That's an entirely subjective viewpoint.Originally Posted by kup
To my knowledge, not exactly.Regarding the toy designers, didn't one of the Takara designers say that some of the great obstacles to making a good toy was Hasbro always trying to cost cut or forcing a stupid gimmick onto it? In a collector only line, those things would not be as much of a factor as Walmart and their silly 'sale gimmick' demands would not factor in and prices can be reasonably higher than US retail (still cheaper by our local standards) with the difference that you get more bang for your buck.
What both Shogo Hasui and Hirofumi Ichikawa said (separately) about Energon Wing Saber was that they had to design under Hasbro's strict requirements for plastic weight and dimensions for the Voyager price point, and that Hasbro couldn't just make the box larger for to accomodate a larger figure, and as a consequence, some minor features were eliminated. By comparison, due to (I assume) the Japanese industry and market's more flexible per-product budget and pricing, Takara, if they were designing a toy just for their own market, in theory could adjust the price to accommodate whatever the specific toy required. Hasui said that these restrictions are always with them.
(Superlink Wing Saber was priced a little more than the Energon version, but was functionally and aesthetically nearly identical.)
TakaraTomy Staff interview Translation - Mr. Starscream (can't link Ichikawa's comments because they were via email).
Hasui and Hisashi Yuki related Takashi Kunihiro's (designer of the leader class Movie Primes) troubles in designing Jetfire in having to accommodate the design of the movie model, make it a combiner, being able to fit the electronics and batteries into the toy (wishing batteries could "transform to a smaller size!"), and to fit the TRY ME! switch on the front of the figure.
TakaraTomy Staff interview; ROTF Human Alliance, Gravity Bots and more
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