Dominic wrote:Less articulation, less paint, poor engineering and design standards (visible screws and such), combiner parts not being a part of the component robots...
See, we’ve had a few toys over the years that rose above this, no question, but it’s not like these sorts of things were ever consistently absent from retail-level TFs. Hell, the designs of the things practically demands that screws be visible *somewhere*, and an overabundance of paint on them considering what they do can actually be a bad idea. I just got GT Megatron last week, and yeah, he’s covered from head-to-toe in beautiful silver paint and nifty tampo’d decals, but I also want to be super-careful when I handle and transform him to avoid scraping or chipping. There was a lot of paint back in RiD, but do we really want a repeat of a chip-monster like Super Speedbreaker? You have to take the toys’ functions into account.
Not seeing ‘poor engineering and design standards’ or even completely comprehending what you mean on that one. TFs work as well as they always have.
Ankle and wrist articulation can make or break a relaxed pose.
They’re nice, but you can’t consistently expect luxury articulation points at a basic retail price. These aren’t Marvel Legends, they have better things to do than just be super-posable toys of dudes.
I am of two minds here. On the one hand, I would not mind a new/better Warpath.
But…why? What was so wrong with the previous Warpath that we need a new one already?
On the other, the 2010 figure would be hard to top on Hasbro's best day. They will not top it with their current standards.
It would also be hard to top because Generations Warpath was damn near perfect.
Roberts does not hate the concept. He does not hate you.
I just can’t shake the feeling…
Onslaught Six wrote:Addressing Warpath: There have been several different--I don't know what the word I'm looking for is, campaigns? Attempts?--to try and get all the Minibots redone in the same scale as each other. The first was the one that made the most sense, the Legends size class, but those toys weren't originally made to be sold in large-scale retailers and by the time the guys like Warpath and Beachcomber and Cosmos were coming out, it was almost impossible to find them. There was an effort to start redoing them in a size class that was appropriate to their altmodes--which is why we get stuff like Huge-Ass Powerglide and Deluxe Warpath. Then the newest Legends scale class comes along and they see some pretty good success with guys like Swerve and Tailgate, so why not continue to redo them in that size class? It makes sense on that level.
But where does it end? Do we have to sit through them remaking every ’84-’85 dude every time they come up with a new scale or aesthetic? When can we just be *done* with this shit and move on to something new?
Warpath is also one of the only known tank Autobots, so it's not hard to see why he would get a few toys in the last few years.
Why do they have to do a ‘known’ tank Autobot, though?
I think Prowl is a little too "sky is falling" regarding the "GI Joeism" of the brand, but we've been over that before.
See, this is what I mean, dismissal. Even though every time I say this is happening, and everyone else says it’s not happening, it *keeps happening*. Where do we actually draw the line? Does Hasbro have to release two versions of some fucker like, I dunno, Gears within the same year for it to become obvious as a problem?
I don't mind the occasional retread,
This is way more than the occasional retread, this is the *entire line* being a retread with the odd outlying New Thing.
It's easy to see where the original Classics Jetfire (or Generations Warpath) fell short--mostly in terms of things like scale, paintapps or design.
See, this is what I’m talking about! We haven’t even seen New new Warpath yet, and already Old new Warpath sucks now, apparently? It seems like just yesterday I remember reviews heaping accolades on that toy, websites appointing it Toy of the Year and the like. What happened that we’re supposed to hate it now? I didn’t get the memo.
I mean, I dunno. Maybe I'm easy to please. I got Whirl and Roadbuster here, and I like them. I'm excited for Arcee and Chromia. I got a chunk of other dudes waiting for me to ship from BBTS, and I'm planning on getting at least Menasor from next year's Combiner Wars. (That Megatron is tempting but I still need to see more pics.) I'm just happy that there's stuff I'm even interested in, y'know?
I like Whirl and Roadbuster too, but like I said, I just can’t stop being paranoid that Hasbro’s going to turn around next year and go “Ha ha, got you, you dumb fucker. Those weren’t the cool ones, those suck and you weren’t supposed to like them. Buy these new, better ones!” Moreover, I’m also worried that the cynical retread stuff I’m not interested in WILL eventually choke out the stuff I actually am interested in. Time was, ALL of TF was ‘stuff I was interested in”, and I really want that feeling back, y’know?
And then there's this other thing; I never truly consider a "big purge" of Everything. I've sold off or traded a chunk of stuff in the last two or three years, true, but that was primarily because of space and financial reasons, not for any dislove of the brand. As others have echoed, I can't see myself ever truly "leaving." I mean, even my other primary "hobby"--more like second job--revolves partially around TF, since my new album just had Megatron on the cover. I liked TF when TF wasn't cool, y'know? So to me, there is no real "getting out." If I was going to "get out," the closest thing it would resemble would be the last 2 years or so, where I didn't really buy a whole bunch (if at all). I mean, in early 2013 when I started selling a bunch of Universe 2.0 stuff I didn't want, I ended up spending the money I made on a G1 Jetfire and a junker Shockwave to fix my original. I still need to complete RID. There's a handful of Cybertron guys I never got that I still want. (Dark Scorponok! Crumplezone! That Japanese Fangwolf repaint!) There's periods where I go into "hibernation" with it, and that's fine. That's cool. You don't need to be 100% invested in the brand 100% of the time. It's alright to walk away for a year or two, or even five, or whatever, and come back when it's doing something interesting you like again.
This I completely agree with. I still grab random older stuff off eBay every now and again, when it strikes my fancy (right now I’m wanting to get a MW Megatron to go with my Megaplex, but he goes for way too much for what he is). I finally grabbed a GT-R Megatron, something I’ve been wanting for a while now. There’s so goddamn much of the hobby that it’s perfectly viable to enjoy it in a ‘retro’ fashion or however you would qualify that.
(Also I apparently really like Megatron, lately? It’s weird, normally he’d be WAY too much of a ‘main’ character for me to justifiably count as a ‘favorite’, but I’ve been into the dude recently. I blame his consistently awesme IDW portrayals.)
But damn, do I miss waiting to see the ‘new’ Transformers and what they would turn into and how they would do it.
Dominic wrote: It's alright for me to fade in and out of being attracted to what's going on. It doesn't mean you have to completely flip a switch and say, "Time to sell off all my shit because I don't like what the toyline is doing right now!" I mean, unless you have some kind of personality disorder where looking at your old toys only reminds you that there are, in fact, new toys that you don't like out there, in the nebulous Other. That's fucking weird.
It is a question of not wanting to be in a hobby that is not impressing me in the present.
Yeah see, I just can’t see TF as an interest being that ‘disposable’.
I mean, I’ve been a fan of TF, a collector of the toys, an enjoyer of the media, pretty much non-stop since I was five years old. It’s ingrained into me, it’s practically a component of my personality at this point. Even if I get 100% actually fed-up with what Hasbro’s doing with the brand right this second, that’s going to be a completely contemporary situation, and I may stop collecting *those* toys and stop watching *those* shows and reading *those* comics, but it’s not taking away all the enjoyment I got from previous iterations throughout basically *my entire life*. I’m still going to be all “Fuck yeah, I loved Beast Wars and Beast Machines, maybe I should rewatch BM again!” or “Fuck yeah, Animated was the tits, time for me to finally scour and buy a Blackout and that Optimus Prime with the clip-on armor!” or “How have I never watched Headmasters, time for me to check that out!”. Hell, there’s still UK Comic collections coming out, you know I’ve got to get those. Being ‘done’ with TF is an impossibility for me, on a lot of levels.
It may not be the same as it was for me, the ‘hobby’ as it were may not like ME as much as it seemed like it used to, but it’s still *there* in one form or another than I’m able to enjoy.
I got out of SW a bit in '06 after the comics went (exceptionally) bad (exceptionally) quickly.
2 years later, "Clone Wars" was enough to push me away completely. I had no inclination to keep the figures (and comics) of a property that had not impressed me in *years*. Same might end up applying to TF. I was not looking to purge SW. But, when I needed space (and money), I decided that a full purge was just easier than selective pruning.
See, this ‘in or out’ mentality escapes me.
Like, I am, by all accounts, ‘done’ with Power Rangers as a fandom or ‘hobby’. I haven’t kept up with the show itself in over a decade, I made the full transition to Super Sentai fanboyism a few years back (and hell, Sentai’s been more enjoyable to me recently than Kamen Rider, no thanks to the slog that Drive has been). But I’ve still got a lot of love for PR ingrained in me. I grabbed the Super Megaforce In Space Red Ranger toy specifically because I remembered how much ass In Space kicked (I’ve never watched Megaranger, I’m not going to be a poser that way). I might watch the Supermega finale just because I saw some characters I had fondness for (TJ!) would be getting cameos in it. Hell, when my PTO cashout and ‘bonus’ paycheck roll in this month, I’m probably going to splurge and order the Legacy Dragonzord and Dragon Dagger (Merry Christmas to me!). I have a *big display of SHF MM Rangers with the Legacy Morpher and the 2010 Megazord* on the shelf right below my TF display right now. PR hasn’t impressed me in ages, but there’s no turning off the part of me that always thought PR was cool as hell.
I’ll always like the things I like, it’s pretty impossible to, as Six said, ‘flip a switch’ and just be done with something I’ve generally thought was awesome for ages.