Ah, yes. The $3 or $4 toys (how much was Battletrap again?); the smallest and cheapest of their years. When they are that cheap, you don't mind them being simple and unarticulated even compared to other G1 toys. Their appeal lies within their gimmick and their low cost. Back then, there wasn't a separate kids line (I'm ignoring First Transformers) - the small cheap simple toys were characters in their own right fighting right alongside the larger more complex (for the 80s) toys in the comics and cartoons.

Just because a toy is aimed at children doesn't mean they should be subject to poor quality and laziness from the makers. Once a child gets past five years old, they stop wanting to play with 'baby' toys and want toys that look cool. Because what self respecting six year old today would accept toys that basically look like this



First Transformers

 

People forget that we went through BW, BM, RID2001, Armada, Energon, and Cybertron without a trace of Bumblebee. In fact, Animated Bumblebee was going to be Hot Shot but thanks to the Bay movies getting the name back, they were able to do it much to the creators joy. It also allowed Classics Bee to have his name as well.

But yeah, we’re probably gonna have a Bumblebee in every series now so they can keep the name if nothing else.

 

I don't think that's actually true. I think war toys have been riding high for a long time. Military-style action features incredibly prominently in so much of our entertainment media (Bay's TF movies being one example). And someone's buying all those Call of Duty Megabloks, and based on my nephews, at least some of them were kids. I wouldn't be surprised if military-themed toys ramped up a bit after 2001.

But it's true... GIJOE has not been able to maintain a solid foothold in the market. The relative commercial failure of the movies probably doesn't help either.

zmog

 

They did do more in the 25th style after the movies, it wasn't moving. Retaliation looked to try and reinvigorate it, did give it a little bit of a boom, but classic era wasn't moving figures anymore. It took a heck of a lot of arguing to even get the few TRU new exclusives we got as it was. The market for them wasn't there anymore. The novelty had worn off. Retailers didn't want it, they want to wait for movie merchandise. Without even a toon to back it, GI Joe wasn't in demand anymore. Renegades ending has pretty much cemented it as a "wait for movie year" type of property now. If those sales prove strong enough though, we might be able to get it back on track. But for right now, retailers not supporting it, means no outlet for it until retailers will want to carry it. Movies didn't kill GI Joe. Movie Merchandise is the one thing that kept it from ending faster, and is the only chance in getting it back to market.

Those figures and 'marketing rebranding' hasbro did for GI joe is what kept it going for those 25+ years. It was when they stopped doing that and the themes that the line stagnated and retailers stopped wanting it. They still did day-glo colors, and other gimmick features to keep the line going(Fliers, eco warriors, space brigade, even valor vs venom had day glo colors for some outfits and there were "undercover" gimmicks added too for another, even the toon experimented with the new wider kid friendly colorfulness). And GI Joe did have little market breaks. Sigma 6 had the larger figures to bring it back to market, then they tried micromachine style army men. All sorts of other gimmick based variations and attempts to revitalize the brand all the way up to before modern era, there was a mix of those colors in there for a wide array of costumes, and other gimmicks tried. Most of which only moved because of direct to video media also being made for it. So your argument about how "GI joe didn't change and only did it one way" is flawed. They did try every kid pattern in the book to keep it going. Really that's probably why modern era died, because they didn't go experimental with it like they did in the past. Which is kind of sad on why they didn't, because Renegades had set them up nicely for some amazing new material that could have revitalized the brand as a whole. Between the new Bio-viper in renegades, and the new Cutting Edge armor, if they had expanded on those concepts they could have brought GI joe back really strong.

NuRID, Cyberverse, Rescuebots, and they are for kids. Different age demographics. It's an extension of practices they tried before as I pointed out. They've done that since G1. Better durability and wider topic coverage with less emphasis on the autobot decepticon war and expansion of them as a full species. Which as I said, since Hasbro has been diving more into doing that and expanding the lore, the line has had more staying power. Again like I said, hasbro has crossed the 4 billion mark since implementing these new strategies that started with the first movie and Animated, so they must be doing something right. Toys are evolving, and have been for the longest time. Engineering of now far exceeds the engineering of previous eras. Even movie toys have been getting better each year.

And your argument about "complexity" is the issue. Hasbro tried that with Prime beast hunters, and other Prime toys. It didn't go over that well. It was one of the complaints they had about ROTF even though the line did extremely well, the over complexity was a hindrance. Generations actually takes some of that into consideration with how they aren't as overly complex, but still have some complexity to them. They also still have a warrior class line. So you're complaining about oversimplification/gimmicks for what are supposed to be oversimplified gimmick versions directly. It's kind of like yelling at a pog for being a pog.

 

Thing is that people have come to expect Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron and Starscream to be part of that Transformers brand. Those are the first characters that most people think of. If you didn't have them featured, then you'd have a problem. In the old days, TF could get away with doing new things (Beast Wars/Machines, Unicron Trilogy or RID 2000*), but since Bayformers and TONS of merchandise since has cemented those characters, you can't get rid of them.

It's like trying to take He-Man and Orko out of Masters of the Universe or having G.I. Joe without Snake Eyes and COBRA Commander.

Note: We have some fans who grew up in these eras, so they know what it's like to not have a Bumblebee or a Starscream running around.

 

Yes, generations is going until 2021.

 

Waspinator was possessed by Starscream once, @MGX, even though Terrasaur might be a more immediate analogue. And, Rattrap was Primal’s tiny lieutenant.

So, it could happen again.

For example, HasTak could try a Victory & Brave design revival, or maybe a Science Fantasy TF with more dragons, monsters, and mythic beastformers.

Then again, maybe Zoids Wild has TakaTo covered on that front for the foreseeable future.

 

I thought Cheetor was the Bumblebee of Beast Wars (who matured as Beast Wars and Machines continued). Kind of like how Hot Shot was the Bumblebee of the Unicron Trilogy. Rattrap was small, but he didn't seem like the kid appeal character. More like the veteran, who just happened to be the smallest.

 

It’s been a while, so that’s probably more accurate.

All these tiny ‘Bees, Gold Bugs, and now Centurion led me to write off Cheetor as being more like Sunstreaker, or some other, bigger carbot.

 

It's hard to tell, but did they kill the elbow joints on Optimus???  WTF

 

I\'m just going to come out and say I\'m REALLY sick of this G1 aesthetic thing Transformers is going for. Granted it\'s not a dealbreaker for me since I myself am a fan of the G1 style since it is a classic aesthetic but I don\'t feel like Hasbro should keep adhering to it and should more work on doing their own thing or if they want to keep it more aimed towards G1? Maybe pull from different elements instead of strictly the 80s designs like Classics which did a good job at modernizing certain elements as well as doing something else.

It was a line that BOTH kids and adults could enjoy since the toys weren\'t ridiculously overcomplicated, they had bright appealing designs and there wasn\'t a reliance on gimmicks. They also were figures who felt durable and if Hasbro\'s recent output tells me anything? I\'m sadly expecting a line of hollow plastic, a lack of detail and gimmicks that probably are going to be shoved in since this is the line for kids.

Though really what doesn\'t help my stance is just that I am not at all excited for Cyberverse as a franchise. The cartoon is looking and sounding like it\'s going to be another RID 2015 in that it\'s going to attempt to pander to the young audience instead of doing much in the way of good and is going to try so hard to appeal to an audience that really seems as if they\'re falling out of love with Transformers and since we\'ve had two failed attempts at a cartoon for an older audience so far in the form of the Machinima\'s Combiner Wars and Titans Return that weren\'t really for an older audience? I can\'t even say that turning to Power of the Primes is going to be an option. And as for the toys? It\'s the same problem.

 

Alright, well that's what I expected. Definitely going for a slightly younger demographic than Prime/RID. It is what it is, although I can't help but feel that the G1 look applied here just makes caricatures out of some pretty iconic characters. They might be intending to bridge younger kids into the older lines.

Is there a gap forming?

There does seem to be some concern that the older kid/preteen demographic is increasingly leaving toys (and everything else) behind for video game devices. Which leaves a young child demographic and an older/Collector one: Cyberverse and Generations.

 

Who in the hell wrote that "bio?" What, is Bumblebee the younger brother of Nightscream? I actually squirmed reading that crap. And the toys are just as much a pile of steaming hollowed out unpainted chunks of plastic with entire pieces of plastic cut out of them now. Epic fail.

 

Me, going into any Cyberverse thread:

 

Hot Shot was the Hot Rod of the Unicron trilogy. Hot Shot's name in Japan is actually Hot Rod, similar personality, he was given the Matrix, and was Autobot leader.

You might be thinking of Hot Shot as compared to the warrior type Bumblebee that came out of how he was treated in the movies. But remember, the first movie was 2007. Armada was 2002. At that time, no one thought of Bumblebee that way. 'Bumblebee' was a cute minibot scout. At best, Mini-Con Sparkplug was a Bumblebee stand-in, but Hot Shot was Armada's Hot Rod.

 

Anyone else find it funny that the Starscream package is already beat up in the photos?


I believe this deserves a

 

These look like a lot of grab-n-play fun for kids. Hopefully they will bring some new little fans into the fold.

As for my aging adult ass, they don’t look especially interesting and I’ll probably pass on them (except perhaps Optimus) And I’m not even mad about it because I know a secret: There are already like a million Megatron, Bumblebee and Starscream toys that were pretty much tailor made for my adult tastes and more being made every year. Shhh...don’t tell anyone!

 

No, it wasn't. G1 toys were 8+, those rescue bots are 5+ (and some are 3+).

 

No, optimus still has his elbow, the joint is on the side furthest from the body. He and Shockwave are still the only two Generations-level articulated toys in the line.

 

No. There was no Joe toys at all in 1999.