by AcademyofDrX » Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:23 am
I don't know why I had such a bad attitude yesterday, but I'm going to try to act like an adult and give a sincere explanation of why I think the whole criticism of Origin Bumblebee is off-base. And it's not really about this figure so much as it's about how we see ourselves and our favorite figures.
Contemporary action figures are designed for multiple customer segments. Many of the product lines are designed, if not for adult collectors first, then at least for them on par with any other segment. This is obviously the case for Generations based on its design priorities: in character selection and visualizer likeness, they prioritize animation that is decades old and not widely accessible to children. Like, look at Kingdom Tracks, and ask yourself who would design a toy that way if it was made for a child.
Yes, these figures are sold in the regular toy section and are priced similarly to other children's toys (in contrast to high end collectibles with toy-like features.) I'm sure some adult toy buyers are motivated by a combination of personal affinity for a character and passing on that legacy to their own kids, which I did in the past. That's not any more legitimate a reason to buy it to anyone--manufacturers, retailers, ourselves. We do not have to invoke an imagined "real" toy customer to justify or criticize anything about a given figure. We are just as legitimate, any in the case of a toy like Origin Bumblebee, arguably more so.
Is the figure overpriced for a child? Who cares? Target doesn't care who gets the toy after it's sold. Will the toy be a net financial loss because moms and stockers think it's too much? Well, that's an entirely different question, and one we don't have data for. And frankly, I don't think it's a very interesting question. In my experience, when people complain about the underlying financial strength of a product line, they're making a lot of assumptions because they want to trash something. I'm not worried about the strength of the brand or the likelihood of future toys based on the cost/benefit analysis of one retailer-exclusive figure.
Is the toy overpriced for a figure this size, either in an "objective" sense or to an adult? That's a completely fair question, and ever since WfC started, there's been an ongoing debate about whether the design, manufacturing, and product complexity justify the so-called size classes even though the cost-to-height ratio is completely different than in past years and cycles. Feel free to argue about that, everyone else has.
Personally, a major reason I don't care about that is because TFs are unique among other toys and I can afford them. Look at similarly priced figures like Marvel Legends: they have extensive part reuse and limited accessories, and the primary variation among figures is in paint applications. I don't know about the cost of materials or anything like that, and I'm not criticizing that line, I'm just saying that for me there's a lot more that goes into Generations to make up for it.
I think I've lost the thread ... it's just, like, I think the Transformers toys of the last decade are the best that have ever been. I think the prices are reasonable for what we get. I think it's clear that they're made for people like me, lifelong fans who would rather dump thousands of dollars into playthings than, I dunno, a fancy car or whatever. Adult collectors may not be the center of the world, but we don't have to pretend like we don't matter against an imagined idealized child consumer.
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