chuckdawg1999 wrote:I cannot agree since the basic movie toys; one-steps, power battlers, are far and away my most watched reviews. In fact they continue to get more views than anything from CW or RID. Just looking at those numbers CW and RID are failures not the simplified toys
As I said, I'm not sure what the actual sales numbers are on the 'for kiddies' movie4 toys. But I'm not sure that 'most viewed' reviews translates to 'cleaned up in actual sales'. It may be the viewers were just curious to see if it was worth it, saw the review, then said 'that's not for me'. Or it could be the reverse - we just don't know for sure unless we have the real numbers.
While the G1 figures were simpler - they were the most advanced for their time. Topspin and Twintwist didn't come out until after the G1 figures had been on the market for a couple of years. (I started collecting in 83 when I was just going into High School.) I suppose the 'one step' and other simplified movie4 stuff could be said to be the 2014/15 equivalent of Topspin and Twintwist.
I stopped collecting in 88 because the figures were becoming too blocky, too simple, and too garish. They moved from neat figures into gimmickry, with the target masters, headmasters and 'micro masters'. Possibly for the same reasons. Sales were down, and they wanted to rope in a new generation of younger buyers with flashier colors, simpler transformations, and neat-o gimmicks.
It didn't work then either. Sales continued to drop until the 90s, when they went to 'G2', which was mostly just the G1 figures with 90s day-glow paint jobs. The real Transformer renaissance didn't take place until the 'Classics' figures started coming out in the mid-2000s.
The CW line DOES actually have simpler transformations, at least compared to some of the movie 'advanced' figures. The deluxes and voyagers are comparatively simple and fun, compared to say, Evasion Mode Optimus. You don't get the impression that you're trying to solve a puzzle when you transform the CW figures. I'm not sure what the review view ratio is compared to the sales ratio, but the CW figures are really hard to get from HTS, and even harder to find in stores because they sell out so fast.
Whereas you have your pick of the movie4 simplified toys, which have tons left unsold.
Make of that what you will...