TF Views

Meanwhile in my area, I see nothing but a bunch of leftover AOE figs, Rattrap and Tankorr shelf-warming. It's depressing.

The longer I spend looking for Alpha, Powerglide and Silverbolt the less interested I am. (When I last saw Alpha, I had the money for two limbs and bought Fireflight and Skydive.)

Gonna make a decision about the comics after reading Gillen's "Darth Vader" series. If that gets me back in to "Star Wars", I am likely out of TF.

Dominic wrote:The longer I spend looking for Alpha, Powerglide and Silverbolt the less interested I am. (When I last saw Alpha, I had the money for two limbs and bought Fireflight and Skydive.)

I asked in another thread but I'll ask here again: Is online ordering not an option for you?

Yes, no, maybe.

My BBTS account (where I would order on-line just out of habit) is effectively dead. Ya see, Fastmail went to a paid model at some point last year....with no notice. None. Logged in to clean out my messages, things looked fine. Went back about two weeks later, and hit a pay wall. My BBTS account routed through that email. So, ordering now would involve setting up a new account.

Considering how few toys I am actually looking for, setting up the new account is more work than I really want to do. (Yes, I am lazy.)


Dom

Dominic wrote:Yes, no, maybe.

My BBTS account (where I would order on-line just out of habit) is effectively dead. Ya see, Fastmail went to a paid model at some point last year....with no notice. None. Logged in to clean out my messages, things looked fine. Went back about two weeks later, and hit a pay wall. My BBTS account routed through that email. So, ordering now would involve setting up a new account.

Considering how few toys I am actually looking for, setting up the new account is more work than I really want to do. (Yes, I am lazy.)


Dom

Or you could just update your email address with them.

Spied all the wave 1 CW deluxes and voyagers at WM yesterday. Nothing looked remotely as good as the way so many are describing these. Every single figure looks scaled up from the lower pricepoint, heavily compromised in some way and sporting chunkier sculpting. The only figure that remotely kept my attention at all was Optimus, and that still was an incredibly easy pass.

Pics hit of Leader Class Megatron in-hand, and while Hasbro did a good job with the paint, they did a HORRIBLE job with the legs. Good lord do those look emaciated. http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-new ... es-182026/
I'm trying to keep a stiff upper lip about this figure since it does have some good looking stuff going on, but the more I see of the limbs the less I feel like dropping any coin at all on it, much less $45.

Brainstorm I could get off Amazon for $26 total, but the amount of negative comments over simplicity and breakage with the Headmaster make me think I won't really enjoy buying this figure. I'm pretty shy on funds so I really don't see this happening.

Amazon has Chromia for $17 and change plus tax, that was unfortunately for me an easy no despite the fact that I likely will never see it on pegs. Her turn in Windblade 4 really bummed me out anyway, which is shocking given the alt-mode design should be right up my alley.

Arcee is $24 there and looks too simplistic to warrant those kinds of funds. I had her in my cart on HTS for $15 but they know how to fuck you on shipping so I passed.

I feel like Hasbro has sucked much of my interest out of Transformers, and IDW is dangerously close to the same thing.

JediTricks wrote:Spied all the wave 1 CW deluxes and voyagers at WM yesterday. Nothing looked remotely as good as the way so many are describing these. Every single figure looks scaled up from the lower pricepoint, heavily compromised in some way and sporting chunkier sculpting. The only figure that remotely kept my attention at all was Optimus, and that still was an incredibly easy pass.

I'll admit that even I'm surprised at a lot of the love I've seen for the CW guys. I think the limbs are pretty good, but hardly close to the best TFs ever, with Firefly being a weak link. I do rather like Alpha Bravo and Skydive though. Thew's review of Silverbolt made him look great though, and I can't wait for mine to come in.

Also continuously surprised at how much better Optimus has ended up looking since that first time we saw him nearly a year ago. I might grab that one if I see it on shelves.

So far my biggest gripe looking at Leader Megatron is that he's too small next to MP-10, but I can handily stop caring about that.

JediTricks wrote:Brainstorm I could get off Amazon for $26 total, but the amount of negative comments over simplicity and breakage with the Headmaster make me think I won't really enjoy buying this figure. I'm pretty shy on funds so I really don't see this happening.

For what it's worth, there is a running change with Brainstorm that trims down Arcana's head so it doesn't get stuck in the slot and break the way it used to (this appears to be the version I got). It is still an incredibly simple toy though, so if you're in on TFs for that complexity, this one will not scratch that itch. It's got enough things I like about it that it evens out to positive for me, but the simplicity is a major bummer (granted, one I'd anticipated since we first saw pictures of it).

Dominic wrote:My BBTS account (where I would order on-line just out of habit) is effectively dead. Ya see, Fastmail went to a paid model at some point last year....with no notice. None. Logged in to clean out my messages, things looked fine. Went back about two weeks later, and hit a pay wall. My BBTS account routed through that email. So, ordering now would involve setting up a new account.

I think you're overestimating how much the BBTS account is "tied" to the email. In fact, I just literally checked. All you have to do is log in to BBTS and change your email, which will update the email you log in to. I literally just changed it to an alternate email I have using my real name (which I keep around for job interviews and things where "onslaughtsix at gmail" would look stupid) and logged out. I had to log back in with that email, but the password was still the same. At no point did it send me an email or ask for my credentials to do so.

Nothing looked remotely as good as the way so many are describing these. Every single figure looks scaled up from the lower pricepoint, heavily compromised in some way and sporting chunkier sculpting.

Still not seeing this from anything we see, even on Devastator, who looks great. Also, almost all of the praise I've seen/heard has been from people who literally have the toys in-hand, not from people just looking at them. I think it boils down primarily to these things just being fun *toys* in the first place, and less about the "collector" mindset. I think in a way they've actually been trying to address one of the things Prowl has been complaining about, about how the toys are sort of trying to occupy this "middle ground" by being both complex, collector-oriented engineering feats AND Toys For Children Sold At Walmart For $15. I don't own any yet, but I think they might be edging just a little big back towards the kid-oriented Fun Factor stuff, without losing the things that make collectors care, like G1 characters, detailing, and combiners...

It's like...A lot of us kind of hated Armada, right? I mean, we all tried to like it, but it's hard to deny that there's some bum figures in that lot, or things that you just don't give a shit about. Smokescreen, for instance. But if Smokescreen's proportions were a little better and he had good elbows and his gun wasn't so damn heavy, and he were named "Grapple" and actually looked like Grapple, people would probably have been all over him. If Hot Shot were named Bumblebee, and looked like Bumblebee, he would have been everyone's favourite new toy. (This is before 2007 when there weren't 80 Bumblebees on a shelf in a year.)

I dunno where I'm going with this. Maybe it's just me, but even without having these in-hand I know I'll probably like them.

Amazon has Chromia for $17 and change plus tax, that was unfortunately for me an easy no despite the fact that I likely will never see it on pegs. Her turn in Windblade 4 really bummed me out anyway, which is shocking given the alt-mode design should be right up my alley.

Arcee is $24 there and looks too simplistic to warrant those kinds of funds. I had her in my cart on HTS for $15 but they know how to fuck you on shipping so I passed.

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

$31 for the pair. Yeah, you need to pay shipping on top of that, but not if you just let them sit in the warehouse until you want something else. (Well, okay. You'll have to pay the shipping up front, and then the shipping on whatever you buy after that will be free. But that's not the point.)

Brainstorm I could get off Amazon for $26 total, but the amount of negative comments over simplicity and breakage with the Headmaster make me think I won't really enjoy buying this figure. I'm pretty shy on funds so I really don't see this happening.

Arcana is badly designed all around. Besides the "break if you fiddled with it as instructed" problems, the arms look terrible.

I did not even realize how much I wanted to like this figure until I saw it, and was so disappointed.

Spied all the wave 1 CW deluxes and voyagers at WM yesterday. Nothing looked remotely as good as the way so many are describing these. Every single figure looks scaled up from the lower pricepoint, heavily compromised in some way and sporting chunkier sculpting. The only figure that remotely kept my attention at all was Optimus, and that still was an incredibly easy pass.

Liking them more than expected. Planning to get the Aerialbots if I can find them all. Might swap out Slingshot for Alpha owing to me not liking the comics Alpha shows up in. But, I am planning to complete Superion. Not sure about Menasor.

Powerglide is excellent though.

Arcee is $24 there and looks too simplistic to warrant those kinds of funds. I had her in my cart on HTS for $15 but they know how to fuck you on shipping so I passed.

Arcee has some design issues. Pay maybe $18 at most. (The big problem is that the vein on top of the car mode pops out when the toy is in car mode.)

I feel like Hasbro has sucked much of my interest out of Transformers, and IDW is dangerously close to the same thing.

Getting there myself, especially as I am in more for the comics than toys in the first place.

BWprowl wrote:For what it's worth, there is a running change with Brainstorm that trims down Arcana's head so it doesn't get stuck in the slot and break the way it used to (this appears to be the version I got). It is still an incredibly simple toy though, so if you're in on TFs for that complexity, this one will not scratch that itch. It's got enough things I like about it that it evens out to positive for me, but the simplicity is a major bummer (granted, one I'd anticipated since we first saw pictures of it).

You've seen my QC track record, do you really think the odds are in my favor that I'll get a corrected one?

O6 wrote:

Nothing looked remotely as good as the way so many are describing these. Every single figure looks scaled up from the lower pricepoint, heavily compromised in some way and sporting chunkier sculpting.

Still not seeing this from anything we see, even on Devastator, who looks great. Also, almost all of the praise I've seen/heard has been from people who literally have the toys in-hand, not from people just looking at them. I think it boils down primarily to these things just being fun *toys* in the first place, and less about the "collector" mindset. I think in a way they've actually been trying to address one of the things Prowl has been complaining about, about how the toys are sort of trying to occupy this "middle ground" by being both complex, collector-oriented engineering feats AND Toys For Children Sold At Walmart For $15. I don't own any yet, but I think they might be edging just a little big back towards the kid-oriented Fun Factor stuff, without losing the things that make collectors care, like G1 characters, detailing, and combiners...

First off, in what way did my description of WAVE ONE DELUXES AND VOYAGERS include Titan-class Devastator, who isn't out yet?

We've seen one full-on photo of Devastator, and it was a spy photo, you may want to reserve your claim of sculpt quality for an image that actually shows detail. Right now, your praise for Dev comes off as judging only on expectation.

Well, I'm not dropping $90+ on these things just to find out if they're "fun in hand". They don't look fun in hand, all the deluxes look exceptionally boring and simplistic as figures on their own, and that's 2/3rds their appeal.

These don't look terribly fun for kids. They look hollow, simple, repetitive, and have absolutely awful alt modes. They don't look fun for collectors in that they're hollow, simple, repetitive, and have gimpy transformations. That leaves combiner play, that's a lot of coin for an oddly weakly-detailed combiner made of lesser-thans. And this is the COLLECTOR line, remember.

I dunno where I'm going with this. Maybe it's just me, but even without having these in-hand I know I'll probably like them.

I suspect that's why most fans who are into them like them, they are backing up a pre-formed opinion, they are saying "I know this will be good before I actually experience it, then I spent $15 on this figure, so to justify that much money I will fall back to my original opinion." Or maybe I'm wrong, but so far I've not seen a single thing, a single review, a single anything that has suggested otherwise.

It's like...A lot of us kind of hated Armada, right? I mean, we all tried to like it, but it's hard to deny that there's some bum figures in that lot, or things that you just don't give a shit about. Smokescreen, for instance. But if Smokescreen's proportions were a little better and he had good elbows and his gun wasn't so damn heavy, and he were named "Grapple" and actually looked like Grapple, people would probably have been all over him. If Hot Shot were named Bumblebee, and looked like Bumblebee, he would have been everyone's favourite new toy. (This is before 2007 when there weren't 80 Bumblebees on a shelf in a year.)

Armada was considerably cheaper (in today's money, that $10 would be $11.32), the figures were bigger, less hollow, had a second included figure, and an action gimmick. So they had a lot more leeway to be forgiving. And yet bad decision-making still brought that brand a bad legacy, Smokescreen is a great example - overly chunky and simple, non-removable weapon, wrong character name. So while we all snapped up those figures like hotcakes - and we did, Armada was big with consumers - the aftertaste was unbearable.

$31 for the pair. Yeah, you need to pay shipping on top of that, but not if you just let them sit in the warehouse until you want something else. (Well, okay. You'll have to pay the shipping up front, and then the shipping on whatever you buy after that will be free. But that's not the point.)

$39.48 with shipping, I'm not sure if they are charging sales tax in CA yet. Honestly, if I was spending that much on these things, I would get them from Amazon where they'll be on my doorstep tomorrow with my Prime membership, it's within $2 of what I'd pay on Amazon from 3rd-party Prime-shipped sales right now.

Dom wrote:Powerglide is excellent though.

I already have Powerglide, not worth the $10.