The Energon Pub

[DavidT]

It seems that alot of people are complaining about the sizes of the the movie characters. I do agree with most of the people. I'm curious as to why there wasn't a Ultra class size like the Cybertron toy line had. It would have been cooler to have:

Leader
Optimus Prime
Megatron

Ultra
Starscream
Ironhide
Blackout

Voyager
Bonecrusher
Brawl
Ratchet

Deluxe
Jazz
Bumblebee
Barricade
Scorponok

Something like that.

[Justicity]

I can't see Ironhide making a good Ultra class. He's supposed to be the same size as Ratchet, Voyager is good enough for him.

Other than that, i like the idea, thats how they should have done it. Why didn't they damn't

[DavidT]

I can't see Ironhide making a good Ultra class. He's supposed to be the same size as Ratchet, Voyager is good enough for him.

Other than that, i like the idea, thats how they should have done it. Why didn't they damn't

Yeah, I agree but I thought there should be a Ultra size autobot in that line-up

[i_amtrunks]

A big reason they did not do it was $$$.

Ultra's have a tendency to be shelf warmers due to their prices, they are often characters who are not deemed "must buys" like the Leader Class characters (Prime and Megatron).

Going by how well the Voyager and Deluxe lines have sold, I think Hasbro would believe that they made the right move.
In fact they liked the idea so much they have scrapped the larger size classes (Leader and Ultra) for the upcoming Classics line. Now they can sell 4 Deluxe figures for more profit than 1 Leader Class figure.

[Decatron]

One thing though, Ironhide looks to be as tall (in alt mode) as Prime himself.

Interesting pic, but this is smaller then the one I originally saw. This'll do though.

http://cache.jalopnik.com/cars/assets/r ... ds-TOP.jpg

Would've been nice though. Ultra may have fit Ironhide well.

[DavidT]

A big reason they did not do it was $$$.

Ultra's have a tendency to be shelf warmers due to their prices, they are often characters who are not deemed "must buys" like the Leader Class characters (Prime and Megatron).

Going by how well the Voyager and Deluxe lines have sold, I think Hasbro would believe that they made the right move.
In fact they liked the idea so much they have scrapped the larger size classes (Leader and Ultra) for the upcoming Classics line. Now they can sell 4 Deluxe figures for more profit than 1 Leader Class figure.

I understand what you are saying and I agree that for the regular cartoon toylines it was possible for Ultras to be shelfwarmers, but....

I guarantee that if there had been an Movie Ultra size from the get go, they would sell just as good as the voyagers and deluxes because most people want each figure from the movie.

[Barricade]

i could got for a ultra class bonecrusher or maybe a alternator size bumblebee, barricade and jazz

[Briggs]

Yeah, Jimmy Jone's parents are gonna fork out hundreds of dollars for 3-4 figs, cool.

God, it's really not a hard concept. Parents are anal about money already, what makes people think a company is going to produce large amounts of huge leader class figs and ultra figs blah blah blah.

[bumblezzz]

well there will be ultra sized classics next year so thats even better then ultra sized movie figs.

[DavidT]

Yeah, Jimmy Jone's parents are gonna fork out hundreds of dollars for 3-4 figs, cool.

God, it's really not a hard concept. Parents are anal about money already, what makes people think a company is going to produce large amounts of huge leader class figs and ultra figs blah blah blah.

Well if there is 3 Ultra figures....together they would be less than $100 seeing as they would be priced at $29.99 (more than likely).

In fact the only Shelfwarmer in my area was Mudflap from the Cybertron line, which in my opinion seemed like another brick-former (I could be wrong) which helped lead to its unpopularity

In reality, I don't believe $100 is a lot of money today. Even a teen with a minimum wage job could afford that. And for the parents with bills, they can afford it also if most of them would quit trying to live beyond their means. Sure, there are families that could not afford it, but most could, just not at one time. It would be like spending $30 every 2 weeks or something, which would be fairly easy.

I don't want to get into a debate over this. I didn't start this with "How come they don't do this" . My intentions were mor along the lines of "It would have been neat if they had done this" since everyone seems to prefer it

[DavidT]

Double posts

[Magnimus]

The number of consumers willing to buy up Ultra figures upon their release, balanced with the time, money, and materials it would take to make the Ultra figures, probably would not make it cost effective to produce many Ultra figures.

[Bonecrusher27]

It seems that alot of people are complaining about the sizes of the the movie characters. I do agree with most of the people. I'm curious as to why there wasn't a Ultra class size like the Cybertron toy line had. It would have been cooler to have:

Wait, I think I have to check my understanding. Primus and Unicron are Supreme Class, are they not? What is the difference between Ultra and Supreme, and any examples?

[Maximum Burn]

Deluxe
Scorponok

Something like that.

I would gone with scout scorponok. I am not sure what size those other sizes are...mega blah and so forth but it's so confusing, so to hell with it.

[The Chopnel]

In reality, I don't believe $100 is a lot of money today. Even a teen with a minimum wage job could afford that. And for the parents with bills, they can afford it also if most of them would quit trying to live beyond their means. Sure, there are families that could not afford it, but most could, just not at one time. It would be like spending $30 every 2 weeks or something, which would be fairly easy.

While you may very well be right, it is also true that "100" usually has some kind of psychological "ooooh! big number! lots of money!" -affect on most people So they might start thinking that "100 $ for few toys...that's too expensive...", even if they could afford it in reality. Everybody isn't as used to the idea of spending lots of money to get toys, like we all probably are.

[waaaaghlord]

Okay, first of since we seem to have a bit of confusion from some folks as to size classes here's a rough guide on those used in recent lines. Since prices seem to be going up at the momment some of these have a price 'range' against them.

Sub Basic - $3 - Legends and individual Micromasters

Basic - $7-$8 - Minicon 3 packs, Real Gears and Omnicons/Terrorcons

Deluxe - $10 - shouldn't need any examples here

Voyager - $20-£22 Movie Ironhide, Classics Jetfire

Ultra - $27-$30 - Energon Scorponok, Cybertron Scourge

Leader - $40 - Cybertron Prime, larger Movie Prime

Supreme - $50 - Cybertron Primus, Armada/Energon Uniron

This covers the price points used in main lines and not oddities like Alts, Titaniums and PVCs.

Now last Botcon Hasbro stated that they were no longer going to use the Voyager and Ultra price points in the same line due to Ultras not doing as well as Voyagers when both were offered. This means that Ultras have essentially had a rest for the last three lines (Classics, Movie/Allspark & Animated) but are due to return with Universe which won't get any Voyagers. How long this continues to be the stategy and how often lines will alternate between including Voyagers and Ultras in the future remains to be seen.

Since the bread and butter of any line is going to remain the Deluxes anyway I don't see a huge problem with this. I just wish that we didn't have to see Prime and Megatron as Leader class all the time. They tend to work better in relation to the bulk of any line weighing in as Voyagers or Ultras as far as I'm concerned and would leave space in the Leader and Supreme classes for characters that really deserve the size. Maybe not essential purchases in a lot of peoples eyes but it would help to sort out one of the biggest bugbears among collectors: scale. Of course since Prime and Megs are names that are pretty much gauranteed to shift we can probably expect to see them as Leaders for some time to come, although Animated looks like it's going with my preffered formula and offering these two as Voyagers with Deluxe versions for their Cybertronian modes (could we see the Deluxe Prime and Megs ahead of the rest of the line as was done for the Movie Protoforms?) and Universe shouldn't have any Leader class, so it looks like we get at least a year off having huge and expensive versions of these two. Yippee!