
Originally Posted by
griffin
Playing devil's advocate here for a minute... since this toy has been leaked for well over a year now and we have suspiciously had no hint or mention of Cliffjumper from TakaraTomy (or any other official JP source) what if, this "Masterpiece Cliffjumper" wasn't actually done by TakaraTomy.
What if these samples were being done by one of the KO companies that have been replicating various MPs within months of their release, or a 3rd party company... by replicating all of the parts of the Bumblebee toy and swapping out a few parts. It probably wouldn't be too difficult for some of those companies that have been doing Masterpiece scaled figures with significant detailing... to strip out a Bumblebee toy and replace enough parts to replicate Cliffjumper.
I know that TakaraTomy operates to a different strategy to Hasbro (Hasbro would often do an official reveal within days or weeks of something that has leaked), but this just seems like a really long time for a toy to be floating around and not be included in a product display somewhere in Japan or Hong Kong... considering how they often display grey prototypes or odd-coloured prototypes (like MP Trailbreaker at the recent HK exhibition) just to have something out there to hype up the interest from their target market. To have these samples of Cliffjumper look to be a production level sample, it just doesn't make sense that it would already be in production (or ready to be in production) and not be listed anywhere for pre-order yet.
(I don't think we've ever had a Masterpiece toy be released straight to sale without going through a pre-order period... and pre-order periods these days for MP toys are 6-9 months now.)
I did also suspect that at first, but the more I see of it, the more I see Takara's DNA like the little pop-down panel at the back referencing an early G1 episode. And the overall finish just doesn't seem typical of 3P.
This is purely my theory and chances are I'm wrong, but what if this figure is actually officially licensed by Porsche but it is meant to coincide with the ROTB movie which also features a Porsche (yes Mirage not Cliffjumper) in it and quite possibly licensed Porsche toys? Keep in mind that when the Bumblebee movie dropped in 2018 we saw a bunch of licensed VW toys (including a Bumblebee movie MP and G1 MP) come out in quick succession. The ROTB movie was supposed to come out this year but now it's been delayed, so that could explain why they had a Masterpiece Cliffjumper developed already only to then hold it back for a later release.
Anyway, I'm probably wrong, but food for thought.
Last edited by Tha_Phantom; 4th August 2022 at 02:22 PM.
Looking to buy lucky draw Armada Prime and Diaclone Marlboor Wheeljack.