Via Flame Toys Twitter and Hobby Dengeki we have our first look a the color prototype of Flame Toys Kuro Kara Kuri God Power Jet Armor which was on display at Wonder Festival 2023 in Japan.
This is kind of a unique release in the high quality Kuro Kara Kuri line. Even since we saw the first sketches, we knew this was not going to be a figure but a complete set of extra parts to be combined with Kuro Kara Kuri Optimus Prime into a highly stylized ROTF Jetpower Optimus Prime. As we can see from the images, the combination is pretty impressive and big.
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daimchoc
bansanv3 on twitter.
Convoy
FANX! found a couple more designs I hadn't seen before. The one I really want is BA due to Beast fan
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marvel b
Yes. Iirc their name is Ban. I'm sure they did more but only recall beefcake Megatron.
Edit: oh yeah, and Flamewar. Her flame deco looked like pigtails and she had a yaeba/smug anime tooth
Convoy
Quick question for anyone who's into the furai line:
Who is the designer of the Windblade? and are they same person who's designed Arcee & Blackarachnia? have they done any more transformer designs?
IIRC its not Akira Amemiya
(Please no angry/strong opinion stuff about the designs. Literally just want info)
Scyla
Jazz' gun "transforms" from the handgun into the shoulder missile.
Stat Saber is really stellar. He is also not hampered by not having the D4Toys exclusive gun and the LED saber head. He comes with twin swords doubling as rifles, a shield and a big fun sword.
He also has a armor-up feature where you can decide if you want to display him in full gear or as a powered down version.
He is also the only good toy I have of Star Saber so I'm a biased.
Blue Prime
I really like the star saber IDW design and for the price Amazon currently has him it’s quite tempting as it’s not much more than jazz and drift but he appears to be the superior figure. I don’t mind jazz not having an array of accessories but I feel like having a second gun or at least a transforming/combining gimmick on the gun he came with would’ve been expected
magmatron
I have Jazz and Star Saber, and both are phenomenal. Like Scyla said Jazz doesn't have much when it comes to weapons, but I don't necessarily see that as a weakness. Sometimes you just want a focused toy experience. However he does come off as less sophisticated than the others when it comes to shifting parts and LEDs, as well the strange hollow feet, though the later does help give him better range of articulation. He's also cheaper than the others and doesn't take as much shelf space.
Star Saber is still my favorite of the three that I have(partially because of how much I like the design), and really highlights some of the cool parts of the line. He comes with a lot of accessories (though not overwhelmingly so like Rodimus or Megatron), lots of LEDs, and a good number of the cool auto-moving parts.
Scyla
@Blue Prime:
1. Star Saber: great!
2. Drift: great but I don’t like the wobbly nature of the lower abdomen joint.
3. Rodimus: great but unnecessary accessories, that is almost a second figure that looks terrible to inflate the price
4. Jazz: great but it has not enough weapons (like a dedicated missile launcher/handgun) and he has "hollow" lower legs that to make make the toy feel not as premium as the others.
Overall I think the top three releases are (in that order): Star Saber, Megatron, Optimus.
Blue Prime
I’m starting to get into a dangerous path of looking to much at the Kuro Kara kuri line. It appears to be exactly what I want. The more I mess with my transformers the more I realize I don’t like to actually transform them I just like to pose them and appreciate them in the shelf. Flame toys appears to be a joy to articulate and get into different poses constantly. I wish they were just a little cheaper. It’s hard to drop 300 on a single figure to “try out”.
For those that are avid collectors of the line, what are your opinions on Jazz, Drift, rodimus and Star Saber?
Ichibaru
There’s not much overlap with regards to the figures. Three Zero is movie based where as FlameToys 3K is mostly IDW inspired. As for if you can ge time good deals, I’ve seen slower selling FlameToys figures go on sale from time to time, but I have not see ThreeZero go on sale. However, ThreeZero figure are half the cost of a FlameToys figure.
As for if they are worth the cost? I’d say yes. They are super detailed, no visible screw holes, fantastic engineering. Do you appreciate those features vs mainline vs masterpiece? That’s the real question.
JasonTFW2005
I have some DLX and MDLX. I'm very impressed with DLX figures but wish MDLX were bigger. That's where appeal of Kuro is – stylized figures at bigger size. But the price seems astronomical since they are generally below DLX scale, generally don't include bonus pieces, and like you mentioned, some of the reviews talk about QC issues on their Kuro figures. Maybe TZ will do something similar at same point.
Scyla
They are for sure overpriced in my opinion. At the same time they are also the most sophisticated action figures I own.
I think for most people the MDLX figures are the more sensible choice.
I only own one MDLX figures but from what I could gather from other reviews, they operate at around 85% (0% absolute crap, 100% the best action figure imaginable) whereas the Kuro Kara Kuri figures operate at 92% or higher.
In my experience, to get from 85% to 92% required exponential more effort than getting from 50% to 85% which is one reason why these figures command such a high price point. So they are worth it to me.
However, you should keep in mind that these figures are not flawless (no industrial manufactured product ever is). So you get some joint inconsistencies, qc issues with regards to paint, range of movement limits, etc.
Nothing out of the ordinary but they sting much more when they occur, because of the high price point. They are very nice pieces though and I love looking at them in my display cabinets.
I have seen a couple of sales but they were never massive and they usually sell out after release before they can go on sale so I wouldn’t expect them.
BBTS doesn’t seem to move a lot of units for SG Megatron and Nemesis Prime, so maybe they will be more heavily discounted but they are exclusives and are higher priced still so it might be a zero sum game.
If you are curious, Muscle Bear does some nice knock-offs of some of the K3 figures that are not outrageously priced so maybe go for one of these first?
JasonTFW2005
Are the Kuro figures worth the high price tag when compared to ThreeZero DLX figures? Do they ever go on sale at BBTS?
Trenton227
Starscream looks fairly complete the last time it was shown off along with Ultra Magnus. At the very least it is much further along compared to the gray prototypes we had for the past ~2 years. I wouldn't be surprised if Flame Toys announce it's officially up for PO in the next several weeks.
Scyla
Hard to tell, the first reveal was a while ago as concept art and gray prototypes.
A good indicator is if the item is available at the official store d4toys.com there will be an estimated delivery date that is a tad optimistic. Usually there is a 1-2 month delay (sometimes more).
Between listing on d4toys.com there is a 6 to 12 month window until it is released. So from past experience I would say if you keep an eye on the d4toys site or this thread you should not miss it.
Once it is up on the page usually the item is available at other sites too, like BBTS. Some retailers open preorders much earlier (in fact Starscream ist available for preorder at ShowZ) but that is more of a guess that the product will release at some point in the future.
Stock on d4toys usually doesn’t sell out in the first couple of moths or even till release (different for trade show exclusives). The item can sell out at other retailers much quicker.
Please keep in mind that those are past experiences so it might be different to Starscream. But keeping tabs on this thread and the d4toys page should keep you up to date.
Sephiroth169
Can someone here tell me, what the Time Gap
is between Pre Order Reveal until actual Release?
How much time there is between Reveal and Release.
Starscream will be my first Flame Toys Figure.
So I really would like to know a small estimate for Release.
dhampir46
Yeah maybe a bit too large, thanks for the pics!
Ichibaru
Here’s MMC Wing and K3 Drift… and threw in FT Jazz to show K3 vs MP car bot scale.
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The Mad Demobot
GAWD DAYMN!
Now I totally regret passing up on Flame toy's Prime when it was out, but I heard about the reissue and maybe there's still a chance. Sucks Megatron may be gone for a while.
This and their upcoming UM and Screamer…
I'm gonna be so broke…
Edit: I don't suppose Prime can still hold up his mighty sword and say the magic words: "By the Power of Primus, I! HAVE! THE POWER!"
lordcryotek
What? They scale decent, maybe a tad big. At least megatron and Star Saber are "close enough" to look good with IDW third party stuff:
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