TF Views

I just typed a sighting on Voyager Sentinel Prime (Hasbrotoyshop.com) and realized that part of the reason I wasn't remotely tempted to get that figure was because of the Cyberverse Commander figure I bought last week. There was zero chance I'd pull the trigger on the Leader Class figure, but Deluxe and Voyager classes are generally my TF collecting bread & butter, so I was surprised when I realized Voyager Sentinel wasn't even triggering consideration in my book.

With the "Legends" size, and now "Legion" under the Cyberverse brand, I really get no satisfaction at all out of those figures, I think they're generally making too many compromises to be enjoyable in any way. They're too expensive to be fun to collect the way Minicons were, and they're generally not as satisfying to play with either.

But Cyberverse Commanders are intended for Star Wars-like collecting, hitting that $8 pricepoint the same way Star Wars 3.75" figures do, delivering a mix of decent sculpting, paint, articulation, displayability, and accessories (the accessories have been hit-or-miss with Cyberverse though). They aren't home runs, any of them, but they do seem to satisfy for display and play, despite being way less product than Deluxe at only a few dollars less. And I have run out of space, so smaller is helpful too.

So, is the Commander pricepoint going to cannibalize sales for larger figures like Voyager and Leader Class? I don't expect it'll hurt Deluxe, of course, since that's the brand's bread & butter.

I'll be blunt: Cyberverse has turned out to be a type of line I've wanted to see out of TF for a while- a line of smallish, affordable, scale-compatible-ish figures featuring large amounts of characters and including vehicles and playsets for them to interact with. S'yeah, TF done line Star Wars or GI Joe. Legends by themselves never did anything for me, but with more varied-sized characters to hang out with, and 'setpieces' in the vehicles/bases, they really come alive, and have turned out to be rather satisfying to collect. I hope Hasbro continues to just make a ton of 'em, in both Legion and Commander class, since that's where the line will get a lot of strength.

As for affecting the purchase of larger figures, I bought both the Commander and Voyager versions of Megatron, but that's mainly because they're both great representations of the character at a particular size class (and come on, the Voyager version has the cape! I'm tempted to grab some cloth and try to make one for my Commander version though.). On the other hand, I only have the Commander version of Sentinel Prime, but that's mainly because I can't bring myself to drop forty bucks on the Leader Class version (Starscream was the only Leader from the Movie lines I bothered with, and that's because that's an incredible toy of a character I love). I *may* grab the Voyager version when I see it, depending on how it looks, but a lot of my iffiness has to do with how little I care about Sentinel Prime right now (to the point that I can't even remember his name most of the time. Seriously, you have no idea how hard it is for me to not type 'Vector Prime' or 'Alpha Trion' when I'm thinking about this guy). Maybe after I see DOTM next week and I know more about the character than the (mostly bland) stuff I've read in the prequel comics, I'll feel compelled to own more toys of the character.

For the love of god, no one spoil anything about what happens to Sentinel Prime or what he does in the movie! I've been staying out of the Movie Adaptation thread for a reason!

I really abhor spoilers.

He's certainly not everything you'd expect, I'll say that.

Why would the smaller figures not hurt Deluxe sales if they are going to hurt the larger price points' sales?

In a situation where a collector or older fan is buying a toy, they are going to buy the most favorable figure. They could be selecting for fiddle-value, (which Legends figures generally score highly on), size/space considerations (Legends win here), price (Legends win again), character completism (which crosses price points or even lines), or something else.

Of course, many collectors, (including myself), will often say that a certain price point is not right for a given character.

Of course, as we have discussed, the majority of TF sales come from kids (through parents). Parents are generally concerned about things like price, with clutter and missing parts being secondary. And, lets face it, you damned well know that they are going to pick up Legends figures first. And, if a kid has Legends Sentinel Prime, the parents are likely to refuse to buy the Leader class toy on the basis of the kid having a perfectly good Sentinel Prime at home.


Dom
-notes that Hasbro is not (thus far) releasing the Voyager Prime with a trailer. Hmmmmmm......