This is an interesting thread. Generally, I've seen three kinds of Transformers fans:

1) "I like this hobby, and this is fun. I like the figures. Sure, while (whatever) has a few flaws here and there and there's a few things I don't like, I don't begrudge anyone for their opinions and I'm OK with agreeing to disagree and I'm open to new info that will change my mind. I'm more interested in discussion than fighting opinions."

2) "I like what I like, and what I don't like I stay away from. My hobby is serious to me. I have strong opinions, and I'm not terribly happy when I see stuff I don't like. I complain/comment/criticize because I honestly care about the integrity of (whatever). You can't change my mind ever, but this is me and you're you, so I'll respect that at the very least."

3) "Only my opinion matters. Transformers are IMPORTANT BUSINESS. I am right about (whatever) and you are wrong about (whatever) unless you agree with me 100%. I won't treat you with any respect unless we agree on at least 90% of the points up for discussion. (Whatever) is the best, and (Other Thing I Hate) is deeply flawed, and liking (Other Thing I Hate) even a little means that you're an idiot. As a result I have the right to treat you like a lower life form and scream at you like a small child."

I don't think criticism or even "complaining" is necessarily bad. We all complain about something. It's ingrained as collectors - we want something, and from time to time we're not going to get what we want, or what we want will cost too much, come in the box broken, or is sold by a douchebag. Cue complaining. It's ok. Shhh.  

The problem becomes when we start treating each other like trash for having different opinions than us. Some people just never got into the groove that sometimes functioning in society means occasionally accepting that someone likes stuff you don't. Doesn't mean they're human detritus - just different.

I say criticize, complain, or whine away, but always with tongue planted in cheek. We are grown men and women chatting about toys for ages 6 and up. There's zero things remotely serious about that. If you want to disagree with me because I'm okay that Combiner Wars figures are basically the same five guys remolded forty two times, or because I really am sad that MP Dinobot is $250 instead of $550 because OH GOD DINOBOT IS TEH BEST, then fine. That's why these forums exist.

If you want to go to war and scream at me for a solid ream of text in the most condescending, typo filled rant you can muster then good job, internet bully. A winnar is you.

 

1 here!  

 

Well, I have a theory. Simply a theory. I actually think that 3rd Party actually got Hasbro to step up their game. Even to copy in some instances. My back up points is things like the planes included with Broadside, the fact that Rodimus has battle armor now. I feel like figures that third party companies have already done seem to get an extra bit of details added to it for the fans.

Personally, I don't think 3rd Parties will ever go away. There will always be some one who will want a MP Sandstorm which we can almost say we know won't come anytime soon. Hasbro/TT cannot possibly give us all that we want. So 3rd Party will forever fill that void.

Also, I always think competition is good. Not sure where TFers would be without 3rd Party companies. Who knows if Hasbro on their own could have estimated the returns they are getting from the collector market. No way to ever know really.

Well, maybe I am ignorant saying this, but I really doubt most people have done it. If they have, more power to them. And they should do it.

Ah, okay, well here is the thing, and maybe I am wrong. There is one thing to raise a complaint. There is another thing that the complaint becomes the main point. For instance, when I spoke about Menasaur, I mentioned that I really like certain elements about it. Having said that, I also mentioned that I thought Motormaster needed to be redone. To me he was a complete flop. Starting by talking about something positive and also criticizing it is fair in my opinion.

I think what we are doing is stating something from 2 sides of the same coin. Your right, I wouldn't want posts about how great everything is. On the other hand, I wouldn't want posts about how terrible everything is.

I think what we all want is a good balance. For instance, the Titans Return line is one of my favorite lines, at the same time, I did experience a bit of QC issues with some of my figures, which is annoying because these figures would be brilliant without the QC issues. Or, I love the Combiner Wars line, it's awesome to have these combiners. It's also awesome the articulation and what can happen to them while allowing you to switch what modes they can work in. At the same time, it would be nice if Hasbro found a way to differentiate the molds up a bit. It feels like you do the same transformation on every figure which can have it's positives and negatives.

And that's kind of the point, it'll be nice if we agreed and mentioned that these figures have their positives and minuses.

Having said that, it would be nice to have a sticky thread where we can literally bitch our hearts out on the negatives. It's like the opposite of appreciation threads. With some self modding, and probably with more work then a mod would want to do, we can force the complaint threads into that bucket.

Yeah, that post was a different member. He literally did a line between every three words.

And that is what I meant before, when we all dig a bit deeper, there is more there. Actually in general this a good rule. For my personal life, most of the people I am close friends with, I probably offended at one point or another or vice versa. Then we talked about it, and we came to an understanding about my view point, and me with theirs.

For me, it's a nice defend mechanism. I really don't want to be friends with some one who is so easily offended and is so stuck in their thinking that they cannot open their minds to anything else. And at the end of the day, I am the asshole, and wear that as pride.

Yeah, I think it's a lot to do with the financials there. I think a $100 MP 3rd Party figure sells better then a $80 Classics figure. That's why 3rd Party has become an MP haven.

I also agree that it is a crime that we haven't gotten a really good Megatron from Hasbro yet.

 

Depends what your looking at. What is Playmates doing exactly? What is the context which your referencing?

Is it QC? QC as has been shown here is hit and miss per person. I had a lot of bad QC. Some other users almost none. So unless we're on the Playmate boards, it's hard to tell.

Are we talking about price point? If so, the combiner Voltron combined is over $125 combined I am not mistaken. The combiners we got were $95. Not to mention, ours have a higher plastic piece count and were actually triple changers (Bot, Alt and Limb), which voltron is simply 2 modes.

Are we comparing Transformers, or some other toy line of Hasbro's?

So as with anything, what is the positive of Hasbro? Then let's go into negative.

 

My son LOVES Transformers.

What I can't stand is:

"Dad, Bumblebee can't stand because his hips are too loose."
"Dad, I opened TriggerHappy and he's missing the back part of his foot."
"Dad, Hound has two right feet and can't transform."
"Dad, Sixshot just falls over. What is wrong with him?"
"Dad, Perceptor is missing his gun."

After nearly doubling the price of a deluxe figure in eight years, the QC problems and the need to add polish to joints just so a toy can be played with is UNACCEPTABLE.

If Walmart can sell The Corps! action figures with 12 points of articulation in a two pack for $5.93 regular retail, Hasbro can sell me a Star Wars figure like the Black Series for $6.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/The-Corp...ategy=PWVUB&visitor_id=alG_-YQBllBHEkwUlIH65Q

 

I think you do have to admit that the quality of Transformers overall isn't as good as Star Wars, Voltron, TMNT, Marvel Legends, or really any other toy line I can think of. The parts count for Transformers is a lot higher than any other figure in the toy aisle, but it still seems like they could do a better job with the quality of materials and the deco. I could be happy with only collecting retail Star Wars or Marvel Legends, but I can't say the same thing about Transformers.

I honestly have no idea how Playmates managed to make that Voltron at the price point. The limbs have more plastic and paint in them than a Transformers Voyager and only cost $18 instead of $25. The entire figure is roughly the size of Titan Class Devastator, has electronics, and only cost $100 compared to $150 for Devy.

 

As a fellow dad, let me help with some of these:

"Dad, Bumblebee can't stand because his hips are too loose."
Answer: That's because Bumblebee is a media whore. Let this be a lesson to you, son. Don't be like Bumblebee.

"Dad, I opened TriggerHappy and he's missing the back part of his foot."
Answer: If Hasbro bothered with full bios anymore, you'd know he shot it off. Blame Hasbro, son.

"Dad, Hound has two right feet and can't transform."
Answer: I have two left feet and can't dance. We all have our burdens to bear.

"Dad, Sixshot just falls over. What is wrong with him?"
Answer: If you were a Phase Sixer, you'd have a drinking problem too, son.

"Dad, Perceptor is missing his gun."
Answer: He shouldn't have one anyway. Guy's a fictional scientist. Jeff Goldblum never carried one in any of his good films, and neither should Perceptor.

On a semi-serious note, The Corps guys are pretty cool looking. If I collected Joes I'd probably grab them just to have a cool little headcanon merc group. That being said, The Corps isn't paying for a trillion dollar marketing machine or any innovating engineering. The fact that they're basically sold for less than a value meal at McDonalds isn't that surprising.

 

Because Voltron doesn't have to worry about making each individual figure transform into many steps like Devastator has to do and the combination and transformation is so simple in comparison too so that leaves a lot of the budget to the size and paint as well as electronics. Devastator doesn't have that going on which is why the two came out so different they way they do. So in that regard it's not that fair to compare them.

Also when it comes to Playmate's other figures that aren't Voltron they're not much better some of which are considered worse then what Hasbro is doing. Same goes for Mattel.

 

Quality control is terrible. Whatever factory in Vietnam Hasbro's using they need to up their game. This toy franchise has far, far too many QC issues.

Also lol for Hasbro SW being better. Their 3.75-inch is spending most of its time shelfwarming and the 6-inch Black Series paintjobs may or may not be misaligned on faces. That's provided they look anything like actors, the likeness of sculpts in this line never was great.

 

RIP my feels.

 

I'm with Kaijuguy19 on this one. When the TMNT toys can turn into four different vehicles and then attach to Splinter to form some kind of robot/reptile/rat hybrid and April forms some kind of Matrix of Stockholm Syndrome that can be placed in Splinturtlecus's chest and still maintain the $6 price point per figure, then I'll have some questions.  

 

Not to mention the part count. I mean, the legs are all the same on all 4 lions. Maybe a couple of original parts on the body. Mouths are probably the same as well. It's a clever reuse of repainted parts, but when you have less molds, and less moving parts, you can also save money.

Not to mention Devastator is 6 guys, Voltron 5.

The list can go on and on. But here is the thing. I like Voltron. But comparing Transformers to Voltron is like comparing Tom Brady to Lawerence Taylor and asking who the better football player is. Comparison doesn't make sense. Sure they both play football, but that's about it.

 

This. I'm not a Hasbro-Hater, in fact most of my collection is Hasbro, but I agree that quality-control seems to be dropping. To be fair, I know that toy companies are not immune to the quality control issues but it seems that Hasbro has had a little more than their fair share of late. It's bad enough to pay $15-30 for a faulty figure, it's even worse when the larger $50+ size classes also have issues. I'm not trying to sound entitled and I know that one or two QC issues will slip out like a missing part here and a loose joint there, but it''s disheartening when it happens with 75%-90% of an entire production run of any particular figure like TLK Steelbane's\Skulliton's floppiness or the hip issue with Trypticons.

Back to taking a break, I know I took a break right around the beginning of Beast Wars and it lasted through Beast Machines. I had a little bit of Transformers burnout and I admit, I do prefer having more vehicles than beasts. Also being able to save more money is always a plus. I did scratch the TF itch during my break with Machine Wars, but when RID 1.0 hit, I was back into buying and felt refreshed going to look for more. I know my wallet and shelves would like me to take another hiatus, but bad thing is HasTak keep putting out stuff I would like to buy.

 

@ProtectronPrime @Alucard77 @kaijuguy19 I agree with all your points and I’m willing to give Hasbro somewhat of a pass because of the transformation and parts count. And the other companies put out bad product as well. I can just see where people are coming from when they’re mad that Hasbro won’t release better figures. I buy pretty much everything that comes out and I enjoy it, but I still wish it was a little better.

 

It's OK to be annoyed with Hasbro's products, especially since they've wired us to be addicted to them. I want my plastic crack to be QUALITY plastic crack, too. Still, some people are perfectly happy with the crack they get and there are honestly a ton of reasons why the figures are what they are. This is especially true with Generations line, which is geared towards the "older" collector, so it's not like TT/Hasbro has a vested interest in churning out Poopformers.

Bottom line - it's cool if you have thoughts on the toys or believe things could have been better - you might be right! The breakdown happens when someone tries to reason out why a product isn't exactly what others might want and then get a big 'ol "NUH UH THE REASON IS HASBRO SUCKS AND IS CHEAP" in response.

 

Listen, I think that anyone who is telling you Hasbro doesn't have QC issues is not being fully honest, or is really lucky not to have gotten a figure with QC issues. Also, what you say about having $50+ figure with QC issues is extremely true.

But what I will say is that Trypticon is epic, and the QC fixes are really not that bad. I prefer over tighteness vs. loseness that we had in Metroplex. Should it happen, no way.

Does it happen more with Hasbro then with other toy lines? I am not so sure. I recall people talking about the nightmarish QC that the He-Man toys had. So I have no clue if Hasbro's is more or less.

 

Do you really want to talk about remolds and repaints, really?

Sorry, it is really difficult to defend the cheap hollow plastic syndrome, even the approach of the evil oil companies fails when we remember the internal crisis of these companies.

Particularly like the oil basket price approach but it is pretty easy to see the historical oil basket price.

True is that dollar is king, Hasbro wants more money and spends a small amount, even if that means low quality products but the good thing is that there are a lot of better options out there.

Right now even KO companies are offering products with better quality than Hasbro.

 

You have had some bad luck with tr