How Transformers Fans Have it Better than the Rest When it Comes to Younger vs Older Kids Toys

It is a growing concern for fans that more and more retail space is being given to Transformers toys aimed at younger audiences, with simplified or instant transformations instead of more complex puzzles, and plagued with gimmicks. While Transformers toys for young kids have been around since the beginning - they are toys after all - the option of a line of figures aimed at a younger audience sold alongside more complex toylines has been around since the first live action Transformers film (2007), with the Gravity Bots and Fast Action Battlers. And it has decidedly grown since.

There is, however, one big part we tend to forget: this distinction in age groups started happening because Transformers toys grew more complex and less gimmicky. In G1, the kiddie line was all we had. There weren’t more advanced toys. It's not like you could pick between a jumpstarter Top Spin and a Deluxe Top Spin back in the 80s - Jumpstarter Top Spin was all you had.

We are also very quick to forget that when we see toys that are today’s equivalent of Jumpstarter Top Spin (e.g. Turbo changers and One Step toys) on the shelves.

Now the status quo is changing once more, with both the Bumblebee Movie line and the Cyberverse cartoon line being made up solely of gimmick driven toys. At this point, I thought of looking at other action figure toylines available at retail and compare, principally the DC and Marvel figures, and Star Wars toys (the last two being a perfect comparison since they are made by the same company as Transformers).

And yeah, as the title suggests, we Transformers collectors are waaaaaaaaay better off than anyone collecting DC, Mavel or Star Wars figures.

A picture is worth a thousand words so let's just check out some pics from my latest visit to Walmart and Toys R Us (sorry, American readers, I don’t mean to open up recent wounds).


We have Marvel











Notice how the main attraction for parents, kids and anyone wanting a Marvel toy here is limited to either tall PVC toys with limited articulation or smaller toys based on gimmicks. The Marvel Legends line, which encompasses figures aimed at older kids and fans of the movies and comics all mixed together, are sparsely stocked, if at all. The only toys exclusively for Infinity war are only made for younger kids. Collectors have to instead try to find more articulated toys of characters from the film within a wave that has movie characters and other totally unrelated characters from the comics. And if you want to get a decent figure of the main villain in the film (Thanos), you are stuck having to buy all the figures in the wave, even the non movie ones, since this villain has his parts split amongst all these figures. Can't find a figure? too bad, not only do you not get that specific toy but your buildable figure is also missing a limb. NICE!


We have DC







Basically the same as Marvel. Sure, we have some more collector oriented toys, but it is mainly bigger and simpler products, aimed at younger kids. Right now, as with Marvel, toys featuring the characters from the movies, toys or games are not in lines of their own but lumped together. And if you want better articulated figures of the Justice League Action show, well, too bad!



Now Star Wars













Ok, this is a little different. While like DC and Marvel there is only one line for collectors, which also mixes in characters from across the franchise, the simpler toys do have a retro feel which can attract collectors as well. Basically, it’s as if alongside Transformers deluxes and voyagers, we literally had a G1 Topspin reissue somewhere on the shelf. Not just him, but other characters from recent films. Which is basically what we already have with the One Steps, but imagine all the One Steps had the same packaging as G1 Top Spin. That is basically what is going on with Star Wars. One difference though: these smaller simpler Star Wars figures overwhelm the shelf space, and most other toys are all aimed at younger audiences too, like the vehicles, playsets and role play weapons.


Now let’s look at Transformers













There are definitely toys for younger audiences, there is no denying that and it is what this article started from. But unlike every other toyline covered here, these simpler toys are not the majority of product being sold. They are just a subset - there are far more toys that are complex and made up of more than 5 steps, for adult fans and older kids alike. And we have more than just one line of those too. We have movie toys in their own line (Studio Series) and other toys looking at the history of the brand in another. Plus remnants of a previous cartoon line which also had some standard complex toys for collectors to enjoy (Robots in Disguise).

That last part is of course changing, with Cyberverse not having options for older kids, but that just means Hasbro is doing with Transformers what it has done with Marvel and Star Wars long ago (in a galaxy far ... ok I 'll stop). So to reiterate, toys targeting younger kids are usually the norm, and have been the norm since, well... toys are for kids. Yet, in the Transformers brand, we get lines dedicated to more mature kids and appealing to adult collectors, and those toys tend to take up a lot more shelf space compared to similarly marketed toys in other franchises.

So yeah, we Transformers fans have it a lot better than the rest when it comes to our options of more collector oriented toys.