More Power of the Primes Pics from Hascon 2017

We're there any other prominent anime differences?

Bountyan

That's pretty much what I'm doing; Hot Rod's appearance is close enough to Rodimus Prime that I can just pretend it is Rodimus Prime since he still has his winnebago in alt mode

If that works out well, I'll probably do that as well, just to have his Winnebago mode. Otherwise I'll just get the KO MO Hotrod as my Rodimus Prime.

LongarmMagnus

Beyond wanting Seacons, Dinoforce, and Pretender monsters from PotP, I hope they give us Grotusque from Cutthroat, and Repungus from Rippersnapper. Anyone else feel like finishing the Monsterbots?

My guess:
Dinoforce– G2 Dinobots that combine to make Dinoking (I wouldn't be surprised if Hasbro did this).
Pretender Monsters– A mix of molds from Abominus and Volcanicus to make Monstructor

I know Dinoking is a repaint of Monstructor, I'm just curious to see Hasbro's strategy.

Yeah, I kind of think Hasbro *might* give us both. What they'll call Dinoking would be shell-homaging color schemes on the Dinobots (just 6 headswaps necessary) to go w/Liokaiser, then Monstructor from the Terrorcons, mostly (Scowl and Icepick from Rippersnapper, Wildly from Cutthroat, Bristleback from … Slug slightly mistransformed?, and a torso to be named later) in the inner-bot decos.

I'd buy both if you're reading, Hasbro

Hoping if or when we get the Dinoforce(assuming they're using Volcanicus as the base), they're more than just simple repaints with same Dinobot heads.

Haha… wishful thinking.

Shepard Prime

It's really not ridiculous to be honest. Especially in your case since, as you said, you don't play with them nor will you be transforming them. So unless you're displaying your figs with their back to you, you're not going to see that anyway.

Out of curiosity, keeping this gimmick as is, how would you have designed it so that it doesn't have the back like that?

I don't really "play" with them, per se, but I do set up displays and they're not simply facing forward. Even from the side that would be visible. And I agree, as long as they look like they belong together and scale together, I have no problem intermixing – which IS a large part of leader-size Rodimus for me – it doesn't scale with the rest of the CHUGs. But I also acknowledge that that's my opinion on it, some people don't care. As for the atrocious backside of the toy – no, that's inexcusable, no matter how you try to spin it. I can't say how I would fix it – I don't have it in hand, and I have zero design experience, so I couldn't even guess just by looking at it online. The people that made this ARE designers, and that being the finished product for a $45-50 Transformer toy is inexcusable.

stad

My argument is that it shouldn't look like that for $45-50, and it's ridiculous to try to defend that. The size being too big is my personal thing, other people may not care, and I can continue to use Protector armor for a Rod Prime. But there's no getting around what looks like half a toy shell missing.

It's really not ridiculous to be honest. Especially in your case since, as you said, you don't play with them nor will you be transforming them. So unless you're displaying your figs with their back to you, you're not going to see that anyway.

Out of curiosity, keeping this gimmick as is, how would you have designed it so that it doesn't have the back like that?

Shepard Prime

Masterpiece and third-party/KO disagrees with you.

See earlier reply to your earlier post of the above:

I've always thought Masterpiece was just that – Masterpiece scale. They don't necessarily fall into, or are classified by, the "standard" size classes. I didn't count third party/KO because, quite frankly, that's now what we were talking about. I have and use the Protector as my (more or less) Voyager sized Rodimus, but I don't count it as an actual release of a Voyager Rodimus.

stad

There hasn't been a voyager or leader Rodimus or Hot Rod.

Masterpiece and third-party/KO disagrees with you.

stad

Other than the size, THIS is the problem with Rodimus…
Inexcusable in a $45-50 toy.

See earlier reply to your earlier post of the above:

Shepard Prime

See, I look at something like that and think,"Ouuuu, look at all the stuff I can put/store back there. A 5mm port here, a swivel there–BANG! Shoulder cannons, weapons pod, or something." Not to mention, hollow outs like that lends itself well to custom extensions and add-on backpacks that I like to do on my bots. Besides which…dat bulk! I generally like my bots boxy and bulky and with that added mass, that's just glorious to me.

Big Dawg

You're clearly not the target audience then- with this level of playability and ingenuity something had to give. The MP had the battle platform. This integrates the transformation from hot rod to rodimus. To integrate better it would need to be priced higher and lose its inherent playability, which this being a mainline, means it is intended first and foremost as a kids toy. Kids and parents don't want a $100 price point or 600 folding tabs and panels plus even when they do that it hasn't been great lately (see mpm prime).

I would argue that I am the target audience – I'm someone who will freely spend $45-50 for a Transformer toy.
And I promise I don't want a $100 price point or a buttload of folding tabs and panels – I'm not doing a lot of "playing" with the toys, so I don't want to spend a half hour figuring out how to transform anything. That doesn't mean it has to look like total shit from behind either, like someone forgot to do something with that entire part of the transformation.
My argument is that it shouldn't look like that for $45-50, and it's ridiculous to try to defend that. The size being too big is my personal thing, other people may not care, and I can continue to use Protector armor for a Rod Prime. But there's no getting around what looks like half a toy shell missing.