Tomy's New MPG Series: Transformers

"Transformers MPG-01 Trainbot Showki (0 series)"
(June 2022)

Something new (and big, and expensive) from Tomy coming next year:








Transformer MPG-01 Trainbot Showki

Released in late June 2022

Price 19,800 yen

Set content:

Trainbot show body (1)
Weapon (1)
Seat (2)
Rail A (1)
Rail B (1)
Chest parts for Leiden (1)
Joint parts (1)
Character card (1)
Instruction manual (1)


・ Transformers railway theme has been commercialized!
-"Trainbot's Showki", which was active in the TV anime "Transformers: The Headmasters", is now available in the new series "MPG"! "MPG" is an abbreviation for Masterpiece G, which means his GATTAI, GIANT, and GREAT.
-The first from the new Transformer series "MPG", completely transformed from the Tokaido Shinkansen 0 series to a robot!
-Since it is a full-possible specification, you can enjoy reproducing the poses in the play.
-You can enjoy the display on the attached rails, and other weapons, seats, and chest parts for Leiden are included.
-It has a triple change specification, and can be transformed into the chest parts of "Leiden"!
-You can complete "Leiden" by combining it with 5 types of trainbots that will be released in the future.
・ [Battery] Not required

[Note: machine translated text]

I ain't a fan of these transformer shinkansen toys. Although I like Transformers Prime and Robots in Disguise, I don't think trains and transformers go well together.

I think that is pretty cool, old school transformers rather than the newer crappy ones we've seen of late based on all sorts of stuff. 

Having said that I do have a star wars cross-over transformer that transforms from a death star into a darth vader bot, that is pretty cool, has all sorts of little touchs such as a cloth cape, tie fighters in small bays on his legs, light sabre, firing laser rifle etc... lol!

I see you are familiar with that, Nigels... What do you say about the price of approx. USD 176? Why are those so expensive? I see they don't move (no battery needed), so what's the catch? Are they massive and made of some costly materials? Shinkanlion transforming trains I could understand (maybe), but what's the point of a static train that you could change into... whatever? It seems I'm missing the point; I don't know anything about it, actually, so I may ask some silly questions...

I don't know what "bots" are either, but never mind. Nevertheless, your story of "Star Wars cross-over transformer that transforms from a Death Star into a Darth Vader bot" intrigued me... The Death Star transforms into Vader, wow?! That must be something! Surely better than a classic Shinkansen transforming into a... clumsy funny robot! 

[Super]

What is 'MPG'?

From the (machine translated) text of the description: "'MPG' is an abbreviation for Masterpiece G, which means his GATTAI, GIANT, and GREAT." And "gattai" means "coalescence".

[Super]

Thank you Mr No

I see you are familiar with that, Nigels... What do you say about the price of approx. USD 176? Why are those so expensive? I see they don't move (no battery needed), so what's the catch? Are they massive and made of some costly materials? Shinkanlion transforming trains I could understand (maybe), but what's the point of a static train that you could change into... whatever? It seems I'm missing the point; I don't know anything about it, actually, so I may ask some silly questions...

I don't know what "bots" are either, but never mind. Nevertheless, your story of "Star Wars cross-over transformer that transforms from a Death Star into a Darth Vader bot" intrigued me... The Death Star transforms into Vader, wow?! That must be something! Surely better than a classic Shinkansen transforming into a... clumsy funny robot! 

I'm not particularly familiar with the whole world of transformers, I do remember them the first time round when they were pretty cool diecast models with only a few plastic bits on them rather than the current crop of plastic 'movie' spin-offs.  Personally I preferred the originals as they were real toys made for playing with and made to last, but that's nothing new similar things have happened in many brands/franchises.

I have to admit I wasn't fully aware of the cost of that particular model as I've not bought anything from Japan for some time and therefore had no clue to the current exchange rate.  It does on the surface sound expensive, but as you say in a later post it is an MPG (Masterpiece blah blah) which is almost certainly one of the things that contributes to that price tag as it is likely a high quality model for collectors rather than a toy for kiddies.  I suspect it will also be quite large as looking at the description it talks about extra parts make up the various parts of the model, so it is probably just more than a single power car.  I would also put money on it maybe being made of metal/resin parts rather than just cheap plastics.

Having said that it is still way more than I'd pay for a transformer no matter how nice it is, well unless I manage to win the lottery or something in which case I'll have 10 an a flight to go pick them up in person lol!

Actually I take that back it does only look like a single power car, but looking at the illustrations I reckon the carriages split vertically as well as into sections to form the arms/legs etc...

Another thing I forgot to add was I suspect a lot of that cost is actually the franchise charge to make/market the product in the first place.  Transformers these days is an expensive franchise up there with Marvel and Lord of the Rings etc...

I took the plunge and preordered. I've always wanted some form of Raiden as his last full toy was his original 80's one that never made it over here. (Goes for 600-700 now!)

Masterpiece is the adult-oriented collectors grade stuff and MPG is a spinoff of that main brand.