Shallow friction tabs. Universe Ultra Powerglide being a chief offender. Also lack of wrist articulation - particularly on larger figures. I know Hasbro having simplified alot of stuff for cost reasons, and on deluxe and legends class figures it doesn't bother me too much, but the lack of wrist swivels on Gen Jetfire and Roadbuster is hard to take.
I'm actually fine with stuff storing under the alt mode, or becoming something like a tailpipe or a wing gun etc. If the weapon ever breaks or gets lost, the vehicle mode still looks fine. Have a mishap with G1 Spinger's sword or Big Convoy's gun, however... One other pet peeve is joints/transformation parts you can't move without stressing something, turning the figure into a time bomb. Every large Headmaster I owned as a kid has a Nebulon with only one arm, and Don't get me started on the Decepticon TM guns....
Here's some I could think of at the moment: -Whenever they coat an entire plastic part in paint to make it a different color rather than just coloring the plastic the desired color. -When light-piping is blocked by backpacks or something else. -Weapons don't get "clean" storage and are just slapped onto the alternate mode. Even worse if the weapon doesn't have anywhere to go. -Articulating-soft plastic is bound to destroy itself. -Nonfunctional tabs. -Not being able to stand on its own.
Curling iron arms, where the palm of the hand/fist faces up when the arm bends forward. It almost never shows up anymore but when it does it sucks.
First and foremost, shoulder tabs that just don't work to keep the arms plugged into the torso. I haven't encountered many, but when I do hit it, it annoys the crap out of me. Lack of a bicep swivel. Not many figures lack this nowadays, but it's always a major point when they don't have it. I think the old CHUG Seeker would've held up better with them. "Gorilla Arms"/"Monkey Wrists". Without both wrist and bicep swivels, these get pretty bad. Excessive Should Kibble. Annoying. Major balance issues. Every figure should be able to stand. Or at least I'd think so.
Biggest pet peeve is the adherence to g1. G1's great; it's time to move on! Second is compromised alt modes in order to have a better robot mode. Otherwise it might as well be a statue.
3 click hips for outward motion lack of wrists short thighs gimicks that sacrifice proper articluation or stability
Gorilla arms for sure. I can deal with no wrist articulation but when this happens I get more annoyed at it.
yep. also giving normal cars sirens and calling them cop cars and ambulances. kills the realism. robotits. why the fuck do girls need robotic boobs. or lipstick
Through-holes. How did Hasbro's cost-cutting get to the point where now there are gaping holes in what should be solid panels? CW Hotspot's head peaks out at me in alt mode. I can see daylight through CW Swindle's legs. Hollow parts are bad, but gaping daylight holes are unforgivable. Hasbro would sell us empty boxes if they could.
oh yeah, integrated weapons. independent guns that store in car mode like rts jazz or wheeljack? fine. but weapons that are integral to alt mode are lazy and partsforming
Translucent Plastic used for loadbearing joints. im ok with clear plastic being used for decorations and lightpiping, but for fucks sake don't make elbows, knees, or hips outta the stuff. its fragile, especially so in humid areas like texas or florida. The "standard" autobot transformation. you know the one. rear end becomes legs, arms come out from under/side. hood becomes chest scheme. its ok for stuff meant to be updates of classic characters but when designing new characters, keep that stuff to a minimum. hasbro has been turning cars into humanoids for 31 years now. shake up the formula a little (like rid/car robots did) "Stand the critter up" transformation on Beast modes while there were quite a few of these in beast wars, we also had a multitude of much more creative designs like Megatron, dinobot, tm2 cybershark, jawbreaker, skyshadow, and terragator. but nowadays anytime something has a beast mode its a variation of "stand the critter up" then flip the head onto the chest revealing the robot head. it's gotten boring. and is most likely a contributing factor as to why Beast characters shelfwarm. and I'll repeat a few of the following complaints: curling arms, painted over lightpiping, hollowness, ratchet joint with too few notches, short thighs/giganic shins, faux kibble, lack of articulation, tiny feet, "brick under backback" jets.
I fiddled around with NuRid Jazz and the peg hole on the top of his alt mode leads to nothingness. You can take his lance and basically skewer him from the bottom up! I'd also have to say loose joints and transformations that force you to do everything in an overly specific order, unless you want tabs sticking out.
