Mbilia Studios
From MediaWiki
Mbilia Studios is a "luxury collectible studio" based in Dubai (???, see "Notes" below), allegedly specializing in pop culture merchandise for large media franchises, including Transformers. It was somehow founded in 2025.
Merchandise
Notes
- While the website states Mbilia is based in Dubai, the business is actually registered in Singapore.
- The splash ad that greets newcomers to the Mbilia website that asks visitors to sign up for their email list (and get 5% off your first order) also asks for the visitor's Transformers preferences: G1, the live-action film series, the IDW comics, or the Masterpiece Series. It is likely that Mbilia is planning to make statues based on those franchises in the future.
- When polling visitors if they preferred the live-action film series, Mbilia called it the "Bayverse," which usually has been just a fan name for the movie series, and not an official term used by Hasbro or Paramount Pictures.
- It is unknown what Mbilia means when including "Masterpiece Series" in their poll, since the figures from that line are nearly all G1 and live-action movie figures... two options already on their own poll.
- The 5% discount they offer off your first order will knock $160 off one of their statues, letting customers pay just $3610 instead of $3800 before shipping and taxes. What a steal!
- It is very, very blatant that Mbilia uses generative AI in all aspects of their website, and potentially their merchandise. Aside from the fake reviews when they haven't even shipped any products yet and possibly their About Us page, when clicking on each product listing on their website, visitors are greeted with an AI made animation of each character with animation errors, because the AI doesn't know how to actually animate.
- The Optimus animation has the entire front of the truck, from windshield to grille to bumper, go up during his transformation and turn into the tops of his shoulders, while faux windshields and a faux grille becomes his chest. Additionally, all six of his wheels just blur and morph into his legs, with no indication of them folding away, and his entire trailer shrinks into his butt, rather than disappear into the background.
- Megatron is apparently derived from his classic G1 gun design, but at the start of the animation, his head and fusion cannon looks a lot like they're Optimus' head and ion blaster, and at the end of the animation the tip of his gun barrel is floating behind his head without the rest of the barrel there to support it. Meanwhile in the background of the animated scene, an orange spaceship that's flying behind Megatron suddenly disappears as he jumps down.
- Looking at the Soundwave statue, from the front he seems to be holding a rifle based on the G1 toy's gun, but when looking at it from the side (see image, above), instead we see the thing is actually in two parts, with what would've been the shoulder stock actually be a second cylinder on his right shoulder, and the front of it actually resting on his wrist while his fist clutches noting. Meanwhile, his legs have either tires or a second volume wheel when the original Soundwave toy only has one wheel on the left leg, and both of his thighs are clipping through his hips.
