Which are more expensive then Alts were for no noticible visual differences

As far as I'm concerned Die cast is just more costly for no real improvments.

 

Binaltechs, while nice display pieces, are a pain to transform (I'm looking at YOU, Grimlock) and difficult to pose due to their top-heaviness (Skids, anyone?).

That, plus the line didn't exactly have a stellar performance (and yes, I know this is going to be debated again... still, Hasbro's mass retail line had a longer shelf life than Takara's version, not counting the recent semi-resurrection.)

 

+50 pts. to Obvious Prime for first to use above reference.

 

You obviously haven't handled one of the 6" Titaniums from a couple of years ago. Let's take this in checklist format:

1) They were inbetween basics and deluxes in size, but cost $15-17 instead of $6-10.
2) The weight made them unstable and difficult to pose.
3) They were prone to falling apart if a mouse sneezed in the same room.
4) One of the good things about G1 bricks is that the weight gets distributed more evenly. Due to today's expectations for articulation, more stress gets put on smaller joints. This leads to #2 and #3, but also means joints get loose much faster, to the point that after you transform it once or twice, you're pretty much limited to just letting appendages hang straight down, because they won't hold up to their own weight anymore.
5) Diecast doesn't lend itself to tight engineering...it's difficult if not impossible to make it snap together the way you can plastic. This led to sloppy mold designs. Soundwave with his collapsing legs was borderline fradulent.
6) A lot of them had paint application problems on the diecast parts. War Within Prime in particular was awful. I've never ever seen a single one that didn't look like it was painted by an 8 year old with one coat of watercolors.

 

The funny part is, diecast has been mostly absent from TFs for more than 20 years. Following the Diaclone & Microman repaints, the triplechangers, and a handful of movie toys (Blurr, Kup, Scourge, Cyclonus), Predaking is the last I can think of to have significant diecast content, and even he had an all-plastic counterpart. SkyLynx, Metroplex, & Trypticon were mostly plastic, and by the time the Head/Target/Powermasters were in full swing, there was nary any metal to be found.

There has been virtually no significant metal content in Transformers since about 1987, with a few minor exceptions. I think we just get a little romantic about it because it worked well in G1. Rarely has it worked as well since then; while I adore the Masterpiece & Binaltech lines, they have a slew of complaints from many collectors... gloppy paint, chipping paint, paint that doesn't match the plastic parts, weight issues affecting transformation and ability to stand in robot mode, metal panels not lining up with the plastic properly, etc.

Diecast content should be the occasional exception for us old fogeys, not the rule for the current lines where cost and durability are paramount.

 

It's not a "Cost" thing...... look at Hot Wheels & Matchbox Cars .... they've been 99 cents for over thirty years ...... Diecast right now is cheaper to make then plastic..... and the Reason Hasbro uses mainly plastic is sothat they can have an excuse to raise their prices...... plain and simple .

 

We are not talking about that, we are talking about pieces of metal AND plastic and their prices, what was originally the price in Japan of a Binaltech? why so many Binaltech KO have lots of metal and they are cheaper than an Alternator with a similar o equal quality?

 

"Similar or equal quality"? Not familiar with knock offs, are you?

 

If you dont know many Binaltech KO, like this , why you are talking?  

Spamer...

 

My guess is the cost though the argument about Hot Wheels does bring up a good point. I honestly don't have a problem with not using diecast since a lot of the Titanium toys are kind of floppy with it. Overall I think we are good the way it is right now but that is my opinion and I do remember the days of diecast toys that were practically indestructible. Cool stuff but probably best left alone.

 

Yeah... because tiny toy cars a couple inches long with no moving parts except wheels are totally the same thing.  

 

Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars have thin, formed metal sheets with no moving parts except the wheels. I doubt they're even cast, as much as formed. Transformers are bigger, much MUCH more complex in design, and are meant to be put in a variety of different poses. It's not fair to compare the two, especially since the basic design of those cars haven't changed in 30 years either, whereas transformers have evolved heavily in terms of design in their 25 years.

Can you back up the diecast is cheaper than plastic argument at all? Because last I heard, metal prices were all going up extremely quickly. Furthermore, there's a whole slew of secondary costs that are incurred in using metal as opposed to polymers, such as energy costs (you need to keep the metal molten as you cast it), mold degradation, machining (metal is tougher than plastic), and so on and so forth.

So I think your statement here holds very little fact, and things here aren't as plain and simple as you believe.

 

Right, and you can get a pack of 5 plastic cars for 99 cents so yes plastic are cheaper than diecast. RIGHT NOW, plastic may be more expensive (not sure if it's more expensive than Diecast) to make than before because of rising oil prices. But that's recent. Overall plastic are NOT cheaper than diecast or else BTs would be cheaper than Alts (even after accounting for importing BTs).

 

Have to disagree with the Hot Wheels comparison. The cost to ship Hot Wheels cars to you probably hasn't changed significantly in recent years either.

Total cost includes getting these to your local store after production, and I have to imagine that shipping 500,000 plastic Transformers from China to the US to the retailer distribution center to your local store is quite a bit cheaper than shipping the same amount of toys made of metal. Let's use an extreme example... even if a solid metal Fort Max could be produced for the same cost as a plastic one, there would be juuuust a bit more cost getting that to you.  

Even if one denies cost as an issue, the durability of plastic vs. die cast nearly renders all other arguments moot.

 

Because the KO companies didn't have to pay for R&D. Generic drugs are of the same quality as Brand drugs yet they are significantly less costly. Why? Because generic drug makers didn't have to pay R&D. They just copy. Same as KO companies.

 

Binaltechs originally cost 5000 Yen per figure. According to what Bizarro World conversion scale does that turn out to be less than 20 bucks?

 

It also might have something to do with the molds or facilities that the KO people have available.

 

I'm pretty bloody sure iron ore prices have skyrocketed to fuel China's demand for raw materials.