Well then i do offer you my sincerest of apologies, however now you know two. And you honestly think it is in the realm of possibility that he was paid to get people to stop liking rubber tires in favor of plastic ones?

 

Let's face it. Any reviewer who loves everything is just a promoter. And that's fine. But enterprise and the real deal opinion are to me, vastly different.

I'm just going to be frank here- I view some reviews as advertising, and I view others as brutally honest critisism be it good or bad.

Neither form is better or worse overall, but, as you can see, I am the type of person who prefers to see all faults (and I know we are discussing failing tires) from a critical vantage point. These things aren't cheap so I like to know the lowdown

I do think that anyone who promotes a product, will say good things about things the company is doing to cut corners/costs. I don't even think being paid for it is a necessity. Promoters will often even do things like that just to stay in their sponsors good books.

It's painstakingly obvious that plastic hollow tires are cheaper to manufacture than a 2 part rim/rubber or equivalent tire.

If I was previously making the latter and chose to cheap out and go with the crappy version, it would be in my best interests to endorse the new version as superior. We see this in the auto industry, housing materials, fuel with ethanol now, the list goes on. It's how things work. It's how the boss trades in a BMW for a Ferrari. Margins.

So yes, it's completely plausible that companies would somehow expect their advocates to promote the cost cutting options as a superior product.

 

"Let's face it"...i buy the vast majority of the stuff i review...since that's the case, i am going to buy what i like and what i want. I'm not going to waste my money on something i don't want or have an interest in. So naturally things are going to have more of a positive outlook than negative because i don't buy stuff that i don't like. But you're entitled to your opinion. Have a great day, i'm off to bed now  

 

But how do you know you like the qc on something before anyone has had one? You can't possibly already know you're happy with everything before you obtain it (or have it sent to you for doing the advertising). See that just doesn't add up.

 

Claiming that rubber tires don't crack because you have not seen it is just an insane bit of logic. Rubber tires crack. I have been a Transformer seller for over 20 years and yes, they do crack, from G1 and up. There can be many reasons for it from climate to the production of the parts.

RID was very bad for it on both the Prime and the UM. Just because yours does not have it does not mean that there are hundreds or thousands out there that aren't also. And I for sure am not about to go digging through boxes in an effort to find mine to take a photo just to prove to you that it is a thing because it IS a thing, no question.

That said, there are ways of making rubber tires that are better than others and using a rubber that coats a rim is better than say how RID Prime had the big thick tires on them.

Do I prefer rubber tires on my figures? Sure, rubber is awesome. It is required? No, I can live without it. MP inferno's wheels are perfect as they are. I could not ask any better at all. Better than both MMC and MT's offerings by a large margin.

 

@Spence I love what you said about it being plausible to make rubber or rubber like tires that don't have problems. We put a truck sized rover on mars that's still going strong. If we can do that, Transformers can have tires that say "This is a $200 collectible" To me it's rediculous to even have to even need a mindset that hollow plastic tires are acceptable on adult collectible toys that cost in the hundreds of dollars.
It baffles me to no end why everyone isn't demanding better.

 

Just chiming in with my G1 bumblebee that's 30 years old which still has all 4 rubber tyres intact - miracle

 

The poll is the poll and the topic beneath it it the topic beneath it.
The reason for the poll is to see what the consensus is regarding the topic, since a poll is like a way for people who don't comment much to still have a say.

It's no secret I favor one opinion. And 39 of 50 responders did not say they prefer the cheap plastic tires. Yes, it is my hope that topics such as this inspire people to speak up and demand better product.

How is that negative to you?

 

People talk about rubber tires degrading and all but I've had zero issues with it at all. I have plenty of G1, many I played with as a kid and the tires haven't fallen apart or anything. Maybe I'm just lucky or whatever but MPs seem cheaper to me without them. Like I'm paying all this dough for a premium product and it's missing something obvious.

 

I've have various items from the 80's with rubber tyres & such . some are looking great others are falling apart so bad I'm afriad to touch them. and I know someone who had to get replacement tryes for an official MP-10.

either some parts have just been really lucky and lasted or there is a serious difference in quality of rubber parts.

If I buy something for a long term collection I don't want to be hunting around for replacement parts in a few years .

 

Ok so far thus thread has had plenty of claims of bad tires on MP scale Transformers. And some of stuff made in the 80's.

We have this one pic, albeit blurry and to me it looks more like a glob of something other than superglue. In my experience, superglue is thin and doesn't make a mass up above what it's fixing. And also dries clear, not thick and white. To my eye, this shot looks more like it was made with hand cream and shot blurry just for the picture in the moment than an actual fix for a cracked tire.

So I'm still looking for actual pictures of these alleged cracked or split tires... so far I have not been convinced it's an actual problem. Just spoken assertions and zero evidence.

 

Its funny when you guys act like it has to A or B.. the truth is not all rubber parts are equals. People have made shitty rubber tires over the years, people have also made great rubber tires. So not sure why people get so wound up over finding examples that have failed or not. It doesn't prove a unilateral conclusion.

And the truth truth is today we have even more material choices that are more durable.. the urathane products, etc.

To the OP.. we are paying for a premium, collector level product. We should be getting premium, collector level components... and plastic tires are not that.

 

You bet man. I used to work in a glass shop and windshield urethane would be the perfect material for them to use for tires. It's my contention that the reason for cheap plastic is purely cost related and has nothing to do with lifespan of product.
The community embracing plastic tires based on this non issue is in my opinion the result of a carefully planted old wives tale among collectors

 

The only way I think rubber tires would benefit Masterpieces is if the figures also had high-end premium paint jobs. In THAT case, then yes, use rubber. But since they don't, I really don't think the addition of rubber tires makes any difference.

 

is there a cash prize for providing proof of old rubber , an amazon gift voucher, something ?

anyway here's a few of mine from the 80's



the next one



now how many breaks do you see . unlike the photo you suggest is fake I Did do a good job of repair
here's a hint every tyre is broken & glued to the wheels

don't believe me , as soon as plastic therapy gives me a large sum of money I will break the glue, photo the bits seperate & glue them back together & photo that .

if you don't want to pay please note the highlighted join on one tyre




I am a former engineer, so I agree quality of material makes all the difference. as I said I have stuff that is great condition. the problem is if you buy an official or even a 3rd party figure with rubber parts for a large sum of money what do you do IF it falls apart a few years later, demand replacement parts , who from the seller or manufacturer?
hope someone does 3rd party replacements?

 

Anyone who believes rubber CAN'T deteriorate probably thinks that there was a hidden agenda with toy companies to pay off reviewers to push a plastic tire only agenda LOL....

That said...Rubber deteriorating is a fairly common problem in Hot Toys figures for example. The original release of the ED-209 from back in the day, had a rubber dome that fell apart. They redid the figure and the same problem still happened. The 1989 Batman is another one. While my Batman doesn't have any problems, my new version of the ED-209 absolutely does

 

plastic tires pls