Coming from the latest lines over the years, it seemed that we had a pattern of "Hasbro ruining our collection" situation. Figures announced that never got a release day, filling the line with unwanted figures, or just Japanese exclusives. So which one had it worst and made us really p!$$ed off at Has/Tak? The ones I think had it bad: 1- Transformers Animated. We saw awesome prototypes for a Tripple-Changer Megatron with a Shredder mask, and Animated Hotshot, and a concept for Ironhide to mach his movie counterpart, but they never saw the pleasure to be made. There were other figures that were meant to be released, but ended up as Takara exclusives like Blackout and Wingblade Optimus Prime. 2- Transformers Dark of the Moon. I think we all could agree that this is where things started to go bad... the figures have gotten smaller in exchange for what generally concidered a terrible weapon gimmick, transformations are too simple compared to the previously complicated ROTF, lack of paint, and lighter plastic. But the biggest gripe was the sever lack of movie characters compared to non-movie characters. And what happens when they finally decided to release the rest of the movie characters that we've wanted since the beginning? The cancelled the toyline and the only way to get what we couldn't get was imports. They just HAD to cancel it when they got to the ones we wanted the most. Not to mention the Japanese exclusives like Jetwing Optimus Prime, Skywarp, Airlaid, etc. Transformers Prime: First Edition. We had the show airs for quite a while, and we waited all the time for the toys. But what happened afterwards? They got cancelled because they were a limited release and we had to suffer big time from scalpers who charged 3-5 times the retail price for these highly demanded figures. Transformers Prime: Robots in Disguise/Arms Micron. After the cancellation of First Edition, we got this line in which I saw a reincarnation of DOTM. Figures are way smaller, the plastic is too thin and brittle with stress marks before you open the package and play it, little to no paint, and stupid STUPID weapon gimmick for the voyagers. And to complete the DOTM reincarnation metaphor, we had Takara exclusives for main characters that you need to pay an arm and a leg to get them. We get Ironhide? sweet! Oh wait, they'll paint it green and call it Kup instead?! WTF?!! Takara's Arms Micron wasn't that great either. When you think of Takara, you think of high quality paint job with metallic touches. But what did they do? Stickers. EFFING STICKERS!! What? Their plastic models that transforms to clunky over-sized weapons took all the budget that was meant for the paint and went for stickers to fill in the gaps?! Not to mention the hideous weapon ports all over the figures that destroys the look. Transformers Prime: Beast Hunters. This line haven't been released yet and we're already complaining. First off, even though it's supposed to focus on the new Beastformers it had retooled PRID figures with spikes that will probably be made with very soft plastic/rubber for safety along with ugly color schemes. And unless they are the only ones that we're going to have, Predaking and Lazerback are the only new characters. Transformers Beast machines. I guess this is worth mentioning just because the toys had little to nothing that looks like the character models. For crying out loud, Nightscream was an ULTRA class toy for a character that was supposed to be small! And the first Primal figure was an ugly mess of a figure! My thoughts in a nutshell. Yours?
Prime, definitely. No NA release for Breakdown, no NA release for Jet Vehicon, no NA release for Unicron, no word on an Insecticon toy, giving us a dumb Kup toy instead of Ironhide, FE Optimus getting canceled then re-released with a shitty factory error, horrible case ratios, CANADA BARELY EVEN HAVING FUCKING WAVE 2 OF DELUXES OUT YET, etc This entire line is just a frustrating mess. DOTM is up there too because they filled the line with shit like Air Raid and Bumblebee retools instead of releasing characters actually from the movie.
DOTM. I mean the whole line sucked but it would have started getting good had the Que/Leadfoot/Soundwave wave came out. I'm out a quirky Que and Robot John DiMaggio.
I know it's been beaten into the ground already, but how about Transtech? There were prototyes made for Prime, Cheetor and Starscream, but the line never saw the light of day. So sad, too. The prototypes looked awesome.
And don't forget shrinking deluxes, fewer and fewer paint apps and freaking clip-on wheels. It's the only toyline I can think of where you can actually see (possibly multiple) budget cuts in action by comparing the first and last waves of figures.
Dark of the Moon, no contest whatsoever. Had that line not been so frustrating in every sense imagineable then I might still be a collector today.
Prime as a whole, with all various editions it contains. They waited a year to put out anything. They distributed the FE's poorly. RiD clogged shelves with Bee and Cliffjumper for the first 2 waves. Breakdown doesn't get a toy till the character's out of the show, and then they make it import only. Unicron and the Jet Vehicon are import only, in the case of the latter, the car Vehicons were only shown in car mode on 2 separate occasions, making Jet Vehicon the more common character from the show's stand point. They made another gigantic Bumblebee that people refuse to buy. Knockout, the flashy, obsessed with his appearance character, lacks any manner of a fancy deco. Airachnid. And let's not forget, Cliffjumper, who died 4 minutes into the very first episode, has SEVEN TOYS. I could probably think of more, but I think I made my point. I'm getting really sick of jumping through ridiculous hoops just to get a series' main cast.
Aside from a couple of non-US releases, how was DotM frustrating? I think I picked up nearly the entire line in the first week of distribution and never had any issue finding later releases. Maybe the ONLY figure I didn't see at retail all that often was Air Raid, and he's all over the place at discount stores now.
Personally I think Beast Machines was the worst, but you have to take into account that the stakes weren't as high back then. The biggest failing with Animated was the scheduling and releases dates, the toy line was fine. I have to say DOTM. There was so much riding on it and Hasbro pretty much grew to rely on a biennual profit boost based on movie toy sales, and these things just stunk up the shelves and were such a step down from the ROTF toys. (I'm not a movie toy collector myself, but I can appreciate the great molds in ROTF) Combine this will a failing to release complete sets of figures in one line, rising production costs, and the braniac who agreed to have a red Ferrari in a film about giant transforming robots to advertise a toyline but not have permission to include said character in the toyline, and you have a collective disappointment. Prime has it's failings, but again, the movie years are where the money is.
Look, I couldn't care less about the lack of paint or thin plastic complaints in PRID. But look at that triple-changing megatron and tell me that its cancellation was just.
Well, I'll state an early disclaimer that I live in the UK, so we are pretty much boned regardless of what line we're talking about. But for me it was just the sheer lack of availability of on-screen characters, plain and simple. Soundwave (deluxe & HA), Leadfoot (deluxe & HA) and Que we only possible to obtain through the process of horribly expensive importing for a start. The lack of consistency amongst the Dreads (why was Hatchet a jet? Crowbar only available in Cyberverse class), smaller figures overall (perhaps with the exception of the leaders) with fewer paint apps than previous lines (Sideswipe!), no Dino toy at all... Those are my main issues with the DotM toyline. In the end I just gave up as it was no longer fun to collect, more of a money-sapping chore.
let's think about all the other toy lines, electronics and other vast products out there that had cancellations poor distribution, poor designs, or just downright disinterest too. then ask, is it all the company's fault? people in general are getting more picky, more demanding, and looking for even the most miniscule flaw in everything. there is literally no pleasing anybody these days. There will always be people complaining about everything no matter how perfect a product is. It's business, shit happens. Being mad doesn't change shit. Sure there's things i wasn't pleased with throughout the years. But honestly that's why we are fortunate enough to have so many damned products to choose from to begin with. or if you are not happy with the way the quality is, return the product and don't buy it again. If we aren't happy we just move onto something else. or... Just don't buy things to begin with if you hate the companies way of doing things. It's awesome to have the freedom to choose.
I really think Beast Hunters is meant to reinvigorate the toys for kids aspect of Transformers, kinda why they now have weapons that fire and what not. That and also to keep the Beast Wars generation happy(but not really) in an around about way. It's going to be ALL going on in the Beast Hunters show. Maybe too early to tell but i don't think it's going to pay off in terms of sales. Beast Hunters legacy maybe that it diverted or killed-off a show that had been quite highly thought of(maybe not highly profitable but that's different). Of course it's more complicated, transformers4 etc etc etc, but if BH adversely affects Prime then it would be considered the worst i imagine. All toylines have their downsides and limitations, it's just what grates the most. Beast Hunters could still deliver normal looking figures and the ones everybody wants, so it won't seem as bad overall(maybe not though). If you think of Prime and BH as the same, really bad what they did with the FE stuff... Didn't collect Animated but i was really wowed looking at those toys at the time. I've missed out on it now but i think they've been the best. I've no doubt you guys will get your scaled Lugnut and Sentinel one day too. Animated as toy products just look good, the same can't be said of every other line.
All I wanted from Dotm was a Mirage/Dino figure that was a deluxe or HA. It didn't even need to be a real Ferrari, it could have been the made-up sports car he was in the Dotm video game. Oh well.
