Look, it's our old friend, Seeing Jesus In A Piece Of Toast or: Seeing Patterns That Aren't Really There.

 

This is just me, but I dislike the current Cyberverse because they mostly look like crap, and it does not seem like they put in a lot of effort into designing them, but that is not to say that it cannot be improved. Sure, you cannot expect them to be able to pull a Battle Blades Bumblebee into a Commander class figure, but that kind of complexity is really only limited to the movies. Think about it, Classic Seekers as Scout class sized; completely possible, or Classic Optimus Prime as Deluxe class sized; completely possible too.

On top of that, I like the idea of vehicles and play sets A LOT, something that Transformers has always fail to deliver. Fortress Maximus may look big at first glance, but once you put a Deluxe class Transformer on it, it just does not look right. However, with a smaller scale it is more possible to have stuff like that.

Do you guys remember Galoob's Z-Bots toy line? Man, those were awesome! Megabot was a robot with 4 pilot seats, and some more space to store more Z-Bots in the chest and back components, very very fun to play with. Loading up all the Z-Bots in it and then rolling them all out for battle, very very cool. I have always wished Transformers can have something like that.

While I do understand that many adult collectors tend to want a perfect representation of a character in a decent scale size like Marvel Legends figures, I on the other hand prefer playability though I never actually play with them anymore.

Just my two cents.

But Hasbro-wise, I do not know what they are planning, but downscaling seems like the current trend, Bandai is doing it, Mattel is doing it, Playmates is doing it, and which was the company that made Men in Black 3 toys again?

 

I don't know if you've ever held a Cyberverse figure. I believe you haven't. Those things are little marvels, Commander and Legion. Many of them are better than their mainline counterparts.

 

Wednesday after work I will walk into my comic shop and buy a recap Regeneration one book as well as regeneration 81. My three shelves are so full I can't fit my MIB/MOSC G2 & Beast era figures. Yet another silly Bay flicks looms in the distance. Shelves are full of Hasbro TF merch. I think the state of the union is sound. I've enjoyed the break leading up to the FOC waves. Wish they were bigger & @ the old price but fear not this is Transformers kiddies, change shall come again.

 

Disagree on the Legion class figures.

Mostly agree on the Commander class figures, but Bulkhead's chest still bugs me.

 

Um, Arcee and Cliffjumper are Legions. Also, Wheeljack.

 

You are entitled to your own opinion, but please refrain from this type of antagonistic posts - it's against the forum rules.

 

The recession was over by 2009. We're in a recovery. Europe might be in a recession, but that hasn't been definitively determined yet.

See above.

Oil prices are falling/stabilized lower than they have been in a long time. Hasbro (or their contractors) should be using contracts to hedge risk, but yeah. Nobody can predict the future.

The phenomenon we have here is that prices are rising faster than inflation, and regardless of the cause, it's causing long-term consumers (fans) to have sticker shock. A kid doesn't stay interested as long, so parents don't see the price increases. Fans, however, remember during Beast Wars when deluxes were $10 all the way up to ROTF when the first price hike to $11.99 happened. Sudden, abrupt increases ($9.99 to $11.99 is 20%) hurt more than 2% annually, even if the end result is the same price.

tl;dr I brought real economics rather than collector ignorance.

 

It's not antagonism. It's merely my opinion, if voiced a little strongly. I'm saying you're making something from nothing, like a rorschach test. There's nothing there.

 

No, It's your opinion phrased in a very personal and derogatory way, how can that possibly not be antagonistic?

Anyway, let's drop it - no use arguing over it here, just don't let it happen again.

 

The Transformers line is absolutely fine. And it will be for quite a while. Hasbro knows what it's doing.

 

As long as there's a healthy tie in commercial, errr..... cartoon, it'll be fine. Should Prime get cancelled by Hub, I'd imagine you'd see some slow down.

I doubt very seriously it'll ever go away permanently, as Hasbro and other toy makers are very protective of their franchises, but there are cycles to this. There will eventually be a slow period where there are very limited amounts of product out there, there will be "reimaginings" (think Beast Wars and how different it is from G1) and there will be retro style revivals.

 

Hasbro knew what it was doing in 1989-1990 too.

 

I thought I'd hit his post in particular. Part of my "reawakening" as a transformers fan is because my son has really gotten into it too (he's four). So I can say that as a parent, price is an issue. However, the Cyberverse line seems to have me covered there as its a lot easier to buy the $5 legion and $9 commanders for him than a $15 deluxe or $20 voyager. Plus, there is still clearance, secondary retailers, and coupons from time to time, so I don't see our hobby dying (though Mommy is getting upset about all the bots under foot, so who knows).

As far as MY side of the hobby, I'll probably buy less and be more picky. It's a simple budget issue. At $10 a $50 budget gets me five deluxe class or 3 and a voyager, at $15, I get 3 deluxes or 2 and a $20 voyager.