Edit: all this time typing and Black Hat makes the same point much more succinctly in the post just above this one, so maybe just read that instead of this wall of text
Rant incoming, though I prefer to think of it as "I've had time to think on this and my thoughts and feelings about it are complicated."
I had a think on what strikes me as so
wrong, poor and stupid about what these are. Why do I feel that way? I'm staring at my nearly-finished Flame Toys Seekers right now, they don't bug me and the final product is basically the same, not to mention they cost twice as much! Tiny Titans didn't bother me and they're not even articulated. What the heck is making my brain sort of loathe the idea of these R.E.D. dudes? There are a few things that come into play, for me.
First up, I wanted to think about why other non-transforming products haven't really bothered me. For the most part, it's probably because these are licensed products, making them
nearly objectively exist as supplements to the Hasbro Transformers line. Jada has made some downright cool die cast vehicles of Movie cast and G1 Optimus. Obviously these don't transform, but they provide alt modes of the real world vehicles with nice detail. Even then, some of them have the R.P.M. style robot sculpt on the bottom. Licensees such as 3A and the aforementioned Flame Toys have produced a great deal of "high end" non-transforming figures, and of course there are model kits like Kotobukiya's D-Style and again FT. Many of these offer something actually unique and serve markets that Hasbro doesn't seem interested in. 3A is implicitly niche considering the cost, and if you're like me and enjoy Gunpla, it's fun to have a Transformers option to mix up that hobby before building the 89,000th RX-78-2 variant. The list could go on here, with Funko's ReAction lineup just recently starting to introduce crappy 5 PoA G1 Transformers. I'm sure as a licensee they're
super pleased to see licensor Hasbro themselves jumping into a similar space, but Funko at least gets to keep the Cool Hipster Garbage Product market.
For official products, non-transforming options have also been easy to look at as supplementary products, but more importantly these have been easy to view as specifically kid-friendly products that allow kids to play with Transformers in different ways or with other kids that are into different things. I mentioned R.P.M.s earlier as one example. I would have loved it if something similar existed when I was a kid. I loved Transformers and my older brother loved Hot Wheels/Matchbox/basically anything with four wheels. Since he was the older brother, I'd have no choice at times but to play along with whatever Hot Wheels thing he did. I'd always grab the lone Stunticon in the childhood collection (Wildrider, for the curious) but still be told plenty of times to stop transforming him into a robot at every chance, because robots didn't exist in Hot Wheels world, obviously. Before this anecdote rambles too much more, my point is that I can see a clear purpose in these kinds of kids toys.
Most of Hasbro's non-transforming kids toy options over the years provide this kind of clear purpose. Kreo is building blocks, Hero Mashers as a mix-and-match style thing to create whimsical nonsense combinations, Tiny Titans offered some pretty cool little RiD '15 trading cards on top of their trading figure appeal, the '07 Movie and RotF Robot Replicas went for the insane metal shrapnel detail look the characters had in the movies long before Movie Masterpiece existed as it does now - this could go on and there are many examples not listed here, but point's hopefully made. There's almost always something offered in non-transforming toys that wasn't available in the others that, while not usually something massively appealing to Transformers fans, at least provided a reason for their existence beyond "make more money if we can."
Next in my reasons for being oddly bothered by these toys is that they're yet another example of Transformers failing to expand itself by innovation, with the chasing of a trend being the chosen route instead. There's a lengthy, usually poor history of this going all the way back to Micro Masters (a rare case of not chasing a trend poorly, in my opinion), and yes, the infamous Action Masters. Transformers is late to the party again here making them feel like an uninvited guest for yet one more reason on top of possibly not belonging there in the first place. Late in fully embracing 80s nostalgia, late to the Netflix party, late to the blind-bag craze, late to toys-to-life (remember Angry Birds Transformers?), and by the time they're done being late to embracing 90s nostalgia the world will probably have moved on from it. Market saturation of these '6" scale figures' has to be approaching a tipping point.
Why would Hasbro want to inject Transformers into this segment of a segment of the toy market? Obviously, to make money of course, but I'd guess to appeal to collectors that don't currently buy Transformers. I think this misses a key point about why Marvel Legends, Star Wars Black Series, whatever the MotU equivalent is called, and MMPR's Lightning collection are successful and why the similar new lines for G.I. Joe and Gundam make sense for those brands. When I think about Star Wars toys during the prequels/Clone Wars to pre-Sequels era or Power Rangers before Hasbro acquired the license, I think of gimmicky toys. Want a straight-up action figure of the Red Ranger without any frills, or an R2-D2 that isn't battery powered with lights, sounds, and Comm-Tech or whatever compatibility? Go online and hope there's a Figuarts or something because it probably wasn't on the shelf at any given time (note: I don't know if those examples are technically correct, so substitute some other popular character from those franchises if not for the sake of the thought exercise.) The important note here is that I don't collect those lines, but if I wanted some kind of base line, good quality figure from them not riddled with gimmicks, I know where to turn now despite being an outsider to collecting it.
Cyberverse is a good example of what I just mentioned within Transformers itself. How many here didn't collect anything from the line because everything was gimmick-ed up kid stuff? Probably a good number. How many of you have or have at least seriously considered a Deluxe Class Cyberverse toy? Probably a good percentage of that number. Do I need to spell out why that is? You know the Deluxe Class figures are base line, good quality, not gimmick-riddled entries for Cyberverse and that makes them more broadly appealing to collectors.
There was an important point at the end of the second-to-last paragraph above this one - knowing where to go to collect the occasional product from another line despite not being a regular purchaser of said products. That's a justification I can understand, but I'm not sure it works for Transformers. Ignoring vehicles (Star Wars, GI Joe) and Zords (MMPR), the heart of a Star Wars, GI Joe, Marvel, Power Rangers, or Masters of the Universe toy collection is figures of the characters. The current 6" lines for these are the product of a natural evolution over time of collector lines that have increasingly struck at the core of what these brands are. Many Darth Vader figures also include a helmet that can be removed because duh didn't you watch Return of the Jedi? Professor X figures would come with a wheelchair because of course they would (hey you - I know there are versions of the character that don't have it, it's just an example!) If they make a Shipwreck figure in Classified, I'd expect it would come with Polly even though the line isn't dedicated to the animals of GI Joe. Those things are a core, essential element of who those characters are so you assume and hope as an outsider to those hobbies that these basic elements are covered.
This R.E.D. series leaves behind a core, essential element of who and what the Transformers are - they transform. This separates them from the pack of other '6" scale' figures in what I think is an important way. To me, this makes them feel like they're appealing to a very limited audience. Are these the no-frills, good quality, not gimmick-laden go-to Transformers? No, of course not, they're all missing their T-Cogs! That's not a gimmick, it's literally part of what makes Transformers what it is. Perhaps the fact that it's launching as a retailer-exclusive speaks volumes about the actual broad appeal, though it's always possible Walmart specifically wanted something like this because parents bought a bunch of those $5 Titan Guardians, who knows. Assuming these were not shopped as an exclusive by Hasbro's sales agents - which is a big assumption, I know - we could maybe presume that Target, Amazon, Walgreens, Meijer, and everyone else big enough to matter also thought these were a poor idea with limited appeal.
Hasbro and Walmart are good at making money, so they must know something I don't. What I do know is that these don't appeal to me whatsoever as a Transformers fan, though they likely weren't meant to. The weird personal wrinkle is that I'm the oddball that buys
everything - those aforementioned R.P.M.s, Hero Mashers, and so on? I have them. Guess I'm not that guy anymore!
My opinion is that these will also be unappealing to people that are not already Transformers fans or collectors either, and time will tell if I'm right or not. It's probably 50/50.
There's a time and place for non-transforming figures in Transformers toys, and it's the niche of comic and TV characters that never had an alt mode to begin with. From all known information, this line is not that and won't be that - but I reserve the right to no longer agree with my own opinions from this post if it becomes that.
tl;dr better dead than R.E.D. or something
