The only ones that do are Prime(debatable...the commander had ball jointed elbows, while the new voyager upscale has a bicep swivel and hinged elbows) and Predaking.

 

Isn't Predaking an entirely new mold?

 

...Which just happens to have a transformation nearly identical but even less involved than the Cyberverse.
His transformation is the same, but you don't split his dragon head in robot mode.

 

My issue is that the FABs are this idea (simpler toys for kids but at the same price) done correctly. They're a little more cartoony, but they still resemble the characters much better than Legions do (Legion Smokescreen never captured the character at all... the upscaled one doesn't fare any better). They also certainly had many more moving parts than these figures, each one having its own gimmick.

Plus, upscaling Legions leads me to believe there are going to be fragility issues. I'm assuming (for the sake of giving Hasbro the benefit of the doubt) this is why articulation was cut on the winged dragon, but I feel like it's an issue.

... and again. These are much cheaper for Hasbro than Deluxes. They shouldn't charge just as much. FABs probably cost them just as much as a regular Deluxe.

 

I can understand the logic of The 2014 Beast Hunters line being a filler until Trans4mers hits in the late spring/early summer. but Instead of wasting the money to create new tooling for the upscaled legends garbage why not just reuse some molds already in production? The TF Go line has shown us that there are alternate headsculpts for the Predacons, and there are enough g1 Beast Mode characters to homage via deco schemes. I wouldn't mind a few creative redecoes of the 2013 BH figures like BH Knockout as Skullcruncher, Smokescreen as Bluestreak, BH Dreadwing as Skyquake. hell, Hasbro could domesticlly release some of the Takara exclusive characters stateside and make alot of people happy. I'd Love to own Frenzy, Breakdown, Nemesis Prime, Ironhide, Jet Vehicon, Wildrider, Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Unicron without having to pay ridiculous import prices on them (especially Breakdown)


now that I think about it, alot of figures in the Prime line haven't had any retools or redecoes the ones that immedietly spring to mind being.....
Prid Starscream, Bulkhead, Ultra Magnus, Thundertron, Cliffjumper, Kup, Rumble, Vehicon, BH Shockwave, Optimus, Bulkhead, Starsrceam, and Dreadwing

 

Technically speaking, they're all new "molds". While we often refer to a "mold" as the product, the mold actually refers to the molds used to cast the figures. They may share some [or most of] the same designs, though. I just thought I'd throw that in for fun, not as a point of "THAT'S JUST WRONGS!" or anything.  

 

Meh.

Hasbro is just gonna dump some crappy toys on the general population, and see what happens. Should they see significant profit from doing this?

You WILL see this creep its way into other lines.

Its all about getting the biggest profit they can. Bottom line.

Remember twist ties in the packaging? They claimed they wanted to make the toys easier to get out of the packaging, and be more environmentally friendly, so they went with that string they use now.

B.S.

String IS MUCH CHEAPER than that plastic coated wire was costing them. GUARANTEE. If they can save a penny per package by making a "simple" cut in something like this, what do you think they wont do?

I can remember Alternators coming with rubber wheels, and costing $20 an Alt. Then came the Human Alliance Line at $30 a pop, that some, including myself, dubbed them as "Movie Alternators", but they were lacking when in comparison...plastic wheels, no detailed interiors, and then they went from that to the new MP line. Now a MP is pretty much all plastic, and costs you what?...$80?...  

See the pattern? Cost more, but steadily getting less. Sometimes significantly less.

And that's another joke. They sold the entire fandom on the excuse of "a more true scale" when it comes to the new Masterpiece Line....again, putting it out there, "selling" us their story, and we bought it.

Here lately, Voyagers have been hitting the $30 mark, certain figures, certain retailers.

Here's a big what if:

The new crappy upsized Deluxes will maintain the $13 price point. What if the "better made" Deluxes inflate to about $20 a pop (cause you know, cost more to make it, have to get that money back 100 fold), that would make the $30 Voyager price make sense.

Now don't think I'm mad at Hasbro. I totally understand, they are in business to make money, not make friends, nor to keep the fandom pleased by giving us "what we want"

 

^^Yeah man, the writing's on the wall. Deluxes went up to nearly $18 or so. I remember a point where I'd fo out and a deluxe and a voyager were nearly the same price since voyagers hadn't went up much yet. The Spider-man and Iron Man 3 lines had me apprehensive, and these "deluxes" just confirm it for me.

 

The upscales could be useful as army builders for any comic makers wanting cheap Bumblebees for The Swarm

 

It's all a clever ruse...these are for the last waves...and the last waves more often than not get cancelled, resulting in anger and gnashing of teeth when it's a recolor we really want...the solution? Show us upscaled Legion figures so when they are cancelled we don't care and leave them alone...

 

I'm a little fuzzy on the whole upscaled cyberverse thing....
This is how I understand it.
A legends class Transformer scaled up to deluxe class size, but still have the simple transformation of a legends class (and lack of posability as well) is that about right?

 

If anyone tries to defend them for being targeted at younger kids and such, its no excuse to cut corners and keep such hindered articulation. They could easily make them twice as good with a few joints on the existing mold, but nope. Also, if we can't get all of Abominus and combine them, its so pointless.

 

I wonder if the reaction to Toy Fair next year will be a repeat of 2002 if they introduce a whole line of these things.

 

I had little interest in this line before, this stunt only makes my interest disappear altogether. Hope kids go ape shit for this Hasbro because you are alienating a lot of collectors.

 

I have to wonder how many waves of these figures they've even planned for? I have to imagine, like films past, we'll see product for movie 4 start hitting the shelves April/May.

Still, I don't think this idea is entirely without merit. There are quite a few strong legion/commander figures that; even upscaled, would be worth owning. Such as Hardshell, Airachnid, the Terrorcons, Cliffjumper, etc. etc.

I mean, not for nothin' but I'd totally buy an upscaled version of their Air Vehicon. Or several.