How do you assume they are smaller from this pic?? Shouldn't there kinda be some other CHUG figs in there for comparison first? Regardless, Shockwave and Jazz will definitely join my collection!

 

Out of the known line, I only want Shockwave to use as TFP Shockwave.

I don't mind the size getting smaller, some of my TFP figures are at the same height at some of BW deluxe figures. Heck, TFP Soundwave is near the same size as Energon Starscream.

 

I'm not so upset about the sizing issue, but I'm looking at that pic and thinking Optimus and Jazz look really terrible. I thought at first I was looking at some kind of cyberverse release.

I'm hoping they look better in hand, or I'm going to end up backing off the Bruticus combiner. I'd already written off this first wave due to economic issues.

 

Yes. This, a thousand times yes. Your whole post articulates the trend I am talking about, but this especially.

 

I've thought this too. There's much less heft to recent releases. I get the whys, but its still a shame. The plastic just feels thinner and cheaper. Heck, I bought an '07 Leader Prime the other day, and I was shocked by how much chunkier and weightier it felt when compared to say, Leader sentinel.

 

There are pictures floating around from Toyfair. A person brought a WFC Megatron and took shots. They are smaller.

 

That's just the complexity of the figure in action. With more intricate engineering, there's going to be thinner, smaller parts.

2007 Leader Prime is a pretty hefty, chunky toy because it's simpler. Sentinel's more of a shell-former, with a lot of his mass comprised of hollow panels.

Quite frankly, you're comparing apples to oranges. The older figures were just simpler and chunkier. More recent figures have trended towards more complex and intricate designs, that necessitate smaller or thinner parts in order to cram. They're inherently more fragile as a result, but it doesn't mean that the materials are of lower quality or anything.

 

The toys always flucuate in size. Compare Classics Prime to Cybertron Vector Prime, or Voyager Movie 1 Ratchet to Universe Ultra Onslaught.

 

Thank you, it's a very difficult thing to describe, and is arguably kind of subjective.

I bought a MOC Beast Wars Terrorgator the other week, cracked it open, and my GOD what a difference. A major league pitcher could hurl it at the broad side of a barn and I guarantee all you'd have to do is snap a few ball joints back together. Try that with any comperably-sized DOTM toy, and it would just shatter.

 

Not really a fair comparison, since Beast Wars basics tended to be very simple in construction, and all ball-joints. And a lot of the earlier flipchanger ones had parts molded in soft, waxy plastic. And you'd probably have a harder time breaking the DotM toy than you give it credit for.

It's not like there aren't Beast Wars toys known to break easily, either.

Fragility isn't always due materials. Plastic isn't indestructible. More complex designs result in more potential points for critical wear or breakage.

 

You are 100% correct about that, but I think my basic point stands that the quality of the plastic used in transformers has sharply diminished over the last 7-8 years.

 

I honestly don't think you can empirically state that without doing some actual mechanical and chemical tests.

I find it doubtful that you'd find any significant difference.

 

As someone that works with plastics all day every day I would politely assert that you're not correct about that. The difference between plastic made from sweet light crude and plastic made from shale oil is pretty obvious to someone with experience.

 

Is there any significant difference in how the plastics resist shear, compression, bending, and torque forces at the limits of which a toy would normally be subject to?

Because if neither are apt to spontaneously disintegrate under those conditions, then the point is largely moot.

 

I think there's a difference in some or all of those factors, as the newer plastic is generally more brittle.

Whether it would actually matter in the course of normal play? I'd say probably not. It's mostly what I would call "tactile aesthetics". I like when my toys are heavier, with more supple plastic, but it's not like it really matters to kids or anything.

 

I agree. Recent figures feel much lighter though, I think it's because of the high cost of the material and can't really be helped. Toy developers often mention the high cost as one of the biggest restrictions.

 

I can't say I can tell the difference either. Any of the overt differences are accounted for with the aforementioned smaller/thinner parts.

I can understand liking the tactile sensation of a heavier toy, but that's something entirely different that the "cheapness" of the materials. A thin wing/shell part from Beast Wars doesn't feel any more/less durable to me than a thin wing/shell part from DotM.

 

I do think that the figures - overall - have been getting slightly smaller, but I can live with that - Transformers have never been reliably scaled year-to-year or wave-to-wave. In terms of the initial pictures of the 'Fall of Cybertron' toys, I am more bothered by how little detail they seem to have. They look unfinished, somehow. Hopefully, they will look better in hand.

 

Let me give you my experience since I had collected back in the BW and RiD days and stopped when BM/Armada/Animated came out.... I started back up this past Christmas..

To me, I was so excited to get back in to collecting, and still am but, as I get some of the generations/RTS/classics some of them really feel lite and cheap compared to the ones I already have. Like for instance, Special Ops Jazz I was so happy I had the G1 of him back when I was 7 and wanted the classics one. I just got him a couple of days ago and I'm so disappointed. It's so, cheap maybe it's the metal that missing, (honestly I don't remember if he had any but, I assume there was because he was a lot heavier then the classic is.) but for whatever reason it just seems like a cheap knockoff. That being said I still like it but, it's not anywhere close to the original in quality. The auto transforming thing gets on my nerves due to having to rotate his arms around into awkward positions to get them back in place. Just little things here and there.

Then there is SS Grapple, the moment I took him out of the package, I was completely amazed and so happy to have him, he's solid and heavy and I haven't found a piece that looks like it's going to break on him yet. He's a beautiful piece of artwork.

Next is thundercracker from the generations line. The first time I transformed him, I had to check my pants to see if I creamed my self. This guy is beautiful I loved him compared to the G! Starscream I have. It's just a little bit smaller than the G1 if I remember correctly but I loved him, until I transformer him 1 time and the pieces holding the feet on started getting stress marks, then after a few time transforming him being really careful they cracked in half, they still work but they are now missing the middle pieces. This never happened to my brothers G1 starscream we had back in the day, the only thing that happened to his, is he lost the wings.

For me the classics line are either hit or miss. some of them are nice and solid and others just feel like cheap plastic and are way undersized, if you call 1" undersized, but never the less they are still smaller than I'm used to. oh and those auto morphing things or whatever it's called needs to go away..

that's my .02

 

if everyone complains and boycott the figs, more stuff for me to get without camping for shortpacked figs!