Community Note: I know I’ve been lazy and I haven’t livestreamed in a few weeks now. But this coming Wednesday I will be doing a livestream around 7pm EST where we will discuss all things MP-44. I will transform him, demonstrate the articulation, show off the knee joints, and go over how the sound chip works and play the Peter Cullen clips. Figure Note:
Stop-Motion Transformation of Takara/Tomy MP-44 Masterpiece Optimus Prime v3.0. This is a
great figure. The articulation is astonishing. It’s not without its flaws, however. The knees have a bit of an issue as assembled (see below) and the whole thing requires quite a bit of parts-parking to free up clearance for the big head flip-around. But they did a splendid job of capturing the proportions of the cartoon Optimus. A lot of you prefer Magic Square’s version (in no small part because it’s so much less expensive) and that’s a great figure, but it doesn’t quite have the right cartoon proportions. MP-44 is quite the puzzle bot, but I’m actually quite fond of complex transformations - and they give me something to really chew on for these videos. Hopefully this video will be a useful guide to owners of this figure. Take note, a lot of the parts-parking in this sequence is entirely necessary. For example, if you don’t have shoulder butterflies extended out, then you cannot do the head flip - when you put them back in they lock onto the flipping chunk. In the other direction, if you don’t put the little shoulder tabs down into the chest (they end up under the windscreens) then you cannot do the head flip. And so forth. A big advantage this figure has is the incredible articulation. Look around online and you will see some amazing poses people are doing for him. He can kneel like a samurai, he can do the superhero landing pose. Amazing articulation. Also the trailer and accessories are way cool.
Knees:
I had to disassemble and repair the secondary knee joints. You see, the secondary joint is one of those ratchet joints where there are two gear rings that face each other. One of the gear rings is supposed to stay with its half of the joint because it’s keyed to do so. But the keying isn’t quite firm enough, so it had turned into more of a friction joint than a ratchet joint. Not a big deal and if you’re not handy with such things you’re probably better off leaving it be. But really the double knee ratchets are pretty clever when they’re working properly. The main ratchet bends to a certain point, at which point there is a tab from the secondary joint that can then slip into a groove near the primary joint. So the secondary cannot bend (when fixed at least) until the tab hits that groove and then it is allowed to bend by slipping into that groove. So far the knees have been working nicely since I repaired them. If they break free again, I might switch from superglue to epoxy.
Support Note:
If you like my work send me a tip via Paypal (paypal.me/peolesdru).
Truck to Robot: 0:09
Robot to Truck: 2:13
Speed run to Robot: 4:17
Speed run to Truck: 4:55
2x Run: 5:32
End credits: 6:10
Production Note:
Nelson Films Studio noticed this: I presented the animation sequence at 24fps and it really should have been "on the twos" or basically 12pfs. (each photo consuming two frames instead of just one, so twice as long).
How’d you like that segue from the truck with a trailer to just the truck? I waited until the truck was in the center of the frame and then I removed the trailer, reset the truck to the center of the stage and then lined up the shot as close as I could. Then I advanced the turntable one notch and proceeded with the truck cab turnaround. This thing is very difficult to keep registered as parts are moved and I believe I managed to keep it pretty still. It has a very flexible waist and it was a real headache to keep the upper body still during the shoot. There were 1172 pictures in total. I had some lofty notions about rotoscoping his arrival in the 86 movie, but they way he transforms doesn’t quite lend itself to that, although his articulation can more than handle the various poses (like when he’s in the air). Maybe on a slow week in the future I’ll revisit the idea. Mostly I wanted to get the transformation sequence out there for people to have as a reference.
Viewing Note:
If you want to follow along, I recommend skipping to the speed run and using the Chrome plugin called "Frame by Frame for YouTube". It turns your , and . keyboard keys into single-frame movement keys. Every step of the transformation is documented in the frames of the video, in what I consider to be the best sequence. With minimal rubbing and minimal parts-parking.
Music: The music is by Ethan Meixsell - www.ethanmeixsell.com
Songs: “Angel of Mercy”, “Pride Before the Fall”, and “Thor’s Hammer”
I was tempted to play a track from Tool’s new album “Fear Inoculum”, but I’m never sure if it’s allowed and even when it is the band seems to end up with all the revenue from the video.
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