I had the dragon once. Got it on clearance a TRU back in the day. Had it about a month before it broke and i tossed it. So i doubt they lasted. The clear purple plastic near a shoulder broke.
My experience from owning 3 of them. All bought when they debuted in stores years ago back in, what?, 1999? Basically, you gotta treat them with care, caution, gentleness, and as display pieces really. Don't let the below information scare you away from the toy line. It's not a bad line, you just need to be aware of the construction and materials (chrome, types of plastic) used in the toys and how to handle them and what problems they may present you with as you use them. I'd buy more of these toys but they can get pretty expensive or they just get snatched up too quick to obtain them. There's still 1 figure from the line I'm after and year after year, I keep missing it whenever it gets listed online. Here's mine: The long silver & purple Asian Dragon: Bought at ToysRus. My first one had too much chrome applied to the horns on the robot mode head. these horns swing outward to the sides for robot mode and swing inward for dragon mode to tuck under his dragon belly. mine had too much chrome so when you went to swing them in for dragon mode, they cracked and snapped off from the excess chrome causing restriction/pressure/blockage. I immediately replaced him later that week at ToysRus with a new one that didn't have the excess chrome issue. I still have the replacement toy to this day and it is fine, but the dark grey plastic connection plugs that connect this dark grey dragon legs / robot feet to his chromed silver and clear purple body areas are loose (they'd always been that way since i bought either toy of him. it must just be how its designed to avoid breakage) and can sometimes pop out and then need to be popped back in. Annoying yes, but it saves the toy from user-caused destruction. The red & yellow Saber-Toothed Tiger: Bought at KB Toys. His issue is his chromed lower jaw on the tiger skull can sometimes detach (it clips right back in), and the plastic they used on his tail can break. Mine's tail/whip weapon also broke because of an improper molding error. Basically when the plastic met itself upon being injected into the steel mold, it didn't fully fuse together or I guess, dried too quickly so the seam when the injected plastic pooled into the steel mold and met itself didn't fuse and just became flush to itself, like molten candle wax drying upon previously melted candle wax. They're "together" but not fused. Got it? Hope that makes sense. Basically because of this, the tail couldn't hold together and broke apart at it's swinging hinge joint. The red & silver T-Rex Bought at ToysRus. His metallic silver plastic sword had a similar issue like the tiger's tail /whip weapon. His sword broke at where there's a little "clip" area that the multi-part sword blade swings over and clips to to secure itself and form a blade. If you look at the toy you'll understand what I mean. Second issue is his rotational hip ball joint thingies are made of 2 halves. These 2 shell halves can break apart as you move his hip joints and inner pegs in them can snap off. Basically, take the damn hips apart and rebuild them to re-secure them. Again, if you have the toy in front of you you'll understand what I mean here.
There's a few show charcters who never got toys. Diamond Ryugu is definitely the largest and most boring of the bunch. I'd rather we get Dino Tyranno 2.0 or that gold flying one.
I wish I could find some old commercials for this. There's one that's been stuck in my brain forever and I can't find any info on it.
