Eagerly waiting for Masterpiece Meister
Oh don't get me wrong, I don't think he'll need extra steps or parts to anywhere near the degree of Sunstreaker or Hound. But i'd guess they may try and do some clever integration for his speakers that may not have happened if it was earlier in the line, and maybe something else I haven't thought of too. The cartoon speakers won't fit nicely like the little ones on United Jazz. I was speaking more from my perspective that Sunstreaker and Hound are probably the best of the cars or at least the most impressive from a transformation point of view. I want them to continue to improve and amaze! But my point being that I think aesthetically he'll fit right in alongside the Datsuns will probably only be truer because his transformation needn't be overly complex. Either way hopefully we aren't waiting too long to find out
I love cartoon accuracy. But frankly, Takara are compromising the figures in the pursuit of cartoon accuracy.
I'm not asking for figures to look 100% the same as the animation model.
WFC E Optimus Prime has a cartoon accurate deco and the silhouette says "Optimus Prime" and that's really what I want.
Does he look 100% accurate? No. Is he a better toy than MP44? Hell yes.
I would expect MP Meister's speakers to just be detachable accessories rather than built into the toy itself.
It entirely depends on when Porsche will come to the table. We know that HasTak have been itching to do a licensed Porsche Transformer as far back as 2004, as they initially wanted to make BT Meister a Porsche 986, but Porsche refused to play ball so it ended up being a Mazda RX-8.
Still, Volkswagen and Lamborghini were also refusing to give their licences for Transformers at the time (hence why Alternity Bumble is a Suzuki Swift and BT Lambor is a Dodge Viper), and both of those companies have since come to the table for Transformers. Porsche has proven to be the most stubborn, but hopefully HasTak will eventually win them over. Then let MP Meister, Cliff and Hubcap be made! And for those wanting MP Stunticons, the Porsche licence would also allow an MP Dead End to be made, but the other obstacle for that set would be Wildrider as Mattel currently holds the licence for toy Ferraris (this is why the DOTM Dino/Mirage toys were Audi-based). That would be a harder licence to obtain as I don't see Mattel, Hasbro's greatest rival, letting go of that any time soon.
Isn?t Porsche owned by VW Audi Group? Which to my understanding is how they got the Lambo and beetle car.
Looking to buy lucky draw Armada Prime and Diaclone Marlboor Wheeljack.
Most car companies have a licensing division in each brand to better look after the individual brand image. GM is the only one I know of that has everything go through them. The likes of VW, Fiat and Toyota have separate divisions for each brand.
That said sometimes decisions come down from on high that effect licensing for everything in the greater company. (ie: Toyota and Lexus killing all video game licencing deals for the last couple of year)
The speakers seem to sit at different places in different episodes/scenes - sometimes from out of the rear windows, sometimes from under the rear spoiler etc.
Plus they need to separately attach on the forearms in robot mode, so yeah, I reckon they'd do them as accessories and maybe have different attachment pieces to place it on different parts of the car.
Different marking/licensing departments. Remember that they acquired the rights for Audi back in 2009, but they still didn't have the rights for Lamborghini or Volkswagen (which is why ROTF Sideways was an Audi R8, but Sideswipe was a Corvette Stingray). The rights for Lamborghini was acquired in 2012 for MP Lambor. Volkswagen was a funny thing... HasTak never so much as lost the licence for VW but rather VW refused to allow their licence to be used on any new toy character that was affiliated with war, and this is the same thing with Porsche. Now we know that between 1994 to 2014 there were no VW Transformers based on any character affiliated with war (e.g. Bumblebee), but there was one Transformer toy developed in 2010 that transformed into a Volkswagen Beetle - the Disney Label Donald Duck Transformer. It was permitted because the Disney Label TF line was not based on the warring robots canon of the mainstream Transformers line, and thus wasn't "associated with war." Obviously VW has relaxed this condition and we've had warring VW TFs since 2014, but AFAIK Porsche is still adamant that they won't licence any toy that is associated with war.
I don't know if they could get away with releasing an MP Meister without any weapons, and just market him as a music loving Autobot with woofers etc. (and include Jazz's weapons in other MPs) -- the fact that he's tied to the G1 canon that's about an intergalactic robot civil war might be enough to dissuade Porsche from allowing the licensing. Ditto Cliff and Hubcap. :/