which toyline was the epitome of transformers engineering?

I was sitting here looking at my classics, all of which are quite good, but also thinking about the "issues" with them. a lot of them required some repainting to look good, as well as many of them (none of mine, but reported) having some pretty bad quality control issues.

then I took a look at one of my beast wars neo figures, and was like, man, there's nothing that needs doing with those. the quality was great, the paint apps were varied and done well, and the transformation/engineering was quite original.

so I'd toss my vote in for beast wars (through neo) as probably having the best overall quality figures, with the alt/bt line second because of such a high variance of mismatching panel alignment and problems with missing parts/assembly/paint errors. rid is a close third in my book. g1 was quaint, but they were so limited by the technology at the time, it'd be hard to place a vote. armada was filled with pretty boring bricks, energon and cybertron both had some gems, but that's where the problems started to show up. the movie line has had a large amount of qc issues, although it has had refreshing transformations. just looking for discussion, as this sort of just popped into my head. what do others think?

I think you would be hard pressed to pick an entire line for the award, but a single figure from each line, that might be easier.

e.g: Some of the Movie toys were amazingly engineered. (Most actually), and some, just werent (Blackout and his break-o-matic automorph).

Some figures boost the line in terms of Engineering, but some pull it down due to flaws in materials and such.
Also, Im sure there is no line that never had at least one major QC issue.

Also, you may want to split it down further into individual things:-
- Solidity of toys
- Transformation
- articulation
- General designs
- QC
and others.

So for example, more accurate results could be taken from:- (eg)
Best Engineering for the Cybertron Line:-
- Best Articulation
- Best design
- Most sturdy/stable
- Best Transformation scheme

You could also break it down into best for each size class too, for even more varied results.

Alternators: Unless looked at underneath (and not even then sometimes) you couldn't tell it was a transformer many a time without knowing ahead of time. Unfortunately the line was a one trick dog.

masterpiece, alternators and beast wars. beast wars had some amazing designs, especially when you hit the transmetal era - they looked like the CG models climbed out of your TV. masterpiece and alternators... its obvious. the engineering is downright brilliant, but there's no way they could be considered toys. you play with them, they will break.

these three lines also lacked line-wide gimmicks that dictated their designs, like armada, energon, and cybertron had.

Cassics, while a good line, really doesnt push the engineering aspect at all.

RiD, now that was complex. painfully so. the very existance of Sideburn pushes this line out of the running for any engineering accolades. Megatron doesnt help either. is there anyone who can get him into more than two modes without instructions?

Movie line... it has it's high points (concept camaro bumblebee), but it's low points are terrible. automorph cannot be a deciding factor here, because in G2 and beast wars we had figures that had pretty much the same thing. but they completely transformed themselves, rather than "oh, a panel moved. how nice". hell, automated transformation steps started back in G1.

My top 3:
Masterpiece
Alternators
Cybertron

in that order. All have excellent alt modes, very articulated robot modes and all in all the gimmicks in do not interfere at all. Now I am generalizing a bit with Cybertron because there were some duds, but as an entire line the strongest figures more than make up for the weakest.

Masterpiece, Alts/BT and Beast Wars are my top three.

MP's and Alt's (don't feel the need to explain why), but they all have there places.

G1 was amazing for when it came out. It totally rezolutionized the boy's toys market.

Beast Wars and RID brought about a whole other perspective to what TF's could be. They brough about Shell-Formers, ball joints, beast modes, integrated weapons, modernized combiners, etc.

Beast Machines agained changed the course of the line, but it had very little carry over. Even years removed it remains as a sort of redheaded stepchild of the TF universe.

Recently Classics and Cybertron are great lines, but haven't offered anything that totally changed the brand. They are perhaps the culmination of everything that came before.

Perhaps animated will again change the way people approach the toys?

Alternators or Beast Wars. (Most likely the latter)

Masterpeice has too many drawbacks to be the epitome. (ie. Prime's vehicle mode, SS's Robot mode)

Originally Posted by Valkysas NO ONE CAN EVER, EVER say that hasbro doesnt care again. This fucking seals it. that's a LOT of product to release for a "dead" line.

Ball joints and integrated weapons come from G2.

finally, someone who feels the same way I do about the masterpiece line. again, my megatron was pretty much ok, minus a few floppy areas in the legs and I'm going to get the USA starscream, but all of the problems others had with them made me think much less of the line.