by Burn » Sun Nov 03, 2019 2:16 am
- Motto: "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings to randomly click things in the Admin Panel to see what it breaks."
It's interesting how things change in two years ...
I was originally planning to write this up as a site article to trigger discussion, but after stumbling across this thread (that's a story in itself) I thought people might enjoy a read of how things have changed.
Two years ago, I'd rediscovered the joy of collecting. That joy is no more.
Just under a year ago, I bought a house with my fiance and we moved in. Suddenly my little collection had more than just a townhouse bedroom, it had a much larger room!
So for the last year or so I've slowly been unpacking and setting it up. This has brought me a little bit of joy because I've been able to rediscover figures from older lines, and there are honestly some bloody gems out there.
But that's the joy of the collection, the end result. The joy of actually collecting, the hunt, the waiting for a parcel to arrive, the thrill of walking into a store in search of new figures, the joy of new lines and figures being revealed, that joy just isn't there.
There's a couple of reasons why.
The retail landscape has changed a lot in the last two years, the biggest impact being the closure of Toys 'R Us. It's seen a change in how Hasbro gets their figures out there. Hasbro Selects is now a thing, and to me, (and this is strictly my opinion and I have no doubt that someone's going to come in here and try to disagree with me and try to tell me I'm wrong, so here's a tip, don't waste your time) there seem to be more and more store exclusives, combine that with Hasbro seemingly becoming more America centric, it's getting harder to get mainstream characters at retail.
MID-RANT DISCLAIMER: For those not aware, I live in Australia, it's important you remember that when telling me I'm talking out my arse, because chances are, you don't understand how hard it is for collectors outside of the US (and even Canada)
For example, Siege Skywarp. Getting Starscream is piss easy, Thundercracker is not as easy, but is still readily available. Skywarp however comes in a three pack and is hard to obtain outside of the US and will end up setting you back more than what you would pay for Starscream and Thundercracker.
Now, to me, if you're serious about your collection, if you're going to get one of the original Seeker trio, you're going to want the other two.
Hasbro knows this. So they milk it.
That's just one example. There's a slew of other figures that brick and mortar Australian retail aren't picking up. There are local online outlets, and bless their little hearts for going above and beyond for helping out Australian collectors like myself, but we still have to pay extra for these "exclusives".
It makes me feel like I'm being priced out of the market.
Now the other thing that has taken the joy out of collecting, and I'll be interested to see what people think of this.
The 84-85 time loop. When Siege was announced, I was pretty excited, we were going to get some pre-G1 Cybertronian forms, I liked the idea of this, even though it meant we'd be re-doing the original line up of characters, the majority of which have been done in varying forms over the last few years, some to the point they simply didn't need re-doing!
But, I found the Cybertronian forms were kinda limited. We had gems like the pyramid Seekers, a form fans have been clamouring for for years. But then we get Prowl who looks more Earth based than Cybertron based.
And then there's Micromasters! Characters that haven't been touched since the original line! HUZZAH! But wait, you only get two of a team that was originally four. da fuq?
WEAPONIZERS! Okay now these guys are cool, and they complement previous Titans, this is good! The majority of Siege isn't so bad! The next line can only get better with even more long forgotten characters right?
"MWAHAHAHAHA oh you foolish collector Burn" ~ Hasbro
And here's Earthrise ... with all your favourite characters like Optimus Prime and Starscream ... and even Wheeljack ... and here we go again.
Because to me, Starscream and Wheeljack, have fantastic Classics versions.
Micromaster bases are becoming Weaponizers, and I like that! I REALLY do!
Oh and hey, have another Astrotrain. Even though the Titans Return version, despite being a Headmaster (Titanmaster ... calm your tits folks) was still a **** awesome version!
(I do like the idea of a new Grapple utilising Masterpiece's crane magic, but do I really need a Classics Grapple when I already have the Masterpiece version?)
And this is what disappoints me most, we get a smattering of characters that haven't been seen in over 30 years, but we get stuck with characters that have been done again and again and again.
(I haven't even mentioned Stalker and the Predators and Turbomasters!)
How many ways can a truck transform to a robot?
How many ways can a jet fighter transform to a robot?
Just ... innovate Hasbro, come on ... you've worked out how to turn a sphere into a robot, give us something amazing instead of rehashing the same story, the same characters ...
Two years later, this is where I'm at. Retail offerings and recycled characters have essentially left me bored and disappointed with Transformers.