58 bucks of pure hollowed out lameness.

 

When more effort was put into the figure accessory rather than the figure itself you KNOW you fucked up.

 

Being a parent and a collector, the price isn’t justified on any level. This looks like a $25 toy.

 

PMOP, Magnus Prime, and Evolution Optimus didn't have trailers?

 

exclusive?

 

It varies figure to figure. Like the Shockwave figure looks good, and Prowl looks fantastic, but some of the others are kind of hit or miss. But the initial run and first couple of waves we aren't exactly the demographic for. Though with how well the toon seems to be doing and how it's picking up oomph, we might see more wider offerings later.

Overall, I can't exactly fault them for those choices since the toon itself is set to last for a rather long time, so leaving room open to re-do characters later makes a lot of sense. As well as makes sense to do certain key ones right from the get go, like Shockwave because of his strong focus early on that'll probably be pushed to the background more in later seasons as others come forward more. Whereas some characters are constant re-occurring so they'll likely get several figures over the course of the show's run. Like Optimus I full expect will get more figures later, same to Bumblebee, Windblade, and Hot Rod, but someone like Prowl who is going to be a repaint later anyway, it's better to do him well in the first shot. And if they do MacCadam, I expect he'll be a good one at the start too since he's not likely to warrant any extra figures.

I do like the scouts though, those have really grown on me. And the "Ultimate" versions have been pretty fantastic overall too. So it's mostly the Deluxe figures that are varying right now, with the likely reason being for longevity's sake on later versions.

I full expect that once extra saturated media dies down, we'll get some good Cyberverse for a bit then anyway to keep the hype rolling as they prep for whatever comes next in other areas. The budget is kind of split across several things right now with the movie year, generations, studio series, and Cyberverse. So like RiD, Cyberverse has to prove itself to warrant a good budget increase. And so far, it's looking like it is. So we might see some interesting stuff later. RiD was like this too. Early on we get the bare essentials only, but then sales were so strong and the toon's ratings held so well, it grew into more and they really had fun with it. I think we'll see the same start to happen here.

Though I do gotta give Hasbro some major props for the Ark paneling on the trailer for prime. Really evokes a nice "playset" feel. I'm going to be very selective on Cyberverse, but this Trailer set, I actively kind of want.

And while on the topic of Shockwave, I have to admit it's really ingenious what they did. Depending on your size class preference or if you prefer generations WFC with the leader class or the Cyber Battalion one, the Deluxe and any smaller Shockwaves can act as his drones. So after seeing the toon, his spider-tank is absolutely genius on so many levels for marketing and extra sales.

 

I was ready to come into this thread and praise how fun the toy looked with the addition of the trailer. But there's a $50 price tag attached to it? Oh boy ..

 

Synergistic marketing. It's the same that Marvel does and DC does. And also the fact that 2019 is the 35th anniversary of G1. So the added aspect of capitalizing on nostalgia for added fond memory pulls.

Though the gimmick lines were supposed to be more celebratory too overall. Since the idea was that fans would buy collector centered lines for their stuff, but could enjoy stuff like getting an Energon Axe Prime for giggles, or how kids could enjoy it with various iconic aspects from the lore in how parents may show them the older toons. Same with how Hascon has tried to go more Family oriented too. Kids of yesterday are the parents of today.

More interesting stuff is still yet to come too. But it's all a matter of timing and balance, and keeping the market growing with fresh approaches, while also building into various new concepts too and appeasing some mild older lines of thought as well, since those still have some market presence(Rome wasn't built in a day!). It took a long time to reach this point back when Classics first started as a filler assortment that was supposed to be a one time thing. Then it took time to shrug off old limited mentalities that were holding the potential back with various thoughts of what the vehicle mode had to be. Construct-a-Bots, and Kre-O were right when Hasbro firmly fully embraced this new way of thinking, which in itself starting getting better immersed thanks to TF Animated and how celebrated that became, as well as the first movie, which is all what led us to where we are today(and also contributed to the purchase of Power Rangers as a whole).

You can see some of the archaic line of thinking that was still there back in T30, when last anniversary, we really didn't celebrate G1 at all. It was more pure IDW, but even that worked in Hasbro's favor and left room open for what we're seeing now to gradually grow the market while working against those older lines of thought to show them how strong the line could become, while at the same time generating profits to keep pushing forward.

There's a whole untold story in general there, but maybe someday it'll get told. Took a lot of work and balance to build the market up, and get proof of concepts going for various industries that even frowned on Marvel's approach. Which oddly enough, was originally supposed to be Hasbro's approach but they couldn't find financiers for that with how the older ways of thinking at studios were still the way they were. Hasbro was ahead of the curve at one point, but they managed to work into the curve to apollo 13 themselves like a slingshot in the moon's gravity. It's been a long process, but very worth it with the various industry growths we've been seeing. And if the scattered clues are any indication, I really like what the next big things and areas might do to further revolutionize various markets.

TBH, my only full regret at all is what could have been possible earlier at better price points like we saw with HFTD, but the market had to be balanced. Oversaturate too early, and they would have drowned themselves out of the market too fast too. So the pattern they did managed to work out for the best. Blueprint was rather genius in how it worked like that overall, and is projected to grow more. But hopefully the economics can get turned around to bring back the golden production days. The boot heel on the back of the throat on that end is really getting annoying and limiting a lot more and more. But we can't really get into that topic because then it dives into politics. Still pisses me off how much it's killing the market though at an even faster pace, but hopefully that can still be turned to a positive later on the rebound once things stabilize. (Which is also the other reason we're getting a big push on Nostalgia right now. It's an attempt to offset the destabilized areas to still push forward through them to keep gaining ground. Market watch is key to making sure Blueprint works and stays growing forward.)

 

Orion Pax Generations has just won a Spotlight style trailer.  

 

Knowing me, I'll buy it anyway. I'm a sucker for Primes with trailers, even if they just stack up somewhere...

 

you do know trailers are supposed to be hollow, right?

 

It's a nice trailer. What other alternatives do we have of prime trailers that are still on the market and are not full of robot limbs inside?

 

I think he’s referring to Prime. Look at em skeletal thighs.

 

Honestly, the very fact that a new Optimus toy comes with a trailer that DOESN'T turn into a suit of armor, which hasn't happened since DOTM, is a godsend. Sure, $58 is a bit overpriced, I'll admit, and the Cyberverse line is a bit lackluster (at least it isn't the Energon Igniters line), but I don't think that really matters. The fact that we have a proper trailer at all is enough for me to be excited for this figure.

 

We actually got two that year. MP-10 Optimus waves hello.

 

Its interesting how they dont show him PULLING the trailer. Its obviously really ugly im quite sure and looks wrong. Like an afterthought

 

The Energon Igniters line is genius. Its great for all ages and does a great job at looking goid and working really well. Nitro Optimus Prime & Barricade especially are really cool.

 

I wouldn't say genius, the Gimmick in the Energon Igniters line is repetitive, but functional and fun. The Speed Series benefits the most out of the Gimmick, I really hope these ports become just as standard as the Hands on this size class from now on.

While the Cyberverse Budget suffers greatly from the wide variety of Gimmicks, there kinda fun, but are severely overpriced.

 

Facepalm. Duh.

I'm talking about ...

1. The Prime figure is BEYOND hollowed out.
2. Parts of the trailer (NOT the inside where it should be to fit a vehicle) are hollowed out, specifically the insides of the fold out trailer blasters