Which is used for future figures. That's how the brand grows.

Yeah, and it was the only Transformers line going on at the time. There weren't nearly as many differnet figures on shelves, and there was far less media going on. (not to mention inflation in the last twenty years, but most people like to pretend inflation just doesn't exist)

Generations isn't entirely collector focused, though. The new characters, aside from adding variety for non-purists, also exist as "extras" for the non-combiner combiners like Optimus or Cyclonus.

Which is absolutely true, they're just not moustache-twirlingly evil about it like some people seem to think.

 

Cheetor/Tigatron, Tarantulas/Black Arachnia, K-9/Wolfang, Buzz Saw/Waspinator, Lazorbeak/Terrorsaur, Grimlock/Dinobot, they all say hi.

 

Megatron/Iguanus too!

 

But I suspect those aren't the couple of years the poster's talking about: BW does have a no repaints phase during Fuzors, Transmetals and Transmetal IIs folllowed by a year's worth of nothing but repaints!

 

A mold getting repainted one time is one thing. CW is squeezing 3 or more characters out of a mold. It's insulting.

 

Because you're forced to buy them all?

Don't forget there are still some people who miss initial releases of a mold. Repaints/tools are ways to get in on the action.

 

Sure, but the initial point was a company "surviving" off of repaints. For all we know, those initial repaints possibly helped bring us Fuzors or future lines.

 

Neat. Combaticons!

 

Hmm, Hopefully theres a legends and another shockwave.

 

I don't feel even remotely screwed by Alpha Bravo and Offroad. I get two great new molds, two new characters, auxiliary members for the combiner teams, and the option to still pick up the original characters if I want to. It's a win-win-win situation.

 

Why are people acting like Combiner Wars has less new moulds than usual? Here's the stats on the proportions of brand new moulds for Generations since the 2012 revival:

2012 - 8 new moulds
Deluxe - 8/8

2013 - 17 new moulds
Legends - 6/8 (I'm counting each data disc as 0.5 of a new mould since they were packaged in twos)
Deluxe - 6/16
Voyager - 4/7
Titan - 1/1

2014 - 19 new moulds
Legends - 4/8
Deluxe - 9/16
Voyager - 5/6
Leader - 1/1

2015 - 18 new moulds
Legends - 4/11
Deluxe - 8/16
Voyager - 3/6
Leader - 2/5
Titan - 1/1

 

Stop ruining my fanrage with facts!

 

Like the seekers, or the Datsuns, or the zillions of G1 Bumblebee-a-likes, or buzzsaw/lazerbeak rumble/frenzy, or what have you

At least modern reuses of molds tend to come with unique headsculpts or accessories.

 

I wonder what those stats would reflect if you factored in heavy retools?

 

Right, well, if we call a heavy retool a retool that's more than just a new head and/or weapon:

2012 - 8 new moulds
Deluxe - 8/8

2013 - 17 new moulds, plus 4.5 heavy retools
Legends - (6+1)/8 (plus another heavy retool, Ravage to Steeljaw, w/ Blaster)
Deluxe - (6+2)/16
Voyager - (4+1)/7
Titan - 1/1

2014 - 19 new moulds, plus 2 heavy retools
Legends - 4/8
Deluxe - (9+2)/16
Voyager - 5/6
Leader - 1/1

2015 - 18 new moulds, plus 6 heavy retools
Legends - 4/11
Deluxe - (8+3)/16
Voyager - (3+2)/6
Leader - (2+1)/5
Titan - 1/1

 

F. Uck. Bad news.

Pre-order everthing after wave 4 guys or get shorted during the post-Christmas season.

 

So the legacy repaints that are just the same mold but in different colours is fine but the extensive retools they put effort into re-utilizing the same mold as something different that's a bad thing?

That's pretty good.

 

and we're at least getting new heads: in the AEC era, almost every single mold got a straight, untouched (frequently, but not always) awful repaint: Now that was something to get bent out of shape about (IMHO)

CW going the distance with at a minimum new heads or as far as remolds that are essentially new figures with around 90% new parts? i'm all good with that.

i'm also good not buying it if it looks absolutely terrible like Optimus.

 

I look at lines by, well, lines instead of years, so to me it looks like (and I'm just going by Deluxes):

This was a "bad" line for me since we got a lot of new things then immediately got the whole entire thing again.


This was a "good" line for me even though it has about the same ratio of new/old since it kept a decent balance the whole time, doing it's best to avoid repaint waves.


Admittedly there's still some we don't know about, but it's certain there are at least 2 whole repaint waves coming, and it's a safe enough bet the rumored Combaticons and maybe even Technobots will have some repaints too.
Doesn't help that there are so many cars and jets floating around, either. I don't think it'd be quite as bad if they started with the more varied combiner teams.

 

Bruticus!?