ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Money, violence, sex, computer graphics, scatalogical humor, racism, robots designed to be rednecks but given European accents, and maybe another sequel to the saga... what's not to love? TF m1, Revenge of the Fallen, Dark of the Moon and now Age of Extinction.

Is the ROTF toy line a success or a failure to you?

Total success
1
9%
Moderate success
4
36%
Mixed quality at best
3
27%
Moderate failure
3
27%
Total failure
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 11

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JediTricks
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ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by JediTricks »

We've gotten the bulk of the movie toy line itself, with the next set of figures really not being inspired by the film itself so much as the movie styling in general. The line has been out around half a year, you've seen it all, had a chance to buy, there have been numerous sales and even the rare clearance. So you know what this line is about.

That said, what do you think of this toy line? Did it hit the mark as well as the first film's toy line? Did it aim higher than its reach could grasp? The voting is a 5 level gradient, for those who want to play in the gray areas.

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andersonh1
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Re: ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by andersonh1 »

I'm going to say moderate success, since the majority of figures seem at about the same standard we've seen for the last few years. There have been a few poorer efforts, like the motorcycles. I have to admit though, that the line hasn't interested me nearly as much as the last few, primarily because I didn't care for the fiction associated with it nearly as much.
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Re: ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by JediTricks »

I'm going to go with "mixed". I feel like there were some gains in detail quality, but many of the designs don't feel inspired so much as convoluted, sucking a lot of the fun out of the toys this time around. And stuff like Prime's hands and swords weaken good figures. The motorcycles deliver toys that shouldn't be sold to anybody.
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138 Scourge
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Re: ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by 138 Scourge »

Well, in the sense that it's taken me this long to get interested in 'em at all, subjectively, I'd have to say total fail, because if a Transformers line can't get a guy that likes buying Transformers to buy some Transformers, then something's gone awry.

But being a lil 'more serious, here, the fact that there's still so many of 'em around says something about 'em. This, of course, could be chalked up to partially being due to a harder economy, or maybe the fact that they aren't as novel, somehow, as they seemed last time to the average kid or whatever? Maybe even some collectors felt "Eh, seen this before, whatevs" and passed.

Which makes me wonder if that's why so many of these toys seemed to go full-on crazy. Bigass wheel guy, crazy bike girls, remote control truck guy, the ice cream twins, Mixmaster (couldn't think of a good nickname), robot wearing a plane on his head, all of these are very strange designs, maybe an attempt to fight off the "Oh, THIS again?" reaction?

I'm only giving it a moderate fail, because I admire the effort that went into a lot of 'em, even if it doesn't seem to have paid off as well as the last movie run's stuff. I just dunno if this line can be called a success, is all.
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Re: ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by Sparky Prime »

I'm going to go with moderate success. I think the level of detail on these figures are much better than the first movie's. I wish some of the scaling was better but I don't think there's really any line that's gotten that perfect. They've also been much better about getting figures on shelves after the slow rate it took them to get the first movies figures out.
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Re: ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by 138 Scourge »

Hah! That's awesome. I love how Sparky and I see the same thing, i.e. "Movie toys always on shelves" and draw completely different conclusions. Glass half-full or empty thing.

The only reason I see that as "shelfwarming" more than "keeping toys on shelves" is that about half the stores in my area are stocked mainly with Wheelie, Rampage, and Chromia at the moment. If there were more of the newer waves everywhere around here, I might see it as more of a positive sign, too.

Of course, that's 'round here. In your area it may be entirely different.
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Re: ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by andersonh1 »

Sideways was a big shelf-warmer around here. I think most of them have finally sold, but I haven't really browsed the figures in awhile. But for months there were always a glut of those silver cars on the shelves, and just a few of the other figures.
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Re: ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by Sparky Prime »

Can't say that I've noticed any shelf-warmers around here in particular.... Usually when I've gone looking the stores have been well enough stocked that they have a pretty good selection of various figures.
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Re: ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by Onslaught Six »

Iffy At Best. There should be a show named that.

The line has had its fair share of cruddy toys, but to a degree only some of that can be blamed on Hasbro themselves--when you're given a design like the Arcee bike, what can you really do with it? Of course, Hasbro could pull a Movie 1 Leader Prime (or, better, that horrible Voyager mould that they're *still* repainting) and sacrifice movie accuracy in the name of a better toy--but then you get people complaining about lack of movie accuracy.

The cutting of parts and the budget cuts really hurt the figures so far, and hopefully everybody we're seeing pics of now (Mindwipe etc.) are rid of that kind of nonsense--Starscream's nonmoving hands would hurt a lot less if we didn't know they were supposed to move in the first place.

Still, a lot of the figures are pretty damned good, in the long run. Sideswipe's a great toy--so great that I bought the repaint that I originally didn't like. I still like Demolishor, but that's because I like unique-looking robots and crap. The bikes aren't really good for more than standing there, and yet I bought both of them fully knowing this. Jolt rules. The Twins are pretty good too--very kibbly, and they suffer from their own Movie design flaws, but on the whole they aren't too horrible.

Part of it, I think, depends on how much you like the Movieverse now, especially ROTF. Seeing Demolishor at the end of the original Superbowl footage is still probably my favourite bit of the whole movie. It got us so excited for Devastator. (And then we were vastly disappointed. Sigh.)

Speaking of Dev, there's the failure that is his toy and the Constructicons in general. Being that Mixmaster is a complete mess in and of himself (and yet I still kind of like him!), I'm not totally surprised at Hasbro's decision not to make a combining set--especially since the actual Devastator model in the film is made up of something like ten construction vehicles. (Not kidding--one arm is made up of Hightower and a bulldozer, and the left leg is actually Rampage and a yellow dump truck without a name.)

But you have to wonder--Hasbro had to approve this kind of stuff. Why didn't they say, "Hey, we need the individual Constructicons to be able to combine into Devastator." "Why the multiple Constructicons in the film? That's confusing. Do it different." Regardless of their decisions, though, I think they're doing their best they can with the toyline and with the resources they have. Unlike some toy companies, I get the feeling Hasbro really does give a damn about the Transformers brand and universe, and wants us to stay on as fans.
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Re: ROTF toy line, a success or a failure to you?

Post by Dominic »

I voted for mixed results.

I tend to agree with Scourge that the line has some good ideas with lacking execution.

My skip rate for the movie toys is, at this point, as high as it was for "Animated", and is not dwarfed only by "Alternators". But, this as has much to do with the movie as the toys.

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-still cannot bring himself to pick up the combiner twins.
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