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How is the quality of the toys poor? Please explain & give examples of how they were better before the Transformer movies came out. Don't just make statements without backing up your opinion with hard facts

One word: Bullshit.

America's poor child eyes continue to be protected from the harsh realities of what happens when all the world's product labor gets outsourced to a single communist country.

And yeah those people HAVE to work there. It's not like they have much choice, any other factory in China is not going to be much different. And for any factories where you might make decent wages I'd imagine it would be almost impossible to get a job position.

As for the mention of bayformers. The franchise made most of it's money from the films. The toy sales have been somewhat of a crapshoot though and they make far more product then they need to for the respective lines, leaving shelves full of un-bought toys for the following years. I see it that kids are more likely to buy toys based on a television series than on a movie, seeing as a TV series is something they watch once a week and a movie is something they only see once every two years. TV shows will actually keep up their attention span. And yes, I've heard people complain about the quality control allot more since the movies came out. Though my personal experience says that the decline started with Animated. Quantity over quality.

Envisaged0ne wrote:How is the quality of the toys poor? Please explain & give examples of how they were better before the Transformer movies came out. Don't just make statements without backing up your opinion with hard facts

Don't bother, those guys blame Bay for everything. Somehow it's his fault that working conditions are bad in a factory he is in no way involved with.

Towards the end of this short video you can see the average working conditions in a Chinese toy factory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1iplQQJTo

I seriously doubt Hasbro's factory is any different...

The only time I've heard any real quality control problems was with the animated line. Haven't heard anything towards the generations, reveal the shield or movie lines. Yes, every once in a while someone will get one that has loose joints or paint smudges. But that's true with anything you buy and you can't hold Hasbro to a higher standard than everyone else. Again, the animated line had some legitimate issues to complain about, but I see all to often people taking it out on the "bayformers". And people say that Michael Bay ruined the Transformers franchise. But, facts show that the movies made billions of dollars. Paramount made more money with the TF3 than any other movie ever released. If Bay was the aweful director people make him out to be, and the toys were so aweful, then he never would have been allowed to continue making the movies. And again, everyone wouldn't be begging him to do the 4th one. I just get irritated when people bash Michael Bay and act like it's his fault when there's something about Transformers they don't like. If it weren't for him and the movies, Transformers wouldn't be where it is today.

Michael Bay and the movies have nothing to do with this thread. Drop it.

Any further mention of Michael Bay, or the movies will result in warnings.

This thread is about alleged poor working conditions in Chinese factories that happen to produce Transformer toys.

Rated X wrote:Towards the end of this short video you can see the average working conditions in a Chinese toy factory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX1iplQQJTo

I seriously doubt Hasbro's factory is any different...

Gad dammit! I thought it was a real video of a Chinese factory. Stupid Simpsons lol

I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm going to guess having the International Council of Toy Industries assess whether a toy company's factory is ethical is kind of like grading your own test. Organizations like this are generally created and funded by the companies in the industry, so expecting them to have an unbiased opinion is silly. Perhaps the accuser is exaggerating things a bit, but if Hasbro were really serious about investigating, they'd let a third party with no vested interest do it, not a toy company association.

*Sorry bout the bayformers rant.
On topic: I found this from Wikipedia's website about Hasbro. Looks like this isn't the 1st time Hasbro has been looked at for bad employee practices in China...

"Manufacture

Over the years Hasbro has outsourced the manufacture of its products to third-party companies, mostly in China. At the Chinese factories, which Hasbro does not directly own or operate, migrant workers are compensated with meager salaries for their labor. At one such factory, in Dongguan, China, basic assembly line jobs pay a little over one hundred US dollars per month,[13] China's minimum wage.

In 2007, a workers' rights group investigated several of Hasbro's Chinese suppliers and found that, in one instance, a toy factory in China's Guangxi Province had hired 1000 junior high school students. The same group discovered other widespread labor violations, including unsafe working conditions, mandatory overtime, verbal abuse and sexual harassment of employees. Hasbro issued a statement, saying that it would "act swiftly and decisively in making any necessary changes" and had "increased the intensity of [its] ongoing safety review efforts." Critics counter that, as Hasbro has no official regulatory control of these factories, it responds to such investigations by acquiring independent auditors, who make unannounced visits to the East Asian subcontractors. Factory managers are then "coached" in how to fool the auditors.[14]

Outside Asia, Hasbro owns and operates only two manufacturing facilities, one in Waterford, Ireland, the other in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, USA. In recent years, the company has cut jobs at both plants in response to increasing competition from lower cost locations in China. At the end of 2006, for example, Hasbro's Irish division laid off more than one third of its workforce"

Regarding quality control: I was fortunate to receive Transformers: Prime figures for Christmas. I have Arcee, Starscream, Bumblebee, and the entertainment pack with Optimus/Megatron.

Bumblebee's heel was out of alignment and he couldn't stand right. I was able to disassemble the foot and fix it, but he has a loose shoulder that flops around and I can't fix that. Two issues in one figure.

One of Starscream's rubbery knee spikes was folded over when packaged and is pointing to the side at 45 degrees. Doesn't hinder transformation or posing but it looks pretty obviously wrong when you see him, and it's not something I think I can fix since I can't bend it back into place without it just snapping right back.

I started collecting with Generations and had a few quality issues before, but it stinks that I can't easily return any of the new figures to get a fixed replacement because of their rarity right now. I've seen others complain about Hasbro QC before but this was the first time it hit me, and gave me a wow factor after having obvious issues with two figures in a row. I wondered if things had gone downhill somehow.