When Alts came out I knew a five year old that could transform them just as well as her father who actually collected them. Now I don't have photographic evidence of this and even if I did it wouldn't be my place to put it online.

There's that too...

I'll agree with one thing though, just because the box says 5+ doesn't mean they expected any five year olds to play with them. However, and I think it was mentioned in this thead already, they were aiming for like 8 - 13 year olds as well as adults.


I've liked every Alt I've had my hands on. (Just ten more to own them all too, but I'd need a lot of luck to do that though.) I was very impressed with Smokescreen when I got him. I thought Hound and Tracks were incredible updates. The RX-8 seemed like Transformers perfection. However I could tell I was already losing interest by the time Grimlock rolled out, and it only got worse since then.

Character choice: "Me Grimlock no pony car, me king!" (even though Battle Ravage and Shockblast are among my favorites)
Distribution: self-explanatory
Fiddly: While I think most of the transformations were designed well actually executing them is time consuming and half the time getting them back in vehicle mode properly is impossible since the panels won't line up just right.
Size: They're too big for me to store effectively and I don't have the space to leave them displayed all the time either.
Vehicle choice: I wasn't thrilled with Viper Sideswipe and honestly none of the cars in the line particularly appealed to me regardless of what character it ended up as.
Other minor annoyances: Windcharger and his not-a-gun instead of Overdrive, deco on Skids

If Alts are finished I'll be fine with it, if they come back I'll try and buy them. I think since then Classics has hit the sweet spot for me between detail and playability.

 

i actually don't care for the mazda and subaru feet, in my opinion they're very unstable and are just entirely too large. i really like the mustangs, they looks fantastic, the feet are great and stable, the legs look good, and overall mustangs just look bad ass. i'm not too fond of the corvettes, they're just a big mess, it's just like car parts arounf a spindly body. i really like the ford gt's the only problem with those are the back and front not clamping down, but both modes look so awesome that it doesn't bother me that much. dead end, the binaltech version, is amazing in alt mode. overdrive is also pretty nice, compact and small, and a nice looking bot mode. i extremely like the jeeps especially binaltech hound. it's a great homage to the g1 versoin, it's such a great figure. and i really like the scions, especially broadblast, great figure, i really want to make, or comission a repaint of him into ironhide, and when i get $60 i'm getting a repaint of prime into magnus. and i'm extremely excited to get rumble. can't wait.

 

Let me say it one more time since you cannot obviously read an entire statement.

Children make a toyline FUCKING SUCCESSFUL!!!! This is why Armada, Energon, and Cybertron had mass releases, while Alternators were sprinkled to us over a three year period.

Mother Fucking children!!! It does not matter whether or not Alternators were intended for us. Kids are the targeted audience, and kids did not buy ALternators.

No one ever said that fucking 5 year olds were buying the god damned toys. And thats what they are no matter what the fuck you want to tell yourself. They're fucking toys and will be marketed as toys.

Now go and pick one line of what I wrote and harp on it for a few days.

 

I think we may need to agree to disagree on this one.

 

agreed...

 

I just love watch you lose control.

 

You seriously have no life then.  

 

I knew a guy in his 20s who saw my Alt Smokescreen and wanted to try and transform it. He picked it up, walked away and came back 20 minutes later with a half transformed robot and an unsatisfied look on his face. I also haven't seen Smokescreen's gun/engine since. Needless to say I'm glad I didn't let him touch Grimlock as mine has a nasty habit of losing his doors/legs/under-plate-thingie during transformation.

Point of that story, 1) age means crap when it comes to complex alts and 2) anecdotal evidence also means crap. But the first hand account of one of the designers stating that this line was more for collectors then kids does prove the intention of this line. The 'ages 3+' marking on toy boxes means it's *safe* for kids 3 and up, not that it's intended for kids 3 and up.

As far as I'm concerned, Alts are the best *collectors* line of TFs available today. Tits, MPs and THSs are all either too simple or too expensive compared to the detail, quality and pricing of Alts. Just like how spawn figures are sold in toy aisles but certainly not meant to be 'played' with, Alts are toys made for displaying rather then playing with. They *are* more fragile then most mainline toys, but they're also more detailed, that's just the trade off you get for increased quality with collectibles. Their retail value is perfect, if not pretty damn cheap, for what your getting and their after market value is the fault of collectors rather then a reflection of the item itself. If this was the only Transformers toyline then I would have more complaints, but as a small, collector oriented sub line, Alts/Bts are an awesome line.

Again, Alts are a great line for collectors, but even great things can have their faults.

 

I think this has more than run its course and tempers are flaring too much. Nothing new to be said. We're done.