Toy Review - MP35 Grapple

Series – Masterpiece
Size/class - N/A
New/remould/redeco - Redeco of MP33 Inferno
Wave - N/A
Released here – Released in Japan in late February 28, 2017
RRP - 14000JPY (AU$170) or 15120JPY (AU$183) incl. sales tax
Approximate Size - 25cm
Allegiance - Autobot
Alt-mode – Mitsubishi Fuso T951 crane
Main Features/Gimmicks – Retractable & elevatable crane arm, deployable anchors
Main Colours – orange (amber)
Main Accessories – cartoon-accurate grill, toy-accurate grill, dark grey helmet, orange helmet, neutral face for grey helmet, yelling face for grey helmet, neutral face for orange helmet, smiling face for orange helmet, hook attachment for crane, claw attachment for crane, scoop attachment for crane, screwdriver, dark grey arm barrel attachment, chrome arm barrel attachment, arc-welder rifle, miniature solar tower, solar tower blueprints, tech specs card

I'm still waiting for my PC preorder to arrive, so... *cobwebs* :p

But in the meantime, I managed to have a look at The Scream Man's MP Grapple. Brief thoughts:
* The toy is waaay tighter than Inferno
* The crane is much trickier/fiddlier to transform than the ladder. One thing to bear in mind when transforming to robot mode is to ensure that the crane is completely compacted before folding into the torso. It won't work if it's even slightly not pushed in all the way. The instructions text does explicitly state this in Japanese, but for those of you who can't read Japanese it isn't obvious if you only look at the illustrations.
* The rear part of the crane assembly is really tricky to transform when going back to truck mode.

Overall the toy isn't quite as intuitive or fun as Inferno, and much of this has to do with the extra bulk of the crane over a ladder. The bulkier robot mode does help Grapple look more different from Inferno though. It's still a neat toy in it's own right but it just doesn't work quite as well as Inferno. I'll be able to form a more detailed opinion whenever I get my MP Grapple. I'll also take comparison pics with my reissue Grapple. I took my 1985 G1 Grapple along to The Scream Man's place tonight and yeah... that toy has seen better days. :p

Worth getting? If you're not planning on completing the set of MP Cars and you only want to get one of the MP Mitsubishi Fusos, go with Inferno. So I'd vote "Only if" you want to complete the set.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...pseyhkt4s4.jpg

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I got him with Cheetor but haven't opened him yet. My plan was to take him out of the box, take a photo with him and UW Scrapper, then back to the box :D

So where is the extra bulk? Legs and back?

I may have misheard it but one of the reviews said the Japanese on the back of the box said the bulk was based on the cartoon model?

ROBOT MODE

http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/...psmsadbkac.jpg


I really enjoy the different features offered here. You get three different faces, two different chests and even different coloured arm blasters to replace his hands! The proportions are very good and you can either have an orange helmet to match his cartoon appearance or a grey one to match his toy one. The articulation is excellent with nearly every joint being swiveable which provides one with a multitude of posing capabilities.


VEHICLE MODE

http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5lwydyan.jpg


This is where we get down a little. It’s a great crane truck, don’t get me wrong, its just that like MP Inferno the cartoon version had less detail than the toy and since the MP line tries to replicate the cartoon we lose out on some of that detail here. It’s a very nice Crane Truck though, and it comes with optional extras such as the hook being replaced with a grabbing claw or bucket. The colour is nice, the proportions are nice – just could have stood to have more detail.



Overall
Grapple is not the most popular character. But to anyone who is a big G1 lover or is a Masterpiece completionist then this is very much a necessary character. And trust me, you will enjoy him more than you think!



TO READ MY FULL REVIEW OF MP-35 GRAPPLE WITH MORE PICS, CHECK OUT MY BLOG HERE!


ALSO I HAVE FEATURED THIS TOY IN THE FIRST OF MY NEW MULTIVERSE TOY GALLERIES HERE!

http://i1028.photobucket.com/albums/...psy4rgx4qv.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jellico

So where is the extra bulk? Legs and back?

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Back of the legs, the crane and the crane base (which encases the head).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jellico

I may have misheard it but one of the reviews said the Japanese on the back of the box said the bulk was based on the cartoon model?

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The additional bulk around the head would be for that reason, but not the additional bulk on the legs. The crane arm is simply a bulkier piece than a ladder, and that additional mass needs to go somewhere in robot mode. Much like the hip panels on MP Ironhide/Ratchet, this is essentially vehicle mode kibble which has been displaced to a more discreet part of the robot body to make the overall look more cartoon-accurate. By placing it on the back of the legs it means that the rest of the toy will look more toon-accurate.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BigTransformerTrev

This is where we get down a little. It’s a great crane truck, don’t get me wrong, its just that like MP Inferno the cartoon version had less detail than the toy and since the MP line tries to replicate the cartoon we lose out on some of that detail here. It’s a very nice Crane Truck though, and it comes with optional extras such as the hook being replaced with a grabbing claw or bucket. The colour is nice, the proportions are nice – just could have stood to have more detail.

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Agreed. MP Grapple does enjoy having additional lines on the shins which Inferno lacks, but that's purely because Grapple's cartoon model happened to have those lines which Inferno never did. So that part of Grapple incidentally enjoys a bit more extra detail. But I totally agree with your sentiment about MPs cherry picking the best of both worlds from toy and cartoon likeness instead of being so slavishly cartoon-accurate. Cos I'd imagine that a toy-toon hybrid designed MP Inferno would look more like this. The core engineer/design would be the same as what we already have now, but that additional detail on the sculpting would've been just absolutely gorgeous. But I suspect that we're in a minority here. The majority of fans have been crying for cartoon-accuracy for years and TakaraTOMY is giving them exactly what they want. So I can't really fault them for doing it.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...psxskmotoc.jpg

So how often did Grapple have two hands in the G1 cartoon? Just wanting to make him as cartoon accurate as possible.

Well because Grapple appears in a comic along with the Constructicons on the UW Devestator instructions my son wanted to watch 'The Master Builders' episode this morning.

Even when doing construction he still had one arm as a blaster. It explained to me why the MP toy comes with two different coloured arm blasters, as the one in that episode is dark grey as opposed to a lighter one he has used in different episodes. So I reckon it was pretty much a constant that one hand was like that.

I don't remember Grapple ever having both hands in either the G1 cartoon or comics. A lot of people obviously remember Grapple building the solar tower in the G1 cartoon, but in the comics it was Grapple who built OMEGA SUPREME. :D If Hasbro were to ever release this toy I reckon that it'd be cool if it came with a cardboard blueprint for Omega Supreme and/or even a miniature Omega Supreme PVC figurine instead of the solar tower. It'd help make their version more distinctive from TakaraTOMY's. Toy-accurate yellow eyes would also be the bomb.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I don't remember Grapple ever having both hands in either the G1 cartoon or comics. A lot of people obviously remember Grapple building the solar tower in the G1 cartoon, but in the comics it was Grapple who built OMEGA SUPREME. :D If Hasbro were to ever release this toy I reckon that it'd be cool if it came with a cardboard blueprint for Omega Supreme and/or even a miniature Omega Supreme PVC figurine instead of the solar tower. It'd help make their version more distinctive from TakaraTOMY's. Toy-accurate yellow eyes would also be the bomb.

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That's interesting I didn't know that, I definitely prefer this over inferno now.

Just opened mine tonight. Another excellent Masterpiece figure. Never had the G1 toy and he's not one of my fondest characters but I appreciate the engineering that has been put into the transformation. Also an insane amount of accessories.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DaptoDog

Just opened mine tonight. Another excellent Masterpiece figure. Never had the G1 toy and he's not one of my fondest characters but I appreciate the engineering that has been put into the transformation. Also an insane amount of accessories.

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:eek::eek::eek: You opened it... I hope you have a 2nd one unopened :p

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Originally Posted by MayzaPrime

:eek::eek::eek: You opened it... I hope you have a 2nd one unopened :p

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Haha heaven forbid! :D Yes I opened it because the box was a little dinged, not worth keeping MISB. I was expecting it would arrive like that from Amazon. Just have to hope my 2nd copy from PC arrives in nice enough shape to warrant keeping it sealed.

I should also note the chrome is so much better than that on Ironhide and Ratchet (which already had chrome wear right out of the box). It was perfect and I won't bother doing a clear coat on it since it will be hardly handled once on the shelf.

I have issue with the chrome on my MP Ironhide or Ratchet, although my Ratchet had a bit of flaking on the white paint. My mate's MP Hot Rod had major "chrome dandruff" though. :(

Added Grapple to my MP display. The orange really pops amongst the sea of red and blue.

Yeah he does make for a nice change of colour on my getting-overcrowded Autobot shelf.

Mine has really tight joints, to the point I wondered whether they actually were joints. I got mine displayed with the sun model thingy, makes a change from every other bot with a gun :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I have issue with the chrome on my MP Ironhide or Ratchet, although my Ratchet had a bit of flaking on the white paint. My mate's MP Hot Rod had major "chrome dandruff" though. :(

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Perhaps you should give Takara Tomy a feedback on their chrome paint apps on toys? At this rate I would prefer a matt silver finish than anything shiny.

Got sick of waiting for a certain online dealer and just bought one while I was in Japan (and for about $15 cheaper than said dealer's preorder price too). :rolleyes:

Anyway, now that I finally have my own MP Grapple I've been able to take more pics, so enjoy. :)

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps59v9qei9.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...pst485sjlm.jpg

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http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y22...ps2ktvnanx.jpg

More MP Grapple pics can be found here

I've added the Toy Review detail proforma on the first post. I have also included both the pre and post tax RRP for this toy. The reason for this is because non-Japanese residents are tax-exempt on purchases of 5000JPY or more whereas those of you living in Japan are not.

I was fortunate in that I found my MP35 on sale at Yodobashi Camera and so as a non-Japanese resident I was able to stack my tax exemption on top of the sale price and paid about 10954JPY (AU$133), about $7 cheaper than PC only without the interminably long wait! :rolleyes:

Got my copy from Taiwan source.
I like this figure, I am just liking how it keeps the crane just like how inferno keeps the ladder.

The down points:
The arm is screaming becareful when you rotate.
The piston at the crane looks a lot plastic, and by that I mean cheap plastic.
The cover for the cannon and hands dont close properly

Plus side:
Good overall figure
lots of accessories,
lots of faces to choose.

I just realised...since he comes with the Solar Power Tower, you could arguably use it as part of a base display with Metrolex/Fortress Maximus/Omega Supreme.
Has anyone tried it, and if so how does it look?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

I've added the Toy Review detail proforma on the first post. I have also included both the pre and post tax RRP for this toy. The reason for this is because non-Japanese residents are tax-exempt on purchases of 5000JPY or more whereas those of you living in Japan are not.

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Hang on. Does this cover places like HLJ and Mandarake? Anyone ever looked into trying to claim the tax exemption?

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Originally Posted by Seraphim Prime

Hang on. Does this cover places like HLJ and Mandarake? Anyone ever looked into trying to claim the tax exemption?

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HLJ: No
Mandarake: Yes - at least in store. Never tried their online shopping. I think you need to be in country for it to apply as I think the rule is to encourage tourism (re: duty-free shopping).