The guy who said this is a triumph...he's on to something.

Love it. Totally getting this guy and he'll stand with my MPs. It might say Generations on the box, but in my opinion this guy is a Masterpiece. Bravo Hasbro!

Looks perfect! Spot on scale right there  

Seriously????? It practically mass-shifts to fit into deluxe car scale so it looks great with Kup and Blurr and co (whom he seems to scale perfectly with), and that's a bad thing?


Boy, I bet you think the new MPs are a waste of money too.

 

You also need to remember that angles are deceptive. Certain angles can make Prime Knockout look like a scout class figure in alt mode when he's next to scout class Windcharger. You also can't just judge a figure's footprint in alt mode. You have to take the whole shape into consideration.

 

Ahaha, oh right totally, because this toy doesn't completely kick the ass of just about every movie deluxe to fucking Saturn and back. For sure man.

You know, I love how your not-really-scientific-at-all approach to "it's better to judge it by vehicle mode sinc eit's most compact" fails to address the scorns of movie deluxes, the ones that are so hefty you know, that are not only smaller than Springer in alt mode, but have way more empty space inside. How the hell is he "way skinnier than Kup" when all his limbs are quite clearly thicker and longer in that photo? Are you freaking kidding man? Oh yeah, because you're totally getting the same amount of heft and engineering from Springer as the freaking Ice Cream twins.

Try again.

 

Since I don't give a crap about scale...it's not a great thing, that's for sure. I like to get a lot of toy for my money, and I'm still having a hard time adjusting to how we went from the huge Voyagers of the ROTF/HFTD era to these shrinky-dink toys of the PRID era -- and two bucks more expensive, too.

I don't collect MPs, but I do think $80 (or whatever is was for Sideswipe) is exorbitant for a toy of that size. The size and features of my alternators suits me fine.

 

 

Well for those of us with more refined taste when it comes to our crack plastique, the fact that this Springer not only looks great in bot mode with MPs, but also both alt modes is truly a fantastic thing. The thing to consider besides heft (which is a terrible measure) is the intricacy. The number of parts involved, the level of engineering that has gone into making one robot change into two different vehicles and not only do so, but do so really damn well.


Would you consider Armada toys- the arguable peak of bulk and heft in Transformers- better buys than this magnificent beast? Because they weigh more?

The whole shrinking figures thing has been debunked previously. Figures within a line vary from release to release, but the median range stays more or less the same. Not only are they staying about the same size, but they're improving in sculpt, engineering and detail.


Might they contain less plastic? Possibly, but why would I care? They look better, they feel better, they do everything better than the solid wastes of plastic sitting in my storage boxes. If you like heft, I've an Armada Scavenger you're welcome to. I'll take "shrinky dink" Springer over that lump of crap any day.

I bet you weigh the cereal boxes at the grocery store too, *sigh*






Heh maybe. The new MPs are clever, detailed, well made and covered in quality paint. The price is a little high for us here in the West, but d'you know why? Import fees. Middleman tax. I preorder my MPs from an Asian retailer- currently have Prowl and Bluestreak with them. They cost me £30 a piece, plus £20 to ship the two tracked across the world. That's about $60 shipped across the planet to my doorstep or, for an accurate reading of an MP carbots true cost, $45 per MP figure.

That is how much they cost- including the Asian retailer's profit margin- before cross-the-world expenses. $45. It goes to show you just how much of a rip off Western e-tailers are, as unless you know better they've got you by the balls.
Is $45 for an MP carbot too expensive?




tl;dr- physical mass is not the sole financial contributor to Transformer figures, or in fact ANYTHING you buy on this planet. Manufacturing, design, logistics- just a few other major contributors that split further into the other costs behind each figure.

I've avoided saying it this entire post, and did good, but I've gotta say it here. When it comes to a luxury hobby involving a non-renewable resource, being cheap really doesn't belong. This really isn't the place for bargain basement behaviour (I was going to write attitude, but I wanted to go for the alliteration  )

 

That's a fair point, especially with the way that photo was shot. But Knockout was a really small deluxe with not a lot of mass, so perhaps he's not the best counterargument?

Well....yes and no. Obviously you don't want to compare, say, Animated Prime's truck mode with DOTM Skyhammer's copter as the former is very squat and thick and the latter is all long and lanky, but I think it's fair to compare figures in be same size class that have roughly the same proportions and shapes to see how they add up.

This issue is compounded by the fact that figures in a size class have always had a good deal of variance between designs even going way back -- it's possible to find animated deluxes on par, masswise, with the average PRID deluxe (Animated Rodimus is not much heftier than PRID Vehicon), but at the same time you got figures like Samurai Prowl or movie Payload who crush anything being put out now.

One of these days I think I'm going to get a postal scale and a large flask and measure the weights and volumes of all the figures in my collection so we can get some hard data on what the mean size and standard deviation for figure mass has been over time. Only then can we make meangingful comparisons about it. (There's and extra bonus if we can determine a figures volume: we can know how dense the plastic is and see if Hasbro really is among toys out of flimsier materials nowadays.)

 

My point that size in alt mode is not a good way to judge a figure's plastic content, or reason to judge it negatively still stands.

I previously mentioned Animated Blitzwing for this. In his tank mode, he is incredibly compact, and if you don't count his rather small turret, he's pretty much the same size as Animated deluxe Bumblebee in car mode. However, Blitzwing is quite a bit heavier than Bumblebee, and much larger in robot mode. I imagine it's much the same with Kup and Springer. Somewhat similar size in their land alt modes despite one being a deluxe and one being a voyager, but that does not mean Springer is lacking in plastic, just as Animated Blitzwing isn't. All it means is that there's some really good design work done to get one mode so compact.

 

I could argue the point that Animated Blitzwing is super tall in tank mode and that makes a difference, but never mind. This is a dumb thing to fight over anyway.

But if you think I'm slagging on Springer's design or engineering here, by the way, Im totally not. As I've said elsewhere in this very forum, he looks freaking amazing. What I am taking issue with is Hasbro's cost-cutting on the materials end, something that looked like maybe it had been reversing but after seeing the reviews here I'm thinking has not.

 

Translation: "Well, I don't have any way to properly respond considering my entire arguemnt has been deconstrcted by multiple parties, so I'll just act like Coolguy McDoesn'tgiveadamn to mask the fact that what I was saying was utter nonsense.

Springer is a voyager. He's more of a voyager than Classics Optimus, who's barely into the voyager size in truck mode, yet nobody says he's too small.

Actually he's a pretty good counterarguement, since even if a short little stinker like him can work for the size arguement, Springer (who's even large comparitavely) is even more obvious in his size difference.

Yo forget that unlike most Voyagers, Springer keeps a lot of his mass away from the torso, such as in the lower legs an arms. Look at those arms, and you say those are as thick as Kup's? Ha!

 

Nice pics Roan!

I posted this earlier:

 

Not bad at all looks good

 

Man...Protector is one of my favourite Classics of all time...but he looks bad next to this Springer.

 

I seem to recall hearing a lot of complaining about "OMG OVERPRICED DELUXE" about him when he came out, actually...

 

those feet still bother me :/

 

Wow. In terms of engineering, this has to be one of the best molds Hasbro has released in years. Applause to the designer.

 

He's a must-buy!


Generations_13 by Giblugia, on Flickr


Generations_15 by Giblugia, on Flickr


Generations_21 by Giblugia, on Flickr


Generations_22 by Giblugia, on Flickr


Generations_14 by Giblugia, on Flickr


Generations_16 by Giblugia, on Flickr

 

BBTS get them in stock already

pls

pls

 

Pic request.....Springer with igear PP05!?!?

 

So has anyone been able to get the windscreen part to completeley close in car mode? Theres always a slight gab on mine. It holds together fine like this due to all the tabs and stuff holding it in place but still..

 

Yep, I also can't get rid of those gaps.