The Energon Pub

I stopped buying transformers years ago, but I still like to pretend I havent stopped and I like to window shop. I remember when the transformer collecting had started to snowball, G1 was something that took a while for hasbro and takara to realise that was gold mine, they also still beleived that it was kids buying the toys and collectors on the forums would ridicule me for saying that I was mad to think that collectors were buying the majoraty of the products.
To this day I still have not seen a child buy a transformer. And I never thought being a whining gewuner I would see the day when I would think that it’s actualy to much G1. The main problem was the new lines were patronising like g2.
Anyway, there have always been cost cuts in the molds, but now aspects such as proportion, posability etc are so important, and design solutions from the mo line have filtered down to the mainstream lines, and the mainstream lines compared to older lines are closer to mp toys than the older lines. Mp prices have gone to levels that I can’t understand, you can buy an mp from £30-300 and the prices fluctuate. So how can they sell a line that is way more affordable and has looks and posability but not take away from the mp line.
Why do all the new figures have gapping holes, and use transitions that coukd be done a different way so there are no big gaps. Its repeated over and iver again, I never have seen so many gaps all the way back from g1, and 3rd party companies make alot of money selling flaps to cover gaps, so its clear people will pay the tiny bit extra, and I’m sure dropping some of the silly accessories would cover the cost. And its clear that some transformers at a price point are alot cheaper to make, and at that scale it really wouldn’t cost more to fix the gaps, and the gaps made to look like its a cost saving. The ones that are just there.
Those gaps are there purely to distinguish an mp toy from a mainstream toy and to give a reason to spend at least 5x more.
I hate big companies they are always that bit out of touch. people liked the anime designs becuase at the time they looked better than the toys. But when the toy is designed better don’t start rounding fingers becuase the anime design was quicker to draw the usual human hand and add some lines, The new stars ream could of been amazing, but its so obvious that people who dont love transformers but money have not understood the reason behind anime style toys. On top of that, the line now doesnt look consistent. Look at how the anime movie was trying to be more realistic, now the toys are starting to pic up the bad points of anime design , its more saturday morning cartoon.
Look at that Unicrom, haslab failed. A shell former is pointless, u may aswell have a robot that doesnt transform. I can’t beleive how the third party one transforms in away that uses the parts and on top of that the parts don’t ruin the design. The engineering is art, I can’t beleive how these designs transform and still are robust, and I used to be able to make uo transformations in my head, but how do they plan thes in there head, you can’t just start designing on a computer, you have to have a concept.
Hasbro and takara really need to listen, they just kisten to the bank notes and they are loosing