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Post by supergetterv on Oct 11, 2011 12:53:14 GMT -5
Nope, not Mp-Rodimus. Kabaya does these candy and toy WST size model kit, roughly around 2 inches tall. This current wave, series 5 has a MP Style Rodimus. And if you get the others two in the series, they come with parts to form the trailer for the MP style Rodimus kit. Inferno (classics style) kit comes with the middle piece, Rodimus with the side pieces and the other one has the gun.
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Post by Lejam on Oct 11, 2011 13:29:41 GMT -5
Thanks man !
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Post by mpchi on Oct 11, 2011 14:48:33 GMT -5
Finally got the Hasbro MP Rodimus and did the surgery of fixing my broken ankle in my Takara MP Rodimus last night. The surgery was not as simple as anticipated, as I proceeded to swap out some other leg ratchet joints & springs as well (uneven tightness & clicky sound, as well as one spring start uncoling in the knee), and came across some pretty sweaty moments. High tension on the knee ratchets caused some ripped orange plastic stuck in a hole and stripped screw heads. At one point I almost thought I have ruined my Takara MP Rod for good. After some drilling and lots of assemling & disassembling, I finally get it back in prestine shape (with a couple small paint scuff around the stripped screw that I eventually got out with a plier). My Takara MP Rod can rise again! After all these pain (my finger tips still hurt now from all the ratchet spring pressing), I grew to appreciate this flawed specimen a whole lot more, more because of all the effort I put in from time to time to make it feel right, that probably another brand new one can't match (even tightness and perfect sounding clickies, no floppy wrist, good gun grip, secure leg flaps....etc.). Sort of a personal trophy of accomplishment in a way.
Anyway, enough of the rambling. Upon the surgery, I noticed some small parts difference between the Hasbro Rod & Takara Rod ver.1. Here they are:
- The ankle assembly is shaped the same, but colored in different plastic. The springs don't seem all that different visually. However all the ankle ratchets feels tighter with no wobble/give like the Takara Rod. This makes Rod stands much more stable in robot mode without any slight lean it used to have.
- Overall Hasbro has better ratchets. They click louder, feels tighter, and doesn't wobble. My Takara Rod even develop the uncoil spring issue in one of the knees, so have to swap out some springs and teeth as well. But not everything is flawless on the Hasbro. The one I got has a loose waist and looser backpack spine. Some friction joints/hinges are randomly looser.
- Side leg panel hinge/connector is new, as most of you already know it as one of the main improvements. Too bad because of the color difference from mine, I can't take advantage of this.
- The U shape fork/connector to the torso in robot mode is slightly different in Hasbro's. The bumps on the fork tip is higher, catching the torso better than the Takara's. I swapped that out and now my torso is more secure. But still not quite enough to prevent it from disengaging when moving the arms, but better than before as now I feel a catch, instead of almost no friction at all when slotting that fork in & out. I added some tougher Gorilla Crazy Glue to raise the bumps even more (waiting for it to dry completely), hopefully that would be enough. I tried regular super glue before but they are not strong enough to stick on that fork plastic and slowly scrape off after a few connect/disconnection. The plastic they use for that fork may not be very 'super-glue friendly', unlike regular plastic.
- Chrome plastic is different. Was going to swap some out since some chrome pieces on my Takara Rod has small blemishes, turn out the chrome on the Hasbro is more cloudy on all chrome parts, not just one piece or two. Takara's has a much glossier clean finish. I wasn't expecting this. Thought all chrome looks the same.
- Hasbro's has the sucky elbow covers that dangles out once in a while. Has a different shape than Takara's, and a very odd choice of change as it worsen the otherwise fine elbow design.
- Hasbro's front skirt tip has some tapering, giving Rod a tad more clearance in vehicle mode.
- Hasbro's backpack lock is still iffy with no significant visual change on the part (aside being the grey plastic used on Rod's face). It locks more or less the same as my Takara's. It catches and locks, but will disconnect with a little shake. It all depends on the trick of angling it, as well as the bottom black piece on the waist to make it just right to catch with some friction. Heard Takara ver.2 had this improved. So I suppose Hasbro's is like a ver.1.5?!
- Not only the red plastic is different (Hasbro's is more red, Takara's has a little pink to it), the orange plastic is also different. Takara's orange plastic is sharper and brighter, with a tad more saturation. The yellow paint on the spoiler is also quite different. Again, Takara's is matte, brighter and more saturated, while Hasbro is kind of dull, even though its glossy paint.
All in all, I have a hard time agreeing with people thinking the Hasbro one looks better. The grey face really look odd in person, and I realized Hasbro didn't care about color matching details as I have the whole thing taken apart. Takara keep all the colors very consistent, down to the shoulder ratchets, hinges behind wheels, sway bars, ankle joints, knees, clear plastic on the hip skirt, the back skirts, two tone yellow on the spoiler, two tone red on helmet...etc. They are aware of all the little parts that you normally don't see and make them all color matched. Hasbro on the other hand, just use whatever color plastic that is convinient to cut cost and skipped any paint apps they can get away with. That makes a big difference in my opinion. I actually like the red on the Hasbro better (not a fan of pinkish red, even though its more accurate), but as a whole, Takara's win hands down for me, and I am convininced that the extra cost on the Takara MP Rod did go somewhere. Sucked that I got the flawed version 1. But now I am glad that I got most of the issue fixed, and managed to not worsen the weak link on the the leg side panels just yet.
In case you are curious of the mold change in the Hasbro version compare to Takara's ver.1, I hope this info helps a little.
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Post by locidm on Oct 11, 2011 15:13:47 GMT -5
Thanks for the info. I re-watched TFTM last night and felt much about dropping the dough for the version 2 MP roddy for its anime accuracy. It's great to know that Takara takes good care of the little detail and materials used and I feel even better now about my purchase.
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Post by mpchi on Oct 12, 2011 12:53:02 GMT -5
Just tried the U shape fork on MP Rod after the Gorilla Super Glue treatment (waited for more than 24 hrs to let it completely hardened just in case), and now Rodimus' chest locks completely when moving his arms on the shoulder ratchet. SUCCESS! It even has a nice 'click' now when the fork is inserted. So for folks that has a loose chest lock, and if regular super glue had failed on the fix, you can try the Gorilla brand Super Glue. Its supposed to be tougher (makes harder build up), but not as quick-drying as regular super glue (which doesn't clog the bottle as easy, has more time to fiddle with, but needs more patience with). You should be able to find it in major hardware stores like Home Depot or OSH, comes in a small plastic bottle that is about twice the size of other regular super glue, cost around $5. Use a tooth pick to dip a small drop on the 2 bumps on the U shape fork, post the figure/fork in a position that the drop of glue will dry evenly on the bump. Avoid any contact on the fork & glue and let it sit for half a day or longer until completely hardens. Then you should no longer have a floppy chest.
I slotted it in and out like 4-5 times with no significant wear on the hardened glue (aside some scratches), so seems like the Gorilla Super Glue is holding up well enough. I can even lift the whole figure by the front chest, without the fork coming off. Very nice.
Failed Takara Rodimus is now more awesome! ;D
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Post by locidm on Nov 15, 2011 21:57:30 GMT -5
Fully armed Roddy. Attachments:
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Post by southpawdragon on Nov 29, 2011 1:29:15 GMT -5
based on this hasbro rodimus could have ended up worse if all the stickers were exactly duplicated from g1 rodimus and made permanent like his shin printings
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Post by Lejam on Dec 17, 2011 6:20:37 GMT -5
I just took some time to unpack my Black Rody. Colors are nice, especially the black which is mate and got little glitters in it (very muscle car touch). Attachments:
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Post by locidm on Dec 17, 2011 13:01:00 GMT -5
Nice! The guns look much better in purple! Love this color scheme but this wouldn't fit on my collection or my limited storage space.
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Post by Sagat on Dec 19, 2011 17:14:28 GMT -5
I just took some time to unpack my Black Rody. Colors are nice, especially the black which is mate and got little glitters in it (very muscle car touch). How much (including shipping) and where from?!?
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Post by Lejam on Dec 20, 2011 5:14:40 GMT -5
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Post by dimis on Dec 20, 2011 13:14:31 GMT -5
Hi, Have you noticed whether it is a v2?
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Post by Lejam on Dec 20, 2011 15:23:18 GMT -5
I didn't take time to have a serious look on that version because of hardcore schedule... Can you remember the obvious elements of version 2 ? I didn't follow that issue, I bought directly a V2 Rodimus. I can take a pic with the regular and the black version if someone is interested in a comparison...
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Post by dimis on Dec 20, 2011 17:19:37 GMT -5
I think it was the front flap and the leg flaps when in robot mode didn't peg in well, the back was loose and the shoulders were weak. I hope you never have to find about the latter! I'd e very interested in a short video tour.
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Post by edge on Dec 21, 2011 4:11:02 GMT -5
im fairly certain I read somewhere that he is 2.0 version. I doubt they'd release a new colour scheme in the old extremely flawed mold.
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Post by Kyoko_Iwase_RX7 on Dec 21, 2011 8:04:08 GMT -5
based on this hasbro rodimus could have ended up worse if all the stickers were exactly duplicated from g1 rodimus and made permanent like his shin printings wow this is awesome, ill get mine on friday!
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Post by Kyoko_Iwase_RX7 on Dec 23, 2011 14:04:34 GMT -5
got mine at last! almost 50% off!
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Post by Kyoko_Iwase_RX7 on Dec 24, 2011 5:25:33 GMT -5
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Post by mojacko on Dec 24, 2011 11:08:17 GMT -5
nice haul....have you tried transforming it??? i havent transform mine for the fear of breaking it....anyway im happy to display it in robot mode since i dont have enough space to display it in alt mode!!
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Post by Kyoko_Iwase_RX7 on Dec 24, 2011 11:36:36 GMT -5
;D
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