I forgot we had seen pics of these already, I had forgot how uninteresting they are.

 

I love him. I like that they gave him a facial expression. It is hilarious! He's a must have! XD My daughter wants him because she likes his alt-mode, even though she already has a Shockwave.

You guys not wanting these means there's more for us.

 

I'm seeing a difference in the pictures of Optimus Prime's vehicle mode where he isn't doing the Kamehameha. There is a horizontal red line across the front of the windshield in the picture with the white background, but I don't see the red line in the picture with the kid. I wonder what the official product will have the red line or not (I hope not). I guess I'll have to wait for Emgo's review. I may pick this figure up simply because he's a cartoony, beefy G1'esgue Optimus Prime.

 

You could always just paint the RID warrior Soundwave to resemble Cyberverse Soundwave.

 

Any chance if 3P add on kits could improve these figures ?

 

I don’t know if third parties would bother. They’ve been very hesitant to do anything beyond Combiner upgrades. No sense spending $20-30 to upgrade a $15 toy.

 

An add on kit isn't going to fix Shockwave's non articulated head. I honestly think it would be better just creating new figures that capture the show appearances. Perhaps the same company could also make better RID15 figures too.

 

shockwave looks good,  but the others... did these kids really enjoy these cheap toys or they pretend to be?

 

They put more than 50% into the figure. The packaging is the smallest part of the design budget typically, to pretty much having its own budget area not connected to the design of the figures. The gimmick is integrated into the figure design stages itself. A spring lock device is a fraction of the cost of an LED system too. Factor in how much you pay for those watch batteries alone, which an LED system can use 1-3 of, and a singular one is already twice the cost of a spring lock device. Which is really only usually two small pieces of plastic and one metal spring. That'd be my assumption at least based on the amount of materials used due to the complexity of a battery/having to outsource buy it, as opposed to the bulk an outsourced spring would cost if it's not made in house from a metal spool as is. The more complex the electronics the more cost goes up, which has to be offset by other areas to make the figure price threshold for MSRP. Which has to factor in not only part making, but assembly as well. (Though to be fair, neither is all that pricey really. That's why they're so commonly used in happy meal toys. Though LED ones have become more rare compared to spring device ones.)

Though a price breakdown of part by part and step by step would be nice to see, but that also fluctuates year to year. Especially right now where the market itself is in a really bad flux state because of global economics reasons. Which goes against the rules to talk about because then it gets into politics. Sadly, the political state of America and how it impacts the rest of the world because of how Hasbro operates with overseas factories and domestic design as well as overseas design with Takara is directly impacted by the political state and issues of each area, which in turn causes quality and cost to fluctuate on final product. Like for example the economic state of China, and the moving of factories to Viet Nam, is a direct cost contributor to needing to offset the price in production because of assembly cost increasing. Same as plastic use and cost also varies year to year, and metal cost too. Toy production, besides packaging, is about as varied as many other industries that use wide parts for their devices like coffee makers or watches, or really any moderately complex device. Some of the same issues that affect high end electronics because of their outsourced production, also impact toys, though not to as big of a degree because of operations differences in scale, scope, and the device manufactured itself.

This is part of why china's robo and figure market is growing, because in its domestic to itself nature, it doesn't have the same cost issues as outsourced material does. Same to Japan to itself, as it doesn't have the issues involved as american outsourced and shipped back in material does. It's a mildly complex thing to go over detail-wise, which is why different companies all vary but have accounting divisions to go over the numbers for what they make to make sure it hits the margins needed for production to still sell at certain MSRPs and turn a profit.

But for example, two toy biz figures. A spring loaded deadpool figure, and then the light up figures of like cyclops, storm, or mr. sinister. The spring loaded knife deadpool is cheaper to make. Same to the swivel waist wolverine, spring loaded claws, or spring lock punch rogue. Whereas Light up devices aren't much of an increase of that, they are an increase still. Especially complex ones because of the amount of conductive wiring it needs which also costs more than a normal spring coil. As those metal prices fluctuate, how cost effective and the amount in a figure fluctuates too. So if you want a full example of how costs fluctuate, look at speaker wire(copper) and how the prices on it have changed from the late 90s to now. I'm sure there are other more publicly visible markers of production cost changes too than that, but that one's the most obvious that I'm familiar with because of having bought 20-30 foot speaker cords of a good gauge for my 5.1 sound system in the early 2000s and how glad I am that I bought them then compared to the prices now.

This wasn't always the case either. LED's for a time were pretty cheap with only a simple metal band system. To the point you could get lighters with LED bottoms for roughly 2 USD to a little above. But that was also almost 10 years ago or so. Market has since changed on costs of even simple electronics like that. That same lighter now is closer to 3-5 USD with still that same simple metal band LED style. That's one market that has slightly collapsed entirely recently. Gimmick lighters aren't as common as they once were or as varied. They used to be everywhere and dirt cheap with different novelty forms of usage. Not so much anymore as the more complex mechanism ones are now priced out of the very market they used to feed.

 

All I know is that when I was a kid and the movie toys came out, I didn’t even look at the simple “kids’ toys.” What I wanted were the normal ones like Deluxes, Voyagers, and Leaders. And it wasn’t because they were big. It’s because they were more accurate. Nobody wants these toys unless they have no other choice for the price. If Hasbro didn’t spend so much “effort” on the 1-step changers and equivalents, maybe they could put that effort into better actual figures. Instead, even the normal figures feel more like kids’ toys than real figures. It’s a whole line of cheap toys sold at full price.

 

These are the main toys from the upcoming show? They're really..... NOT GOOD... which is sad because the designs look good. I dabbled in RID and watched the show for a little bit. I'll give the show a try but the toys are an easy pass.

 

I have nothing to say...

 

The Throttlebots are the superior toys. At $3, or whatever they were in 1987, you really can't complain about them being so simplistic. They have the pull back and go gimmick thats still pretty fun. Plus they are characters in their own right and not scaled down crappier versions of larger toys. These new toys look crappy and are crappy, especially the half-transformed little toys - that is the worse gimmick I've ever seen in a mainline Transformers toyline of 35 years. This Shockwave looks okay, but he's the only one.

 

For anyone that curious about Shockwave, Thew finally uploads his review of this figure on Youtube:

 

If Shockwave's head turned and his alt mode had a head turning him into a cannon turtle I'd be all over him. but as it stands I, a 21-year-old woman am not particularly fussed about these toys for four-year-olds and I'll stick to Generations, MP and 3P.

 

Too late, they already started to destroy Generations with Power Of The Stickers line....

And to all the people who thinks "It's just one lousy toyline", no it's part of the systemic consistent deterioration of Hasbro' toys.

 

SOLID!

 

After watching the review, I can’t not see Shockwave doing the spider walk now.


Man, Looks like I’m gonna have to get him now. Thanks review. 
 

 

Don’t sell yourself short. By saying that you have nothing to say, you are saying something... even if it’s about nothing. 

 

Saw a few of the 1-steps, Deluxes (whatever the size class is called now), in a toy shop a few hours ago.

I'm underwhelmed. However, instead of throwing a pre-pubescent hissy-fit about it, i'm just going to accept that not every Transformers line is going to be aimed at me. There're plenty of items that are, and i hope the kids enjoy Cyberverse.


The line is not "sad" , it's not some sort of personal attack on those who don't approve of it. If it upsets you that much, you might want to get over yourself.