It’s interesting that what doesn’t do it for you, is what does it for me. The sides of the truck splitting away into the legs is one of my favourite parts about the transformation. I enjoy it more as a puzzle, and it’s not a toy which I’d say MP-10 is more of in the sense of actually playing with it. Considering it’s animation “accurate” I’m happy with it having no obvious kibble apart from the character key design like the truck window and abdomen grill unlike MP-10, but that’s my personal taste. I feel like MP-44 is worth the price of admission entirely.

 

Yeah, it's one of the more interesting aspects of Transformers collecting. Given the age of the franchise, there is a lot of diversity. With regards to the figures, my preferences are heavily G1-toy influenced, but I think it's because those toys-- especially the '84-'85 waves-- made good use of the alt mode in building the robot. I recently received Gravity Builder for Christmas (the OSKO one, because, well... cheap) and it really nails the aesthetic that I like. These "not-Constructicons" clearly homage the originals, but are adherent to neither the G1 toy nor animation designs. That's honestly one of my favorite things about the set. They do their own thing (well, in this case Jinbao does GT's thing), and have very "honest" transformations-- no fakery. They're not perfect, but there's a lot to explore, admire, and enjoy about them.

I know some folks live for the cartoon accuracy, and I respect that. For some, the G1 cartoon is the bedrock of their Transformers experience. Mine started with the toys, their tech specs, and the box art, before the cartoon even debuted. My modern figures tend to be the ones closest in design to the originals, not the cartoon, or else completely different altogether. My Optimus is MP-10, my Hound is Maketoys Gundog 2Y, and my Mirage is MMC Sphinx. MP-44, MP-47, and TE Speed Star just don't do it for me. However, I'm glad these options are all available, and I hope between TT, Hasbro, and third parties, the spectrum will always be diverse.

 

Not to prolong this argument but I felt the need to point out that this seems like a non sequitur. We know that reason why they use the word "converting" and it has nothing to do with the issue that was being discussed. That is done to prevent the watering down of their own trademark. It's a legal corporate issue where they want to keep their branding of "Transformers" as strong as they possibly can.
Sure something under the Transformer brand is technically a Transformer, but in my mind if it doesn't have an actual transforming gimmick of some kind I don't consider it a transformer--and that's what Hasbro was basically trying to sell them as when they originally hit the market. When you remove the entire gimmick that sold a toy line in the first place and try to replace it with something worse in build quality, articulation, size, and playability, you should expect some blow back. Maybe it would have been different if Action Masters has been a subline or some sort of complementary piece to the previous toys, but they weren't and were largely rejected by kids at the time.

But I'm starting to agree with @Zentropy, I'm not sure the original question was asked in good faith.


Yet on another HOT TAKE: If the rumor is true, we don't need another Menasor.

 

Uhhhhm, you mean something like this?

 

I have an even more unpopular opinion: Energon Starscream is my favorite Starscream design. Armada and Cybertron Starscream are tied for second with G1 in third. I just love that ghost arm and giant sword.

 

I think most prefer the TR version since it fits in with others with the same feature whereas T30 Brainstorm does not.

Not only does it play well with others, but TR Brainstorm is actually a better design IMO.

 

I’ll do you one better in terms of unpopularity: Movie Starscream is one of my favorite Starscreams because he is probably the most innovative and interesting design to come from the character. It’s especially cool when translated into the Masterpiece figure. His vulture-like appearance was probably intentional, as if he’s waiting for Megatron to die at any moment. I honestly love it.

 

I would reckon that's a pretty popular opinion with Bay fans.

 

Yeah, but in terms of the overall Transfomers fandom, he’s rarely considered the best.

 

Excuse me what???

About the rumor itself, not your take on it. Feel like I should add that.

 

True, but who gives a shit about Energon Starscream?

 

That was a super popular mold back in the day. #feelingold

 

I guess I just don't hear many others talking about him these days.

 

Movie Starscream is excellent. Clear and unique silhouette that mirrors his alt mode and makes him look like a hulking brute (Which he is in the movies).

Also incredible how it manages to compact the enormous F-22 into a more manageably-sized robot.

I don't care for the actual character (Or the movies in general), but Starscream's an excellent example of character design.

 

Platinum FOC Grimlock is still the best CHUG Grimlock

 

I can see where you're both coming from.

I share quite a bit of TranslucentBag's sentiment about this, but he's left out some important details that give his viewpoint a little bit more context.

The problem isn't so much with Action Masters as how they were sold to people, and the toy landscape we had when they showed up.

There was a big craze going on at the time (about late 1987 or early 1988 is when it really spread) focusing on the idea of small/micro sized toys across the industry that I think Hasbro wanted to get a piece of, and they saw it as a way to also revive the Transformers line.

Companies like Galoob were eating their lunch with Micro Machines, and there were several examples across the girls' toy lines that were wildly successful at that time as well.

Action Masters were released along side their only counterpart - Micromasters, which were delivering less Transformer for more money. Yes there were some remaining normal size transformers, but by this point nearly every toy in the line had some kind of a side gimmick other than just being a Transformer, and all of the memorable characters in full-size form save for Optimus Prime were gone by that point, and his final Powermaster model would only be sharing a shelf with these new lines for a very short time before he too disappeared.

I had 3 of the Action Masters when they were new: Soundwave, Blaster, and Shockwave.

I did enjoy the additional posability, especially in these 3 characters that had underwhelming altmodes if you weren't into role-play as a child.

Their robot modes were more usable; no, they weren't in scale to my other Transformers but they were far cheaper.

They were fun to pose and did have some potential (had more ever come out for the line.) They all had standardized weapon pegs as well.

Hasbro's attempt failed because that isn't the concept that the brand was built on. When you are sold the 'bigger is better' gimmick for several years, the idea of something smaller than Minibots with less articulation is going to go over like a fart in church.

It's hard to follow Fortress Maximus with a postage stamp and make it work.

I think the other part of what killed the line from 1988-onward was Hasbro's choice of color - going from well-coordinated, more muted and/or realistic schemes, or simply attractive combinations of color to a poorly-coordinated, garish, or primary color based toys essentially told the kids getting older that their money wasn't wanted.

So in short, TranslucentBag is still carrying around old baggage (ha!) that was put upon us as Transformers fans so long ago. It was not a good time at all to be a fan, as even the youngest of us could see the writing on the wall.

On reflection, I'm not sure much has changed, but I feel like companies still don't give children enough credit for being discerning customers. They know what they want, and they know when they are getting a poor facsimile.

 

Today I read a post that made me cringe.

As there's a lot of reports of breakage I find it... just bad beyond word that some have the "answer" to the fragility of the TOYS... "you'll be fine if you just display them".

 

So I guess my unpopular opinion is "toys should be for playing and not display... just get statuettes and such if the plan is just to have them sit there for the end of time".

 

Honestly, SS '86 Grimlock probably is the best Grimlock toy that they've made at a mass retail level, and one of the reasons people like it is because it's big. However, it just doesn't have any appeal for me. I'm a G2 kid so I was never able to get a full set of G1 Dinobots until Power of the Primes and when I finally had all of them I was so happy to have them and even the combining gimmick grew me. Plus I like that there smaller because they scale better with the WFC figures now and still look a little bigger compared to those toys.

That's pretty much the same reason I brought the downsized knock-off Devastator too. I just think that it took so long for me to get a complete set of Dinobots and now that I have a set I'm perfectly happy with that I just have no desire to turn right around and replace them with the new ones coming out, it would just feel so disingenuous to me. Plus I'm at the point where I'm more focused on getting figures of characters that I don't have as opposed to replacing the figures I already have.

 

This is exactly the reason as to why I’ll never replace my copy of MP-12 Sideswipe. There’s just something about that figure that never grows old to me. I never took the bait on Bad Cube Steamroll because of it.

 

I'm honestly shocked at how many people seem to dislike transparent windows, not only for practical reasons like more fragile joints but from a purely aesthetic standpoint as well. While there is the odd figure here and there that manages to pull off painted windows without looking terrible (usually cases where the windows are really small), 90% of the time it makes the figure look dull and cheap, like an oversized Legends-class figure. If painted windows had been the norm for WFC figures I don't think I would've been tempted to get back into collecting.