Are we all too old to still be here now?

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 4:42 pm

Warcry wrote:I've been baffled by Hasbro's choices re: size class since I got back into the fandom, honestly. During G1, their bread and butter were Minibots or tapes or small combiner-team members.

The profit margin on the smaller toys has been really small, so they get a smaller percentage return on scouts and below than they do on Deluxes and up. This worked when Deluxes could still be in that 'impulse buy' range, but now that they're up to 'gifts and collectors only' range, it's biting them in the ass.

And all of those toys were smaller and (adjusted for inflation) cost the same or less than even Scouts or Cyberverse Commanders do now. I don't know if I can quite say that they were the bulk of the line, but they were a good slice of it and they were by far the easiest things to find.

For most of the G1 period, you didn't really get something we would call 'deluxes'. You went right from the smaller minibots to the boxed Diaclones. The only figures I could think of that qualified as 'Deluxes' for today would be the double Targetmasters... struggling to think of any more. So, for G1, anything in a box tended to be gifts and for explicit fans, where the pegged toys were the impulse buys which flew off the shelves.

(I remember one time that I was picking up Cyclonus that a few parents were around and would REFUSE to buy the boxed figures, since they were those 'expensive playsets'. They just stuck to the 'regular figures'.)

* Prime hasn't really made a big impression on any of the kids I know. The movies and even G1 reruns seem to get more attention, which doesn't bode well for the line. Is it different elsewhere?

Prime is doing well on the Hub, but that's a very small and sharply dwindling market as more and more people are ditching their cable or satellite when they're doing their monthly bills and wondering if over $100 (US) is worth it. Kids just don't really know about the show, unfortunately. Hasbro probably could cross-sell their DVD releases a lot better, though.

Post by **Warcry** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:03 pm

Yeah. When more kids have seen reruns of the shows their parents watched nearly thirty years ago than have seen your modern flagship series you've definitely got a marketing problem. And even here in Canada where Prime is on a normal kids' network, new episodes aren't always aired promptly, its' got a terrible time slot and IIRC only shows once per week.

TFVanguard wrote:For most of the G1 period, you didn't really get something we would call 'deluxes'. You went right from the smaller minibots to the boxed Diaclones. The only figures I could think of that qualified as 'Deluxes' for today would be the double Targetmasters... struggling to think of any more. So, for G1, anything in a box tended to be gifts and for explicit fans, where the pegged toys were the impulse buys which flew off the shelves.

If we're going strictly by size, toys like Starscream or Slag or Hot Rod or Misfire would be in the "Deluxe" range. But you're right -- those guys were considered "big toys" back in the 80s, unlike now when Deluxes are the normal "baseline" price point. Even the Autobot Cars were considered "big", and by modern standards most of them would be classed as Scouts.

It was definitely a different time.

Paul053 · Post by **Paul053** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:12 pm

I just spent $350+ dollars on a Green Giant. A lot of money and I'm pretty much wrapped up my toy purchase this year (well, there is pretty much nothing to buy either). But I'm very happy. It finally fulfills my Decepticons rank with this green Devastator and I found I haven't hyped like this for a very long time. I'm now slowly putting Decepticon symbols on each one of them. But at the same time I feel disappointed that the company who owns the rightful rights couldn't provide me this feeling now. While still being quite loyal to them, I feel kind of bad I have to look for third party product to find this feeling of a child again.

The TF franchise is not just a toy line for me anymore. And there is reason I choose them instead of many other better built and looking robots. So it is also very important if there is a good quality toy figure for characters that I like to put on my shelf to build my universe. Now, look what they have done to FoC Bruticus and Prime Airachnid, look they canceled a major character Breakdown in the Prime voyager line, look what could come up for Sixshot and all they could give us is a reissue, etc. And I consider myself not old school? Man, it's hard.

ganon578 · Post by **ganon578** » Tue Aug 21, 2012 5:19 pm

I don't think I'm too old for collecting TFs or toys, or whatever. That said (or typed) I do feel oddly weird when I'm scoping out the TFs in the toy section of whatever local store with a bunch of ten year olds running around. That doesn't really stop me though.

I have cut back dramatically in recent months/years, mostly due to my finances being pushed in other directions. Mostly my 2 year old daughter and soon-to-be son take precedence, as well as fixes for the house and yard, and taking my wife to dinner on occasion. Plus, you never know when the water heater is going to go (ours is getting up there in age), or when something on the car will go out of comission. Nowadays I can't really justify the purchases over the actual needed things in life, plus with the recent hikes in prices as other people have mentioned ($15 for a deluxe?!), I would rather just save that money and put it towards a cheap 360/PS3 game every so often.

My tastes for sci-fi/fantasy (novels, movies, comics, toys) haven't changed, more or less they have been refined. Much like Cliffy said earlier (I think that's who said it) I have gotten pickier with what I purchase instead of needing to collect everything under the sun; I strictly get Classics-type TFs now, 'cause that's what I like, and only characters I care for. No more movie/animated/prime figs for me since I just don't care for the aesthetic regardless of how cool the toy may be.

On another note, I feel like a creepy old man when picking up sci-fi novels from the library; for some reason they have justified sticking all the paperbacks in the "Teen Fiction" section of the library (which is a completely different room sectioned off by itself) and contains all the Star Wars, Halo, Dragonlance, etc. books that I enjoy. So now I get to feel extra creepy when I head into the "Teen Fiction" room looking for a Halo book when there are 15 year old boys and girls hanging out in there, and I come strolling in after work as a balding 31 year old. Makes me feel really cool!!! Otherwise, I'm not hindered by it, I just zip in fast, pray I can find what I'm looking for quickly, and zip out.

Regardless of age and what other adults think, I will still collect some TFs, games, and other goofy things that are supposedly 'too young' for me. I mean, if a vast number of adults can read and fully enjoy the Harry Potter series, or The Hunger Games, or Twilight, which were all written for a projected 'tween' audience without anyone thinking any differently of them, why can't we as Transformers fans enjoy what we like as well, and not feel 'too old' at the same time?

Cyberstrike nTo · Post by **Cyberstrike nTo** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 3:44 pm

As the late, great Ray Bradbury once said his friendship with stop motion animation master Ray Harryhausen: "We made a pact. That we're going to grow old but we're never going to grow up." That sums up my feelings on Transformers and the other hobbies I love.

borg72 · Post by **borg72** » Wed Aug 22, 2012 11:56 pm

The only official product I have any remaining interest in (at least until movie 4 toys start getting contemplated) are the kreon microchangers, and that's mostly just for sh!ts and giggles.

3rd party stuff is way off my register due to my unemployedness (and mostly what does catch my eye is a couple of years away in development; fansproject headmasters etc),

and FoC holds little interest for me, as i'm not a console gamer and don't fancy buying a console/rig just for that (see also: unemployed).

guess I'm out for anything current for a while. sadly the aftermarket on the older things i like is also a bit stupid at the minute. despite the sheer volume of releases the various molds have had, classics are a bitch to find at reasonable prices. this pretty much just leaves me with finding the pair of wing/guns for G1 skullgrin, then i'm out.

I did do my first few gundam kits a couple of months ago. sadly i've kinda done all the suits i had some kind of attachment to (or have the RD versions), as my only real love for gundam anime resides in Gundam 00, everything else is just kind of 'meh' to me. might look into some of the lower-tier suits if i can find a deal on ebay/amazon.

I suppose this whole 'transformers are a bit meh now' thing has come at a serendipitous time for me (again, joblessness + unfortunately timed hospital bills). hopefully by the time anything interesting comes around my situation will have improved correspondingly.

almost forgot that i'm still into the comics, in a two-years-behind-the-lot-of-you-because-im-buying-trades-when-they-go-on-deep-discount-on-amazon kinda way. stormbringer or similar for $5 is not hard to justify when half-price-books (a local store, well-described by its title) has them for twice that

Cliffjumper · Post by **Cliffjumper** » Fri Aug 31, 2012 9:25 pm

Regarding the line I can see a lot in the idea of Cyberverse being a big cog in the future. I'd be very surprised if we see many, if any, larger-than-Voyager figures in the main line (unless they dust down the Leader Optimus mould for TF4). While DotM didn't seem to shift much at all the Leaders seem to have moved worse of all - as popular as he is the Ultimate and HA figures surely had Big Bee covered, and while I adore the character and the figure Ironhide was commercial suicide.

Add into that the limited Voyagers thus far in Prime and the weird situation with Breakdown (would Hasbro really sit back and let Takara design, engineer and produce a figure that they couldn't use for a current line show character?) and it certainly looks like they're planning on downsizing in general.

On the plus side it means Deluxes won't have a completely moronic assortment name anymore.

Ackula · Post by **Ackula** » Sat Sep 22, 2012 11:20 pm

I don't think I'm too old for the hobby, and certainly not for a forum, but I do view/feel differently about the hobby as a whole in my older age. Due to financial concerns and hardships in my family, I haven't bought a Transformer in a year and a half now, and that was actually a gift for my birthday.

I still like the toys I have, and there are still ones that I'd like to have, but they are all older or more obscure toys, and thus more expensive on the whole. I don't really have any interest in any of the current toylines, and haven't had since the Classics/Generations toys.

I watched the first 5 or 6 episodes of Prime with my son, but neither of us really got into it and we just sorta forgot about it. I don't know if my age has to do with that or not, but the last series I really liked was Animated, and it decidedly had more throwbacks and references to G1 that would appeal to someone my age out of nostalgia.

So I guess my age changes how I feel and act towards collecting, but I'm still a fan, and don't think age will ever factor that out for me.

Jaynz · Post by **Jaynz** » Tue Sep 25, 2012 2:53 pm

Ackula wrote:Due to financial concerns and hardships in my family, I haven't bought a Transformer in a year and a half now, and that was actually a gift for my birthday.

I admit that I was excited about the Prime line (first line I've been excited about in a number of years), but that fizzled quickly as Hasbro's constant errors made it both impossible to reasonably collect (I've never seen Airachnid in a store, and Breakdown isn't even coming out!) and prohibitively expensive to do so ($15 US for a Deluxe toy that's smaller than last year's deluxes... oy.) I'll just build up my Atari 7800 collection instead for all that trouble.

I watched the first 5 or 6 episodes of Prime with my son, but neither of us really got into it and we just sorta forgot about it. I don't know if my age has to do with that or not, but the last series I really liked was Animated, and it decidedly had more throwbacks and references to G1 that would appeal to someone my age out of nostalgia.

Prime starts off pretty slow, and the first story hard (Zombies!) was hardly gripping. The show does improve, though, and improves greatly about the mid-point of season one. It's probably worth your time/money to get the S1 disc set and go from there.