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I'd be more excited if US distribution wasn't a complete shambles. I hope for more GDO-style figures and cheaper Hasbro issues of upcoming Masterpieces but right now it feels less like collecting and more like setting on toysrus.com hitting refresh.

I'm going to say yes, because of the MPs and Takara releases.

I'm very happy with the current state of Masterpieces............

I'm unhappy with pretty much everything else.

So that's a no.

Overall, no. Quality is down. Distribution sucks. They're making some bad choices. I look forward more to G1 reissues and third-party toys than the official product.

I'm strictly a G1 guy, so the only horses I have in this race are Masterpiece and G1 re-issues. On that front, I couldn't be happier, especially now that I've got MP Sideswipe and can see first-hand how awesome that figure is (haven't been able to put him down since he arrived). So I vote a big happy thumbs up, but I will say this, I was browsing Toys R Us yesterday, and most of the other lines of TFs do look pretty cheap.

Transformers with a capital "T"? Not particularly. There are some very nice Hasbro/TakaraTomy/Weyland Yutani figures coming out, yes, but some truly terrible ones as well. I was excited by the sound of Beast Hunters, but now I understand. They're hunting the beasts, because there are only 3 out there. Some of the remolds do look nice, but I'd be more confident in the Prime line if there were some more new toys as well.

Distribution is, as ever in the UK, terrible. I've been pretty lucky, or perhaps stubborn and tenacious, and managed to see most of the Prime toys on shelves at least once, but still know some folks who can't find anything past wave 1. I'm not interested in Bot Shots, but those do at least seem to be moving.

The price/size issues are a major factor in my negative voting. Most of us have said that a price-rise on toys the same size and quality of the Generations line would have been understandable. Or the shrinking of product that has occurred would be acceptable if the prices had not risen so much.

The Asian imported/originated figures have been a breath of fresh air for some people, and I admit, that I do like a lot of them. Availability and price making them little more than pictures on the internet of things you can't get doesn't encourage me though.

Elsewhere in the East, the Arms Micron and Masterpiece lines continue to be good. But too expensive for me, personally. I've the MP Cassettes pre-ordered, and will continue to get some of the AMW kits, but can't justify paying twice the online cost of a Hasbro product for a little $5 micron kit and less paint apps.


now, if we were talking about transformers with a lower-case "t" then I'd be a bit more positive. Much higher pricing, but much better quality in my experience. The success of 3rd party companies proves that people (not all people, granted, but some) will happily pay multiples of the price of an official product for something that's more likely to feel worth the money when they get it out of the packaging. I understand the MP line is meant for Collectors (TM) but I'd drop a whole lot more cash if there was a proper collectors line that provided the range of characters, engineering and quality of some 3rd party company's offerings, even at the same price.

craggy wrote:Transformers with a capital "T"? Not particularly. There are some very nice Hasbro/TakaraTomy/Weyland Yutani figures coming out, yes, but some truly terrible ones as well. I was excited by the sound of Beast Hunters, but now I understand. They're hunting the beasts, because there are only 3 out there. Some of the remolds do look nice, but I'd be more confident in the Prime line if there were some more new toys as well.

First, the "beasts" are hunting the Autobots. Not the other way around.

And, we've only seen Wave 1. There are more waves that need to be revealed; you need to wait.

I voted no because of most things already said.

Price goes up, quality goes down, and the figures I actually want never see the light of day in my area thanks to a combination of bad distribution and The Yellow Terror / Bumblebonic Plague.

Takara is killin it this year. I got a good look at all the figs out of package today with those wee microns and all that sticker goodness and i was really hard pressed to walk out of the store today and not buy three or four figs.
I went into Toys R Us the other day and although (thank goodness) it was all new Hasbro stock, but with that being said, it was very easy for me too walk away with nary a doubt as to whether or not i made the right choice too walk away. Non of it really grabbed my attention in regards too being must have figs.

But i'm not really feelin that Hasbro is making the right choices these days in regards to putting out awesome figs. I won't say i'm not confident that things will change but i'm not excited by any means.