Why do the shareholders think it's a good idea to get rid of someone so good at his job?
One Strip! One Strip!I mean the concept of quality kinda sailed the boat before the guy even joined the company.
We were talking earlier about figures shrinking and prices increasing. I was in Walmart last week. Studio Series Blurr is 40$ CAD. 40$
He's a deluxe (and a large deluxe) though by today it means he's the size of like, a basic in the beast wars era. I used to buy basics for 8-9$ before taxes. By inflation alone, a basics from those days would cost 16$ now. He's more than twice that. And never mind he's a deluxe. Those went for 12 to 14 CAD in 1998 (25$ now), and are gigantic compared to modern deluxes.
The toy industry is at a crossroads. Some of it is societal. 9-10 year old kids nowadays prefer videogames and such to getting toys. But also like, those prices are just not sustainable.
It's getting to a point where 3P figures are becoming competitively priced to legit Hasbro stuff. An Iron factory figure (which is a 3p Company doing smaller scale figures) will charge you 55 to 60$ CAD for a figure that both in details, quality and poseability blows a hasbro deluxe out of the water, and its barely smaller and comes with a ton of accessories.
Edited by Ghilz on Oct 23rd 2024 at 7:54:36 AM
No doubt, but that can't be the whole story—a proportionately-sized LEGO set (assuming it's not a licensed theme), for example, is about half the price of that Blurr. Which is funny, because they used to be the definitive poster child for Crack Is Cheaper.
I don't doubt there's a ton of factor into the prices, I wont pretend I'm privy to them
But my point is that when your regular items approach the cost of high end collector items, you're kind of losing the impulse buy market. Like, you could go buy the kid a cheap Beast Wars figures in the 90s and it wasn't something that broke the bank or the budget.
Nowadays, if your deluxe figure is 40$, that becomes way more a "You're getting only one, and for xmas" thing. Especially with the cost of living being already assailed by rising rent and food costs.
Edited by Ghilz on Oct 23rd 2024 at 8:39:18 AM
I know from 3P companies who have publicly discussed the process that the lion's share of cost for a figure is machining the molds for the part. More parts = more machining and more costs.
And modern figures have higher parts counts generally (you can tell from how they are more articulated generally speaking).
So like I said, I can't say I'm privy to why the cost jumped so much, and I can't say it's just executive greed, but it's definitely I think reached a point where it is eating in its own sales.
I have not seen price increases outside of Hasbro and Takara. Other brands tend to be consistent over the years even with the decreasing Canadian dollar.
That said, as you mentioned, Transformers are getting more and more complex and the prices reflect that.
Edited by ChicoTheParakeet on Oct 23rd 2024 at 9:25:35 AM
From what I recall Hasbro has a a large problem of not really figuring out a simpler line of toys for more affordable costs.
I remember hearing something about the Core Class being cancelled during Earthspark which was an attempt at a cheaper line that they didn't support as well.
Edited by slimcoder on Oct 23rd 2024 at 7:39:09 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."I've generally felt the brand has diluted the specific toy lines. The Studio Series has generally done well because of a mostly consistent focus and target audience, but when you go to the toy aisle you see Legacy, Vintage and Earthspark all piled on top of each other, and that's not including recent release sublines, one-off items (I saw the TMNT party wagon that can become any of the four Turtles), non-transforming figures or role play props. For a long while the most recent release had a dedicated toyline just for itself, then a Generations / Vintage line, maybe a Masterpiece included somewhere and more esoteric figures located in different sections (ie Hot Wheels). It's a problem a lot of corporations got into where they are cannibalizing their own market.
Edited by EmeraldSource on Oct 23rd 2024 at 10:19:43 AM
Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.
That fits perfectly with a lot of comments I've read on a post about the upcoming new Galvatron figure.
Essentially it looks good but Galvatron already has a bunch of recent toys that look as good or even better so its not really a serious grab.
There's only so many times you can redo the G1 aesthetic in such a short amount of time. The franchise is really in need of a major visual reinvention like Animated and the Unicron Trilogy did.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."I wouldn't be opposed if we went back to more gimmicky installments like the aforementioned Unicron Trilogy. It would at least be kind of refreshing after several iterations that have felt rather samey.
"That we continue to persist at all is a testament to our faith in one another."This is probably my childhood nostalgia talking but I loved the Minicon and Cyber Key power-ups.
Probably because it means everyone has a unique integrated weapon associated with said gimmick.
Like compared to Prime giving everyone the same identical blasters and swords, you got some cool stuff like Armada Megatron turning his back cannon into a forward rotating gattling gun or Armada Demolisher converting his shoulder pylons into guns.
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."The automorph gimmicks from the first live action movie were pretty great, they don't need to do half the transformation steps but small things like a vehicle piece moving to the forearm when the hand is locked into place really makes you appreciate the overall engineering.
I know the powerlinx from Energon was underwhelming (trade out one brick for another, now they have different pants) but the overall idea of the Minicons and Cyber Keys I could see coming back in some form. Animated was situated for "All-Spark Shard" and never used it.
Edited by EmeraldSource on Oct 24th 2024 at 9:29:52 AM
Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.I found the minicons and planet key weird coz it's like... why are the minicons involved at all. Why does Starscream need a minicon to flip his cannons to point forward, can he not do this on his own? Was mounting his cannons so they point forward not an option?
So many figures with planet keys/minicon gimmick are crippled by the gimmick because a huge chunk of the figure has to be dedicated to housing it.
I really can't say I find myself missing such gimmicks. At least Titan Masters / Headmasters are less obtrusives.
Plenty of toys still have shooting missiles? Like, even lego has missile shooters and stud shooters in their playsets for kids.
Edited by Ghilz on Oct 24th 2024 at 1:05:30 PM
Lego part 15301c01 is a spring launcher (literally called "Projectile Launcher, 1 x 4 Spring Shooter with Light Bluish Gray Top"), and is still put in recent sets including the 2024 Star Destroyer
Eitherway the difference is immaterial, transformers have also had friction missiles since like, the unicron trilogy at least?
They just don't use them anymore for whatever reasons.
Edited by Ghilz on Oct 24th 2024 at 2:47:46 PM
Before the Unicron Trilogy there wasn't much attempt for sub-gimmicks, the closest might be the mutant heads for Beast Wars. In terms of the toyetic value Minicons were micro-toys in their own right and had an interactive feature with the larger toy, while the larger toy had a "hidden" gimmick associated with it. Across the board it pushed toy design in a new direction, Optimus' auto-transforming trailer remains a quite advanced feature. In fiction I mostly give the Minicons a pass because there is themes of oppressed minorities and an Awful Truth that they are connected to Unicron. The Cyber Keys are far less interesting.
Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.That's not even close to true? Sub-line or line-wide gimmicks go all the way back to G1.
First of all depending on the definition of "Gimmick", you can go to G1 and the heat activated faction logo showing a TF's allegiance
The Headmasters and Targetmasters formed the bulk of the 1987 toys
These were followed by the Pretenders and Action Masters
Then going into Japan, both Headmasters and Masterforce were dominated by the titular gimmicks. Victory had the Brainmasters and unfortunately named Breastmasters.
G2 had several gimmick lines, notably the Aquaspeeders and Stormtroopers and their watersquirting guns. And the color changers with their titular gimmick and the aforementioned water squirting guns.
The BW year 1 Mega toys (What would later be called voyagers) all had a "battle mode" alongside their robot and beast mode
The BW year 1 basics all had automated transformations done by flipping their tails up.
Several BW Neo figured had a "Dead" mode where the animal turns into a corpse.
Transmetal 2 all had the concealed Spark Crystal
EDIT: Forgot the G1 Jumpstarters. Also technically Devastator started as a gimmick subline since he was the sole combiner released that year.
I'm certain I forgot several other gimmick sublines.
Edited by Ghilz on Oct 24th 2024 at 7:39:28 AM
Probably not the best choice of words, gimmick means a lot of things. The intention was an additional transformation option besides robot-to-alternate mode, and something mostly universal to the entire line. You have things like the rub stickers or spark crystals, but Headmasters didn't have that many Headmaster toys. Sublines definitely banked on those types of gimmicks though. Much of the 80's to mid-90's toys had very little consistency in design, Beast Wars was a big success in part because it was a fresh start and shrugged off all the Headmaster/Pretender/Targetmaster changes to Generation 1 and Generation 2 designs.
Comics are just words and pictures. You can do anything with words and pictures.

Gotta please the shareholders.