Wolfman Jake wrote:Black Hat wrote:Wrong on all counts. I'm still thoroughly unimpressed with HasTak Devastator- even the UW version lacks articulation, is overly hollow, is awkwardly proportioned and is farcically out of scale with the other combiners. Predaking continues the trend of sacrificing quality and design (especially in the individual modes) in favour of sheer size.
The G1 version of Predaking isn't superior objectively, no, but that's because it was made over 30 years ago. And honestly, this newer version inherits a lot of the flaws from the original toy. The robots all being the same size means that in order to get a vaguely proportionate combined mode, the individuals suffered immensely (poor Headstrong and Tantrum...). The beast modes are just jokes that somehow manage to look dorkier than the G1 originals. No melee weapons (not even for Predaking himself). The combined mode has very weird proportions, notably his child-birthing hips and supermodel waist. The hands are hollowed out inarticulate blocks that are leagues less impressive than the ones on Unicron, and that's a 15 year old toy. Oh, and STICKERS.
Sure he has more articulation than the G1 figures but that isn't hard. Honestly, he looks like the worst Titan Hasbro has made thus far, and that's saying something. I think some people are determined to like him just because he exists and isn't an icky third party figure. It's not "Magic" to make a figure that doesn't suck (Abominus actually looks damn cool). It's application of common sense. Don't make him so big that in order to keep in budget you have to hollow him into oblivion. Make him bigger and bulkier than the average combiner, sure, but not THAT much bigger. If you must have him that big then you'll have to up the pricetag. And for the love of God, DON'T TRY AND MAKE A FIVE MEMBER COMBINER OUT OF EQUALLY SIZED FIGURES. IT WON'T WORK (See FOC Bruticus).
If you like it, that's fine. I question your taste, but fine. But don't tell people who aren't willing to settle for that...thing that they've got unrealistic expectations. I'm not asking for a 3 foot tall combiner with a billion custom-tooled steel parts, a perfect transformation, Figuarts-tier posing in all modes and automotive paint. But considering this is likely the only official Predaking we're gonna get for at least 5 years, I expect a bit more care put in.
I didn't say you liked Titan Class Devastator. I said most did, and the majority of those who were upset when it was first revealed had to eat some serious crow later.
I'd argue that has more to do with low standards than it actually being good but OK.
Transformers have been "hollow" for years now, and Predaking isn't even the worst example of such. The initial Fall of Cybertron toys hold that dishonor. And yes, it's a cost cutting measure to hollow out parts where able, because parents aren't going to buy their children a $300-$400 big "Megazord," certainly not on a whim, and likely not even for a big birthday or Xmas gift.
And most kids aren't even going to know who Predaking is. It's marketed squarely at collectors- and it falls short of the expectations any right-thinking collector would have. And if they hadn't made it so monstrously large but kept the pricetag the same it might actually have been good.
Predaking is big because he was always a bigger combiner than the other G1 combiner TOYS. Hasbro isn't as fussed about what characters looked like exactly in the old Sunbow cartoon. Their focus has always been on the original toys.
I know that, and he could still have been bigger than the others without being double their size and thus horrendously compromised.
Devastator was chosen to be big because he was considered special, being the first combiner in Transformers. The Contructicon alt modes are actually in relatively accurate scale with the deluxe car characters, by the way.
Again, he didn't need to be twice the size of a regular combiner. There's such a thing as "a happy medium". And if we're going on vehicle scale then Superion should be the size of Devastator as he's made of jets. I work at an aviation museum and let me tell you, jets are BIG.
None of the other combiners pay attention to scale at all either, not between teams and not even within teams. Deluxe sized jets, planes, shuttles, motorcycles, and even tanks create all sort of problems when you look at scale, whether realistic or even internally consistent in the cartoon, so that's your own little burden to shoulder if you think Devastator and Predaking are "farcically out of scale" with other contemporary combiners.
I'm not talking about vehicle scale or even cartoon scale (which was always inconsistent). I'm talking about what actually looks good and makes for decent toys. If Predaking and Devastator are gonna be $200 behemoths, why put all the mass into making them so tall? Why not bulk them out a bit? Why not do anything other than making them huge but hollow piles of compromise and failure?
Stickers!? You're still made about stickers!? Guess you hate every Voyager and Leader figure Hasbro has put out for the past couple of years too. Yes, everyone wishes the stickers would go away, but they aren't any time soon, it seems.
Then vote with your wallet and refuse to buy figures that make excessive use of them. Any figures with them on I get are getting their stickers peeled off, but to be honest, with the Voyager and Leader class being as desultory for POTP as they are (Hungrr and Elita are the only figures bigger than a Deluxe that interest me) then they won't be getting any of my money for stickered releases anyway.
Of course up until recently the answer was that people could import the less abysmal Takara versions, but thanks to Hasbro's blatant greed and apparent spite, rather than spend cents per figure on improving their own product to make up for lost sales to Takara they've instead told Takara to stop making their own figures any better.
ALL Titan releases, starting with Metroplex, have relied on stickers, btw, so this is also not something new to PotP Predaking.
Yep, and I have yet to buy any of them.
It's not even new to ANY G1 Predaking as the original had stickers too. Even the special reissues, like Platinum Edition Predaking, had revised stickers instead of going for paint apps.
These are supposed to be an improvement on the 30+ year old toys. "GEEWUN DID IT" is not an excuse for stickers.
Honestly, I think you just don't like Transformers now.
I do like Transformers- there are still good figures (Stinger from the Studio Series was one of the best figures I've gotten from HasTak in a while) but hell if I'm going to suck up to Hasbro for making trash and removing the opportunity for people like me to actually get decent alternatives.
Things have been as they are for years now, and Predaking isn't turning the past five years or so on its ear. It's entirely consistent with everything Hasbro has been doing with their toys since Dark of the Moon and Fall of Cybertron.
Then vote with your wallet and tell Hasbro "No, I will not accept this crap, either improve your products or lose my business". That's how capitalism is supposed to work.
Just admit that you have a personal expectation that Hasbro can't realistically meet in this market
That's just it. They CAN meet my expectations. Even putting aside the nickel-and-diming that we're seeing with the line, all they have to do is not make boneheaded decisions like "Make him so big the only way the budget will pass is if he's a ropey piece of crap" and "Let's make the individuals the same size even though that doesn't work". They CAN still make good figures- it's almost like they're choosing not to. This isn't budgetary constraints, this is
incompetence.But as for Hasbro and their budget cuts, they absolutely could afford to make the figures better. The problem is that either their higher-ups, the shareholders or most likely both are greedy, penny-pinching misers who apparently can't spare a few cents per figure to make them less dreadful solely because it would mean one micrometre less platinum plating on their monogrammed prostate massagers.
and go have fun with your third party options.
Thanks, I will. Hopefully Maketoys does a Predaking eventually so I can buy that instead rather than giving a single penny to Hasbro.
If you honestly like POTP Predaking then that's fine. But don't try and bulls**t to me that they couldn't do any better, and CERTAINLY don't get on my case like I'm somehow being ungrateful or something for not approving of a botched job. Because quite frankly it reeks of fanboyism at best and corporate shilling at worst.
Business ain't that way. Remove the incentive to make a product line, the product line dies.
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