Does it save on materials? Has there been any confirmation as to why this is? They claimed otherwise in press materials, but it's lucidly clear that Hasbro is dialing back the complexity of transformations alongside the cutbacks on plastic quality and paint applications.

Most of 2013-2014's Generations line--and now AoE--consisted of "fold out" or "shellform" when it came to transformation schemata. If the line is supposed to be collector-focused as Hasbro alleges, then why is this the case?

 

Tankor is a simple figure, but it doesn't need to be more complicated.
On the flip side, Rattrap is pretty complicated.

Scoop was pretty easy, but so are the likes of Classics Starscream.

I see no problems here.

 

The mainline generations toys are not all shellformers (sure maybe Rhinox and Skye-Byte but that's unavoidable) and "fold-outs". Sure maybe that's the case in AOE but I honestly don't count them as generations toys; they're just movie toys (probably made by another design team[I hope I'm right]) that were given the moniker of "generations" on the packaging. I think hasbro still has great engineering in the mainline generations toys. Just look at the upcoming Brainstorm and their whirl, etc.

 

Another one of these threads again.

Hasbro and other Toy Companies don't publish there reasons for doing anything. the Toy market is tight, Boys Toys don't sell as well as they use to, even with movie, or show tie in's.

The current theory is the economy, or too many sub lines.

But people are buying them. Even when the economy improves, there is no reason for Hasbro to improve on future lines.

Personally I think Hasbro needs to reel in all of there sub lines and return TF to 1 main line, that would mean no new Generations, but it would mean more R&D on Main Line Toys.

Look at TF4 for example, do we really need anything outside of the main line. TFPrime had 2 Main Lines: The standard Deluxe and Voyager, and the Economic Cyberverse Line. Iv'e bought from both lines, and both lines have strengths and weaknesses. but I believe a middle ground would be ideal in future lines.

 

I noticed some simple figures, but I've really just gotten back into collecting this past year so I don't have much of the newer stuff. But some of these simple figures don't need to be more complicated, like Armada Starscream. Then there's Rhinox who is pretty much movie-level complicated, but he has to be or else he'd be a shellformer. AOE High Octane Bumblebee is pretty complex too, but Slug is simple yet designed well enough that making him more complicated would ruin the toy. I think Orion Pax is somewhat complicated too.

 

I'm sorry but this whole topic has become a over stretched case of 'the boy who cried wolf'. Something was said once and now it gets repeated even though many haven't actually really bought the 'offending' figures.

FOC was a low point for many Generations fans and there has been an incorrect insistence that this has been the standard since. FOC was a sub-line under the Generations label.

I think these FOC haters have not seen some of the more ambitious figures. Since the IDW 'reboot' Skids, Orion Pax and the Minicon assault team have been impressive figures. Even Trailbreaker and Megatron, despite their flaws, are worthy of standing next to some of the original universe figures.

Don't forget the voyagers. Springer and Blitzwing are both excellent. Yes the latter had a major QC issue but the intent was highly ambitious. Certainly the subsequent Sandstorm represents the best triple changer ever to grace generations imo.

Most of these figures don't conform to either 'fold out' or 'shellform'.

Generations is still a mass market line so that means it won't please everyone.

The size of the figures have changed but if you take Orion Pax and Cyclonus side by side there really isn't a difference in quality worthy of getting a soap box out for.

For AOE, Evasion Prime, Scorn, Bulkhead and even most of the other Dinobots don't conform to the tags of 'shellform' or 'fold out'.

AOE's culprits for shellforming are the first edition leader Prime and Galvatron but the bigger problem is a huge disassociation between movie vehicles and robot designs in terms of tangible vehicle parts etc.

The bottom line here is I'm not a Hasbro crusader but I do object to witch hunts when there isn't a need for it.

 

Probably has more to do with complaints from kids and parents during the first movie trilogy. Fwiw I don't find the AOE generations to be stupidly simple.