Don't get me wrong. I'm not excusing the sword on Blitzwing's tank mode, I'm just saying it serves a purpose in jet mode.

When did I say I'd prefer no weapons? Read my post again.

Well, yes, there is a double standard. Tanks and fighter jets are military vehicles and should feature offensive weaponry. I'd expect Transformers to be a bit more discrete with their weapons when transforming into civilian cars and trucks. Robots in disguise, you know.

 

the toy line does vary when it come the hiding weapons. Animated was probably the best line when it came to weapon concealment. However; those concealment did hinder a couple of the figures like Lugnut. There is also the plastic factor. With figures going to a smaller size; the concealment becomes harder or even impossible.

 

Is it nice when the weapons store nicely in vehicle mode? Sure. I do miss it sometimes, but I can live with it. Like others have mentioned, it's been happening for the past thirty years, so it's not like it's really a new trend.

For what it's worth, Arcee's larger gun does store under the bottom of her vehicle mode (as seen on Pax Cybertron's review). It's not perfect, but it's something.

 

I'd expect them to not choose expensive and out-of-place supercars like Lamborghinis and rally track tuners for alt. modes for the exact same reason, but these are toys so of course they'll have attributes that make no sense for actual robots trying to hide in plain sight.

Of course, you could just leave the weapons off. That eliminates the problem right there.

 

Hmm, that's one problem I have with the Masterpiece cars. Either you kill the authentic look by sticking guns on their roofs or you leave them lying around. Which is the lesser of two evils?

 

is hasbro getting lazy?

yes.

 

The latter, because if you're buying Masterpiece then you can simply stick the excess parts in a ziploc baggie stored in a drawer or something.

 

I typically throw them all in Prime's trailer when I convert everyone to vehicle mode. Crude, but it works darn well if you're like me and you put everyone in alt mode at the same time or everyone in robot mode at the same time.

 

No, I don't think Hasbro is getting lazy with weapon storage, they're just offering a few play features that don't appeal to you. The trend is hardly new, nor 'disturbing' as others have pointed out, but I understand you have a preference for discrete weapon storage, and many older fans are likely to share your view. I imagine a well-armed vehicle of destruction probably play tests well with younger demographics, however.

I sometimes get the impression that we abuse the phrase "Robots in disguise". No one seems to take "More than meets the eye" literally (ouch!), or consider it the official Transformers mission statement. A disguise exists to obscure an identity, it doesn't need to replicate another identity exactly, it just needs to look different. Subsequently, with the obvious exception of Cybertron Metroplex, most Transformers are successfully disguised, as their alt-modes don't look like robots. Being inconspicuous on the other hand, while novel, doesn't always have broad-scale appeal when it comes to toys.

I personally think that Hastak are doing a pretty good job at providing variety in their 'Generations' lines. While they can't please everybody all the time; they're not displeasing everybody all the time. Which is a pretty good result, really.

 

Why is "leaving the weapons off" simply not an option here?

 

As far as kids, leaving the toy with no way to integrate the weapon means having to carry around an extra piece that could easily get lost. It's happened to all of us.

As for adult collectors, "Leaving the weapons off" is pretty much just an annoyance.

 

But the weapons DO store.

You have to take them off anyway to transform. A child should understand that the weapons just pegging on is only for the sake of storage so as to not lose pieces, but they're not supposed to go there.

Is it? What about people who don't always display them with their weapons? And again, they already come off. Collectors should really be used to that. That's a given with ALL toys. Why are Transformers expected to be special in this regard?

 

That wasn't an engineering fault. That was how he was illustrated in the concept art.

 

*Inserts foot in mouth*

 

No, no, no, now you're getting off track again. You can NOT put the toy's foot into its mouth. That was not in the concept art.

 

What if the figure is Classics Grimlock?

 

I may not have been an average kid, but I never liked putting giant guns on top of my car transformers. It was honestly a look I did not like. That's part of why I loved figures like 07 Bumblebee and wasn't a fan of Jazz from the same line- Bumblebee's weapon could store in vehicle mode without sacrificing aesthetic, whereas Jazz's just clipped onto the spoiler and chilled there. I never liked cyberkeys having to be plugged in to be stored, either.

As for the adult collectors expecting things to be different for transformers... I have no clue. I just sorta got used to it, but it still annoys me. I just don't see any sense in complaining about it regularly because it's a necessary evil. I either keep my accessories together with the figure or in their box. Some people use baggies for accessories when they're not in use. I can understand where people come from though when they want both modes to utilize weapons instead of them being useful in robot mode and just slapped onto an otherwise sleek car or jet or whatever in alt mode. I can guarantee you no collector stored Powerizer Prime or Dreadwing's weapons on them if they were in display in vehicle mode, so they have to keep track of them separately, which is a nuisance I can sympathize with.

 

You still can't shove one foot into the other mouth 

 

Personally, I'm in the "just take the weapons off if you don't like them" camp (looking at you, Jetfire. The rifle under the nose is ridiculous), but I understand why that can be annoying. The real problem is that we have more complex engineering with the transformation and articulation, and that doesn't leave much room for storage space inside of everything. If they made the alt modes bulkier to accommodate, then we'd be complaining about the shellformers they'd become. I don't think there's an easy solution to the issue.