one of the ones whose character model designs came first, with the toy being based on the character model, rather than vice versa like most other G1 characters.

shajaki wrote:I'm quite confident in TT's abilities. It would be quite below their current standards to re-release Offshoot with 28.

At very least I expect a new Targetmaster, and deco for 28. At most, modifications to 28's mold to make him more OG toy-like.

So Takara is gonna do an extensive remold of a figure based on what? Speculation? Heck, for BeastConvoy, all they did was recolor him plus add a mutant mask.

At most, a recolor (highly doubtful for Hotrodimus) but altering the base mold? Dream on! Or should I say, till at the windmills!

fenrir72 wrote:

shajaki wrote:I'm quite confident in TT's abilities. It would be quite below their current standards to re-release Offshoot with 28.

At very least I expect a new Targetmaster, and deco for 28. At most, modifications to 28's mold to make him more OG toy-like.

So Takara is gonna do an extensive remold of a figure based on what? Speculation? Heck, for BeastConvoy, all they did was recolor him plus add a mutant mask.

At most, a recolor (highly doubtful for Hotrodimus) but altering the base mold? Dream on! Or should I say, till at the windmills!

Is that attitude really necessary?

I said "AT MOST" a retool. Likelihood being LOW. And might I remind you, there's almost ZERO details at this point, so EVERYTHING in this thread is speculation. So maybe don't jump on people for sharing their speculations.

Sabrblade wrote:

ScottyP wrote:

Kurona wrote:I'd really like to see the legs become red like the original toy. I don't know why his character models made the lower sections grey or black; it kinda offsets the whole colour scheme.

I always assumed it was because those were undercarriage parts in vehicle mode.

Alternately, those are his leather boots and he never takes them off in the cartoon.

Not to mention that Hot Rod was one of the ones whose character model designs came first, with the toy being based on the character model, rather than vice versa like most other G1 characters.

Maaaan, I keep forgetting about that. Even so, my hope for a red-legged Hot Rod is high

Wouldn't it be pointless if Hot Rod was just the same MP with a Targetmaster partner rather than a new deco? We've already got our cartoon version, it really only makes sense for the next one to be toy-accurate like Artfire. And like Artfire, Japan's only exposure to Hot Rod as a Targetmaster was through the toy. Doing anything else with the colors would be a real head scratcher.

Emerje

I also feel MP-38 Supreme Commander Beast Convoy is a good precedent -- he's a toy-accurate deco of a toon-accurate MP, and he's in the 'normal' numbering rather than being relegated to the special/exclusive releases even though it's not terribly different from MP-32.

And then of course, being toy-accurate would set this release apart from the close release of Legends Targetmaster Hot Rod; who's a toon-accurate toy with a Targetmaster.

I dunno, just feels like there's a lot to suggest this will be toy-accurate. I just hope I'm not getting my hopes up too much

^ About getting your hopes up,



The other crusty old collector side says hey, rememver how the C-78 reissue and TFC 13 for Hot Rod and TM Hot Rod were barely different save the actual Targetmaster? It's just that again instead of a straight MP-28 reissue.

ScottyP wrote:^ About getting your hopes up,

My wishful thinking side says go nuts, imagine anything and it can be true!

The other crusty old collector side says hey, rememver how the C-78 reissue and TFC 13 for Hot Rod and TM Hot Rod were barely different save the actual Targetmaster? It's just that again instead of a straight MP-28 reissue.

That's what I'm hoping for, so I won't feel like I'm missing something when I have a relatively serviceable MP Targetmaster already

At the very least we can expect a redeco plus the Offshoot. Anything else is just an added bonus.

Thanks once again to TFND's Facebook page, we have more images of upcoming Takara Tomy product -- this time in the Masterpiece line, with MP-40 Targetmaster Hot Rodimus! A redeco of MP-28 Hot Rod packed with a redeco of the previously Hasbro-exclusive Offshoot which came with the Hasbro version of MP-09 Rodimus, this is set to release soon after MP-39 Sunstreaker sometime early next year. Check out the images below and tell us what you think in the forums!

Figured he'd be in "Rebirth" colours.