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What happened to the ultra class?

PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 2:59 pm
by Koloth
There used to be 6 size classes and 6 price points.

$5 Scout
$10 Deluxe
$20 Voyager
$30 Ultra
$40 Leader
$50 Supreme

Now it seems that at least for the movie and the classics line that Ultra has just vanished. Classics what ever we didn't really have many figures to flesh out the line anyway. But the movie line could benefit scale wise from the ultra class. Bonecrusher would have worked well as an ultra perhaps even brawl.

We could have Starscream as a leader and Megs as a supreme. I guess blackout would actually have to be a supreme to fit scale wise too but whatever. True it would make the cons massive and expensive. But heck if we want to complain about scale that would be what we would have to have.

Anyway even ignoring the scale issue I have to wonder what happened to that size range? I haven't even heard mention of it since Cybertron ended. Seems to have become the forgotten price range with everything being either a leader or a voyager if it isn't a deluxe. Just thought it was a bit strange that they wouldn't have anything in between.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:04 pm
by xOPtimUsZErOx
from what I understand there is a ultimate bumblebee coming out that is motion senseing and auto fires his guns with any movement he was supposed to be like $89.99

PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:09 pm
by Koloth
Well yea but that is a bit beyond what I was getting at. I was talking more like Cybertron Jetfire or Armada Tidalwave.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:15 pm
by Scatterlung
My theory behind its vanishing is that it was a waste of time.

My Wing Saber (ultra) was as tall as Vector Prime (voyager).

Wasn't impressed.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 3:26 pm
by jsmith41
This would be a good question for the Hasbro team at Botcon, but my guess is Voyagers & Ultras blend together for the most part on the toy shelves. At least they didn't eliminate Voyagers and make them will the Ultra price point.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 4:24 pm
by Koloth
I don't think it is about height so much as the volume of plastic used to make it. Wing Saber filled every bit of the box in jet mode and has a bit more heft than Vector Prime. Though I can certainly see that some of them really did feel like they could have passed as Voyagers.

PostPosted: Mon Jun 04, 2007 10:19 pm
by voice of hoist
The cybertron ones were generally terrible shelf-warmers where I live. Perhaps that's why they ditched the ultras for the movie line. Thankfully the one I wanted, cd red alert, was the worst shelf-warmer so I got it for less than a third of the original $60 price.

PostPosted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 12:22 pm
by Dagon
voice of hoist wrote:The cybertron ones were generally terrible shelf-warmers where I live. Perhaps that's why they ditched the ultras for the movie line. Thankfully the one I wanted, cd red alert, was the worst shelf-warmer so I got it for less than a third of the original $60 price.


Yeah, that one sat around forever. I liked that figure too.