Obviously they’re not the same animal, but is there big territory that the MD covers that I can’t do with the OT? I’ve never touched a MD. (Saw one in a shop once. It’s lovely!)
HELL YEAH
As always, it depends on your needs. 
With the Machinedrum you can create a beat in a short amount of time, and quickly you can adjust settings for each drum track.
One of the biggest benefits in my opinion is the ability to press the ‘Function’ button and tweaking a parameter, which affects all drum track at once, which leads to a instant change of the whole sound of a pattern.
Of course you can prepare a similar effect with using scenes in the Octatrack, but it’s not intuitive in the same way IMO.
On the other hand it’s a nice peace of gear for glitch / IDM stuff, if you know how to use the CTRL+ALL-function.
This video has been posted several times in this forum I think and sold this machine to several people (including myself):
You can also assign 16 tracks, with the Octa you only have 8 tracks.
Listen to sound examples on youtube, it has its own digital sound and it’s not everyones taste, but if you spend some time you can also reach “deep” sounds.
Keep in mind that the Machinedrum is mainly a drum machine with sampling capabilities, whereas the Octatrack is a performance sampler which can be used as drum machine, but doesn’t produce sounds on his own.
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Hell yeah indeed.
I run both my OT and md in hemaphrodite mode.
They give and receive from each other.
As well as the above mentioned features and fast workflow,
the flexible lfos with inter-track modulation on the md rule.
16 lfo’s on one track’s parameters? no problem.
6 outputs for post processing on top of L/R stereo.
Also the Ctr-all and 8p machines are damn useful.
… Plus what other instrument has elvis’s ghost?
Yes! May I sell you mine? 
If you want crunchy digital drums and do glitchy music, get the MD. If you want clean drum samples then stick with the OT. If you want smooth analog blips, I haven’t the faintest idea what to look at
I will say that the FM cowbell in the MachineDrum is the best synthetic drum sound I have ever heard
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Big words and I got a soft spot for the old 808, but I get where yer coming from.
MD does synthesis in a few flavours, OT does not.
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Do you need the machinedrum?
Do you need the RYTM?
Do you need both?
Oh yes 
I personally went for a used MD non-UW version, and I’m very happy I did.
It’s a great compliment to my octatrack, and the immediacy of the machinedrum is a lot of fun.
The sampling in the Rytm is a lot better than the MD, what with sample per step and a larger bank. If the MachineDrum could get updated with a machine-per-step function I might get a non-UW version to have a MD back in my life. Live sampling never interested me.
Well I guess that settles it. I’ve noticed they’re a bit thin on the ground on eBay. People obviously like to hang on to them. A good sign for sure.
Thanks All for the enthusiastic responses.
I am very happy with my machinedrum+ octatrack combo…
but to be honest… if I would have bought a drummachine now. I prob go for an AR… just because its newer, and it got more shiny lights on it.
it would have been easier for me, if I could just plugin usb for sampleswapping, instead of unplugging my midicables, attach the tm-1 and send samples, and reswap cables…
Not sure what is more fun… function+parameter trickery and ctrl-al machines… versus pads on AR.
the octatrack alone… not always fun… octatrack + great soundgenerator = awesome…
having seen seenfromspace’s tutorials, can you guys imagine what he would be capable with a MD ?
and he would have a ton of fun with it … yeah you do want her, do you need her? … who really “needs” gear … give in to your GAS and get her!
I become more a fan of my newly acquired MDUW and it super easy work flow each day. Fast becoming my fave piece of Elektron gear…