>toyline gets worse with time instead of betterexamples of this?
>>11903619Most of them.>Your Transformers example, which get cheaper to produce yet become more expensive each year>Halo, which grimly reached its full potential under McFarlane 15+ years ago>LEGO, where even the kid sets are stupidly expensive for what they are>Marvel Legends, which no longer include comics, backdrops, or shading>Power Rangers, which may as well be retired at this point instead of being treated like a hot potato>S.H. Figuarts, which have their blockiest and most awkward proportions yet in the "newest and best" 3.0 era>Star Wars, which basically abandoned the entire play pattern it was sold onI could go on, but I think I've made my point. Also, the focus on nostalgia over quality refreshes has guaranteed any legacy IP will cannibalize itself. Enjoy Transformers while you can, OP, as the next generation has nothing in it to call their own besides Cyberworld.
>>11903619I remember when TMNT 2012 was new. A new Target just opened in time during a sale and i bought all the new Turtles. They've aged super well too. Then I look at all the other toys that would come after and just got disappointed how soulless 5poa they were
>>11903638Toys in general peaked around the late 2000s/early 2010s and started to become disappointing and cheap around 2013 because the mid 2010s is where everything went wrong
>>11903619whatit's literally one of my favorite transformers from that wave. Cool neon lines.And he's better than shit we had before for example during Power of the Primes.OP is a fag (as usual)
>>11903648You started collecting with Titans Return, didn't you?
>>11903648hmm lets see>hollow forearms>hollow upper arms>hollow thighs>exposed mushroom pegs that can pop off from normal posing>cheap plastic>poorly applied painted piece (look at that left leg) instead of molding in color>non pinned wheels>unpainted accessories and that's just for starters, transformers released around these times have tolerance issues, breakages and other QA problems. And they have the audacity to repaint and remold them ad nauseumToys used to be solid, full of features and accessories. Sad that you got used to eating shit, I'd rather buy old toys with markup than modern crap even on discount
>>11903645Funny because all the Rise TMNT toys were fully articulated in comparison. Except for Splinter and Draxum
>>11903656>>11903659nta, but transformers have had hollow bits forever. I've been collecting since I was little more than a toddler with G2 and Beast Wars.Wolfang was one of my first Transformers and look at his beast hind legs, his robot arms, the flanks on the side of his hips that make his beast mode side..hollow bits to save plastic. Even balljoints were a way to save plastic and add more articulation.The most solidly built Transformers were probably Armada and you paid the price of that with heavily limited articulation
>>11903691The issue isn't hollow joints. Wolfang had mass for a Deluxe, was built with hefty, quality plastic, and felt like he could take a beating. He also featured a spring-loaded weapon for additional play value. If 90's Hasbro was modern Hasbro they would've slapped ankle pivots on a Basic-tier figure and charged Mega Class prices for him under the vague justification of it being a "collector" line.
>>11903629I disagree with Marvel Legends. I don't think the improvements are worth the asking price, but shading is not to my taste, comics suck nowadays, and I have never met anyone who uses the backdrops. Toy Biz engineering was awful, even if Hasbro's is rudimentary and barely acceptable.Their plastic is quite solid now, and their characters spread has been insane lately. There's something for everyone, even if that is the lesbian Arcade from the time people who only read the cereal tie-in comics dominated Marvel.
>>11903659Titans Return was solid but it could've been top 3 best Hasbro lines of all time if they stayed focused and weird.Siege was also great, but that might just be that it came after one of the worst lines that introduced every bad thing about Transformers today, Power of the Primes.I believe that Siege was kind of a freak accident that was made possible only because POTP was a filler line to buy time while Siege was being made, but every vice from POTP; faulty decos, hollow limbs, unfocused character selection, half the line being just exclusives, sub-line stragglers making up half of the next line, variations nobody asked for; have persisted because Hasbro knows you'll buy it anyways.And fans have only made it worse. It's so bad that now people believe DNA Design is a Hasbro subsidiary, and they likely are.
>>11903629>>Halo, which grimly reached its full potential under McFarlane 15+ years agoDebatable, those McFarlane figures were kinda crummy toys.
>>11903722Again, "grimly".
>>11903725Oh, fair enough. Though I thought the Jazwares World of Halo stuff looked decent for what it was, to be fair.
>>11903701>Wolfang had mass for a DeluxeThey're about the same size. Again 2003-2010 was the era of giant Deluxes and even then Classics were smaller than Cybertron overall.>as built with hefty, quality plastic, and felt like he could take a beatingThey have about the same quality plastic. Any breakages you'd get from Breakdown is more due to ham handing than anything.> He also featured a spring-loaded weapon for additional play valueI guess but it was barely a big deal for me even as a kid. Articulation was always more important.
>>11903629>>11903722>>11903725>>11903726always the incels crying about the success of mcfarlane kek
>>11903726The problem I have is that it isn't a linear upgrade. So much of that detail from the McFarlane days is gone. As I implied in >>11903629, I love shading and weathering on figures. It's what changes a toy to a display piece.
>>11903629>Transformers example, which get cheaper to produce yet become more expensive each yearWoth those rising costs and global crisises not th mention the over exertion on oil reliance? are you out of your goddamn mind especially in this Trump econmy where the baby in chief is fucking things hard for the average working man?
>>11903736>not blaming the companies themselves for always wanting an excessive gain margin regardless of the state of affairs
>>11903750weird how its always american companies doing this but then again america is a poor nation
>>11903751The japs did it too, Kotobukiya is by far the worst. Figma went up in price when the yen collapse but they never pulled the prices back when it recovered.
>>11903754and america is at fault for the economy taking a turn given their blood thirsty hunger for wars in the middle east
>>11903656So wouldn't that go against what OP is saying since the toys now are better than the Prime Wars trilogy?
>>11903691Cybertron was were transformers peaked. Almost never any hollow parts, good to above average articulation, unique designs and loaded with unobtrusive gimmicks.There were a couple early oddities here and there but it really was the best.
>>11903736Here's the thing: we understand shit is fucked. But the behavior of major corporations who sacrifice anything and everything to generate more shareholder dividends than last year, every year, for eternity, is the entire problem. They're the people who turned every fucking facet of the economy into a ponzi scheme that is starting to run out of money. These companies starved their own golden geese to death because they deemed "feeding the goose" to not be worthwhile. Now we live in a country where geese are dying, and all goose-related care/maintenance services do not exist, because we sold them for a cheap buck, too.Basically, rich corporations in the US made every bad, greedy choice for short-term gain that average working Americans are scolded for. They did not invest in their future, and now they're paying the price. But because all those decisions were made by men in suits, we're somehow supposed to believe they weren't completely short-sighted and ignorant? kek>>11903751>but then again america is a poor nationExtremely so. America is "rich" in the same way as someone who barely makes beyond minimum wage but blows their entire paycheck every week on booze, fancy clothes, and a payment on a new BMW they can't afford, just so they can SEEM rich.
>>11904123Some amazing toys have come out afterward, but from the perspective of a transforming robot enjoyer I do agree with you. Transformers nowadays feel so incomplete because they're just about having a cartoon-accurate robot mode at all costs. Transformations and quality are fucking trash.
I’ve got to say, there’s a lot of criticism of Transformers Generations line over time and to some degree it’s exaggerated and unfair.However, the other day I picked up a Thrilling 30 Waspinator (which I never got at the time although I did get Rhrinox and Rattrap). Honestly, I think he’s better than Kingdom Waspinator by a long mile.Better robot mode proportions, better head sculpting. The wings moving on a button gimmick is unobtrusive and actually kind of fun. Yeah I don’t know, but it’s weird to think a 12 year old toy is actually more fun than a 4 year old toy.
>>11904319>Yeah I don’t know, but it’s weird to think a 12 year old toy is actually more fun than a 4 year old toy.I don't think it's that weird, Ultra Optimus Pimal is probably the most fun I'll ever have with a transformer. Is the engineering really complex? Nope, it's like the most criticized beastformer for having a simple transformation. Hell he even has clearly budget hollow areas on his chest. But it's fun as FUCK, holy shit so many cool gimmicks.
>>11904323You wanna know a fun figure? Universe Wheelie. Does he represent the Sunbow design? No. Does he have wrist swivels? Also no. But the plastic and joints are velvety smooth, the transformation is clacky with a nice tactile feel, and he's complex enough to be absentmindedly changed back and forth without becoming boring. Transformers are at their best when they're toys first and foremost.
>>11904123pound for pound I'd agree. Definitely great figures after but the Cybertron line feels so wholly realized since they're toy designs first, the show was based off the designs so there doesn't need to be any tricks to pull off appearances to match the show. This is controversial but I think making Transformers too complex ruins the fun. Something like ROTF Leader Optimus is impressive but lacks the intuitive feel of a streamlined design. Something like Cybertron Red Alert's legs being made up of two halves of he car mode is clever and simple.
>>11903619This guy fucks, I might have to track one down.
>>11904123This but Armada. The plentiful gimmicks, some activated by a separate figure that was included in the box and not something you could only get separately, to me was the acme of play value
>>11904584G2 had radical colors for sure, but if the deco is what draws in you're better off getting a G2 original
>>11904319That's kinda where Trandformers is at these daysThey're unable to do better than a side-grade to toys that are 10+ years old.Which of course means there're no end to circle arguments over which versions are better in /tfg/
>>11904584Is it strange i have nostalgia for this despite not even remembering them until now?
figmas got worse price-wise and accessory wise for sure
>>11904427>feels so wholly realized since they're toy designs firstThis is the thing that sucks about being a Transformers fan. Missing Link Convoy ended up feeling like such a breath of fresh air because, it its core, it's still a toy designed by Nips to be fun to play with. Modern TF collectors always bitch about Prime's trailer being an "empty box used to justify a higher price", but the original Diaclone toy's trailer was a hoot. I especially love the little repair drone that can pop out of the top.The problem is that most Transformers fans these days don't really want a fun, transforming truck toy. They just want a plastic homage to Optimus Prime.
>>11904898>They're unable to do better than a side-grade to toys that are 10+ years old.They're not unable, just unwilling.Given that literally every major corporation in the US is beholden to generating bigger dividends for their shareholders than last year, every year, forever, they were always going to have to reorient themselves as rising plastic prices and a waning audience put them up against a wall. I doubt the option to create genuinely "better" toys was ever on the table. Basically, they just decided to mercilessly target the G1 fans who likely have increasing amounts of disposable income and are likely to re-buy things they already own. This is why endless re-releases of molds with only minor changes/improvements has become commonplace. It's easier to entice Johnny Geewunn to buy a half-a-dozen Primes and Starscreams than it is to actually make a good toy that appeals to a wider audience.The second part of their strategy (outside of the egregious price hikes) was to untether size from price point, and eliminate the core class (which always had the slimmest profit margin). Now, figures that would have been core can just be small deluxes that you still pay full deluxe price for. They can get away with selling a voyager as a leader if they throw in a few extra weapons and claim the budget went into the engineering.It very much feels like Hasbro knows the end is near. They're slopping it up for their most lucrative demographic before they get put in nursing homes. How they'll stay afloat after geewunners die off is going to be anyone's guess. Maybe that'll be the end of Transformers.
>>11905011>Maybe that'll be the end of Transformers.HOLY KINO
>>11904855G2 Breakdown was never released, if that's what you mean. Modern homages are the only option.
>>11903730>>11903755>>11903751Furry.
>>11903619Ngl teal/purple/white is one of my favorite color combos, I'm a sucker for that Solo Jazz shit. Reminds me of the paint jobs you'd see on the flat rides at the boardwalk as a kid.
timely videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smr0N2V3cV8
>>11905702>26 minutes of nerd ramblingno, thanks
>>11905702why is tj still a whiney faggot jesus christ he looks fatter too
>>11905702>TJOmegaNo thanks. Stopped watching him when he made that Amazon review video. That guy genuinely needs therapy if he's going to complain about "anti-woke grifters" when in the presence of none.
>>11904365We don’t need opinions from someone who dosent buy or own toys
>>11904365He looks like shit
>>11905012>Cheering on the demise of every toy company since DCUC
>>11906033americans remake the same shit china has all the innovation and make everything all americans do is start wars and cry on twitter about micro aggressions
>>11904999Figma collectors belong in an asylum. I quit by 2016 when it was clear the prizes had gone way too insane.60 dollars plus shipping for a 4.5 inch schoolgirl with like 3 accessories tops was armed robbery already. I don't know what to call the shit in your pic.
>>11905011>Now, figures that would have been core can just be small deluxes that you still pay full deluxe price for.When I say "can you imagine people say the smaller figures compensate for the bigger figures in the same wave", it's purely rhetorical because it's an insane thought. It's the kind of utterance that could get you lobotomized.>It very much feels like Hasbro knows the end is near. They're slopping it up for their most lucrative demographic before they get put in nursing homes. How they'll stay afloat after geewunners die off is going to be anyone's guess. Maybe that'll be the end of Transformers.They still have the fans of Beast Wars, the fans of the Unicron Trilogy, the millennial hipsters that like japanese G1, and the kids that grew up with the movies and Rescue Bots.The biggest problem will be that Hasbro didn't create another Beast Wars in the 2010s/2020s to reuse the G1 characters the stupid genwunners like and add characters activists like. It will run on fumes for like another decade and then die. Those other series had very sparse casts.
>>11906193*the prices had gone
>>11905702Yeah i don't buy that plastic costs are making toy prices rise.
>>11906200>They still have the fans of Beast Wars, the fans of the Unicron Trilogy, the millennial hipsters that like japanese G1, and the kids that grew up with the movies and Rescue Bots.the problem is later generations don't have as much money. 80's kids were the last generation to get into a booming market. Seriously if you were born before 1984 and didn't work your way into a steady job where you do almost nothing and need very little skills by now you're incredibly dumb. Complete waste of a generational boom. They were giving people with basic programming skills you could've learned in a basic college course VP roles back in 1998.
>>11905702Retarded fucking video>Urf duuuh buy at Ross everyone lives near one of those durr?
>>11905004that too, but also what I mean is that the designs were conceived as toys first. A lot of the modern movie and animation based designs suffer from forcing the toys to pull of engineering that was not done with a physical toy in consideration.
>>11904427>but lacks the intuitive feel of a streamlined designThat's the real issue with Bay designs in general although I'd argue it's even worse with Aligned/Prime designs. Yeah you know where everything is supposed to go but only if you look hard enough. The designs of the UT era are simple yet effective because every step feels like a key step which leads to a more satisfying conversion. My problem with simpler designs is that you can end up with really bland shit like the Prime wars figures (especially CW)ROTF Prime has a really fun and satisfying transformation but definitely isn't as streamlined as the figures that came out a year later which I think striked the best balance when it came to complexity and simplicity because of how intuitive the conversions felt
>>11903717Titans Return was not solid, figuratively and very literally. One of the only times where getting the Takara figures was just straight up the better option universally. Even if they fixed everything wrong it wouldn't have even touched top 5 let's be real now.Siege, like the rest of the WFC trilogy is insanely overrated and praised by people who either only care about G1 or didn't start collecting until Prime Wars. Siege was a litmus test to see how much they could get out of the G1 whales. It kind of had to be higher quality to bring back some good will after the wet fart of 2015-2018. As you mentioned though, after everyone praised Siege, the quality of the subsequent toylines instantly went down.
>>11905011>It very much feels like Hasbro knows the end is near.This same attitude is reflected in the rest of the entertainment industry, especially gaming. It's why they've dedicated so much to brand recognition as opposed to actual quality. Not making anything of any actual quality but increasing prices anyway whilst using bots and social engineering into convincing people the shit they're eating isn't shit. All of this is so this can look good to investors but the supply and demand is out of whack. Look at that Wolverine game and Silent Hill Townfall, hell look at all of the companies that have been going bust over the last few years.I think the world economy is due for one of the worst crashes in history and the entertainment industry is going to feel it first
>>11905011How many years of toy production are left on stuff like GI Joe, Marvel and Star Wars? I still feel Transformers is in a better situation because of the bay movies getting kids into Transformers in 07+. Whereas GI Joe and Star Wars are DOA soon, and Marvel doesn't seem to be able to translate their past MCU success to selling toys in high volumes (they have been skipping aligned figure releases with major movie releases for awhile now after disasters like Eternals, Shang Chi Thor 4 and BP2; Doomsday and FF:FS seem to be the first MCU works that have been able to not have figures pegwarm in awhile.
>>11907951i thought kingdom was mostly ok, earthrise was the only real misstep of the trilogy
>>11903619I think you've posted one of the worst cases of toys becoming worse over time and now they cost even more. Great colors on this one.
>>11904850Transformers were cooking at this point in the series. I think that my memory of having Fun with Armada and Energon got me to give the series another chance when I got back into toys around 2019, whenever WFC started. Finally gave up around the time of Road Rage and Point-blank was my last figure as a collector of transformers. I still buy them on occasion though, Cosmos is cool and I'd like to get Sea Spray.
>>11908157Marvel is in a way better position than Transformers honestly, look at how big Spider-man Brand New Day was this year. Transformers basically died 10 years ago and hasn't been relevant with kids since RiD2015.
>>11908885Are kids even buying Marvel toys though? BND did good at the box office but the toys for it showed no confidence in the movie. Marvel may be meddling to in order to avoid spoilers again so they had so few toys for BND and just had some comic figures Boomerang and Scorpion along with a couple actual movie figures like Spiderman and Hulk
>>11908885>Spider-man Brand New DayIt isn't just the movies, Marvelslop is basically in absolutely everything, every type of game, every type of merch, so it's no wonder they're doing so well. Hasbro convinced themselves that the momentum of the bay movies would last forever and that they didn't need to actually branch out so we've been seeing them hopelessly relying on movies and half assing everything hoping no one will notice.Nobody cares enough to go watch Transformers anymore since only something like Spiderman or a big name director can actually get people into theaters. The execs are going to get a real kick in the balls when the shitty paramount slop finally finishes circling the drain
>>11909037Your mistake is thinking it’s just Marvel Legends selling. Little kids become Spider-man fans at like 2, as soon as they can say Spider-man. All the kid aimed merchandise sells in some way. Not all of it, and there’s lots of overstock, but it does move enough to make great margins or there wouldn’t be constant product rollout.
>>11909253Hasbro has been awful about cultivating the franchise, and always has. We’ve had 10 years of low budget cartoons as adult animation has been booming and a market for more anime would’ve been great. Cyberverse, the Machinina shows,the WFC trilogy, Earthspark and cyber world are all embarrassing low quality or far too kiddy.
>>11909257>adult animationAn anime or a video game that kids would actually play would be much more prefereable and profitable especially considering transformers is made to market toys.>adult animationNo, seriously fuck that. safe-edgy shows like Invincible are peak reddit slop and we'd be better off without them, I seriously hope that Skybound animated series doesn't actually happen because if Transformers gets The Boys or the Invincible treatment then this franchise would be completely dead
>>11903619[spoiler]Life[/spoiler]
>>11903638I regret not buying the original 2012 turtles when they came out. The reissues feel super cheap and lower quality even by Playmates standards.
>>11907203Fuckin' disgusting, and likely the first thing to loosen/break over time. How can Transformers fans put up with design decisions like that?
