The release of the new MP-44 Convoy/Optimus Prime Ver. 3 brought some excitement among Masterpiece collectors, but also some issues.
There has been several report from our users about the knees’ inner ratchet being prone to break. As usual, several of our skillful users have posted an easy-to-do repair of the broken knees for anyone who may have been affected by this issue. Thanks to 2005 Boards users Prime of Shadows, kentan99, God Orion and BrutiKing.
Additionally, 2005 Boards user Jarrod has shared in our boards an easy tutorial for those collectors who have intact knees that prevents the breakage.
Click on the bar to see the mirrored images on this news post. You can then ask questions or more information about these useful fixes on the 2005 Boards!
Shin Densetsu
Welp, there’s nothing really to add here, when Takara rereleases MP-44, a new thread will be made.
Also, if you have questions about rules, PM staff, remember this rule:
7. No Public Discussion On Staff Actions
Do not mouth off or publicly question staff decisions. If you have a problem, comment or question, contact a member of the TFW2005 Staff.
We are trying to curb 1p VS 3p discussions that tend to derail topics in the news/rumors forum and in threads that aren’t really about that.
Besides, there’s already a dedicated thread for MP-44 options when it comes specifically to that:
ELEMENT TE-01 vs MS-01 vs MP-44 VS MP-44 KO
Have at it, but remember the following rules:
TFW2005 Rules
MP-44 KO discussion:
MP-44 KO
Want to rant? Okay, go here:
The Official Rant Thread
Do you like MP-44? Here’s your thread:
MP-44 Optimus Prime Discussion/Appreciation Thread
Do you like MP’s in general?
The Masterpiece Appreciation thread
Oh you think MP-44 will be repainted and want to post your speculation about it?
The G1-Focused Masterpiece Speculation Thread
ElekTriC
what? prime has magnets?
God Orion
Not sure what you mean but I have never done that here…
You are right and all of your points make sense. The thing is I still own a figure that I am afraid of damaging or breaking because of its price and all the QC issues I have had. I can't fully enjoy it but I love its design so I feel a bit upset.
Read it before and the reasoning is amazing. It's still a lot for a toy and it represents a lot of sacrifices for something I can't 100% enjoy.
It makes me sad really thinking about it. That's why I put it back in its box and why I wait for KO. I would have preferred never ever thinking about buying a KO and playing, posing, transforming and enjoying my official for the rest of my life as it's the best representation of my all-time hero. I hope you can all understand what I mean as I in no way praise KOs except when they are original design and second to none. Bootlegs are just a good alternative for this kind of situation.
BrutiKing
Just wanted to put something here: (sorry if it’s been posted before here. Never saw it)
BrutiKing
I think it was @Teletran-1 ? This site might be good for ya:
Mandarake
not sure if it’ll satisfy you though. I do believe some of these are “used”, but from my experience, used is pretty much pristine lol. A bit of culture shock. 30,000 yen so around $280 usd for the cheapest one. Not bad imo
make sure to read all of the description before purchasing though. Has a bit of important info.
Paco Grande
Perfection! I’m anxious for MP-49 and when they reissue 44 it will be hard for me to resist buying a second copy. I’m hoping the Yen drops before then so it will be easier on the wallet.
Sam
Dude, it bums me out to see you so personally hurt by this figure. I know how excited you were by it, remember how your wife surprised you with the purchase (something along those lines, right?) and enjoyed your company on the ride as we waited for its release.
The fact is, this is a toy made by people being paid jack-shit in a different country from which it was designed in. There's gonna be QC issues. Transformers toys are the most complicated toys out there. Hot Toys prices are ridiculous, and those things don't even need to transform. When there's so many moving parts there's just so much more room for error, statistically.
No one's gonna argue that TT should improve their QC (especially after Hound's shitshow), but ultimately we get what we pay for. Yeah, $450 is expensive, but if you wanted impeccable QC and more R&D time it would actually cost us more.
If I remember right, you ordered yours from Amazon Japan so you did get customer support, right? A new copy when your paint was messed up on the pelvis? If you're in Japan you have full customer support, unfortunately outside of Japan it's up to the retailers, and well generally you get what you pay for (order from Nippon Yasan, avoid tax, but be stuck with what you get)
The good thing about boards like these are we have MVPs like @BrutiKing who posted guides about repairs, we had everyone helping each other out and @Jarrod guiding people on paint and fixes. Lucky we have this place, because when things turn bad we can actually make the most out of it.
In terms of MP-44, since I've been messing with mine as a permanent deskbot for the last 10 months, here's my thoughts on QC:
The grey paint on the abs isn't applied properly. It should not scrape that easily.
My knees are both fine, and I literally pose him every day in different poses where I use both joints.
The yellow paint on his crotch is still pristine.
There's some paint wear on his thighs from where I wasn't careful and let them scrape against the pelvis when moving him.
That's it, man. Everything else is all amazing. Mine doesn't hold his gun in the right hand so well but I think I've made that worse by giving him Megatron's purple gun to hold (that has a slightly wider tab) so that might be partly on me.
We're not defending Takara's QC, but we can still defend their use of a glossy coat of paint, accessories that we want and love, and the design and love that went into this toy.
franpincho
View attachment 28707060
oku
Insults.
Mind reading.
Gaslighting.
This is the kind of the comment that could get deleted.
God Orion
No way, I was talking about how much I like my offical but how much I was afraid of playing/transforming it.
If it ever gets rereleased and updated with fixes for the knees and all the wobbly sections, I willl happily buy another, trust me! But a KO will do it for now as I will have no worries of breaking it just by staring at it like with the official. Loads of you won't admit it because you have good copies (at least you say so) but look at how many have had problems with theirs and how many got sent back. I can't believe some still defend Takara on this particular figure. Seeing the price we paid, we should never have to worry about all these issues and we should have some customer support. That's all I have ever said.
HolyCulture
Like one of the rules they’re breaking now? No talking about deleted posts or mod actions. It just clutters up the board.
Like my post right here. It doesn’t belong and should get deleted with all these useless comments up above.
oku
Well, maybe they were deleted for other reasons.
God Orion
It seems I was wrong though… Each time I did, it was deleted, that was why I said so.
Trip
I'll post a picture of it tomorrow. At some point
oku
Searched the keyword "3rd party" in this thread and got 200+ results.
Render
Hi! Which tab are you talking about?
Trip
Only if you're me.
franpincho
Debatable.
divinecomedy
That's reaching. Given the time involved in packing up and driving to the PO, 1 dollar might as well be a waste of time. Also we are living in a pandemic, I expect discretionary purchase to drop in the end. Not rocket science. People don't need an MP-44 to live.