Oh lawd. OH LAWD. THEY'RE BEAUTIFUL.

Almost wish they were on the Cyberverse scale, but this is amazing nonetheless!

 

Umm, they are Cyberverse commander sized.

 

Bought on sight! These'll go great with Metroplex and my Fort Max!

 

Thundercracker with Buzzsaw
Skywarp with Venom

 

 

No I said kids don't like toys based on comics and yes a hreat kids don't pay a blind bit of notice to comics any more - they are very much a niche interest have been so for well if i'm honest even before the 21st Century began they were very popular from the 1930's to the Comic crash but the sales figures now are complete joke and I don't just mean individually but in total across the industry even Marvel and DC have gone almost out of business many times.
many comics are simply to expensive to hard to get and two adult in theme - and frankly I lost interest in comics as they got repetitive and wordy, forcing someone to wait more than 6th months for anything to happen is enough to try anyone's patience. and certainly IDW inconsistent art and going nowhere plots and insanely wrong characterisation is enough to make them a name to spite as much as it might be to admire to many other fans (I'm in the Ignore camp).

Yes to the 7 year olds - but to a collector they might ask where where does this fit in. and as I said they are to small so other than being an adjunt to Powercore Combiners or something to use with Metroplex I'm looking on them as something like 6" Titaniums as something with no natural home.
I suppose you can look on them as tiny representations of their "Name" sort of like ActionMasters are but to me they lack the collectability or consistency of even Legion toys.

Why do a slightly disapprove - well because they don't fit in - the only way to make them fit in is to make enough of them so they stand up in their own right as a separate subline theme. Otherwise I see them as a discordant note much as I see those terrible Iron man 3 toys as another discordant note.

No I don't ask that people make what I want I just ask that they make stuff that makes sense in comparison to what you want to push and what is to come before and afterwards. It seems that what they want to push isn't the globally distributed Transformers Prime but a niche line based on an obscure comic read by a few Thousand people in for the most part a tiny handful of countries.

They have made something that isn't even worth releasing outside North America unless they want to rely on name recognition of Megatron, Optimus Bumblebee etc.. and it's all the worse when the same contamination is evident in the Deluxe line too.

They are feeding kids something on name alone that bares no relationship to anything the vast majority of them have seen or care about - I mean Miner Megatron "Really"??

My comment that some might see as disgust or ire are more akin to a wariness and remembrance how things can go wrong pretty darn quick if someone isn't paying attention and I've seen a lot of seriously weird toys (some might say Dollar store tat) coming out of Hasbro the last year or so.

I think they need to pull their finger out and don't just sleep walk into oblivion or hope like Vintage Kenner used to that people will buy any old crap with a brand name slapped on it.
The Future isn't looking bright right now with another Movieline to endure and the persistent mishandling of the cartoon based mainline and declining relationships with the retailers and the possibility stores like ToyRUs might not even exist in a few years time.

I worry I don't want 2013-2015 to be the next "Masters" or 'G2' or 'Beast Machines' or worse. and I certainly don't think selling a brand segment the vast majority of the market is oblivious to is a good way to progress on the hope there's some hidden desire for tiny pocket size Targetmasters with some name recognition slapped on and a lot of wishful thinking. I don't consider that much of a plan not quite as dumb as releasing Pretenders/Micromasters/ActionMasters back to back with no "True Transformers" but IDW comic characters to me makes as much sense as reissuing Energon toys would when the shows not on TV at the time.

In sort "I'm concerned" at the direction of travel as it flows into the next Movie period leading to a potential brand decline.

 

I still like Venksta's version of Chop Shop better:
http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/radicons-customs/322971-wst-chop-shop-non-transformable.html

 

There. i fixed it for ya.

 

Kind of fun they remind me of those PVC lines Takara have made from time time.

They look like they make fun danglers or even xmas tree decorations.

 

Fixed that for ya.

 

Far from every collector buys all of a line, though. Not everyone has that cash or that desire. Like, a cute little Megatron is by himself justification enough. I bet a lot of people collect Megatrons without concern for their exact scale in relation to each other. Even more buy figures that simply appeal to them. Some, I'm sure, specifically only buy small figures due to budget or preference.

Alright, they don't fit in with what you want, but every figure is like that for a decent chunk of people.

 

Oh, but he's special. What he wants is the "right" thing and he knows what's right for the brand far better than Hasbro or the rest of the fandom.

-ZacWilliam, oh we'll see when the toyapocalypse comes. We'll see.

 

Well said.

Assuming there's only one reason people collect toys is absurd. The simple fact that many collectors in this thread are giving different reasons refutes this.

 

Read the posts just before the one of mine you quoted.

 

Look, dude. Tons of people like the IDW comics. It's Hasbro doing something to make the fans stop complaining. It's not going to be the end of the world.

You may not like it, fine. But that doesn't mean somebody else does. You can stick with your Prime toys which are not that bad. We can have the IDW comics toys. And some want both, so they'll get it. I'm in that last category.

It's not all about the fans. It's a toyline for children. Hasbro has to sell to the target Demographic. It's good that they're making homages, but their first priority is selling toys to children.

 

Problem is where you meant to or not, or are even aware of it or not. That's what you're doing. You're complaining that they're making figures you don't want to buy. As part of the line of figures meant to cater more to older fans. The side line where they put figures based on older parts of the brand and the major game. Now you try and obscure it by pulling three paragraphs of the "ruined forever" card. Everything you say about this boils down to: I don't want these, give me what I want, boo-hoo.

 

I hope that this line continues and we get more figures.

 

The sculpts and articulation looks good but I'll hold out on Megs until they give a G1 inspired colours. I'm not familar with these colours and they don't look appealing to me.

 

I could so easily redirect your own words back at you pally, I make no apologies for thinking IDW make substandard comics and that toys should be focused on the items most likely to have a marketing push provided by other things like Cross branding and merchandising.

And don't you think calling anyone who has a different opinion to you a self indulgent manchild is getting a little tired now it's become a clique like asking British people on Xbox live if they like crumpets ?

I don't think it's an example of fan entitlement to ask Hasbro to actually 'try' to just once finish a toyline before they abandon it for the next shiny thing especially when the next shiny thing is often yet another shiny 'yellow' thing. I'm a we bit perplexed that so many people are getting so angry with me when I suggest it's more logical for the brand survival that the brands primary focus should be the products that are backed with more marketing and have a more global reach. Many people critised Powercore combiners as they couldn't see the point of them at the time. and though I liked them as I usually like "Scout class" type toys I could also see why people had a problem with them - I just wish some more people on here would give me the same respect and engage with the arguments rather than resort to insults at the 1st chance. Or do I have to start an "Attack thread" and have all news threads only have positive comments made on them ? As "Attack threads" only get even more ire heaped on them, and I'm not really attacking them I'm just attacking the brand focus rather than the toys themselves. Perhaps If Hasbro gave us a hint if the Beast Hunters toyline will leak into 2014 or not I might show more patience than I would with a toyline that seems to has seemingly been abandoned before the shows even finished airing.

I'm not telling anyone not to buy them if they like the comics of they like small toys, I'm not standing here laughing and pointing and saying Cyberverse size toys are toys for poor kids. I'm simply saying that I'd like a more consistent brand focus - I don't care what they make so long as the focus is consistent. I can't say I feel that making small toys which many here seem to think are aimed at kids is logical or even understandable to me when those same characters likeness are based on a comic the vast majority of 7 year old have never read. and I really don't think aiming tiny "Pocket Money toys" at Adults is an argument that can easily be made as rational either. if anything it's slightly insulting to say the current adult focus is on the smallest and most disposable brand niche.

And I'm hardly the only one who thinks Hasbro's not at its best lately either - as any Youtube video taking the mickey out of the woefully poor Iron man 3 toys can easily show. (Not that they are quite as bad as Mattel yet - but no one wants them to get that bad).

I just don't see an especial need to white Knight them. and frankly I don't see why I should apologise for a perfectly reasonable premise that Transformers toys should focus on the product with the most marketing and the toyline type with the most consistency and it's probably not such a great idea to go off piste so much. Not so different from the argument I put forward that it was hardly the cleverest idea to make so many different "Kiddy" themed Movie toy subbrands when most of those brands never got past half a dozen toys in many cases and most of them were little more than "another Bumblebee".

I just happen to think a Helicopter Vehicon or a Tank Vehicon or a Hasbro Aerial Vehicon would find a happier place in my collection than another novelty line based mainly on character name and overall brand recognition does.
Some might even say that every one or two of these 2013 Legends toys is work that could have been spent on making another mainline deluxe.
And even if you like IDW themes some might see the merit of that vaguely F-22 like Starscream mould having been a deluxe.

However if you one of those single character collectors like the people who just collect Megatron or Optimus I suppose you'd welcome them more than I do - I'm not hating I'm just calling them an unfocused brand premise to release in a brand dip between movies.

I don't mind if they make toys I don't like as much if you folks want to spend a small fortune on Statues and Bottlecaps go right ahead. but even the most obscure brands in the past have had some point like referencing G1 or the current cartoon. the crux of my argument I guess is the combination of the product idea with that particular price point or size being a bit odd in my mind, now I'd hardly have noticed if Hasbro had made and were going to continue to make more toys made on the Prime line (the line they are supposed to be marketing) but these things just stand out to me as oddities when they have so clearly left gaps the size of Empire State Building in the Prime toyline.

It's hardly "expressing a sense of entitlement" to think that the toys Hasbro makes should be in addition to the mainline Prime line not instead of it (and argument that could also be applied to recent Generations Deluxe too). Or perhaps when I think "Transformers" I think 'Deluxe' or 'Voyager' and toy toys like these seem like a distraction from that. Besides look at that third party IDWish Optimus for all it's quirks it does show that the design looks much more impressive if made a bit bigger. I would also say it's a bit eyebrow raising that something as niche as IDW comics is seemingly such a focus of the vague attempt Hasbro are having at 30th Anniversary celebrations that is the really odd aspect to my mind it's like saying here celebrate the 30 years of Transformers via the medium of Beast Wars 2nd..

 

Megatro and Chop Shop will be mine. They both look so cool. Not really sure on Starscream. I like the design and I'd most definitely buy a Deluxe or Voyager of it, but maybe I'm not interested because of the included Wsspinator.

 

RedAlert Rescue, I'm sure that hasbro are aware that there are many fans that want to complete their 'classics' line, or want the more obscure characters from any show line they introduce. Efforts are being taken to do so, though it may seem piecemeal to some of us.
The fact is that Transformers requires constant reinvention to keep it fresh, this is evident in the constant revival of the brand. Additionally, awarness and familiarity of the 'core' characters is a very important asset to the property. This is why 'consistency' is being abandoned each year to make way for new, slightly different iterations of the same characters.

IDW designs are being used as inspiration for a set of characters who are going to be released consistently each year, regardless. IDW designs, like FOC, aren't taking over, they're just adding enough visual icing to sell the same cake another year.
We can criticise the strategy, but it obviously has sales figures to back it. In light of company layoffs and the economic climate, I'm surprised they're giving us the variety that we have.