Studio Series has been really great so far. I've been going back and updating my movie Decepticons shelf because I never really got movie Decepticon figures when they came out and the ones I did have were repaints and not how they looked in the films. It's been a different story for the Autobots. Past figures like the ROTF Leader OP and Human Alliance BB and Jazz are some of my favorite figures and ones that I feel accurately represent those characters. As much as I want to hold onto these figures and keep them in my display, Studio Series will allow me to have a larger and more complete cast of characters since they probably won't make a good Ratchet figure in scale with the ones I already have. Anyone else struggling with replacing older movie figures with Studio Series figures despite the benefits they provide?
When I had more space I had everything displayed by movie. It's been about 3 years since I've had those figures on display. Currently I have all my Studio Series figures on their own shelf. I'm about to move and when I set up my display again I'll put up the movie figures again. I'm thinking about just putting the SS in front of their old counterpart to show off how far we've come in terms of screen accuracy.
I don't know if it's quite what you mean, but when I look at SS Optimus Prime and both ROTF and DOTM SS Megatron, I really don't see enough there to replace my TLK voyager Prime and Megatron as the definitive versions of those characters on my movie shelf. I mean the SS versions look good but I like how different the TLK versions compared to their previous designs and they scale a bit better vehicle wise with the other SS vehicle modes. EDIT: I do wish I still had my 70s Camaro BB from the AoE line. That was a better BB mold than the ones in the SS line, IMO.
I restarted my collection right around the time Studio Series was starting, so I don't really have much to replace. I'm still displaying my TLK figures and the figures from my Bumblebee Tribute set with my Studio Series figures.
I'm being extremely selective about Studio Series toys. So far, all I've gotten are the Beetle 'Bee, WWII 'Bee, and Dropkick, with plans to get Shatter and car!Dropkick. I've got some movie figures I have the original film, RotF, DotM toys for already, having fallen into that trap. So even though some are inargueably better (like Jazz), I just can't. It helps that I've never been completely in love with the movie aesthetic and find a lot of the execution in toy form about twice as complicated as it needs to be (something like Siege Sideswipe is about how complex I think most Transformers should be).
No struggles. Sold off what I could of old figures to help fund SS. Once I had them in hand, there was no going back.
??? I wasn't aware of a 70's camero from the AOE line (that I can recall). If you mean the 60's black camero, there hasn't been any other version of him so far. So I'm confused. You probably mean the 60's black BB, but I'm not sure. Thank for clarifying. After a LOT of paint, the black BB is one of my favorites as well.
Studio series may be on it's way to being the best overall line (maybe), but I have enough problems with enough of the toys that I really don't feel it's likely to ever be definitive (for me at least). For me in many cases, figures that happened to be released under ROTF/HFTD are still often better than these. Really wish they hadn't further shrunk things from AOE/TLK. I also feel like they may be shrinking this line even further as it progresses as most of the Bumblbee movie figures seem smaller than they should be even for the SS line.
Screen accuracy isn't everything to me, so I feel absolutely no need to replace the figures I already have with Studio Series. Some of the new ones are really nice, like VW BB, Barricade and the upcoming BB Optimus, but I generally prefer the older versions. I know they aren't as screen accurate, but they just feel better to me as toys and they look great posed together.
Aside from some special edition figures, such as Takara / Hasbro Asia RotF leader Optimus releases, Studio Series has made the entire series of movie releases obsolete. The only non-Dinobots I'm hanging onto is one Leader prime release, Leader Starscream and the HftD Battle Blades Optimus Prime release (which is an amazing mold). Everything else, including the once venerable Battle Blades Bumblebee, goes. I am hanging onto the TLK release of the Dinobots (plus the Universal Studios Snarl), because they are so different and there is nothing else like them. I don't really see them as "movie characters" though, because most of them weren't in the movie and were considerably different, and we'll probably see new releases in Studio Series at some point, either of new molds for the deluxe classes, or modified / upscaled releases of things like Scorn, who'se TLK mold is modern, just the wrong size and colors.
I might not be the best person for this debate as I don't own any Studio Series figures to compare, but I have been a big supporter of the older toys. It's been hard for me to look at the Studio Series figures and justify not only spending the money on them but feeling like they can replace some of my older figures. I have a hard time looking at the various Voyager Primes that have come out and think that they are able to replace my Leader Striker Optimus Prime molds. Are the new Studio Series Primes more articulated and easier to transform? Absolutely! And the new Leader DOTM version is the first version to intrigue me the most because he literally comes with EVERY single accessory Prime had in the movie, and that's hard to pass on. But I also look at a figure like Studio Series Sideswipe. In a lot of ways he is more accurate to the CGI but I look at some of the design choices and can't help but feel like he doesn't surpass the Sidearm Sideswipe mold. I love Sidearm to pieces and he stands as one of the centerpieces of my movie display, so it's hard for me to justify the new Sideswipe as a replacement for that figure. Granted, Studio Series is going all out in terms of giving collectors a full cast of characters. I said it before, but if you told me even a year ago that Hasbro would release a Hightower figure, I would have laughed in your face, and yet here we are. Studio Series has a lot of merit and could be characterized as the best movie line from the sheer standpoint of it's giving us all the characters that we've hoped for for years and years. Studio Series gave us Leader Blackout as one example. It's hard not to look at Studio Series and not want to jump right in and collect the whole line and call it a day. Part of my hesitation is because I've already spend hundreds of dollars on the old figures that I don't want to just sell them and buy the new figures. And part of that hesitation in selling the old stuff is because of nostalgia. The movies are what brought me back into Transformers. Specifically DOTM. It was when that movie came out that I became involved on this site and considered myself to be a "collector." These old movie toys hold a lot of significance in my eyes and I don't just want to kick them to the curb for the sake of getting the newer flashy figures. We'll see if my tune changes in the upcoming months. I'm looking to pick up SS Sideswipe because he is my favorite character from the movies and he seems like a good entry piece into the line. If I like him enough I might look into picking up some other figures, but as it stands for now, my older figures aren't going anywhere. They just mean too much to me and are already darn close to being the "definitive" versions of the characters in my eyes.
