I don't buy my robots by height or by weight.

I don't mind that there are some who do, because I've got Generations and Prime Wars versions to sell that I've since upgraded with newer versions I prefer for my collection!

 

Try to compare ROTF Leader Optimus Prime and Cybertron Leader Optimus Prime with those new Leader figures, then return to us...

 

Here in Italy the problem is that you can buy a voyager for 30-35 euro and a leader for 60-70, so you put Astrotrain next to Springer and Cyclonus and you think, is the former worth double the price than the latters? If the price points were closer the deal would feel definitely more acceptable.
Now if you ask me if I'd like to go back to the old times when I felt lucky is a figure had a waist swivel I'd say absolutely not.

 

Everyone states that prices are going up for plastic and whatnot and here we have third party prices remaining consistent over the years and Arizona Iced Tea still at 99 cents per can.

 

Cybertron Optimus Prime was 17 years ago. It was closer to end of the G1 era from Cybertron than now 2022 to back to Cybertron. ROTF was 13 years ago.

My house price has over doubled since Cybertron. Cost of average family car trippled.

Inflation doesn't accurately reflect the very recent increase in supply chain either.

 

There's a lot of factors that differentiate the pricing between 3rd party figures and official figures. Also, how does the price of plastic have anything to do with Arizona Iced Tea being 99cents?

 

Not to mention that we are experiencing multiple unprecedented global events all at once.

 

so you think hasbro purposefully misinterprets information in order to deliver an inferior product? and that's supposed to be a pro-price raise argument?

 

But everything was cheaper when those figures were released, and making a comparison between a 15 year old toy to a figure from today is not a fair comparison at all. You have to compare today's TF figures to other contemporary figure lines.

And as talked about in the other thread discussing pricing, your personal perception of value can absolutely be challenged and if you feel the value for the price is not there, the only true recourse you have is not buying the product. Complaining on the internet accomplishes nothing

 

Oh? Do go on, please tell me how a multi billion dollar company can't keep the prices the same amid roaring profits while third party companies whom run on smaller margins are capable of keeping their prices consistent.

 

Sigh.

People just can't cope with how fucking awesome Legacy Blitzwing is.

I guess not everyone can be an ascended master of Transformers.  

 

While I agree to some extent, it's not going to be possible when Earthrise/Kingdom Optimus is going to be the defacto mold they use for the foreseeable future. He's not alone. Siege/Earthrise/Selects Megatron has proven that, so have the Siege and Earthrise Seekers. We're going to be seeing those molds and reuses of them for a while. I'm genuinely surprised we're seeing new molds for Ironhide and Ratchet in SS86 because of the Siege/Earthrise molds and the additions that have been made to them. Total redos I think are off the table for a bit, so I wouldn't worry too much. They have more or less gotten all of those out of their systems. Skids is long overdue as his last figure was Thrilling 30/Legends. Kickback is in that odd place where the Prime Wars trilogy figure wasn't bad and a lot of people still like that trio of figures but this one's the start of a Deluxe trio and it's remarkably show-accurate in both modes. I agree with Animated updates, however. Yes, pls. (I sort of consider Legacy Bulkhead to be an update of that specific version rather than the Prime version.)

I don't know if I agree with that.

I think John Warden started them down this path and Mark Mahar has picked up the ball and ran with it. Once something starts and it's a success, you can't just slam on the brakes and hope it all goes well. Honestly, I'd say most of the fans are glad the figures are the way they are now. Perfect? No, but a heck of a lot more in there now than before.

We're getting their signature weapons, we're getting additional weapons that we can use for various things, etc. I mean, one of the laments of the CW line was that almost none of the figures came with their signature weapons because of the gimmick of the line. People were sad about that and I can't blame them. When someone mentions the hand/foot weapon/accessory, my mind immediately goes to hand, foot, and mouth disease (contagious among children, especially toddlers), and because I'm sometimes immature, I laugh stupidly at the whole thing. "Ooh, here comes Stunticon Breakdown with his hand, foot, mouth disease dispenser!" (hah!)

But...G1 was rife with that and people not only didn't complain, but they also go out of their way to find the missing accessories on eBay, here, and so on. Why is it such a big deal to do same thing here when people have been doing that for decades with G1 collections? I just don't get why one is good for the goose, but not the gander, all of a sudden. Let's face it, original Optimus and Rodimus both came with trailers that opened and really did nothing in the end. Same with Earthrise/Kingdom. I just don't understand why people are so upset over a box of plastic on wheels. First, it's "OMG, the trailer's full of crap so I can't fit a Deluxe car inside of it! What does all of this do?!?" then it's "OMG, the trailer's just a hollow box that I can fit things in, much like the cartoon, why?!" so, which is it? What's going to make people happy? And no, don't use "don't give us a trailer, to begin with" as an out.

...why would any of us want a 1'/12" tall Rodimus that would be completely out of scale with the rest of the line when scale is one of the important gimmicks of this line? I could see it being a special Selects idea or something they'd do for Masterpiece, but CHUG? I just don't see the reason for its existence in such a manner. And Rodimus did have the cab (or as you put it, SUV car mode) in the show. It was shown twice, I believe people said. Has/Tak went for accuracy and we got it. I mean, we've been banging on the doors asking for this stuff a lot over the years, we finally get it and people are all "YOU GAVE IT TO US?! WHY?! YOU DUMB F*CKERS!" It's basically a case of "You underestimate my power! I HATE YOU!" "Don't try it, collectors! We have the high ground!"

No. This is proof that they learned their lesson from Prime Breakdown all those years ago. He was too much to produce as a Deluxe, but he wasn't quite Voyager, either, and because of his complexity and parts count, he was forced into the Voyager price point. Now, 10 years later, he's finally at Deluxe Class price and was able to packed in with another Deluxe and aside from fitment issues, is very much welcomed by collectors who never got one before. Now? Voyagers becoming Leaders are in the same situation. The parts count on figures like Shockwave, Astrotrain, and Blitzwing make it so they're beyond a Voyager, but not quite a Leader on their own. So, to fill the rest of the box, they give us additional parts to meet the pricing structure. Don't get me wrong, when this first happened, all I did was publicly bitch and moan about this and I do sort of hate having a box of accessories just sitting around doing nothing at the moment, but I'd rather pay a little extra and get stuck with a few accessories than to not have the figures at all. It would really suck if we hadn't gotten that Shockwave or that Astrotrain because they were in budgetary no man's land.

You see hollow/waffled parts in limbs such as the bicep or thigh area, but not the torso. For a number of Prime Wars figures, they were two-part shells for the torso in which they felt super hollow plus the limbs were waffled all the way down. Ever seen the Cyberverse Rack N' Ruin? Compare that to a Prime Wars Leader. He's $20.00, they were $50.00. For $6.00 more, we're getting thicc, chonky figures with dense plastic and a lot more paint apps and none of those craptastic foil stickers or cheesy vac metalized plastic that'll chip and look like Transmetal crap in about a decade. No thanks, I'll take 'em as-is. That said, I'm greatly disappointed in Legacy Blitzwing. I will agree about him with your post. I don't think he needed the accessories and that the engineering for those (as well as the apps/parts count) could've gone into fixing his jet mode and backpack making it more streamlined and still show-accurate.

...because people asked for this for literal decades and the 40th anniversary is finally here and they're answering the call. I say give them credit rather than hate. I do think it was far too long overdue and they could've gotten through all of this sooner, BUT, they finally did it and it was what a lot of us asked for. I don't know why people are upset with getting what they asked for. For once, we're getting our cake and can eat it, too, and people are like "BUT THAT'S NOT HOW IT'S SUPPOSED TO WORK! I DON'T WANT CHOCOLATE MILK WITH IT EITHER! DON'T GIVE ME WHAT I WANT! MYAHH!" and that... lolwhut?

True, but we're focusing on CHUG specifically. To focus on all of the other lines as well as this, will just muddy the arguments being made and will make for an even bigger mess. I absolutely get the point you're making, though.

I will agree about Blitzwing. The other Leaders, not so much. Astrotrain and Shockwave were plenty solid on their own and really only needed the parts to help fill the box. Blitzwing could do without the extra accessories so those extra pieces could've gone into shrinking his backpack and fixing his jet mode. People would've complained about his price, still, but I think the majority would've been a lot happier if he had been streamlined and a bit more intricate to fix the problems. It's specifically why I'm skipping him and sticking with Titans Return. Yes, he's a bit taller than his compatriots, but he's bulky and feels substantial as-is and I can overlook the Headmaster gimmick. I'd rather have a small robot form his head than to have an entire tank hanging off of the bottom of his jet mode. Sure, the TR version has that as well, but it's definitely more streamlined.

*nods*

And they are the best figures in decades. That's not to say that Thrilling 30 and Prime Wars didn't have good figures, they did, but WFC has some of the best versions of these figures I've ever seen. A lot of us grew up with G1 and while the original toys have their charms, they're not show-accurate and they're bricks. These are close to what we've asked for since 1984. I still don't understand why Hasbro's receiving flack for giving people what they asked for. Sometimes the show accuracy is too much, I'll grant them, but the rest of the figure's merits outweigh that problem for the most part. (Except with Blitzwing, they went hardcore into the accuracy and he suffers for it.)

Bingo. Much like G1, the vehicle mode suffers for this scale thing much as the original toys did, but most people display their figures in robot mode and I'd posit that 99% of Transformers live their lives in robot mode, so their alt mode is very secondary past a certain point. If I could turn into a car, would I do it inside my house? No. I'd only turn into a car when I needed to, so I'd much rather have a humanoid form that was in scale and fit everywhere. Alt mode be damned, to a point.

...we have that, though. Between the ER/K Optimus and the accessory kit from the Pulse exclusive Centurion figure, we have a Commander Class Sunbow Optimus much like Motormaster and it *is* put to bed. The only thing I can see being a problem is not everyone was able to get their hands on a Centurion, and some who did ended up with no accessories (a couple on the board here), and some ended up with extras of some accessories and missed out on others (also on the board, here), so I'd like to see Hasbro reissue him or fix that. But, as it is, we do indeed have a Commander Class Sunbow Optimus right now. *shrugs*

Same. I didn't at first, but now I do. Some of those hinges and joints are

I don't know if I agree with that. Leaders of the trilogy sucked, but now Six Shot and Overlord are scaled properly with CHUG, as well as Optimal Optimus, plus the combiners fit pretty well. The Voyagers and the Deluxes aren't as terrible as people think they are. Some of the hollowness is necessary to fit limbs when they fold up into their alt mode or their limb mode. Honestly, I think a lot of the CW and POTP figures fit in very well with current figures and Has/Tak feel the same way or they wouldn't be reissuing them here and there. Also, the Headmasters from TR were so good that Hasbro went ahead and reissued them in G1 packaging through Walmart, so clearly, there's still a lot of love and respect for those molds at the corporate level and I don't think they'll be replaced anytime soon, only repainted and remolded and any gaps filled as time goes on. I agree on the part involving Rodimus, onward, though.

Um. Arizona Iced Tea is worth about $.99, for one, and two, aluminum isn't used in the construction of these figures, so it's kind of a false equivalency. I get the point that you're trying to make as food and drink has gone up, so has the cost of materials such as what's being used in the can, but they don't really compare... As for 3rd party, it kind of makes sense. They're now finally at a point where their business is financially viable for them and they can pass the savings onto the customer when for years (a decade, really) they were 2-4x the price of official products. Now, we're onto their game and know what their figures are actually worth and they know a lot of us won't pay those original 3rd party prices anymore. Besides, if they can beat the officials, they'll do it. Why would anyone go 3rd party when they can get an official product that does a lot of the same thing for a lot less? Now, consumers can get 3rd party for less than official pricing and everyone wins. They make money, we get super cool figures on both sides of the fence, and everyone more or less wins.

 

Your snark indicates you're not actually willing to discuss this in good faith so I've got no interest in engaging in a back and forth argument that will have neither party changing their opinion on the matter.

 

Your snarky response belies your clear and present lack of understanding of how corporations work.

 

Voyagers in disguise but tall Deluxes in size. Change my mind!

 

I would, but I’ve no idea what you’re on about

 

I do not think that word (unprecedented) means what you think it means.

Fun fact, the Spanish flu and World War 1 overlapped.

 

Agreed. Inflation, global pandemic, countries invading others in an effort to grab power... all been done before. And they will again down the road.

 

We have not experienced these types of events in generations, so for most of the current global population it is absolutely unprecedented to have these multiple events playing out at once. Not to mention that the global markets that we are currently discussing didn't exist in the past so it's a bad comparison. But if you just want to argue like you usually do we can do that, too.

 

Oh no, I’m willing. I just have information from people on the inside that’s going to take a bit more to be disproven given what’s been disclosed to me.