And what we see from Animate is just the tip of the iceberg... Tons of great figures to come: Blitzwing, Soundwave, Wreck-Gar, Sentinel Prime, Ultra Magnus, Oil Slick, Waspinator, Jazz, etc. It's going to be crazy in the next few years!
The Animated figures you see on Ebay are just production rejects. If you inspect them closely, most of them show tiny scratches or paint defects. I got a few myself.
I was wondering... How come so many different competing companies are allowed to produce the same toy? That would be like having 4-5 companies producing Transformers. At least Hasbro and TakaraTomy work together... I just find it odd.
Road Ranger is a good Gobot. Simple but clever transformation. And Leader-1 is better than all the G1 seekers if you ask me. Loaded with die-cast, no add-on parts, simple but effective transformation and very sleek jet mode.
The reviewer did a terrible job this time around. He's not giving the toy any respect, he's just throwing it around as if it was a dollar store toy. That's NOT how one should review such a toy (or any toy). His other reviews are usually fine though.
I'm okay with Bandai. All the Bandai toys I have look AND feel good. My Yamato toys (SV-51, YF-19, VF-1J, Garland, Konig Monster) look good but don't feel so good. Not that they feel cheap, but they don't feel as sturdy as SOC toys. HasTak still makes the best transforming toys out there, no contest.
I don't think his score reflects the quality of the toy to my standards. And I don't think the score for the CM's version was any more accurate. Reading his review, I would probably give the MH version 5-6/10 and having the CM's version, I give it something like 7-8/10.
After reading your review Alex, I decided to not purchase the Megahouse version. No die-cast, major partsforming, leftover parts, cannot stand on its own = not worth the purchase. I'm happy with my CM's version.