I would respect them so much more.

 

I don't much care for what's going on either, but I'm not complaining much about it. I'm just skipping it all. There is absolutly nothing you can say to Hasbro that speaks louder than that.

 

^ Truth! ^

 

This exchange made me laugh much more than I would've thought.

 

That would be good to hear. I remember when that Recon Ravage came out as a mail-in offer during RotF, I thought there was talk from Hasbro that they "fixed" their chroming process or had a new chroming process in general. If Leader Grimlock's chrome is already chipping in multiple instances, any background info they could provide would be interesting to hear.

Heheheh. That would be funny.

Yeah, how you ask the question is as important as whether the question is asked in the first place.

Minor aside, but with their newly stated willingness to look at collectors, I wouldn't mind seeing someone tactfully ask if this means they're also willing to increase the use of paint aps, along with use of chrome here and there, since that's something collectors like to see instead of monochromatic figures lacking in paint aps...or if the status quo is still as far as they're able to go, even with figures made with collectors in mind to some degree.

 

There're people that actually like that silver platinum version and planning to buy.

I do not believe that to be their true intention. I think many are trolling or are hasbro shills.

 

This would be an ideal way to ask the question. You may still receive a cookie cutter answer, but with Hasbro's new willingness to admit their approach towards a collectors focused line, we may get some good answers.

 

Someone must have been buying the DOTM kiddy under 8's stuff or they'd never have thought it was a good idea - unless they use their policy on Star Wars and Marvel to justify it.

They might improve their profits but they are not doing much for sowing the seeds of future collectors with One-step changers I suspect. Not to mention making people rather disgusted that they spent so much energy on such poor quality tat that in most cases they fail to even paint properly and as I said even earlier the normal Generations line is a bit hit and miss too - with missing paint, lack of wrist swivels on curl arms small size weird inaccurate colour choices and other issues in the line.

Knowing Hasbro they will release a correctly coloured set of Dinobot or Drift right as the follow up flanker brand line gets killed off in 2015/16 and so they are impossible to find (not that the moulds are exactly superb anyway).

If their idea of Collector Focus is as much a clusterF* as Tjhe Star Wars black line then they can keep that faux-lipservice too.

 

You mean like those crappy no POA Transformers we got in the 80s  

In all reality, making expensive and/or complex figures also aren't the best way to cultivate future collectors either. If a kid associates Transformers toys as not being "fun", he's probably not going to stick around too long.

 

I think as adult collectors we fail to grasp what it was like for us as kids. Transformers was simply about fun for me personally. The Generation 1 figures are made superiorly, but they still are simple as shit. Beast Wars scout class is the same thing, simple, sometimes one step transformations as well.

I can only speak for my kid and no one else's, but I know the only Transformers she plays with her BotShots and SOME Cyberverse figures. She's 4 years old and they are fun to her because she can quickly transform them without frustrations. I want her to remember how fun Transformers are, not necessarily the build quality (although she will learn to appreciate that like we do).

 

The one time I got a chance to ask the Hasbro con team a question, it was when people were frequently incensed over Bumblebee-heavy case assortments. I spun it into a joke about the "Hive" and asked if it was deliberate...you know, politely and with good humor. They actually said that it had been noticed and commented upon internally.

Lo and behold, there was only as much Bee as everyone else in PRiD, Beast Hunters, and Generations. In fact case assortments have been remarkably even lately, particularly when you look at several successive waves for the few anomalies to even out.

While I didn't ask in time to change anything, I did get the first confirmation that it was a problem they were addressing, contra the usual conspiracy theory that they were doing something that didn't work in order to fuck with us.

In retrospect though, I wish I'd asked my ultimate, burning question that has plagued me for years--where on earth did the term "Voyager" for a size class come from?!

 

-clicks on thread-

...

 

Any complaints should be tempered with a degree of empathy. I'd be willing to bet that given the chance the designers would give us literally everything we want, because they're fans too. And hey, sometimes people make mistakes.

That said, yeah, Airachnid, WTF.

 

I don't remember people asking even remotely aggressive questions in BotCon Q&A. Even in the year when credits cards were comprised, all kumbaya during FunPub session. I guess my point is, in person, people tend to be nicer with their communications.

 

If I was able to go, I wouldn't even pose it as a question.

I would just stand up and say, "This is not a question, just a collector giving his opinion. I have been collecting for x amount of years, and as a collector I am disappointed in Hasbro for releasing toys this year which are all sub standard in terms of QC on all aspects. I had to fix roughly 80% of my purchases. As a collector with a child, I assure you that my child doesn't enjoy playing with toys that need to be fixed out the box. I don't expect you to respond, but I just wanted you to be aware that these substandard toys are extremely noticable not only to the fandom, but to children and most likely their parents. Thank you."

 

And at least one will probably roll their eyes (at least internally), because more than likely, as a collector, they'll chalk your response up to simply their mass market toys weren't up to YOUR standards (as a collector) and are inflecting your views upon your kid.

 

Then they would miss the point, and that is sad. Either that, or they just don't give a shit.

Or in that case, I could bring the Prime legion airachnid I bought for my son with me, where it's limbs just fall off. Not because of play, they just fell off straight from the package.

If in fact that is there attitude, then it's no big deal. There brand will decline like any other brand with shoddy work. Well, once they finish tapping the movie market that is.

Then they will blame it on some other thing that isn't there fault, but because kids are different, or whatever.

Nope, kids like to play with TFing toys. One's that don't break or have issues out of the box.

 

Probably not.

 

You had to fix 80% of your purchases?

I don't believe that for a second.

I buy just as much Hasbro product as the next guy. Experiences will vary from person to person, product to product, but saying you needed to fix 80% of your purchases will absolutely get you an eye roll and rightfully so.

 

Nah.

I want to see their reaction if someone actually asks them directly about the major complaints, though.
"No one likes the chrome, at all. The hell are you thinking?"
"Why didn't you save the chrome for all the Silver Knight Primes?"
"What's with the damn gorilla arms AKA curling iron arms?"

Ummm... maybe it's some kind of arbitrary reference to "soldier"? Because, you know, armies go on voyages to war, kinda?