IDW and longevity

[Dominic]

Hasbro's issues with designing and making toys are entirely Hasbro's fault. They have been cutting corners to save money and giving design teams less time/resources to actually design the toys. Plenty of toys, including the recent Combaticons, would have been helped with fairly obvious revisions at the design stage. But, designs are not being tweaked and edited as much before the toys themselves are made. Then, when the toys come out, Hasbro has not only reduced the scale of the figures, they are now using what feels like a lower grade of plastic. (I have fiddled with more than one recent figure and been afraid of breaking it, despite carefully following the instructions.)

The biggest failing of the Titaniums line was that it was developed by what used to be the Galoob division. Entirely. Takara, and the main TF team, had no input. This made sense for, say, the tiny statues and stuff like that, but then you shift all that engineering work onto those dudes? Of course they came out like crap. That they were as well-done as they were is a tribute to Don Fig's design sense.

One of the biggest problems with "Titaniums" was the material used. Die-case metal is limiting. Besides the size/wieght issues, metal lacks flexibility. And, because metal almost always requires paint, it does not work for high-stress (scrappable) areas of a toy. It is harder to build in compartments and flippable panels (used for weapon/part storage between moulds) and necessitates simply designs over-all. Titaniums based on "older" style designs, (including designs with mechanical roots in G1), worked better than "newer" designs because of the required simplicity of a "Titaniums" figure.


Dom
-still wants good "War Within" toys....

[Onslaught Six]

I love how Deathy loves the Titanium line, and Don Fig's artwork during the Dreamwave years...but hated Costa's run because of the art.