In-Pacakge Images: Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Simplified Voyagers Optimus Prime and Predaking

I'm so glad they made a voyager out of that Prime. The Cyberverse figure is excellent and I love the look of him with those wheels on his shoulders. I'll definitely be buying this (preorder already in on BBTS).

I cannot possibly fathom why on Earth would do something like that. Oh, wait, actually I can! Wait for it.. it's Hasbro. That's why.

Armentitron wrote:I cannot possibly fathom why on Earth would do something like that. Oh, wait, actually I can! Either too lazy or too stupid to come up with any actual new designs! Sure, let's just take toys we've already published and make them a bit bigger! People will still pay for them!

Try the fact that they can make a sh**-ton of money off of the ACTUAL target demographic for these toys instead of the piddly-ass amount of chump change they would get in comparison by keeping older/adult fans happy. This isn't about what WE think, this is about the children for whom these toys are intended and their parents who throw obscene quantities of money out there to keep their spawn happy and content.
It doesn't matter if it makes sense to us, it just has to make a 7 year old thrilled enough to pester Mom and Dad and I GUARANTEE you, the kids far outnumber us older fans/collectors.

Predaking actually looks kinda alright. I know he's essentially a touched-up and oversized version of the Cyberverse toy, but he doesn't really look like it.

Shoot, I'm kinda wishing the Terrorcons all got that kind of treatment. I haven't bought any of the Mainline Preds because they weren't in scale with the more interesting Legion ones. A Blight and Twinstrike at the same size and quality as Ripclaw and Laserback would've been cool, even if Abominus was cut out. The Terrorcon transformation schemes could totally work as-is at Deluxe scale.

hinomars19 wrote:

T-Macksimus wrote:

Armentitron wrote:I cannot possibly fathom why on Earth would do something like that. Oh, wait, actually I can! Either too lazy or too stupid to come up with any actual new designs! Sure, let's just take toys we've already published and make them a bit bigger! People will still pay for them!

Try the fact that they can make a sh**-ton of money off of the ACTUAL target demographic for these toys instead of the piddly-ass amount of chump change they would get in comparison by keeping older/adult fans happy. This isn't about what WE think, this is about the children for whom these toys are intended and their parents who throw obscene quantities of money out there to keep their spawn happy and content.
It doesn't matter if it makes sense to us, it just has to make a 7 year old thrilled enough to pester Mom and Dad and I GUARANTEE you, the kids far outnumber us older fans/collectors.

Nice speech, but think about it; HOW is this voyager Prime any faster or easier to transform than the current one?

HOW is this one more attractive to a 7 year old than the current one?

Please don't keep a stack of standard excuses in your utility belt ready for the cause. This has nothing to do with simpler, easier play. It's just cost cutting. Beast Fire Predaking has to be one of the simplest toys to date, yet achieves both modes well, looks like a quality product, and, whilst it doesn't please everyone, manages to bridge the gap between child and adult collector well enough.

Stop believing blatant rubbish. This is about being cheap, nothing more. Animated leader Megatron has no more than 5-6 steps, is chunky and easy to play with. So again, please tell me why THIS approach to TFs is suddenly so necessary?

And please, let's have some creative answers, not another old wive's tale from the 'we believe everything told to us at botcon' pot.

"Hasbro is cheap" is also a convenient cookie cutter comment. I challenge you to be creative, too.

I see this as an over-correction for movie figure complexity. I know this is an extreme example, but Leader Sentinel Prime is super complicated, and I know several other movie toys with non-intuitive transformations were getting negative reviews from parents. When the parents can't even do the transformations, they're not going to buy them for their kids.

And, since they probably started developing the TF: Prime figures back when they were getting these negative DOTM parent responses (most of those toys were crappy in their own right, independent of transformation complexity), I imagine the Hasbro brand managers were challenged to find a way to blend fully formed figures with those simple, Activator toys.

This looks to be their first fully formed attempt at this experiment, which may also be intended to get younger kids hooked on these simplified toys. We'll see how it goes.

Dead Metal wrote:Optimus looks kinda sad.

Awwww

hinomars19 wrote:

T-Macksimus wrote:

Armentitron wrote:I cannot possibly fathom why on Earth would do something like that. Oh, wait, actually I can! Either too lazy or too stupid to come up with any actual new designs! Sure, let's just take toys we've already published and make them a bit bigger! People will still pay for them!

Try the fact that they can make a sh**-ton of money off of the ACTUAL target demographic for these toys instead of the piddly-ass amount of chump change they would get in comparison by keeping older/adult fans happy. This isn't about what WE think, this is about the children for whom these toys are intended and their parents who throw obscene quantities of money out there to keep their spawn happy and content.
It doesn't matter if it makes sense to us, it just has to make a 7 year old thrilled enough to pester Mom and Dad and I GUARANTEE you, the kids far outnumber us older fans/collectors.

Nice speech, but think about it; HOW is this voyager Prime any faster or easier to transform than the current one?

HOW is this one more attractive to a 7 year old than the current one?

Please don't keep a stack of standard excuses in your utility belt ready for the cause. This has nothing to do with simpler, easier play. It's just cost cutting. Beast Fire Predaking has to be one of the simplest toys to date, yet achieves both modes well, looks like a quality product, and, whilst it doesn't please everyone, manages to bridge the gap between child and adult collector well enough.

Stop believing blatant rubbish. This is about being cheap, nothing more. Animated leader Megatron has no more than 5-6 steps, is chunky and easy to play with. So again, please tell me why THIS approach to TFs is suddenly so necessary?

And please, let's have some creative answers, not another old wive's tale from the 'we believe everything told to us at botcon' pot.

Hasbro has a reason to lie to us why exactly?

Reasoning behind it is that if a parent picks this up for their kid their kid will find it easier and therefore want more. They have no need to call it out on the package, as no kid is going to want to get something which says it is simpler because they will view it as the "baby" version. Also, it's chunky and therefore can be tossed around a bit more. If it was cost-cutting they would be the same size as the normal figures, and simple. If you look they barely fit in the standard voyager boxes- Prime is squished in in a massive A-Stance; the same amount of plastic has gone into this as a normal voyager- no cost-cutting there.

If you actually listened to what was said at Botcon, in multiple interviews they said they were trying out the simplified in a response to the movie figures as many complained they were over-complicated- even Bay himself. If parents find them over-complicated they won't buy them. Seeing though they need to see whether or not the simpler stuff sells before the movies come out and they commit to it, they needed to trial it before it. The quickest way to do that as Prime would be the only line between now and TF4 was to upscale the Cyberverse designs. If they carry this forward they will have individual simpler designs for the deluxes and voyagers in the non-Generations line rather than these "upscaled Cyberverse". Even upscaled is the wrong term because they have different jointing and the surface detail is also different- it hasn't been scaled up with the figure.

The reasoning behind this is that they want simpler jumping on points for kids so that in another 30 years time the children of today will be celebrating the Transformers 60TH Anniversary with Leader BH Optimus Prime and Voyager animated Bumblebee rather than the line being dead. It won't affect your precious Generations, worry not. Hasbro has said this will only affect the non-Generations lines.


And as somebody else said, the old HABLOWS DOING IT BECAUSE THEY'RE HASBLOW excuse is a really old one, you be more creative.

Bought. But I'll most likely take some paint to them.

The paint job on Predaking looks pretty good. To me the disappointing thing with Prime is no flight pack... also the only stopping me from buying the regular Cyberverse versions. Love to see the upscaled terrorcons in the flesh. So do we get upscaled Hardshell now? Please?

For those of you trying to argue that these aren't targeted at kids, you do realize that the entire TF:Prime line is targeted at kids, right?

Generations is for collectors, as is MP. Rescue Bots is for little kids and Transformers: Prime is for older kids.

The fact that we older collectors (or some of us, anyway) collect TF: Prime (and in some cases, even Rescue Bots) is moot. Hasbro's trying to cater to their target audience by releasing easier to transform versions of the toys. And yeah, I'm sure it also saves them some money, which is generally the goal of every corporation on the planet.

Either way, I think this Prime looks great as I said before, and I'm buying him for sure. The normal voyager Prime is cool too, but I like this one much better. His vehicle mode looks better as does his bot mode. He'll definitely have a place on my shelf.