One For The Skies, Two For The Road! Upcoming Takara Tomy Transformers Masterpiece Figures Announced

photos courtesy Takara Tomy

Hasbro opened the floodgates with a deluge of news, pre-orders, and upcoming releases from their main franchises this past weekend. From Snake-Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins movie figures to obscure Star Wars characters getting their first releases, to the programmable auto-converting Optimus Prime that has taken the internet by storm. I could spend hours writing about all this but I wanted to shed some light on some that might have gone under the radar. 

The Transformers Masterpiece line unintentionally started in 2003 with an Optimus Prime that spurred it into nearly two decades of high-end Transformers. A few of the main characters have had multiple iterations while some have still been languishing in the wings. An update to the Seeker jet mold has brought back a chance to get these iconic jets in a more animation accurate bot mode. With MP 52 Starscream 2.0 being available for preorder in October of 2020 and MP 52+ Thundercracker in January of 2021, we were all watching our six for their teleporting brother-in-arms. MP 52+ Skywarp arrives out of nowhere with three alternate faces, a Megatron pistol, blast and thruster effect parts, and a interlocking adjustable base to display him however you'd like! Skywarp's release means at least the original Seekers are covered with this new figure but only time will tell if the Coneheads or other obscure Decepticon jets will join their palette-swapped brethren. MP 52+ Skywarp can be preordered from the TakaraTomy mall from April 7th to May 21st for 27500 yen ($250.48 US approximately). Other online retailers have them available as well.








But the Autobots have more help on the way! MP 53 Skids and MP 54 Reboost are releasing simultaneously with official licensing from Honda. Skids comes in his classic deep blue colors with red Turbo details along the side of his Honda City alt-mode. With working hood, doors, and hatchback, this will even seat the Sparkplug figure from the MP 44 Optimus Prime release. Skids also comes with two different blasters, one handheld and one that can mount on his forearm. As for Reboost, this is a new character taken from the original Diaclone release of the toy. Reboost not only comes with a bright red alt-mode, new head-sculpt, and a holo-avatar figure. Reboost also comes with a Motocompo foldable mini-scooter, which was part of the original Diaclone figure but never made it to the Transformers release. The actual Honda City car came with this optional 'trabai' or 'trunk bike'. Both of these bots are up for preorder now at $89.99 each at most online retailers.


-SC