Sure, but what else would you call it? The demands by some fans of Hasbro are simply unreasonable in it comes to a mega corporation wanting to turn a quarterly profit and maintain a solid bottom line while making shareholders happy. 3P companies don't have this problem...they simply have to deal with risk of investment in:

How much money can I put into this product as capital?
How many do I need to make in order to justify the cost and turn a profit?

If they fail, no big deal beyond losing "x" amount of investment. If Hasbro fails, jobs are on the line. It's a much different ballgame.

 

Problem is when are not just "some fans" but the fandom and possible fans that just not are fans because are not interesting in cheap hollow plastic figures.

True is that companies are really interested in what costumers want to buy and those costumers keeps brands alive.

Not a secret to anyone how the cheap hollow plastic syndrome is pushing fans to KO and 3P companies with better quality.

Not a secret to anyone how mom and dad can just pass from products with so low quality in favor of other products like Playmates Voltron.

 

Combiner Wars got me to drop out, Titans Return (Takara Versions) Got me back in......Power of the Primes has me waning towards dropping out again

 

I'm actually taking a 3 month break. No new transformers or nothing. Mainly because I can't afford it. I've been watching a lot of good anime, and it's brought a lot of appreciation to my toys, not my masterpieces. I love my small collection, but I think expanding too much would appreciate the design and loveliness of each figure.

 

I subscribe to a similar method myself.  

@The Smirker Appreciate or Depreciate?  

 

Yes.

 

I have found myself doing this quiet a bit. I have actually typed out this long post, and then said, "eh, there's no point." Fantastic move on your part. Sometimes saying fuck it, it's not worth it makes everything better.

I get the first two parts of this. CW became repeditive pretty quickly, and TR was a brilliant line. But what is turning you off to PotP? I love the line so far. Sure the gimmick is not as good as TR, but the figures have been nice and pretty original. Battletrap is a brilliant figure. And Dinobots! Dinobots! I even like the Rodimus after doing the fan mode. And Optimus is also great.

So I'd like to hear the opposing side and why it's turning you off. I see the lines 1- TR 2- PoTP 3- CW.

 

Ha! I wish I could say that. I STALK the sightings thread to see if the next wave is out. I also actively look for what holes in the collection need to be filled. Then I decide what I need to be cheap on and splurge on. Then I get mad when I make the wrong choice when I let a 3P sell out when I should have just got it.

So I hope to take multiple breaks in the future, I get pretty obsessive.

 

Just for the sake of conversation:

*POTP Starscream being a combiner torso, along with the stickers, ruined the whole thing for me. I waited a long time for a Voyager Seeker and this dropped the ball so hard.

*Grimlock has a lot of the same issues as Starscream, the Tyrannosaur mode is terrible. The other 4 dinobots are really good sculpts, but because they form combiner limbs they're all Deluxes that are around 3-4 inches in height(in dinosaur mode). So they don't look right next to other Classics/Generations figures. Slag's size makes him seem more like a bulldog than a dinosaur, and it's even worse if you bring in something like TR Soundwave.

*The Leader Class also has issues, Hot Rod is too tall, Rodimus is too large, Rodimus has maroon arms for no reason, the Orion Pax truck is one of the worst vehicles I've seen in Generations.

*Battletrap is cool, but I don't collect Legends scale and it's a character I have no attachment to.

*Any other characters that show up in POTP are also going to have the combing gimmick forced onto them, and likely a lot of the same issues we've already seen.

At this point I'm waiting for POTP to be over and be replaced with something more satisfying. If not, I'll be taking the first post advice and focus my attention elsewhere.

 

Since I started seeing Voltron toys at Target, I haven't found a black lion that looked like it used paint instead of white-out. Quality is not really Playmates's strong suit either. Vietnam is pretty awful but, if India's the next stop, it's going to get worse before it gets better.

 

I'll be frank, I kind of miss when there was a year or two between Generations lines. That gap between Universe 2.0 and Generations gave me time to chase down stuff I didn't have, or to simply not spend money on toys. There was no impetus to stay current, to risk missing something and have to chase it down on the secondary market. Generations has ran almost uninterrupted for a long time, and the stress of trying to keep up with waves is actually taking its toll on me. I still get a pang of excitement when I find something I'm missing, or when something finally shows up at retail locally. Wave 1 has hit my area, and wave 2 is trickling out, but I'm not nearly as driven to stay on top of it like I was before. Losing releases during CW kind of killed it for me. TR I am mostly current with, but have a few that I'll be chasing down for far more than I'd like to pay. In essence, I think it's Generations that needs to take the break, give ALL of us a breather.

 

Entitlement:
The belief that you are better than someone else and
should judge them whenever you desire.

 

I focus on the many things I like about a figure rather than the few things I don't. No figure is going to be perfect. We all have different criteria for what makes a figure worth purchasing. If Hasbro doesn't meet that criteria then there is always 3P.

 

I agree on the design side,
remember hardbone? TR Hardhead is basically a downsized copy of him in most aspects.

 

Does that happen here too?

 

Cosbydaf pretty much sums it up for me. i love me some Dinobots and I did buy them. I just feel they could have been so much better if they didnt force the combiner aspect onto them.

I LOVE the Legends Class i have all of wave 1 (havent found wave 2 yet)

Optimus looks good in robot mode but that truck mode is pure ass and painful to look at. As for Rodimus........no, just no.

I plan on finishing the Dinobots, they will NEVER combine in my house. I also plan on continuating the Legends Class. The rest (at least what we know about at the moment) they can keep

 

All good points:

1- I personally hate the SS mold as well. I am sticking with the deluxes I have had for years. Since coming back to collecting I have been seriously thinking of getting rid of the whole concept of scale in my toys. It's just something else which brings me annoyance when Hasbro doesn't release it in it's proper size. For instance, Sky Lynx. Some people hate that thing. I personally like it, but it did annoy me it was it's size. Now, I put him next to Broadside in tanker mode, and I am good to go. Maybe that's a "cheat", but I "try" to forget scale.

2- What makes it terrible? The tail? I saw that in Emgo's review. At first, I was a bit disappointed, but in hand it wasn't so bad. To me, he is amazingly G1 toy reminiscent. I also think he is better then the FoC one. So I am more of a fan boy of what they did with it. The tail could be better, but the rest of it I thought was fine.

3- I see your points about Rodimus. Hot Rod for me though is pure gold. That's why I haven't opened the TR ones yet. I am seriously thinking about using him as my main Hot Rod. As for Orion Pax truck mode, I don't think ANYONE can argue that the truck mode is not lacking to say the least. That one does baffle me, because I don't see why they had to do that to him. I wonder if they ran out of budget or something. Shit, I would have begged for more budget on that one. I still hope some 3rd Party does something there. I would have loved stand alone Orion Pax.

Having said that, the gimmick for Optimus and Rodimus is actually pretty neat. I wasn't a fan at first. I mainly bought Rodimus for the Hot Rod, and I bought Optimus for Orion Pax and cause everyone said how great he was. After playing with them. It's neat that the combined Rodimus (even with mismatches). Also, the idea of past and present in one figure is pretty cool as well. I get it that what I like about the figures is not everyone's opinion.

4- As for Battletrap. I fully get where your coming from, and I don't want to change your collecting. I just want to share my story. I had very little interest in Battletrap myself. I have seen the G1 toy, and never had interest. I "try" to focus my collecting to G1 US Cartoon characters. When I went to Walmart, and they had him there, I thought, ah, fuck it, it's $20. I have been out of the hobby for a while, so a $20 here is not the end of the world. I got them home, and found myself wowed by them. The amount of engineering in the size class is phenomenal. The amount of articulation as well.

I know there has been complaints about the increase in price on size classes, but at least with the legend class, I am seeing return on investment. Sure there is the occasional dud in the size class, but for the most part, the legends are very satifying.

So all I am saying there is, if you get a chance, at least play with him. I have found that some of my favorite figures are ones I never thought I would buy. One's that had no place in my collection. Sure I got some duds doing that, but more good then bad.

5- Yeah, I mean I agree with you on characters like Jazz and stuff. But I think that Abominus is worth it. The individual bots at least to me look worth it. I am also hoping that after the evolution I see on Hun-gurrrr, it carries over to the rest of the team.

Keep checking the Walmart, Battletrap is fantastic! I agree with you on the Legends class. Best bang for the buck!

Yeah, as stated above, I wish that Optimus had more of a budget to get him polished. Having said that, the toy itself is a lot of fun to mess around with. So if you get a chance to play with some one else's definitely do so. Same for Rodimus. It's kind of funny, but at TF meet ups, I never was playing with other peoples toys. Maybe they should do one like that.

In terms of the Dinobots, I initially felt the same way. Why are they pushing another combiner on these guys. I thought that was dead. But I actually thought the figures looked good, and for those who want the option, they can have it. Personally, I am not sure how much better they could have made them. As said above, maybe Grimlocks tail could be better, but otherwise, they look the part.

In terms of the rest, I do see your point. This line is not like the TR line where you almost NEED to get all the figures. There is a lot I am passing on myself. Actually most of the stuff I will pass up on after Abominus and Predaking. But that's not always a bad thing. Gives me time to catch up on other stuff. I still have to get a Fans Toys Stomp to fill in my MP collection. That'll cost me an arm and a leg.

Definitely. I almost want to make a list of all the figures that you feel they did extra on because of the third party alternative. What I actually like is when they beat the 3rd Party toys. It's like them flexing their muscle.

And yes haters, Hasbro has beaten 3rd Party toys. Especially in the MP arena. I swore certain figures looked really good and then the TT alternative comes out, you put them side by side and realize what TT did and are in amazement.