5FDP: Fairy nuff.

Quote Originally Posted by kup View Post
The way I see it, a reissue is a re-release of the original toy. Therefore it should be as close as possible to the original. Naturally it cannot be an exact recreation so some differences will be present but regardless, the attempt should be to make it as close as possible to the original release.
^agree

Quote Originally Posted by kup View Post
Personally, I don't agree when people call a new re-color of a vintage toy as a re-issue. These includes E-hobby exclusives like Gadep, Sunstorm, the millions of G1 Prime repaints and the TF Club Piranacon. Sorry but to me those are new repaints, not re-issues. There was never a vintage toy sporting those colors so it's a new release altogether not a re-release (reissue) of a previous toy.

To illustrate my point further, the latest 'gold' Predaking is not a reissue to me but rather repaint. The previous Takara reissue to that which was faithful to the original toy colors is the proper reissue.

Just to be clear, I am not against repainted releases of vintage molds that aim to bring something new (like Sunstorm) or show accuracy (Like Ehobby Astrotrain or Telemocha Dinobot). I very much love those repaints and I think they are awesome but I would not call them re-issues.
I don't think anyone really considers repaints of existing moulds but marketed as new characters as reissues, do they? Hauler, Sunstorm and Road Rage are no more reissues of Grapple, Thundercracker and Tracks (respectively) than say Ruination is a reissue of G1 Bruticus or Universe Nemesis Prime is a reissue of Big Convoy etc. A repaint isn't a reissue unless it's explicitly marketed as being the same character - and even then, there probably needs to be a substantial period of time to pass before it's considered a reissue (e.g. Battle Steel Optimus Prime isn't widely considered to be a reissue of DOTM Optimus Prime).

Moulds that are re-released and explicitly marketed as being the same character do technically count as reissues I reckon - regardless of whether or not people individually like them or not. But the more similar a reissue is to the original toy, then the more accurate or faithful that reissue is as a reproduction of the original toy... I don't think anyone can dispute that. People may or may not like some of the toys that are less faithful reproductions - that's a matter of personal opinion.

Reissues that are different from the original do technically count as reissues, however I do agree that they are not as faithful reissues as those which are more accurate reproductions of the original. Toys which are less-accurate reproductions, to me, aren't as accurate reissues - but I do still count them as reissues. The only way I would discount a toy from being a reissue is if it's not meant to be the same character (e.g. GADEP -- totally _not_ a reissue of Omega Supreme).

But counting them doesn't mean I like them all... there are some reissues that, in my heart, feels like they shouldn't count - but because Hasbro's marketed them as a certain character, then they count. Two examples are:

+ Apex Armour Optimus Prime. This is a re-release of God Ginrai with a chromeless extended missile, and the Ginrai mould is quite different from Powermaster Optimus Prime... different materials, entirely different arms and hands, different colours etc. Also, Powermaster Optimus Prime never attached to Godbomber, oh sorry, Apex Armour <cough>. Seems like a cheap/lazy way to do a PM Prime reissue by just using the existing God Ginrai reissue mould rather than retooling it to become PM Prime (which I would have much preferred -- I skipped Apex Prime, but I might have purchased a PM Prime reissue if they did it "properly").

+ Hasbro Soundwave reissue - I'm talking about the one that was sold in TRU here... the blue repaint of Soundblaster, but they didn't bother retooling the chest/door to make it look like Soundwave. Blue Soundblaster =/= Soundwave to me. Needless to say when Encore Soundwave came out, I soon got rid of my Hasbro Soundwave in favour of Encore.

So to me I consider both reissues of Predaking as reissues, but the first reissue is obviously a far more faithful and accurate reproduction of G1 Predaking. I do still consider Goldaking to be a reissue of Predaking, but it is a less accurate repro of Predaking. Likewise Proto-Astrotrain is a less faithful repro of the actual Astrotrain toy that was released in stores, and the regular Astrotrain reissue is accurate to the G1 toy (in Japan). It's a shame Hasbro didn't bother to repaint their Astrotrain reissue to make it more accurate to the G1 toy released in Hasbro markets (again, cheap and lazy option).