The person who brought up GI Joe nailed it. These were the original "action figure"...

So model kit enthusiasts who do not call their robots with swappable hands and weapons "dolls" are insecure? I thought it's just convenient to have different names for things which are not the same. TFW2005 forums truly are a treasure trove of knowledge.

 

I think he’ll be a Wrecker for my collection.

 

If you want to get technical an "action figure" is a type of doll.

define action figure - Google Search

 

He's more blue than purple. I used to own the original.

 

I've seen this and Star Wars a million times and it just hit me that *this* scene was the parody of Vader's subbordinate walking in on him getting suited up in his restoration chamber.

...I know. That's what I'm saying. "Action figure" is "doll" for boys who don't want to admit that they're playing with dolls.

 

Or it could be that a significant portion of the toy market these days is comprised of adults and there is a profit to be had in more complex toys that focus on details and display over play value.
But what do I know.
It's not like everyone in the audience on that live stream was an adult.
Were they?

 

It's blue  

 

I mean, if you're referring to stuff like Gundam and Minipla...aren't those just action figures that you build yourself?

How does that conflict with anything I say?

It says 8+ on the box, and is just a repaint of a toy that any kid can pick up off the shelf. All you're doing is agreeing that they've come up with a new term so us adults can feel better about spending our time, energy, and money on childrens toys.

 

If I had to describe his personality in 1 word, it’d be: “scrappy”

All kidding aside, I see your point and I do agree with you. If they’re going to introduce figures that they want us to embrace, they generally need more than 5 min of screen time (except for Robosmasher and Guardians!)

 

I would still get it!

 

On the other hand, look at a show like Beast Wars which kept a relatively small cast of characters from season to season, yet had a much wider toyline with more guys who weren't on the show than were. And among those are some of the most popular and memorable figures.

Even though many of us (myself included) couldn't tell you thing-1 about their personality because we were kids and came up with our own ideas of what they were like.

You don't need to "embrace" every new toy/character that gets put out in a toyline. It's more about "will a kid think this is cool."

Hell, one of the biggest arguments was that Star Saber's HasLab would be a tough ask because there was so little exposure to audiences outside Japan and what little there was (IDW) was generally unpopular.

Yet he sold like gangbusters. In large part because he was a very cool looking toy.

 

Yeah, pretty much. Are they dolls to you then or do you admit there may be some other factors differentiating (action) figures from dolls?

For the record, as far as I am concerned, any figures of humans or humanoid characters can be called dolls. Whether it's a $20 Marvel Legends Wolverine made entirely out of plastic or an adult collectibe like ThreeZero's $150 Caiman with actual clothes. I just draw the line at toylines which are specifically robots.

 

I generally am a fan of the character being prominent before plastic, but you do have a point. My collection is almost entirely bots I knew as a kid (either on the show, comics, or I had the toy) and that’s it. Wasn’t interested in anything else.

However, I just recently bought two bots I didn’t really know much about but they just looked gorgeous and I appreciated them for that: Victory Saber & Black Zarak

 

Still, it's $22. How hard is it to to cover the gaps really?

 

BW also had the bio cards that gave a bit of an indication to their personalities. I used to just stand in the toy aisle and read the bios before picking a character that sounded cool in addition to looking cool. It's one of the best things about Legacy as well, they're bringing back the character bios (hopefully more than a sentence) via a QR code and website.

It's still the same tooling that's been on shelves for 2 years, why expect it to change? If it's that egregious to someone, nonnef.com has a gap filler kit for Trailbreaker for $5 that should work with the gray on this figure.

 

Ditto on Saber

 

Just looking at him, I'm picturing him as Muldoon's hunting buddy. His job is to ride around with the visitors and spring in to action if anything goes down. A rapid response type guy. Because there's nothing more rapid than the car you're in turning in to an armed robot.

I know they had those, but it was a genuine YMMV moment as to if you'd maintain that when playing with them. And because I got in to the toyline a bit late (after the first wave) I missed out on a few show characters. So I had my replacements. Insecticon was the mad scientist, B'Boom was my Primal, etc.

And after 25 years, a lot of people won't remember specifics. Hell, Snapper and Wolfang are my two favorite BW toys for sentimental reasons and I can't remember a thing about their bios.

 

How many children are asking for Lift-Ticket? Give me a break!

And you're missing the point entirely. At $22, Hasbro can cover those gaps. Look at everywhere else they cut corners: instructions are not glossy and in full color, no chrome, no spring-loaded weapons, no bio write-up, no plastic window or color artwork, no foldout catalog, no tech spec reader, just a brown box with a black ink picture.

 

Understood but quick question, what are points?