Paralyzing Toyz Soft Vinyl Devastator, Omega Supreme, Shattered Glass Soundwave & Blaster Figures Available At Wonder Festival 2023.

Paralyzing Toyz Soft Vinyl Devastator, Omega Supreme, Shattered Glass Soundwave & Blaster Figures Available At Wonder Festival 2023

 

God, anyone else is reminded of those horrible cheap choclates shaped like characters from this? It\'s those good looking but really awfull tasting choclates wkwkkw, for some reason these figure-ins remind me of those wkwkwk

 

Original molds from Wonder Festival 2022 for reference:

 

These are not my thing, but it does remind me that I would probably be game for combined mode gestalts and “titan” class characters made like those giant, low-articulation Marvel/Star Wars figures that cost about $12.

 

They look like decoys

 

Isn't it a little out of season to be selling cheap Christmas decorations?

 

So they're just... painted bricks??

 

Y\'know, I could somewhat forgive this if they came out in 1985, with the Decoys, but after Action Masters, Robot Heroes, heck even the Super 7 toys which are pretty bad too look better than these.

 

I normally don't jump in threads to disparage the opening topic, but there's an irony here I can not overlook.
This non-transforming, nonarticulated, poorly sculpted, poorly painted line had enough consideration to include a Devastator with and without his visor.

So people who want a non-transforming, nonarticulated, poorly sculpted, poorly painted Devastator have a choice.

 

It's like there are 2 design partners making up the Paralyzing Toyz company. The SG SB & SW are pretty decent, while Omega Supreme & Devastator are so incredibly low effort.

 

Fans Toys are really pumping out the releases now...

 

These are meant to invoke a specific style of vinyl toys of which Transformers got a few of in the 80s. It's a niche market but there have been many of these kinds of figures made over the years. To the point where independent toy makers do small runs of new toys that emulate the old ones.

 

Maybe, but still. How many people are gonna buy them when damn near every G1 character has an updated version within the last 5 years that look infinitely better?

 

I, too, usually don't jump into a topic just to say something negative about a product I don't intend to buy, but come on.

These look worse than Action Masters, and they appear to have worse articulation than Action Masters. Based on the size relative to the hand, they look like they're about the size of Action Masters.

I suppose these might have some use if you had, say, several large Titans and you wanted to put Omega Supreme and Devastator in there for a scale diorama, but I would even only want these if they were very affordable. Whatever they cost, it's probably too much.

I sometimes get concerned about dilution of the brand. The cohesion of the brand was probably at its strongest with Beast Wars, Animated, and the first two Michael Bay movies. Everything transformed. The McDonalds toys transformed. For the kids, there were Fast Action Battlers, Legends, and Activators. Even the DVD case for the first Michael Bay movie transformed. Sure, some products were better than others, but this is a franchise about transforming robots, and almost everything transformed.

Just on the first few pages of TFW2005, I see posts about these figures, Flame Toys Jazz, awful-looking VHS-style posters, Funko Pop Devastator, Jada Cast Optimus Prime truck, etc. I was actually fine with Action Masters when I was a kid because something transformed, such as the larger vehicle or a weapon, but when there are that many options for a character, and so many of them don't transform, the brand of "Transformers" is getting stretched thin.

Let's say you're a huge fan of the Optimus Prime design in the first Michael Bay movie. The more mature fans could buy the Leader class toy. Those on a budget could buy the Voyager toy. Young children could buy the Legends class toy or the Fast Action Battler. I suppose very young children could get those Revoltech-style non-transforming figures or the non-posable super-deformed figurines. But most of these figures were genuine attempts to represent the onscreen look of the character, and most of these transformed. I don't have a problem with multiple toys of the same character. If you wanted a toy of that particular Optimus Prime, there was a reasonably high-quality transforming product that looks more-or-less like the character for fans of every age and budget point.

What I do have a problem with is an onslaught of toys that don't genuinely represent the character in the fiction and don't transform. Off the top of my head, let's take Devastator. There's Paralyzing Toyz Devastator, Super 7 Devastator, Funko Pop Devastator, and probably more that I'm forgetting. The only mainline Devastator that represents the G1 character is Combiner Wars from almost a decade ago. I suppose you can argue that Paralyzing Toyz Devastator represents the cartoon-accurate version of Devastator, which you're not exactly getting with Combiner Wars Devastator, but you could also buy Super 7 Devastator for cartoon accuracy. I really don't think Funko Pops Devastator appeals to Transformer fans who like Devastator. Devastator has never looked like that. Rather, the Funko Pop Devastator probably appeals to people who like Funko Pops and have a passing interest in Devastator. I suppose that gets Hasbro some more revenue in low-effort merchandising, but I really, really, really think it's hurting the brand when you're not able to get an actual transforming, combining Devastator and the last one was a decade ago, while there's plentiful options for non-transforming, and (in my opinion) hideous low-effort (licensed) third-party figures.

Instead of 10 different Devastators to choose from, I'd rather have all that time and money go into, oh, let's say three different Devastators of various sizes, complexity, and price points so that there's a transforming product for everyone.

Yes, I understand that (licensed) third parties are forbidden to develop transforming products so as not to upstage Hasbro, but maybe that should be revisited! I'm not saying that, say, Flame Toys should be delegated to make the mainline figures, but maybe Hasbro can make the mainline figures really good, while companies like Flame Toys can make some Fast Action Battler-style toys for the kids, or crazy complicated Chogokin-style figures that cost thousands of dollars. I just really think something is wrong when you really like a character (again, let's take Devastator for example), and this is a brand about transforming robots, and you can't walk into the store and buy a transforming Devastator, but you CAN find Funko Pops, Super 7, etc.

/rant

 

While these particular figures (the Devastators anyways) look rather low-effort, I do get some of the appeal for vinyl figures.
I'm curious how much they'll cost. Not going to buy them, but curious nonetheless.

 

This is focused on emulating what was a very common style of old toy. These kinds of limited figure runs will barely crack a hundred or so toys. Wonder Festival has a lot of products like this.

Here's a vintage Gundam version of the same kind of toy. You can find many similar figures for lots of properties in Japan.

 

Guess they're limited runs because they as well know it won't sell a ton.

 

Well said!
So much of this stuff is just landfill.

 

Fuck yeah, love me some retro Sofubi. I've got a shitton of vintage Kamen Rider ones so this is right up my alley; shame the run's so limited though.