Counterpunch wrote:JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Counterpunch wrote:MightyMagnus78 wrote:As a G1 collector I don't see the issue, maybe I'm missing something? If you compare a modern TF deluxe toy like TF:P Knock Out for example, against a G1 Autobot car like Mirage Wheeljack or Jazz then I'm pretty sure in terms of size it would be a favourable comparison.
A 25 year old comparison?
I'm not sure that holds water. Even still, the G1 toys you mentioned were about 2-3x the mass of current toys.
Why not compare Beast Wars? Or even RiD? Those were the last times we had $15 sized figures with BWs Megas and the RiD Rail Team.
2000's $15 =/= 2010's $15, in terms of absolute value.
No kidding? You don't say.
Does that apply to the comparison with G1 figures a post or two back from mine too?
Sorry to be snarky but surely you realize that I understand this. I'm not sure why you're pointing it out.
If you really want to go there you can compare real dollar value by year and the cost of labor when factoring in the whole thing.
This whole thing boils down to getting less toy for more money and depending on how long you've been a part of the hobby being a primary factor in how willing you are to just "suck it up". Of course, you have to set aside both sides of "Obvious" arguments.
Yelling at Hasbro and getting aggro on the matter helps nothing.
Just as claiming climbing oil and labor prices really don't help either (after all, we were getting larger and cheaper toys just two years ago and economic indicators have improved since then).
It's like people will say practically anything to somehow try and justify this, and it almost always comes out as being our fault for noticing differences. It's one of the things I can't wrap my head around in terms of the fandom.
If you don't like something productwise, that's fine. But these last few years are not about grievances over size classes (Grimlock a deluxe? Must be Voyager rar rar rar rar) or anything, it's about clearly and OBVIOUSLY paying more and getting less. These toys are OBVIOUSLY smaller and the difference is CLEARLY seen in side by side shots. Some people talk about weighing plastic and all that, and you can see with your eyes they are smaller.
I am not sure why certain elements labor so much to absolve HAsbro from any and all wrongs. "Why so many Bumblebees?" "Kid love him soooooo much and he sells." When confronted with pictures of overflowing aisles of BBs, people point fingers everywhere except the company. "Why smaller, costlier toys?" "Oil, shipping, everything EXCEPT Hasbro." It's ok people, Hasbro can make mistakes too, and it'[s ok to admit it. They do NOT send people to Target every day to track the sales of BBs before making new case assortments, thus three waves into Prime BB is still like two to a case despite being 30 to a store right now. EVen secondary stores like TJ MAxx are flooded with Bumblebees that, quite obviously, no one wants. But, coming next wave, a BB repaint!
Honestly, I think we're experiencing such a disparity of opinion because we're in a fallout from the movie-era. During the first two movie lines we got some really nice toys, and were split into camps as fans. If you didn't like something and mentioned it the other side blasted you as a hater, and vice versa, so we broke into factions. My observation of our fandom currently is that if you don't like something it is clearly because you're a hater or stuck in the 80s or just blindly hate Animated/Bay/Prime/whatever the new thing is, and are greeted with some smart assed remarks to that effect. The problem now is that with vastly more legitemate and complaint worthy issues like blatant size differences the pro-everything camp can't just shift gears.....remember how people used to say that if you didn't like Animated figures, then just don't buy them? Now, when there is a real reason to stop buying everything in a TF package, people have to opposite response. We're supposed to just shut up and buy things becuase we have to support the brand, when we really don't. If Hasbro really doesn't care about us, as people so proudly throw around because everything is for the kids, then let's see how happy they are when we stop buying, and if the size crunch is due to economic factors, when a large chunk of disposable income stops coming in to them.
We double talk so much in this fandom, and it's like we finally have to deal with doing so. Yes yes, evertyone was sooooo edgy throwing GEEWUN around as an insult when someone didn't like Bulkhead, saying Hasbro didn't care about what we thought, so now how do you honestly justify pleading for people to over look differences because HAsbro needs us?
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