Surely I can't be the only one that experiences this! :D
Have you ever been in a situation where you liked the look and feel of a toy, but disliked the character it represented? OR You hated a toy but desperately wanted to like it because you liked the character?
For me, I have a tendency to collect G1 Starscream toys when they come out. But upon some recent introspection, I realised that I don't actually like the Starscream character as much as I thought I did. As a child, I liked the idea and look of Transformers that turned into jets more than I liked car alt-modes. I also liked the white, blue and red colour scheme. Upon discovering a G1 Starscream toy, I picked him as a favourite character without knowing much about him (the first Transformers fiction I watched didn't have Starscream in it). To this day I still like the aesthetic design of Starscream, but personality/character-wise, I find him hard to root for. If there was blue, red and white (or gray) jet with the personality of Optimus Prime, he’d be the perfect character for me. That’s an example of me liking a toy while disliking the character.
On the flipside, there are many instances when I liked the character, but didn’t like the toy because it didn’t line up with my aesthetic preferences. An example is the Marvel Legends Vintage Wolverine. I’m a big Wolverine fan, but I’m not fond of the mould Hasbro used for the ML Vintage figure. To me the neck looks too long for my liking and the legs are a bit short. It looks a bit dwarf-like. It’s not bad, and it’s accurate to the comics; but I like my action figures to look tall and heroic.
Another example (TF-related this time) is the Cyberverse figures. I like G1 Optimus Prime and Megatron’s characters and their aesthetic designs, but the Cyberverse figures (G1 inspired) don’t do it for me.
Yeah, I know. I’m being really REALLY superficial. But the way I see it, these are toys that are made to be objectified :)
Dislike toys, like character: CHEETOR (BM) - Cheetor is by far the best written character in Beast Machines... which isn't hard. But seriously, even on his own merit, Cheetor is well written. His character arc is a natural continuation from Beast Wars and progresses well throughout BM. The original Mega and Supreme Class figures are rubbish. Night Slash Cheetor is nice though.
Dislike character, like toy - HUBCAP (G1). Of course, he's meant to be an unlikeable characters ;)
Both: WHEELIE (G1) - dislike the G1 toy and dislike the G1 cartoon character. However I don't dislike Wheelie in other G1 continuities beyond the cartoon, and I quite like Titans Return Wheelie.
Depends on which G1 Starscream you're talking about, wouldn't it? Sunbow Starscream is pretty much incompetent and useless - nothing more than just a recurring nuisance. But Marvel Starscream was waaaaaaay better where he was an actual credible threat.Quote:
Originally Posted by FatalityPitt
Mine was Sunstreaker. Loved his IDW incarnation (despite the rockiness during All Hail Megatron), but the Generations toy.... I dunno he just never sat right with me. I actually gave him away before I left my old job to a friend as a keepsake.
Yeah, I skipped Generations CW Sunstreaker because I already have Henkei Sunstreaker. I tend to skip repeat CHUG characters unless the new toy offers something that persuades me to add it alongside my existing CHUG figure of that same dude. Or in exceptional cases, supersede/replace that previous figure. I might consider getting a Siege Sunstreaker if it comes with Bob. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by TaZZerath
Transmutate - absolutely terrible even as a pack-in build-a-figure. But luuuuurv the character and what she represents.
I buy figures because I like the character.
It's less about the toy. If the toy is rubbish, then I'll happily leave it sealed.
Sadly, I like a lot of unrepresented characters, disliking a lot of the popular ones. That said, I don't think I dislike any character enough to negatively impact my enjoyment of a figure, I just wouldn't buy more than the one or two figures I'd need to represent that character.
And man o man am I sick of Optimus Prime.
Some company gets the license for Transformers, they make a Prime, I buy it to support the line, they stop making their product.... rinse, repeat and my collection starts to look more like an Optimus Prime collection and less of a Transformers collection.
Same! I tend to avoid the usually oversaturated figures. It drives 'casual' transformers people nuts when they come see my collection :)Quote:
Originally Posted by KELPIE
*Gazes over collection trying to find familiarity*
"Is that Optimus Prime? He looks a bit weird"
"No actually thats God Ginrai, he's a Japanese character. He only looks like Optimus Prime."
*Eyes glaze over*
"Oh right, yeah, uh huh....."
A lot of characters from RID(01), S4 of the G1 cartoon and a lot of characters from the Unicron Trilogy I did not like one bit but enjoyed the toys. I'm don't think there has ever been a character I've ever hated enough to make me bypass a toy I wanted, though a lot from ROTF like the twins came damn close :rolleyes:
I am guilty of buying the odd toy that wasn't much good just because I wanted a representation of the character.
Not having the TF-budget I used to have makes it easier. If its a character I don't like, and most definitely a toy I don't like, I'll just bypass it now. And as others have stated, there are characters I just bypass completely as I have so many already - I've got over 100 different Optimus, I don't need anymore :o
Yeah, that's true. The cartoon version was weaker (tamer) than the Marvel Comics version. In the cartoon, Starscream was a comedy relief character, but instead of laughing WITH him, you were laughing AT him :) . In the comics, he was still somewhat comedic at his lowest, but at his strongest he was a monster. At one stage he literally killed almost everyone. Even if he is a powerful character, it feels a bit strange to root for a monster like that. That's one of the interesting things about Starscream; his patriotic colour scheme makes him look heroic, but he's one of the biggest villains in Transformers.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
A couple more examples of toys that I liked, but didn't like the characters (or was just plain indifferent); lots of Beast Wars characters. When they were first released, outside their tech spec bios, there was little to no supporting fiction for Terrorsaur and Razorbeast (who was basically a pig) and yet I still looovved their toys. Even after the cartoon came out, Terrorsaur did nothing on the show to really wow me, but I still enjoyed fiddling with the toy.
Example of liking the character but hating the toy; RiD Prime Knock Out (Deluxe). Knock Out was my favourite character from TF Prime, but his deluxe toy was lacking. It looked like it'd been painted by a crack addict (I ended up buying the reprolabels set to make his look more palatable), the transformation was a pain, and the robot mode was flimsy. I like TFP Knock Out, but can't really say the same for that deluxe. I hope Hasbro revisits the character in Generations and gives him a better toy.
I think there'd be a LOT of people here who agree with you! They toy looked terrible.Quote:
Originally Posted by FatalityPitt
While we're on TFP, while I felt that Breakdown never got a whole bunch of screentime to flesh the character out (so never really stuck with me as a favourite), boy oh boy his toy looked appealing. Curse you, Takara!
That voyager Breakdown was very nice. Both modes looked great, and the transformation was fun. The Arms Micron dude (rhinoceros) was the icing on the cake. It was pretty expensive to import though, and it was fairly small compared to a typical voyager at the time. I hope it gets released in the west one day. It'd be strange for HasTak to produce a mould, then use it to make 2 figures (Regular and Silas Breakdowns) just for one market.Quote:
Originally Posted by TaZZerath
Wasn’t there also a GDO swerve made from the same mold?Quote:
Originally Posted by FatalityPitt
The Breakdown toy isn't as good as it looks. Very few were fleshed out in TFP despite ongoing screen time. I like TF Prime, but character development wasn't its strong suit. For the most part, they were basically walking caricatures. Doing lots of cool stuff and going on adventures =/= character growth! (those are merely catalytic agents)Quote:
Originally Posted by TaZZerath
Beast Wars remains the single best TF cartoon for character development. Nothing else comes close.
Transformers Prime Arms Micron.Quote:
Originally Posted by TaZZerath
I can't disagree. Beast Wars got me back into Transformers and that's where I've stayed ever since.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
Animated I feel was probably second from a character development perspective.
Have you read the IDW Comics?Quote:
Originally Posted by FatalityPitt
Screamer is basically portrayed as an anti-hero.
It helps when you only have a handful of characters to flesh out.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime
While one of its strengths, I also felt that it was one of it's weaknesses. Every episode I'd wait and hope that a stasis pod would drop from the sky. They rarely did. Then when it finally happened and one opened, it was even rarer for it to be a character depiction of a cool toy I saw in stores.
True, but Prime also had a relatively limited cast too (fleshed out by identical Vehicon hordes). There wasn't even really much effort to develop the characters, just make 'em a bunch of walking/talking stereotypes. Same with RID, at least for the Autobots. We had limited numbers of Team Bumblebee who could've been developed, but not really. And the occasional development that did happen was kinda clunky and less organic than BW (no pun intended). Like Bumblebee would sometimes be more mature and authoritative, but other times regress to being rash and impetuous. Huh? :confused: Even Beast Machines handled this better with Cheetor where he was the young adult (mentally equivalent to someone in their 20s). He never regressed to his more juvenile mental states from BW because he had already grown past those stages. It'd be like seeing a grown man playing with t---, uh... never mind. :p :pQuote:
Originally Posted by KELPIE