Flashwave wrote:Except the fan gripe is not solely limited to one figure, the toyline as a whole is averaging down. I'm not a Scale guy, as long as Big Guys are Big and Little Guys are Little, ans the size of things doeant really bother me, but they arent wrong in saying that the Deluxes as a qhole are shorter. Siege Hound is smaller than Universe Hound, and by comparion he's not nearly the biggest oy out of his pruce range. Am I gwtting Siege Hound? Absolutely, I want a g
Figure with a better foot and the clip that holds on the holp generator on my Uni Hound is showing a stress fracture. But I'm not sure I will even see him above the other guys on my shelf.
Yes, Deluxe Class figures are shorter, but that's been true since Fall of Cybertron/Thrilling 30. It's not a new "problem." The Siege figures aren't really appreciably different compared to like-classed figures from the Prime Wars Trilogy. In some instances, you can point out a figure that is a hair (mm or so) shorter than another from recent history, but the figure isn't really "smaller." That's why some people are looking at overall mass too. Siege Hound has a lot more bulk down in his calves, simply due to the transformation scheme. If it had been done differently, some of the extra mass in the legs might have ended up in the torso, making him just a bit taller. Some of the comparison pic can be misleading too. If all you're going off is something like this:
...then yes, Siege Hound looks shorter than Universe 2008 Hound, who in turn looks shorter than Combiner Wars Hound. The difference sure look significant in these pictures. However, what we're experiencing is a bit of an optical illusion. When the figures arranged as they are, left to right, with the smallest toys at the right and seemingly the largest at the left, our eyes are exaggerating the differences we're seeing, because we're expecting a size gradient based on how everything is arranged. The sharp drop off at the right end is making the differences at the left end seem more substantial than they actually are. (It also doesn't help that our perception of size differences is further compromised by the wide shot nature of this picture, putting the figures out in the "distance" of our visual field. Think of the moon illusion and how the moon looks different sizes at different distances from the visual horizon. The same issue happens here, on a much smaller scale (no pun intended). Take a look at these comparisons between only two figures at a time:
Suddenly, those height differences look a LOT less drastic. We've got nice, close up shots of these figures paired together in our "near vision field," making for less "guesstimating" on the part of our visual processing. Siege figures are really not smaller or shorter than what has come before in the past six years or so. If you were somehow expecting the figures were going to get "bigger" again, then you were setting yourself up for disappointment (and you haven't really been paying attention for the last several years). This is the new normal with Transformers figure scaling, and it has been like this for a while. If your collection is primarily based on figures from between 2006 and 2011, when all figures were bigger, you're definitely going to have some scale problems now. Siege figures are meant to fit in with more contemporary figures from Thrilling 30 and onwards, and they do that very well.