What are some toy features/gimmicks which never survive the test of time but you kinda love anyway? For me it's vac-metal chrome. It's a damn shame it tends to flake so easily and is very difficult to restore, it looks super cool. Especially the slightly nonsensical way it was used in 90s/2000s toys (Beast Wars and RID 2001 Transformers, Microman etc).
>>11646543Vac Metal is the shit, keep waiting for another original Death Star Droid to be released. Another 'feature' of these MM are 0-ring failure.
>>11646543I'd add translucent plastic, over time it tends to yellow. I also read that it becomes prone to breaking, though I've never experienced that as of now.
>>11646572Only 90’s/00’s Vac metal was shot (Transmetala, 00’s Microman). Most Vac metal does hold up as long was your careful with it. I have some stuff that still is fine after 25 years.
>>11646543>It's a damn shame it tends to flake so easily and is very difficult to restoreNot if it's done right. 1983 Destro's vac-metalizing is awesome. It's easy to find an old 42-year-old Destro figure with worn paint, loose joints, damage, BUT perfect chrome head. I don't know what they did him that's different than other vac-metallizing jobs, but that's how you do it right. And there are "chrome markers" that do work at touching up bad vac-metallizing.
>>11646543Hasbro fucked up hard with reissuing Transformers without the vac-metallizing. Their excuses were "WELL UH WE UH WANTED THEM TO LOOK MORE LIKE THEIR CARTOON CHARACTERS." No. Bullshit. They didn't even include the stickers. They just wanted to get off as cheap as possible while selling them for a retarded price that made aliexpress knockoffs the better buy.
>>11647206forgot the picture.
silly putty, Gak and the like
>>11647207Oh god, that's horrible.
>>11647235It was $75 for a lesser stripped-down version against around $50 for a full-G1-experience repro Optimus you can buy off of Ebay or Ali Express.
>>11646543This is why I love Changerion as a design. He's like everything I loved as a 90's kid. Transparent parts, chrome, shiny jewel bits, paint gradients. It's so much with no restraint and yet it all comes together well.
>>11647207That is literally the cartoon's deco though.
I have a bunch of 1999 Microman toys (The magnet ones) and their chrome is still present on them. The chrome on the 00’s ones were made like shit amen flaked easily.
>>11646753>though I've never experienced that as of now.Inexperienced it so much on the microman toys OP posted. Some stuff like Lego never cracks but whatever they use in other transparent toys is insane. The palisades microman are almost guaranteed to break.
>>11647274I need to watch Changerion because transparent and chrome were my shit too>Transparent Batman Beyond toys>Chrome Legend of Batman toys>Transparent neon orange lego chainsaws and all those other neon orange and green parts >Chrome Broadswords helmets sometimes armour and dubloons and aztec treasure and Crystals >Chromed Generation 2 Dinobots (Never had many other g1 or g2 toys)>Laser Optimus Prime's glowing sword (I never had Scourge but he has a chrome trailer and light up sword!)>And especially Transmetal 1 and 2 Beast Wars for chrome neon colors holy shit these were my favourites >Beast Machines transparent stuff
>>11647207>>11647206>>11647273They're overpriced but regular G1 reissues with all the original details are also pretty pricey. Inflation has gotten wild and even in 2010 the last Hasbro G1 Optimus reissue that was more toy faithful was like $80-90, JP prices for their reissues a little more. And that was over a decade ago.the KOs are a better value and you should get those instead but they're also done without any of the parameters that make reissuing an old toy with old, expensive manufacturing processes specific to those toys difficult for a company that's transitioned out of making such things. the point of these is to try and do the cartoon deco, which would've been neat 20 years ago but now with actual toon accurate figures these are kinda a waste. If you get them on the discount they tend to get, they're decent values for retro figures, and under $30 the toon colors can be a fun novelty.
>>11646753>over time it tends to yellowAin't that the truth.
>>11646756the big issue is that 90's chrome was attempted on far more detailed surfaces than older ones which had more space for the paint to settle. It's going into all these crevices and curves and thus it's more like a layer on top like a shell than really settling in and bonding.
>>11647283It was just an excuse to do a reissue made cheap but sold expensive.
>>11647207it's easy enough to just buy a junker original figure and swap the chrome parts with the reissue one. That's what I did with my Hotrod and he looks amazing now.
>>11647378He'll look better once you get some repro stickers for it. This guy makes excellent-quality repros:https://toyhax.com/for-g1-bots/1189-labels-for-hot-rod.html
>>11647389I don't think so. The labels would cover most of the cool new color scheme and besides, if I want an original looking Hotrod well... I have the original figures
>>11647398I think the original looks better but hey I'm not gonna dog you for having your preference.
>>11647411Thanks, that's fair enough.I'm also a big fan of the original, but I was really surprised how much I liked the cartoon color reissue. I just hated that it didn't have any chrome. After I made my frankenstein version I'm totally satisfied with how it looks. I'll never get rid of my original figures, but I think this reissue is my definite G1 Hotrod right now. I like it that much.
>>11647415Hot Rod more than any other of the toys they've done works for the cartoon colors because his design was made for cartoons first. Like how the wrist parts and tapered boots were always there, but now you can actually see them since the deco picks them out.
>>11647423Hot Rod was the result of them running out of Diaclone and other lines to repurpose, so Hasbro decided to jump in with doing toy designs of their own. That's why the details are more plain and less crisp. You can see two design teams merging with Hasbro and Takara at this point. Takara does the well-detailed stuff like Metroplex, Trypticon, and Fort Max, and Hasbro does the less-detailed stuff like Wheelie and Hot Rod.
I saw some old toy magazine scans where he actually had a more pinkish color scheme, fitting the animation model. Apparently they changed it, thinking boys won't want to be playing with pink cars, but the side door decal stickers with the yellow flames on pinkish background still reflect it as they stayed the same.Also did you know he actually had knees? Like there is a longer thigh section to the toy, but there's a peg inside that hinders to extend the leg fully as you pull on it. If you take it apart and file it down just right the leg can extend more. That's why my vintage Hotrod is taller than the reissue, I modified the legs like that.
>>11647323>when you realize the lemon sno-cone wasn't lemon at all
>>11647426Takara did both.
>>11647366I realize it sounds like I'm making excuses for a billion dollar company but in the past, accurate G1 reissues have been even more expensive than what these go for.Modern TFs are (relatively, not so much more now) cheap because they've cut out the materials G1 figures were loaded with. rubber, chrome bits, diecast, screws etc. Way more parts and sprues to work. Even if G1 toys are simpler, the need to produce them in this way springs up the cost. Lacking chrome or diecast is one way to make it cheaper.
>>11648255If the Chinese can make them cheaper with all the right materials, then so can Hasbro
>>11648355Now are the decos Hasbro being cheap or because you can go to any place online and see LQQK VINTAGE G1 REISSUE CHINESE REISSUE 4TH PARTY RARE
>>11648374You haven't bought one of the KOs. They're really good quality on par with the originals. They even have die-cast metal parts right where they're supposed to. The only things missing or off are the lack of a G1 catalog insert as well as the lack of factory-applied stickers and rub symbols that some came with.
>>11646753I read the same about glow in the dark plastic, but so far the stuff I own is doing fine.
>>11647207Wtf is up with his hands? I know the one I had as a kid didnt have these low poly ass hands
>>11651022Hasbro re-tooled them to be intentionally different so those with original G1 Optimus Primes that are missing hands can't pass off new parts as vintage. Hasbro did the same thing to the seeker reissues for the same reason.
>>11647274>>11647315My brethren. Between figures and tech in the 90s/00s, transparent will always be the height of coolness to me.Similarly, light piping. It may be more of a sculpt issue than something that develops over time, but it will never not be cool to me.Not my pic, but this figure was the one that introduced me to the magic.
>>11647137Destro doesn't tend to have colors on his chrome. It's when you put a tint on it that the tinted layer loves to crack and flake off the chrome itself, which stays shiny. Beast Wars Transmetals are notoriously iffy. My old dragon Megs is almost perfect, just a flake or two from the back of his shield. My Dinobot 2? Pink dandruff everywhere.
>>11652249That guy is cool. I think there was a soundwave or a variant of him from hasbro with light pipping in the past 5 years or so. My stuff is all boxed up so i cant actually confirm this.
>>11652249Light piping is a pretty awesome gimmick in toys and miniatures. Light piping was even used in atomic testing to detect the Teller light thats emitted in the first nanoseconds of a nuclear reaction. They sent that light to far away equipment that could detect the "flash" before they were destroyed by the resulting explosion. Probably won't see that feature on a toy anytime soon.
>>11647206"cartoon accuracy" has been a shorthand for "we cheaped out on the deco and are trying to peddle that as a good thing" for years
I actually have some vintage Microman toys.As long as they aren't specifically damaged, chipping/flaking doesn't seem to occur. It's not like the beast wars Transmetals toys where sometimes the paint seems to simply flake off over time.
>>11646543It's gotta be sparking toys and cap firing figures like robocop. Extinguished from the market but man it was fun.
>>11652543Throw in the fact that Hound and Hot Rod were their only anniversary-reissue Autobot cars when there were a ton of good choices to reissue.
