Ah Amazon......you silly. I ordered 5 Firedrives off Amazon last week from the same seller. They are all coming in separate shipments from across the county and arriving on different days.... I get it...These are fulfilled by Amazon and they try and be smart and spread inventory across the US so that when one is ordered, it can be shipped from the closet facilty....in theory. I still think this is silly,
I don't like licensing on toys when the character in the show was never shown to be the licensed vehicle.
I would rather have two separate lines. One that is G1 cartoon in both modes, and another that is realistic in both modes. I find the mixing terrible because no character like that ever existed. I don't like the Bay movies but at least their Masterpieces look like the media in both modes.
I don't need the toys to look like the media. I want them to look like the ideal version of the character. Not exactly like the original toy. Not exactly like the low budget animated series. I want a version that mixes the best of all the influences. MP10 is a near perfect examples of what I want in a Masterpiece. MP44 is pretty much the antithesis. The animation model should be one of the key influences for the MP line, but should NOT be the defining influence. "High end" collectibles should not have their design limited by the corners animators had to take to make show with a tight budget and time restriction. As for the movie toys, I still think the 2007 leader Optimus is much better as a toy than the "accurate" ROTF leader. The 07 leader is what I wish Prime looked like in the movie, in fact!
He's been a long nose far longer than a cabover. Cabover: He was in G1 for two seasons, '84 and '85. (Two years.) He was one in Classics. (One year.) He was one in Combiner Wars. (Two different decos, same mold, one year.) He was one at the beginning of AOE. (Maybe twenty minutes.) Bumblebee (maybe twenty seconds on a bridge.) ROTB (might not even be that for the entire movie.) SS BB He's been a long nose in: G2 CR/RID as Scourge Bayverse (a full decade) RTS SS I'm getting sick of people not letting G1 fans be happy to have a movie or two where Optimus actually looks like their Optimus, after a decade and five badly received movies where he didn't and wasn't their Optimus.
PMOP, both in G1 and TR Machine Wars Energon Cybertron (with the trailer detached, at least) Animated Prime Beast Hunters the initial G2 Optimus POTP Every WFC Optimus I'd say the balance between cabover and longnose is closer to even.
Forgot about Machine Wars because well... Hardly anyone remembers that, these days. Also, that was a repaint of Thunderclash, so I'm not including it. Cybertron doesn't count because he's not really a full vehicle without his attachments. (Including him is a stretch, really.) Didn't count G2 Optimus because it's a repaint/reissue of the G1 original. Point is, people complain about Optimus being a cabover, mainly when it comes to movies and cartoons, and a lot of us are sick of the long nose. Two movies with a cabover isn't that much to ask for.
It's still a cabover toy released as Optimus Prime. Without the fire truck trailer he's basically a cabover truck with an extra long wheelbase. A bit odd looking, but still a full vehicle. Hasbro even released him that way in the first Legends class wave (ever). It still qualifies. Is it complaining about Optimus being a cabover, or nearly the exact same cabover truck, and same incarnation of Optimus, every time? There might be less complaining if they'd get back to more interesting takes like CW Optimus or BH Optimus. I don't really have a stake in the longnose vs. cabover argument. I just want something besides G1 Optimus for a change. I tend to use MW Optimus as Thunderclash, but it's definitely a solid design.
Action master prime apparently came with a long nose truck. If we want to get really into semantics, one could reason the g1 toy, being an imported diaclone toy given a new American name, was therefore not really a "true" optimus prime toy. The first "real" optimus prime toy would then be powermaster prime. I realize this is a silly idea, but I'm rolling with it anyway.
Well, here THIS goes again... Not just this fandom but really most others, but why do people have an incessant need to ruin what makes others happy, simply because it's different from what makes them happy? What a miserable human species.
It's my right as a sentient being to freely dunk on and be dunked upon for what is found fun. (Yes, this is an optimus playing basketball reference.) I keep hearing that hasbro commissioned it to be OP, then takara just gave it a different character in their market. But whatever the case, if we wanna go by transforming primes, Star Convoy would be the first original OP for Japan (being the cartoon character with a shiny new body if I'm reading this wiki right), while G2 hero optimus would be the first original prime for America, and both are kinda long nosed truck.
Look, im not saying get rid of it. I'm saying im getting sick of it. Its always the same transformation, Pull a PMOP for once, shit give us MACHINE WARS.
This isnt really a rant but its more of something I would like to see again, I wish that Transformers or just toy aisles in general stocked way more than they do now like how it was during the Movie and Unicron Trilogy eas, where they took up majority of the aisle they occupied just full of toys, it would also make scalping a little less of a problem as there would be plenty for everyone. Nowadays there's barely any stock of the figures that everyone wants. However it sucks to think that this kind of thing wont happen again here in the U.S because one they'd have to redesign the entirety of toy departments in Walmart and target which I know wont happen, 2nd there would have to be a lot more factories to make the supply that there would need to be, and lastly, Plastic costs have gone up in the last several years and would make this a very difficult thing to do. Reality sucks at time but hey I can dream
I hear ya, brother! Preach it! You'd think there would be a huge vacuum to be filled by the loss of TrU in America, but that kind of supply seems to have shifted to a competitive online market instead. Of which, supply is still short. Demand is high, but supply is short. A scalpers veritable paradise.
That stopped around the time of DOTM. TF07 and ROTF? You couldn't get to the aisle quick enough and you couldn't get through it. The crowds were intense. Then, Bumblebee started to flood the aisles and the repaints and remolds and repacks of everyone and their brother started coming out and it turned into a less than stellar appearance for DOTM. Parents were rightfully burnt out by that point, collectors weren't happy with how the figures had been downsized and by the time DOTM had been curtailed and entire waves/figures canceled, a number of us just gave up. The buzz was gone and the hangover was settling in. TRU, I'll hand it to them, was the only store to really keep such a thing going. Heck, you don't even find midnight releases of Star Wars stuff, anymore. You used to. (And it stopped even before the pandemic.) Looks like pop culture isn't as strong as it used to be in some ways.
I've got an entire 20 gal. tote full of Episode one figures carded and open, that even the internet doesn't want. It was too late to realize just how disappointing the prequel trilogy was going to be til the excitement of new SW movies was well done and over. Anyone need a small army of battle droids? Anyways, things really are not like they used to be and they will never be what they once were. We just have to deal with this new reality.
I haven't really had time to get onto these boards for a couple of months and I made a few minutes now because I have had a doozy of a rant building up! Local stores finally restocked! Unfortunately, the recent restock was a HUGE restock of Wave 1 and Wave 2 Deluxes and Dinobots and Infernos... Walmart: I asked the toy guy and my Walmart never even received the last wave of Netflix Voyagers. When I first ran into the toy guy and he told me what day they were FINALLY restocking the GI Joe Retro figs AND they were getting the new wave which contains Cobra generic grunt troops. I only collect the Cobra forces and I have 6 HISS Tanks...so I need 6 turret operators. There are only 4 Cobra characters out so far and Storm Shadow does not really belong in a vehicle. So I need turret operators and a ground squad. He also said they were getting 2 Castle Grayskulls the week following that which was perfect because it's $75 and I got paid that week. So I got up early that day to go hunt Retro Cobras and I get to the toy section there's ONE Castle Grayskull!! The week BEFORE I got paid!(gone the next day) And then a shifty looking younger employee(I later found out the older guy I talked to is the only guy that works in toys) walks by. And I told him the other guy had told me those Retros were coming in that day and he scanned the shelf tag and said the computer said there were 15 on the shelf and that he was just in the back and all the toys had already been put out.(didn't know it was probably a lie at the time as I assumed he also worked toys) Then I went and checked the Hot Wheels and toy car aisle for a few minutes because I want a Hot Wheels Thundertank and had been keeping an eye out for a few things some online buds were looking for. Swung back past and the same shifty employee is bent over looking at the Castle Grayskull he must have known I was just looking at. So the next day, there's 6 Stalkers on the shelf(everything in the case EXCEPT ALL the figs I was looking for)!! Amazon: Needed a Retro Spiderman to go with the Iceman, Firestar, J Jonah Jameson, and Kingpin figs I already managed to track down and purchase.(a $20 figure) Best options at the time(first week of April) were $45 on Amazon OR $30 on Amazon UK but no shipment until May 4th to July 11th. I am patient and poor so I took the cheaper option and eagerly awaited my Spidey(while gathering his friends and enemies) for 2 months, during which time, someone traded me Amazon gift cards for some Netflix figs. Since, my card hadn't been charged yet, I applied them to my order so Spidey would be 2 bucks and some change. When I applied them, the shipping date changed from "May 4 to June 11" to "We'll email you when we have an estimated shipping date". First week of June, I call up customer service because I'm worried. I said I don't care if it takes longer, but I am worried about my order being cancelled because the prices on Amazon and ebay are currently $70 a pop! Customer service rep specifically assures me I will receive my item and my order will not be cancelled. So I'm waiting and watching my emails and June 11 comes and goes. I check my Amazon account to see if there was an update and I couldn't find the order! Finally found it under Cancelled Orders. So they didn't just screw me and lie about it, they tried to get away with it without even informing me! I get on CS chat and the jerk tells me there's nothing he can do and nothing his supervisor can do because only 3rd party Amazon stores have any left. So I call the phone number and the first person I talked to fixed the problem for me right away...or so I thought at the time! Told me I had to wait until I got paid again, order it from a 3rd party Amazon vendor and call them back AFTER delivery and they would refund me the difference. So, I wait ANOTHER 2 weeks to get money(prices are now North of $80) and another week for delivery call them up and they get me processed in short order! Come to find out the next day, "refund you the difference" was code for "give you the difference in Amazon store credit that ONLY works on shipped and sold by Amazon and doesn't even cover sales tax"! So now I don't have enough money left in my bank account to cover my Ark preorder(see below) AND I can't even use my "refund" yet because even paying sales tax might screw me even further! Target: Preordered on Target(for price reasons) 2 Tracks, 2 Wingfinger, Scorponok and the Ark(spread over 3 separate orders). 3 delivery delay emails later(all at 4am, mind you) and they have shipped ONE Wingfinger!! And that was supposed to arrive 2 days ago and is currently "on vehicle for delivery". AND, to top it all off, I woke up this morning to delay emails for my 3 Gnaw preorders as well(4am of course)!
