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Mixed bag.

Who could be happy with crappier (smaller, hollow, cheep materials, lack of paint apps, terrible molds (airachnid)) toys, for more money. Less for more?

Nope.

Cheaper plastic and smaller figures? Nuh uh.

The ONLY saving grace is their import of the Asian exclusives, but a single bright star won't illuminate the inky blackness.

Mkall wrote:The ONLY saving grace is their import of the Asian exclusives, but a single bright star won't illuminate the inky blackness.

Don't forget the MP offerings!

The main lines, though...pretty much shit.

The upcoming 3rd Party offerings look rather promising, too, prices aside.

I voted yes. Here's why:
- RTS from last year - Classics Jazz, Tracks, Wreck Gar and more
- Generations from last year - Seekers, Red Alert, Blur, Skullgrin, etc.
- MP-10 from Hasbro this year
- Voyager Grimlock, Soundwave and Blaster in 2013, plus Legends deployers

Yeah, the smaller sizes and higher price-tags are a big issue for me, but not enough to take away my vote of confidence. With oil prices significantly higher than just a few years ago, those price changes can be justified fairly. Besides, toy collecting is not an essential need. If it really does become too expensive, I can just walk away.

The lone bright spot at the moment seems to be the forthcoming Masterpiece toys (from both Hasbro and TakaraTomy).

As for the rest... there are just so many missed opportunities.

Transformers: Prime and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron are some of the best source material Hasbro has ever had to work with in terms of popular awareness, production quality, and early access/input into the fiction itself. But the great concepts here seem to be translating into what are for the most part lackluster toys. And the problem is not the level of complexity or overall ingenuity of the toys. The problem is the size and perceivable quality.

I'm concerned that the time when a Transformer felt like a well-made toy is entirely in the past.

nope, I am not happy.

I can handle decreases in quality with the same size and price of figures,
I can handle decreases in size with the same price and quality of figures,
and I can handle increases in price with the same quality and size of figures,

but all three at once? Heck no.

I voted no. I've got mixed feelings about the price/quality of toys. My big issue is the DISTRIBUTION, and the number of concurrent products competing for shelf space. As we all know, our shelves are stuffed with Bumblebee, the yellow menace. Sure, he's the favorite character, but he's clearly not being bought in enough numbers to support the case assortments being packed full of him, at the cost of other figures. TF Prime deluxe waves 3 and 4 have been out in my area for a few months now, and even though I check most stores in a 15 mile radius of where I live, I have not yet found a single Vehicon or Airachnid figure on shelves. I also haven't seen a Voyager Starscream or Bulkhead in weeks, and I've only recently started finding Cyberverse Commander waves 2 and 3 anywhere. The Transformers toy sections are reasonably sized, but half of the available shelf space is given to Bot Shots and residual Dark of the Moon toys, leaving less space for Generations and Prime. Now, I don't mind Bot Shots as a concept. Beyblade, Monsuno, Bakugan, etc. are all clearly popular and I understand Hasbro wants in on that action. But having to share space with the TF mainlines is a detriment to BOTH. Sure, it makes it look like there's a wider variety of toys on the shelf, but it makes it harder to find shortpacked figures like Shockwave, Airachnid, Vehicon, Soundwave, and the Bot Shots chase figures.

I'm also a bit concerned that the same designers are working on all these lines, meaning each line has fewer toys to show for it.