I am a Transformers Collector. I open my toys. I don't specialize in any particular category. My basis for buying a Transformers is if I like it, I buy it. The goal of owning an action figure is to have fun for me. Lately, I have noticed that I am having less fun with certain toys...without certain additions. For example...I love my Animated Ultra Magnus. The toy is fantastic...its got lots of poseability, along with lights/sounds and all sorts of hidden weapons. Vice versa, my Classics/Universe Ultra Magnus is quite bland and boring. Sure its poseable, and has some nifty transforming weapons...but other than that, the play value is pretty low. However, if you spring for the Fans Project upgrade armor...then its a different story. I really don't want this thread to turn into a sour-patch topic. Please note, I have many a G1 toy and grew up with the series...so I am attached to the characters, and have all of the Classics/Universe line...and even HATED Animated at first. But the point is...with the Classics/Universe line in particular...where is the fun? Another example is Hotshot. I love Armada ridiculously. Nothing you ever tell me will turn me against Armada. But felt a little let down by the Universe toy. Sure he was more poseable and had a better sculpt...but no Axle-zooka? No minicon-activated feature? Saying that the toys are homages is a somewhat fun concept. But not in regards to playability. What do you guys think? Please don't comment if you are just going to bicker about which line is better. I realize this is a tough point to get across...and again that's not the goal. I just feel like Hasbro led to the rise of the custom kits by giving us boring toys...and I think its a shame that we have to buy extras to get what we want to make an exciting and fun action figure.
hmmm since i turned to an adult collector the "fun" factor doesnt bother me as i transform my figures once then put them on display
The deluxe class was the line of figures that had the ideal combination of fun and design, but nowadays that torch seems to have been passed onto the scout class.
The classics line is toward to collectors so they don't really feature any gimmicks unlike the Animated line which is more toward kids
Even as a kid, I preferred posability over gimmicks, so I disagree with your assessment that the Universe line is missing a "fun factor." I was looking at my Universe Bluestreak and Prowl earlier on thinking "I'd have LOVED these as a kid." Posable, gun stores in robot mode, shoulder weapons built in, no missiles to lose... the fun I would have had.
I would say the fun is in the cool transformation from realistic/near realistic vehicle into articulated robot mode for the Classics.
Which raises the distinction of 'playability' vs. 'displayability'. Well, HotShot imo is indeed terrible but I like a good number of my classic/uni figures better than anything else I have. I love the Animated figures too and think the show is half-decent. Classics are somewhat blocky/bland I suppose, but it is that 'classic' feel that makes me like them. There are some really posable/fun playable ones in particular out of classics though, say: Mirage, Hound, Sunstreaker/Sideswipe, Jetfire.
I get what you mean. Toys these days seldom have worthwhile gimmicks and most of the stuff they give is boring electronic stuff. Sorry, I'm no fan of electronic toys because the feature will die sooner or later and I'll weep. What I would like to see is more interesting add-ons or features. Early Primes had trailers that transformed into bases and what not. Optimus Primal had a hidden wrist-cannon, mace, flip-able shoulder guns, hidden swords etc. Still, I can't complain too much, as Transformers now have amazing levels of transformability (a 3 on a 4 point scale in conversion is probably a 5+ in the old days) and articulation.
I missed this earlier, and I have to say "WTF?" The Animated line was the least gimmicky we've had in years! I didn't see any more gimmicks on a TFA Deluxe than I did on a Classics Deluxe.
I like the gimics and all but just that it doesnt ruin the toy too much it has to have a balance between gimics and articulation
I have alot of fun with the universe/classics line. Um, I don't know how to explain it, but reinacting battles on the bed with my son, while my wife is perterbed by all the pew, pew sounds we make is awesome fun. Tankor and Galvatron win every time.
Yeah, a new version of a character isn't necessarily better. I mean Classics Hardhead isn't as cool as G1 Hardhead. The G1 version was the coolest futuristic tank ever and the head/pilot idea was a great touch. Also, I much prefer the Diaclone toys to the Classics. Classics Prowl might have the fold away gun and the poseability but G1 Prowl still retains a more realistic look due to the diecast metal. Plus G1 Prowl's rifle will always be the coolest TF toy weapon that isn't a Targetmaster. Love that silver chrome look. In addition, G1 Prowl and Starscream didn't look out of place when battling each other. SS could have been a wee bit bigger but they still looked good together no matter the mode. The Classics versions of the characters just look silly especially in vehicle modes. This scale discrepancy is why I boycott the deluxe cars because they just look wrong with the deluxe planes. Even as a kid I wouldn't have put Classics SS and Prowl near each other because it would have just looked silly. Part of the appeal of the original G1 toys was the sense of realism they conveyed. Of course the Combiners done away with that by being ridiculously small compared to the Autobot cars. If I were a kid today, I doubt I'd become the adult TF collector I am were I to base it on modern TF's. The realism and the characters were the enduring appeals to me. Now we get one line of dialogue in a lot of cases. Just not the same. Bring back tech specs.
I have to say my original attraction to TFs owed a lot to the diecast and the realism. I definitely felt most of the post-diaclone toys seemed to get worse and worse. Somewhere after headmasters they really jumped the shark. Everything was big chunky plastic and spacey-looking alt modes. I remember noticing this. It was a relentless decline that culminated in action masters. I have no memory of caring about posability. You just transformed them and stood them up. I never really thought of them as being 'action figures'. There's no doubt that some of the gimmicks added to the appeal. The central gimmick of course being the transformation itself. The more unusual the transformation, the more interested I was. I was very intrigued by how Optimus's head rotated into place. I remember spring loaded weapons really impressed me. Things like combiners and triple-changers were cool gimmicks. I also liked how you didn't just get the toy, there was a little packet of accessories in the box. Grimlock came with 2 guns, 3 missiles, an instruction booklet and a sword. With current transformers, there isn't that same sense of the bonus. You can already see most of what you're going to get. I never liked the idea of the line-wide gimmick. One year there was a load of pretenders, then another year it was all micromasters. That was just boring. To me the gimmick is more attractive when it's sort of uniquely tailored to a figure and adds to the character. Like Soundwave and his cassette minions. I like that they've been mixing it up more with recent lines. Mech alive can be a cool gimmick, but it's not ideally suited to every figure. I'm glad they mix in various types of combiners and triple changers in the line. For me the fun is in the variety.
I've been saying this for years with regards to "Optimus Prime" figures in general. Primes without trailers and Magnuses without armor are two of my main TF peeves. It reached it's apex to me with tit "war within" Magnus, which literally was just a white Optimus Prime as Magnus looked nothing like that in WW.
this^ i love my animated, but i also love my classics for main lines they are two of the best, but classics without FP sets, or GOW, they wouldn't be as fun, i would never have purchased magnus without the trailer, same goes for superion,a white prime? meh, i already have a red one, and the white one doesn't even look like the character, only part of the character.
One thing I like about some of the more recent figures is the more or less lack of gimmickry shoehorned into everything. The level of articulation having been increasing as of late is also good, as I do love my Movie Landmine pulling off some insane poses that most of my other TF ninjas can't even come close to pulling off, like G1 Sixshot. But one of the things that takes the fun out of TF's is the fixation on electronics. There are few TF's who have electronics that actually add to the playability to the toy (Armada Prime trailer for example), but others are just annoying (ROTF Prime anyone?)
For me the "fun" has to do with how easy and accessible the toy is to fiddle with and transform, and look good in the process, so overly complex and precise toys usually don't do a lot for me (most Alternators or Masterpiece items, or any toy that requires five full minutes to switch between modes). I usually don't care a lot about gimmicks either way, though I do like them when they are well-handled and make sense in context (the Leader-class Animated toys are examples of electronics handled well IMO, compared to Universe Ultras and their generalized sound effects or ROTF leaders and their "I AM (insert name here)" )
