Tsutsukakushi wrote:Their is a $300 to $500 differnce in price from the 2015 HasTak combiner to these 3rd party combiners. Ofcause the 3rd party combiners are going to look better because the toys cost bounds more and their toy budgets are leaps higher.
The budget is not the only consideration. If Hasbro's Menasor didn't have such a terrible head sculpt, and if it had a proper Wildrider (which may or may not be a budget consideration, depending on if the bot in Wildrider's place was indeed made with recolor considerations in mind) then I'd definitely be saying, "Fansproject's Stunticons are pretty awesome, but if you didn't already buy them you may as well wait for the Hasbro one."
And with the Superion, even with the unfortunate helicopter business, I actually
would say that. If you haven't already plunked down cash for a third party set of Aerialbots, don't bother! Wait for the Hasbro set! It looks like they did just as good, if not better, a job then the third party companies. Just like Hasbro did (in my opinion) with Springer.
So when Hasbro manages to not make stupid decisions, they are just as capable as making good looking figures for a regular retail cost when compared with comparable figures at third party costs.
Hell, as far as a design budget, Hasbro is probably working with a bigger one, anyway. They just have to take other considerations in mind, like making their toys actually child-safe, and (hopefully) more durable. But they can spread this budget out over a much greater production of figures, and have much of the manufacturing infrastructure permanently in place. This is why they can charge $15 or $20 for a figure that would have to be sold by a third party company for like $60 or $80 to make any sort of profit.