this 100%...i only see myself maybe getting some more of the FOC line, and im on the fence about a lot of those figs (aka bruticus/delux size figs)..

 

Agreed.

I too have stopped collecting mainlines except MPs. Selling off my TF Prime figures. Keeping some Generations of course but I'm done. I am an ADULT COLLECTOR. Not some child that will just buy anything and be satisfied. I don't want to look at lumps of cheap plastic everywhere in my room. I want impressive, G1 accurate figures.

 

I'm starting to lose sympathy for Hasbro.


They don't give too many craps about adult collectors.

The older I get, the more I want from my collection.

Hollow plastic, shoddy paint applications, excessively simple transformations.


This is why I'm considering collecting MOSTLY 3rd party Transformers.

 

I love your comment.

Personally, I would LOVE an upgraded/updated Classics toy-line.

 

But that new siege Ultra magnus be lookin good that white prime that no 3rd party or mp could do

 

To be fair, Hasbro largely caters to kids, and are looking to produce high quantities of cheap, easy-to-play-with toys that parents can buy for their children. Hardcore "adult collectors" seeking to buy ultra-detailed figures are simply not Hasbro's jive. I don't get the impression that either of you are necessarily upset with Hasbro, but for the benefit of others, the fact of the matter is that anyone that's frustrated that Hasbro isn't catering to adult collectors is shooting a little to the left. It's like getting mad at McDonalds because they're not serving steak tartare.

Hasbro is barely a toy company these days. While it naturally engages in some toy design and development (it likely has to in order to ensure the toys sold in the US for kids complies with safety standards), it generally holds itself out as play brand company, not a toymaker. It's contribution and attempt to engage adult fans is to commission or obtain goods or works that might appeal to us.

This setup is why Hasbro partnered with Takara decades ago. Takara IS a toy company and is the one developing and delivering the MP figures that are supposed to appeal to the adult fan/collector.

That said, I'm also an "adult collector", and I collect both the mainline toys (usually), and MP styled figures, be they from Hasbro/Takara or 3P. The vast majority of my MP collection is 3P. My MP collection is nearly "complete", insofar as I have some representative figure for nearly every character released between '84-'86 barring the stuff that simply doesn't exist yet. I've also happily snapped up whatever MMC has to offer, barring some of the weirder repaints, and have roughly half of the PX figures.

Ultimately, the only limit I impose on myself is whether the line speaks to me in some fashion. My collecting goal for any given line is to get at least one of each character that scales properly with whatever passes as the deluxe class for that line. To this end, I've gotten "complete" collections for Animated, Prime, and whatever's been released to date for CHUG since '06, give or take the occasional upgrade/discard. My Movie collection is incomplete, mostly due to the unpleasant pricing of some of the more obscure figures (even I'm a little gun-shy for pulling the trigger on a $70+ legends class aftermarket Movie Chromia). I admittedly lost interest in RID15, and have no desire to collect the Cyberverse figures (I found the overall later RID15 series figures and Cyberverse figures kinda ugly), which is great because it means I can allocate resources to the incoming Siege line and/or the slow trickle of whatever's left for my MP-styled collection.

Personally, I don't think there's a line in the sand that you necessarily have to draw to be an "adult" collector, nor do I think that collecting mainline figures necessarily represent satisfaction with mediocrity or a need for instant gratification. I appreciate my CHUGs and "kids line" figures for what they are. Prime's figures are stunningly show accurate for the most part giving their budgetary limits, and Animated's figures are a near perfect blend of style and substance, providing wonderfully cartoony toys with butter-smooth engineering and transformations throughout most of the mainline figures. Even some of the later CHUGs, although beholden to whatever line-wide gimmick the execs passed down, toss out the occasional gem even if it's in the form of a homage. I love my Titans Returns Decepticon Targetmasters and wouldn't trade them for anything.

Just my thoughts, though.

 

I agree; and that Ironhide looks lovely as well.

And the WFCS Voyager Optimus looks fairly decent.

 

I kind of agree with this. However, a really good point was made by BSF on his last video. Hasbro is making toys, but they don't have the stability to hold up to play. He let his daughter play with his Generations Bumblebee toy for a short while. She was supposedly not terribly hard on the toy, and by the time she was done, all of the joints were floppy. So, they are making toys that aren't high enough quality for the adult market, yet not robust enough for kids.

 

That's a fair point. I have noticed that some of the mainline figures tend to fall apart. That said, this is a problem HasTak's been dealing with for years, especially when using clear plastics and "gold plastic". Also, many ball joints throughout lines going back to beast wars pop off easily. Then there's the needlessly complicated and fiddly transformers, the always-fun shellformer-all the plates everywhere-types, etc. They definitely aren't perfect and I'll agree that some figures stand up to play better than others. I'll freely admit that if you compare old CHUGs with new CHUGs, the old toys are far beefier even if their engineering is more primitive. That said, this may very well be the trade off - if you want less brickishness, you have to put up with more parts, which means more of a tendency to fall apart.

6 of 1, half dozen of the other, perhaps? I dunno. I wish I could go back and ask 6 year old me how well my toys were holding up.

As a final note, it's BSF's kid. BSF has a weapons-grade transformation style. I don't think it's too much of a gamble to make at least some small assumption that she's inherited this from him.  

 

Holy crap, how is thread still open?

 

Hasbro forces the adult collectors to go to 3P in some ways. Hasbro isn't giving us the selection we want in the "adult" lines. Studio Series has 5 lines announced or in stores, and there are what 4 bumblebees? Titans Return, another line aimed closer to the adult line, we got something like... 4 Optimus Primes (2 laser, 2 PM). I know Optimus and Megatron and Bee are the bread and butter for Transformers, but there are hundreds of other characters they can make. Most of the 3P figures I own are due to Hasbro making inferior versions.

CW Devestator, too big in comparison to the other CW Combiners, so I got Green Giant
POTP Rodimus Prime - too big, so I got FP Protector
TR Blaster, again, too big so I got UT Blaster
FOC Grimlock, too cheaply made, so I got PX Vulcan

 

I dunno about that. Again, I think Hasbro's position is that they produce stuff mainly for kids... which means they don't force adult collectors to do boo. We just may not be the target, and if we don't like what's offered we have options.

To be fair, I went to look at how many "Primes" were released in G1 proper from 1984 - 1990, and then G2, which was from 1992 - 1995, not inclusive of rare variants. I also looked at the CHUG primes which span the same time frame.

G1 Primes:

OG Prime in 84.

OG Prime in 85.
Transform Jr. prime in 1985.
A separate combo pack with Megatron in 85 in Japan.

OG Prime in 86.
Another combo pack with Mirage and Red Alert in Japan in 86.

Cybertron Hero Transform Jr. pack with Chromedome, Fort Max and Prime in 1987.

Powermaster Prime in 88.

Transfrom Jr. Prime in 89 with Rodimus, Fort Max, God Ginrai.

Actionmaster Prime in 1990.


G2 Primes:

Gen 2 Prime in 1993

Gen 2 Prime in 1994.
Hero Prime in 1994.

Laser Optimus in 1995.
Go-Bot Prime in 1995.


The CHUG lines have had:

Classics Voyager in 2006.
Ultimate Battle Prime in 2006.
20th Anniversary Prime in 2006.

Classics Prime in a 2 pack with '07 Prime in 2007.

Henkei Prime in '08.
OG Re-release in '08.
Special Edition Prime in '08.

Titatnium Cybertron Heroes (technically under the Universe label) in '09.
WfC Optimus in 2010.
Classics Prime again in 2010.
Deluxe Laser Optimus in 2010

Deluxe Laser Optimus in 2011.
Legends Optimus in 2011

Legends Optimus in 2012.
Gift Set Laser Prime in 2012.

T30 Legends Prime in 2013.
T30 Orion Pax in 2013.
Legends Optimus/Bee gift set in 2013.
Pax & Megatronus in 2013.

CW Optimus in 2015.
Battle Core Optimus in 2015.

Titans Return PM Optimus in 2016.
Triple Changer Optimus in 2016.
Chaos on Velocitron Triple Changer Optimus in 2016.

"Magnus Prime" (Technically Ultra Magnus, really) in 2017.
POTP Optimus in 2017.

As a result, since G2 we've had roughly 2-3 "Primes" per yer, counting redecos and multi-year releases, and we've had at least one new prime per year, so I don't think it's necessarily that HasTak is focusing on Primes (dunno about Bees, but that would take too long). It's probably more to do with the fact that each line has a limited number of figures compared to the mass dumping of new figures that occurred in the 80's or the longer, more meandering lines that predated the Prime Trilogy set of toys.

 

Holy crap, when this tread was started , g1 Season 3 was still releasing new episodes!

 

Holy crap, when this thread was started, MP-12 hadn't come out yet

 

Of course Hasbro produces goods that are intended primarily for children.


That should be OBVIOUS,
based solely on the "Ages 5+" that often accompanies the packaging.


That does NOT mean, however, that Hasbro cannot generate toys that both children and adults can find appealing.

Earlier toy-lines,
ones created not-so long ago,

had thrilling paint apps, satisfying transformations and decent complexity and an appealing aesthetic.


Being an "adult" collector does not imply that one cannot gain satisfaction from certain, simpler toys, but it DOES mean that, more than likely, the elder collector will expect a little more, especially after having a taste of 3rd party figures.


Personally, I love the Thrilling 30's toy line.


No need to cram in a gimmick,
be it headmaster or combination.

IDW designs.
G1-goodness.
Interesting bio.
Many came packaged with comic books.


And, to clarify, I have no beef with those gimmicks but, undeniably, figures can suffer because of gimmicks.



Essentially, after getting Striker Manus, I realized that he's what I wanted in a TF toy.



-Articulated.
-Detailed.
-Heavily G1.
-Not TOO G1.



Regardless, the upcoming WFC toy-line looks real purty.

 

Serious thread necromancy. The mods normally shut down threads like this.

 

6 years later and this topic has been so beaten into the ground that it decomposed into fertilizer and sprouted flowers.

 

No disagreements with any of that, certainly. However, the crux of the statement made, that "[Hasbro doesn't] give too many craps about adult collectors." suggests that Hasbro ever gave many craps to begin with. My point was that Hasbro sort of didn't to start and have barely made any changes to that concept save for the last 5-10 years or so. Even then, their tactic is to curry nostalgia that a parent can share with their kid, thus cultivating the next crop of fans.

Trying to capture the "adult" market, especially one as fickle and fragmented as we are, is like trying to chase down a ghost. As a result, they've got no reason to generate toys that both children and adults can find appealing.

Do they have to? No. Could they? Of course they could. Should they? I'd argue there's a case for it. Do they? Not right now. Will they? Maybe the NuWFC is a sign that they will.

 

3rd party got me as an adult to collect transformers, currently I do own more hasbro than 3P
so hasbro needs to be thanking third party companies
by now I figured we'd see more Hasbro figures based off of / heavily inspired by 3P figures - Why not?

 

who the hell is hasbro?