Masterpiece MP-20 speculation (from JP Toy Show)

[Sky Shadow]

Is it just shockwave and the cars that have potential licensing issues? Any other characters that could fall into the "maybe" pile?

There are heaps of potentials: Jetfire, Roadbuster, Whirl, Barrage, Chop Shop, Ransack, Venom, Cy-Kill, Bug Bite, Dead End, Nightbeat, Minerva, Backstreet, Goldbug, Treadshot, et al. They're just not as likely.

[Hursticon]

I'll be very happy to see it being an MP Bumblebee, Wheeljack or Jazz - I'd much prefer to see some actual Decepticons outside of Seeker repaints though.

[VERT]

Im hoping for Jazz. Not interested in Shockwave. We have our nice 3rd party one for that

[XMan]

I totally agree Shockwave would be great, and we do need more Decepticons, but I can't stop thinking "Come on Ultra Magnus!!"

[griffin]

I was just having a thought on the MP Soundwave topic...

Maybe the designers are looking to focus on the first year of Transformers, to "complete the set".
Even though they could do with breaking up the run of Autobots, they have done all 10 first-year Decepticons, but only 4 of the 18 first-year Autobots... leaving 14 more to go.
MP Minibots? Why not... we had MP Cassettes.
Maybe some 2 or 3 packs of MP Minibots like the Cassettes would go nicely.

[Cat]

I've read a lot of rumours about the VW and Porsche licenses being difficult to obtain because, being German companies that supplied vehicles to the Nazi regime in WW2, they're quite touchy about licensed products that are associated with war. *shrug*

I suppose the Astro Magnum could be seen as 'difficult' too, since nobody seems to know who actually holds the rights to it.

Personally I'd be keen to see more Autobot cars as the recent ones have been so cleverly designed. That said, I already have the third party QuakeWave, so perhaps I'm biased in that respect.

It's not a rumour. It's a fact, albeit one dating back to the Alternator days, as far as Transformers confirmation that we are aware of.

And I doubt they'd do Jazz before 'Bee if they had access to that license, seeing as they're owned by the same company.

Although a counterpoint to that is that there's less association with Nazis to Porsches than to Beetles.

Maybe they had a regime change, and/or realised/had TakTom give assurances that characters using their cars would only be heroes, and/or not have included weapons. Or they just saw what Transformers association did for certain cars which in the TF movies, even ones which were baddies.

A less likely factor would be that the original Beetle shape was still being made at the time of the Alternators, and it's conception Pre-2003.

[doublespy]

It was also mentioned that it will be a "concept car". Probably was something lost in translation as there's technically not a single car mode that was based on an actual concept car, (or is there?)

[Cat]

Holy crap, that sounds like Wheeljack.

Hot Rod would also qualify, as he was also based on a concept car, the Dome Zero. Obviously he'd be an unlikely and silly choice. And was already done accurately without the need for a license anywhere.

Edit: I'm now seeing that statement clarified/added to, and that the concept car will be a new design for the line, so it could be anyone.

Smart money would still be on Bumblebee or Jazz.

[llamatron]

Sounds like it could be Wheeljack? That would be neat.

[Ultra Mackness]

I would absolutely love for it to be Wheeljack!

Am I remembering something correctly about Tak Tom saying something about releasing 2 big MPs per year and multiple smaller MPs in the same year? Or was that just this year?

If it's the case we might see Ultra Magnus and Megatron as big MPs and maybe Wheeljack, Jazz and Mirage as smaller.