A little bit of love for Henkei Hot Rod.

[kup]

Yeah there is. It's called what the market will tolerate.

Anyway, onto the Henkei Hot Shot toy itself. Looks stunning. Those chrome guns have me really, really excited about this toy. Our RK order should be here in the next few days... cannot wait!

How can you explain the market tolerating this new toy? Its much better than the old one and its fair to say that there are stricter manufacturing budgets now than back then as the retailers want to maintain low prices for their costumers.

Its more about the design mentality and philosophy than what the market would tolerate.

[Bartrim]

the launchers are very nice, but for me JAAM is the true winner.

Agreed. I was going to get the Henkei version until they revealed the universe one would have JAAM number plates. No ammount of chrome can beat JAAM

[STL]

How can you explain the market tolerating this new toy? Its much better than the old one and its fair to say that there are stricter manufacturing budgets now than back then as the retailers want to maintain low prices for their costumers.

Its more about the design mentality and philosophy than what the market would tolerate.

I'm just saying that corporations will do what they believe will sell in the market and the market shall therefore vindicaate them. And obviously it worked. What you or I want to say about philosophy or mentality are moot points.

They're philosophical but they're hardly practical. A business at the end of the day has cost/benefit considerations - not just considerations based on the desires of particularly small segment of its overall market. I'd love more technical transformations too but I realise and accept that this is predominantly a kids market and whatever satisfies that market so as to generate the highest return would appear to be the best avenue.

[Stompy]

I got my hands on the Hasbro Universe version today. As I suspected, there are no guns at all for Universe version. This wasn't really a big deal BUT in robot mode it makes a difference...

See the Henkei version has allowed some gaps on the rear of the vehicle, just below the license plate, for the two chrome guns to act as exhausts/mufflers. The Universe version is a slightly different mould and has been covered up since there are no guns at all. No biggie in vehicle mode but in bot mode the shoulder kibble doesn't sit properly as the corners keep touching each other and supposed to overlap due to the way the robot mdoe arms convert and sit in place. Of course they do not overlap instead one has to be on top of the other.

Now the Henkei version has the gaps and I would assume no such problem as they can both sit comfortably in that resting angle without encumbering each other.

Otherwise fantastic conversion and excellent homage to the original and of course a gazillion times better. On the downside, I prefer the original Jolt. This new one is flimsy, quality wise.

[STL]

Love the Henkei version.

The chrome guns are so unique and make awesome exhausts. Great for detailing. The transformation is very quirky and I like the strange fold to bring hte chest and legs into place. The switcheroo is innovative. Very enjoyable.

In robot mode, I dislike the back kibble and the windscreen between the knees, it gets in the way of poseability in the arms and legs at times. That said, it's still something you can work around. Other thing I particularly like is head articulation. Very subtle but very appreciated. Gives him lots of character. The astronaut head plus visor are also very cool and less "kiddie" the original version. Really like the blues of the windscreen. too, they come out great

Not sure if its a QC issue but the chest and back section, where they are clipped together to form the upper body, it's not very firm and is loose. That can be frustrating.

The alt mode's okay. I don't like the gap at the back on the spoiler. Too pronounced without Jolt. On Jolt, I agree with Stompy that he's inferior to the original by a long shot.

But overall, a very, very cool toy.

EDIT:

Scratch the leg windscreen/articulation complaint. Just saw Tetsu's pictures and realised it was me being a dud

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

I got my hands on the Hasbro Universe version today. As I suspected, there are no guns at all for Universe version. This wasn't really a big deal BUT in robot mode it makes a difference...

See the Henkei version has allowed some gaps on the rear of the vehicle, just below the license plate, for the two chrome guns to act as exhausts/mufflers. The Universe version is a slightly different mould and has been covered up since there are no guns at all. No biggie in vehicle mode but in bot mode the shoulder kibble doesn't sit properly as the corners keep touching each other and supposed to overlap due to the way the robot mdoe arms convert and sit in place. Of course they do not overlap instead one has to be on top of the other.

Now the Henkei version has the gaps and I would assume no such problem as they can both sit comfortably in that resting angle without encumbering each other.

Otherwise fantastic conversion and excellent homage to the original and of course a gazillion times better. On the downside, I prefer the original Jolt. This new one is flimsy, quality wise.

About how much d'you think you'd have to shave/cut/file off before you'd fix his shoulder problem?

[Stompy]

Have a look for yourself:





As you can see they pretty much don't sit properly and defaults to having one on top of the other. Compare it with the Henkei pics above, I think it's safe to say that TakaraTomy noticed this problem and corrected accordingly. While the guns are missing for the Universe version the arm pegholes for them remains. Makes you question the decisions of whether Hasbro wanted the guns or not.

[kup]

I'm just saying that corporations will do what they believe will sell in the market and the market shall therefore vindicaate them. And obviously it worked. What you or I want to say about philosophy or mentality are moot points.

They're philosophical but they're hardly practical. A business at the end of the day has cost/benefit considerations - not just considerations based on the desires of particularly small segment of its overall market. I'd love more technical transformations too but I realise and accept that this is predominantly a kids market and whatever satisfies that market so as to generate the highest return would appear to be the best avenue.

Forgot about this thread

Yes you are right that corporations will do what they think will sell, why would they do something they know wouldn't sell? Therefore that in itself is a moot point since Universe Hot Shot has been made by the same corporation that did the original and primarily aimed at the same age groups.

The bottom line is that Hasbro thought that the original Hot Shot would sell (and it did) and it also thought that this new Universe Hot Shot would sell too or it would not have seen the light of day. However you can still notice a different design philosophy in both - One prefers to use the gimmick as the main attraction of the figure while the other one relies on an interesting design and playability based on articulation and poseability. From a business point of view neither is right or wrong as they were both created to sell but their design mentality is clearly different in both.

When it comes to 'what the market can tolerate' that is also a moot point. Clearly Hasbro thinks that the market can tolerate a well engineered toy with no overbearing gimmicks or this toy would have been released as an electronic box with arms and legs instead. So basically it is up to the 'philosophy' of the designers if they think that a more fun toy is one which is a gimmick first and Transformer second or one that uses engineering and articulation as its main attraction.

Apparently Hasbro thinks that toys without 'big' gimmicks can sell or Animated would of ended up being another gimmick fest line and so would have been Universe and the Movie so its up to the designer to choose which is the best way to go based on his design philosophy as Hasbro appears to not care as long as it thinks it can sell it to the stores and is not cost prohibitive.

Clearly the Designer of Armada had a radically different design mentality than the one one who did Classics/Henkei as the latter are prioritizing on the playability and design of the toy itself rather than the gimmick. However to be fair we have to also keep in mind that Hasbro did impose the gimmicks of each toy which limited design freedom but even so, several Armada toys are 'restricted' not necessarily by their gimmick but their design alone.