The Energon Pub

I was just thinking about it the other day, it seems now that they are making big figures into smaller ones. for instance the new rotf "leader" prime that hasbro has downscaled into a voyager size, deluxe ratchet, deluxe ironhide, and now the pcc which seems to be pretty small.
do you think that the future of transformers will be in smaller figures and that they will stop making leader class figures gradualy ?

No. I think they're just able to make better small figures and are up for making more money from it. If a child wants Ironhide the parents can now opt for a cheaper version. They also know that if they make ten versions of a figure they'll sell ten versions.

I think all the smaller versions are to make them available to everyone in this bad economy an for them to make money. If the market is there they can make anything!!!! Unless it's fort max size that would not be allowed here in North America.

ang3l3s wrote:I think all the smaller versions are to make them available to everyone in this bad economy an for them to make money. If the market is there they can make anything!!!! Unless it's fort max size that would not be allowed here in North America.

They wouldn't allow Fort Max type size in North America? Why? And who is they?

I'd love to see the deluxe cars resized as Basics.

Mykltron wrote:

ang3l3s wrote:I think all the smaller versions are to make them available to everyone in this bad economy an for them to make money. If the market is there they can make anything!!!! Unless it's fort max size that would not be allowed here in North America.

They wouldn't allow Fort Max type size in North America? Why? And who is they?

They won't allow Fort Max himself because of something called the "Drop Test".

Take one of said item. Hold it six feet above normal carpet. Drop it. Now, are the plastic shards a certain size, or are they razor sharp? Yes? Then it cannot be sold.

A Fort Max sold in the US today would probably have to have remarkably thick plastic walls, and be made of a LOT of break-away modular portions, with no single piece being larger than, say, Unicron's chestpiece.

Looks like I got my wish.

Picked up a few KO's today. Movie Barricade, Cybertron Megatron and Excillion, all Basic sized. Will have to get them recoloured but I've waited 3 years for a Basic Barricade.

Let's not forget the new and improved minibots.
they have gone the other way.

Powerglide Prime
Seaspray Prime
anyothers?

I've been wishing that the Mega-class range (the $15 range from Beast Wars-Energon) would make a comeback. Personally I think Classics Optimus was a Mega-class figure that Hasbro tried to pull off as a Voyager. Think what it could've done for Classics/Universe: you can still have your Deluxe Autobot cars AND a Mega-class Seeker, Dinobot, or combiner leader; then you don't have a Sideswipe who towers over Starscream. It could also increase the likelihood of getting better combiners.

I do agree with the idea of the Basic/Scout-class being the new standard for the Deluxes; lower everybody a class-level & make them more affordable for the customers( Hasbro has the ability to pull it off when not rolling out a billion repaints of crap molds like the ROTF motorcycles & Armada Sideswipe). THEN roll out a new Leader-class city-bot that would be (somewhat) more in-scale with the downsized figures.

Here's a suggestion of what I'd like to see:

Minibots, Tapes,--Legends ($4-6)
Autobot Cars, Combiner limbs, Insecticons--Scout ($6-8)
Larger Autobot Cars, Seekers--Deluxe ($10-12)
Tape players, Perceptor, Combiner leaders--Mega ($15-18)
Leaders, Dinobots--Voyager ($20-24)
Leaders w/trailers, Jetfire--Ultra ($25-30)
City 'bots--Leader ($40)