My initial reaction would be to tell you that retooling is cheaper and helps to keep the cost of the toys down... but then this argument loses its validity considering that they've gone and made the Coneheads limited exclusives, allowing economies of scale to drive the price up anyway. Considering that Ramjet, Thrust and most likely Dirge are costing me roughly double the cost of what I paid for my original MP Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker, I'm inclined to agree that they should've either gone with a new mould for the Coneheads or done more extensive retooling and then just sold them as mass retail figures to reduce the cost. They saw fit to produce the likes of Exhaust and Road Rage as mass retail figures but not the Coneheads?
And to make matters worse, Ramjet's instruction booklet is pretty cheap. It's better than what Hasbro would make, but no where near as good as what TakaraTOMY would normally do. The illustrations are sub-par, there's no embedded story or background explanation to the character/toy as we see with other Japanese MPs. I'd like to see more effort put in for Thrust and Dirge's booklets, but I'm not holding my breath.
Yes these ones are exclusive, but is anyone actually believing they'll stay that way? They've got the molds, they'll make more with a different deco not too far down the track. Just look at the CHUG coneheads. It's gonna happen
...although it took five years for HasTak to eventually release Thundercracker, Thrust and Dirge in mass retail. Hopefully it won't take that long for the MP coneheads.
i still believe that they will release a three pack ace and elite set, now how much would that be
at alt mode it wont be a big box Takara should have went with shockwave box size or a slightly smaller box size from the original one when they started ramjet but some with the starscream trio may whinge at the box inconsistencies with the coneheads. and i would suggest abwindow with flap type box just to make sure you have all three and not a blind box
If they made window boxes it will never be misb let alone the instructions booklets will be all over etc. they won't make a three together because it will be dead stock and harder to sell.