I think the thing that bugs me the most is that they are JUST up scaled legions. No added articulation, no new sculpting, not even more paint. These are things a KO company would sell (and it has been done in the past with KO Minicons). It's just disgraceful, especially since they'll be sitting alongside normal deluxes.

On the bright side though...
We may finally get a Voyager Breakdown.
...
Okay I'll leave.

 

If it really is just a lazy way to fill in space/time before the Movie stuff/crap (dilute to taste) then ok, it is lazy and it is a cheap out but as long as it doesn't keep happening we'll all live til morning.

If it is a market test to see if this shit will sell and could be used as a pattern for what will sell from here on out.......? Well I hope it rots on pegs from now til doomsday/landfill and kids/parents don't dignify it with a purchase -especially if the price point is the same as a fully-functional deluxe.

 

I am part of a small group of several parents and our kids whom are avid Transformers fan. The kids in our group are about 9-11 in number, ranging from 4-12 in ages. They've all gotten the chance to take a look at these pics. Unanimously, almost in chorus or queue, they've all said the same thing practically at the exact same time: ".... We don't like them, where are the better looking ones?". Mind you, they do not have the insight the older fans have and the adults amongst this group have all agreed to not directly, nor indirectly, say anything negative about transformers products in order not to invoke ill feelings or will.

We all know there are older people investing into Hasbro and their products, but when the "target" audience also doesn't like it ... they've reached a problem.

Cost cutting can be understandable. But they are beginning to put off even their choice targets and, in this case, they're are not strengthening the Generations line, they're practically immortalizing it  

 

Thread Won!    

 

I would like to point out for you people who say there to hard for kids my son is 2.5 years old and can transform prid bb and bh lazerback

 

So He's already way too qualified to get a job as a Hasbro product-photographer.....dang!

 

Yup! All of the above.

All I can say is I hope these things come packaged in bot-mode, otherwise some kid is going to get a nasty surprise! They should just bring back Fast Action Battlers for the kids and be done with it.

 

I still find it kind of weird Hasbro did this, but now that I see the actual rationality behind making the upscaled Legion toys, it makes sense. They aren't really aimed at us collectors, and it's probably only going to be one wave of these since Beast Hunters is going to be over in 2014 anyway. Not sure why they'd keep making new molds for it.

 

I still think a few characters might've deserved new molds, a larger Hardshell in particular. But, I guess it's out with the old and in with the old.

 

Another thought - this is essentially just filler material to keep media-related toys (ie, the ones aimed at kids) on shelves for a few months until TF4 toys hit stores around May/June. With that sales window, Hasbro were never going to invest a ton of money on R&D/production costs.

 

I may get a Predacon or two, as the legion Terrorcon are some of my faves, and I wouldn't mind a bigger version, even if they don't improve on the small toys. My speculation on Hasbro's rationale here is:

1. A short filler line was needed to bridge until the TF4 movie toys come out. History has shown in similar situations retailers order in very small quantities, if at all, so there's not much incentive to spend a lot designing and producing all-new toys which have a lower likelyhood of even making it to store shelves.

2. The complexity of TF toys is frequently a concern, with kids & parents sometimes unable to handle them for various reasons. A quick and low-budget way to simplify is to re-use designs of the small toys at a larger size. Durability may be an issue too, as many of the ball-jointed parts appear to be replaced with more solid pinned joints on the larger versions.

3. This situation affords Hasbro the opportunity to watch sales figures to see if simpler toys have a positive or negative effect, which may affect toy design trends in the coming years. We can only hope the 2015-16 season isn't loaded down with big expensive toys with the design complexity of Bot Shots or Spychangers.  

 

Why not just do some repaints of existing deluxe moulds then? That just requires different coloured plastics/paint. Upscaling theses deluxes would have meant creating whole new moulds. That's expensive. It's not as if they had a whack of extra Cyberverse hanging around that they just pointed a grow ray at. They may have saved on R&D, but do they really spend that much on it anyway? They could have just popped onto TFW and checked out some digibashes if they were short of ideas.

 

Well, that tears my devil's advocacy to shreds. Nevermind, these are very silly things.

 

I remember wanting the Race track Minicons as Deluxe scale some years back - I wonder if they can upscale Minicons too ?

I can see some fun to be had with a Deluxe or Scout class Swashplate (for example).

Minicons as Scouts seems like a bit of a laugh if we are talking AEC Minicons at least.

 

Considering how other lines have greatly reduced articulation (not just Hasbro) with Dark Knight Rises, Man of Steel, Ultimate Spider-Man, Iron Man 3, The Wolverine, TMNT (basics after the initial 4) and Star Wars legacy figures it was only a matter of time before it happened to Transformers so this move doesn't really surprise me.

In the end, each of the afforementioned lines still have their collector lines too with all the articulation and detail intact and TF is no different with Generations. In the end, it means more money for Rhinox and all the Generationy goodness coming in 2014.

 

This is the takaway here. We might see the Generations line phase out when the proper movie line comes in, with these new "legends deluxes' as the kid line, then NEXT year we'll get more MPs in line with the true 30th ann.

 

I see this as, more than anything, just a measure of filling the gap. Hasbro obviously listens to its fans, look at the new Waspinator and Rhinox. But at the same time, they're a company, and they have to produce something to sit on the shelves in the interim before movie 4. Like someone else said, previous "final wave" sets usually don't sell well because retailers hardly ever pick them up in prep for the newer stuff, as they'd likely end up on clearance anyway and not recoup the investment.

This lets Hasbro not worry about it as much. Am I hoping this becomes a regular thing? Dear lord no. Am I okay with figs being upscaled to pad out the end of the line and give us some unique figs in a normal size instead of a midget size? Yes. (I'm not much of a fan of the small end figures).

 

Since we got a new Waspinator and a giant Rhinox, I don't mind. I don't plan on buying the BH Deluxes, anyways. (Although I'm pretty pissed off about Doubledelia Smith.)

 

Does Windrazor at least have knees?

 

You call 4-5 Bruticus repaints quality?? Most of the 30 something generation figures they said we'd be getting since last years has been nothing but Bruticus repaints with maybe one new figure thrown in the mix.