Takara's well-documented shift in aesthetics for their now disjointed Masterpiece line has certainly given me plenty to write about over the years. Starting with the original die-cast Masterpiece Optimus Prime, we've seen characters released in different styles (anyone remember real-world deco Starscream?), sizes and now outlook (toon over everything), it's been a nightmare line in many ways.
Designer Hasui handled the post MP9 reboot very well with a new Optimus Prime and subsequent car-bots sharing a coherent vision. Taking the cartoon silhouette and the toy detail to make a product true to the spirit of both, he had a hit with fans. This clarity gave third party companies a blueprint for how to boost the line with the likes of MMC's Mirage, Fanstoys Willis and Maketoys Jazz. Your collection, whatever it was made up of, could look cohesive.
And then Takara shifted gears again.
The Cartoon Era
So, Masterpiece Hound is the latest in Takara Tomy's super-toon accurate renditions of its characters. Following on from a Bumblebee that had me questioning whether I'd ever buy a Takara product again, this figure had a lot to make up for.
Hound features a transformation that takes the hard lines of his iconic Jeep alt-mode, and then impressively manages to soften them into the rounded, clean look of the cartoon. In Hound's case, the idea works remarkably well - it's probably the best representation of this ideology we've had so far, beating even the impressive Sunstreaker when it comes to hitting the nostalgia high-notes. Where Sunstreaker has a gap-ridden midriff (camouflaged by all the yellow), Hound is absolutely solid. The visible hinges/gaps on Sunstreaker's legs are embarrassed by Hound's flawless folding away of kibble (including transforming tyres) into a curvy, smooth, gapless structure. That's not to say Sunstreaker wasn't any good, quite the opposite - beating it is a remarkable achievement. Were it not for the unsightly armature that sits behind Hound's head, he'd look like an action figure, because where on Earth could you possibly find enough Jeep parts to make a vehicle with him?
Extras
So he looks fantastic. He also comes with a ton of accessories, including a holo-driver, up-scaled Spike companion figure, roof tarp, rear gun, holo-beam gun effect and various Jeep components which can also be stored in the feet when transformed. Honestly though I'd happily shave £30 off the price and dump the lot for the main figure. Heck, his shoulder cannon is integrated via a lot of folding, and his tiny hollow gun can be stored in either mode. The rest of it is staying in the box, so it's money wasted for my needs.
In fact this value issue is carried over from Masterpiece Optimus Prime (MP44), the third rendition of the character that I reviewed and even produced a video for. Like Hound, he was hideously expensive and laden with extras that only a fraction of the audience was ever going to use. Is anyone displaying Optimus with the Starscream head? Not enough to have made it worth adding. Likewise, Hound's tarp may have appeared for a frame or two in the show, but that isn't enough reason to include it in the box. Do we need two human figures? Not when the price is a gobsmacking £129.99. For comparison, MP10 Optimus Prime was the same price on release and he came with almost as many accessories as MP44. Whatever else this Hound figure is, it's not worth that sort of money. Bumblebee was £90, almost twice as much as the original Hasui car-bots for a figure less than half the size. There's simply no justification for these recent Takara price-hikes in my mind, no matter how complex the transformations are.
Die-cast - it's a lost art...
Then we have build quality. Optimus had his dodgy knees, Bumblebee's materials were flimsy at best, and Hound is, well, somewhere in the middle. There have been a lot of reports of broken plastic out of the box, stress marks, fractures and chipped paint. I was lucky enough to suffer none of those issues at time of writing, but having seen the pictures and felt the cheap plastic this figure is made from, I won't be risking Jeep mode again. It's a very delicate piece.
Comparing the figure, as we must, to Fanstoys Willis, there's a very notable difference in build quality and heft. Both have roughly the same silhouette, with Willis being slightly chunkier but still tremendously tidy for a third party effort. Laden with die-cast, lots of silver and a beautiful metallic green paint-job that covers every surface, it looks very premium indeed. The weaponry is noticeably larger, the face-sculpts (which come in metallic or matte) are both excellent and paint details are sharper - even the lights are covered with translucent, patterned plastic instead of painted on like Takara's effort. There's no doubt in my mind that Fanstoys Willis looks more expensive and interesting than the Takara release, meaning he's a better fit with the majority of the official line so far.
Given that Fanstoys are now repainting older figures, I'd have to say that a cartoon deco on this thing should give Takara serious cause for concern.
However, if you're into the 'toon look, there's no doubt that Takara's Hound is more svelte, curvy and accurate to the source media. But this really has to matter to you if you have a choice of one over the other here, especially when such an insanely clever transformation is completely undermined by the figure's inability to survive the transition unscathed.
Is this Hound for you?
Let's try and finish on some positives. It's the first figure in the entire line where I've wanted to change the stoic face for one of the included spares, with Hound's confident smiling face providing a more characterful representation. He works very well with the cartoon rendition of Bluestreak due to the pair sharing a matte paint finish and engaging face-sculpts. When you start to pair them up, you can see Takara's vision for the line a lot more clearly. Hound is very appealing, and you'll want to pick him up for a fiddle, but doing so feels like a major risk.
Ultimately this is a very clever figure that's perhaps too ambitious for its own good. Takara's paint has never been very hard-wearing, so for as long as I have this figure, I won't really want to touch it, and transforming it is completely out of the question. He'll change poses every so often on whichever shelf I place him with his cartoony brethren, but it pisses me off no end that Takara has now effectively branched my collection into two. This means I'll likely never feel I have a "complete" set of either style, while being charged handsomely for the privilege. Gits.
I love Transformers, but after MP44 Prime's price-tag made me feel mugged, Bumblebee's awfulness having been such a kick in the nuts and now Hound taking my readies and threatening to suicide at any moment, I don't think I love the line any more.
Weren't the Autobots supposed to be the good guys?
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