Regarding TF fans comments about TF toys getting smaller.

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Onslaught Six
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Re: Regarding TF fans comments about TF toys getting smaller

Post by Onslaught Six »

Well, I mean, height can be a quick signifier, especially if we're talking iterations of characters. It's also not always pure mass, either, it's also complexity--not of detail like Deathy thinks, but moving parts. Compare the first Movie Ratchet toy (the Voyager) to, say, ROTF Bludgeon--Ratchet kind of towers over him, but Ratchet is also mostly 'boxes' and doesn't have as many parts as Bludgeon does. And Bludgeon was part of the second half of ROTF, when the budget cuts (from earlier in the line) were already in place, and they knew what they'd be dealing with.
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Re: Regarding TF fans comments about TF toys getting smaller

Post by BWprowl »

One thing to note is that toys (particularly Deluxes, the 'benchmark' of the line) were actually steadily getting 'larger' from about Armada on. Deluxes from BW, BM, and RiD were comparable in size to the Deluxes we've been getting out of DOTM and TFPrime. The things started increasing with the revamping of the style/size-classes that Armada brought, and size was even more apparent in the Movie lines and Animated, where we started to see smallish/regular-size vehicles exploding into these huge robot figures, and Generations brought some really impressive, detailed, functionally complex figures (seriously, look at stuff like WfC Prime, Wreck-Gar, Perceptor, and Straxus, Hasbro was really pushing the envelope with stuff like that). Then keep in mind that these toys were effectively being sold at the same price, SANS INFLATION that their smaller BM/RiD contemporaries sold for over ten years ago (all those guys I listed could be had for ~$10 from Target/Walmart perma-discounts, the same price they were a decade before, INFLATION IS NOT SUPPOSED TO WORK THAT WAY).

Anyway, things are back down to the sizes they were 'back in the day', and the prices have finally been adjusted for inflation (admittedly, Hasbro's gone over by about a dollar, according to my calculations, but that could be chalked up to them compensating for the past/future), so we're 'technically' not paying more money than we were before and getting less, so much as we have 'gone back to normal' after years of getting abnormally large/complex toys for graciously-unadjusted prices. Would seem that Hasbro might have adjusted such things to compensate for the lower profit margins they recently reported (not surprising, considering they didn't have a TF movie coming out this year to help shovel product, and the GI Joe movie that would have done that for that brand got delayed).

All that said, I firmly expect the prices of Deluxes to go down a few bucks at the big retailers after a little while the way they ALWAYS DO every year.
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Re: Regarding TF fans comments about TF toys getting smaller

Post by Tigermegatron »

IMHO Below:

Everything is on a flucuation size scale. due to each new mold being unique. for the creative process to work TF toys need to flucuate in their size clasess. it's called creative freedom for the designers. nothing has dipped below the flucuation,so their is no shrinkage.
basics/commanders flucuate from 3 to 4.5 inches. deluxes flucuate from 5 to 6 inches. Voyagers flucuate from 5.5 to 7.5 inches. leaders flucuate from 8 to 11.5 inches.

the Beastwars & Beastmachines toys like basics & deluxes were much smaller in robot height compared to the AEC,Animated & movie verse basics & deluxes in robot height.

Some want examples of smaller TF toys in their sizes from the past years/lines.

2006 Classics 1.0 rodimus was small.

Armada deluxe Demolisher had a short robot mode. armada thrust had a short robot mode.

Energon basic size arcee was tiny in both modes.

animated had a few small TF toys in their size levels like voyager & leader size bulkhead. voyager size lugnutz. deluxe size swoop. deluxe size snarl. voyager size combined robot mode safe guard.

Generations/RTS Thunderwing/Skyshadow was a tiny/short deluxe.

generations/rts darkmount & hailstrom were short deluxe robots.

armada smokecreen from head to toe minus his crane in robot mode was a short deluxe.

Energon towline was a short robot deluxe even combined to his back vechicle part in super robot mode.

Energon combiner robot leader optimus was shorter in height compared to armada combiner leader size optimus in super robot mode.

cybertron deluxe defense hotshot & deluxe thunderblast was small robot modes for their size classes.

DOTM $29.99 HA Topspin Target store exclusive was a short robot mode.
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