The Energon Pub

After reading all the complaints about the new movie toys, from them braking too easy or tabs/parts/holes not fitting right or being the right size.. Braking in the span of 1 day or even 1 tranformation.. Problems galore making it seem like these toys are more fragile then anything the earth has ever seen.. Now with this going on, consider the fact that these toys are mainly made for children.. My question, do you wonder as I do, how the hell are kids sappose to be able to play with these toys without them braking in 5 seconds of play, if peaple like those here that are collectors/adults/more carefull (I hope) cant handle these toys without all these problems? I mean the finger of shame pointed at Hasbro for how pathetic this is, if the blame truely rests with the product itself..

Knight_Thunder

Sorry about the typos,

Knight_Thunder

Yeah, I can see quite a few parents returning the regular figures and picking up the FAB's.

Even with "Automorphing" technology, these things are just as difficult as Alternators to transform.

I agree. They way my nephew plays he would wipe out the decepticons in a matter of minutes...however getting the damn thing out the box is a good 4 hours of fun on its own.

I have been finding the situaiton rather interesting in regards to the complaints myself. I know that so many on this board are very careful with their figures.

This could be a big shame

I've got 7 figures from the movie line so far and I haven't had any problems with them. I don't think the plastic feels "cheap" or "brittle" at all. The incidents with breakage are a shame and legitimate but peoples "issues" with the plastic quality just sounds like a bunch of people trying to find reasons to complain if you ask me.

they're probably designed to become riddled with stress marks or break to encourage people to buy the same figures twice.

That'd be an interesting gimmick, no? From minicons, to energon weapons, to force chips, to your-figures-break-on-contact-so-you-need-to-rebuy-them

I think we've seen this gimmick before with a few figures though.

After Purchasing a Real gear today I realized that the chepar the figures are the longer they will last. (Look at the Fab's They stay together great.)

I've got movie figures ranging from deluxes to voyager to leader and I haven't noticed any issues with bad plastic. I did notice on Bumblebee there are numerous locking tabs that need extra care when transforming. I've even got a test shot and it doesn't seem to have any weak areas. Leader class Optimus Prime is extremely solid.

I will say that the 5+ age on these toys is not appropriate. I couldn't see a yound child following all the steps required in transformation. It appears these new transformers are not aimed at a younger populace but us collectors.

I've compared my G1 Optimus Prime to my movie versions and it's amazing how simple this character was 23 years ago. I can transform G1 in less than a minute but that leader class takes quite more time.

I do agree getting the figures out of the box is almost as challenging as transformation.

My sentiments exactly, jaws.

While transforming Robo-Vision Prime--the instructions were irrelevant; nor, for me, was his transformation in any way intuitive--I remember thinking, "There's just now way my six year old nephew could transform this thing. Or Voyager Ironhide. Or Starscream for that matter."

I too believe the engineers had us older collectors in mind while designing these toys.

i for one feel pity for everyones problems with these figures im not that type of collector but inever had a problem with if i do buy any figures of anytype transformers, spawn, or others i keep them in the box but for those who want to display them or hang some from there ceiling like starscream i be ticked off since some are hard to find once you allready bought them from the store.

I've only got Longview and Jazz, but have no problems with either one. They fit together properly, aren't too fiddly to transform, and are nicely put together.Looking to get Brawl and Wreckage next, though, and I've heard about shoulder flaws with both...

G1 wasn't any better. Probably worse. Find a swoop with it's head still connected.

Yeah on Swindle his right Headlight just misses the edge of the hole, and the left side on the car mode will not lock in right, i went today and if you look in the others they all ahve the same problem.

Jetfire's Gun Clip wrote:My sentiments exactly, jaws.

While transforming Robo-Vision Prime--the instructions were irrelevant; nor, for me, was his transformation in any way intuitive--I remember thinking, "There's just now way my six year old nephew could transform this thing. Or Voyager Ironhide. Or Starscream for that matter."

I too believe the engineers had us older collectors in mind while designing these toys.

I'm with you on that one, it took me a while to get the hang of Barricade, and I still have to fiddle with Bumblebee a bit to get him back in vehicle mode.

I think I'm gonna like this line.

DeathAura wrote:they're probably designed to become riddled with stress marks or break to encourage people to buy the same figures twice.

Reeaaally? Do you really think a company like Hasbro with a solid TF fanbase would intentionally try to milk a few extra bucks out of us by purposely making the toys fragile and easily breakable and completely alienate and anger the very people buying their products making it less likely for us to continue buying them?

Phenotype wrote:

DeathAura wrote:they're probably designed to become riddled with stress marks or break to encourage people to buy the same figures twice.

Reeaaally? Do you really think a company like Hasbro with a solid TF fanbase would intentionally try to milk a few extra bucks out of us by purposely making the toys fragile and easily breakable and completely alienate and anger the very people buying their products making it less likely for us to continue buying them?

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not, but that's not the issue.

I think that generally speaking the thought of a big 'evil' toy company putting out an inferior product to a loyal fanbase is a bit of a stretch. Paintjob problems are just the nature of the mass production beast, and I'm content to think that problems with the toys physically are just production errors of the same kind. After 20-something years of Transformer production and sales it would be real crummy of Hasbro to start manufacturing **** intentionally, and movie related merchandise generally is of lower quality because it is designed to make money on top of the revenue generated by the film. All TF lines have had thier QC issues, so I don't think the movie line would be exempt from that.
I do know however, that although I like the movie toys, I most likely won't be spending my ass off on them. There's a few more I'm on the lookout for, but in general, I think I'm almost done.

Dagon wrote:I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not, but that's not the issue.

Of course it's sarcasm, the very thought of Hasbro designing the toys to break [i]on purpose[i/] is ludicrous.

Phenotype wrote:

Dagon wrote:I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not, but that's not the issue.

Of course it's sarcasm, the very thought of Hasbro designing the toys to break [i]on purpose[i/] is ludicrous.

I know, I just didn't know if you knew.

I find that any produce that is mass produced will have a quantity of items that are "inferior". It is also a well known fact that when something is wrong with an item, lets generalise this a bit more, they will make a complaint and tell their friends about it. It is a very natural thing for humans to do.

On the other end of the scale, there will be a number of items that will be superior. These items will be bought, work as expected and no one will really think about discussing it. There isn't any reason to.

In retail we were told that if you give good service the person will tell 2 people. If you give Bad service, the person will tell something like 20 people.

As for the whole making things not to last. I tend to believe that. I am not saying they make it to break. Just not to last. That is not just hasbro but many other companies. There is no profit in making things last forever.

Lets use frypans for example. Teflon. That is a wonderful non stick surface that works wonders the first little while, then it gets scratched, torn and then it becomes useless. You have to get a new set. Cast Iron works just as well, it is heavier, granted, but it works and will last a lifetime.

Wait a second, are we bringing planned obsolecence into Transformer toys?

When I was a kid, or even now for that matter, if a toy of mine broke, it was broken. I didn't get a new one just because it was busted. If a toy of mine breaks now, unless I really liked it in the first place I won't go buy a new one.
Besides, if parents buy movie BB for thier kids and it breaks on them, why would they buy a new one to replace the broken one? Wouldn't people assume that if toy A broke, then toy B which is the same thing would also break?
I still think that all the problems with the movie toys are first production run problems, and not the fortelling of a massive quality dropoff from Hasbro.

Jetfire's Gun Clip wrote:My sentiments exactly, jaws.

While transforming Robo-Vision Prime--the instructions were irrelevant; nor, for me, was his transformation in any way intuitive--I remember thinking, "There's just now way my six year old nephew could transform this thing. Or Voyager Ironhide. Or Starscream for that matter."

I too believe the engineers had us older collectors in mind while designing these toys.

And I will not complain about that.

I have only felt the "cheapness" in the protoforms. They feel very fragile, particulrly Starscream.

My Voyager SS is quite complex, with a very NON-intuitive, and original (!) transformation. Yet, the plastic feels very solid, there are no stress marks anywhere to be found, etc.

Then again, I transform them all slowly, and savor every snap, click, and fusing of plastic parts in order. Kind of like hearing your favorite song over and over again. You know every note, every chord, it is memorized by route. Voyager SS is very satisfying to transform. I get a more old school, but similar vibe from Classics Voyager Jetfire. Just a solid toy. but SS is NOT intuitive. I asked myself several times "What the heel do I do now?" But i love originality, and I love challenges.

I guess I am more gentle with my TFs than most.

And twist ties suck @$$.